Pirate Kingship

At this moment, having realized the ability of the 'Comical Joker' figurehead, The Cavalier had also switched its ammunition to Scatter Bombs.

So what if you can deflect 30%? If I fire 500 pellets at once, I won't miss those 30 or 50.

Lethal pellets and scorching gunpowder smoke instantly engulfed the Circus Ship.

'Bone Gobble Joker' Koraskin stood on the unprotected aft deck, inevitably hit by stray bullets from both sides.

His body was suddenly riddled with several bullet holes.

But before the colorful blood could flow out, the pale flesh within merely twitched, allowing Koraskin, who could be dismembered at will, to recover completely.

His blood-drenched mouth was still smiling, but his eyes were bursting with rage. "Return fire! Return fire now! Hard to starboard! Ram them! Grab that damned Sea Hunter and take back my lost nose!"

The huge, bloody hole in the middle of his face made the clown look like a ferocious demon, ready to devour someone.

Leveraging its maneuverability in the Doldrums, the pirate ship began to turn. Several cannons on its stern, now within firing range, fired in unison.

However, it had just taken a concentrated volley from The Golden Deer. As a result, the gunners near that position were severely undermanned, and many gun carriages were damaged.

A sporadic round of cannon fire came over, failing to trigger the 10% chance of explosion.

The best they did was break one of the halyards on the mainmast. This might have been a big problem under normal windy conditions.

But since there was no wind at all for now, the sailing master immediately led his men to rush repairs, causing no delay.

At this moment, the most adverse situation for Byron's side was that the enemy had mobility while they lacked it.

"Throw the spare ropes out through the hawseholes! Tie the other end tight to the keel!"

"Yes, sir!"

Bruh immediately went to carry out the order.

Meanwhile, the opposing Cavalier executed the same command.

Byron stood at his command post, watching the Circus Ship nearly completing its turn. A piercing red light flickered deep in his eyes. "Armies are raised for years to be used in an instant. In my camp, there are no free meals. It's time for you to come online, my donkeys, my Man-Eater Sharks, and my horses!"

One by one, black shark fins surfaced, dividing into two groups before the two warships.

Even though their average length was close to ten meters, the twenty-seven Man-Eater Sharks still seemed like small fry in the vast sea. Each of them clamped onto a thick rope, furiously lashing their tails.

Then the two pirate ships, each displacing hundreds of tons, started moving again.

Their speed picked up, hardly lagging behind the Circus Ship.

But now there was no wind at sea, and many clever tactics no longer worked.

Immediately, three white wakes cut across the water, signaling the start of a naval chase between the three warships.

The Circus Ship was in the middle, with The Golden Deer and The Cavalier on either side, maximizing their broadside firepower.

"AAAH... AAAH..."

"Fire! Fire at will!"

Wails and the roar of cannons filled the air...

Hot wind howled from the cannon mouths. The rolling, pungent gunpowder smoke seemed to make the air in this temporary Doldrums boil once more.

"Hold on, brothers! Just last through this half-hour windless period, and no one can catch our Golden Deer, the fastest ship in the world! The Circus is merely a Swallow Class vessel, repurposed from a merchant ship—a bottom-of-the-barrel type among the nominal Battleships. Today, we're going to use our sailing ship to take down a Battleship! Damn it!"

The Circus had a displacement of only 682 tons. Its gun deck was 40 meters long, and it was equipped with 50 cannons: the lower continuous gundeck held twenty-two 18-pounder cannons, the upper deck had twenty-two 9-pounder cannons, the quarterdeck had four 6-pounder guns, and the forecastle had two 6-pounder guns.

This type of ship, converted from a large merchant vessel, was uniformly classified as Swallow Class. Pirate City Black Sails Harbor boasted a large shipyard capable of performing the full set of necessary conversions on merchant ships. Such a 50-gun warship was at the very bottom threshold, not only for all two-decked gun ships but also for all nominal Battleships. Even among all nominal Battleships, it was the lightest of the lightweights.

In comparison, Violet's Portland-class 50-gun Fourth-rate Ship, the Flame Rose, had a displacement of a whopping 1,088 tons. It obviously outclassed The Circus by a large margin. If the Flame Rose could be considered a 'light sparrow-weight' below the lightweight category, then The Circus was at the very bottom as a 'light flyweight'.

Although the two warships under Byron's command had fewer cannons combined than The Circus, their total projectile weight was undoubtedly superior.

Even when an occasional Clown Bomb landed on Byron's ship and exploded thunderously, he still believed that victory would ultimately be his. Even if, in the process, elite pirates meticulously selected from thousands were torn apart in the explosions, one after another. Among them were the cheerful gunners who had just been singing "A Hundred Nations Bow to Me." There were also the cadet officers who had earnestly listened to his lectures...

But this was war!

Byron's will was as firm as a rock. At the same time, his desire to obtain 882 Gold Coins and create the undead legion, Wings of Death, grew even stronger.

Conversely, the Circus Ship was the first to falter.

No good, their firepower is too intense. We can't go on like this. The sharks in the water are all controlled by that Sea Hunter. The only way I have a chance is to take him down directly.

Bone Gobble Joker Koraskin, a formidable Great Pirate, realized he was surprisingly at a disadvantage in this naval battle. After hesitating for a moment, he finally pulled out the Golden Great Devil Card.

Every time he used the power of this Cursed Object, the Spirituality of the entire ship became more polluted. Even so, he had no other choice.

He pressed the Golden Great Devil Card, which bore a wide, maniacal grin, against one of the cannons. Then, he covered both himself and the cannon with a huge red cloth.

SNAP!

With a snap of his fingers, he instantly activated Clown's Trickery, boosted to its limits.

Beneath the red cloth, the man and the cannon instantly inflated rapidly like a balloon.

Accompanied by a burst of wild laughter, a monstrous clown, as tall as several stories, appeared on the deck. The cannon itself also grew massively in size, transforming into a gigantic, seven-colored ceremonial cannon.

The clown shook colorful hairs from its head. As they landed on the deck, they instantly swelled into child-sized wooden puppets, each with a wooden nose and wearing overalls. These puppets, holding wooden firearms, scrambled to climb into the ceremonial cannon.

Koraskin then grabbed a handful of his clown crew members, stuffed them into the cannon as well, and aimed the ceremonial cannon toward The Golden Deer.

"Clowns never lose! Take this! Clown's Trickery—Flying Trapeze! MWAHAHA..."

BOOM!

With a loud report, the puppets and clowns stuffed into the cannon flew toward The Golden Deer. Like performers in a circus's flying trapeze act, they soared through the air, instantly reaching the opposing ship's deck.