Chapter 900: Chapter 688: The Battle of Snowbird Port – Caught Off Guard
Using the dense night and the portable alchemy equipment, the Navy successfully approached the ships of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps.
They grouped in squads, dispersed in positions, keeping a distance from each other. Yet, during their actions, no one spoke, moving swiftly and constantly watching the positions of nearby allies to adjust their own, advancing together. All of this reflected the excellent military discipline of the Imperial Navy.
And the alchemy equipment they wore also had excellent camouflage abilities. The Navy was almost merged with the night, completely undetectable by the naked eye.
There was no alarm at the dock.
The Mage Tower had been taken down.
The original alert setup at Snowbird Port’s dock had been quickly dismantled by the Navy.
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps also had its own defenses. However, the outer defensive measures were silently taken apart by the Navy’s mini flying disc devices.
The greatest defense of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps was their ships themselves.
Each ship could be seen as a movable fortress.
There were quite a number of ships of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps docked. Their flagship was Silver Level, a warship retired from the regular army of the Ice Sculpture Kingdom. The ship’s design was slender, but it was the largest in size.
Next was the Black Iron Level Triangular Love Ship, originally the flagship of the Clapping Pirate Group, later seized by the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps.
Then came the Bronze Level White Bandage and Iron Lump, which belonged to two mercenary groups of Twin Eyes Island. After the naval battle at Twin Eyes Island, survivors traded with Island Master Hun Tong to acquire a ship. Although these two demon energy ships were low-level, each had unique alchemy devices. The White Bandage excelled in healing, while the Iron Lump was strong in defense.
Aside from these, there were ordinary ships that could only serve as cannon fodder and support in more intense naval battles. Not worth mentioning.
Information about these ships was well-known to Tan Mo’s side and extremely detailed.
The empire’s spy specialized in intelligence, plus the fact that survivors had once sent ships to the repair shop of Snowbird Port’s City Lord.
This indicated just how detailed and reliable this intelligence was.
In fact, the City Lord of Snowbird Port not only gathered intelligence but also made some covert modifications to these ships during repairs.
If it were a sea battle with intense crossfire, it would be difficult for the Navy to launch a sneak attack. But in the current situation, it was a perfect setting for an ambush.
“This will be a perfect raid!” the Navy leader thought.
Meanwhile, Tan Mo stayed in a room outside the dock, watching the battle unfold from afar through a magic image.
“Hurry up and start,” his eyes were full of greed and longing, eager in his heart.
Tan Mo estimated: Long Fu and Yao Ma must have taken some of the money with them, but most should still be on the ship. Especially antique calligraphy and paintings among them, converting them into cash is a long-term process.
“The magic potion business of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps is booming.”
“The Alchemy Guild was previously sabotaged by enemies, but it has long resumed operations.”
“Although the Lijian family is the main force in producing magic potions, it is clear the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps hasn’t given up on this sector.”
“Since they are brewing potions in large scale every day, there must be ample funds to purchase raw materials, pay for transportation fees, etc.”
“In any case, take these people down first. If the money isn’t enough, we’ll extort Long Fu!”
“We are pirates now…”
Thinking of the best outcome, Tan Mo grinned.
Knowing too much intelligence, he was very optimistic about this battle, believing that the strength of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ division was not to be feared.
In his view, the ships of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps had already transformed into giant treasure chests.
These treasure chests kept tempting him—come open me, open me.
“How much wealth will be here?”
“Hehehe, it’s all my money.”
Woo-woo-woo——!
Suddenly, the sound of an alarm resounded over the dock.
His reverie was interrupted, and Tan Mo’s expression froze, bewildered: Why would there still be an alarm?
He instinctively looked towards the Mage Tower, it wasn’t that.
Then, Tan Mo looked towards the ships of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, it wasn’t them either!
Then where was the alarm coming from?
Sanda suddenly sat up from his bed. He was not on duty tonight. But now, his rest was interrupted by the alarm. At the first moment, Sanda himself was puzzled. For he was not familiar with this alarm at all; it was quite unfamiliar.
Whose alarm was this?
“What’s happening outside?” Sanda was still confused, not realizing his side was in danger.
“Damn it!” the Navy, lurking halfway, reacted the fastest.
The Navy leader cursed under his breath, and decisively ordered in the next moment, “Full attack!”
The Navy gathered their fighting energy, revealing themselves from their disguises, charging towards the large and small ships of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps.
“Attack!”
“Kill them all, grab the money, seize the ships!!”
“Raise the pirate flag for me!”
During the attack, they did not forget to disguise their identities.
There were some patrol personnel on board the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps ships. But none of them detected the Navy. Once the alarm went off, they saw the enemy, shouting “Enemy attack, enemy attack,” but it was already too late.
The naval assault team launched a full-force attack.
In an instant, the navy surrounded the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps from the pier and the sea, attacking from all directions.
Clang clang clang!
For the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, it was a genuine alarm this time.
“Enemy attack, there are enemies.”
“Pirates, loads of pirates!!”
“Isn’t this Snowbird Port?”
The mercenaries shouted hastily.
Most of them were still resting.
Their minds were in a drowsy state, but their bodies had already reacted—mechanically flipping out of their hammocks, dressing and armoring swiftly, picking up their weapons, forming formations, and orderly rushing to the battlefield quickly.
At this critical moment, they showed good military discipline.
These were the results of previous intensive military training.
But now, the problem was the true identity of their enemy, which was the navy, the Empire’s regular navy.
If it was facing a pirate raid, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps usually had the advantage in military discipline and skills. But facing a regular navy, this was not an advantage, at most it compensated for some disadvantages. After all, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps was newly formed by young individuals, and time had been short.
Especially now, with one side prepared for the attack and the other just waking up, the situation was very clear after engagement.
Therefore, when Sanda rushed onto the deck, he saw that many of their ships had already been lost.
These ordinary ships were all controlled. The people on the decks were all dead, but not many. Most people were resting in the cabins, but the enemy had already controlled the stairways, and because the space for ingress and egress was very narrow, they were all trapped inside the ships.
This was very passive.
Sanda saw this scene and was immediately anxious beyond words, his eyes almost spewing fire.
“How can there be pirates?!”
“That’s right, the Lijian family was previously defeated, and coastal defenses were lost! Is that why the pirates came here?”
Since the defeat of the Lijian family, the coastal ports have been on edge and full of anxiety.
With such psychological expectations and the lack of key information, Sanda did not realize the true nature of this battle.
Sanda quickly gathered his thoughts and started commanding.
He was once the squad leader of the mercenaries, with rich experience and having experienced enemy raids before.
Sanda quickly ordered, while deploying troops on one hand, and sending a call for help on the other.
“The Mage Tower is also under attack?” Sanda looked towards the Mage Tower, finding its brilliance completely dimmed.
Sanda’s heart trembled: “Daring to attack Snowbird Port, it must be at least a Golden Level pirate group! Judging by the situation, it seems that Golden Level pirates have attacked the Mage Tower.”
“Damn it, they actually succeeded! How did they infiltrate?”
Sanda could only brace himself to engage in battle.
The gathering of the mercenary group required time, so Sanda released nearly all of the Alchemy Puppets.
These puppets joined the front lines with decent results, but only slightly alleviated the situation.
Sanda decisively abandoned some sea vessels, focusing all efforts to gather the elites back to their flagship.
Not all the transcendent beings were gathered on the flagship. This allocation was obviously unreasonable.
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps had their Silver Level acting as captains on most sea vessels, with stronger elites assigned on some demon energy vessels.
Notably, the number of Silver Level transcendent beings in the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps had increased from the original seven to eleven.
There were even more at the Bronze Level and Black Iron Level.
The Dragon-man youth, before leaving, recruited many Snow Elves, focusing on recruiting many Magic Chefs and Magic Apprentices.
After the Dragon-man youth left, under the booming magic potion business nationwide, leveraging the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ reputation, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps branch continued to recruit transcendent beings.
Some transcendent beings were recruited through personal outreach, others through intermediary introductions, with a few joining voluntarily.
But now, in just over 10 minutes of engagement, two Silver Level members of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps had already been killed in action.
These Silver Levels were relatively ordinary.
Chi Lai was naturally not an ordinary Silver Level.
He was stationed on the Triangular Love Ship and was awakened by the battle, immediately casting Divine Arts upon rushing to the deck.
Justice Divine Skill—Justice Blade!
Justice Divine Skill—Righteous Evil Mark!
Justice Blade is a large-scale enhancing divine art that doubles the melee killing ability of allies.
Righteous Evil Mark can mark targets as ‘evil enemies’ or ‘righteous allies.’ After making such a mark, attacks hitting enemies will be more damaging. Falling on allies will be ineffective. Healing magic that falls on allies will gain significant benefits, while on enemies it will definitely be ineffective.
The release of these two divine arts had an immediate effect. The originally defeated line finally caught a crucial breath, beginning to stabilize their position.
The naval leader, seeing this scene, immediately took action personally, leading five Silver Level members to assault Chi Lai.
Seeing the enemy’s movement, Chi Lai’s heart skipped a beat, decisively retreating towards the flagship.