Genshin Impact: I Am a Slime

Famas's gaze swept over the Fools veterans, who trembled in the damp, cold sea breeze but still gripped their weapons tightly.

He did want to save these Fools soldiers, but the boy also knew very well that even if he killed Pantalone now, he wouldn't be able to save them; instead, he would immediately push them into an even deeper abyss of despair.

The Fools' ironclad rule was that if the officer was killed in action, the accompanying soldiers would return alive to winter—this was tantamount to branding the two most glaring words into the military code.

That's a deserter.

What awaits these veterans is not the warmth and comfort of their hometown, but an end a hundred times more humiliating than dying on the battlefield.

A military court trial, the contempt of colleagues, and a miserable old age destined to be stigmatized.

The only way out seemed to be this desperate battlefield before them. They had to win, they had to use the enemy's blood to water the crown of victory. Only in this way could they walk home with their heads held high and earn a peaceful old age.

This faint hope became the only pillar that sustained these soldiers and debt collectors as they fought to the very end.

However, this is precisely the most ingenious and cruel irony at the heart of the Pantalone Plan.

Pantalone never intended for these veterans to return alive. The so-called path to survival was a carefully laid dead end from the beginning. The executive's true confidants and core resources had already been quietly transferred back to Winter through secret channels.

These foolish soldiers, kept in the dark and driven by passion and loyalty to charge forward, are nothing more than pawns on a chessboard, smokescreens to deceive the enemy, and victims who can be crushed at any moment.

Their loyalty and sacrifice were as insignificant as dust in Pantalone's cold-blooded calculations.

To save these soldiers, a solution must be found that can both save their lives and prevent them from becoming deserters.

Just as FAMAS was racing through his thoughts, the Dark Star's offensive did not stop in the slightest.

With Beidou's cold command, more shells tore through the air, whistling as they hurtled towards another merchant ship attempting to charge. The Fools' soldiers on board completely collapsed, their cries for survival mingling with their desperate screams.

Like a school of fish startled into flight, countless figures rushed over the ship's side and plunged into the cold, turbulent sea, desperate for a glimmer of hope.

However, not everyone was able to escape in time; the relentless artillery fire instantly covered the deck.

Steel and wood were reduced to dust in the flames and shockwaves.

But amidst this horrific scene of impending carnage, several extremely strange and minute miracles occurred.

Some soldiers who were about to be torn apart by shrapnel or crushed into mincemeat by shockwaves experienced, at the critical moment, a barely perceptible dark red film, like congealed blood, flashed across their bodies.

This light membrane, as thin as a cicada's wing yet stronger than steel, precisely neutralized the force of the fatal blow, pulling the soldiers back from the brink of death, leaving only a tremendous impact that sent them flying, wounding them but not killing them on the spot.

That was FAMAS making his move quietly.

Under the cover of the chaotic battlefield, the boy cautiously and discreetly mobilized his meager divine power, like the most intricate weaver of a net, precisely protecting the vitals of those destined to die amidst countless destructive trajectories.

These shields formed by divine power vanished in an instant, mingling with the flames and smoke of the explosion, so subtle that even comrades standing close by could hardly detect them.

Perhaps the only one who could detect this divine power fluctuation was Zhongli, who was also a god.

The deafening shelling gradually subsided.

The Death Star's cannons, like the breath of a sea dragon king, were precise and deadly, tearing apart two Fools' warships that were trying to approach.

The icy seawater greedily devoured the broken planks and wreckage, and the surviving ships of the Fools were like toothless caged beasts, their speed noticeably reduced. Even through the surging waves and smoke, the veterans on deck could clearly feel the suffocating oppressive aura emanating from the legendary flagship opposite them.

Despair, like icy seawater, quietly crept into the hearts of every soldier of the Fools.

They knew full well that their resistance was nothing but a futile struggle in the face of Beidou's artillery fire.

Just then, Ningguang's clear and steady voice pierced through the battlefield's clamor and resounded across the deck of the Death Star.

"Beidou, let's cease fire."

"Have the flag bearer give the signal to order Pantalone to surrender immediately."

Ning's slender fingers pointed towards the flagship, the Yermak, which flew the flag of the Fools.

Beidou nodded with a sigh of relief and made a gesture to Xu Liushi on the lookout tower. The flickering signal beams, like a final ultimatum piercing through the fog, flashed rapidly between the dim sea and sky, clearly projecting the surrender order onto the Yermak.

But the only response to Ningguang was a chilling, deathly silence.

On the command platform of the Yermak, Pantalone's figure remained as silent as a reef, without the slightest sign of a start signal or command.

The flagship's silence is the coldest military order.

The main ship remained motionless, while the remaining ships of the Fools were as if being whipped mercilessly, suddenly erupting into a final frenzy.

There is no way back, only to charge forward.

The merchant ship's engines roared under the strain, and the surviving ships pushed their speed to the limit, like arrows of despair, cutting through the waves and charging fearlessly toward the massive, mountain-like Death Star.

The fools answered with their actions: either they would perish together with the fish, or they would be devoured by the fish.

"Hmph, looking for death!"

Beidou's roar was like thunder, and the broadside guns of the Death Star roared again, instantly weaving a web of death with streaks of light-like destructive barrages.

Any ship that dares to venture into this fiery net will instantly explode and shatter on the sea, turning into towering flames and floating debris, sinking into the icy trench.

Ningguang stood high on the deck, her crimson eyes reflecting the ever-blooming and extinguishing flames on the sea.

She looked at the ever-silent flagship of Pantalone, and at the countless small boats of fools that knowingly plunged into destruction, and a very soft sigh, yet filled with heavy helplessness, escaped from the corner of her mouth.

Ningguang was originally unwilling to resort to such extreme measures as naval warfare.

She knew all too well that those ships, shattered in the flames of war, carried many soldiers who had shed blood and sweat for Liyue in the darkness of the Abyss of the Rocky Mountains, only to be corrupted and forced to return to Winter.

They were comrades-in-arms with the Thousand Rock Army of Liyue, an indelible page in Liyue's complex history.

Now it is up to her to order the slaughter of them, along with Pantalone's conspiracy.

Once the news spreads, the condemnation of Ningguang, the Tianquan Star of Liyue, for her ruthless methods and willingness to slaughter former heroes to eliminate enemies will likely surge like a cold wave in the public opinion arena of Teyvat, dragging her and Liyue into the vortex.

Even if the battle is won, salvaging the Mora and antiquities from the Pantalone ships will be a considerable expense. (End of Chapter)