Chapter 211
Volume 21 Chapter 8 part3
“Such an enormous amount of ships . Why are there so many suddenly here at the Jigolaths?”
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“They’re all phantom ships . With all the phantom ships gathered this is a disaster . All hands, prepare for battle!”
The huge fleet of ships behind Weed’s ship were all Phantom Ships .
After reporting to Drinfeld the high-speed ship tried to turn back to the fleet but couldn’t veer off in time, seconds later the bow of the ship was hit .
Weed’s Roar of a Lion rang out over the sea .
“All Phantom Ships! Prepare to fire!”
“Aye aye,… . run out all cannons . ”
“Was that run out the guns? My ears ain’t young no more, hey is that something trying to eat them?”
“Why isn’t it working?”
It was quite a sight to see the same scene was happening on board every ship of the phantom fleet . Seaweed had gown over the cannons after 50 plus years and the ghost crews were trying to cut away these tangles . Slashing at the seaweed with their knives sparks flew about and landed on the primed wicks .
“Fire!”2
Kwang Kwang Kwang!1
At that moment some of the cannons exploded since maintenance is not something phantom ships take much care about .
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“Was that proper cannon fire?”
One of the crew, a skeleton, then stuck its head into a canon to check conditions . This was after the wicks had already been ignited .
Kwang Kwang!
The cannon fired with a normal discharge and the skeleton’s head disappeared .
“Success . The cannonball fired properly . By the way, where’s my head? ”
The skeleton then wandered around on deck as a body looking for whatever might remain of it’s head!
“There’s no cannonballs . Did somebody get the munchies awhile ago and eat them? Or maybe they were lost while playing with them?”
“There are no cannonballs here, this is a merchant ship . ”
“Lets use dried fish instead . ”
Amongst the phantom ships were those that had once been merchants or passenger ships, those types never had cannonballs to begin with . Of course it was always possible to capture guns and ammo from other ships at sea if they didn’t have them .
“I’m going in . ku ku ku! Ok, Here I go!”
The ghost crews were entering their own cannons and firing themselves like cannonballs . This crazy kind of behavior is relatively normal on board a phantom ship .
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The cannonballs fired by the phantom ships flew in concert over Weed towards the high-speed sailing ships . Columns of water soared high in the water around the high-speed sailing ships, the accuracy rate was very low . Cannonballs also exploded like fireworks as they hit each other in the air .
“Take evasive action!”
“We can’t avoid this many! Prepare the guns for a counterattack!”
The Captains of the High-Speed Ships had to try to prepare the cannons while their ships used zigzag course patterns . But the Phantom ships had just fired randomly without bothering to aim .
Most of them hit nothing but the sea but those that hit the High-Speed Ships exploded . The cannonballs that pierced through the deck and hulls lit up the ships with blazing hot balls of fire .
Sections of the hulls broke off and flames began to start .
“Fire!”
The High-Speed Ships were trying to fire back yet with every cannonball explosion their ships would shake violently causing the ships to roll from side to side .
“Ku-he-he-he! Hu-mans . ”
Even in the chaos Ghost crews began to board . Giant slippery tentacles sprang up from the sea snatching sailors off the decks . Clinging to the hull the octopus-like-head of the Sea Monster began to rise out of the water . 3
The Captain of the high-speed mission urgently sent a message to the Hermes Guild chat channel .
Stringer: We’re being attacked by Phantom Ships . This is an emergency we are being destroyed .
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The Vice-commodore of the Haven Kingdom 2nd Fleet replied .
Pache: How many Phantom Ships are there?
During the Jigolaths engagements the Hermes Guild and the Haven Fleet shared a single chat channel, currently this channel was a hot topic and so had a lot of listeners from the Guild .
Stringer: Right now…there’s not much time to explain . This will be our last message as we’ll most likely be sunk . Our mission target; Weed’s ship, has transformed into a Phantom Ship, we now assumed that he is therefore also responsible for the fleet of Phantom Ships that are attacking us . All our ships will be destroyed in this battle! This is an A1 emergency request for aid!
Pache: How did the situation suddenly beco…acknowledged . We will be there sap .
By the time Drinfeld’s Main Fleet left the Unfreezing River and arrived at the high-speed convoy location they had all either sank or were on their way to becoming sea monster food .
They had gone looking for the High-Speed Convoy expecting to find Phantom Ships and Sea Monsters but even so they could not hide their shock .
“Well, though they told me ahead of time I didn’t believe it would have gone this far . ”
High-Speed Ships that had Sea Monsters enclosing them looked to have had no choice but to give up . Ghost had boarded and were engaging in hand to hand combat on the ship decks . The hulls spat out flames and rolling clouds of black smoke . They had gotten here too late to prevent them from sinking into the sea .
“We won’t be able evade a battle of this scope . ”
The tough part for the users of Drinfeld’s Haven Fleet was that they had only just left the mouth of the Unfreezing River . The position of the Phantom Fleet was waiting at the ideal location to open fire from the surrounding sea .
This meant that under the circumstances moving forward meant becoming nothing more than easy targets .
To gain his title of Grand Admiral, Drinfeld had fought his way through hundreds of maritime battles . He had the skill to bring about a complete reversal .
“Phantom Ships couldn’t hit a barn door . All armor reinforced ships to the front . Do not use evasive actions, bear straight ahead . 1st squad and 3rd squad will attack on the left and right flanks . They will attack from outside the Phantom Fleet range . ”
Due to the huge number of Sea Monsters and Phantom Ships they were ready to hold their location and take them head on . Based on the sheer amount of firepower from the Phantom Fleet they were all hungry to annihilate the oncoming battleships .
Drinfeld felt this engagement would lead to a huge naval victory that could make up for the past public failures .
Phantom Ships had only one way to gain rewards, that was through victory in a naval battle . Also they could earn fame just like the land users did when they looted dungeons .
It was also fairly commonplace for all Phantom Ships to house treasure and antiques .
***end chapter 084***
I’m sure you all got that this is the sound of ‘boom, boom, boom!
I think its more like ‘fire in the hole’ not sure . It only said Fire .
This was what it translated to, I triple checked for other words/idioms etc . but nope, octopus like head was it .
As always please keep in mind, this will not be a ‘perfect translation . ’ I use machine translators and my reading of Korean is very minor at best . I do learn more all the time and I am always checking and consulting the Korean Dictionary . With all such translations I work very hard to stay true while also trying to bring some of the flavor of the characters and settings . All copyrights of this material belong to the author, Nam Hee-Sung .
*****end chapter 8 part 3 of 3*****