Chapter 810 - 170: Hunting Halberd Whale
"It’s Fishmen!"
Seeing that hate mark so red it’s infuriating, Han Zhan didn’t even need to guess to know.
"It seems they’re approaching us, Ah Zhan!"
After all this time at sea, it’s the first time encountering a fleet composed solely of NPCs.
Especially they’re all Fishmen.
This is truly, foes on a narrow road.
Most critically, on the masts of those three warships, the same flag is hung high, seemingly with a ’East’ character.
Central Sea Area’s one of the three major powers, the fleet of the East King!
The closer to the Central Sea Area, the greater the chance of encountering the fleets belonging to one of the three major powers.
Whether to face off with them directly, now requires Han Zhan to make a decision.
"Pile up the special shells, prepare for battle!"
Soon, Han Zhan decisively commanded.
The opponent’s three warships are on the necessary route to Saint-Teres Port, avoiding is impossible now.
Moreover, it’s clear the opponents have already found them, fleeing now would fall into passivity instead.
The relation between them is hatred, so there’s no hope these Fishmen NPCs would refrain from attacking the ’Gray Sparrow’.
Thus, Han Zhan’s decision is to abandon illusions and face the enemy directly.
At this moment, the foremost of the three warships has already entered the range of the ’Gray Sparrow’s’ warp cannon.
"Fire!"
With Han Zhan’s order, a cannonball comparable to light speed shot out.
The power of the warp cannon lies in its speed and destructive capability, so fast it leaves no time for reaction, and the explosion’s space-time collapse can cause massive damage.
This is almost an infallible first move.
But this time, an accident happened.
The warp cannon hit the target, but the warship unexpectedly seemed to blur for a moment.
The explosion appeared in the sea area behind, yet its speed wasn’t slow as it continued closing in on the ’Gray Sparrow’!
"Did my eyes blur for a moment?"
As the gunner, Nuannuan rubbed her eyes, thinking she saw it wrong.
"No, it should be that warship’s trait, or a special item."
"To become a warship under the East King, it must have special abilities, unlike those ordinary adventurers."
"Be careful, this might be a tough battle."
"Xiao Jin, control the ship speed, and keep distance from them."
"Got it!" Gongyang Jin nodded and said.
On the other side, under the 13th Court of the East King, Fishman Admiral Fan Benhua was stationed on the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’, locking onto the distant enemy warship.
"Sir, the opponent just fired a special shell, but it triggered the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’s’ Phantom effect and dodged it."
Fan Benhua was an unreservedly fishman.
Its body was taller than typical Fishmen, covered in smooth silver scales, with vertical amber pupils staring at the sea.
"I can see it."
It spoke, "While the Phantom effect is active, quickly prepare for close-boarding combat."
Yes, close-boarding combat.
As the 13th Court under the East King, Fan Benhua’s specialty in combat is close-boarding!
On the Water Planet, many people wager their fortunes on their ships, neglecting their own defense.
The Fishmen, precisely, excel at close-boarding combat, their scale armor is natural defense, rainy days are best suited for them.
With these enhancements, their close combat abilities stand apart, they are aces among aces.
Due to the battle style, Fan Benhua’s ’Hunting Halberd Whale’ warship, during its design and creation, clearly defined its role—
Quickly chasing and enduring enemy’s long-range artillery attacks.
In the warship design, there were two methods for enduring long-range artillery, one used ultra-high defense wood, strong enough to withstand special shells.
However, such wood has one universal trait, it’s heavy.
A wood both light and defensively strong, in theory, doesn’t exist.
And the ship body made from heavy wood loses the possibility of "quick pursuit."
Therefore, initially, the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’ chose another way to deal with long-range artillery fire, namely "evasion!"
The wood used in the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’ is high-grade wood known as Ghostly Wood, its trait is being light enough, with a 10% base evasion.
Besides, the ballast stones used on the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’ were Traceless Stones that added 30% base evasion.
The most crucial highlight comes, as captain of the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’, Fan Benhua’s captain talent is "Phantom", which increases base evasion by 50%!
This brings the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’s’ base evasion to 90%, allowing it to almost ignore most artillery fire, and full-speed ahead, preparing for close-boarding combat.
This is also why the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’ can qualify as the 13th Court under the East King.
Moreover, since it’s close-boarding combat, the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’ doesn’t need extra ammunition, making the warship lighter, with shallower draft, able to accommodate more Fishmen sailors.
As for costs...the value of a Fishmen sailor truly isn’t as expensive as a special shell!
Thus, under Fan Benhua’s command, the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’ proceeded full speed, chasing the ’Gray Sparrow’ ahead.
"Captain, its speed is so fast, it’s on par with the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’!"
"Judging by its draft depth, it should be loaded with quite a lot of cargo, yet it can maintain such high navigation speed."
"There must be a talented person on that ship who can increase navigation speed!"
The ’Hunting Halberd Whale’ chased for a while, but still couldn’t close the distance with the ’Gray Sparrow’.
The ’Gray Sparrow’ also fired several new shells in succession, but none hit the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’.
This sea pursuit battle has been stalemated for a long time.
Fan Benhua showed an impatient expression.
"This ship is really a slippery loach, when I catch it, I’ll surely let it know the consequence of boarding the deck!"
"No need for further reservations, take out the ’Soul-Seeking Rope’."
"As long as we can capture the ship and the talented person enhancing navigation speed aboard, along with those special shells, it’ll fully compensate for using the Soul-Seeking Rope!"
The ’Soul-Seeking Rope’ is a special item.
It has only one function, to link and fix two ships, constantly shortening the distance, hence named the Soul-Seeking Rope.
This is a close-boarding combat weapon, there weren’t many on the ’Hunting Halberd Whale’, just three, using one means one less.
But as Fan Benhua said, as long as they can seize the ’Gray Sparrow’, the loss is fully compensable.
Under his orders, very soon, a Soul-Seeking Rope was brought onto the deck.
Simple assembly, loading, aiming,
Whoosh, the Soul-Seeking Rope exceeded the ship’s sailing speed and flew out.
Moments later, a Fishman sailor loudly reported from the deck:
"Sir, the Soul-Seeking Rope has hit!"