Chapter 213 Suspicious Retreat
The pirates wasted some time to realize what was going on when they suddenly saw some of them being hit by ice and fire arrows. Their bodies began to burn, and others fell dead when their vitals were pierced. The drunk ones barely had time to feel anything… Still, they woke up from that state when they saw numerous fire Arrows coming from the darkness of the night.
"Enemy Attack!" Someone shouted with all their might.
The shout echoed through the Island, and those who were further from the shore finally realized what was going on. Their base finally had been found out, even though that was hard to believe.
"It seems that not everyone was being reckless and drunk until they barely could withstand it," Aion thought when he saw a squad of enemies approaching with some long crossbows. "I need to take them down fast…"
You obtained 250 experience points.
You received 555 coins.
You obtained 250 experience points.
You received 7890 coins.
…
Aion equipped his longbow and then used Force release. Thanks to that, three arrows landed on three of ten of the enemies and killed them instantly.
The other members of the squad couldn't even see where the arrows came from, so it was impossible for them to counterattack. In the end, they retreated and hid behind some coconut trees… as if that would stop Aion.
While Aion was dealing with that squad, some other pirates began to attack back in a disorganized manner. Still, they couldn't see the enemies properly because of the darkness of the night. They hesitated even more since they didn't want to damage their ships.
Suddenly, the sound of a bell began to ring around the island, and the pirates started to retreat. Their responses were pretty fast for a bunch of drunkards… it was also suspicious that they had something like an alert to make them retreat when they had never been found.
"It seems that they have some countermeasures as well," Aion jumped from the mast and then said. "I would expect a lot of traps laid around to catch live like us here."
"Yes, it is only obvious that they would…" Sauros nodded after he furrowed his eyebrows.
"They don't have anywhere to run, so this is their last card," Seris said. "They still have the numerical strength, though."
"Before anything, we should check these ships," Sauros declared. "Morning will soon come as well, and it will be easier to find them during the day."
The real problem was the fact that the enemies would have the chance to organize, and they would also know their numbers. Sauros probably knew that, and that was why Aion kept quiet about it.
After checking the ships, they found quite the collection of magic weapons, they were mostly the ones that were made using the gems of the third island, but others were of large scale and could be used against ships. They had quite a collection of magic cannons…
"Those can't be compared to ours… but these numbers… it almost looks like they were preparing for a war…" Seris said.
Aion expected that pirates and warships would have twenty or more cannons, but it didn't seem like that was the case. Since magic cannons had far more power, they needed the necessary fuel. Some people with enough mana could feed them, but pirates had too little since they rarely trained or knew anything about magic. So, in that region of the world, using magic stones was the norm…
Considering that it was difficult to use so many cannons, their way of thinking seemed accurate… they were preparing for something big, and maybe they were attacking the second island to get enough fuel for that.
"... what do you guys know about the lords of the islands?" Aion asked.
"Not much, they don't seem that remarkable, and they didn't do anything worth noticing," Sauros said.
"... Are you thinking that perhaps one of them is backing the pirates in order to take over the four islands?" Seris asked. "That wouldn't be surprising, but the geography would be too much of a hassle for a single person to rule over the area. I can already picture rebellions happening left and right due to that."
"Is anyone else in the area that is remarkable and able to pull off something of this scale?" Aion asked.
"No, and while we don't have spies here, it is because gathering Intel is too easy," Sauros said.
"Is that so…" Aion thought.
Something about the situation was rubbing Aion in the wrong way. Still, he couldn't point his finger at the reason behind that… so he could only put his thoughts aside for the time being.
When the sun was starting to rise, the group didn't notice any weird movements from the pirates and thanks to that. They could only search and fight them on the territory they knew better. It was really troublesome…
"They might try to escape, so half of us will stay here and use the cannons that the enemies left behind if necessary," Sauros declared. "The others will split into groups of five and then try to close all of the routes from the middle and sides. Aion, Seris, and I will offer support in all areas once the battle starts, so don't hesitate to call for help. Let's go."
Four groups left the ships and then headed to the shore. With his powers, Aion wouldn't be ambushed, but the chances of the enemies escaping by forcing through their path with sheer numbers were still high. If all ships had at least thirty crew members, then almost nine hundred pirates were to be there, and they only dealt with one hundred or so in the previous night.
There was no room for error, so Aion was using the necromancer class, and with his magic power on the max level, he won't hold back against those guys. It was time to solve that problem once and for all…