Chapter 354 – Lining up to be shot at sea 4

Chapter 354 – Lining Up to Shoot at Sea 4
The fireball in Nathan’s hand had just left his hand when he saw the opposing fleet being wrapped in a sudden eruption of smoke.

Before it was too late to be surprised, loud collisions, shattering sounds, and screams suddenly erupted from the ship, followed by a thunderous noise and a violent shaking underfoot.

“Damn it, what happened?”

Nathan quickly put his hand on the railing on the side of the boat and focused on the deck, where he had just clearly heard the screams of people.

A horrific sight met his eyes – on the deck ahead, a pile of disembodied shapes collapsed on top of each other, some motionless and out of breath, some yelling and screaming, not yet having snapped out of the fact that they had been injured, and some moaning with weak breaths, looking like they were dying as well. Scattered between their broken bodies were bits and pieces of human limbs.

“Father in heaven!” “Devil!”

The deck was in chaos, the dead and wounded were not many, but their tragic state instantly shocked their fellows who were lucky enough not to be injured, some were trying to save their fallen companions, some were watching the battleship across the river with wide eyes trying to figure out what it was up to, and many more were stringing around the deck trying to find a shelter- They thought they had been attacked by a high-powered crossbow.

Nathan’s mind was quickly overtaken by consternation, both eyebrows knitted together so tightly that his usual cynical expression disappeared without a trace.

There was no doubt that they had been struck by the enemy, and the force of that strike was so powerful that it had caused significant damage to their side in a single moment, losing so much of their fighting force.

“Dammit! What are the people below doing? Why isn’t the ship moving?”

An exasperated voice yelled out, it was the pirate leader Zod. As the commander of this fleet, the responsibility on his shoulders prompted him to be the first to come to his senses. In front of the enemy’s unknown means of long-range attack, once the ship lost power, what awaited them would be further passivity.

It was only then that Nathan noticed that the ships under his feet were no longer moving in the direction of the attack and were merely drifting with the wind.

He hurried to the aft cabin door and peered down to see, to his surprise, that the cabin was also in a state of chaos, with many dead and wounded inside as well.

Nathan raised his eyes and looked around, realizing that it was not just the flagship he was riding on, but all nine ships in the first row of the pirate fleet had been attacked, all in varying degrees of chaos.

“Chieftain Zod! It’s this thing that attacked us!”

A minion shouted as he pointed at the rounded iron ball in the corner.

His words attracted many people who came over to inspect it.

“There’s one here too!” Not only one iron ball was discovered.

Nathan didn’t rush forward to gather around, he vaguely felt that there was something odd about these iron balls.

“Ah! It’s hot!” A bold pirate minion tried to pick up the iron balls, but he screamed in pain just as he touched them.

“Watch out everyone, this thing is too hot!”

A rolling iron ball? That’s what the enemy attacked us with?

Nathan was taken aback, could it be that the enemy’s ship had some sort of powerful catapult device? But what about that strange puff of smoke?

Or is it …… some kind of power beyond the world?

Just as he Nathan was lost in thought, the pirate leader Zod cursed and went down to the cabin and forced the oarsmen to restore order with his whip.

The pirate ship gradually moved again, and Zod again had his men constantly signal the other ships, and the fleet resumed its previous marching posture. Just as they were thinking of jumping on the enemy’s ships later to find out what was going on, the Northwest fleet across the river was suddenly shrouded in smoke once more.

No way, again?

The pirates were shocked, but after the lesson from last time, this time they lay down and prostrate themselves on the deck.

But this can’t stop the god of death from coming, along with the whistling sound in the air, the iron ball bounced continuously on the deck, wantonly harvesting the life on the forward route.

Not only is the iron ball itself to bring damage, because of its impact and splash of wood debris also on the pirates caused significant casualties, the ship a ghostly howl.

The pirate fleet that had just resumed action once again came to a standstill.

“Zod!”

In the midst of the chaos, Nathan shouted the pirate leader’s name, but received no response.

He remembered that Zod hadn’t come back up after going to the cabin earlier, so he immediately went down to the cabin to look for him.

However, what he found was only the still warm body of the pirate leader.

“Chief Zod …… has hung up!” The oarsmen who had witnessed the leader being killed by the mysterious iron ball had long been in a state of disbelief.

Nathan gritted his teeth and said, “Alright! From now on, I’m in command of this ship!” Now was not the time to feel sorry for the pirate leader who was tentatively considered a companion.

No one objected to his words, everyone knew that this young man’s identity was extraordinary.

Nathan darted up the stairs to the deck and shouted, “Captain Zod has been sacrificed, I declare that I will take over the command of the fleet, all the chiefs listen to …… damn it, take cover!”

Before he could finish his sentence, he saw the Northwest Battleship directly across from him once again erupt in smoke, as well as a sound as loud as thunder.

Nathan immediately turned around and tried to run and hide behind a stack of kegs not far away. However, he suddenly felt something flying past him, followed by a huge impact coming from his side, the force was so great that it was as if a giant hand had slapped it, the violent shockwave wrapped his body in a continuous roll on the deck, and after completing the last turn, Nathan blacked out and fainted.

……

Tirpitz used binoculars to carefully observe the effect of his side’s attack, the enemy’s miserable state made him very happy.

The power of the 12-pounder naval gun was enormous, the initial velocity of 477 meters per second when discharged, the solid iron bullet flying with high temperature and huge kinetic energy, flying through the front of the person when the supersonic speed of the sound wave generated even if it did not hit the person, but it will still have a huge impact on the person, leaning on the flight path of the cannonball is too close to the person will almost fainted, and will even lead to a concussion and will not be able to recover for several months.

However, there is another imperfection, that is, the pirate fleet’s attack formation makes their bow facing the Northwest fleet, which leads to the limited effect of artillery in hitting the hull of the ship, a lot of shells hit the hull of the enemy ship because of the tilt of the reason is bounced away.

Should we change our formation? Tirpitz was in a tangle.

Looking at the pirate fleet that was in chaos, Tirpitz finally made up his mind, a flag was raised on the mast, and the fleet commander’s order was conveyed to each ship.

The six paddle schooners at the stern continued to fire on the pirate fleet, while the schooners formerly at the head began to make a wide turn to the left, encircling the enemy and placing their sides squarely in front of the enemy ship’s flanks.

(End of chapter)