Chương 171: Chapter 171: Demonic Nobility
Impossible?!
That was the first reaction of the nobles.
Doomed!
That was their next thought.
Long-lasting peace on the seas had made them complacent.
They had even forgotten that pirates existed. Previously, there were no pirates in the Kingdom of Stormwind due to its poverty. The few Kul Tiran fleets that occasionally reached Stormwind City weren't very attractive, as their meager wealth couldn't draw the attention of large-scale pirates.
What else was left in Stormwind City? A dozen or so fishing boats, barely larger than rafts, with no real value to plunder.
As for the Pearl Fleet of Sea King Duke, it was escorted by the naga, making it like a porcupine - whoever touched it would be pricked.
But now it was different. The major nobles who had fled from Elwynn Forest to Stormwind City brought with them their family fortunes accumulated over a thousand years. In order to carry as much treasure as possible in the limited cabin space, the brainless nobles even unconsciously ignored the dangers and kicked off the sailors who originally belonged to the navy.
To escape Stormwind City, which was on the verge of falling, they didn't even wait for the slow civilian transport ships. Otherwise, they could have used them as bait to slow down the Bloodsail pirates.
If this were on land, the nobles could have relied on their formidable guards to resist to some extent.
Unfortunately, this was the ocean. Frankly speaking, most landlubbers were lucky to exhibit 70% of their combat effectiveness on a swaying ship. Not to mention that the nobles' private sailors were at best experienced in running merchant ships.
It was a fatal mistake made in an unfamiliar domain.
"Turn around and run! Return to the main fleet, and we'll be safe! There are Kul Tiran warships there!" Duke Agath Farren, who had rushed to the scene, grabbed the captain's collar with bloodshot eyes.
That's right! Anyone could die, but not the nobles with their prestigious bloodlines.
In the main fleet, there were Kul Tiran warships to help. Although those warships were also filled with civilians, at least the soldiers controlling the warships were from the maritime kingdom of Kul Tiras.
Let the Kul Tirans die instead.
"It's too late—" the captain mourned, "We are carrying too much weight; we're already overloaded and can't run fast!"
"Turn around! Dump everything! All the heaviest gold must be thrown away! Only by saving our lives can our families continue! What's the use of gold if we're dead?!" The old Duke's silver beard danced wildly in the wind, and his bloodshot eyes had a rare sense of reason amidst the fear.
With the changing direction of the sails, more than ten giant Stormwind warships began to draw huge arc-shaped white waves on the sea. Unfortunately, due to the lack of unified command, some turned left, and some turned right. The direct result was that two ships nearly collided head-on. In a frantic rush, they barely avoided the catastrophic head-on collision. Even so, the close pass between the two ships and the clashing of their hull decorations scared both sides out of their wits.
The scene became incredibly chaotic.
"Worthless!" On the flagship of the Bloodsail pirate detachment, Commodore Lester Zank revealed a look of utter contempt. However, when he saw the golden light scattering from a disintegrating chest in mid-air, his terrible premonition came true.
Lester couldn't help but curse, "Gold! It's all freakin' gold! Do you nobles really think you can escape by throwing away the weight? Fools! I don't care about the ransom anymore! I'm going to roast the one who came up with this rotten idea for three days and nights until they're charcoal!"
Lester was almost driven mad by his anger: this was the deep-sea area! The only fate for the precious metals thrown overboard was to sink into the unreachable depths or feed the fish! How was he supposed to retrieve them?!
"Fire! Fire the bow guns!" Lester ordered with a hoarse voice.
His first mate was confused, "Commander Zank, we're not within effective firing range yet! If we only use the bow guns..."
"Idiot, do you really expect those clumsy land nobles to engage in a grand Kul Tiran-style naval battle with us? I want to destroy their ridiculous notion of escape!"
With the order flags falling, more than a dozen unimpressive parabolic lines were drawn in the faint morning light, forming a war bridge and starting to erode the nobles' dwindling courage.
The cannonballs, never intended to hit their target, fell near the noble fleet, causing huge water columns to rise. The spray created faint rainbows that surrounded the noble warships.
In the nobles' eyes, this was already an overwhelming, torrential barrage.
Then, an improbable event, guided by fate, played its part. In this era, the hit rate of long-range artillery fire was extremely low. Unless it was within a hundred meters, in what was called close-quarters gunfighting, the hit rate was mostly below 1%.
Anyone who could hit a target within a hundred-meter diameter amidst strong winds, the ship's own trembling from waves and other gunfire, and issues with the gun barrel's maintenance, was considered a divine gunner.
A one-shot wonder was simply a legend.
But one person achieved it.
A long-range bow shot from 800 meters away directly hit a noble warship's ammunition depot, causing a brilliant chain explosion.
The explosion's towering flames, the wood chips sent flying and spinning through the air, and the numerous dismembered human limbs, all formed a terrifying painting from hell, deeply imprinted in the nobles' retinas.
In less than a minute, a full seven noble warships came to a halt and raised their white flags high.
Meanwhile, more Bloodsail pirate ships, designed for extreme speed, charged into the noble fleet, engaging in a lopsided close-quarters gunfight with the nobles' private soldiers and sailors attempting to resist.
"Bang, bang, bang..." The well-trained Bloodsail pirates taught the noble private soldiers the meaning of naval warfare with a continuous barrage from bow to stern.
Of course, the noble soldiers returned fire with a laughable volley.
Watching from a distance, Lester was astonished, never expecting these private soldiers, who had only ever manned merchant ships, to be this foolish. The massive recoil even pushed the entire ship a full five meters to the side, and the ship's cabin, unable to bear the impact, emitted the typical cry of wooden fractures.
But all resistance was futile.
The pirates, with curved blades in their mouths, jumped across using the prepared ropes. Everything was going smoothly, but when they stormed the opposing cabins, something suddenly changed...
A huge demon appeared, wearing the emblem of a noble house on its chest! (To be continued.)
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