The Black Tide's combat performance was practically flawless; against a flock of harpies, it was an utter rout.
Not that there were no shortcomings, however.
The Simulated Souls' gunnery hit rate was truly dismal—less than thirty percent.
It consumed far too much ammunition; they would have to switch to using only self-replicating bone shells.
Next were the drones' jet engines, which lacked maneuverability. The parts had probably not been machined carefully enough during manufacturing—a bit shoddy.
He would have to settle scores with Gustavo Fring over this; all those parts had been custom-ordered from him.
The Alchemists' Guild couldn't even maintain quality control over their products these days—what use was that guildmaster?
After dealing with the harpies, Anbaixiu casually collected some of their souls and corpses.
Besides its mana power reactor, the Black Tide had a compartment that supplied dark energy. Both corpses and souls could fuel it—a design that saved quite a bit of power.
Having topped off some fuel, Anbaixiu once again flew toward the Emerald Dream Forest. This time, as before, he had to cross Ryan's territory.
And this time, Anbaixiu made an even bigger commotion.
The noise generated by the Black Tide was like rolling thunder, audible from dozens of kilometers away.
Consequently, after entering Ryan's borders this time, Anbaixiu was intercepted.
The Black Tide's machine spirit reported, "Master, a Ryan Empire airship unit has appeared ahead. Numbers unknown, distance approximately one hundred and seventy kilometers."
"An airship unit? The Ryanians are too naive."
Anbaixiu found it amusing. The airships on the market were all produced by the City of Alchemy. The Ryanians had probably bought a few just to keep up appearances, and they certainly never imagined that one day they would have to rely on these sluggish airships to maintain that facade.
Anbaixiu shook his head and said, "Airships with a top speed of forty kilometers per hour thinking they can intercept my Black Tide—they really overestimate themselves."
"Master, should we annihilate them completely?"
"No. We need eyewitnesses. Leave one or two behind."
"Understood, Master!"
The Black Tide accelerated, surging toward the Ryan airships.
At that very moment, a full forty Ryan airships were arrayed in the sky, seemingly trying to form an encircling net to block the intruder's path.
One look was enough to tell that this commander knew little of aerial combat; in a sky so vast, how could anyone expect to pull off an encirclement?
Yet one couldn't really blame the Ryanians. Since the founding of their empire, when had they ever fought in the air?
If Anbaixiu hadn't flown over Ryan last time, the Ryanians wouldn't even have hauled these warehouse-bound airships out to refit them.
A few magitech cannons had been mounted, but their accuracy in test firings was truly tragic.
Still, the opponent appeared to be just one vessel. Forty against one—the advantage was on their side, wasn't it?
And even if the advantage wasn't... worst-case scenario, he could just leap over the side. As a cleric of light, he certainly shouldn't die from parachuting.
So thought the airship commander, named Cade Watson.
This was hardly in keeping with the Ryan Empire's cultural mores. If anyone found out, he would be branded a craven coward who feared death, and his future would be ruined.
But Cade Watson didn't care anymore. Ever since his younger brother Alan committed treason and his father James resigned, Cade Watson had been dragged down by association.
As the second son, Cade Watson hadn't publicly and resolutely severed ties with his family like his older brother had. He had always been the most unremarkable child in the family, his willpower never particularly unbending. He had planned to just muddle through an ordinary life, only for catastrophe to strike his family, leaving Cade helpless. Originally a decently paid supervisor in a local Tribunal, he was transferred to guard a warehouse and slapped with the title of airship commander.
Yet everyone knew airships couldn't fight; most of the time they were only used for ceremonial honor guards. This was blatant discrimination and demotion.
Yet not long after his transfer, the empire suffered a defeat, taking heavy losses against the dragons' aerial superiority.
Their legendary powerhouses couldn't fly and could only take a passive beating. Flying into the sky with the Fly spell to fight dragons turned them into little more than sitting ducks.
An air force had to be established, but with nobody possessing any experience, they had to try a bit of everything. Airships happened to fly, so naturally they had to be retrofitted.
Magitech cannons were installed, but as for actual combat performance?
"All hands attention! The moment the enemy enters range, fire immediately!"
This air force's tactic was saturation fire. After all, their mobility was virtually non-existent, and their accuracy was laughably pitiful; there was simply no other way.
The Black Tide was approaching at high speed, moving far faster than Cade Watson had anticipated.
Surprise aside, Cade Watson immediately barked, "Fire!"
A volley from the magitech cannons roared out as dozens of projectiles hurtled toward the Black Tide, though most flew off who-knew-where.
Firing in midair caused recoil that rocked the airships violently; getting the shots off was an achievement in itself, while whether they hit was entirely up to the heavens.
Faced with the incoming barrage, the Black Tide simply pulled up into a climb, causing every projectile to miss.
Immediately following was the Black Tide's counter-battery fire, and its cannons boasted far higher accuracy.
After a single volley, more than half of the Ryan airships were struck. Vast patches of bone coral sprouted, encasing the vessels.
With the gasbags providing buoyancy ruptured, the airships rapidly plummeted downward.
The Ryanians aboard could only abandon ship in panic and parachute from high altitude.
Cade Watson hadn't expected to lose so quickly. He could only sigh and tell his subordinates, "Abandon ship. We can't win."
Just as Cade Watson was about to flee, a sword blade suddenly thrust toward him.
Cade Watson parried with the warhammer in his hand, deflecting the blade. Taking a closer look, he found that his attacker was a young paladin. On the surface, the youth was Cade Watson's bodyguard, but in truth, he was an informant planted to keep an eye on him, preventing him from committing treason like Alan.
The boy, whose face still held a youthful innocence, raged at Cade Watson, "You traitor! To surrender before fighting to the death—are you worthy of the deities we revere?!"
Cade Watson shrugged. "The Lord of the Dawn never taught me to throw away my life. I'm not a paladin; I don't have an oath to uphold. Besides, a cleric's power stems from the generosity of the deity..." A holy light radiated from Cade Watson's body.
"See? The Lord of the Dawn thinks I'm doing the right thing. This Holy Light is proof."
Clerics were a deity's most devoted faithful; their ability to cast divine spells relied entirely on divine grace and permission. Cade Watson's explanation was truly airtight.
The young paladin trembled with fury at Cade Watson's words, roaring, "How dare you defile the Lord of the Dawn!"
He was about to unleash a Divine Smite to execute this traitor when a sudden, violent explosion blew them both outward.
Cade Watson spun through dozens of rotations in midair, then plummeted toward the ground.
Just as Cade Watson fumbled in a panic to deploy his parachute, a towering mechanical figure flew up beside him, grabbed him by the arm, and suspended him in midair.
"Are you the commander of this fleet? My master wishes to see you."
"Master?" Cade Watson stared in shock at the peculiarly designed machine and asked, "Who is your master?"
The machine replied, "The great and benevolent, wise and erudite savior of the world: Master Ultraman Tiga."
Chapter 359