Shiryu's slash was blasted apart by cannon fire.
"Damn it!" Shiryu gritted his teeth furiously. Standing at the bow with his sword in hand, he swung it angrily and knocked aside three incoming cannonballs. But that was all he could do. He could not press the attack any further; the Star Alliance's firepower was simply too overwhelming.
"Retreat!" A frustrated and speechless Shiryu had no choice but to give the order. They were still within the Star Alliance's firing range. They had to see how many warships they could get out first. They could not let their tempers get the better of them and end up all buried here.
Shiryu gazed at the Star Alliance's central command ship in the distance. He knew Hawkins was the one commanding them now. Though he desperately wanted to leap over and cut Hawkins down with a single slash, he could only swallow this grudge for now.
In the distant sea.
"Haha! Let's slow down a little!" A burly middle-aged man leaned against the ship's rail with both hands, looking into the distance. "Let Blackbeard's bunch of fools and those idiots from the Star Alliance fight each other to a draw first. Then we'll swoop in like the mantis stalking the cicada, with the oriole behind, and wipe them all out together!"
"Haha!" The people around him all laughed. "As expected, Alliance Leader is the clever one!"
Just then, the Den Den Mushi rang. The man walked over and answered it. "Hm?"
"What?" The man's expression changed drastically. "Shiryu suffered a crushing defeat? What happened? What did they run into?"
A moment later, the man hung up the Den Den Mushi with a grim expression. Turning around, he ordered, "Blackbeard's forces ahead have suffered a major defeat and are preparing to retreat. We can't