Magic Industrial Age

Compared to the small skirmishes on the Percinas, the great battle between the Bloody Mary and the Habs Navy warship was the main event of this battlefield.

Actually, upon careful consideration, the Habs Navy's choice made perfect sense.

This time, the pirates uncharacteristically launched a landing operation, looted Auckland City, and caused so much damage. The primary responsibility naturally fell on the Auckland City Council.

Even if Governor Dorji Petrovic and his officials had no obvious faults, they still had to bear the blame for such a significant disaster.

However, besides the city council, the Habs Empire Navy was, of course, the most accountable.

Especially the Royal Third Navy of the Habs Empire, which operated in the Silver Sea, had recently reported their achievements, claiming to have 'ground the Bloody Mary against the sea'.

For this, they even received commendation from the Navy Headquarters!

But how long has it been?

The Bloody Mary's captain, Gies, gave them a big surprise. Wasn't this the same as repeatedly slapping the Royal Third Fleet in the face?

In this situation, the Third Fleet would inevitably seek to regain face!

Whether in the name of suppressing pirates or purely for revenge, they would undoubtedly take action.

At this time, someone approached them, providing accurate information and explicitly stating that they could use the Percinas as bait to lure out the Bloody Mary.

So, what would the Third Fleet do?

Of course, they would seize the opportunity. As for Maruna's attempt to redeem his children, who cared?

The first shot was for calibration, followed by dozens of magic-powered cannons chasing after the Bloody Mary.

The impact of the waves on the naval warship had been minimized, but each volley still caused the massive hull to shake incessantly.

The Habs Empire's warships naturally had an overwhelming advantage in performance.

Not only were the hulls larger and the design more reasonable, but although they weren't magic-powered ironclad ships, the entire hull was covered with a thick layer of copper.

The corrosiveness of seawater was not a joke, and there were also barnacles and other clinging organisms. If not cleaned regularly, the ship would rot, greatly reducing its lifespan.

Only the Empire had enough financial resources to cover the hull with copper, thereby increasing corrosion resistance and defense.

On each side of the hull, there were dozens of magic-powered cannons, equipped with professional adjustable bases, elastic recoil mechanisms, and professional magic-powered gunners.

Their volleys had a 'fixed-point remote bombing' feel, battering the Bloody Mary with almost no chance of retaliation.

Of course, if there was one commendable advantage of pirate ships, it was speed!

For the sake of convenient looting and catching up with fleeing merchant ships, all modifications to pirate ships were focused on being light and fast.

This kind of modification began during the Age of Exploration and has continued to this day, with many achievements.

Like the Bloody Mary, which had a standard streamlined hull and was a three-masted sailing ship.

Dozens of pirates acted as sailors, maximizing the ship's speed. With the sea breeze billowing, it felt like riding the waves.

It's worth mentioning that the Bloody Mary also had magic. The sails and masts were all made of special magic materials, containing complex magic patterns.

Their only function was to summon a sea breeze when the sails billowed.

The result was that the naval warship constantly adjusted its direction, aligning its hull with the Bloody Mary. One magic-powered cannon after another was constantly calibrated, loaded, and fired…

And the Bloody Mary was like an agile swordsman, dashing across the sea, sometimes surging forward, sometimes turning nimbly, sometimes drifting erratically, sometimes stopping abruptly to dodge.

Those actions that didn't seem possible for a ship were actually accomplished by the pirates working together.

And all the credit went to the old pirate named 'Tru', who was the true master of ship control.

Of course, the Bloody Mary wasn't just taking hits without retaliating. They also launched their own magic-powered cannons.

Only five cannons, and they were just bare, dark gun barrels, placed on sacks filled with earth and stone.

Their shooting was also full of randomness. Several natives, who looked more like shamans than magic apprentices, jumped around and directly placed their hands on the gun barrels.

After the magic patterns lit up, their thigh muscles twitched, showing obvious signs of charging power. When the cannons fired, they jumped away like frogs.

There was no other way. The recoil of the cannons was extremely terrifying. If they jumped too slowly, they might be crushed to death by the cannons.

Looking at the entire process of firing, there was more metaphysics than rationality, more faith than calculation, but you have to admit that the cannonballs fired in this way still had some accuracy.

They landed beside the warship, and the splashed water could drench a group of imperial soldiers.

On the sea, there were many islands, and many indigenous tribes lived on these islands.

You could use words like savage, cruel, uncivilized, and cannibalistic to describe them. Even pirates didn't want to deal with these natives.

Because killing them was of no benefit, only yielding a pile of foul-smelling bones.

Until magic-powered cannons became popular, changing the pirates' combat mode, these natives became useful.

The reason was that these savage, cruel, and uncivilized indigenous tribes had a certain chance of producing indigenous shamans.

Although their spells were strange and varied in effect, it was undeniable that they possessed a weak magic power.

The pirates captured them and put them on ships to activate the magic-powered cannons, resulting in the current random artillery!

Accuracy depended on the heavens, the target was arbitrary, but as long as they weren't facing the regular navy, but those merchant ships.

A few random shots would basically cause the merchant ships to lower their sails and surrender voluntarily.

Of course, facing the Imperial Navy, they were just a 'dish', a 'dish' that was trying to survive, but would definitely not live long.

This rapid ship handling was based on Tru's long-term focus and the pirates' concerted efforts.

But people would always get tired, and they couldn't maintain this state for long.

Any slight slackening would be the time of the pirates' demise.

The navy knew this, and the pirates were well aware of it, because they were fighting for this little bit of time.

From some unknown time, ripples suddenly arose around the warship, clashing with the ripples caused by the shelling.

And beneath the water, a huge shadow passed by, hundreds of meters long, seemingly longer than the warship.

At the same time, a low-pitched chant came from the seabed, carrying a strange tremor, sweeping across the warship.

At this moment, the marines on the warship also felt a huge crisis. They even abandoned the shelling and instead held magic-powered rifles, searching for the enemy everywhere.

On the other side, the Percinas finally rushed onto Guano Island, and they ran aground on a coast. Both the sailors and the Fleur-de-lis Mercenary Group jumped off the ship.

Luo Yi and Olivia each held a child, while Maruna Marquez could only roll down in a mess.

They waded forward, accompanied by the foul smell of feces, and finally landed on the coast.

At this time, most of them were exhausted. Not to mention the sailors, today was too exciting for them.

The Fleur-de-lis Mercenary Group and the twin detectives sat on the beach, gasping for breath.

Only Luo Yi and Olivia were in better condition, with almost no changes, and had time to comfort the two children.

From their perspective, the great battle at sea was unobstructed, with continuous artillery fire and explosions.

At this moment, the leader of the Fleur-de-lis Mercenary Group, the great man holding the bow, suddenly stood up and questioned:

"Why? Why did we have to come to this Guano Island? Shouldn't we have sailed this ship directly back?"

"Trapped here, we are lambs to the slaughter. Whether the Bloody Mary wins or the Imperial Navy wins, do you think they will let us go?"

At this moment, it seemed that reason had fully returned, and a group of people looked at each other until a certain voice suddenly sounded: "It was him, he asked us to sail to the island!"

The speaker was the younger of the twin detectives, and the direction of his finger was Luo Yi.

Luo Yi ignored him, just staring at the sea battlefield. After a moment, he asked, "Do you all want to know why?"

"We must know!"

The great man holding the bow emphasized: "And, Mr. Maruna, shouldn't you give us an explanation too?"

"Who are these two? Are they from the navy?"

"We don't care if you use yourself as bait, but you shouldn't have dragged us into it."

"We are mercenaries, earning money by selling our lives, but that doesn't mean we can be fooled at will."

"I didn't…"

"Alright!"

Maruna wanted to explain, but was interrupted by Luo Yi. He looked around at everyone and said, "Don't you want to know why I wanted to flee to the island?"

"That's the reason!"

Along with his words, on the sea, the Imperial warship suddenly received a huge impact.

A snake tail, covered with thick gray scales, with rows of barbs erected on the back, directly slapped on the warship's hull.

Boom!

That was a sound even more terrifying than magic-powered cannons, so that the huge warship tilted.

And in the middle of the warship, huge cracks and dents clearly appeared on the copper-clad warship.

After one strike, dozens of feet away, the sea water rolled, revealing a huge snake head.

It was full of sharp teeth, with gray-white scales, barbs on its back, and a winding body, hundreds of meters long.

And on the snake's head, Gies stood naked and steadily, looking down, like a king returning.

This was the Bloody Mary's captain Gies' trump card, the sea beast he tamed, a descendant of the Leviathan, traversing the Silver Sea's giant sea monster.

Roar!

With a roar, the sea snake plunged into the water again and launched another attack.

On the other side, the Bloody Mary had already begun to turn its rudder, and the Ocean Goddess's ram pointed directly at the Imperial warship, watching intently.

On the coast, Luo Yi spoke at this time: "This is why we wanted to go ashore.

If we were still in the sea now, even if it was just the aftermath of their battle, the Percinas would probably have fallen apart.

And we will become the food of that sea monster!"

Covering the ship with copper was real. Back then, there was no reliable glue, so they used rivets to fix it.

At first, they used iron nails, which rusted badly, then they switched to copper nails, which were too soft, and finally they switched to copper-zinc nails…