Chapter 308: Storming the Beaches
Twenty S-Rankers stood ready to finish off the cult for good.
Davy Jones and Captain Nemo, nominally just independents with concerns about what might happen if the cult were allowed to remain.
The entire team, obviously.
All three of Camelots S-Rankers, and several lower-Level people.
Theyd brought in Fenrir, of course, as the ever-reliable independent actor.
Dr. Han, and Yi Yushin had shown up from Korea, very much on the down low, traveling most of the way aboard the Nautilus.
Oberst Maria Schultz and Polizeioberwachtmeister Lukas Mller were also along for the ride, with a full three-quarters of Germanys S-Rankers, including both military ones, but the latter ones had been easy to get. Isaac was good friends with one Franz Habicht, who was currently holding the post the German Minister of Defense had been promoted out of.
In addition, one Kade Benson was in charge of the Marine contingent aboard, and hed recently gained S-Rank designation, as had one Mark Alter, [Archmage of the Tempest]. Being around those two had still been weird as hell, and Isaac had largely stayed out of their way to avoid making a fool of himself.
Jose Maria Sandoval, the mage with likely the highest offensive power in the world, had been brought on board on the sly as well, and would be arriving alongside Raul in a few hours.
And finally, there was one Captain Gabriel Stone of the Royal Navy, in command of their newest and shiniest warship, the HMS Dreadnought.
Battleships had been obsolete since the Second World War, and none had seen active service for over thirty years by the [System] had arrived.
When the world had changed, so had the warship design philosophies. Aircraft were a perfectly serviceable way of projecting force at range, well beyond where a battleships guns could reach, when physics and chemistry had been all that mattered.
But nowadays, an aircraft squadron going up against a battleship would be only backed up by the pilots [Skills] with maybe a slight boost from the CAG or carrier commanding officer, while running into the combined abilities of the captain, gunnery crews, engineers and every other sailor even remotely contributing to the defense of the ship.
As such, battleships could serve as ways for countless individuals to pool their power and lash out with incredible power.
They were also capable of utilizing a wide variety of alchemical and enchanted shells in a way that would require a lot of rearming when that ordinance needed to be delivered via an airplane.
The Dreadnought was brand-spankin new, with a full mithril hull, magitech that enabled it to literally fly for a few seconds before the capacitors were dry, as well as briefly dip under the waves when necessary. Not to mention the fact that it could throw up a magical shield, though that wouldnt last long.
Six large gun turrets, each holding four separate 20-inch guns, every barrel capable of firing a round every four or five seconds. Gun turrets covered every single available surface, ready to tear apart even a fly if it looked at the ship funny.
A radar system that made liberal use of various [Skills] and enchantments, capable of simultaneously tracking close to a million grains of sand simultaneously, should that become necessary.
Of course, the vessel was largely designed according to the most modern design principles, taking into account how many people and even monsters could unleash serious havoc at long-range or powerful area attacks, burying as many components as possible inside the hulls superstructure.
And so on, and so forth.
Throw in the fact that the ships captain was so capable he was deemed S-ranked, and the Dreadnought was a force that could solo bosses and conquer nations.
Of course, they werent doing this just with a few S-Rankers, a Frankenship, a legendary submarine, and a battleship.
Several elite units that could be deployed without it being obvious, including Seal Team Six and GSG-13 were present as well, and an entire carrier group the Americans had ponied up. Thankfully, it had been in the area already, as it changing course would likely have been super suspicious.
The USS Bunker Hill was a five-year-old carrier, making it practically outdated by [System] standards, but it had a fully modern air wing.
It was also the first carrier group in decades that had included a battleship as well, the USS Arizona being a mere year old, empowered with all the [Skills] engineers had gained across the years.
And there were a couple of submarines attached to the carrier group, which he strongly suspected held at least some nuclear weaponry.
The Dreadnought would be joining the group under the cover of certain while Isaac arrived on the Dutchman, making some more preparations.
Everyone else from Europe would be portal-chaining here in a bit. If so many prominent people vanished at once, it might arouse some suspicion.
Right now, the real issue was discussing the chain of command.
The highest officer overall was Read Admiral Johnathan Hayes, who flew his flag from the Bunker Hill.
Except he hadnt drawn up the plan for the operation, didnt have the greatest amount of information out of everyone there, and overall, the only thing that put him ahead of everyone else was his rank.
Captain Stone would have caused a million different issues if hed been in charge.
Isaac had the information needed, but not the skills to command the operation as a whole, not to mention that even trying would take him out of the line of battle.
And Arthur, capable as he was overall, he didnt belong in charge of a military operation.
After a lot of internal arguing and external discussion, the chain of command ended up somewhat convoluted, with Hayes being in overall command but Isaac being able to exert a degree of control as well, largely setting the overall tone of operations, as well as directing the landing contingent.
Sharing authority like that made things messy as fuck, but honestly, just putting Hayes in charge wouldnt necessarily be any better. Zambon had looked into him, the Admiral had earned his rank, was competent, and had adjusted to the weirdness of the [System], but Isaac could become practically omniscient in the local area and had a hell of a lot more experience in actual combat.
Hed phrased that last part a lot nicer during the discussion, though.
In theory, there was a massive pool of power they could draw upon to find the ideal candidate.
In practice, they needed someone who would be acceptable to the military portion of the operation, which significantly narrowed the available pool all on its own, and considering they needed to pick someone whose absence or reassignment wouldnt be apparent before the operation commenced, there werent many candidates left.
And of those remaining, several had, ahem, personality issues that made them ill-suited to the whole affair.
But whoever controlled the array beat him to the punch.
The natural energy of the world came out of its unnatural state of stillness, rousing slowly as if it were a hibernating bear, then roared to life as the buried summoning circles disgorged their payload after who knew how long of waiting.
And then, the messages began to appear.
General of Cocytus (Tier 10) has been summoned near your location.
Summon Location: Island of Bacan (4.1 km away, direction N)
Rath (Tier 9) has been summoned near your location.
Summon Location: Island of Bacan (4.2 km away, direction N)
Furfur (Tier 9) has been summoned near your location.
Summon Location: Island of Bacan (4.2 km away, direction N)
Iammax (Tier 10) has been summoned near your location.
Summon Location: Island of Bacan (4 km away, direction N)
Four [Raid Bosses] would take a while to chew through, time they could not afford to waste.
But they couldnt allow these things to run amuck out here either.
A well-constructed and crewed battleship might be able to fight a single [Raid Boss], and the Dreadnought was the battleship, but the other two capital ships were older and overall, there were four bosses to three ships.
Not to mention the fact that two of those things were Tier 10, which was yet another step up in terms of power.
And those four in particular would be dangerous as hell.
Unless Isaac was far off the mark, the only reason there werent four of those was that that would have broken the summoning blockers.
Normally, you only got named demons in Tier 10 only, but the demon Event a few years ago had provided objects called upgrade charges that could turn standard Demon Lord into a named version at the same Tier.
The Tier 9 Demon Lord alone might have been annoying, sure, but the two they were facing now were really bad news.
Rath was an orange-furred lion the size of a truck, though Isaac knew that fucker could spread a weakening disease, and it would likely be a hell of a lot stronger coming from a Tier 9 monster. It would make extended combat dangerous.
The General of Cocytus was a cryomancer of incredible power, and Isaac knew it would freeze the ocean so the others could get at the ships. A sixty-meter-tall armored warrior wielding a glaive, wrapped in crystalline plate armor, with various plates alternating between black, yellow, and red, a hundred similarly armored minions scuttling around it.
But Iammax was the real problem. Iammax, a forty-meter-high knight in heavy red plate armor. Iammax, supreme ruler of all the spirits of Mars, the demonic king of warfare. An entire legion was manifesting around him, with more pouring out of the portal behind him. Hed be able to direct those with not insignificant skill, combined with his personal power, this made him dangerous as all get out. In fact, as far as Isaac knew, hed never been killed in the other timeline despite several of him having been summoned.
And Furfur was just the cherry atop this shit pie. He was another truck-sized beast, a mutated deer, almost completely covered in black fur, but his skin beneath burned a deep orange, making him appear like an embering campfire.
A massive pair of jet-black bats wings sprouted from his back, and his forelimbs were grotesquely elongated, ending in human-like hands with obsidian chips for claws.
His face was somewhat fur-free, making the glow more prominent, bone-white antlers sprouted from his head and shining orbs topped each end, and from his other end, sprouted a long tail of pure flame.
All that would make him bad enough, but the real issue was the fact that his mere presence would summon a storm, one potentially even strong enough to keep some of the carriers planes out of the air.
Weakness and a hostile environment, a general with an army and one that would enable said army to march across the ocean.
The only good thing here was that apparently, the uplifted Tier nines hadnt brought any minions to the party.
Alright, new plan.
Rear Admiral Hayes, the Tier 10s can resurrect twice and come with a portal that constantly supplies demons, and will only close a few minutes after the boss is dead. Iammax is
Isaac rapidly relayed the information he had about the various monsters, very glad that his prophetic abilities were known to Hayes. It made things easier, and he could say I saw it in a potential future and be completely truthful, though everyone would clearly misunderstand what he meant.
Then, he reshuffled the group. Jones was needed out here, he should probably leave Patrick and Yi on the Arizona with Sandoval to provide more firepower. Elena, meanwhile, was supposed to be out here but the General of Cocytus hard-countered all kinds of water mages, shed be useless where shed been intended to be, so shed be added to the group going for the base.
Mark was meant to be on the Arizona and that was where he would best be located even now, and Dr. Hans ability to fight against [Raid Bosses] was so great that he was put to better use here as well.
But even with those adjustments, four [Raid Bosses] were still too much. When the world learned of the bosses on the loose, reinforcements would likely arrive, however, even surviving until then would be tough.
Four was just too much, especially with how they boosted each other.
The instant Isaac and Hayes were done adjusting the plan, [Rapid Reasigment] grabbed a hold of the people in the wrong place and dragged them into place.
New plan, Isaac announced to the people who remained on the Dutchman, and the newly-arrived Elena, Were rushing past them, the navy will deal with the bosses, but we need to take down Furfur on the way. Use as few cooldown [Skills] as possible.
He took to the air first, drawing a full suite of cursed daggers from his inventory and the instant he approached his unfortunate target, unleashed absolute hell on the fucker.
Within reason. Hed decided to limit himself to just one cooldown [Skill], so hed decided to go with [Form of Horror]. It was powerful, but not the only Stat-boosting cooldown [Skill] he had.
He was going to find the last remnants of the idiots whod decided to end the world for their own gain, and Fufur, he was just in the way.
