Mythical Three Kingdoms-Chapter 1705 - 1626: Two Pursuing Fleets, Part 2
After Gan Ning and the other two activated Legion Talent, Gan Ning’s fleet showed a slight speed advantage over most of the seven fleets trailing behind them.
It must be said that Legion Talent is primarily used for battle, and it does enhance soldier quality. However, if there isn’t already an inherent boost in this area, the actual improvement isn’t significant.
Unfortunately, Gan Ning and the majority of the commanders of the seven fleets behind them belong to the battle-type Legion Talent. After activation, there isn’t much intrinsic enhancement for the soldiers. The slight advantage Gan Ning possesses can only be attributed to a minor cunning element within the Kushan Legion Talent, which makes its average level slightly weaker than that of the Han Empire.
"Hey, it looks like we’re quite lucky," Gan Ning laughed heartily. Only two fleets among the seven behind them could compete with their speed, while the other five were gradually being left behind.
"It’s not that much of an advantage; let’s retreat quickly. When it comes to the endurance of Legion Talent, I’ve never lost to anyone," Guann Hai said with a smile. In this regard, he was quite confident, having an experience of sacrificing oneself for a noble cause, and his will was much more resilient than most top generals.
"Perhaps not, but you’re right, let’s retreat first!" Gan Ning chuckled.
Of the seven fleets behind them, five had already fallen half a league behind. At this pace, in less than half a day, they would probably lose Gan Ning entirely. However, two fleets were maintaining a speed not inferior to Gan Ning’s ships.
One of them was the first to activate Legion Talent, ready to teach Gan Ning a lesson: Kasani. His Legion Talent was Infinite Stamina, limited only by his output caps. So, while he couldn’t push the ship to a fearful speed due to its quality, it was nearly impossible for Gan Ning to shake them off entirely.
The other fleet, naturally not falling behind in such a situation, was led by the Kushan Commander-in-Chief, Zhukashyapa, commanding a high-speed fleet. As someone who takes his country’s name as his last name and uses the Brahmin surname Kashyapa, it indicated his high status in the country.
However, before rising to this position, Zhukashyapa hadn’t even used his real name. Although Brahmins occasionally paved the way for him, his capabilities were no joke, possessing a solid Legion Talent.
His Legion Talent is the so-called Legion Lock, which directly locks onto a specific conventional attribute of either enemy or allied legions on the same battlefield, while also randomly gaining two other attributes.
These two random attributes might be the special attributes of the Legion Talent, but if locked onto the enemy, the additional attributes must be randomly obtained from them. Generally, the probability of simultaneously obtaining two special attributes of the Legion Talent is very low, while the likelihood of gaining two conventional attributes is quite high.
However, since they are randomly obtained, if the locked attribute is strength, and the random attributes are both strength again, it could be quite terrifying.
It can be considered a fairly decent gamble on Legion Talent. Zhukashyapa certainly locked onto the conventional attribute of Gan Ning’s fleet’s speed, which allowed them to keep up with Gan Ning, locking the speed so that both sides ran equally fast; although unable to catch up, they couldn’t be shaken off either.
Regarding the two gamble attributes, Zhukashyapa was lucky enough to land on Guann Hai’s legion talent’s special effect of overexertion, while the other attribute resulted in the slight endurance boost from Gan Ning’s Legion Talent.
Overall, capable of both fighting and chasing down, it was a good start for Zhukashyapa, who didn’t invest the Legion Talent again for another gamble.
After all, the attribute obtained this time was quite satisfactory, considering that Guann Hai’s Legion Talent was quite handy.
Even though Guann Hai used it for long-distance raiding, even Gan Ning, having witnessed it once, noticed a slight hint of its ends. Guann Hai’s Legion Talent fundamentally involves overloading bursts and enhancing tolerance.
Essentially, this is a Legion Talent that can burst out combat power beyond limits initially and then continue regular combat. Although it’s hard to fully exploit, it’s certainly a very practical Legion Talent.
However, Guann Hai’s intelligence, slightly higher than that of Hua Xiong, makes it not so easy to wield such an easily grasped Legion Talent to this extent.
As a day passed, Gan Ning was left with only two fleets behind him, as the other five fleets were out of sight. However, the trailing fleet showed no intention of stopping or retreating.
Even when night fell, those who had been exerting their Legion Talent for several hours couldn’t endure the tremendous consumption. Once Kasani was the first to cease outputting his Legion Talent, nearly everyone followed suit almost instantaneously.
Despite reaching this juncture, the two Kushan fleets clung to Gan Ning’s fleet like sticky candy. By that time, the exhausted Gan Ning had little strength to deal with the two fleets trailing him, and both sides could only move forward at a very slow pace.
Of course, the distance between the two sides remained at about five leagues, with no reduction at all. As for the two Kushan commanders, after pursuing for such a long time, they had to show a sign of respect towards the three at the front.
The immense consumption of Legion Talent; they believed they had an iron will and could only last several hours, but the three in front actually persevered just as they did.
"Kasani, are we still chasing them?" Zhukashyapa transmitted a voice to Kasani. He was also feeling hesitant now. Although he initially thought Qiu Lique was too cautious, he had to admit by now that his insight was indeed excellent.
"Are you worried too?" Kasani transmitted his voice back from afar.
"They’re not weaker than us!" Zhukashyapa said firmly.
"I feel the same, but if we give up now, I won’t accept it." Kasani responded with determination.
"Indeed, if we give up, where does that leave the face of our Kushan Navy?" Zhukashyapa silently transmitted after a moment, "Tonight, I will recover well, and tomorrow I will expend Legion Talent for designation."
"Alright, leave the battle to me!" Kasani, hearing the solemn tone of Zhukashyapa, also steeled his mind.
While they were having this exchange, on Gan Ning’s side, they were also discussing with Taishi Ci and Guann Hai whether to fight back the next day, crush the two fleets behind, and retreat to the Central Plains, as this would leave no loose ends. But even with the three having Inner Qi Manifestation, there was no assurance of defeating the two with Legion Talent.
In truth, this matter had become so significant that Taishi Ci also hesitated on taking further action. After all, it’s understandable, as a normal person wouldn’t have Gan Ning’s near-crazed sense of adventurousness.
Consequently, their discussions bore no results. When the next day broke bright, and the recovered trio of Gan Ning prepared to continue retreating north after activating Legion Talent, the Kushan fleet that had been tailing them without catching up suddenly accelerated and closed in.
Perhaps this time the Mandate of Heaven truly favored Kushan. Though Zhukashyapa had prepared for the possibility of failing even after three or four attempts, or after exhausting Legion Talent entirely, unexpectedly, by the second try, he randomly gained the movement speed and the special effect of Gan Ning’s Legion Talent.
Although it lacked the personal Inner Qi alignment of Gan Ning’s Legion Talent to maximize Inner Qi recovery, it was fortunate enough.
The speed, already at its limit, did not double with the second movement speed, which broke its original cap, but it increased by thirty percent over the speed at which Gan Ning was retreating north.
This thirty percent faster movement speed was deadly in the current environment. Under Zhukashyapa’s sudden speed surge, unbeatable for Gan Ning, within less than one quarter-hour, the Kushan fleet charged into battle range.
Both Gan Ning and Taishi Ci didn’t expect the battle to come so unexpectedly. Watching that ominous legion attack strike towards them with a seemingly overwhelming force, both Gan Ning and Taishi Ci had no further words, initiated their legion attack, and the slaughter commenced!
