Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 352 The Long-Toothed Expedition: The Arrival of the Final Beast
While waiting for the parents to arrive, Chen Mo didn't mince words. Pointing to the Naga warriors wearing water-resistant suits splashing around in the freshwater pool, he explained the advantages and disadvantages of the equipment to Cersei.

It has many drawbacks.

First of all, wearing this water-retaining suit will inevitably affect the wearer's flexibility.

In freshwater rivers, marine life can maintain relatively smooth movement thanks to their skillful underwater techniques, but once they come ashore, their already slow speed is further exacerbated.

Secondly, wearing hydrangeas means you can't wear armor, and fighting would be a joke. In other words, the sea creatures need to change out of their hydrangeas after leaving the freshwater environment in order to switch from marching to fighting.

It's like having a cutscene before the battle begins...

Well, after we're done, we have to change back into the water suit!
And of course, there's that crucial energy support.

When specifying the performance indicators of equipment produced in Dongxia, there are several different sets of rules. Generally, for military products, the data given is the lower limit of the stable state. For example, if a missile has a range of 1,000 kilometers, it means that it can be launched at least 1,000 kilometers. As for the upper limit, it is unclear...

For civilian products, the data given is usually the upper limit of the theoretical value. For example, if a certain electric car has a range of 1,000 kilometers on a full charge, that is under the condition that the temperature, weather, environment, road conditions and so on all meet the expectations. In reality, almost no one can reach this theoretical value.

The Type 07 multi-functional water-retaining suit is undoubtedly a civilian product.

Is it that Dongxia is unable to improve the performance of this outfit? Of course not.

In reality, this is a significantly weakened version developed by Dongxia after completing targeted research and development based on the characteristics of the sea creatures.

Because it's not being nerfed, the advantages of this equipment are terrifying, even greater than the advantage the Elven race has when they get a composite bow.

The water-storage suit completely solved the Naga race's fatal weakness of being unable to enter freshwater areas.

Perhaps because of the existence of a World Tree, the overall natural environment of the Starry Continent can be described as fertile and abundant. Almost every certain distance, there is a mighty river, along with its hundreds of tributaries, nourishing the rich and fertile land on both banks.

Almost all of the major human cities are nestled along the banks of these rivers.

Even with discounted parameters for the Type 07 multi-functional water-storage suit, the sea creatures' activity range will still increase to a terrifying number.

In theory, if we go upstream from the mouths of all the rivers and include all the main streams, tributaries, and lakes that the sea creatures can navigate, when the Naga people put on this water-storing suit, their range of activity will cover nearly two-thirds of the core area of ​​terrestrial civilization.

As long as they don't climb mountains, go to plateaus, or enter deserts, the sea creatures can come and go at any time in all the most prosperous alluvial plains. Just along the Huanyan River, the sea creatures can fight their way all the way to Twilight City, the capital of the Qiyue Dynasty.

In view of this, although the product that Dongxia has put forward can support the landing operations of the sea creatures, it has extremely complex preconditions.

For example, all the protective suits use non-standard batteries. Charging these batteries requires not only dynamic password authorization, but also a specially designed pulse current from the charging equipment.

Without a separate transformer and frequency converter as an intermediate transition, a traditional charging station would only turn into a giant bomb.

This means that even if the sea creatures seize the industrial base of the Vast Ocean Territory and control the power plants and charging stations, they will not be able to charge this protective suit on their own.

For example, the system for detecting and adding salt in the water-filled suit is controlled by a special encrypted chip in the back compartment. Each time it is restarted, a special device is needed to re-authenticate the communication protocol, which is the so-called "digital handshake".

Without the support of HanHai, once the water storage suit is used up, the chip will become dormant, making it a one-time consumable.

Of course, if the sea creatures could crack the chip's algorithm...

What else is there to say? Lord, just keep shouting "666" and that's it!
These restrictive conditions inevitably caused deep doubts among the high-ranking members of the Sea Clan.

When the Naga leader, Queen Seraphine of the Tides, appeared in the projection of the [Dream Coral], after listening to Cersei's excited retelling, she pondered for a moment and then posed a soul-searching question.

"Your Majesty Lord of the Vast Ocean, if our warriors don these water-absorbing suits and enter freshwater areas, once they exceed a certain distance, their lives will be entirely in your hands, Vast Ocean!"

How can I trust you?

Serafina is over nine meters long. Although most of her body was submerged underwater in the projection, when her torso, covered in fine scales, stood upright above the water and the fan-shaped bony spines on either side of her head opened and closed slightly, it still brought an almost tangible sense of pressure.

Even knowing it was an illusion, it still put immense pressure on everyone present.

Liu Shuang clenched her small fists and stood silently in front of Chen Mo.

Chen Mo smiled slightly and replied, "I think that belief is not a very reliable thing. Humans will change, and so will the sea race."

"Therefore, I suggest that we establish clear and explicit rules for each other!"

“For example, right now, I hope that the Naga race can send a group of warriors to reinforce my Hanhai Territory’s battle on the White Deer Plain. Then, we can treat this as a standalone mercenary operation!”

"We've agreed on all the details, including the number of people to be hired, the level of the warriors, the duration of the operation, and the costs. During this time, I will offer sacrifices to the industrial god of another world to obtain a sufficient number of water-storage suits and ensure that these suits are in good working order throughout the entire hiring period to guarantee the safety of the Naga reinforcements."

“There will inevitably be losses in the battle, or, as you said, I may be unable to send these sea warriors back for some reason. In that case, the sea race will take this compensation, and the transaction will be over. That is also part of the rules.”

"As for the next collaboration, I think it's a better approach to discuss new cooperation rules!"

"What do you think?"

Queen Serafina lowered her enormous head slightly, her jewel-like eyes gazing at Chen Mo for a moment before she nodded decisively: "That makes perfect sense!"

As the leader of such a colossal sea race, Serafina clearly did not want to waste any more time. After hurriedly giving Cersei a few instructions, her figure quickly faded away and disappeared into the void.

It's clear that, unlike Cersei, who has complete trust in the Vast Ocean Territory and dreams of conquering the continent in her water-storage suit, Queen Serafina harbors deep suspicion towards the human race, preferring to acquire less rather than invest more.

Let's start with a collaboration!

The personnel from both sides began negotiating the price.

The negotiator on the Hanhai Territory side was Helan. This guy was not only proficient in various negotiation techniques, but more importantly, he understood the language of the sea people. He completely crushed Xilan, the Naga tide sorcerer.

Fortunately, Chen Mo had instructed them beforehand on the principles of "long-term cooperation" and "mutual benefit and win-win", so although Helan had the other party backing down at the negotiating table, in the end, he still came up with a relatively fair solution.

The sea race will initially deploy at least two guards, supported by the Vast Ocean Territory, to advance westward along the Illusion Flame River. After reaching the waters surrounding Black Mane Ridge and Xuan Water City respectively, they will launch a targeted attack on the beast race from there.

The Guardian is a second-level combat unit of the Naga sea race. Each Guardian consists of 15,000 warriors. The lower units are successively divided into Gill Guardians (1,500 warriors), Fin Guardians (150 warriors), and Scale Guardians (15 warriors).

Two guards and 30,000 men are nothing to the vast sea race. However, Chen Mo made more demands on the high-ranking troops.

"Whether it's the value of the hydration suit itself, or the abilities and supplements that come with it, their value is immeasurable. I've made such a huge investment, of course, hoping that beneath each hydration suit lies a powerful Naga warrior!"

"We hope that Princess Cersei will give us her full support, considering our long-standing good cooperation!"

Having determined the quantity and roughly defined the quality, the next step involves a series of detailed rules regarding operational coordination.

The Vast Ocean Territory pledged to use only Naga warriors against the orcs, and would not request the Sea Clan to attack any third-party forces without further negotiation and the Naga's consent. A joint command center was established between the Vast Ocean Territory's Supreme Command and Princess Cersei of the Sea Clan to coordinate operations between their armies.

In principle, all expenses and compensation for military operations initiated by the Han Hai Territory shall be borne by the Han Hai Territory. If the Naga have any other ideas and initiate military operations on their own, as long as it does not affect the security of the Han Hai Territory, the Han Hai Territory will also provide intelligence support. However, the Naga shall bear the costs themselves.

In addition to providing a full-fledged water-storage survival system and food supplies during military operations, the Vast Ocean Territory must also provide sufficient security for the Naga race during the gaps between landing to change combat equipment and retreating to change water-storage suits.

Regarding the spoils of war, both sides agreed to distribute them according to combat input and contribution, with human and orc slaves being allocated entirely to the Vast Ocean Territory by default.

After two days of negotiations, the military cooperation agreement was finally finalized. As the leaders of both sides signed their names and affixed their insignia on this small sea platform outside Hailuokou, a brand new and turbulent era began on Bailu Plain.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Meanwhile, the final all-out attack by the Han Hai Territory on the "Long Tooth" tribe ended without any suspense.

This battle was personally led by the First Brigade of the Hanhai Army. Makaga personally went to the front line and mobilized two artillery battalions, one tank battalion, and three infantry battalions to launch a general offensive against the last position of "Long Teeth".

After losing the Liao Pass barrier and a large number of its main forces, the morale of the "Long Teeth" tribe had plummeted. The wooden palisade of their main camp, which had no defensive capabilities, became a window paper that the Han Navy could easily break through.

The artillery fire shattered the pre-dawn tranquility and foreshadowed the ultimate fate of the "Longtooth" tribe.

Under the personal command of Makaja, the two artillery battalions of the First Brigade of Hanhai launched the first artillery barrage. After so many days of actual combat training, the artillerymen of Hanhai became more and more proficient. In the first round of artillery fire, they directly destroyed the tribal flag in the center of the enemy camp.

Dense artillery shells rained down, turning the fragile wooden buildings into countless flying fragments in the explosions. The animal-hide tents inside the camp were set ablaze, illuminating the figures of the orcs scurrying about.

Without trenches, positions are truly vulnerable to artillery fire. Some orcs instinctively hid in the craters that had just been blasted open, thus avoiding the barrage of shrapnel.

This time, the artillery fire only lasted for two minutes before it began to extend its reach.

Immediately afterwards, the infantry battalion of the First Brigade of the Hanhai Army began its advance.

According to the tactical manuals and regulations issued by the military command, the advance of the Han Hai Territory is divided into three types.

When the enemy still has organized units, the melee weapon troops are in front, using giant shields to clear the way, forming a defensive formation, and advancing from the center.

When the enemy has been defeated and scattered and is no longer organized, the troops should spread out in skirmish lines and quickly encircle and capture them.

Another strategy is to use tanks when your side has them, regardless of the enemy's formation, and directly deploy the well-practiced "infantry, cavalry, archers, and tanks" coordinated advance.

This time, Macaca painstakingly transported six modified Star 59 vehicles from Xuanshui City and delivered a swift and merciless punch to them.

Galen's First Regiment of the Defense Force and Hamon's Battlefield Rebellion stood on the left and right, silently watching the main force of the Hanhai Army beat "Long Teeth" from a distance, their eyes almost bursting with rage.

What does it mean to be utterly devastating? What does it mean to be unstoppable?

The strength and bravery that orc warriors were so proud of appeared so pale and powerless in the face of steel and gunpowder.

As the ground troops rapidly advanced, the entire camp completely collapsed amidst billowing smoke, turning into a chaotic herd of beasts running rampant across the land.

The loudspeakers at the front began broadcasting in Orcish: Surrender and you will be spared death; kneel down and you will be spared!

Perhaps it was this blatant humiliation that finally pushed the "Long-Toothed" leader to his breaking point. The boar-man leader roared as he charged out of his hiding place, accompanied by his most loyal personal guard—a hundred or so wounded elite orcs with eyes gleaming with final madness—and unleashed a desperate roar.

Wielding heavy battle axes and maces, they charged toward the flank of the Vast Ocean Territory, toward the direction where Hamon was located.

It was probably before he died that he wanted to drag this "despicable traitor" down with him.

However, this desperate struggle was futile; their heroic charge didn't even reach the Han Hai Army's infantry line. And so, in front of Hamon, in front of Brin, in front of all the former "Long Teeth" mercenaries, they were engulfed in bloody smoke by a precise barrage of fire.

The chieftain's death was the final straw that broke the camel's back; the remaining orcs completely lost their will to resist, and the camp collapsed entirely.

The survivors dropped their weapons and fled aimlessly into the mountains and forests behind and to the sides of the camp, like a frightened herd of beasts.

As the sun fully rose, its rays dispelled the smoke and illuminated the battlefield, the Longtooth tribe's main camp was no more. All that remained were broken walls, embers, and scattered orc corpses littering the plains.

Having witnessed the destruction of "Long Teeth," Hamon's prestige among his allies soared. His previously illustrious talent, years of campaigning, and care for his subordinates all seemed less important than this crucial moment of surrender.

Soon, Hamon, still immersed in the afterglow of the final battle, was assigned a special mission because he was familiar with the surrounding environment of Blackmane Ridge.

He was ordered to lead a troop along the river to a designated area to guide the "mysterious reinforcements" sent by the lord.

Guided by a communications soldier from the vast sea, Hamon crossed the Bailangtan River downstream of the Huanyan River and set up camp on the north bank.

An uneasy atmosphere permeated the area as news from the north arrived in droves: a large orc army belonging to the Crackclaw tribe was marching south and was less than two days' journey from the White Wave Beach ferry.

Normally, Hamon might have already run away, but at this moment, he just kept anxiously asking the young communications soldier, who looked like a teenager, for questions.

"How much longer are we supposed to wait here? The orcs are already here. Must we hold out to the death?"

The older child would only repeat over and over again: "Wait! Await orders from headquarters!"

"Please be patient, the command center will make arrangements!"

Thus, the restless human forces spent another sleepless night until the afternoon of the next day, when the communication equipment finally delivered the long-awaited notification.

The human warriors, bewildered, deployed into formation.

Then, Brin, with her sharp eyes, broke the tranquility of the riverbank with a startled exclamation.

"Look...look over there! There's something in the river! A big ship!"

Everyone's eyes were instantly focused on the past.

From the misty lower reaches of the Huanyan River on the east side, the outline of a huge, dark beast slowly broke through the white vapor, revealing its form.

That was a ship that had long been obsolete on Earth, but was dug out of the archives by the weapons designers of Dongxia, and after being adjusted and modified again and again, it went through nine versions before being finalized—the [Tide Spear Shallow Water Gunboat].

The bow of the steel warship cleaved through the murky river water, and the thick cannon barrels on the deck gleamed with a cold, hard metallic luster.

Behind the wake of that steel warship, countless Naga warriors, their bodies covered in a thick, transparent membrane, joyfully treaded the waves, rising and falling with the tides!
The sea creatures made their first appearance in the heart of the White Deer Plain.

(End of this chapter)