Chapter 428 -428-Recklessness
No matter how many warships you had, it would make no difference before such terrifying power.
Forget eighteen hundred warships—even one hundred and eight thousand warships would be useless.
Even if you had seven hundred thousand men and more than ten thousand cannons, or even tens of millions of men backed by tens of millions of cannons, there would be no turning the situation around before this sea of flames.
The inferno raged like the wrath of nature itself, giving its victims no chance to resist.
At that moment, Logar suddenly stammered,
"W-Wait! Look over there! There are gunpowder barrels too!"
The moment he finished speaking, a tongue of flame reached one of the wooden barrels.
Just as he had feared, the barrel immediately erupted in a terrifying explosion.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Countless gunpowder barrels exploded on the spot. Sharp stones, iron nails, and fragments packed inside them were hurled wildly in every direction by the terrifying force of the blasts.
In an instant, countless pirates were struck by the flying debris. Wounds appeared all over their bodies, casualties soared, and endless screams of agony rang out across the sea.
At the same time, the pirates descended into even greater chaos. Ships began cutting across one another’s paths, not only destroying the original formation but also triggering an even more terrifying wave of panic.
By now, many of the Pirate Crews had completely forgotten about John.
All they cared about was how they themselves were going to survive.
They had no intention of helping pirates who did not belong to their own crews.
The Pirate Alliance formation rapidly descended into disorder, losing all sense of direction and becoming unable to advance or retreat effectively.
The larger the battlefield, the more manpower and resources involved, and the more difficult everything became to control.
Worse still, all that manpower and all those resources did not belong to one unified organization. They came from countless separate factions.
That was precisely why they were nothing more than a rabble.
No matter how much strength they possessed or how many people they had, they were still little more than brittle branches and dead leaves.
When everything was going their way, they could still put up a decent fight.
But the moment they encountered even the slightest setback, the situation would become a nightmare for any commander.
Gortar and Logar were both veteran pirate commanders whose composure had already begun to collapse.
After witnessing everything that had happened around them, they both understood that the Pirate Alliance no longer had any chance of victory.
It existed in name only and had already fallen into a desperate situation.
No matter how capable they were as commanders, no matter how outstanding they might be, there was no way to turn this battle around amid such a hellish scene.
"I was careless."
Gortar stared at everything before him with unbearable pain and sighed.
"I was far too careless. I never should have allowed everyone to gather together like this. I should have sent a smaller squadron ahead first to probe the enemy’s arrangements."
If they had sent a detached squadron forward to scout, the result would have been completely different.
Even if John had ignited the oil and created this sea of flames, they would have lost only a single squadron.
The Pirate Alliance had no shortage of men or warships.
And by then, John would have already exhausted his tricks.
Once the flames died down, the Pirate Alliance could have led its main force forward, seized the main island, and settled everything in a single battle.
And if John had chosen not to ignite the flames, then the detached squadron alone would have been strong enough to take the island.
Either way, John would have died.
They never would have ended up in a situation like this.
One after another, the Pirate Alliance’s warships were gradually swallowed by the sea of fire.
Countless ships and countless pirates descended into chaos.
Even though commanders desperately waved signal flags, it was useless.
No one was listening anymore.
As time passed, the destruction of the Pirate Alliance was already within sight.
And the reason they had made such a catastrophic mistake was simply arrogance—the desire to display overwhelming might, the desire to crush everything in their path...
and the failure to exercise even the slightest caution.
John’s strength on paper, by comparison, looked far weaker.
He had only a little over a hundred warships of various sizes, barely more than forty-five thousand men, and several hundred cannons.
Anyone who saw those numbers would have shaken their head at John.
No one believed he could win!
However, when Captain Madman first heard the plan, he had begun to think John might actually have a chance.
At the very least, these were ideas none of them would ever have thought of.
Scattering obstacles across the sea.
Using gunpowder barrels.
Refusing to fight the Pirate Alliance head-on.
And all kinds of other ideas...
Every one of them had been conceived by John and then put into action under his orders.
The facts proved that they worked.
They worked extremely well.
The grand Pirate Alliance had looked enormous and overwhelmingly powerful.
Yet despite all that strength, it had still been outmaneuvered by Boss John and fallen straight into his trap.
At this moment, the grand Pirate Alliance had to face not only the sea of flames steadily devouring its forces...
but also internal conflict, and even outright slaughter among its own members.
That alone completely shattered the Pirate Alliance’s superficial unity.
At this moment, its warships were like ants on a scorching pan and headless flies, darting wildly in every direction without knowing what to do.
In Captain Madman’s eyes, they had transformed from ferocious tigers with razor-sharp fangs into weak, foolish lambs.
All that remained was for Boss John to give the order to harvest them.
Aboard the Golden Merry, John calmly watched everything unfolding before him.
His heart remained completely unmoved.
He was already far too familiar with this outcome, because the Pirate Alliance was following his script almost perfectly.
"They mistakenly believe that I’m a representative of the Naval Corps."
"So at its core, they believe this is a confrontation between the pirates and the Naval Corps."
"Faced with the Naval Corps’ overwhelming power, the pirates naturally wouldn’t dare take things lightly."
"But at the same time, my strength on paper is extremely weak. That made them believe that mobilizing their entire force would not only display their might, but also allow them to crush me outright."
"And once they believed that, they naturally stopped acting cautiously."
"After all, many people believe in one saying..."
"Before absolute strength, every scheme and trick is meaningless."
"The pirates believed that too."
John smiled faintly.
"But what they didn’t know was that their opponent wasn’t just anyone."
"It was me."
Looking at the scene before him as though admiring the finest masterpiece he had ever created, John smiled and gave the order.
"Begin Phase Two!"
The first phase had been to use the sea of flames to consume the Pirate Alliance, disrupt its deployment, and force it to collapse from within.
Now came the second phase.
Attack.
Keep the Pirate Alliance trapped inside the sea of flames so it could not escape.
Let the fire make up for the raw strength John lacked and destroy the Pirate Alliance in his place.
The moment John gave the order...
his warships immediately moved.
Under the enhancement of the God of Naval Warfare buff, every aspect of their performance skyrocketed.
And it was not just the warships that received the enhancement.
The people aboard them were strengthened as well.
More than a hundred warships sailed to the outer edge of the sea of flames, executed beautiful drifting turns, swung their broadsides into position, and opened fire.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Countless cannonballs crashed into the burning sea.
There was no need to aim at all.
Didn’t the Pirate Alliance have an overwhelming number of ships and men?
With a single broadside, dozens of ships and hundreds—even thousands—of pirates inside the sea of flames were struck by cannon fire.
At this moment, the Golden Merry pushed its speed to the absolute limit.
It surged forward, drifted across the surface of the sea, and brought hundreds of cannons to bear on the inferno.
"Fire!" John ordered.