Two days later, the flotilla had penetrated deep into the Gureg hinterland. Their destination was Shadow Steel, a small town near Nuren Tower, where the entire town's industry revolved around the huge Shadow Steel Mine, hence the name. The whole town is the property of Degen Mining Group, which recruited this group of workers across Thunder Ocean to fill the shortage of labor.

At this point, the fleet is about to reach its destination, and the whole fleet is starting to get busy. The laborers will disembark at Shadow Steel, and the fleet will have plenty of free slots to load some of the Shadow Steel to Nulent Tower. On top of that, the fleet's food and drinking water consumption is somewhat higher than expected, and some refueling is needed in Shadowsteel.

But these works were soon interrupted by a message from the bridge.

"We reported the information about our fleet to Shadowsteel, but they didn't reply. ”

As is customary, the fleet reported its identity and location to Shadowsteel and requested to dock, but the Shadowsteel towers did not reply to the fleet's communications. This situation is very common in small airports that are short of manpower and have chaotic management. However, the scale of the airport in Yinggang Town is not small, and it cannot be said that there is no poor communication between the tower due to improper management, but it is quite rare.

"Could it be a disturbance caused by mana fluctuations?" Scheer asked

The magic power of the New World is very unstable, and even if it does not form a magic storm, it will affect the effect of the communication spell due to fluctuations, and eventually the communication signal will be lost.

The liaison shook his head in confusion.

"The mana readings show no signs of large-scale mana fluctuations, but the corruption meter shows a bit of mana corruption in the vicinity. ”

Samuel frowned, there are a large number of mana corruption areas in the New World, even near human settlements, there are occasional mild mana corruptions, just a high mana corruption reading doesn't mean anything. However, if the mana reading shows that there are no large-scale mana fluctuations, it means that it is unlikely that the signal will be lost due to mana fluctuations. Then why didn't Shadowsteel bother with the fleet's contacts?

At this moment, an anxious voice interrupted the conversation of several people.

"Lookouts report large number of unidentified ...... detected at two o'clock"

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted, and the communication of the "Sledgehammer", which was at the forefront of the fleet, was connected:

"At two o'clock, high in the sky, a flock of skeletal griffins was spotted!

A terrible alarm immediately sounded throughout the fleet.

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Greg does not have wild griffons, and these skeletal griffons can only come from the griffon knights who have died in the various fleets. These air cavalry usually carry small alchemical bombs, which can be used to bomb ground targets or floating ships. Due to the generally good reliability of these bombs, many of them can still be used after the air cavalry has been killed and turned into undead. This makes the skeletal griffin and the undead air cavalry on its back a nightmare for passing ships.

Due to the fog, the fleet's lookouts had a very poor view. The number of griffon knights in charge of reconnaissance in the fleet was too small to do 24-hour non-stop reconnaissance, and this was the time when the skeletal griffons were found by the fleet, they were quite close to the fleet. To make matters worse, because the skeletal griffins flew at a much higher altitude than the fleet, the elevation angle of the firing at such a close distance was so great that the guns on the side of the board had lost their firing angles, and the fleet had to rely on the guns on the upper deck to protect itself.

Fortunately, the batteries of the flotilla were manned 24 hours a day, and soon after the alarm sounded, the batteries on the upper bridge began to fire. The skeletal griffons still retained their fighting instincts, and the moment they saw the flames at the muzzle of the cannons, they began to evade maneuver, but because they were too close, the cannonballs came in an instant and exploded in the griffons. None of the skeletal griffons were directly hit by the shells, but the fragments from the explosion of the high-explosive shells still smashed several skeletal griffins and the air cavalry on their backs into the air.

The extreme distance had two sides, and although it kept the griffons from having time to maneuver, it also allowed the griffons to get directly above the Twilight Kenner before the second round of shelling began, a dead spot for all the guns of the floating ship, and even the guns on the upper deck could not fire directly above. The other two ships in the flotilla were too close to the Twilight Traveler, and the griffons, although not directly above, had a very high elevation angle, exceeding the upper limit of the guns' elevation fire.

Fortunately, as soon as the skeleton griffon was discovered, Scheer ordered the crew on duty to grab their rifles and go to the deck, which became the last line of defense for the fleet. The skeletal griffons were now diving, ignoring the other two floats and concentrating all their forces on bombarding the Twilight Traveler. At this moment, their altitude relative to the Twilight Traveler is still too high to guarantee the accuracy of the bomb, and the Twilight Traveler has begun a serpentine evasion maneuver to avoid bombing, so these skeleton griffons are not in a hurry to drop the bomb, but maintain a dive posture and quickly approach the Twilight Traveler.

Like the infantry in ancient times who faced heavy cavalry charges, the riflemen on the upper deck were under great psychological pressure, but the combat experience accumulated over the years of sailing allowed them to overcome this instinctive fear and perform at such a critical moment.

The rifle's hits weren't too high at the current distance, but there were still a few skeletal griffins that were hit by bullets. The undead do not have all kinds of organs like humans and animals, so they have a lot less vital points, as long as they are not directly hit in the head, and other places are hit by bullets, it is nothing more than breaking a few bones, and since there is no blood at all, there is no possibility of bleeding to death.

But now the riflemen were not using ordinary bullets, but enchanted silver bullets specifically for undead creatures, the shells of which were made of silver and carved with a large number of magic patterns, which were soaked in holy water for several days before leaving the factory. The skeletal griffin and the cavalry on its back exploded immediately where they were hit by the bullet, and the milky flames from the explosion quickly consumed the hapless warriors of the air.

These lower undead have no full consciousness, let alone feelings, and the death of their companions did not cause them the slightest trouble. They always maintained the most ideal flight attitude, flew along the optimal path, and then coldly and accurately completed the bomb drop, and then turned around and detached from the dive trajectory to avoid directly hitting the floating boat.

The crew of the Twilight Swordsman sent a dense black spot and broke away from the skeleton griffin and fell to the deck, and the fear of death finally overcame everything, and the crew on the deck immediately scattered and fled, leaving discipline and honor behind. At this moment, the bombs falling from the sky were already approaching the Twilight Kente, and half of them skipped both sides of the Twilight Kente, but did not hit the target. About a third of the remaining bombs were not successfully detonated, and poor maintenance conditions had caused the fuses of these bombs to fail.

The remaining bombs were successfully detonated, but luckily the Twilight Kente's spell shield was successfully activated, keeping the explosions at a distance of about ten meters from the ship. But the dense bombs quickly destroyed the spell shield, and the remaining bombs fell straight onto the deck. At this moment, a transparent wall of light appeared in front of the bomb, successfully blocking several bombs before dissipating. It was Samuel's Wall of Force, the last line of defense for the Twilight Swordsman. About ten bombs had passed through the line, and at this moment the Twilight Swordsman was helpless.

In an instant, the bomb landed on the top deck, and a huge explosion resounded throughout the ship, and the wooden and steel planks on the deck were lifted into the air by the huge explosion, and a huge hole was blown into the deck. Two bombs fell into the hole and exploded inside the hull. The Twilight Swordsman was badly damaged. Fortunately, the keel remained intact and avoided the fate of volleying. But the overall situation was still very bad, and the bombing left two of the Twilight Kente's four magic furnaces damaged, making it impossible to continue working. In order to maintain the buoyancy required by the floating ship, the remaining two mana furnaces had to be overloaded, which caused the furnace to rise in temperature quickly, so it could not be maintained for long. The maintenance team immediately rushed to repair the damaged magic furnace. The rest of the crew was involved in fire fighting and damage management.

Fires, leaks of mana, damage to the hull, casualties...... There was enough of a headache, but the lookout reported another piece of bad news to Scheer:

"The skeletal griffins are back!"

The skeletal griffon, which had completed the bombardment, returned. Although all the alchemy bombs have been used, the Bone Griffin Knights themselves are also very powerful, the air cavalry itself is far more effective than ordinary infantry, and their mounts can easily shred the existence of adult male lions.

The deck was chaotic, and the skeleton griffons landed with little resistance, and the few crew members who tried to stop them soon died under the griffons' claws. The air cavalry on the back of the griffin quickly jumped off their mounts, and then leapt through the breach in the deck into the hull, the small and complex cabin structure of the ship did not allow the griffons to move, and the beasts remained on the deck until their owners returned.

As soon as he saw the movements of these undead air cavalry, Samuel instantly realized the other party's intentions. These undead were fully trained in ship attacks during their lifetimes, and it is clear that after their deaths, this expertise was not lost, but became part of their instinct. When the bombing failed to sink the floating ship, they followed what they had learned during their lives and went inside the hull to try to destroy key parts.

The boatswain in command had died in the bombardment, and now Samuel was the only one on deck who could command the remnants of the army. Fortunately, he had dealt with such situations several times during his years of military career, so he didn't feel flustered and overwhelmed like everyone else. With almost no brains, he gave the order:

"Don't get tangled with the skeletal griffins!