The Man Called Demon Lord in Another World Has Returned! - chapter 10
Chapter 10: Punitive Action 1
At the Capital Defense Headquarters in Agaria, the royal capital of the Agataria Kingdom:
“Multiple flying objects detected. Rapidly approaching the capital from the south-southwest. Likely airships. Neither our country nor neighboring nations possess this many airships.”
“Royal Guard Dragon Riders, scramble to intercept. Direction: south-southwest. Altitude: 1000. Hurry!”
…
“All Royal Guard Dragon Riders, take off!”
Led by the squadron leader, 60 dragon riders of the Royal Guard took to the skies, heading south.
Quickly ascending, the dragon squadron immediately formed a wedge formation, aiming southward. The targets were already visible, dozens of airships appearing like sesame seeds, gradually growing larger.
The lead rider waves a small red flag twice, signaling for a simultaneous dragon flame shot.
With a roar, 60 flame shots are fired from the dragons towards the center of the airship formation.
As the airship group continues straight without any evasive action, many flame shots hit and explode, but the black airships continue flying as if nothing happened.
The squadron leader sharply waves the red signal flag once. This is the signal for individual combat.
The dragon riders spread out, challenging the black airships.
A single dragon lines up a shot on an airship. As it accelerates to fire a flame shot at point-blank range, the upper half of its jaw is blown off just as it opens its mouth to attack. The dragon, instantly killed by the loss of its head, plummets to the ground, taking its rider with it.
The first airship to enter the capital’s airspace was shaped like a flattened cigar. Several dragons, aiming to attack from above where the projected area is larger and speed increases, gain altitude to dive-bomb the airship. As they approach within 100 meters to unleash their flame shots, each dragon has its head blown off before it can fire, falling from the sky. No visible attack from the airship can be seen. It’s truly an invisible assault.
If one could observe the airship’s nose closely, they might occasionally see a soft ball-sized orb of pale orange light. When this orb of light vanishes with a “poof,” a nearby dragon’s head explodes, and it plummets.
This is one of the airship’s attack methods: Tele-Explosion.
It’s a magical attack that compresses a spherical air mass about 2 meters in diameter to about 10 centimeters, then teleports it inside the target, destroying it from within. The gas, compressed to 1/8000th of its original volume, reaches a pressure nearly 8000 times higher, and due to the rapid compression, becomes a high-temperature air mass that glows.
This explodes inside the target. The affected area is pushed outward from within while being subjected to high temperature and pressure, instantly going through the processes of melting, boiling, and vaporization before spectacularly exploding. As the compressed air mass returns to its original volume and pressure, it rapidly loses heat, freezing its surroundings and further expanding the damage.
To defend against this attack, a magic circle for spatial magic defense is necessary. However, such magic circles are extremely complex and large-scale, typically being stationary installations that can’t be equipped on flying creatures like dragons.
During this time, the number of dragons in the sky has dropped below 10.
With the squadron leader already shot down, the surviving vice-leader abandons the attack, slowly waving a white signal flag to urge his comrades to retreat.
Before noticing the retreat order, three more dragons are shot down. The six surviving dragon riders escape, heading not for their barracks in the royal castle but for the training grounds east of the capital. The surviving members would later think this was a good decision.
The 24 small airships that easily entered the capital’s airspace spread out, searching for and attacking anti-air defenses as they find them. The castle’s defenses consist of several ballistae, a few glowing blue defensive magic circles, and what appear to be several mages sporadically launching fireballs and the like. These are silenced by the small airships as soon as they’re discovered.
Having swiftly destroyed their targets, the small airships now simply fly around the royal castle airspace at will.
Soon, eight large airships enter the airspace above the royal castle towering in the center of the capital from the southern sky. These new airships are shaped like a horizontal boomerang – a flying wing design. The first four open the hatches of their bomb bays, scattering small bombs over the royal castle.
As countless bombs detonate in flashes of light, the stone walls and towers of the royal castle are destroyed with thunderous booms and rumbles.
After dropping their payloads, the four aircraft turn and return to the southern sky.
The last four large airships enter the castle airspace and similarly scatter small bombs.
As these bombs detonate, this time flames spread rapidly.
Having completed their bombing run, these four aircraft also leisurely turn and head back to the southern sky.
The group of small airships circling the castle airspace also eventually return to the southern sky, leaving behind only the smoldering ruins of what was once the symbol of the capital, Agaria – the royal castle.