By the time the salvo struck, the morale of the entire Red Beard fleet had already begun to collapse rapidly.
Victory in line-of-battle tactics was paramount, requiring greater obedience to command than the enemy and courageous fighting. Success or failure hinged on persistence.
When one could no longer persist, that was the beginning of utter defeat!
Most could no longer spare a thought for retaliation; they were all frantically trying to plug leaks in their warships.
"Quick, quick, the planks! Bring over the planks!"
"The gunports on the lower deck are leaking too! We’ve run out of oakum! Carpenter, quickly!"
Whether on a pirate ship or a warship, the job of "plugging holes" during a cannonade was indispensable.
When the battle reached this stage and the hulls near the waterline were hit, even the ship’s carpenters effectively became combat personnel.
They needed to grab their tools and rush to the carpentry passages inside the ship, then quickly nail planks or lead sheets over the leaks.
"What... what is that?"
The carpenter, working near the waterline to stop a leak, rubbed his eyes.
Through the constantly flooding hole, the size of a human head, he saw the sea outside suddenly turn crimson, as if it were on fire.
Upon closer inspection, he realized it was an enormous school of fish: tens, hundreds, thousands—too many to count in that moment.
These crewmen had all personally witnessed the gruesome sight of Red Beard being blown sky-high by a swarm of fish bombs.
How could they not know what this was?
The carpenter wasn’t the only one screaming in terror. The Pirates on the ship, who had just been relieved to have survived another broadside, now had their eyes bulging, emitting hoarse, raspy gasps from deep within their throats. They couldn’t even scream.
"You wish! The same move won’t defeat me a second time!"
Red Beard, who had just regenerated after a cannonball took half his body, glared furiously. He retrieved a yellow-green potion from a chest guarded by his first mate, Badger Harvey.
The main problem with the Sequence system was its lack of secrets; using a move once made it easy to counter.
When Red Beard was first targeted by the Gunpowder Artists, he couldn’t even protect himself, let alone others.
But since he was already committed to this confrontation, how could he not have prepared countermeasures in advance?
**Dragon Dung Potion:**
*It didn’t come from forbidden knowledge but was a secondary invention by Adventurers of the Wilderness Sequence. It was said that before the Silver Era, in an age when Dragon Species were everywhere, Extraordinary Power was not systematized, and Adventurer wasn’t yet a Sequence profession, dragon dung was often used by them to intimidate various wild Beasts. Though now, not to mention pure-bloods, even various subspecies carrying Dragon Blood are extremely rare. They had to settle for the next best thing: concocting new potions from the feces of savage beasts. This led to the Dragon Dung Potion also acquiring a second name—Gold Juice Potion. In the coastal areas of the Old Continent, it’s uncommon, but on overseas sailing routes, high-quality Dragon Dung Potion is a necessity. It can frighten away various elusive Sea Monsters or, at the very least, force them to surface, providing surface warships with an opportunity for a head-on battle.*
The moment the stopper was opened, a strong, pungent odor permeated the air, causing Byron, standing high on the crow’s nest, to involuntarily cover his nose.
The potion dissolved quickly after being poured into the water, tinting the murky seawater nearby an unsettling shade of yellow-green.
The crimson school of fish, initially controlled by Violet’s bone whistle and charging directly toward them, suddenly veered away from the *Goddess of Vengeance* as if encountering a natural predator.
As for the other pirate ships nearby? With an "every man for himself" attitude, how could Red Beard care about the lives of others at this moment?
It seemed most of the other Great Pirates had not made such specific preparations. While frantically shouting, "Full rudder, evade!" they simultaneously activated their respective Third Order Transcendent abilities to fend off the fish.
"Graveyard Sequence maxim: Grant rest to all things!" FEAR SPIRITUAL ENERGY!
"Hall Sequence (various Artists) maxim: Humanity can accomplish great deeds." FANTASY RESONANCE!
The Transcendent System of *The Ladder of Glory* believes: Humanity above all, glory to the collective. It organizes all of human society—religions, kingdoms, nationalities, guilds, associations, from top to bottom—into one intricate web. Divine authority at the top! Royal Authority in the middle! All professions below!
Each profession is a necessary part of society’s functioning.
As long as you reach the Middle Sequence, your status is that of a notable mid-level figure within your organization, respected wherever you go.
Among Pirates, this means a Great Pirate commanding an independent fleet; among Knights, it’s a Knight Captain leading a squad of Knights.
Changing domains wouldn’t suddenly cast them to the bottom tier, requiring them to start from scratch in a repetitive cycle.
Thus, they had acquired a sufficiently stable Anchor.
Extraordinary Power truly manifested within them, giving rise to systematic or Tactical Level core abilities.
Particularly, the ’Conductor’ Ferdinand, piloting the *Beast Cage*, excelled in such circumstances.
In his hand, he held an ancient, rusted iron camel bell once used by merchant caravans.
A single shake slowed the leading school of fish; two shakes, and their bodies stiffened on the ocean surface; three shakes, and a portion of the school even began to turn around.
These were the Third Order Beast Tamer’s systematic abilities: "Group Monster Immobilization" and "Group Monster Domination."
But his power alone couldn’t sway the entire battlefield spanning several kilometers.
Just as the fish were about to reverse direction, Violet—who was well aware of all her opponents’ professions and showed no surprise—slowly extended her slender, fair right hand. She snapped her fingers at the fish already perilously close to the enemy ships.
An orange-red flame erupted like a volcanic explosion, and a searing shockwave lifted an immense volume of seawater into the sky.
The entire battlefield was showered with boiling rain.
The seawater boiled, and the very ocean seemed to shake violently from the aftershocks of the explosion.
The few targeted enemy ships were instantly heaved out of the water by the massive underwater shockwave. One of them nearly disintegrated as it crashed heavily back into the ocean, flinging countless Pirates into the tumultuous waves. They drowned while unconscious.
At this point, the fleet’s morale completely collapsed. Those who were spared immediately turned tail and fled.
In fact, Red Beard’s actions played right into Violet’s and Byron’s hands.
This fragile alliance, tenuously held together by self-interest, lost its last shred of fighting spirit after this display of "the greatest art" and could no longer concern itself with any benefits.
They believed that if they fled, the Bayfolk fleet wouldn’t single them out for pursuit.
"Miss Willette, we withdraw from the Military Governor competition! We will no longer support Redbeard Edward and relinquish all interests in Iron Anchor Bay!"
"Red Beard’s collusion with the Kingdom is an unforgivable crime! I, the Butcher Bird, hereby sever all ties with him! From this day forward, I pledge allegiance to Her Royal Highness the Princess!"
The cunning Great Pirates feigned weakness one after another. After making their declarations, they ignobly fled for their lives.
Byron and Violet never intended to wipe them all out in the first place.
First, if all of Red Beard’s followers were killed, who would serve as fodder when they faced the ’Calamity’ that attacked from dreams?
Second, it was because of poverty!
Waging war is essentially burning money.
*Flame’s Kiss*—this alchemical formula was powerful and highly controllable. Its only flaw was its expense.
Cultivating those thousands of fish bombs was more costly than equipping several large-caliber cannons, nearly equivalent to the same weight in silver.
Violet no longer had enough funds to launch a second wave of attacks.
Byron watched as the Great Pirates were utterly routed in the head-on fleet battle, his eyes twinkling with Divine Light. Commanding such a momentous and vast battle has evidently propelled my Transcendent path to significant progress. The Gold Sequence allows for rapid advancement with sufficient funds, and the Storm Knight Sequence, like others, is no exception. "Resources" refer not only to potions, Spices, and knowledge but also to such opportunities for practical experience, fitting for one’s chosen path. Even if Lancaster hadn’t fallen, it was unlikely that command of such a large-scale battle would have been entrusted to a novice like me. This is another great victory for traditional line-of-battle tactics against conventional methods. Perhaps, limited by cannon power, the line of battle isn’t yet mainstream in warfare. But in the future, when a main line of battle is deployed, it will be the ultimate gamble—one capable of determining a nation’s fate and maritime supremacy for decades, even centuries to come. Even in the entire naval history of my past life, such nation-defining battles were rare. Nevertheless, the sheer number of warships each country possessed was in itself the greatest deterrent. More is strong, big is beautiful; more and big means being a Maritime Overlord! Unfortunately, I wonder when I’ll get another chance to test my skills.
If not for his lack of Spirituality, the "Storm" he had just commanded would have been entirely sufficient to serve as the Promotion Ceremony for a Storm Knight advancing to the Middle Sequence.
With Red Beard’s fleet having lost its deterrence, it dispersed. The smaller pirate ships from the surrounding Privateer Fleet also scattered in disarray.
The Collective Ship Coffin of the Heroic Spirits once again closed in on the isolated *Goddess of Vengeance*.
Byron handed control of the battlefield back to Violet, a genuine Third Order Artisan.
"Raise the blood flag! Spare no one!"
"An eye for an eye, blood for blood!"