Chapter 444: Encountering Loask's Group

Acting under Ed's suggestion to part, and Var Agus' orders to set sail, the lizardmen of the unnamed tribe sailed towards the direction they believed the Mensch people had escaped towards.

Most of the tribes that belonged to Mensch were not new tribes. They were tribes taken over forcefully and this unnamed tribe under the banner of the mushroom god were refugees from these forceful takeovers. They knew where their tribes were.

"They could have headed diagonally in that direction" "I think they headed straight towards the left though…" "Both are wrong!" Still, pinpointing the enemies' location solely on this was impossible. There were clashing opinions.

Ed who was also on the ship with A using the cage and puppet method couldn't help but comment inwardly.

'I bet there isn't any logic behind going one way over another' These lizardmen just wanted to revisit their old village. From what Ed could tell, they should just pick a direction and go with it.

Splitting up was also not a bad idea, and Var Agus shared the sentiment.

"How many are we? Let's- Hold on, headcount!" Var Agus shouted from the flagship. He wanted each ship and their captains to count their crew members.

The counting went down and the end result was 40 lizardmen. Any other missing lizardmen refugees were left at the caverns at home due to the limited amount of boats. 

Ed did make some extra single cannon boats before returning to the marshlands, in theory there should have been room for more. Yet currently, the number of ships did not surpass 8 which was the number Ed first created in the orc plains. The extras clearly went down in the deadly battle.

"Did you count in the prisoners?" Var Agus asked. They also took in a couple of prisoners since killing all the Mensch lizardmen would not be very smart. Practically all the tribes in the floor were from Mensch now, or had been at some point.

Killing most of their population was not a smart idea at all. As they had just proved in the battle against the hydra, their numbers could fall at the drop of a hat. The lizardmen were only B-class at most and more often than not, at the lower end of this spectrum.

Ed wasn't too worried about this though. He knew that in the worst case scenario, where all the lizardmen on the floor died, the dungeon would just spawn new ones. The only thing stopping the dungeon from doing this was energy conservation.

""We counted them"" "Yeah, we got the prisoners" Receiving his response, Var Agus now knew the 40 lizardmen did not translate into 40 lizardmen capable of battling on their behalf. On the contrary, freeing the prisoners for help could mean getting stabbed in the back.

After some careful pondering, Var's eyes flashed past everyone and the boats present. He was calculating the best course of action. In the end, he found that although risky there was only one choice.

"We'll leave two boats here, this will be the rendezvous point" They had barely even sailed out of the Mensch village so it was a nice common point.

"Two ships will go diagonal left, another diagonal right, and finally the flagship will sail straight" The combat strength was being sacrificed in favor of expanding their search range.

'Basic stuff but good' Ed was secretly assessing if Var Agus was fit to have him dump all of his work onto him.

'With the boss of this floor defeated, there has to be a new one. Or I will need to head to a new floor' The dungeon didn't teleport Ed when it wanted him to protect a certain spot. What did that mean? The dungeon's only means of shifting him around was to make him switch bodies.

With each new floor, Ed needed to build up his strength. Having him do it early was better than later.

'This floor is a perfect example' Ed almost failed to defend it from the sage of space. As for why Ed came to this conclusion, it was obviously because he needed help from another floor.

The dungeon's great idea of making him a mushroom was partly to blame but…

'I can't pin it on that entirely either' Looking at the end result, for a single lizardman, the odds of turning the tide of battle would have been slim. That was to say, assuming he was a lizardman instead of a mushroom, he would probably not have gathered the refugees.

'My identity as the mushroom god is what got me here' Ed firmly believed that if he was a lizardman, he would have spawned out in the wild or some village. If he was near Mensch then maybe he could have stopped Eon to begin with.

If he wasn't near Mensch though then not only did Eon get a free pass, but Ed would fail to get the help of the refugees.

'Looking at it again, Var's and their help seems quite limited' Sure they had combat power but how much? Were they really strong enough? The answer was no. What made the difference were the ships which he wouldn't be able to man as a single individual.

Whether he would come up with the ships as an individual lizardman would already be up to question. Sometimes, limitations gave rise to creativity.

While Ed did some reflecting, the flagship sailed closer and closer to what they presumed would be the edge of the world. Of course, this also meant they left the other ships.

"I was always told the world is flat" Var Agus muttered as he took in the vast swamp waters. This implied that they had an end which Var Agus was looking forward to seeing. Would the boat fall off the world?

Before this could happen though, someone saw something.

"Is that… a ship?" Kouzzo, the divine blood warrior of mole, asked with some confusion. He was positioned at the front of the ship's deck and had the best sight. What were the odds that some other lizardmen invented boats in the vicinity?

"Enemies?! Did someone return?!" Var Agus narrowed his eyes before asking. If it was just one then maybe someone chose to surrender but...

Though hidden by the foggy horizon, Var could make out new silhouettes. As they draw nearer, they could clearly see the ships and their users.

These canoes had the same design as the Mensch tribes', the identity of the unknown group was made clear! It was lucky for Var and the others, no doubt these people were their target.

As the boats sailed closer, however, Var realized something was wrong. The boats were all occupied by well-equipped lizardmen.

"How can that be…?" These lizardmen shouldn't be so well-equipped after fleeing in a hurry. Most of the lizardmen shouldn't be warriors either.

'These must be the reserves' Or just a group that was on a separate mission. Regardless of the explanation, all Ed knew was that there were enemies.

"Everyone in positions! Fire at will!" Var Agus snapped out of his stupor and commanded. They seemed rather outnumbered when compared to the enemy, but their naval power was significantly better than the enemies'.

The cannons on the boats let out deafening roars which shook the vessel but best of all, destroyed the target.

"ARGH!" A boat was sunk with a single lucky cannonball.

"Sp- Spread out!" Loask, the captain, shouted to the canoes. They all agreed this was the best course of action and planned on doing just this but…

A mortar round shot off into the sky, on its descent, it blew up into smithereens. This was long before any contact was made, this was a shrapnel bomb!

Shrapnel rained down at the separation lizardmen causing many deaths in the blink of an eye.

"WHAT!?!" This made the local tyrant and captain dumbfounded.

"THAT DAMNED TRAITOR!" Loask cursed out the lizardman that came to ask for their help. Why? That was because he suddenly realized the difference in strengths!

Within nothing but a couple of shots, the difference between the two sides was immediately revealed. But… Loask  was a talent! He was convinced of this much. He was the rising star of his tribe at one point and he still carried on their hopes.

"Into the water!" Loask suddenly shouted coming up with only one solution.

Var Agus who managed to make out Loask's loud shout made a deeply confused expression once he saw all the lizardmen jump into the water. It was true that they were lizardmen and could travel swamp water rather well but what made them think that'd work in such shallow water?

While the water could reach the depth of one, or in some areas two lizardmen, such a depth was nothing compared to the hydra's lake. There was still room for an injury from cannonballs and explosions in the current waters.

Fleeing under those circumstances was… Wait fleeing?!? The enemies definitely all jumped in their direction!

"They are getting close, prepare for close combat!" The spears compartment was opened up and spears started to rain down on the water. The cannons were too close to be fired safely at this point.

But even with these measures, before Var Agus knew it, the lizardmen of Loask were knocking on their ships with their spears wanting to be politely let in. Of course, Var Agus denied this request.

"Ram them!" There was still the mostly unused feature of their ship, the turbo!

Loask who was just about to climb up onto the ship from the side was knocked silly. The large wooden ship had a sudden burst of speed! Not just that, but those near the magical propellers were killed by the surprise attack.

"WHAT. IS. GOING. ON?!?" Dizzy and deeply confused Loask uttered these words.