The third leader of the pirate crew immediately volunteered.
"Big Brother, Second Brother, let me lead several dozen warships and crush them all directly."
The chief leader shook his head.
"No. This time, we all go together."
"Second Brother is right. A battleship must never be underestimated. And if we can capture that battleship intact, it will greatly increase our strength."
The second leader sighed and shook his head.
"I’m afraid we won’t be able to bring our full strength to bear in such a short time."
"The enemy launched a surprise attack and caught us completely off guard. There is no way we can mobilize every warship this quickly. Otherwise, even if they had two battleships, they would never escape."
The chief leader waved his hand dismissively.
"It doesn’t matter. They only have a few ships. Our wolf-pack tactics will be more than enough to deal with them."
The third leader confidently thumped his chest.
"Boss is right. In naval warfare, skill is what matters most. Besides, their command ability may not even be as good as ours."
"The three of us climbed out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. They have only four warships. Even if one of them is a battleship, it’s still just a bigger ship."
The Inferno Pirates reacted extremely quickly.
Before long, five large warships, twenty medium-sized warships, and thirty-five small warships charged directly out of the harbor.
On the other side, with John’s bonuses enhancing them, his fleet rapidly accelerated as well.
It did not take long before they entered within twenty nautical miles of the Inferno Pirates.
At that moment, John’s fleet came face-to-face with the dozens of warships sailing out to meet them.
The moment the Inferno Pirates saw John’s ships, they were stunned.
The enemy fleet was simply moving far too fast.
Its speed was so extreme that it seemed almost unnatural.
To the pirates, it was like watching sailing ships from the Age of Sail suddenly encounter a nuclear-powered vessel.
The difference was utterly shocking.
Then, without warning, John’s fleet stopped.
At a distance of roughly one kilometer from the Inferno Pirates, the ships abruptly swung sideways, exposing rows of vicious cannon muzzles.
It was the classic T-shaped naval formation.
The Golden Merry immediately sent out signal flags.
Behind it, the Sea Breeze, Left Heavenly King, and Right Heavenly King quickly moved into position, lining up side by side and exposing their broadside cannons toward the pirate fleet.
John’s fleet now formed a horizontal line.
The Inferno Pirates, meanwhile, were advancing in a vertical column.
Together, the two fleets formed a perfect T-shaped formation.
This was one of the most classic techniques in naval warfare, practically regarded as an absolute truth of sea battles.
Whichever side completed the horizontal battle line first could raise its chances of victory to as high as ninety percent.
And right now, John’s fleet had seized that position first.
John did not even give the enemy pirates a chance to resist.
The moment his fleet completed its battle line, he directly gave the order to open fire.
Hundreds of cannons had already been prepared.
The Sea Breeze, Left Heavenly King, and Right Heavenly King together carried more than two hundred—no, nearly a thousand cannons.
At that moment, they all opened fire at once.
Thunderous explosions erupted continuously as more than a thousand cannons fired in unison.
The scene was terrifying beyond description.
The sound of the broadside alone seemed to blast apart the white clouds overhead, while even the sea beneath them churned violently.
Countless different cannonballs descended like a torrential rainstorm.
For an instant, they seemed to cast a shadow across the sky before pouring toward the dozens of warships belonging to the Inferno Pirates.
John currently had only four warships.
The enemy possessed more than ten times as many.
So what?
John intended to fight them head-on to the very end.
Whether it was a surprise attack or a frontal confrontation, he was not inferior to them in the slightest.
Under John’s enhancement, the destructive power of those hundreds of cannonballs became terrifying.
After a single full broadside, half of the Inferno Pirates’ thirty-five small assault vessels were already destroyed.
The ships were smashed apart by cannon fire, and the pirates aboard died along with them.
The twenty medium-sized warships fared little better.
Often, a single cannonball was enough to severely damage one of them.
The shells struck as though enchanted, effortlessly punching through armored decks before smashing straight through the bottoms of the hulls and allowing seawater to flood inside.
The very first broadside from John’s fleet left the Inferno Pirates screaming in misery and questioning everything they thought they knew about naval warfare.
"Damn it!"
The chief leader of the Inferno Pirates stared at his side’s losses with unbearable pain, gritting his teeth as he glared toward the Golden Merry.
Every one of these ships and every one of these men had been accumulated little by little over many years.
Now they were being destroyed just like that.
It was infuriating.
"Quickly! Get out of their firing arc!"
"Adjust course!"
"Circle around their fleet and seize the decisive position!"
Even now, the chief leader of the Inferno Pirates had not given up on fighting John.
He still had confidence in himself.
They were indeed at a disadvantage right now, trapped beneath John’s decisive tactical position.
But naval warfare was all about adapting to changing circumstances.
As long as they kept maneuvering and reclaimed the decisive position...
they might still be able to turn the battle around.
As the chief leader’s flagship sent out signal flags, his vessel began pulling away from John’s firing arc.
The second and third leaders saw the signals and immediately adjusted their courses as well.
Soon, the rest of the Inferno Pirates’ fleet began changing formation.
At the same time, John’s second broadside was already coming.
The cannonballs were loaded.
The fuses were lit.
Flames rapidly consumed the fuses with a sharp sizzling sound.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
John’s fleet unleashed its second wave of covering fire.
Hundreds of cannons roared in another simultaneous broadside.
This time, the results were not as devastating as the first volley.
During the first attack, the Inferno Pirates had never expected John to react so quickly and seize the critical position for crossing the T before they could respond.
That was why they had suffered such catastrophic losses.
This time, they had already reacted and adjusted their strategy, maneuvering while simultaneously launching a counterattack against John’s fleet.
A warship’s strongest concentration of firepower was always along its broadside.
There were also bow and stern guns, but those positions generally carried only one or two cannons each.
Thus, the Inferno Pirates’ counterattack consisted of little more than the bow and stern guns of several dozen ships.
With an average hit rate of only about one successful strike per hundred cannonballs fired, their counterattack appeared utterly powerless.
John’s second barrage descended.
Cannonballs fell like rain.
This volley sank one large warship, several medium-sized warships, and several small assault vessels belonging to the Inferno Pirates.
Inside the command room, John watched the enemy’s adjustments through his monocular telescope and smiled faintly.
"What a stupid move."
"They’re practically delivering themselves to me."
Then he noticed one of the enemy’s large warships repeatedly sending signal flags and issuing commands to the surrounding fleet.
John calmly spoke to the subordinate beside him.
"Target at forty-five degrees."
"Large warship."
"Ram it."