Chapter 621 – Messenger Fish

Zhao Hai doesn’t know that this seahorse wasn’t an ordinary seahorse, nor was it just an oversized version of it. This seahorse was actually a variant beast.

Whether it be on the Ark Continent or the Sea, magic beasts were always present. And some of these beasts were likely to become different from their own race, people call them variant beasts.

Magic beasts were generally wild beasts that would be able to use magic. But variant beasts were those beasts that had their own Divergent Ability. These two things were different, and naturally, their strengths varied.

Magic beasts would discharge magic through the magic crystal inside their bodies, therefore, they were called magic beasts. But variant beasts are different, they can still use magic, but at the same time, they can also use their Divergent Ability. Divergent abilities, compared to magic was much more formidable. Because of this, one would rather provoke an advanced magic beast rather than a variant beast.

These seahorses that Luo Ying and the others rode on were variant beasts!

They might look like giant fishes and were slow. But in fact, they were experts in water magic while at the same time, being an ice-type variant beast.

Variant beasts were certainly magic beasts, but magic beasts aren’t necessarily variant beasts. This was something that everyone knew. And Luo Ying’s mount were these variant beasts. They were very famous in the entire sea, their name was Ice Seahorse.

Although the name ice seahorse seemed very ordinary, the ‘ice’ part of it held gerat significance. In addition to their ability to do water magic, these seahorses also had an Ice Divergent Ability.

Whether it be offense or defense, the water element has always been inferior to the ice element. And this ice seahorse was a variant beast that can use both. Although their water magics weren’t strong, once they use it, their speeds would be greatly improved to the point that most magic beasts wouldn’t be able to catch up to them. And on the other hand, their Ice element ability was on of a kind, it was the Ice Cone Spell!

Their water magic would act behind their bodies and act as their propeller, making their movements much faster. In addition to that, their ice cone spell would make an ice spear appear in front of them. Not only are they fast, their attacking prowess was also very strong. This gave the ice horses the nickname fiery ice cone beasts.

The name fiery ice cone beast didn’t mean that they can also use fire element magic. This just meant that whenever these seahorses use their maximum speed, it would seem like they were blazing their way through everything. These kinds of beasts would give any Fishman a headache.

Zhao Hai curiously looked at these huge ice seahorses. But he didn’t say anything as the blade scale whale headed towards the battlefield along with Dashan and Luo Ying’s group.

Before long, the group arrived at the battlefield. At the moment, there were a lot of floating corpses present, but these Fishmen didn’t do anything about them. One must know that water always flows, and it wouldn’t take a long time before these corpses would get swept away by the sea current. This was also why Zhao Hai chose to come at this time, he didn’t want to miss the chance of acquiring these corpses.

The Fishmen didn’t have the custom of burying their dead underground. On the contrary, their burials would most likely involve the sea itself. That meant that when a Fishman dies, their kin would use a large sh.e.l.l as a coffin and then just let the sh.e.l.l go and have it slowly drift away. But if they couldn’t find a big sh.e.l.l, they would just place the corpse out there and wait for it to be taken away by the current.

This didn’t mean that the Fishmen were disrespectful to the dead. In fact, it was the direct opposite. The Fishmen highly respected the dead, they just think that since they lived their lives at sea, then after they die, they must return to the sea once again. It was because of this philosophy that they used this way to bury their dead.

These Fishmen also knew that once they let their kinsmen go and drift away, they would certainly become food for the magic beasts. But they still allowed it because they believed that the magic beasts of the sea were beings that were given to them by the Sea G.o.d and thus, were part of the sea.

On the battlefield, the Fishmen were doing the same thing. In their view, dying in this battle was akin to being buried at the sea. So there was no need to collect the dead corpses.

Zhao Hai gazed at the floating corpses. Although the contact between the two sides wasn’t long, the casualties couldn’t be described as small. In that short skirmish, there were already about a thousand dead people.

Zhao Hai turned to Luo Ying and said, “General, the bodies of your soldiers, can I use them?”

Luo Ying looked at Zhao Hai and nodded, “Mister, if those soldiers that died knew that they had given us help and had reduced further deaths, then they would certainly be able to rest in peace.”

Zhao Hai looked deeply into Luo Ying. He discovered that Luo Ying was really a qualified general. She was a commander that had a soldier’s heart, only such a person was qualified to be a good general. Only such a person could make soldiers and officers sacrifice their own lives for the greater purpose.

Then Zhao Hai turned his head back to the corpses and waved his hand. A black gas surrounded those corpses before vanis.h.i.+ng along with the dead bodies.

Zhao Hai thought that these Fishmen wouldn’t want to see undead at this time. He knew what expressions these Fishmen would give after seeing one. If he made these Fishmen see a pile of skeletons, then their morale would certainly suffer a huge hit. And at this point in the war, morale was extremely critical.

When Luo Ying saw that the corpses vanished, she looked at Zhao Hai, confused. Zhao Hai turned to Luo Ying and then smiled, “General, no need to worry. I have already stored the undead. I’m afraid that revealing those undead at this time will have a huge toll to the troops’ morale.”

When she heard Zhao Hai, Luo Ying couldn’t help but nod. She was somewhat amazed at Zhao Hai. She didn’t expect that he would have such a consideration at this time.

Then Zhao Hai looked at the Fishmen and said, “General, if the enemy is coming back, then I might as well stay here. What do you think?”

Luo Ying gawked, she didn’t expect Zhao Hai to take the initiative and volunteer himself for combat. But she still shook her head and said, “Mister doesn’t need to worry. Wars will always be like this everyday, the enemy just wants to grind our numbers down. I want mister to observe for two days while collecting more undead. After that, we can defeat the other party in one fell swoop.”

Zhao Hai stared, then he nodded and said, “Alright, then I’ll listen to the general’s arrangement. If general has any need for me, then don’t hesitate to tell me.”

Luo Ying nodded, then he led Zhao Hai and the others back to the Azure Dragon Snail. After arriving inside the snail, Luo Ying immediately called her officers over as they began to disperse Dashan’s reinforcing army into different divisions.

Originally, Zhao Hai wanted to return to the blade scale whale and then go to the s.p.a.ce. But when he saw that Lizzy and Megan were intently looking at how Luo Ying was managing things, he decided to stay.

Before long, the army that Zhao Hai came with was already dispersed to various groups. At the same time, Luo Ying also gave a command to be in full defensive mode. She thought that since the other part already had attacked for a few times, then it was time for them to launch a huge attack. So it was better for them to be prepared.

Zhao Hai carefully observed how Luo Ying divided the troops. He had discovered that although the army was arranged in a cubic matrix, each cube was also comprised of four smaller cubes. One of these smaller cubes had Turtle Fishmen or other defensive Fishmen in them. Another small cube was comprised of long ranged offensive Fishmen, some of them had long reaching attacks while some were those who were able to use long ranged magic. Another small cube was composed of melee attackers, mostly comprised of physically gifted Fishmen. On the last square were the support troops. The role of these troops were to support the other Fishmen while at the same time be the ones to have contact with the central command.

These four small cubes comprised the bigger formations. Some bigger formations were even part of a much bigger formation. This was the composition of their unit. Moreover, this method can allow them to be flexible to whichever command that was given to them.

Another thing that surprised Zhao Hai was their handy way of communicating. In order to relay orders, the Fishmen were using these small messenger fish.

These messenger fishes were very special beings of the sea. Their bodies weren’t big, in fact, they were quite small. However, their swimming speed was very quick. Moreover, they can also be easily trained. Most importantly, these fishes were able to transmit information to each other. Even if two fishes were far away, they can still send forth a special signal towards one another.

The Fishmen uses this ability of the messenger fish to send message towards one another. Their messages were in code as well, and were made so that the message would be received at the shortest amount of time and at the safest way. If one doesn’t know the secret code, then even if one has a messenger fish, then they still wouldn’t know what the other party was saying.

Upon knowing this, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but think about his time back on earth, when he was watching a movie on the television. Both sides of the line were using telegraphs, which was naturally a more primitive version of the mobile phone or even the telephone. But in the Ark Continent, this discovery was still a very huge thing.

Zhao Hai became very interested in this fish, so he expressed his want for one of them to Luo Ying. He immediately sent one to the s.p.a.ce so that they can multiply. Although it didn’t upgrade the s.p.a.ce, its ability improved Zhao Hai’s way of communicating with the s.p.a.ce.