Chapter 415: Section 203: Bombardment of the Golden Shiny (Part 2)
The Golden Shiny’s role was as an artillery ship.
In fact, it was also an experimental demon energy ship.
It utilized a concentrated light turret and a main light cannon tower, an assembly never before seen on other demon energy ships.
The Holy Bright Empire had only recently developed this type of beam cannon tower. Their mode of attack was very unique, vastly different from the conventional alchemy cannons.
Compared to solid alchemy bombs, the beam cannon held a very clear advantage.
It was fast, with contained power, very focused.
Therefore, the speed of light could pose a huge threat to high-grade life forms.
Take Hun Tong, for example.
The speed of the light was so fast that he couldn’t react.
The power of the light cannon was concentrated within a single beam, which Hun Tong failed to defend against, despite having already deployed defensive fighting skills.
But a single firing of the beam cannon severely injured him!
The purpose of testing the Golden Shiny and similar demon energy ships was precisely to empirically validate whether such uniquely designed demon energy ships could effectively counter high-grade life forms, posing threats, causing damage, and even delivering fatal strikes.
If successful in practice, the Holy Bright Empire would mass-produce this type of demon energy ship.
From this role, it was clear: the Golden Shiny prioritized offensive capabilities.
Secondly, in order to scout the enemy and accurately lock onto targets, reconnaissance capabilities also needed to be superior.
Following focus on offense and reconnaissance, the third focus was on cruising speed.
Alchemists had boldly designed the Golden Shiny as a flying demon energy ship!
Flying demon energy ships were extremely rare!
Demon energy ships were generally equipped with numerous cannons. After all, artillery warfare was a major theme in naval combat.
A ship without hundreds of cannons would hardly dare to leave the dock.
But these cannons were often very heavy, and while some alchemy cannons were very powerful, their weight was also quite formidable.
If the material of the cannon were poor, it could easily explode, posing a great threat to the ship itself.
Additionally, the weight of each solid bomb should not be underestimated.
The quantity of solid bombs in an ammunition depot was typically in the thousands. Having fewer than a thousand was considered insufficient ammo storage.
The combined weight of the cannons and bombs added up to a staggering figure.
Such weight made designing a flying demon energy ship challenging.
However, the concentrated light turret did not have this problem.
It fired beam bombs, which had no physical form. The weight of the turret itself was far lighter than a group of cannons.
Since it had such a significant advantage, it would have been a great loss not to design the Golden Shiny as a flying-type demon energy ship.
The ability to fly was extremely valuable.
Most armies did not possess the capability to fly.
Once the Golden Shiny entered the scene, Fishmen and pirates could only take hits. The cannons on either side of the ship could hardly raise their muzzles high enough to aim at the Golden Shiny.
At least a Golden Level fighter could fly.
In reality, only a few Golden Level fighters mastered the Flying Combat Technique.
Spellcasters could fly.
Fighters equipped with certain special artifacts could also fly.
However, in the process of flying towards the Golden Shiny, they would face bombardment from the beam cannons.
Flying had another advantage.
It significantly aided in increasing cruising speed.
The reason was simple—the resistance of air was much less than the resistance of water waves.
Because it could fly, the Golden Shiny’s cruising speed was very fast, far surpassing that of other demon energy ships of the same class.
After cruising speed came defensive capabilities.
The Golden Shiny’s defensive performance was relatively weak.
Since the focus was on offense, reconnaissance, and cruising speed, other aspects, including defense, inevitably became weak points.
On the other hand, the design for flight also limited the improvement of defensive capabilities.
Because the physical armor was too heavy, installing it greatly reduced the ship’s speed and flight altitude.
There were indeed excellent materials that could construct a ship’s hull that was both lightweight and defensively robust.
But doing so was not cost-effective.
That brought us to another major advantage of the Golden Shiny—
Cost!
The Holy Bright Empire developed these demon energy ships to serve the expeditions to the Wilderness Continent, protecting the long maritime transport routes.
The Empire was powerful and did not worry about large-scale battles.
They were confident in head-to-head confrontations.
What concerned them were enemy skirmishers, who continuously launched guerilla attacks, disrupting the maritime transport routes.
If the enemy adopted such tactics, it would be very difficult for the Holy Bright Empire to defend, and the protection cost was extremely high.
They had to deploy numerous powerful fighters to station at each node to ensure a certain level of security.
Thus, developing a demon energy ship like the Golden Shiny to protect the fleet, scout the seas, and counter the enemy’s strong guerilla attacks was a very worthwhile attempt.
Once successfully implemented, the Empire would mass-produce the Golden Shiny.
And for mass production, the main consideration was cost!
The cost of the concentrated beam towers was minimal, having achieved mass production.
When the Golden Shiny adopted these beam towers, it had already set a major tone for cost control.
So, those lightweight yet tenacious defense materials were basically out of consideration. They were nearly all expensive.
It is worth mentioning that the design of the Golden Shiny was exceptionally outstanding, compensating greatly for its weak defensive capabilities with a Golden Treasure.
That was the Spinning Light Disc!
The designers specifically engineered this component.
Normally, the light disc attached to the ship’s body, like a Dragon Scale covering, providing substantial defensive power.
It not only offered protection against physical impacts but also reflected and dispersed pure energy attacks to an extent.
The Spinning Light Disc could be used for offense as well as defense.
During an attack, these discs would fly out, circling in the air, able to disperse incoming beam cannon shots and form precise wide-range attacks.
Overall, the Golden Shiny was a magical flying ship with high offense and low defense.
Hun Tong kept it a secret until the late stages of the war for this reason.
And to precisely strike those pirate boats and intercept the treasures of Twin Eyes Island, Hun Tong directly released the flying discs.
The net of light beams created by the cannons stunned both friends and foes, achieving tremendous results.
But now a problem emerged!
Suddenly facing the bombardment of Golden Level cannons, Hun Tong had no time to retrieve those Spinning Light Discs.
Hearing the alarm, the Fishman Clan Leader was even more anxious than him, “Quick, dodge, dodge it!”
Hun Tong had previously stated that he would hand over this flying demon energy ship to the Fishman Clan Leader.
Could the Fishman Clan Leader not be anxious?
But being anxious now was already too late.
The next moment, the giant Fishman in the deep sea fired.
Golden Level Arc Gun!
Golden Level Python Flow Bomb!
Thick currents shot straight into the sky.
In an instant, the world lost its color.
A terrifying column of electricity left a scorching streak across everyone’s retinas.
Boom!
Even though the Golden Shiny tried its best to dodge, it was still hit.
A chunk of the hull, as large as a house, was detached from the main body.
A concentrated beam tower completely collapsed.
Flames burst forth.
Under the stunned gaze of onlookers, the Golden Shiny tilted from high in the sky, dragging a trail of black smoke, and plunged headfirst into the sea.