Chương 135: Tanking a Tsunami
Old Floyd had served in Gumina's army for more than 20 years. He had been present for many conquests, both by the King. How he served under the prince.
As a career soldier, when he got the signal from the Prince, he did not even think twice before executing it. It was all in his blood. He never knew why he was giving the signal, just following orders. The signal that he was to give was blasting his horn, which he did.
"So, it has come to this?" a wyvern rider high up in the clouds sighed when he heard the sound of the horn. He then guided his wyvern towards the sea.
The soldiers of Gumina had been instructed on how to react at the blast of the horn. They were told that a devastating attack would follow, so they were to immediately rush indoors. They had been assured that the attack would not get to them from the shelters.
All this was crap of course. The Prince had no intention of allowing any of them to survive to tell the tale of him tucking tail and running. He wanted them all to perish together with his enemies in one glorious tidal wave.
However, neither the wyvern rider nor the soldiers had my knowledge of his intentions, faithfully following the commands of their leader.
The orders were simple. He was to fly straight into the ocean and keep flying until he could no longer see the land on the horizon. After that, he added a few more miles for thoroughness before dropping the item he had in his possession.
Alabaster white and the size of a watermelon, this must have been a magical weapon of some kind.
Plop!
The item fell into the ocean right around the time Barda was confronting the Prince, just before he was thrust away by the rock.
It kept falling until it hit the ocean floor. The moment it did, a cosmic wave rippled from the ground causing the underground tectonic plates to stir.
This was the secret of this attack. The attack was not based on the Water Element but the Rock Element.
That being said, the effects were just the same. A massive section of the ocean floor violently extended upwards, causing a massive wave to rise from the ocean.
Looking back, the wyvern rider was shocked to see a wave the size of a mountain, dwarfing him and his beast.
As he opened his mouth to scream, he swallowed a gulp of saltwater as the wave violently swatted him and his wyvern off the sky like some mosquito. His death quickly following.
***
Watching as the sea receded, Barda had complicated emotions. His initial calm demeanor was gone. This was something he did not have an answer for.
By his estimates, he reckoned that the longer the drawback, the higher the intensity of the coming tidal waves, as the drawback served as a way of the wave collecting water to itself.
The shortest it could take for an ensuing destructive force would be less than a minute, which gave him 59 seconds from the moment he noticed to take action.
Reuze had tall walls, but they were never meant to handle a massive and relentless battering that a tsunami would subject it to. At the very least, it served as a form of defense.
Barda summoned his pegasus and got to work collecting the mages. If ever there was a need for a Battle Array, this was it.
There was no documented way of stopping a tsunami. It was a relentless natural calamity that one could not defeat, just deal with the aftermath. Barda guessed he did not afford that luxury, but he had magic on his side. His tech could not offer a solution here.
Much to Barda's chagrin, it took him almost 40 seconds to gather 70 mages, who set up a magical shield to reinforce the Reuzean wall. Barda felt that this was just enough to deal with the wave if it came in the first few minutes.
Having bought himself a few minutes, he took the time to gather all the mages in and around Reuze that were under his command and lined them up behind the wall. This was where they would set up the defense.
As part of the precaution, Barda made the new magical shield extend up to 200 meters high. This was even going extravagant, but he had to be cautious. He did not know what kind of power had been poured into the ocean.
The entire city was beyond tense. Seeing a sea recede was a scary phenomenon indeed. Many were already scared out of their wits.
What brought them little comfort was that Barda seemed to have a plan to get them through this. Gathering the mages was not lost on the Reuzeans. If he did rescue the city, he would be the hero.
As the minutes ticked by, many people were consumed with anxiety. The act of the ocean draining was not something many had ever seen, and this only added to their fright of what was coming.
Lord Abu cast a side glance at Barda, hoping that the man knew what he was doing. Up to now, he had not discovered what was happening, just that the ocean had begun draining. To where it was draining he did not know.
It seemed as though if this continued, they would not have an ocean anymore. Yet for all this, Barda had had them set up a magical shield. What good would a shield be if they lost the ocean entirely? He didn't think such a thing was possible, but he couldn't deny what was happening before his eyes.
Like many of the Grandmages and a few Pegasi riders, he was one of the privileged few that got to see what was happening beyond the wall. As a rule, Barda had ordered everyone to get away from the sea-facing wall.
Most of the ground forces had already hoped back into the ships, and several others were distancing themselves from Tristan. Since Barda had not bothered to explain what was coming, all they could do was speculate. Whatever the speculation, it did not board well for them.
All this while, Manga had been on the ship feeling very useless. As the commander, he couldn't leave his ship and join the fray. His work was giving orders and issuing commands.
The youth in him wanted to get his hands dirty in the fray. Even now, he wished there was a way he could help as he watched the mages with their hands lifted. Farther away, he could see the receding sea. That was when he saw it.
A massive wave was coming to the city. However, by good fortune, the wave seemed to dissipate, but the momentum of the water was unbroken, another just rose slightly taller in its place.
"Here it comes!" Lord Althalos shouted as a way of warning the mages that could not see beyond the wall. The next moment, a massive wall of water slammed hard against the Reuzean city gates.
Thing is, the wall of water dwarfed the city gates. Standing at 172 meters tall, the intensity of the Tsunami made extremely formidable, brimming with destructive force. If you consider that the taller the tsunami the more powerful and intense it was, then this was at the very top of the tsunamis.
Barda wondered if the wall would hold. It had taken a good 15 minutes to build up, so they were in for a long hour.
Every so often, a few mages would fall weak and blood gushing from their nose, showing they had reached the limit of their concentration. However, if more people continued dropping, then the wall couldn't hold it any longer.
The water level had risen to 189 meters, just a few shy of the height of the shield. Seconds ticked by as more and more waves came in, battering the already weakened wall even more.
Barda was going all out, 100% magical output. Barda estimated that the Magical shield was backed by up to 500 mags. Would it hold?
Just like that, an hour passed. Amazingly, the shield held even after the water level began to subside. A very exhausted group of mages slumped on the ground when the water was below the city wall level, having protected the city.
After such a magnificent performance, the residents of Reuze came out in droves to cheer and welcome the captors. The people they had chosen as allies had tried to eradicate them, yet help had come from the enemy.
Due to that moment, the Kingdom of Tristan was solidified. The dream of a united continent had been realized.
"A fitting end to the war," General Morio commented as he watched the wave go down. Just thinking of the number of miracles he had seen, he couldn't help casting a look of respect towards Barda.
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