Chapter 354: The Western Diversion – Part 1

As another landing pod arrived at the beach of the Western Coastal town of Gob Gob Si, the police squad with their half masks noticed the area was bustling with activities from the goblin and cultivators. Ren Wei could not help but smile at Jing Ru’s cutesy half giraffe mask while Jing Ru complimented how adorable his muskrat mask was.

“Gah, so mushy…but I am curious to see how I look like too. Can you take a photo of my mask?” Gupta asked Abdul, who was wearing a mask with the rhino horn poking out at his nose area. Surprisingly it did not deter his vision nor did he himself felt the weight of the mask wearing him down.

“Hahahha, you looked terrible with the elephant mask on. Like a follower of some hidden cult of Ganesha.” Abdul took the photo of Gupta’s half mask, though it appeared more like a full mask with the elephant’s ears at the side, short tusks near his cheek area and his nose in a vertical upright ‘S’ hose shape.

“Blah! At least I hope it will scare the orcs a little.” Gupta replied as he saw the photo in which he posed with his shotgun.

“You just better make sure not to scare our goblin allies with your look. It would be a shame if they accidentally stab the elephant.” Abdul teased his colleague while he adjusted his metal box bag. The sound of his ammunition shells hitting each other provided him with a sense of security.

Jing Ru was slightly shocked herself. Unlike the previous time when she only fought with a few dozen goblins together in the Northern Valley Town of Gob Gob Bu, what she saw now in Gob Gob Si was their number having increased that encompassed hundreds if not, possibly thousands.

She felt that Jin really seemed to have gone all out in his missions for the Goblin Raid. The town had been evacuated and it was obvious that the entire place had been cleanly stripped of civilians as it became the designated war zone for the goblins. Barricades were placed at strategic areas and emergency supplies such as arrows and medical aid were being stocked at certain checkpoints.

What seemed to be the members of the goblin backline logistics were running around carrying boxes to Shu and Ke Mi’s newly created fort walls. Be it ammunition, arrows, barrels of oils or food rations, not a single goblin was lazing around. The squad even noticed some of the goblins were carrying modernised weapons like the M1 Garand while others were clinging on to crossbows, bows etc.

Rows and columns of goblin fighters armed with swords, spears and shields were organised right behind the fort walls but instead of being readily active, they were sparring with each other. Not rigorously but warming their bodies up for the fight to come. At the same time, some commanders were discussing strategies with each other alongside with the prominent Spear General Argent and internalising the various backup plans. Yet what Ren Wei noticed was that there were tens of cultivators standing at the edge of the ledge who seemed to be intently listening to them as well.

Ren Wei being a sniper had already spotted numerous vantage points being occupied by various marksmen, both cultivators and goblins. To his surprise, he believed some of the cultivators were from the Tiangong Police Station as they nodded at him or at Abdul and Gupta as a sign of acknowledgment.

In the meantime, some of the spacious vantage points were occupied by artillery or flak gun emplacements. There were even machine guns emplacement being placed at blind spots. From Ren Wei’s experience, the commander who coordinated this definitely knew his stuff really well. Only an experienced commander or fellow trained sniper would have made arrangements for those spots. In his own opinion, he doubted that Boss Jin could have been able to create such a scene alone. He would need a person advising him, most likely someone experienced in the military or someone possessing a vast knowledge regarding military operations to create such a detailed dungeon instance. Once this was over, he would love to thank whoever helped Boss Jin to create some form of realism in the dungeon instance which was severely lacking in many other dungeon suppliers and if possible get to know the person better.

As they were all the humanoids employed by Master Jin, the goblin military leaders were not bothered by their intrusion and allowed them to listen in and walk around the area as long as they did not interrupt the operations. Most of the cultivators were just busybodies and they left the goblins alone once their curiosity was sated.

Similar to those cultivators, Ren Wei and the others did not know where to go at first so they explored the town and subsequently the fort walls. Gupta being a sucker for weapons saw that the walls were lined up with Pak 38 anti tank cannons. What surprised him even more was that the ammunition right beside it, were mixed for various types of scenarios. There were incendiary, high explosive, armour penetrating and anti infantry fragmentation shells. (All clearly labeled in both goblin which he assumed and Chinese language). He could not wait to find out if those were the real deal and hopefully be able to also fire at least once. (Just to have the feel and thrill of it!)

Suddenly, a little blue magpie appeared and landed on Jing Ru’s shoulders. “Greetings, I am Magpie No. 039, I will be the one communicating with you all. My responsibilities include updating you on where to go, and suggest locations which might need help according to the military leaders.” Magpie No. 039 introduced itself. It chirped while instructing the squad about its objectives.

“I will also be handling your personal private transmissions within the team as well as any possible SOS from other cultivators and vice versa. Your private transmissions will be encrypted by me and send via thought to every one of you. It will be very hectic when the battle starts and it will be in your best interest to ensure my survival since I am your source of communication between everyone. In case I am taken out, you are advised to either continue your objective and wait an amount of time until I get resummoned or join with another squad in case you wish to proceed on.” The Magpie No. 039 chirped once more while expanding its wings a bit, adjusting itself to be comfortable on Jing Ru’s shoulder.

She did not feel any pain from its claws mainly because the magpie perched itself on the strap of her backpack. Suddenly, the sirens went off as the lighthouse tower at the northern side of Gob Gob Si began to sign light beams towards the town. The police who were trained in morse code roughly got the message and they checked their weapons and their armoured vest one final time.

“Any place that needs our immediate attention or should we simply enjoy the show first?” Gupta asked Magpie No. 039 as he understood that it would be stupid for cultivators to rush into the shore. That would be suicide…unless he dared to play and dance around on a tightrope with the reaper of death.

“According to how you phrased your question…Nope. Currently no places require your aid. You can watch the ‘show’ first. The primary line of defence will be handled by the goblins. If the Orcs manage to get past the attacks and reach the shore, which they will, then it will be your debut. Long range cultivators can do what they like. Remember to always have sufficient ammunition and order more if you need them.” Magpie No.39 answered which prompted Ren Wei to beckon Jing Ru to follow him.

“We will keep in contact.” Ren Wei said to Abdul and Gupta as the father and daughter ran towards a decent vantage point which he saw was not yet occupied. Meanwhile, Gupta and Abdul jumped on top of one of the taller buildings since they saw other cultivators doing it. The roof was not yet taken and provided both of them with a clear view of what was going to happen.

“Chips?” Abdul asked as he was searching his storage ring.

“Nice. You got those with sea salt black pepper flavour?” Gupta asked and Abdul nodded his head. He took them out and passed it to Gupta while he searched for his his own prefered flavour. BBQ sauce. They opened their bags of chips and began to watch the whole scene unfold.

——-

The Ice Orc Fleet Admiral had received notice that their supreme commander, the Avatar of Shiva, Yellow Ice, would not be joining them. As the highest ranking officer, it was decided that he would need to take matters into his own hands. “It’s about time for the battle! Sail forth!!!” The Admiral gave the command and a loud blaring sound echoed throughout the quiet colossal fleet, which it had been acting as a mobile blockade against other sources of possible aid to the goblins.

With one sound, the fleet immediately powered up their engines and the orcs were barking orders to no end. Their wait for that signal was finally over. Their ships powered by a magic lost tech engine began to move forward despite the weather threatening to drop a ravaging storm at them. The Admiral hoped to land before the rain started since it might hamper the movement of their troops. It seemed that Mother Nature were not keen on making their invasion easy for them.

If it were up to him, he would have attacked much sooner with the evening sun shining at them since they were at the western region. But because their primary objective was to serve as a diversion attack, they were forced to delay and to strike later in the evening so as to coincide with the rise of the Full Red Moon. Which was why the weather and the environment had became a disadvantage to the orcs. Yet, the King’s orders were absolute as their commander would say if he was here, so they were left with no other option but to make do with what they had.

——-

The anti tank cannons were all prepped with high explosive shells first which could travel the furthest range. Once the Ice Orc Fleet would enter the range of about 10 km, they were ready to start the counterattack. They were not necessarily aiming to kill them but rather to suppress fire and decrease the orcs’ morale with consistent shooting. In the meantime, the real hitters were the artillery guns which their goblin spotters were already prepping and verifying the exact coordinates for the Arty guns to fire before the ships could move another inch forward.

All of them were trained by Hou Fei in an intensive classroom setting created by Jin. They were left with him in a room which had a long time dilation. Nevertheless, their lack of time made it a horrible time to force them to study as if their life depended on it. Apparently, more and more goblins wanted to quit by killing themselves towards the end. Yet Hou Fei’s background as Royal Snake Zodiac Cultivator allowed him to have ways to ‘provide’ them with ‘sufficient’ amount of sanity to stay in that gruesome classroom of his.

“Fire whenever ready.” Their magpies chirped simultaneously at the Goblin spotters and they gave the signal to fire which caused a barrage of sounds coming from the peaceful western coast. The airships piloted by the Wind Orc Air Force saw the mini flashlights coming from the western region and warned the Ice Orc Fleet about it. However, it was a little too late when the shells hit a few of their warships and some already caught on fire because of the initiative attack.

A few of the smaller ships broke immediately from the fires. The goblin spotters wanted to hit those first since their mobility was the highest in the seas and selecting them for the first volley seemed to be the most appropriate target. The bigger ships were of course the larger threat but they could be dealt at a later time with the subsequent volleys.

The orcs on the smaller assault ships had to abandon ship before the fire consumed them. It’s either that or they would be stuck in the ship and be killed by the burning debris. If not that, the other possibility was to be stuck in overflooded blocked cabins and that was no better.

What they did not expect were the things that lurked in the sea… The Deep Ones were impatiently waiting to get some action ever since the Ice Orc Fleet arrived in the Western Waters. They finally had the chance to kill stuff especially when they were not even allowed to assist as guardians for the cultivators because they were next in line to be featured in Jin’s store. However, because of the rather sudden appearance of the raid event, they were overshadowed yet again. And unfortunately for Derpy and his gang, Jin decided to focus all of his efforts to this raid event instead.

Yet, Jin had deployed them when he learned about the Ice Orc Fleet. After getting notified the Deep Ones were elated that they finally would be able to get some blood in their hands as they were itching for a fight for a long time. However, Jin did not give them the orders to assault the warships directly. Else, they might taken everything for themselves and the goblins prepared for naught. (Most importantly, the cultivators would not have their fair share of battle. And that would be bad for business.)

So, Jin only allowed them to kill orcs who abandoned ship or those who dropped into the sea. Whether the orcs put up a struggle or not was another matter. To make up for all those restrictions Jin did allow them to attack the orcs once they decided to retreat. Only Mr Derpy was forbidden to do anything except to support his entourage. Of course, he was initially furious at this order. Fortunately, Jin later convinced him that waiting until the end would guarantee that he could imprint his image as the mighty Shadow Dagen in the hearts of the cultivators. The image of himself rising from the Depth and annihilating those massive warships who were retreating did wonders to pacify Mr Derpy. Watching his army have fun, he secretly prayed for the Fleet to quickly retreat since his jaws were starting to feel itchy.

Some Deep Ones were even toying with their prey before the orcs were teared into pieces. They stood no chance against their predators who were extremely versatile in the waters. They were not called Terrors of the Deep for fun. The rest killed them in one shot before dragging them deeper into the sea and eating them up. Yet, they were careful about not destroying most of the armour or weapons.

Despite their appearance, they were conscientious scavengers. Whatever metal or leather pieces th orcs were equipped with, they would strip the orc clean before eating them up and nicely stack those pieces to offer them as tribute to Jin once again.

It did not take long for the fellow Orc sailors to realise something was amiss when not a single orc managed to surface from the water. Some even shone bright light magic into the sea and only later found out that there were sea monsters eating up their companions. Something so vicious and rampant never happened before which they quickly reported to their higher ups. The leaders could only deduce their usage of lost tech might have attracted these monsters of the deep sea.

This situation alone presented the Ice Orc Admiral a certain dilemma and he needed to make a decision fast since the goblin artillery bombardment was not going to stop for them to think. On one hand, he should be giving the orders to aid the orcs in need, on the other hand, he felt it was a waste of resources trying to aid them. By now it was almost certain that they were dead but abandoning them without at least attempting to help would be equally cruel and demoralising for the sailors.

It was not a decision he could make off hand. After struggling with his conscience, he decided to follow logic and issued orders to press forth with full engines ahead while telling his orcs to prepare the long range cannons for a counter attack. The orc leaders had no choice but to follow the command of their admiral. In order to fire at them, the warships had to turn their gun ports to fire. This in turn, made the artillery spotters grinn as the immobile flanked target meant less chance to miss.

The massive warships finally turned and fired their cannons whenever as soon as they felt they were in the correct angle and range which caused those behind the fort walls to brace themselves for the attack before they retaliated back with the anti tank cannon fire.

In the meantime, the medium ships acting as troop transports started transferring the main bulk of the orcs troops from the massive warships to their end. By using the other side of their warships as cover to transfer troops, it would ensure the troops transfer be protected while the warships fired their cannons on the other side. After which, the medium ships charged together through the seas hoping to reach before they got hit by the goblin’s cannon fire.

—

“Woah, I can even feel the shockwaves from here.” Abdul praised the realism of this experience as he held onto the ledge when he felt the cannon shots hitting the fort wall.

“No kidding, and it looks like the battle’s just barely began and I already feel my adrenaline pumping.” Gupta agreed as he finished his chips. Both of them were highly anticipating for the orcs to enter the shore so that they could get into action.