Six-Armed Serpent Demon

Page 136

"You're even dumber than I thought."

The golden catfish looked at him irritably. "I mean, we need to survive the battlefield first."

"What do you mean?"

Captain Golden Dragon was stunned for a second before finally realizing what he meant, "You mean—"

A massive explosion from afar interrupted his words.

Captain Jinlong stiffly turned his head, looking at the friendly ship burning fiercely on the distant sea. It was the "Dragon Might," the largest of the seven gunboats, and the command ship for this operation.

They were gesturing to it with flags just moments ago, but now they see it has burned into a giant torch!

The firelight illuminated the shocked and angry faces of everyone on deck, except for Old Golden Catfish, who remained calm, with only a slight hint of regret. In his hundreds of years of service, he had witnessed countless scenes like this.

From here, countless tiny black shadows swirled and danced in the thick smoke above the Dragon's Might before flying away into the distance.

The captain exclaimed, "It's those harpies who attacked the Broken Tooth... But how come there are so many of them, and with just their crossbows and javelins..."

Earlier, several harpies attacked Broken Tooth with javelins and crossbow bolts, and then fled in a direction away from the island.

Although the Golden Dragon's gunboats were unharmed, it was suspected that they were heading to rendezvous with the two Bronze Dragon warships that had previously sailed out of the bay. So they pursued them all the way here, only to find themselves in a bizarre artillery battle with a large group of fast ships that had collided head-on.

"That's why I stopped you earlier, kid."

The golden catfish sighed, "We've been led by the nose the whole time. Didn't you notice? The ship we were fighting just now wasn't even from the island."

"what?"

"At first, I only had a vague idea, but when I saw that dog demon, I understood."

Golden Catfish said, "That blue-haired guy has wanted posters in many city-states. He's the Black Sail pirate, 'The Cannibal' Andrei. I never imagined he was a cannibalistic demon. If you kids had paid more attention to the intelligence we'd gathered before we set off, you would have noticed that when the Bronze Dragon Paladins purged this island more than half a year ago, they practically wiped out all the pirates. Andrei was already in exile then."

“If I’m not mistaken, Antirk and those ships have the same goal as us: to take over the island while the Bronze Dragon warships are away… We’ve been used as a tool to kill someone else, kid.”

The young captain of the Golden Dragon was speechless.

Just then, a second explosion was heard from a more distant location.

The old dragon sighed softly: "Golden Eyes."

The deck of the Golden Eye was engulfed in flames and thick smoke.

Dozens of harpies, each with a transplanted breath reservoir, flew in seven or eight groups, soaring high and low around the gunboat, spewing out terrifying streams of fire that ignited the deck and hull, while singing horrifying mesmerizing songs.

The Golden Eye has lost its ability to sail.

Its mainmast and sails were all ignited by the jets of fire, illuminating the sky.

The long oars that stretched out into the sea from the lower deck were also burned off one by one by the harpies.

The desperate sailors retaliated with javelins and repeating crossbows, but the harpies were not only incredibly fast but also exceptionally agile, so very few were hit.

Many of them had gone mad under the influence of the hymn, recklessly chasing after the figure and laughter of the harpy, jumping from the deck, and even through the gun windows into the sea.

The female captain of the Golden Eyes is also a priestess of the Golden Dragon race.

While continuously casting spells to dispel the negative status effects on the crew members, she fiercely retaliated with her repeating crossbow.

But the more she fought, the more frightened she became.

These harpies not only breathe fire, but also possess astonishing regenerative abilities. After being struck by arrows, they pull out the arrows and fly away, only to return shortly after to continue the fight. So far, the captain has shot at least ten enemies, but hasn't managed to kill a single one.

"Damn it," she couldn't help but curse, "Are these guys winged trolls?"

After a round of firing, we finally managed to drive away two groups of enemies that were approaching the starboard side, but suddenly four more groups of harpies circled around to the port side.

The female captain gritted her teeth, replaced the magazine for the repeating crossbow, and continued firing.

"Do not be afraid! The great golden dragon protects us!"

She shouted fiercely, "They've already used their spells on us! We're immune! Let me tell you, if you can withstand just one spell from a harpy, her songs will be ineffective against us for a whole day!"

Before he could finish speaking, a creaking sound came from above.

The female captain looked up and saw that the mainmast, engulfed in flames, could no longer bear the weight and tumbled forward, striking the foremast. The flames set the foremast and the sails hanging on it ablaze.

The mooring ropes were burned through, and the burning sails that were hanging overhead came crashing down, pinning the female captain beneath them.

The deck was engulfed in flames.

Everywhere were screaming and running firemen.

The female captain of the Golden Dragon Clan struggled to lift the flaming sails, staggered to her feet, and coughed as she gasped for breath in the thick, smoky air.

Her repeating crossbow was burned out; she looked around.

Looking around, the few remaining sailors were almost nowhere to be seen.

The golden dragon bloodline granted the female captain immunity to fire, but the crew were mostly human, and they weren't as fortunate as her.

The soul-stirring laughter echoed through the flames and thick smoke, sometimes near, sometimes far.

She drew her battle sword and roared, "Show yourself, monster! Come and fight me one-on-one!"

But no one responded.

Suddenly, the deck began to shake violently. The female captain nearly fell and had to use a knife to brace herself.

The next second, she was horrified to discover that the entire hull of the Golden Eye was tilting rapidly.

On the starboard side of the hull, the harpies chuckled and scattered. Near the waterline, they breathed fire, burning a huge hole in it. Icy seawater rushed in, scouring and squeezing the hold. The hull and keel rattled under the immense pressure.

The female captain of the Golden Dragon species trembled as she reached into her dimensional bag, which contained divine scrolls for "Breathing Underwater" and "Return Mantra," life-saving items prepared by her family for her in critical moments.

But as the captain…

She stared blankly at the horrific scene around her, finally pulling her hand out of the dimensional bag. Her palm held nothing but blood and ashes.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the Golden Eye broke in two and quickly disappeared into the whirlpool on the sea surface.

The harpies, like angels bidding farewell to their doom, flew toward the third gunboat.

"That little one on the ship, is that Chiron's granddaughter? ... What a pity. Living is more important than anything else. There are many little ones who just can't see through things."

The golden catfish said calmly, taking out a wine flask and taking a sip.

“We must do something,” the captain said urgently, turning to the old dragon. “Do you have any ideas?”

"Not bad, you know how to use honorifics now."

Golden Catfish shrugged. “But what can this old man do? I don’t care about anything when we’re boarding up the deck, but I can’t do anything about things flying around in the air… Times have changed, kid. Remember when I first joined the army? We didn’t even have magic cannons. Naval battles were just ships ramming each other and sailors hacking and slashing at each other. Those were the good old days… By the way.”

He glanced sideways at the young golden dragon.

"Kid, when you get back this time, hurry up and get married, and leave a seed."

"What?"

The young captain of the Golden Dragon was confused by the old bosun's leaps and bounds in setting up flags.

“Although I can guarantee that we’ll all get back safe and sound,” Old Catfish patted the young man on the shoulder, speaking earnestly, “you’re the only son in your family, aren’t you? To avoid the possibility of your great-grandmother suddenly passing away and the family line ending, you should get married as soon as you get back to your hometown.”

Chapter 182 Illegal Street Vendors

As night fell, the outcome of the battle was decided.

Of Jinlong's seven gunboats, six participated in the attack on the bay, but none of them managed to get close to the port. Four of them were sunk one after another, and the other three gunboats could only go to patrol on more distant seas and dared not approach the bay again.

The Golden Dragon Assault Team, holding the warehouse, maintained its orderly ranks.

However, when nearly a hundred victorious harpies swept overhead, the morale of the golden dragon warriors inevitably plummeted.

They knew perfectly well that they were completely isolated.

The two Gold Dragon commanders of the assault company exchanged bewildered glances. Faced with this situation, they were also at a loss.

If they had abandoned the docks and pursued the Casta lizardmen in a chaotic manner, they would likely have lost, but they would have also had a chance to break through the enemy and storm into the town.

Now there is absolutely no chance left.

The large force of the Casta lizardmen stood ready in the open area between the docks and the town, and to make matters worse, the enemy's air strike force had returned.

No one could have imagined that the final decision would be made by a group of harpies.

Harpies and similar creatures are usually the kind of flies that city-states would kill while setting fire to the mountains during their expansion. But under the command of the Bronze Dragon Paladins, they have become the bane of gunboats.

The golden dragon paladin, who served as the assault company commander, stared blankly and muttered to himself, "How are we supposed to fight naval battles from now on?"

“Stronger warships, more powerful magic,” the priest said reluctantly, “and more effective ranged attacks… Besides divine magic, we also need more arcane items…”

The golden dragon saint warrior shook his head.

“No,” he said painfully, “the warship is far too big a target compared to these flying flies…even a lion can’t fight a swarm of wasps. We need equally agile and powerful airmen to engage and fight them. No matter how big or powerful the warship is, it will only lead to its demise.”

The Golden Dragon Priest nodded hesitantly.

"That makes sense... but what do we do now?"

The priest looked at the sea, frowning and pinching his beard hard.

Suddenly his eyes changed.

The Golden Dragon Priest patted the Paladin: "Hey...look, those flickering lights on the sea, that's our men signaling from their gunboats."

The company commander turned his head and looked over, then stared in disbelief and fell silent.

The priest asked, "What do you mean?"

The paladin seemed to have aged decades in an instant, and said in a low voice, "They said... we should surrender. They are prepared to negotiate with the governor of the bronze dragon islands to ransom us."

The priest yanked off his beard with a fierce tug, and flew into a rage.

"You want us to surrender to those lowly lizardmen? Don't even dream about it!" He kept his voice down. "Let's charge in and kill them all!"

The paladin hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.

“We are warriors of the Golden Dragon,” the paladin said painfully, “and we must obey orders.”

On the deck of the gunboat, Old Catfish directed the sailors to light bonfires, while at the same time having someone unload the wide sails. The sails were used to cover the bonfires with the island at varying intervals, sometimes long and sometimes short, and sometimes they were lifted up again.

At this very moment, in the Governor's Palace, Ivy Beate, disguised as "Iren-Otukan," was also looking through a telescope at the flickering fire signals on the distant sea.

The telescope in her hand was the one the bear goblin used when she was a pirate before she reformed.

The telescope has a very simple design; it's just a cylinder made of sheet metal, with a hole at the top and bottom of the front end, and a matching piece of uneven crystal.

When using it, insert the crystal into the two holes at the front of the cylinder, filling the entire field of vision.

After inserting the crystal, the person raises the cylinder and looks at the distant target through the crystal, while rotating the crystal back and forth to adjust the field of vision until it is clear.

"Iren-Otukan" got impatient after a while.

She tossed the telescope back to the bear goblin.

“What exactly is going on?” she asked. “What are they trying to say?”

"them…"

The bear goblin looked through his binoculars for a long time before saying, "They want the soldiers on the dock to surrender to us, and they're also demanding... demanding prisoner-of-war treatment from us."

They're dreaming!

A low-ranking bronze dragon paladin behind "Iren-Otukan" shouted, "Governor, give the order! Annihilate them all! First, take out their remaining offshore gunboats, then slaughter the invaders on the docks!"

"you sure?"

Ivy Beatrice glanced at him sideways, her indifferent gaze making the lower-ranking paladin feel shorter.

"Our delegation is on its way to negotiate with the Silver Dragons, and the results are still pending. At this point, you're suggesting we fight to the death with those guys on the West Coast... I mean, are you planning to give some advice on the policies and strategies for the City of Flame and the Great Bronze Dragons?"

The lower-ranking paladins were sweating profusely.

“Yes, I misspoke,” he said, bowing his head. “I beg Your Excellency’s forgiveness.”

Ivy Beatrice ignored him.

She was actually thinking that the suggestion made by the lower-ranking paladin follower might be exactly what "Iren-Otukan" was most likely to do. After all, the guy she was playing was a simple-minded, foul-mouthed idiot.

If Ivy Beatrice stays on this island, this would be quite a cool move, as it would weaken both the Gold Dragon and the Bronze Dragon at the same time.

But now she is about to go to Keogu to meet up with the delegation.

If she really gets into a fight with Jinlong, and he comes back for revenge while she's away, it could go on and on, and she'd be overwhelmed.

“Sign back to them that the dock is temporarily rented to them, so those soldiers don’t need to surrender.”

"Iren-Otukan" said lazily.