Black Sail
Chapter 59: LIX. Sniping at the Midgate

Chapter 59: LIX. Sniping at the Midgate

As the anti-corrosion covers for the cannons were flipped open, pirates on the ship mustered all their strength, pushing the wooden loading mechanisms with rollers beneath the cannons to bring the barrels closer to the gunwales.

The 32-pound heavy cannon, with a terrifying caliber of 15.9 centimeters, was jet-black, numbering eighteen in total.

These were no pirate knock-offs.

They were the big shots from Heaven Port who had blown up an East Coast Governor’s sail battleship and unloaded the official goods. It was Liszt who had made a big purchase in Heaven Port. Compared to the crude cannons that other pirates had somehow obtained, the firepower of Fuma Keqing was almost like that of a two-dimensional foil, truly a downgrade strike.

Marcus had gone completely blind and was feeling his surroundings entirely with his Magic Power. He was already aware of the extreme panic of the Constitutional Soldiers, and as for the sectarians called from around Londen City, it seemed that not all of them staunchly believed, with a good half considering retreat.

Those who didn’t know better were still looking for cover, while those who did had started praying.

Besides, this Erosion Cave was nothing more than an eroded cliff, a hollow mass with nowhere to hide. Heavy artillery could smash through city walls, let alone these very poor quality Erosion Rocks.

The cannonballs of the West Continent today could be roughly divided into three types: Solid Bullets, shotgun shells, and Chain Bombs.

Although explosive shells filled with gunpowder were also available, due to the immature impact fuze technology, seven or eight out of ten would fail to detonate, which the Black Sail Pirate Group never used.

Just these aforementioned three types of cannonballs were terrifying enough.

Solid Bullets needed no explanation; they were leaps and bounds stronger than any catapult. One shot and, though not necessarily reduced to dust, one could say it would vanish in smoke and ashes.

Chain Bombs consisted of two Solid Bullets linked together with chains, designed to increase the killing radius, mainly for destroying masts and sails.

Then there were the shotgun shells, which in a nutshell, were thick iron buckets filled with dozens or hundreds of small lead balls. Upon discharge, the iron bucket would explode and the pellets inside would burst out in a fan-shaped area, naturally intended for the sole purpose of killing people.

Morison’s position as ship gunner was a sinecure, even more leisurely than Wolman’s storekeeper, with twenty-nine days of idleness out of a month of thirty days.

Yet, he had performed his work reasonably well; the eighteen cannons were in excellent condition, ready to fire at any moment.

Fen had already ordered the shotgun shells to be loaded upon hearing the news.

"Fire!"

With Fen’s shout,

All eighteen heavy cannons fired simultaneously, and in the already echoing cave, the sound was earth-shaking, like eighteen claps of thunder exploding here, and the iron buckets shot out from the barrels burst open, entirely enveloping the coast in a fan-shaped range.

It was difficult to describe the scene at that moment and the extent of the lethality.

If one must put it into words, it was like a Firearms Team of two thousand firing together, only with tenfold the power.

Marcus’s Eternal Sect Guardians and elite Constitutional Soldiers couldn’t even fire off their rockets.

These small lead balls were extremely powerful, piercing through several people without stopping.

Nearly two thousand lead balls exploded on the shore.

All of this happened within two seconds.

On the spot, over two hundred people were turned into limp, mangled flesh by the all-encompassing barrage. The blood in their bodies didn’t seem to have been shot out; it was as if it had been squeezed out. In an instant, the rending of flesh and blood burst into a crimson fog throughout the cave.

It was a genuine blood mist, drifting with the wind and then immediately raining down as a blood shower, drenching the ground.

Several dozens of drops of blood splattered onto Fen’s robe, with two droplets also landing on his glasses. On that cold and unyielding face, one wouldn’t think he was once a scholar and a gentleman.

In an instant, they had massacred more than two hundred people. Those remaining were all more or less wounded by bullets, but not yet dead, continuously screaming in agony on the ground. Only about sixty or seventy of them had been shot in the limbs or suffered grazes, but they still managed to move, albeit with difficulty.

The imbecilic giant, with his massive size, had become a living target; at least dozens of lead bullets had penetrated his body, turning him into a bloody sieve as he knelt on the ground, letting out a painful howl.

The process of reloading the heavy cannon and firing again was complicated, far from just loading and shooting directly. It involved quenching remaining sparks and packing the ammunition tightly with a ramrod among other elements. Even for the well-trained Royal Navy, it would take at least a minute to complete the process. Fen didn’t expect this group of pirates to be that fast, but at least a minute and a half was necessary.

"Load the Chain Bombs and fire! Wolman, Haywood—all hands on deck—we must stop the rest from boarding the ship, no matter what, we need to hold them off for ninety seconds!"

Fen was also concerned about Marcus and the more than twenty priests with him; these priests were all clad in super heavy plate armors a few centimeters thick. Even in the midst of the fray, they all remained steadfast, though their armors were somewhat dented.

Strangely.

Marcus, as if blessed with some extraordinary luck, had not moved an inch from the start, yet he hadn’t been hit by any bullets.

"Fire all rockets."

Marcus, holding the Scriptures in his hands, remained unangered even as two-thirds of his men were instantly incapacitated. His mental fortitude was strong to the point where he could be described as a Devil.

The remaining Constitutional Soldiers, witnessing this carnal slaughter, had their psychological defenses completely shattered. However, the Leather Armor Guardians Marcus had summoned only paused briefly; the mental state of a Madman is not to be joked about, and those who still had functional bows launched their remaining rockets towards the ship.

Fen let out a sneer.

The Pedan National Arcane Academy was a stalwart against religious forces. Within the Warlock Council of the Tower Alliance, Pedan Kingdom alone almost occupied one-fifth of the seats.

As the most top-tier versatile talent of Pedan Kingdom, Fen was experienced in knowing exactly what Magic to use at what time. He was even one of the authors of the widely adopted textbook "Warrior Battlefield Cultivation".

To this day, the book was still in print and use at the Pedan National Arcane Academy, although the name of a certain individual had been removed.

Fen was supposed to be immortalized by a court painter in an oil painting, to hang in the halls of the teaching building for all to admire. Yet, here he was at this juncture.

Elemental Magic was undoubtedly the simplest form of magic. There were two ways to invoke it: through the use of Magic Energy Material or directly from oneself, each with a different level of difficulty.

The former was the most basic, generally only capable of producing very limited elements and consuming vast amounts of "concentration".

Fen referred to it as concentration, but in the countless systems of the Western Continent, there were innumerable terms for it.

Only when reaching the latter stage, would one truly come into their own. To Fen, all things had an essential origin, like strings of anonymity hidden within form, invisible to the eye. By plucking these strings, one could affect reality from a deeper dimension, the mysteries of which were boundless.

Fen didn’t need to recite prayers like Caroso, nor was he casting in the truest sense. Instead, he used the strings within the natural elements as intermediates, and in plucking them, he managed to partially tune nature itself.

A storm howled and raged outside the Erosion Cave.

Seventy to eighty arrows, wrapped with oil-soaked cloth and blazing with flames, rained down upon the ship.

Fen simply raised his hand toward the sky, giving himself a mental suggestion, his concentration intensely focused.

In a flash, a dozen invisible blades swept in from outside the cave. With just a gust of wind, all the arrows had been completely shattered mid-flight, their remnants still possessing enough force to pierce through several individuals, turning them into a bloody mess.

Marcus’s thought process was clear. If they managed to reload, it would be the end for them.

"Everyone, move towards the pier! Once we’re under the ship, they’ll have no means left to deploy!"

At Marcus’s command.

The heavily armored priests moved swiftly without a trace of clumsiness, charging forward with nail head hammers in hand.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.