Chapter 16: Overwhelming Victory |
The scorching sun hung high in the sky.
On the azure sea, six ships sailed as a fleet.
The pirate flag flew in the wind.
The flagship’s captain’s room.
The pirate leader, Da Zhao was slouching back, their legs on a desk as they contently looked at the scenery passing by his window.
His right hand men had a young woman serving to their needs.
“Wine.” Said Da Zhao.
A maid immediately prepared a cup and put it next to Da Zhao
Da Zhao opened his mouth, and glugged it down in two to three chugs.
Another maid immediately grabbed some roasted meat and put it into Da Zhao’s mouth.
Da Zhao took a firm bite, causing grease to drip down his full mouth.
He laughed heartily and firmly slapped the maid’s buttocks with his claw.
The maid trembled, but didn’t dare to yelp as she bit her pale lip in a desperate bid to clamp down her fear and continue to attend to Da Zhao’s needs.
Another maid shivered with trepidation.
These two mildly good looking women were from Stone Egg Island, and had been forced by Da Zhao to serve him.
It was enjoyable, while simultaneously frustrating.
Da Zhao had the Devil Claw bloodline, this bloodline caused both his hands to change into a pair of fan like claws.
Although the claws were strong in battle, they were far inferior to ten fingers in daily life.
Da Zhao even needed someone to help him uncork wine bottles.
“This time, I pillaged three months’ worth of Soft Heart Stone from Stone Egg Island.”
“If I also sell off my captives, I’ll have a handsome sum.”
“I also killed everyone else on Stone Egg Island. This kind of contribution must be reported.”
Da Zhao plotted internally.
Even he had his own superiors.
Thinking of that gigantic, mountainous figure, Da Zhao couldn’t help but feel his fierce heart chill.
Bang, thump!
Suddenly, a series of noises caused the flagship to violently shudder.
Da Zhao stared blankly.
Soon after, due to his past battle experience, he immediately jumped up from his seat.
“Begone!” He battered the maids aside, then kicked open the captain room’s door to go to the deck.
The deck was fine. Da Zhao gazed at all four corners, but noticed no enemies.
The pirates on deck were also surveying the environment, all of them tense.
“An enemy attack!” A pirate faintly shouted.
“Where is the enemy?” Da Zhao angrily shouted.
“In the ship, the enemy is on the ship!”
“They bombed the boats and attacked from the water.”
“Ah!”
More voices mixed with screams could be heard.
“The water?”
Da Zhao’s heart sank as he guessed, “Naga or fishmen?”
These two were aquatic species. The ocean was their domain, and when they attacked, the pirates were at the disadvantage.
However, just as Da Zhao was about to charge into the ship, he noticed the enemy was not naga nor fishmen.
It was an alchemy puppet.
It was humanoid, about 1.8 meters tall.
It held a sword and shiled, had an unusual cloud engraved into its armor of eastern imperial design.
Its eyes gleamed with red light, the tip of its sharp sword flickered with lightning, and its entire body emitted a silver level aura.
“A silver level alchemy puppet? There are two of them!” Da Zhao’s eye twitched, he sensed things were about to go terribly wrong.
“What are you people?” Da Zhao bellowed at the alchemy puppet.
The alchemy puppet did not respond as it rampaged about the ship’s hold.
The pirates charged, but their cutlasses, iron hooks, and other weapons clattered against the puppet’s body, leaving naught but white scratches.
The alchemy puppet’s strong defense caused the pirates to despair.
Not only that, but the puppet’s sword was also incomparably sharp, and paralyzed completely whoever its crackling tip hit.
The pirates were helpless against the puppet, while the alchemy puppet slew all those around it, each swing taking a life.
Da Zhao’s eyes burned with anger when he saw this.
“You lot of rubbish, get out of my way!”
“Fix the hold.”
“Send for help, find the others!”
The reason the alchemy puppet could get onto the ship was because an explosion had blown a hole in the hull, causing a massive amount of seawater to rush in.
Ordinary people were but fodder to the alchemy puppet. Bronze level pirates were also not its match, only iron levels could contend with it even a little.
Da Zhao had three iron levels in his crew.
He planned to call them all over.
“Yes, captain!” When the pirates heard the command, they hastily stepped aside.
Da Zhao activated his battle qi, stirring up a devilish wind as he threw himself at the alchemy puppet.
His devil claws grabbed the alchemy puppet, causing lots of sparks to flash across the alchemy puppet’s body.
The alchemy puppet first swung its sword, causing Da Zhao to dodge back, then lifted its shield and pushed it forward.
Da Zhao was forced back temporarily as he took three big steps back.
The alchemy puppet only took a small step back.
“Hard casing!” Da Zhao glared, though inwardly he was speechless, “This is no ordinary silver level puppet. Damm it!”
“One is already so troublesome, let alone two?”
“More crucially, where are their hidden puppeteers?
The puppeteers were in the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
It was the survivors of Mystifying Monster Island.
They had spent half a day pursuing Da Zhao and his men.
According to Zong Ge’s tactics, they would first deploy the swordsman guard puppets. Then they would use the Deep Sea Monster Fish’s Alchemy Arrow Spray to breach the ship hulls, allowing the swordsman guard puppets to charge in.
The swordsman guards were designed by War Merchant to protect the interior of the Deep Sea Monster Fish. Their performance was amazing, defying the conventions that bound any other silver level puppets.
The survivors had deployed most of the swordsman guards.
The pirate’s flagship was the main focus, thus two were deployed there.
While the swordsman guards continued their assault, the Deep Sea Monster Fish was not floating idlily. It continued to shoot alchemy arrows at the pirate ships.
Of course, the Deep Sea Monster Fish was not using its full firepower.
Only about a hundred muzzle holes were open, slowly firing at the six pirate ships equally.
Inside the cockpit, the magic image displaying the scene of pirate ships being shot by alchemy arrows shone. On the deck, pirates were seen fleeing, their casualties disastrous.
In the ship holds, the swordsman guards killed everyone around them while pursuing Da Zhao’s two iron level subordinates.
The only one that could fight back was the pirate leader, Da Zhao.
Even so, Da Zhao was still at a disadvantage.
“These puppets are so strong!”
“Ah, they were create by War Merchant after all.”
Lan Zao, Bai Ya, and the others exclaimed incessantly in surprise.
For this joint operation, the young captain had called everyone to the cockpit.
After watching for a spell, Zong Ge analyzed, “During this live combat test, it seems the strongest aspect of these swordsman guards is actually their defense. This is in line with their purpose: to deal with powerful enemies suddenly assaulting the ship’s interior and to give the crew time to respond.”
“On the other hand.” Bai Ya suddenly said, “War Merchant is a legend level character, why would he install a few silver level alchemy puppets in the ship? These are so weak compared to him.”
“Perhaps this alchemy ship wasn’t his main means of transportation?”
“It’s likely he gave it to his subordinate to use.”
“As a legend level magician, he has many means of teleportation.”
“Even if he is at the legend level, War Merchant was still one person. The Deep Sea Monster Fish is quite big, it needs others supporting it.”
Everyone provided their own conjecture.
Zi Di began to speak, “Almost done. The pirates have calamitous casualties, their morale is rock bottom, and there aren’t any more on deck.”
“I shall recall the swordsman guards.”
“We cannot currently fix any damage these alchemy puppets sustained.”
Cang Xu also spoke, “That’s right, most of their magic power is spent, their motions are beginning to slow.”
All of these alchemy puppet consumed magic power to move.
Said magic power came from the Deep Sea Monster Fish’s magic power reservoir.
Every so often, the Deep Sea Monster Fish would replenish their magic power.
But when deployed, they had no such thing.
In fact, one of the shortcomings of the swordsman guards was its high consumption rate in exchange for stronger performance.
“They’ve grown slow.”
“An opportunity!”
Da Zhao pounced on the weakness he saw.
He bit down on a pill hidden in his broken dentures.
After swallowing down the pill, his pair of devil claws were enveloped with a steel luster.
Battle skill – Riot Claw Dance!
Dao Zhao charged, his offensive growing stronger and faster. His two claws formed a shadow that covered the swordsman guard.
Tink, tinkle, ding…
A succession of metal chimes rung out along with splattering sparks.
This time, it was the alchemy puppet that was being beat back.
Another silver level puppet attacked.
Da Zhao ruthlessly grabbed a swordsman guard’s exposed thoracic cavity, and immediately destroyed its core.
The swordsman guard’s glowing eyes were immediately extinguished, and one of the magic images in the cockpit faded away.
The other swordsman guard seized the moment to backstab Dao Zhao.
Da Zhao screamed in pain as he rolled forward, but his injury was light.
As it turns out, his vest was silver level equipment.
Da Zhao returned to the fight and now held the advantage.
In the cockpit, the survivors were watching the course of events play out.
“Did he eat a magic drug?”
“They are pirates in the end, extremely vicious under pressure!”
“In the end, the alchemy puppet died, it was not as nimble as a person.”
“Yes, once one understands the pattern of its attacks and defense, they can quickly exploit it.”
“The strongest alchemy puppets have spiritual wisdom, with some as intelligent as humans.”
Cang Xu explained, “Those need magic for such things like waking constructs and installing systems. The price is very high, and will forever damage the magician’s spiritual limits.”
“Right, we’ve understood the situation. Regardless of whether it is the Soft Heart Stone stores or the captives, now is the time we should take to the field.” Said Zong Ge.
Zong Ge, the young captain, Tripleblade, and Cang Xu set out.
The rest stayed behind for the time being inside the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
The pirate flagship’s deck had no pirates on it, allowing Zong Ge and the young captain to easily board it.
Tripleblade and Cang Xu were dispatched to two other ships, one to rescue the captives, the other to protect the Soft Heart Stone.
When Da Zhao saw two silver level enemies appear, his heart iced over completely.
“I surrender, spare my life!” He shouted as he abandoned all resistance willingly.
The young captain and Zong Ge glanced at each other, then ordered, “Tie them up.”
Da Zhao stared blankly.
The swordsman guard stopped attack and stopped in place. It was unable to perform the meticulous movement of tying someone up.
“What are you staring at, you are to do it yourselves.” The young captain urged.
Thus, under Da Zhao’s guidance, the remaining pirates disarmed and surrendered, then helped bind themselves up.
The survivors had claimed total victory.
Not only had they obtained six pirate ships, but they also obtained a stock of Soft Heart Stone and rescued the captive fishermen.
“Escort them to Snake Rat Island, I believe the imperial law will give them a just punishment.” The young captain’s voice flowed with loathing.
“Are you bounty hunters?” Da Zhao guessed when he saw the youngster and Zong Ge were not wearing navy uniforms.
Zong Ge snorted coldly, he kicked Da Zhao to the ground, causing the latter’s cheek to flush. “Why did you massacre the fisher folk of Stone Egg Island?”
Da Zhao let out a cold breath, then to survive, he promptly shouted, “This was the order my superiors gave.”
“Rou Zang!”
“My leader is Rou Zang.”
“I was forced to, I had no choice.”
Zong Ge frowned, “Why would Rou Zang kill these people?”
“You don’t know? The Pirate Throne has manifested.” Said Da Zhao.
“What?” The young captain and Zong Ge went pale from shock.