Emperor of Steel

Chapter 676: Red Hawks Flying in the Sky 4

The chase went on continuing for about two hours.

The pirates were confident in their speed, but the Symphonia Navy ships turned out to be a lot faster than expected.

“Damn it, those Symphonia men aren’t getting caught!”

“Why are they so fast for a typical battleship?”

Specialized in assault and looting, the raiders focused on speed over firepower and were faster than battleships which had to hold shells.

It was because seizing the cargo was more profitable than destroying the merchant ships for pirates.

And the pirates were great on hand to hand combat on the deck.

However, the way the ships of the Navy were built, and despite guns on board, their speed was incomparable to the pirate ships.

It was because the ship was made with advanced magic engineering, and the magical steam engine was improved.

Even a magic circle was drawn on the sail so that even a little wind would be used to advantage.

“Oh my god, how long are we supposed to pursue it?”

“I want to fight quickly...”

The chase continued, which seemed to go on.

By the time the pirate’s patience melted away, the situation changed.

Suddenly, large and small rock islands and reefs appeared.

“Oops, stop!”

“Lower the sails!”

Starting with the lead pirate ship, the fleet began to stop in front of the reef.

“What happened? Why are they stopping the chase?”

Fernando, who was leading the main fleet, followed slowly and frowned at the sight of the pirate ships stopping.

Duke Nathan, who looked at the situation, seemed troubled.

“Your Majesty, ahead is Gregg island and the waters around the island are full of rocks and reefs.”

Whether a merchant ship or a pirate ship, they go around the reef.

And there were always reefs underwater, which were trouble for ships.

“If we move too quickly, we might get caught in the reefs. So it is better to safely bypass and pursue the...”

“The enemy ship went into the reef?”

At Fernando’s point, Nathan took the telephoto and looked at the enemy ships.

The Symphonia fleet was entering the reef without even slowing down.

Not even a single ship was stuck and they were moving rather steadily in that mess.

‘What? Do they know the oath?’

It wasn’t that strange.

Since it is their own sea region, it was possible for them to figure out the path in the reef ahead of time.

“Since they have entered, is there any reason why we shouldn’t go? Immediately send in the signal for the raiding ship to chase after them.”

“But... no, I will do as ordered.”

Nathan tried to object, but he soon changed his mind.

He thought that it was the enemy’s idea, but then they had a very huge size of the fleet and decided that dealing with the enemy wouldn’t be tough.

“But we will only pursue them with pirate ships. Like the last time, if the enemy uses torpedo, the damage will be great.”

“Yes, there is no need to take in damage. The other ships will bypass the reef.”

When the King’s consent was approved, Nathan immediately signaled the raid with a flag.

“Lord, Majesty has ordered for pursuit.”

“Go into that bloody reef, like this? I know that the enemy went in, but...”

The pirate lord who was leading the fleet ahead, instructed the captain to advance.

“Follow them! And catch up with them! Be careful!”

“Yes, understood!”

The captain of the pirate ship which was in the forefront yelled to the sailor on the mast.

“Look carefully at the path the enemy has entered and let everyone know! If the ship gets caught in the reef, the ship’s formation would break away!”

“Yes yes, don’t worry.”

The sailor diligently followed the movement of the Symphonia feet.

The ships moved into the reef with very careful movements as indicated by the sailor on the mast.

As the leading fleet moved, the other fleets which were hesitating in the back began to move after a momentary hesitation.

And when 300 pirate ships entered the reef.

Crack! Thuuddd! Bang!

Creak!

“Ohhhhhh!”

All of a sudden, the leading pirate ships rattled with loud sounds and halted.

In the shock, the pirates lost all their balance and fell on the deck.

“What happened? Did we get caught in the reef?”

“Yah! This jerk! Sailor! Where have you been watching?!”

The sailor, who was barely holding himself on the mast, shouted back to the men on the ship who were falling.

“I was looking straight at them! The enemy ship also passed this way!”

“Then why would our shop get... Woah!”

The captain’s eyes went wide.

It was because the pirate ships which were following them didn’t stop and came crashing.

“Ugh! Hold on!”

“Be careful everyone!”

Thud! Bang!

As the ships all stopped, a bottleneck opening occurred between the rocks.

The pirate ships were made with sails, and those who used sails for movement couldn’t suddenly turn or stop their boats.

In addition, the pirate ships in the center didn’t even have enough space to move if they wanted to, and they couldn’t help but move ahead.

Eventually, the ships ended up colliding with each other.

In that very instant, dozens of pirate ships struck each other, and the ships in the rear which had a little distance hurriedly turned left or right.

However, there were way too many boats hitting the reef.

“Yah you crazy bastards! Why did you suddenly stop!”

“It is because of you that it’s all...!”

The pirates on the crashed ships didn’t notice that there was a heavy submarine cable underwater.

The submarine cable, which was previously installed by the Symphonia Navy, was a mechanical device with a magic circle installed throughout the rocky islands, and it was discussed ahead that the cable would be left alone when the friendly passes, and then pulled tight for the enemy.

“Captain, water is coming in from the crashed spot!”

“Take a few sailors and stop it! What more can we actually do?”

The captain of the stranded ships was shocked when they saw small ships appear from behind the rocky islands.

The ships, which were slightly larger than boats, had Symphonia navy soldiers and wizards on board.

It was then that the men pulled the submarine cable.

“Kulkul, this is nice, those bloody pirates!”

“Wizard, let’s feed them another shot before we go.”

At the words of the rowing sailors, the wizards nodded their heads and fired magic attacks—Fireball.

There were 6 wizards who were in charge of the submarine cables.

The young wizards, who were on the edge of the 3rd circle tried together, sinking a pirate ship would be impossible.

However, the results were different depending on how the magic was used.

Pop! Bang! Bang!

“Ahh! Fire!”

“Quickly put off the fire!”

Six fireballs collided in the air and dropped in multiple directions.

The sparks struck to the sails on the ship and the places where the gunpowder was placed on the deck.

Shortly after, black smoke and flames soared all over the tangled up fleet.

Nearby, the pirates with their bodies on fire jumped into the sea.

“Kakkaaak! How was that... Ugh!”

Wheeing! Wheeing!

The Symphonia sailors who were cheering in, saw the arrows which were flying in from the rear and rowed in fear.

Several pirate ships that bypassed the submarine cable attacked them.

“Those bloody Symphonia men! They couldn’t even put up a nice fight...”

Thud!

One of the pirate ships which had just attacked, felt the ship rattle.

It got caught in the reef.

Small boats passed over easily, but the pirate boats were huge so they couldn’t avoid it.

“Kuakk! I will rip the skin from them!”

Another ship in the fleet was hit, and the angry pirate lord chased the boat with artillery and arrows.

Getting caught like that, he couldn’t help but grind his teeth wanting to kill them by torturing them.

However, the captain stopped.

“My Lord, there is no place to pursue. In a little while, the sun will set and the sea will turn dark.”

As the captain said, the sun was indeed setting and the sea was turning a lot darker.

Night sail in the reef was like jumping into fire blindfolded.

“Noisy! Can’t we just turn on the lights or whatever? Whether it was a torch lamp, use whatever we can!”

“B-but...”

Cang!

The captain who was trying to speak back, almost got his neck slashed.

“Understood. I will do as commanded.”

It was when they lit the lights and pursed them for some time.

A group of ships appeared in the dim light behind the rocky islands and fired at the pirate fleet.

Bang! Bang!

“Wh-what was that?!”

“Be careful, the enemy ships are firing!”

The captain, who was holding back his words because of the pirate lord, clicked his tongue as he knew this would happen.

To light up lanterns in the dark was like declaring themselves as targets.

Bang! Bang!

“Th-that!”

The pirate lord who was shocked with the turn of events, saw a huge arrow zooming down the mast on his ship.

The huge arrow was made from a log that shouldn’t have broken down the mast, but it crushed the mast and the mast of the next ship too.

“That seems like the Yemaek’s ship...”

The pirate lord was shocked at the words of an old sailor on deck, who had gone through numerous wars.

“Yemaek troops? Why would the southern continent appear here?!”

To get there from the Southern Continent, it would take almost two weeks to sail.

And that was the case with fast trading ships, and the general military ships would take much longer time.

“But lord, the ship which has a watchtower in the middle, is very much likely to be Yemaek troops.”

In addition, the log arrow that had just flown in was a cannonball or a Genera arrow, used in Yemaek.

“Damn it! Get rid of it quickly, whether it is Yemaek or Symphonia!”

At the command of the pirate lord, pirate ships fired at once.

However, the ships of Yemaek, which had shot, hid behind the rocky island again.

“Ugh! Those men!”

The pirate lord, who reached the end of his patience, dispatched all his ships to the back of the rocky islands.

And that was an obvious mistake.

It was because a strangely shaped ship that had a blade and a dragon’s head on their sails, appeared from behind the rocky island.

“Wh-what?! What is that turtle?”

The lord seemed flustered when the elderly man explained again.

“Perhaps that is the ironclad ship called—the Turtle.”

“Turtle Battleship?”

“Yes, the Yemaek has built a ship to prevent the Yamatai pirates from running around, but how are they...?!”

While the Grenada pirates were notorious for their acts in the Rhodesia continent, the southern continent had the famous Yamatai pirates.

They raided and plundered all through the southern continent, along with the Song Empire and Yemaek suffered the most damage.

Accordingly, Yemaek developed a special ship to counter the Yamatai pirates, which was the Turtle Battleship.

It was a decisive weapon that made the dragon’s head on the ship covered with wood, iron plates, and spear blades, making it impossible for anyone to get close to it.

Even the elder man on the ship heard about it, and that ship appeared in front of him.

“We need to turn the ship right away! That ship cannot be taken down...”

The moment the man on the deck tried to tell the lord, the enemy ships began to spew fire onto them from all directions.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

“Kuak!”

“Ugh!”

The artillery of Yemaek was considered to be the most powerful in the Southern continent.

When such a cannon blew fire from a short distance, the wooden ships broke down by throwing away debris from all the sides.

It wasn’t just that, the battleship went ahead and performed the collision, and killed the pirates on the deck by emitting flames and poison from the dragon head.

“Ahh! Save the people!”

“Do not step back!”

The pirates who saw what was happening, threw in ropes with hooks.

The problem was that they didn’t know where to throw in the hook.

And even if they were lucky enough to throw the hook, they didn’t have any solid groundwork on their broken ship to cross over.

Some of the brave pirates rode on the ropes, but they either fell into the sea or slipped.

“Damn, if you don’t have a path, set their ships on bloody fire!”

When it turned impossible for them to win, the pirate lords decided to fire back.

They shot fire or threw in oiled spears, but that didn’t work.

It was because the back of the battleships of Yemaek were covered with iron plates.

Eventually, even if the method was tried, it only extended the time and didn’t bring in any results, and made a mess for the pirate fleet.

In the meantime, the ships of Yemaek that were hidden, came back again and attacked.

The pirates, who went extremely disorganized, couldn’t respond back to any kind of assault.

As the damage kept on accumulating, they started running away.

But that wasn’t that easy either.

It was because they ran away and ended up getting caught by the submarine cable which was pulled between the reef in the dark waters.

There, the Yemaek and the Song Empire ships which were ready for ambush appeared and attacked, the aid fleet was annihilated within three hours after entering the reef.