Just when the pirates were all laughing and celebrating their victory in advance, Diana heard Zach's order through her earpiece and shouted, "FIRE!".
Zach had handed over the command of the soldiers to Diana as she was the actual leader of the troops while Zach became their eyes and ears as the top commander.
The RPG wielding soldiers who had all camouflaged themselves perfectly using the tree branches, mud and moss all revealed themselves. They adjusted their postures in order to counteract the kickback from the launch of RPG ammo.
The moment they heard the command, several RPGs fired simultaneously towards the coordinates of the island which Diana had already communicated.
Explosion after explosion burst out on top of the island. Fiery explosions engulfed the entirety of the pirate fleet except for those who had stayed back onboard the ship as protection and necessary backup force in case the vanguard needed support from behind.
Pieces of charred flesh flew around in all directions as one of the explosions took place right in the center of a small group of pirates while the others only missed the heart of the pirate force by a little margin.
Bewildered, the pirates looked around in a frenzied manner as they tried to figure out the location of their assailants.
"IT'S A TRAP!" shouted one of the pirates who was smeared with the burning blood of his comrades. He seemed to have survived an explosion from quite close by. It was unknown whether he had used his comrade as a shield like a true pirate or had just gotten lucky that his comrade bore the brunt of it.
While the pirate kept on repeating his words of caution, not a single one of the remaining pirates could hear him even though he was shouting his throat raw. The sudden explosions right next to the surviving pirates had temporarily rendered them deaf.
Several pirates echoed his words as contemplation dawned on their faces as to why there were no guards at the periphery of the island.
"We've been discovered. They were waiting for us to come." This was the only thought in the minds of the pirates as they tried to figure out how the owner of the territory knew that they were coming. This kind of planned and detailed ambush was only possible if the dark mage knew that they were coming.
Still, no one could contemplate the true methods of a dark mage. They were far too mysterious and diverse in their capabilities.
As such, Blackbeard attributed the deadly fireworks display to the unpredictable dark mage who used such an unorthodox method to welcome their arrival.
"Don't panic. It is the trick of that dark mage. Follow me. We will pierce through to the center of the island in one go." Shouted Blackbeard towards his subordinates as he began to advance with a watery shield in front of him.
Panic ensued anyway as the pirates stumbled their way out of the explosion affected area. Since their hearing had yet to be restored, Blackbeard's words fell on deaf ears and barely anyone noticed his leading figure. Every one of the pirates was worried about their own well being in the face of raining death and destruction.
The pirates couldn't decipher the mystery behind the blasts since there were absolutely no enemy around them no matter how much they scoured their surroundings.
Although Blackbeard was just as startled and dumbfounded by the sudden ambush, he didn't linger on that line of thought. He labeled the dark mage Zach as 'extremely dangerous' in his mind as he tried to think of ways to fend off the onslaught of fire.
By this time, the Smith family soldiers were already done loading ammo in the RPG launchers. A new barrage of fire was ready to be launched.
In the aftermath of the explosions, no one heard Blackbeard's orders so he had to resort to visual aid. He began to chant in a heavy voice and the water element began to condense around him from all directions. The wall was thick enough to hold off another wave of bombardment.
Seeing the shimmering blue water wall, the pirates began to congregate behind Blackbeard under the threat of fiery explosions taking place all around them.
Although the water wall provided an effective separation between the incoming explosions and Blackbeard's crew, it was not enough to hold off the effect of the explosion itself.
The shockwaves from the explosions and the super-heated steam created from the contact of fire and water blew off in all directions essentially sublimating the pirates with pitifully low strength.
Even some low-level mages were caught off guard and were blown away amidst the storm of fire and water.
The safety of the water shield therefore proved to be an illusion as the effect of the explosions could not be mitigated despite the fact that the leader of the pirate crew was an A level mage skilled in the water element. Unfortunately, he wasn't up against a purely elemental attack. Otherwise, he might have succeeded in counteracting its effect completely with water wall.
Knowing that the wall wasn't strong enough to protect his men, Blackbeard had to alter his strategy of attack. Instead of pushing forward like a spear thrust with him taking the lead and his men following behind him, he took on a more scattered approach with his power converging towards the center from all directions like several streams merging together to shape a giant river.
"Disperse…scatter…get away from each other…and…" Blackbeard turned around and issued the new set of orders. He ignored the new barrage of explosions while simultaneously strengthening the water wall with his mana. He was confident of, at least, defending against the explosions with minimal losses after having used this much amount of mana for a momentary increase in defense.
This time, the sound of the explosions was greatly muffled as if the water around the explosions had snuffed its breath by swallowing it down its giant maw.
The pirate crew heard the words of their captain and knew what to do. They had previously adopted similar strategies whenever they were up against a powerful opponent capable of killing them by the scores.
The group broke down into smaller groups as they ran behind their leader. Slowly they began to scatter in different directions like they had opted for different paths for the same destination.
Some of the more cowardly members directly turned tail and ran in the direction of their ships. They were terribly frightened by the apocalyptic scene from before. Some had seen their comrades being torn apart by the sudden impacts; some were bleeding from their ears unable to forget the last screams of their colleagues; while some were just cowardly and afraid of getting hurt.
They couldn't go forward without burdening their heart into a cardiac arrest.
Blackbeard didn't bother about these people in this situation but he vowed to get rid of the cowards once he returned after the completion of the mission. He was extremely dissatisfied with these people.
But dispersing the crowd was the only method he had to ensure the safety of his crew. As long as they advanced together, the chances of suffering losses at the hands of the enemy would have increased with each step taken towards the destination.
Zach had been waiting for this reaction from the enemies ever since he gave the order to rain down hell on them.
As the commander of the battle, Zach had to think of his next few moves in advance by anticipating the reactions of the enemy.
Had it been him in place of Blackbeard, he would have taken the same decision. Therefore, he had prepared countermeasures for it as well.
Maneuvering the drones, Zach encircled the entire crew to keep them from leaving the island before the fun he had planned for them began.
The machine guns slotted on the drones began to fire at his command. The hail of bullets fell behind the pirate crew and conjured up a force field of raining metal that punctured holes in any pirate daring enough to cross the threshold in his attempt to rush back to the boats they had left on the shore.
Unable to retreat, the pirate crew had nowhere to go.
Zach had successfully contained the targets and began to lure them towards the center once again.
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