The salt-reeking sea wind whipped the black flag of revenge above the bridge. Shanghai Pirate King's face was as dark and ugly as the leaden sky before a storm.
"Fuck me, where did all those giant bats come from?!"
At the edge of Shanghai Pirate King's vision, the blue waters that should have belonged to the Elf Fleet had been completely swallowed by a churning, writhing "black cloud."
Thousands of Gargoyles beat their leathery wings, shrieking with a teeth-grating pitch as they descended like ravenous locusts upon the twenty or thirty elven warships gleaming below.
Demonic shadows blotted out the sky, shredding even the sunlight.
What weighed on him most was the Abyssal Demon Dragon weaving through that "black cloud," far more conspicuous than the surrounding horde. Every so often, the fucking thing spat a mouthful of oily green dragon breath, making the elven ships crackle and burn.
"A giant black lizard. Your classic Abyssal Demon Dragon..."
He lowered his Telescope and offered a speechless jab at the beast's appearance. But his complaints could not hide his foul mood. That monster alone had made an already dire situation even worse.
Yet neither the number of demons nor that giant winged lizard was the real reason his face looked so grim. Shanghai Pirate King had suddenly remembered that his fleet had very few ways to attack airborne targets.
The ships' cannons were powerful, firing shots ranging from twelve to twenty pounds. Killing an elephant or sinking a small boat with a single shot would have been easy, but those guns simply could not point their muzzles at the sky.
That left the fleet with only the flintlocks held by the sailors and marines on deck, along with a scattering of small Swivel Cannons mounted along the rails, which fired faster but