Chapter 176 - Pincer Movement (2/2)

“Then, we will each send 30 men to board them. Let’s all attack at the same time in about 15 minutes,” said Black Prince Sam.

Zhang Heng and Hutcheson were fine with his idea. All three sides wanted to attack the Goddess’ Spear as soon as possible knowing that that other competitors plied the waters, and their loot could easily be hijacked by any opportunistic pirate vessels. Once the plan was set in stone, Zhang Heng and Hutcheson returned to their ship to discuss the battle plan with their respective crews.

Back on the Jackdaw, Anne cleaned her saber with a smile on her face. She was excited to join the fight later.

“You stay on the ship this time,” said Zhang Heng.

“Huh? Why?! Aren’t the crew of the Goddess’ Spear known to be good fighters? This is when you’ll need me the most! Before this, didn’t you use the Pelican as an example to warn us about the crew of the Goddess’ Spear?”

“I’m not worried about the Goddess’ Spear. The Quidah will send their best to attack them. Combine with our pirates; it should be more than enough to deal with the sailors on their ship. Once I leave with my boarding party, the Jackdaw will become extremely vulnerable. As compared to the other two pirate ships, we have the least people. Since Hutcheson is not joining the fight, I have to bring at least half of our people to join the fight. I don’t plan to bring our best men with me. I’ll take some of the experienced fighters, and I’ll leave the rest with you to guard our ship. If everything works as planned, the Goddess’ Spear should go down without much of a fight.”

“You’re the captain. I will comply.”

15 minutes quickly passed, and the Quidah gave the signal to attack. The Jackdaw and the Blizzard followed right behind the Quidah. Three pirate vessels had successfully surrounded the Goddess’ Spear. Just as expected, they had no intention to go down without putting up a fight, knowing it would be impossible to attack all three pirate ships at the same time. So, they decided to pick one as their main target. They hoped to put some fear into the other two pirate ships by focusing all their fire on one. The Goddess’ Spear didn’t have many options anyway, knowing that the Quidah was the largest ship here, and it was protected by thick armor. As for the Jackdaw, the Goddess’ Spear knew that it was a bad idea to attack a battleship as well. In the end, they decided to focus all fire on the Blizzard.

Hutcheson was furious at this. Not only was he given the least of the share of loos, and now, they were now taking heavy fire from Goddess’ Spear as well. However, he was smart enough by slowing down his ship to dodge the Goddess’ Spear’s attacks. Being a qualified captain of the Blizzard, he must have possessed a particularly good skillset. In fact, he was excellent at maneuvering his ship, managing to evade half of the Goddess’ Spear’s attacks. The Blizzard might have looked like it was in a tight spot, but eventually, they didn’t sustain too much damage.

With the Blizzard drawing the Goddess’ Spear’s attention, the Quidah and the Jackdaw managed to close into their target really quickly. Zhang Heng fired first, and the Quidah followed suit. The Goddess’ Spear wasn’t prepared when two powerful pirate ships attacked at the same time. Their crew started to panic. Still, they didn’t surrender, believing that they could defeat them like how they beat the Pelican.

Unfortunately, it was a pointless struggle trying to beat two powerful pirate ships. Five minutes later, the Goddess’ Spear finally raised a white flag. Zhang Heng led 30 of his men to the gunwale. Once they got closer to the Goddess’ Spear, they launched a landing craft and rowed towards Goddess’ Spear.

The overpowering scent of gunpowder still lingered in the air when they boarded the Goddess’ Spear. The sailors were glaring at all the pirates that boarded their ship in anger and frustration. Zhang Heng didn’t go straight to the goods. Instead, he waited for Black Prince Sam to board the ship. He then handed the list of goods to him.

“We are in luck. This ship hauls a lot more than we initially thought. It looks like we can still earn a lot even if the goods are evenly distributed amongst the three pirate ships,” said Black Prince Sam.

The pirates erupted into cheers after hearing what he said. On the other hand, the dejected sailors of the Goddess’ Spear could simply glare at the pirates with a murderous stare.