Chapter 12 A Question of Time

Along with this lion-like roar, a strange black lion leaped up from beneath the ship that Li Mingxing had smashed in half. This lion was even stranger than Li Mingxing's manticore form; it had the head of a lion, but its skin was as smooth as satin, and the gills hidden beneath its mane opened and closed rhythmically.

It was evident that this lion was an expert in both land and aquatic combat. However, by jumping directly in front of Li Mingxing, it was issuing a challenge. Coincidentally, Li Mingxing was looking to prove his own strength, so the moment the sea lion leaped up, Li Mingxing lunged forward fiercely.

As Li Mingxing lunged, the lion demonstrated its own unique traits. Although its attack power was not as formidable as Li Mingxing's, its footwork was as slippery as a swimming fish. Li Mingxing lunged several times without managing to pin it to the deck. Instead, the creature exploited the openings in Li Mingxing's lunges and managed to claw him a few times.

Had Li Mingxing's scales not been exceptionally thick, those claw strikes might have inflicted minor injuries upon him. Seeing this battle unfold, Li Mingxing's troops naturally refused to stand idly by and quickly swarmed onto the other vessels. Soon, they discovered that the enemy's ground forces left aboard the ships were not clustered together entirely; among the six vessels, the rearmost three were specifically allocated to the ground troops.

These three ships carried the ground forces' cannon fodder units, spellcaster units, and priest units respectively. Had they pooled their strengths together, they would have constituted a formidable force, but scattered across three separate ships, they were vulnerable. This presented Li Mingxing with the opportunity to attack them piecemeal.

Even while engaged in combat, Li Mingxing's subordinates understood that dealing with the enemy meant avoiding matching strengths against strengths—no pitting cannon fodder against cannon fodder or spellcasters against spellcasters. The optimal strategy was for the cannon fodder to charge directly at the spellcasters and eliminate them entirely before anything else.

Driven by this mindset, all of Li Mingxing's centaurs leaped across the vessels, swiftly charging toward the rearmost ship.

This was the smallest vessel in the entire fleet, measuring less than twenty meters in length but nearly ten meters in width. The deck was remarkably spacious, etched with formations resembling magic circles, showing that the mages paid considerable attention to their floating habitats.

Hardly had the centaurs landed on the deck when more than a dozen robed mages emerged from the ship's interior. They belonged to various races, indicating that they tailored their magical studies to their respective racial traits.

Seeing the centaurs board their vessel, the mages showed no signs of fear. Instead, they immediately began summoning their respective bodyguards. Moments later, more than a dozen water elementals of varying sizes materialized around the ship.

Ignoring the water elementals entirely, the centaurs pressed forward. These centaurs were fixed-type troops under Li Mingxing, originally deployed precisely to act as cannon fodder. They paid no mind to the suddenly materialized water elementals, charging with single-minded determination straight toward the mages.

Naturally, besides summoning water elementals, the mages possessed other self-preservation measures. Although they could not use escape spells like blink or teleport on such a cramped ship, they were protected by numerous shield-type spells.

These protective shields could withstand physical or magical assaults for at least half a minute—an eternity for spellcasters. For a qualified mage, half a minute was sufficient to accomplish a great deal.

Unaware of this, Li Mingxing's centaurs proceeded according to their prior plan, each locking onto a mage and thrusting forward with their spears. By the time they realized their spears could not pierce the mages' defenses, it was already too late. Several mages combined their powers to transmute the ship's deck into a swamp, instantly neutralizing the centaurs' pride and joy: their speed.

Observing the centaurs trapped within the mire, the mages restrained their summoned water elementals from finishing them off. Instead, they prepared to obliterate the centaurs with their own magic to demonstrate the might of their arts to the world.

Yet, they failed to anticipate that these centaurs, cast in the role of cannon fodder, had long since embraced their fate. Trapped within the swamp and seeing the enemy spells hurtling toward them, they abandoned all attempts at defense and surged forward toward the mages instead.

Naturally, such a desperate charge proved futile against the mages. Within the blink of an eye, the centaurs perished along the path of their charge.

Just as the mages concluded that the threat had been neutralized, another wave of centaurs leaped over from an adjacent ship. This time, instead of landing in the mud, they touched down upon the corpses of their fallen comrades.

Treading upon the bodies of their brothers-in-arms, these centaurs rushed straight toward the mages. Before the mages could recast their protective shield spells, this sudden onslaught resulted in three mages perishing at the hands of the centaurs.

Although the surviving mages quickly recovered, their arrogance proved to be their undoing. Believing that their spells could still easily wipe out the remaining centaurs, they simply kept their water elementals stationed on the perimeter to block a third wave of centaurs, while casting a frost ring directly at the enemies who had breached their lines.

The mages' strategy was not inherently flawed, but the centaurs reached them before the frost ring could fully deploy. Although half of the twenty-strong second wave of centaurs were frozen in place, the ten that broke through were more than enough to slaughter the remaining mages.

Beneath the thrusts of the centaurs' spears, every single mage on the ship perished. With the death of the spellcasters, the summoned water elementals and the paralyzing frost rings vanished as well. The surviving centaurs did not halt; they stormed into the ship's interior and secured the vessel.

With the enemy stripped of their spellcasters, the remaining forces posed little threat. Seizing the moment, Li Mingxing's female druids among the ground troops rushed aboard the ship where Li Mingxing was fighting. Their spellcasting druids had already prepared lightning-based spells, unleashing them one by one against the surviving enemy vessels.

Due to their limited numbers, the destructive power of their lightning spells was not maximized, but their targets were not enemy personnel; rather, they were systematically destroying the ships themselves.

This tactic proved exceptionally sound. Powerful though the enemy ground forces were, they were hardly experts in naval warfare. Some, like Li Mingxing's grey dwarves, could not even swim; losing their ships equated to losing their lives.

Consequently, they reacted with extreme sensitivity to the female druids' bombardment. Yet, no matter how frantic they became, it was futile—as long as the female druids kept their distance and avoided boarding enemy decks, the ground troops had no way to retaliate.

While the enemy priests possessed some ability to heal other troops, asking them to repair ships was a sheer waste of materials.

After only a few rounds of bombardment, another ship began to sink into the ocean. The ground troops aboard lacked even the opportunity to board opposing vessels, plunging helplessly into the abyss along with their sinking hulls.

Seeing this, even if the enemy's naval contingent wished to effect rescues, there were no platforms left to accommodate them. Coupled with the relentless assaults of the blue harpies gathered in the skies, the total annihilation of this fleet was merely a matter of time.

Under such dire circumstances, the enemy soldiers began calculating their own survival odds. The swordfish warriors, currently battling Li Mingxing's sea monster, abandoned the fight the moment the third ship began to sink. With their speed and endurance, they were fully capable of escaping Li Mingxing's forces.

As they fled, the three remaining gull knights in the sky joined the retreat. Conversely, the wyverns and murlocs proactively chose to stay behind, providing cover for their retreating comrades.

Had Li Mingxing observed this situation, he might have deduced which types of troops Jiang Yuzhu lacked or valued most. However, Li Mingxing was presently locked in combat with the sea lion, and their battlefield had shifted from the deck directly onto the open sea.

True to Li Mingxing's estimations, the sea lion was thoroughly amphibious. Once submerged in the ocean, its combat potency more than doubled. Its primary tactic was to launch powerful charges from the ocean depths, leaping four to five meters high into the air. Meanwhile, Li Mingxing possessed wings but lacked the ability to fly properly, nor could he stand upon the crests of waves like a naga siren, leaving him momentarily on the defensive.

Yet, what kind of person was Li Mingxing? He was a probation hero; how could he be intimidated by such attacks? After the sea lion burst forth from the water twice and inflicted minor injuries upon him, Li Mingxing began meticulously calculating the creature's next emergence point.

While Li Mingxing was not a genius capable of rivaling a supercomputer to predict enemy movements instantly, his recent string of battles provided him with sufficient experience to anticipate his foe's attacks. As the sea lion surfaced for the third time, a flash of white light erupted from Li Mingxing's tail, striking the creature halfway through its leap and hurling it violently onto a nearby wreckage of a broken ship.