Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Chapter 175 – 72 Boarding
Pirates on the inland seas would tell each other that there were three things on the high seas that were the most terrifying:

sea fortresses equipped with heavy artillery, wind blowing from the bow, and oar-sailed ships during windless conditions.

There was actually an implied meaning in this saying, although oar-sailed ships were fearsome during windless conditions, they were only really feared when there was no wind.

That’s because large sail ships would be immobilized during windless or weak wind conditions.

But if there was a good wind, then the oar-sailed ships were nothing to fear.

On the quarterdeck of The Revenge, Drake swung his cutlass and bellowed commands, “Lower full sail! Move with the wind!”

At least a quarter of the cannons hit their target, and the sailors on The Revenge could even vaguely see the mist of blood spewing from the enemy ship.

However, the oar-sailed ship closing in seemed like a monster impervious to pain, unaffected, with the rhythm of its drums not faltering, only growing louder.

The drumsticks struck not only the drum skins but also the fragile nerves of the pirates.

The Golden Lion made its final sprint.

The helmsman on The Revenge put all his might into pushing the helm while sailors climbed the masts, cutting the ropes directly with their cutlasses without bothering to untie them.

All the sails were unfurled on the three masts, catching the full wind, and The Revenge began to accelerate.

Trying to intercept The Revenge, the Spire missed its target, and the ships dangerously brushed past each other, with the Golden Lion almost colliding at full speed with the side of The Revenge, getting within three or four meters at the closest point.

Now, The Revenge had turned to starboard of the Golden Lion, where the firepower was weakest.

And the Golden Lion had fallen astern of The Revenge, where the heaviest artillery was located.

Drake sprinted to the interior of the quarterdeck, gathering all his gunners there.

Under the stern yelling of the master of rigging, the pirates on The Revenge frantically reloaded the stern cannons.

The tables had turned, the prey had become the hunter, and the wise move should have been to maintain speed, to pull away from the enemy by moving in opposite directions.@@novelbin@@

But Spire, his vision red, refused to give up. Under his command, the oarsmen on the right of the Golden Lion rowed forward, while those on the left rowed backward, turning the oar-sailed ship with a small radius on the water and continuing the relentless pursuit.

With shouts, the sailors raised two triangular sails. The oar-sailed ship had not only oars but sails as well. With the addition of two more sails, the speed of the Golden Lion also began to increase.

“Captain! We can’t chase any longer!” Seeing the situation spin out of control, the first mate of the Golden Lion, who was supposed to be on the quarterdeck, left his post in desperation and rushed into the forecastle, “The wind is too strong, even with sails, we can’t catch a full-rigged sail ship…”

He hadn’t finished speaking when he was interrupted by the thunderous cannon fire from The Revenge.

A cannonball skimmed low over the forecastle, boring into the rowers’ benches. The thirty-two-pound cannonball knocked down a row of rowers after gliding halfway through them before smashing a large hole in the wooden hull.

In an instant, screams of agony filled the Golden Lion.

“Good shot! Reload quickly!” Drake pulled out a Gold Coin and rewarded each gunner on the position with two apiece, causing the surrounding sailors’ eyes to bulge with desire.

Drake, now invigorated, raised the Gold Coin in his hand and asked the surrounding sailors, “Want it?”

The sailors greedily eyed the gold in Drake’s hand, and nodded vigorously.

Yet, Drake raised his hand and threw all the gold coins through the gun port into the sea.

The sailors gasped, but Drake snarled, “You bunch of wastes! What’s this bit of gold? Blown on a bottle of good wine, a couple of wenches, then you’d still have to come back to scrub the deck! Ever seen the finest whores in Golden Harbor? Big tits, big asses, but faces like the Virgin Mary! Have you wastes ever been with one?! Can you afford it?”

The cabin fell silent, with only the heavy breathing of the sailors audible.

“I’m taking you lot to earn not this small change, but big money! Money beyond your wildest dreams!” Drake shouted hysterically, “Money enough to last a lifetime! Money to take as many whores as you want! Win this battle, take the Venetian ship, sell it off, and I’ll lead you to buy all the booze in Golden Harbor! Now, man the cannons and blast those Venetians to hell!”

The pirates roared back to their stations, red-eyed, exerting twelvefold strength to clean the barrel and reload the ammunition.

“Captain, we can’t chase anymore! If we go forward, we hit the fireships! This ship has been driven off the battlefield; it’d have to take a long way around to rejoin the fight. Let’s pick another target!” The first mate of the Golden Lion wracked his brains to find an excuse for Spire, trying to convince the stubborn captain to give up his current prey.

Another succession of heavy cannon shots rang out, narrowly missing, and shooting up several meters high water spouts.

Everyone on the Golden Lion heard a “thump” from below the waterline, as if the hull had been hammered hard.

A cannonball had struck the hull below the waterline, and the sailors listened in terror to the noise below the deck, but nothing happened, as the cannonball failed to penetrate and was repelled by the hull.

If the cannonball had been a little faster or the angle a bit sharper, the Golden Lion would have had a large hole below the waterline, and everyone would have had to abandon ship.

They were lucky this time, but could they be this lucky again?

Spire punched the bow gun, “Trim the sails, turn right, we’re going back!”

The first mate received the order and immediately ran to the quarterdeck.

Spire glared at the flagship of the Tanilia fleet, his eyes filled with unwillingness to give up.

Just as the first mate was about to change course at the quarterdeck, he heard the captain from the bow roar, “No turning! Charge straight at the enemy ship!”

The first mate looked ahead and saw a terrifying warship emerge from the fiery sea and thick smoke.

Its sails were adorned with fire serpents, its prow topped with flames, like a warship returned from hell, charging straight toward The Revenge.

Nalesho stood at the prow, his features contorted, howling, “Raise the desperado’s flag! All hands prepare to board!”

On the mast of this fiery warship, a huge red triangular flag was hoisted.

It was the red flag once raised by the “Sea Beggars” of Venetia when they made surprise attacks on the Empire’s supply ships.

This was the red flag hoisted by the nascent Venetian navy as it charged toward the madman Richard’s fleet blockading Guidao City.

This battle-worn, tattered red flag, riddled with bullet holes and scorched marks, was the Venetian navy’s relic, a privilege solely reserved for the flagship of the open-sea fleet.

When this red flag was raised on the flagship, it signified that the fleet commander believed the final moment had come, that the fleet’s existence hung by a thread, and that the Venetians would never retreat, even unto their last drop of blood.

Even the most cowardly of sailors would be spurred into courage upon seeing this banner.

This was more than just a flag; it was also the spirit, hope, and backbone of the navy.

The first mate pounded the drum hard as Golden Lion powered forward, flanking Tanilia’s flagship together with The Glorious.

A sharp whistle rang out on the deck of The Glorious, where the fierce boatswain distributed weapons to the sailors, shouting, “Prepare to board! Grip your weapons! Wait for the captain’s order!”

Aside from the boarding crew, who also served as the ship’s marines, it was not permissible for other sailors to carry arms during a normal voyage; only before boarding combat were sabers and spears distributed.

Antonio found his subordinates: “Officers from the gunnery department, take men to the gun deck! There are no gunners on board now.”

Several officers saluted and turned to descend into the cabin.

Antonio then called another name: “Captain Wilson!”

The commander of the first cohort of the chief brigade stood at attention and saluted.

“Which cohort is under your command?”

“Reporting to the general, the spearmen!”

“Switch your men to daggers, and lead your cohort to board!”

“Yes!”

“Other officers stay on The Glorious, suppress the enemy ship’s deck with your matchlock guns!”

“Yes!”

The situation was urgent; Rear Admiral Nalesho ordered The Glorious to take the enemy flagship directly, but he had forgotten that The Glorious was not its usual self, as the ship had been temporarily converted into a command vessel. Stay updated through empire

The Glorious, ordinarily manned by over five hundred thirty sailors, now had fewer than two hundred on board. To make more room, The Glorious had neither brought along gunners nor the boarding crew, keeping only the deck sailors necessary to keep the warship operational.

Fortunately, there were more than one hundred fifty army soldiers from the first hundred of the third legion’s chief brigade on board,

Winters, Bard, and Andre assisted Captain Wilson in mustering the soldiers of the first hundred. The army’s long pikes were impractical to form phalanxes on the cramped ship.

The distance to the Revenge grew closer, and the figures of the pirates on Revenge’s deck became distinctly visible.

The sailors and soldiers on The Glorious ran around the deck like headless flies, shouting aimlessly. They felt the need to do something, but didn’t know what they were supposed to do.

Three warrant officers, each holding a bundle of sailors’ knives, handed out weapons wherever they saw an unarmed sailor amidst the chaotic deck.

“I don’t care if you’re an officer or a soldier, anyone with a matchlock gun must go onto the platform by the mast!” Antonio calmly distributed tasks to his subordinates: “Wilson! Rally your men on deck! Everyone else get to the gun deck and load the cannonballs!”

At this point, the Revenge was being cornered from two sides by The Glorious and the Golden Lion. Drake had not expected Nalesho to actually carve a path through the fire ships.

“Hard starboard! Turn southward!”

Frustrated by the helmsman’s slow response, Drake seized the helm himself.

He intended to turn south and leave the two Venetian ships behind, but it wasn’t going to be easy.

The Revenge’s speed was too high, resulting in a very large turning radius, and the full starboard turn caused the ship to list severely. High-speed turning was extremely risky, especially for a warship with a high center of gravity, which could capsize if not handled carefully.

The hull of the Revenge creaked loudly as it began to list to the left during the swift starboard turn.

“All hands to starboard!”

Upon hearing the order, the sailors all moved to the starboard side, gradually stabilizing the ship.

Drake exerted all his skill to maneuver the Revenge’s turn, but the ship’s large windward side, strong winds, and waves kept moving it southeastward.

The distance between the two ships had shrunk to barely over twenty meters, and it was closing even more.

At this moment, the soldiers and sailors on The Glorious clenched their weapons, standing stiff in anticipation.

Captain Wilson’s knuckles had turned white from gripping the hilt of his knife too tightly. Andre, with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, watched Winters and Bard and gestured with his chin toward Wilson’s right hand.

For the three warrant officers, who had experienced a boarding battle before, their hearts and breaths still accelerated uncontrollably, but they were not as nervous as they had been the first time.

The boatswain, bearing a grim expression, carried a machete in his left arm and a bucket, cursing as he scattered something unknown across the deck. Any sailor who got in his way received a kick.

It wasn’t until what was being thrown about landed near Winters that he realized the bucket contained sawdust and sand. After a moment of thought, he understood the purpose of the two substances.

Sawdust could absorb blood, and sand could increase friction. Scattering these on the deck would prevent people from slipping on too much spilt blood.

At that moment, it seemed that only this ill-tempered boatswain knew what to do.

The two ships drew closer, side by side. As the helmsman pushed the wheel, The Glorious steered to ram into the Revenge.

Grappling hooks were thrown, and cries of battle erupted.

The boarding battle commenced between the flagships of the two fleets.