The last rays of the setting sun spilled in from the west, staining the sea blood-red.
Yet a closer look revealed that the crimson of the nearby waters did not come entirely from the sunset.
Among the broken planks floating everywhere on the sea were corpses dressed in gray-black clothing.
Pools of vivid red blood seeped from those bodies, making the color of the sea all the more horrifying.
Yet this gruesome scene failed to stir even the slightest emotion in Remito Russell.
His gaze swept over the bodies floating on the sea and the great ships around them, which were rapidly sinking from severe damage, creating enormous whirlpools that dragged the bodies into the depths along with them. Russell could not help narrowing his eyes.
This was the seventeenth day since he had begun leading the Candel Empire Navy's Third Fleet in joint operations with the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guards Fleet. The pirates they had encountered today were the thirteenth band they had met in those seventeen days.
Just as with the previous twelve bands of pirates, the Candel Empire's naval fleet had not needed to act at all. The moment the pirates were spotted, the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guards Fleet launched a fierce assault, routing every pirate ship while still a full thousand meters away.
From beginning to end, those pitiful pirates never even got close to the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guards Fleet before they were all blasted into the sea.
Apart from a few quick-thinking pirates who boarded small boats and fled the battlefield early, none escaped. All plunged into the deep sea.
The fate awaiting them was either to end up in a shark's jaws or simply to drown.
Russell felt no pity for these pirates. Yet every time he witnessed the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guards