Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1371: Chapter 1370: Post-Battle Encounter

For the soldiers of the Highmountain Kingdom stationed at Fort Greta, today’s experience will probably become the most incredible and bizarre memory of their lives—the "Meteor Fire Rain" falling from the sky, the heavy artillery bombardment that instantly collapsed the mutant tide, the torrential storm that covered the entire plain, and those extraterrestrial warriors landing on the ground amidst the storm...

Of course, those extraterrestrial warriors also include those who suddenly fell from the sky halfway through the battle and got stuck on the walls and towers...

"Hey, high-altitude landings, accidents happen sometimes, who can predict the weather up there? We can only create an environment suitable for air-drops; we can’t control all the high-altitude air currents," a sea demon with long sea-blue hair explained nonchalantly on the walls of Fort Greta, while patting the shoulder of a soldier next to her. "When I jumped down, I aimed perfectly, theoretically, I should have landed beside a bunch of mutants lucky enough to survive the bombardment. But who expected a gust of wind halfway through, and that wind whooshed—by then, my transformation was already complete, and it was too late to adjust the trajectory—and then, I just plopped right beside your foot..."

The one whose shoulder was being patted was a young soldier, probably around seventeen or eighteen years old, looking tense and nervous. He was clutching his weapon tightly and couldn’t help but glance at this "extraterrestrial ally" in front of him. Despite her strange, snake-like tail, her upper body was still a beautiful lady, which made the young man appear quite shy and awkward: "So... are you hurt? I saw you fall pretty hard just now, half your body got embedded... you’re sure you’re okay?"

"I’m fine! I switched forms when I fell, it’s not easy to die from a fall," the blue-haired sea demon patted her chest, looking cheerful. "And this is nothing—a while back, I went surfing near the sea cliffs with some of my sisters and got slammed against the cliffs by a huge wave, shattered on the spot—they were pretty shattered too, of course..."

The young soldier looked clueless, this topic was completely beyond his previous experience of communicating with others—he could only manage to squeeze out a smile, trying hard to make his expression not look too strange: "...that does sound impressive..."

"It’s alright, we have a ’Creative Sudden Death Competition’ every year. My record isn’t even ranked. General Vanessa often says I have creativity, but I lack spectacle, especially the explosive power in calm situations or something... Anyway, I don’t really get it, since I’m not good with art," the blue-haired sea demon waved her hand, and then displayed a hint of regret on her face. "Alas, the most frustrating part this time was landing outside the combat area; I’ll surely be laughed at later. I fought a battle without cutting down a single enemy..."

Young soldier: "..."

This time, he was completely at a loss for words. Clearly, the lifestyle of sea demons is still too exotic for a normally-perceived human...

Fortunately, this awkward state didn’t last very long. The blue-haired sea demon, who had a carefree personality, seemed to suddenly feel something, looked out beyond Fort Greta, and then turned around: "Ah, I think my superior is coming, probably arriving soon—I have to go first, maybe next time, it’s quite fun talking with you..."

With such words left behind, the blue-haired sea demon didn’t care whether the young soldier responded, swung her tail from side to side, and quickly left, leaving the young man completely bewildered, staring at her departing figure. After an unknown amount of time, another soldier who looked a bit older came over and elbowed the still-dazed young man: "Hey, she’s gone and you’re still looking? Got scared stupid?"

The young soldier finally jolted back to reality, but he just opened his mouth with a strange expression, as if he didn’t know how to begin, his comrade couldn’t stop a smiling tease from rising: "Look at your silly face... Well, there’s no helping it. Even though it’s a different race, that lady does look quite pretty. How does it feel, talking to a pretty girl so much for the first time in your life?"

"...My parents would never imagine their son would talk about such things with a pretty lady for the first time in his life..." The young soldier spoke in a peculiar tone, "I should’ve asked her name just now..."

These brief and unexpected exchanges were merely episodes happening in Fort Greta, while Audris had no extra energy to focus on or ponder what long-term impacts such contact between a deep-sea species and a land kingdom might bring to this world. For the King who had held this line through a whole winter, the two reinforcement armies from the North Cecil Empire and the Deep Sea Merfolk Kingdom were the most important matters to him at this stage.

On a platform in Fort Greta, Audris and Prince Lorin, along with several trusted generals, stood at the edge of the platform. They had wiped the bloodstains off their armor, but the scent of blood soaked from the battlefield still seemed to seep from the seams of their clothing. As a buzzing sound arose from the sky, they unanimously looked up, and a silver-grey Dragon Cavalry Aircraft and the massive silhouettes of three red dragons appeared before their eyes—the latter clearly being the escort team for the aircraft.

Lorin couldn’t help but murmur softly: "...Two years ago, dragons were mythical creatures..."

"Two years ago, we thought the great walls could stand for several more centuries," Audris shook his head gently while watching the aircraft and the three dragons slowly descend, and said in a low voice, "The world changes too quickly."

As they spoke, the aircraft had already landed steadily at the center of the platform, and the three dragons performing escort duties were enveloped in a shimmer of magic power mid-air, then transformed into human form and landed next to the Dragon Cavalry in a manner that would leave an ordinary human half-dead from the fall. Among them, a lady with fiery red hair stepped forward, seemingly intent on supporting the grey-haired general coming out from the Dragon Cavalry, but the latter simply waved his hand and agilely jumped onto the ground, appearing nimble enough to be a young man.

Soon, another figure climbed out from the crew cabin of the Dragon Cavalry. It was a tall and graceful lady with long sky-blue hair, but she walked out of the cabin evidently less "casually" than Byron. She carefully held the side handrail as she descended from a slanted ramp and adjusted her stance, as though still not quite accustomed to walking on land with legs.

Audris advanced with Lorin and the others, recognizing Byron first—their faces hadn’t met before, but he had seen his face on some promotional materials: "General Byron, thank you very much for your reinforcements. The entire southern frontline can breathe a sigh of relief now. And beside you is..."

His gaze fell on the red-haired dragon lady and the blue-haired lady, while he had some speculation, he didn’t dare to guess their identities rashly.

"Asharena, the commander of the Sacred Dragon Kingdom’s Third Expeditionary Force, acting as alliance liaison officer," the red-haired dragon lady nodded. "I lead a Dragonborn unit to act in concert with General Byron’s expeditionary fleet, and for the foreseeable future, we will also assist the southern frontline to ensure air superiority."

"Vanessa, Deep Sea Warlord, under the command of Queen Petia of the sea demons, leading the Antawen Expeditionary Force to support the alliance," the blue-haired lady spoke right after. Her voice was soft and textured, as if there was some wondrous "melody" in each syllable, a notable characteristic of many sea demons when using human common language (except for those with heavy accents). "Currently, communication between Loren Continent and Antawen is cut off, thus I’m fully responsible for all affairs on the alliance battlefield."

"Ah! Now I remember," Lorin had involuntarily glanced at the blue-haired lady several times since earlier, feeling her face looked familiar, and now suddenly realized, "The face that appeared above the clouds before was... yours?"

"Yes, it was me," Vanessa laughed, her manner now gentle and friendly, making it hard to imagine her other side on the battlefield. "The situation was urgent at that moment; I saw your frontline was about to collapse, and communication could not be established, while the Winter had to immediately cover the battlefield with firepower, so I had no choice but to choose the simplest and most direct method to contact you. Fortunately, you humans are quite perceptive and understood my ’expression’..."

Damn it, understood the expression! Is your deep-sea species’ "read my expression" such a straightforward and crude process?! Directly imprinting an 18-kilometer-wide face in the sky for the people on the ground as a meme?!

Except for General Vanessa herself, anyone with a normal worldview felt that this matter was a bit supernatural. Nevertheless, the well-mannered Prince and the King with his duties could only stifle their words with effort, while Byron, having no psychological burdens, couldn’t help but mutter aloud: "Seriously, I’m used to your sea demons being harmonious, but you can’t be this uncanny..."

"The outcome is good, isn’t it?" Vanessa said carelessly, "Next time, I’ll just put the words up as well..."

For a moment, King Audris was at a loss as to how to interject into this topic. Having been a king for half his life, he had never encountered such a bizarre dialogue. And the participants in this conversation were the highest commanders of two expeditionary armies—thankfully, Lady Asharena interrupted and forcefully dragged the already abnormal topic back: "We’ll discuss the details later; we have important business to talk about. Your Majesty, we need a place for a discussion."

"Of course," Audris immediately nodded, "The parlor in the fortress has been prepared, along with a welcoming dinner. Although conditions are quite difficult now, the cuisine and berry wine of Highmountain Kingdom should still ease your travel fatigue."

Upon hearing this, Byron immediately picked up his pace: "Then let’s hurry and go—we can talk while eating."

The group headed towards Fort Greta’s parlor, with Audris and several military officers leading the way, while Lorin fell two steps behind, walking alongside the commanders of the expeditionary forces. This young Prince, though maintaining his decorum diligently, occasionally displayed changes in his attention that did not escape the Deep Sea Warlord’s awareness. General Vanessa glanced back at Lorin curiously and asked, "Do you have something to say?"

"Uh..." Lorin, momentarily embarrassed, discreetly checked ahead at his father. Then, with a touch of awkwardness, he said to Vanessa, "Apologies, I mean no offense, but... I thought all sea demons moved with long snake tails or fish tails. I didn’t expect you to... uh, walk with legs like us."

"Space is limited in the aircraft, so I turned into legs temporarily," Vanessa replied casually, "I wouldn’t have remembered if you hadn’t reminded me."

Before her words faded, the lower half of the sea demon general suddenly exploded into countless scattered water droplets, which in the next instant condensed into a long snake tail. She swayed a bit, a satisfied look on her face, "Much steadier this time. No wonder I felt like I was tipping forward when walking."

Lorin: "..."

Audris, turning back to check on the commotion: "..."

In terms of establishing communication with the deep-sea beings, it looks like the people of Highmountain Kingdom still have a long way to go...

...

Amber excitedly ran into Gawain’s study, bringing with her a massive piece of good news in front of Gawain: "Received real-time communication from the Southern Battlefield! Byron over there has already successfully reached within the borders of Highmountain Kingdom and has repaired a Magic Web Nexus previously occupied by the aberration legion. Communications with the south are now fully restored!"

Gawain immediately put down the document in his hand, not hiding his joy at all: "Terrific! They’ve finally arrived—how’s the situation over there?"

"When they arrived, a major force of aberrations from the Augari tribal country was vigorously attacking Fort Greta, allegedly close to breaking through the Highmountain Kingdom’s outer defenses. Fortunately, Winter’s artillery support and the sea demon landing forces were timely in position," Amber recounted, a radiant glow on her face as if she were there to witness it, "Now Byron, Asharena, and General Vanessa have already gone to Fort Greta for an audience with the King of Highmountain. Communication channels remain open, so any situation there can be reported immediately... ah, right, there’s this too. It’s what came along with the restored communication. I made a copy."

Saying this, Amber pulled out from her bosom a blue crystal plate smaller than the palm of her hand and handed it to Gawain, who upon inspection found it to be a universal Storage Crystal Plate—replacing traditional, Mage-hand-crafted record crystals. These standardized crystals are commonly used in Magic Web Terminals, wetware interfaces, large-scale computing nodes, and similar data interaction devices. This item is still relatively costly, widely used in the Empire’s governance or military departments, but with expanded production and technological updates, it has gradually begun spreading to civilians since last year.

"These are battlefield recordings from the frontline," Amber explained the contents casually as Gawain inserted the crystal plate into the slot on the nearby Magic Web Terminal. "Part of it is recorded on Winter, part directly shot by Asharena in the air, and also an aerial view after the battle..."

Soon, the Magic Web Terminal buzzed into life, and holographic projections floated above the desk. Both Gawain’s and Amber’s gazes involuntarily focused on the projection.

The war-ravaged Southern Front Battlefield, the defenses of Highmountain Kingdom, fire coverage from Winter, storms and dark clouds, thunder and lightning.

Contemporary art from the Cecil Clan, battlefield wisdom from sea demons.

"...Old man, this is way too uncanny..."

"Truth be told, it really is."

(It’s time for book recommendations, generously endorsing two books: One from Liang Tea Brewed Wine titled "I Can Magical Revamp Black Technology," a sci-fi tale about seeking survival before the apocalypse, with an ingenious start where traversing squeezes out the body’s original owner, yet only gleans from their leftover message that the apocalypse is imminent; the second one is from a novice angler titled "Conquest Handbook of Another World," previously recommended, a group portrait + development of an alien world, so won’t elaborate much further.

In short, curse these two books as sacrifices.)