Renato knew his plan had worked.
Splintered wood and scraps of canvas flew into the air. The collapsing mast had successfully destroyed most of the zombie pirate sailors.
The musketeers the Necromancy Mage had stationed on the poop deck and other elevated positions had not even had time to aim before their own mast crushed them into mangled chunks of flesh.
A gap had been torn straight through the packed undead ranks on deck. Their numerical advantage vanished amid the thunderous crash, along with the advantage of the elevated, layered positions the mage had established.
Back aboard the Hispaniola, when he had first arrived in the Sea of a Thousand Islands, Renato had chatted with De Leon about what these oceangoing vessels feared most.
Renato had assumed the answer would be sea monsters or pirates. After all, the Sea of a Thousand Islands had never lacked either.
But De Leon had shaken his head, pointed at the billowing sails overhead, and explained with a smile.
No matter how sturdy a warship was, even with magical assistance, its main source of propulsion remained its sails. The mast was the ship's spine, and its heart as well. Once the mast collapsed, the entire propulsion system was effectively crippled. Even the largest ship could only drift along the currents like a raft, at anyone's mercy.
The Necromancy Mage before him did not look capable of propelling a ship with spells, but Renato was unwilling to gamble.
He could not give his opponent any chance to sail straight out of port. Fighting at sea was far too risky. If he fell into the water, his heavy armor would become his deadliest weakness.
So he had chosen to destroy the mast first, killing undead and sowing chaos while completely disabling the Pickle Barrel's propulsion.
After