Boom! Boom! Boom!
Sauron’s second round of combined canister shot, grape shot, and chain shot attacks!
Countless projectiles smashed out like a torrential rain.
This time the Rock Demon fleet’s distance was even closer, merely just over one hundred metres.
The hit rate at this distance was astonishingly high!
Although the Rock Demon fleet fought independently, pouncing like a wolf pack.
After Sauron fleet’s storm-like cannon fire, the Rock Demon fleet still suddenly halted.
Then, the hellish scene appeared once more.
This time it was even more obvious. It was like a hailstorm smashing down on grass, instantly scattering it in all directions.
Countless warships had their masts broken, sails shredded.
Countless pirates were instantly riddled with holes like sieves, perforated with a thousand wounds, dying instantly.
Across the entire sea surface, once again a sky-filling cloud of blood mist violently splashed up.
By now, four or five massive steel shields had been placed before the Rock Demon.
When the rainstorm-like canister shot sprayed forth once more, the Rock Demon’s face violently twitched.
He knew that this round of Sauron’s cannon fire had taken at least over ten thousand lives.
The Rock Demon’s heart was bleeding. He felt his supreme martial arts had vanished, his entire body becoming stiff and weak, as if he lacked even the strength to raise his head.
Even, a thought surged in his mind: was Sauron not afraid of heavenly retribution?
This was truly an absurd matter. The Rock Demon had killed countless people. The rock pirates made their living through plunder, burning, killing, and looting, committing every evil.
Yet now, he actually found Sauron’s slaughter excessive, wondering if it would invite heavenly retribution.
Although he, the Rock Demon, killed people, and although the rock pirates also killed people, a voyage at sea killing a few hundred people was already remarkable.
But Sauron, a single round of cannon fire actually killed several thousand to over ten thousand people.
The Rock Demon could not help but recall, just how many people had Sauron killed?
From recapturing Tianshui City, to the two great anti-Sauron wars, to today’s great naval battle.
The number of people who died by Sauron’s hand already exceeded two hundred thousand. Was he truly not afraid of heavenly retribution?
But at this moment, no matter how great the casualties, no matter how many died, the Rock Demon fleet could only grit their teeth and charge forward.
Moreover, there was still about half a quarter hour until Sauron’s next round of cannon fire.
The Rock Demon roared, “Charge up, charge up, kill Sauron completely!”
Then, the charge horns sounded mournfully.
The surviving pirates of the Rock Demon fleet sobered slightly. Looking at the countless corpses beside them, and the decks dyed red with blood, their scalps went numb in waves.
Hearing the charge horns sound, countless rock pirates once again summoned their courage, roaring, “Charge up, close in and we win!”
At this moment, the Rock Demon fleet was drawing ever closer to Sauron’s fleet. Both sides’ faces were already clearly visible, all savage and fierce, like mortal enemies.
And right at this moment, Sauron decisively issued a new order!
“Fleet retreat south, maintain distance, continue cannon fire.”
Immediately, five griffin riders in the sky waved flag signals.
Sauron’s two hundred-odd warships began retreating south, their formation not chaotic in the slightest.
Seeing this scene, the Rock Demon was truly about to explode with rage!
Screw your mother, Sauron! I paid the price of tens of thousands of lives, finally about to close in, and now you bloody start retreating, start maintaining distance.
If this had been before, even if Sauron wanted to retreat it would have been too late, because the Rock Demon’s ships were small and fast, incomparably agile.
But now, after two rounds of great storm-like cannon fire, virtually every ship of the Rock Demon fleet was damaged, every sail torn and leaking wind, every ship carrying dead. They simply could no longer move fast.
So even though just over one hundred metres was a short distance, when Sauron’s fleet began full speed retreat, the Rock Demon fleet deeply experienced what was meant by “so close yet so far.”
Sauron’s fleet continuously retreated, gradually separating from the Rock Demon fleet, maintaining a certain distance.
Half a quarter hour later, all cannons were loaded.
But because the fleet had moved, the gunners needed to aim anew. Because it was canister shot, firing out was a large area, so requirements for aiming precision were much lower.
When the rock pirates and pirates once again saw the black cannon muzzles, they only felt terror-stricken, their four limbs ice-cold.
Then…
“Boom boom boom…”
Another round of canister shot critical strikes!
This time, eighty percent canister shot, twenty percent grape shot.
Because Sauron felt there was no longer need to destroy the Rock Demon fleet’s masts and sails. The next target was to kill as many people as possible, destroy as few ships as possible, because these warships would soon belong to the Sauron clan fleet.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…”
Countless canister shot projectiles once again smashed out like a violent storm.
Another sky-filling cloud of blood mist.
Countless corpses fell. Dead rock pirates and pirates, too numerous to count!
…
In the following moments, Sauron began replicating this despicable and shameless tactic.
Taking advantage of the Rock Demon fleet’s severe damage and slow speed, always maintaining a certain distance from the Rock Demon fleet, absolutely not letting his own ships be bitten.
Then, from two to three hundred metres away, wildly firing canister shot!
Round after round of canister shot critical strikes, ruthlessly taking large numbers of lives!
The Rock Demon fleet still frantically pursued and bit.
The two fleets always maintained a distance of a few hundred metres.
“Boom, boom, boom…”
Sauron’s several hundred cannons roared again and again.
Rainstorm-like canister shot sprayed out again and again!
This ruthless and terrifying battle continued for over an hour!
Then…
An incomparably desolate and terrible scene appeared.
Among the Rock Demon fleet at the closest distance, some warships’ decks were already empty.
One could not say they were empty, but rather there were no standing pirates. All had fallen in pools of blood, becoming corpses.
And all the warships had been riddled with holes like sieves. The foremost warships even had their deck cabins completely transparent, who knew how many hundreds of holes punched through them.
From beginning to end, over a dozen rounds of canister shot cannon fire!
Several million projectiles had been sprayed out. Even if most fell into the sea, still a small portion, over one million, struck the Rock Demon’s several hundred warships.
Finally, these brave and death-fearing rock pirates completely collapsed.
They feared not death, even actively pursued death!
But their death was for victory, for plunder, not meaningless death!
In the battle before them, they saw no hope.
They charged desperately, yet could never draw close to Sauron’s fleet.
Many rock pirates even bravely leapt into the sea, swimming towards Sauron’s warships.
However, this was tragedy upon tragedy. Before they could climb onto Sauron’s warships, they already became ghosts beneath arrows.
Sauron’s fleet was always right before their eyes, seemingly within reach, yet forever so close yet so far.
And every round of rainstorm-like canister shot attack from Sauron’s fleet took countless lives!
Every ship’s deck was blood-soaked, corpses strewn everywhere.
They did not surrender, even still feared not death. But they were unwilling to fight any longer, unwilling to make futile resistance.
This collapse spread like contagion. On one rock pirate fleet after another, people knelt on decks in pain, giving up resistance.
Sauron rode his griffin, circling above the rock pirate fleet.
Then he saw wave after wave of rock pirates kneeling, truly like a great wind blowing through, wheat stalks snapping.
The Rock Demon was completely defeated!
He lost cleanly, completely!
And most humiliatingly, his one hundred thousand pirates had barely inflicted any casualties on Sauron!
From beginning to end, only twenty-odd desperate rock pirate warships charged to the front of Sauron’s fleet and began boarding battle.
But…
Nearly half the rock pirates on these warships were already dead. Those who truly entered boarding battle numbered merely just over one thousand.
And even more tragically, half of them chose to jump onto Sauron’s three giant artillery warships.
Two were double-decked, one was triple-decked, like small mountains. And apart from cannon firing ports, they were completely sealed with thick hull planks.
They wanted to board for close combat, yet could not find anywhere to jump.
Many rock pirates bravely climbed the warships trying to squeeze through cannon firing ports. But several sharp blades suddenly thrust out from within, instantly shredding them to pieces.
And on the other dozen or so warships, nearly one thousand rock pirates successfully jumped onto Sauron fleet’s warships.
However, they faced enemies two to three times their number. After fighting frantically and bravely for half a quarter hour, the rock pirate fleet who successfully boarded died completely clean.
…
Then, where was the Rock Demon at this moment?
He had fled! Indeed, the brave and invincible king of rock pirates had fled!
By now, he had successfully broken away from the battlefield by several dozen li.
When Sauron fired his third and fourth rounds of canister shot, he already knew there was no hope!
His plan of surviving through certain death had completely failed!
Because his fleet had suffered massive destruction, lost their speed advantage, and could never close with Sauron’s fleet. They could only passively take a beating. Continuing to fight would only result in total annihilation.
Very strangely, when he knew he was completely defeated, he no longer felt pain, his heart no longer bled, only coldness and numbness remained.
Watching Sauron’s fleet continuously slaughter his people, the Rock Demon was as if watching a play, completely unrelated to himself.
Then, he coldly issued an order: the Rock King main fleet, all flee the battlefield!
After issuing the escape order, the Rock Demon did not even sound the retreat horn. He only used a very private method to notify his main fleet to retreat and flee.
And at that time, most of the fleet was fighting independently, like a wolf pack, desperately pouncing towards Sauron’s fleet.
The scene was complete chaos. In the end, the Rock Demon main fleet that successfully broke away from battle numbered merely just over one hundred warships, just over ten thousand rock pirates.
And the remaining sixty thousand rock pirates were all sacrificed and abandoned, becoming cannon fodder, covering the escape of the fleeing Rock Demon!
Not only that, the Rock Demon had changed his clothes and hidden in a cabin, concealed among numerous rock pirates!
So, by the battle’s end, many rock pirates turned back wanting one more look at their king, either a final glance before death, or wanting to draw courage from the Rock King.
In the end, they discovered they could no longer find their Rock King. Their king had actually fled far away.
They knew they had been abandoned, betrayed by their own king.
Thus these rock pirates completely collapsed, giving up resistance, kneeling on the ground.
…
Sauron flew in the air, discovering the Rock Demon main fleet’s escape intention at the first moment.
But he did not order his fleet to pursue!
Because at this moment his fleet was in normal combat order, absolutely not to be disrupted. Moreover, tens of thousands of rock pirates were entangled in front, making it impossible to break away from battle to pursue the fleeing Rock Demon.
Acting decisively, Sauron dispatched over a dozen griffins carrying powder kegs and fire oil barrels to conduct air strikes against the fleeing Rock Demon main fleet.
The results were as in drills: the hit rate was too low.
Moreover, just over a dozen griffins were far too few, completely unable to inflict much damage on the fleeing Rock Demon main fleet, even unable to block the Rock Demon main fleet’s escape.
By the time Sauron fleet’s great battle here ended, over an hour had passed. By now, the Rock Demon had led his one hundred-odd main fleet warships, escaping fifty to sixty li away.
Yan Chuo’er stepped forward to recruit the completely collapsed rock pirates and pirates.
At this moment, Yan Chuo’er’s appearance was not even needed. After discovering they had been abandoned, these rock pirates had already lost all will to fight.
Yan Chuo’er ordered the surviving rock pirates and pirates to surrender, lower their sails, and cut their ropes.
Thus, the surviving enemy warships on the battlefield lost all power, unable to move, only able to float and spin on the sea surface.
Then Sauron ordered that only five thousand naval troops remain to guard the prisoners. The remaining twenty thousand naval troops continued pursuing the Rock Demon fleet!
…
Evening, the setting sun sinking in the west!
The Rock Demon’s one hundred-odd warships frantically fled ahead, while Sauron’s fleet pursued desperately behind.
In the air, over a dozen griffins continuously conducted air strikes against the Rock Demon fleet.
Thus, the two fleets, one before and one behind, relentlessly chased.
Over an hour later, night fell!
The two fleets became more cautious, but still one fled and one pursued.
Another entire night passed!
The next day, the morning sun rose, sunlight spilling across the sea surface, as if countless gold coins were shimmering.
After a night of pursuit, Sauron’s fleet and the Rock Demon fleet still maintained a distance of sixty to seventy li.
The Rock Demon’s main fleet warships were mostly relatively intact. Under full speed escape their speed was very fast, so Sauron’s fleet not only failed to close the distance, but gradually fell further behind.
…
And at this moment, three hundred li ahead of the fleeing Rock Demon fleet!
Hai Gang’s fifty thousand main fleet was grandly sailing south at full speed!
At this moment, Hai Gang had only one thought in his heart. He hoped Sauron would lose slowly, hoped that by the time his fleet arrived, there would still be some cold leftovers to eat.
The scene he least wished to see was, after travelling thousands of li with great hardship to reach the battlefield, discovering the battle had already ended, with the Rock Demon holding up Sauron’s head saying, “Father-in-law, how late you have come? The battle is already finished. You may return by the same route!”
He, Hai Gang, had travelled thousands of li leading fifty thousand main fleet south, only to return empty-handed. He would truly spit blood from anger.
“Sauron, you must hold on, you absolutely must not lose too quickly. You must endure, wait for me to arrive and deliver the fatal blow!”