Backed into a corner and completely overwhelmed by their survival instincts, the pirates could only helplessly rush towards the center of the island in order to take down the hidden enemies who were busily sniping them from afar like picking off ants from the ground and killing them off for fun.
Blackbeard had long since figured out the only method to escape the tricky situation his crew was in.
They needed to reach the center and tear out the roots of the resistance they were facing. Unfortunately, some of his men had already lost their spirits from the sudden attacks while the rest wanted nothing more than to escape with their lives intact. The ferocious pirate crew he had carefully nurtured was nowhere to be seen.
Disappointed and bursting with anger, Blackbeard ventured deeper and deeper into the forest as the condense water vapors under his control spread out to find out the location of the enemy. He could easily find hidden enemies within a few hundred meters radius around him.
Unfortunately, he couldn't even find the trail of his targets even after he was consuming so much mana every second to do so.
Zach felt like he was playing an overpowered real time strategy game where he was facing a siege and had to utilize various units under his command to keep the enemy from invading into the heart of his territory. Of course, the level of the enemy was far too low to pose any threat to him. Comparing the two forces wasn't fair at all. It was like comparing a level 100 boss monster and level 100 elite minions against a level 1 opponents who were barely capable of defense let alone a sneak offensive against such advanced surveillance and automatic defense units.
Like a sadistic emperor, Zach began to close in the curtain of bullets towards the center of the island at a fast pace.
The pirates panicked and increased their pace in order to avoid getting a few extra holes in their bodies.
But Zach wasn't done just yet.
He ordered the RPG wielding soldiers to fire yet again. The simultaneous barrage of fire from the front and the encroaching wave of death from the back completely broke the minds of the invading pirates. They had no place to go. There was a fiery death in the front and a horrifying and painful death behind them.
Unlike his men, Blackbeard still had a semblance of mental stability left. He carefully led his men into the denser portion of the forest where it might be easier to avoid the rain of bullets to some extent.
Despite having the ability to escape on his own with the help of his elemental shield, Blackbeard wasn't one to escape after suffering such heavy losses. Moreover, his men couldn't die in vain without paying off the value of their lives.
Additionally, he was adamant on getting even with Zach.
As such he had to protect his crew because they clearly weren't powerful enough to escape the encirclement of the explosions and raining metal on their own.
Troublesome as it was, he couldn't escape by himself to complete the mission or all his men would end up paying the price and the defeat of his force would almost be guaranteed.
Blackbeard regretted bringing so many people for the mission. He should have brought a team of elites instead of waging war in enemy territory. They would have had an easier time infiltrating the island as well.
No matter how fast he tried to move with his people, he was always one step behind the enemy. The trap that the enemy had laid out for him and his crew seemed to be quite elaborate. It was apparent that the enemy had put in great effort to contain, disperse and weaken his overall crew.
This was a detailed plan with almost perfect execution.
Blackbeard was horrified when he looked around him only to discover a measly ten people around him when he had brought over more than two hundred pirates with him this time.
The force numbering in two hundred had been cut short to a few tens. Blackbeard didn't know the fate of the other groups but he could imagine their condition considering that even he was barely able to survive while carrying those who could keep up with his pace till the end.
Those groups were either all dead or struggling to survive just like him. Unfortunately for them, their enemy was finished with the preliminary round of the war and was busy gearing up for the second.
While the long-range assault had managed to blow several pirates to bits, the majority were still alive and were desperately trying to find a way out of the island like morons.
Zach hadn't interfered with their intentions at the beginning because he was looking forward to trapping them with a single move. This had been his strategy all along; divide and surround from all directions. It was intended to make sure that the enemy never reached the center of the island.
Now that everything was in order, it was time for the soldiers he had trained to show their set of skills. Constant drills, fight simulation exercises, and the clearing work that they had done on the island allowed them to learn the lay of the land. They knew the geographic ups and downs of the island like the back of their hand. Therefore, the pirates after being separated from each other and weakened significantly, were nothing more than pray in the eyes of these soldiers.
Just the guerilla tactics were enough to take down these shabby pirates. There was no need to showcase the new equipment at all in order to bring doom onto them.
As Zach sat at the hill top overlooking the island, Diana and the soldiers engaged the pirates in relatively closer ranged combat. They brought out their guns and began to take down the scattered groups. Some of the B level mages proved rather troublesome on the account that they were able to conjure up shields which allowed them to deflect the incoming bullets before they were turned to sieves.
Diana either used the element of surprise or heavy bombardment to take down such enemies after they had spent all their mana.
Zach was rather satisfied with the screams that could be heard from the forest all around the Smith family mansion. The pirates were being executed one by one by the soldiers.
Blackbeard, unlike Zach, was unaware of the fate of his crew but he could already make an educated guess after witnessing the powerful trap he had found himself in as soon as he landed on this island.
Unlike Diana's worry, the soldiers were still working fine and the teamwork proved to be extremely smooth just like in the past. Her worries regarding their training not being enough were obviously groundless as they were all experienced soldiers who had fought tooth and nail on several occasions ever since the fateful day, they made their escape from the Luther family mansion.
Using advanced hot weaponry and equipment like NVGs, thermal scanners and scouting drones, each soldier of the Smith family was capable of taking down scores of pirates on their own.
But since Diana had taken the leadership position for this mission, the task was being completed even more efficiently. They mowed down several pirate groups of various sizes. Some were as small as three to four pirates while some were as large as thirty. Whenever Diana encountered a group of more than twenty pirates, she communicated the coordinates to Zach and called in hellfire to take care of the entire gatherings. It was easy to take down the thinned down groups afterwards.
Diana wondered if these people were really fearsome pirates considering the pitiful state they were in; neither able to fight nor able to escape back to the sea.
They were a rather pathetic sight but she didn't believe in showing mercy to the enemy. As such none of the pirates escaped a miserable end after coming into contact with her group of soldiers.
Everything went perfectly until she and her group finally encountered the main group of the pirates being led by Blackbeard himself. The reason was that the group was full of rather powerful mages. They were not only harder to kill on their own but were also being supported by Blackbeard's exquisite water element control skill which further boosted their defensive skills.
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