The World Dragon's Heir-Chapter 112: Airships Aloft

Over the next few minutes, the Techno Wizards finished their first round of orbs, and construction was paused so that the practical testing could be done after the charges were examined.

The cannons were loaded into the airships and mounted so that the crew could practice their drills with the new equipment, and the Techno Wizards split between the two airships, so that they could test more efficiently.

The ships were otherwise lightly loaded, with just the standard ration load, and a few crates of spare parts that were part of the ship’s emergency repair kit.

"Well, there they go. Do you think that it’s all going to work smoothly?" The Royal Guard asked Dominic as the pair of airships vanished up into the clouds.

"I have a good feeling about them. The one that I created works perfectly, even if we did have to compromise on the materials. Who knew that making iron was so much more difficult than making stone?"

The Guard laughed. "The closer to nature it is, the easier it is to make with magic.

Which seems a bit odd to say about Techno Magic.

But lightning and fire are simple. Wood is only a little harder, and any adventurer will look for a magitech orb to make firewood. Stone is a bit more difficult, but still not bad.

But Gunpowder, refined iron, or even a cut instead of an uncut gemstone? All of them take a talented magic user and a lot of skill to get right."

Now that Dominic thought about it, the [Create Munitions] spell that he was issued by the Royal Family when he was appointed as a Royal Sorcerer was the most difficult to cast of all of his spells, and that was just to create a handful of pistol rounds at a time.

The airships were up above the clouds now, and out of sight. But Dominic hadn’t heard any cannon fire yet.

They would naturally need to get somewhere that they could point the cannons at a safe spot, but there was a large lake south of Burton, so they might be going there.

No, that was over a hundred kilometres away, it would take them hours to get there with an airship. frёewebnoѵēl.com

Then the clouds flashed with bright yellow light, and the roar of cannon fire echoed over the city.

"What the hell are they doing? They’re right over Burton? Those cannonballs will land in someone’s field." One of the Keep staff complained.

Then a smaller volley of cannon fire responded, followed by another barrage, and flashes from a second location.

"They’re not test firing, they’ve encountered an enemy airship flying above cloud level." Dominic realized.

The Royal Guard was quietly counting to himself, and when he got to fifteen, the first set of cannons fired again, and a large glow marked the demise of the Dagos airship, which was now burning as it fell from the sky with its buoyancy lost and its compartment shredded.

"Natural Sons! Combat positions at the south wall!" Someone was shouting, and then pandemonium reigned in the Keep as everyone put away their daily tasks and prepared to defend the city.

The two Cygnia airships weren’t descending yet. Possibly, so that they could defend against more Dagos intruders who had hidden in the overcast sky. But the fact that they had made it here, nearly five hundred kilometres from the border, without anyone sounding an alarm was not a good sign.

The Cygnia military was not properly set up for defence against air attacks.

"Well, it’s a brilliant proof function, isn’t it? There were no actual cannonballs on either ship when they went up, so every shot that they fired was the result of the new Magitech Orbs.

Now, we can confirm to her highness that the plan worked, and the money was not wasted. Good work, Advisor."

Dominic chuckled. It wasn’t like he designed the things, he had just given them approval.

He should likely make sure that he actually had that authority, but it seemed like something that a Royal Advisor should be able to approve on their own, even if he had to repay any failures from his own pocket.

"It’s just a shame that we only have two ships in our local fleet. If my memory serves, Cygnia City has thirty ships for their naval blockade of the harbour." Dominic noted.

"That’s on the water. But I suppose that a ship is a ship, in some ways. If we had thirty fully armed airships, we could make a cordon over the whole region, the way that the Cygnia Navy can on the bay." The Guard agreed.

The first crippled airship had managed to slow their descent by jettisoning cargo overboard, but they were still crashing. Dominic’s sharp eyes could see that there were dozens of soldiers on board, and they didn’t appear to be paratroopers, or they could have jumped already to give the airship a chance to limp away.

As the crippled airship approached the ground, the Natural Sons’ Regiment began to fire, splintering wood and forcing the soldiers to take cover.

Then, more cannon fire erupted overhead, this time in two different directions.

"It looks like we’ve got a full-scale invasion going on." Dominic sighed.

"We do now, anyhow. Who knows if they were going to even stop here if we hadn’t shot them out of the sky." One of the platform workers added.

Dominic shrugged. "Well, as you said, we’ve got them now. And it looks like we’re winning the battle in the sky. I can see two more airships coming down, and they’re not ours. Perhaps eight cannons to a broadside is enough to take down the target. We just need more airships."

"Until the Dagos Army realizes that we’ve weaponized the sky."

That logic was hard to argue with. But until they realized what the Cygnia forces had done to make it possible, they were likely to end up with some horribly inefficient attempts.

It wasn’t that nobody had ever thought of putting large numbers of cannons on airships before. It was just that nobody had made it worth their time to try. Hopefully, the Techno Wizards were holding a magical barrier over their ships to keep them from being taken down by a shot to the flotation envelope.

They might have made them fireproof, but they were not cannon resistant.

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