The Eagle Rises in a new world

The Empire's Mistake(2)

Kingdom of Fenn, the waters off Nishinomiyako

The Papaldia Empire's imperial navy had 183 ships-of-the-line in their grand fleet of 284 ships. They were getting into combat positions to engage the 20 ships sent by the Russian navy.Their 100-gun ships-of-the-line came to the forefront;they were the pinnacle of Papaldia's technology and the apotheosis of their pride as a superpower.General Cius observed Russia's fleet from the deck of Papaldia's largest,strongest ship,the commander of this enormous fleet,the super-F class ship-of-the-line Pall.This flagship monitored the fleet from its center.

"Darda, do you think you'd win?" he asked the captain standing next to him.

"With this giant fleet and our latest ships-of-the-line,I don't think I could even lose against the Holy Mirishial Empire's famous Zeroth Magic Fleet. Strength in naval combat is based on both the quality and quantity of ships-of-the-line. We have a 183 of the best gunboats in the Third Civilization; there does not exist a fleet that can surpass ours. Even if the Russian navy's warships were stronger than ours,they have fewer cannons,and there are only 20 of them.They're helpless before our fleet."

Captain Darda had absolute confidence.

The fleet of ships-of-the-line poured as much magic power as they could into their Tears of the Wind God, filling their sails with wind and tearing forward through the waves.The Russian navy advanced with all their ships in a horizontal line.General Cius kept constant watch on the Russian navy.

He had never seen any ships as big as Russia's. They only had about 12 cannons,installed in 4 turrets.From the size,the cannon was probably similar to the gun turret found on Mu's La Kasami.Russia's ships also,just like in the magic pictures he'd seen of the La Kasami in the past, had no sails.

He had a bad feeling about them.

As far as aggregate firepower,their 100-gun ships-of-the-line had far more.

However...

"They're fast and Big."

The enemy ships' speed was well beyond their own sense of how fast ships could travel. If they were that fast, it would be rather difficult to hit them with their magic cannons.And their size,he had seen what Gra Valkas had and these ships could give the a run for their money.

"Well, it's the same for them..."

The Russian fleet was about 25 kilometers away from them.He started to feel tense.

"Hm?!"

He saw a light,then smoke coming from the mouth of the cannon on the closest Russian ship.

"The enemy ship fired!!!"

"But they're still about 25 kilometers way.Is this some kind of ritual or ceremony?"

"Are they trying to intimidate us, maybe?"

There was no way the cannon shell could reach this far,so General Cius and Captain Darda hypothesized about what the Russian were doing.

Suddenly,the foremost front 6,100-gun ship-of-the-line in the imperial navy flashed.

The shell fired by the 406mm Triple-mounted extra-range gun easily pierced the 6 100-gun ship-of-the-line's antimagic steel armor and sparked an explosion in the ship's magazine.The pressure from the explosion pushed outwards,pulverizing anything made of wood and escaping upwards through the deck.A magnificent pillar of flame blazed upwards,splitting the ships in half and sinking it.

"Multiple Ship-of-the-line has been sunk!!!"

They were dumbfounded...

"Wha... ho... how did this happen?!"