Chapter 233 Orc Pirates

Honestly, being a pirate has its own unique charm. Dominating the seas with Brother Karida as a notorious duo and becoming the Pirate King is quite delightful.

Lakfu and Hagen exchanged glances, and Hagen quickly patted his chest. After spending more time with Old Wang recently, his Common Tongue had improved significantly: "If you like it, Big Brother, we'll fight! Just for fun!"

"It's just a few soul crystal cannonballs!" Lakfu said with a smile: "After our meal, we'll accompany Big Brother to have some fun. Even without pirates, it’s not a problem. We can drag a few bleeding creatures at the stern of the ship. There are many sharks in these waters, and it won't take long to attract a large group. Then, Big Brother, you can blast them with one shot, and that will be incredibly satisfying!"

Old Wang was delighted upon hearing this, "Then let's hurry up and eat. No one is allowed to snatch my turn; I’ll fire the first shot!" As he spoke, he deliberately glanced at Karida, noticing her hesitation. Wang Feng felt happy seeing her struggle to speak. He didn’t really care; he just wanted to tease Brother Karida. She was always so tense, probably thinking about those troublesome things with Rose again. Life is short; the most important thing is to be happy.

In ancient times, there were beacon fires to amuse the feudal lords; today, we’ll use cannons to amuse Brother Karida.

...

The night was deep and still, with no moon or wind in the sky, and the vast sea was pitch black, eerily quiet.

Six warships and five cargo ships had slowed down, entering their night navigation mode. A soul crystal lamp atop each mast flickered red, providing some visibility for nearby ships and maintaining the distance between them.

On the leading warship, the Sea Star, a massive searchlight projected a white beam of light over ten miles out to sea, circling around the entire fleet, sweeping back and forth across the dark waters.

High on the mainmast, the lookout, responsible for vigilance, stared lazily into the darkness, aided by the searchlight. Night watch on a ship was a tedious and monotonous task. The lookout yawned, feeling a bit drowsy. He squinted his eyes, about to sneak a moment of rest, when suddenly, a string of faint red lights appeared on the distant horizon.

The lookout perked up slightly. Red signal lights were very noticeable on the dark sea, visible up to about twenty miles away.

Encountering other fleets at sea was common and not particularly alarming. He stopped the rotation of the nearby searchlight and directed it toward the direction of the red lights, manually adjusting the beam to draw circles in the air.

This was a warning signal.

During the dark of night, it was impossible to determine if the approaching vessel was hostile or whether it was a merchant ship or a pirate. The best course of action was to prevent the other party from getting too close. The circles drawn by the searchlight in the air served as a warning, signaling the other party not to approach, or they would face gunfire.

The other party seemed to be a fleet of merchant ships, now signaling with the same searchlight, drawing circles in the air.

Such a situation was quite common during night navigation; typically, after the signal, both parties would maintain a parallel course at a safe distance, or even actively increase the gap between them.

The lookout felt a slight relief, but then noticed something amiss. He realized that the other party had no intention of increasing the distance; instead, the signal light was rapidly approaching his own fleet.

Pirates? Sea robbers?

The lookout's heart tightened, and the drowsiness that had just overcome him vanished instantly. He quickly grabbed the conch horn beside him and blew it.

Uuuu~ Uuuu~

The warning sound of the conch horn rose steadily.

"An attack?"

Accompanied by the questioning voices of many crew members, the deck immediately fell into chaos. The lookout's searchlight flashed more urgently, spinning wildly in the air.

Seemingly realizing they couldn't bluff their way through, the opposing searchlight abruptly stopped moving, and all the red signal lights on the ships were extinguished in an instant. The horizon plunged into complete darkness, and the target disappeared from sight.

"Pirates! Pirates!"

The extinguishing of the signal lights clearly indicated an offensive intent. The lookout's eyes widened, and he blew the conch horn with renewed vigor, its deep and resonant warning spreading quickly throughout the fleet. Panic began to spread along with the sound, accompanied by the rhythmic 'bang bang bang' of knocking on the ship's railings and shouts of "attack."

Old Wang was also awakened by the commotion on the deck. Groggily, he climbed up to the deck and saw the ship brightly lit. Karida was already up, standing by the railing, gazing into the distance.

On the lower deck, numerous sailors and crew members rushed out in disarray, and Lakfor and others were hurriedly running down in their pajamas. The lookout on the mast top was shouting incessantly.

"Enemy ships spotted at three o'clock, about twenty miles away!"

"Speed unknown, number unknown, the other side has extinguished their signal lights!"

"It must be pirates!"

There were panicked voices from the deck.

"Really pirates? How come I haven't seen anything?" Old Wang, still half-asleep and not fully awake, shouted to Lakfor in confusion.

Lakfor clearly had extensive sailing experience. He had just been boasting about the Starfish with Old Wang earlier that day. Now, hearing Old Wang's question, it was a rare opportunity to showcase his formidable capabilities.

"Don't worry, Big Brother, I'm here!" He rallied his spirits. This was a public route; it must be some misguided small pirate who lost their way. He gave orders confidently and loudly: "Slow down the fleet, spread out the Bet ships, maintain a defensive formation, turn on all searchlights, fire large searchlight flares northeast, and keep the cargo ships at the back!"

On the Starfish and the few Bet ships on either side, the searchlights burst forth with intense beams, illuminating the dark northeastern sea. Several bright searchlight flares were fired in that direction, exploding far in the air, their scattered light resembling fireworks, instantly lighting up a vast area of the horizon.

Bathed in the light from the sky, a massive shadow of a sailboat could be faintly seen rapidly approaching, moving very fast, already within about fifteen miles.

Old Wang squinted his eyes, using the close-range illumination as the signal flares fell, he could vaguely see that beside the huge shadow, there were about six or seven smaller Bet ships guarding. When illuminated by the searchlights, they could barely be seen spreading out in a fan shape, increasing their speed and quickly disappearing from the view of the signal flares.

"One Tiger General warship, six to eight Bet ships..." The lookout was continuously reporting the situation, but when he used the binoculars to faintly make out the beast head emblem and flag at the bow of the ship under the light of the falling signal flares, his voice carried a hint of fear: "It's the Half-Orc Pirate Gang!"

Lakfor, who had been nonchalant on the deck, felt a sudden chill in his heart upon hearing this, exclaiming, "This can't be possible, how could the half-orcs enter a public route???"

At sea, a pirate's strength is measured by their bounty. Those without bounties are considered minor thieves, while those with million-euro bounties are relatively powerful. However, the Half-Orc Pirate Gang had a bounty in the tens of millions!

Old Wang didn't understand much about this, but he noticed the obvious panic on the deck and the buzzing noise everywhere.

This fleet belonged to Hagen, but its personnel were quite mixed. Lakfor was both his partner and the overall commander of security. Under his leadership were several Tiger-level experts, including Shark and Tyron, and over a dozen Wolf-peak warriors, forming the core of the fleet's armed forces.

Additionally, there were a dozen bodyguards for Hagen and the chamber of commerce executives, as well as 150 mercenaries and five Bet ships hired from the Croat Islands mercenary group, making up the entire guard force. Beyond that, the main components were various crew members, sailors, and laborers.

The numbers were considerable, and with the well-equipped Starfish and five nearly fully manned Bet ships, the fleet's paper strength was indeed formidable. However, they were not a cohesive unit, and their morale and combat skills varied widely.