World-Ending Demon Emperor
Chapter 798 - 385: Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood! Yan Mo Desperate!_2

Chapter 798: 385: Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood! Yan Mo Desperate!_2

The Rock Demon Fleet’s formation was in complete disarray, vessels clumped together in groups.

...

He won the bet!

A surge of ecstasy filled Suo Lun’s heart!

Just now, it had been Yan Mo using the Central Army as bait to lure the Suo Lun Fleet and attempt a pincer move from both flanks.

This time, however, Suo Lun used his entire fleet as bait to draw the Rock Demon Fleet into a deadly range of two to three hundred meters.

Not only that, following the encirclement of the Suo Lun Fleet, in order to make it easier to board and fight, the previously dispersed Rock Demon Fleet grouped together once again.

Then came the shattering assault from the Suo Lun Fleet’s canister and grape shot, like a violent storm!

Suo Lun was gambling, betting that a barrage of canister and grape shot would be enough to severely strike the Rock Demon Fleet, at least sabotaging and scattering their formation, preventing them from successfully closing in, and keeping the tens of thousands of pirates from easily boarding for combat.

Indeed, at such a distance, facing such a dense fleet, the destructive power of canister and grape shot was even greater than Suo Lun had imagined.

Suo Lun was gambling with the fate of his entire fleet. If the attack was not strong enough to disrupt the Rock Demon Fleet’s formation, and the pirates managed to board and engage in combat, the Suo Lun Fleet would undoubtedly be annihilated!

Yan Mo, on the other hand, had fully prepared for heavy losses.

He knew that at this range, the might of Suo Lun’s chain shot was extremely formidable! But since reloading took about a quarter of an hour, Suo Lun could only fire twice before his fleet would be close enough to board and fight.

How many casualties could two rounds of bombardment inflict? Twenty percent at most!

Twenty percent was a loss Yan Mo could afford. Even if twenty or thirty thousand died, Yan Mo still had seventy or eighty thousand troops left, more than enough to slaughter Suo Lun’s twenty-five thousand troops three or four times over.

Sacrificing thirty or forty thousand lives to annihilate the Suo Lun Fleet was entirely worth it!

However, what Yan Mo hadn’t anticipated was that following the chain shot, Suo Lun had an even more terrifying and lethal weapon: canister and grape shot!

So, he was utterly stunned!

A thought flashed through his mind—could he possibly lose this battle?

As soon as this idea emerged, Yan Mo’s entire body shuddered!

He truly had never considered this possibility. He was the King of Naval Battles; how could he lose?

True, Suo Lun had won two splendid naval battles.

The first time, sixty thousand navy men attacked Suo Lun and were utterly vanquished.

But that was not the navy’s merit; it was the Alliance Army of Extinction’s underestimation that fell for Suo Lun’s trickery. They were lured into Devil’s Bay and burned to ashes by fire.

Because no one had imagined Suo Lun could create a fiery trap with tens of millions of liters of oil!

The second time, Gui Xingfu’s forty thousand navy men attacked the Chaos Stone Salt Field again!

That time, knowing his navy couldn’t win, Suo Lun simply abandoned the sea battle and lured Yan Mo’s navy onto land to assault his fortress!

The victories of both naval battles had nothing to do with the Suo naval forces.

So, not just in Yan Mo’s belief but in the eyes of the world, Suo Lun’s navy was considered weak.

And Yan Mo had the strongest navy in the world, four times the size of the Suo Lun Fleet; how could he possibly lose?

This was a pure naval battle, no traps, no luring onto land for fortress assaults, just fierce combat on the open sea.

So, not even in his dreams had Yan Mo imagined he could lose.

Now, for the first time, the thought of losing crept into his mind.

Yan Mo felt a bone-chilling cold, his entire body void of warmth.

For Suo Lun, losing was not an option; defeat meant annihilation!

And how could Yan Mo afford to lose?

If Yan Mo lost, it would destroy not only him but the entire Yan Tribe!

He was the King of the Yan Clan, carrying the destiny of his entire tribe on his shoulders!

Now Yan Mo finally realized why the Queen Mother never rushed into battle carelessly and had no aspirations for expansion.

Although the Rock Pirates were powerful, as a people, they were incredibly fragile; defeat could mean the extinction of the entire tribe!

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."

The Yan generals beside him shouted desperately, prodding Yan Mo.

Their king had become like a stone statue or a puppet, motionless.

No matter how much they yelled or pushed, he just stood there, transfixed.

...

After an indeterminate amount of time, Yan Mo heard someone calling out to him, but the voice seemed distant, as though it came from beyond the clouds.

It took quite a while before he came back to his senses.

Seeing the corpses strewn all around once again brought him excruciating pain.

"Your Majesty, what should we do? Continue fighting, or retreat?" the Yan general beside him asked loudly.

Yan Mo looked at his fleet. It still appeared boundless, intact, with over nine hundred ships remaining.

However, many warships had already lost control, and the entire formation was in chaos.

As for how many had died? No one really knew, nor was there any way to count.

"How many casualties do we have on our ship?" Yan Mo asked.

"Twenty-three," a Yan general answered.

Yan Mo estimated in his heart that perhaps the entire fleet had suffered over ten thousand casualties, and adding the previous casualties, the total must have surpassed twenty thousand!

That is to say, he still had an army of eighty thousand in his hands!

Next, he was faced with a difficult choice.

To continue fighting or to retreat?

Now that his fleet’s formation was broken, if they continued to fight, with some luck they might successfully close in on the Suo Lun Fleet and engage in boarding combat.

Once the boarding combat succeeded, victory was certain.

But with bad luck, they might become sitting ducks.

The thing most feared in a large-scale naval battle was exactly this: the formation being in chaos, losing control!

If they retreated, at least they could save half of the people. His Rock Pirates could still have forty thousand men escape back to the Thunder Archipelago.

But by doing so, he would be admitting defeat ahead of time!

Yan Mo was an invincible commander, with the Rock Pirate Fleet undefeated in battle! Once he admitted defeat, not only would Suo Lun completely seize control over the maritime trade, but the Ocean Guild would also completely expel the Rock Pirates. Not to mention, the Thunder Archipelago would definitely face Suo Lun’s retaliation afterward, and the Hai Clan of Yingzhou Island would take advantage of the situation!

What should he do?

To continue fighting, or to retreat?

Yan Mo was also a gambler at heart, and his internal balance was leaning towards continuing the fight.

Only by continuing to fight was there a chance to turn the tide and achieve victory, but there was also the possibility of total annihilation.

Next, his mind was desperately persuading him not to continue fighting, that it was not too late to retreat now, as Suo Lun’s second round of cannon fire still needed some preparation time.

As long as the green mountains are there, one need not fear running out of firewood!

Yan Mo kept on persuading himself!

But... he still couldn’t convince himself!

To continue fighting meant either triumph or complete destruction!

Suddenly, Yan Mo roared, "All ships of the fleet, all warriors, put forth everything to get close to the Suo Lun Fleet! Each ship fights independently, with only one goal, get closer, get closer, engage in boarding combat, and annihilate the Suo Lun Fleet completely!"

Although Yan Mo shouted a lot, the signal flags communicated only a dozen or so words: fight independently, close in at all costs!

This was Yan Mo’s strategy of survival in desperate situations.

Upon this command!

A few minutes later, it spread to every ship, because the order was too simple.

Instantly, every ship of the Yan Mo Fleet, all the pirates, became crazed and fought independently.

Each warship, like sharks, desperately moved closer to the Suo Lun Fleet, no longer caring about formation or tactics.

All for one purpose, to close in on the Suo Lun Fleet and engage in boarding combat!

Suo Lun, looking down from above, suddenly saw a very dangerous, very tense scene unfold!

Hundreds of Yan Mo warships, like a pack of wolves, crazily pounced on the Suo Lun Fleet.

The situation became a jumbled mess!

At this moment, Suo Lun was filled with admiration for Yan Mo.

This man’s decisions at critical moments were always correct, and incredibly ruthless and decisive.

Fighting independently, closing in on the Suo Lun Fleet, surviving by facing death head on.

If successful, it meant Suo Lun’s annihilation.

Moreover, the possibility of Yan Mo’s success was very real, even not low!

And just at that moment!

Suo Lun’s second round of close-range cannon fire was ready!

Still seven-tenths canister shot, two-tenths grape shot, and one-tenth chain shot!

This time, the distance to the Yan Mo Fleet was even closer.

The farthest only over two hundred meters, the closest only over a hundred meters!

"Boom boom boom boom boom..."

Hundreds of cannons fired fiercely!

Tens of thousands of projectiles were unleashed once again like a ferocious storm!

...

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