city wall. These were the only words in Aulus' mind after seeing the flying Sealander.
The huge hull was like a mythical giant, approaching him step by step, as if it was going to crush him, his fleet, and the entire continent behind him.
He unconsciously took a step back on the deck. But after the fear flashed across his consciousness, his whole body started shaking with anger.
"Prepare the ocean fire." He looked at the flying Sealander fiercely and said, "No matter how big it is, it is only made of wood after all."
The reconnaissance team plus the troops that came with Aulus had a total of fifteen warships, including three large ships and twelve small ships, with a total strength of about 800. Under the command of Aulus, they slowly approached the flying Zealander, just like the soldiers in the phalanx approaching the enemy's battle formation with their spears raised.
To everyone's surprise, the big ship did not launch any counterattack. As soon as Aulus' fleet approached, it honestly lowered the drawbridge from the deck. However, the obedient behavior of the Flying Zealander failed to make Aulus relax his vigilance at all. He had never seen such a large ship and could not imagine what awaited him on board.
"Everyone cheer up, the oarsmen are not allowed to put down their oars, the archers are ready to shoot at all times, and the sea fire and ballistae must also be kept ready to fire at any time."
After giving such an order, Aulus boarded the flying Zealander with a hundred fully armed soldiers and two officers with the protection of "natural" Ares.
Waiting for Aulus on the deck were several merchants and sailors. Judging from their appearance, dress and manners, those merchants were indeed from the Republic of Liguria. They lowered their heads timidly and said in a pleading tone: "Sir, we are merchants from the Republic of Liguria. The pirates opened the sea route a few days ago, and we paid the sea voyage fee before we could leave. This time it was delayed. We have suffered a lot of losses for many days. Please give us a convenience and let us go..."
Aulus snorted coldly, and suddenly pushed a sailor who had been lowering his head next to the businessman to the ground, then grabbed his hand and took off an engraved metal ring from his hand. He waved the ring in front of the group of businessmen and asked coldly: "What is this?"
"This... this is..." The businessmen looked at each other, hesitating and speechless.
"I don't know? Isn't there writing on it? Come over here, look carefully, and read it! Read it to me!"
The merchants tremblingly came over and looked at the characters on the iron ring. They couldn't tell a reason for a long time.
"I don't know? That's natural. I don't know either. But my troops once fought against the pirate kingdom. When cleaning up the corpses, I found that each of those pirates was wearing this ring on their hands! This is The sign of adulthood for a man in the Pirate Kingdom! The text above is also unique to the Pirate Kingdom! This man is a pirate in the Pirate Kingdom! Why is such a person on your ship?"
"I'm just a mercenary!" said the man pinned down by Aulus.
This sentence made the businessmen react and nodded repeatedly: "Yes, he is just a mercenary. We ran out from Azov City controlled by the Pirate Kingdom. If we want mercenaries, naturally we can only find these pirates. …”
Aulus' sharp eyes glanced at the wrists of everyone present.
"Are you a mercenary...Okay, take me to the cabin again and let me see your oarsmen...and the cargo."
The businessmen suddenly became anxious: "Sir, this..."
Before the merchants could finish speaking, Aulus put his sword to the throat of one of the merchants. As soon as Aulus moved, the soldiers he brought immediately stopped the people on the deck.
"Take me down and see your oarsmen and cargo," Aulus repeated coldly.
The businessmen had no choice but to agree.
The cabin was filled with wooden boxes half as tall as a man. Aulus glanced outside the cabin and asked, "What kind of cargo is in here?"
"There are... all kinds of..."
Just as the businessman was hesitantly answering, a voice suddenly came from a wooden box: "It's suffocating me! When can we come out!"
Aulus gave the merchants a meaningful look. One of the merchants wiped his sweat and continued his final struggle: "This...this is the slave we are going to sell."
Aulus gave the two soldiers beside him a look. The two soldiers walked up without any explanation and used their swords to pry open the lid of one of the wooden boxes. Two crouched pirates suddenly appeared in the wooden box. Before the two pirates realized what was happening, they stretched themselves and took a long breath: "Oh my God, it's finally here, but I can't hold it in... huh"
Everything has been left unsaid. Two soldiers each covered a pirate's mouth and tried to open their neck with a knife. But their strength is not as strong as those two pirates. The pirates struggled to break free from the grasp of the two soldiers and shouted loudly: "Brothers! We have been discovered! Stop hiding! Come out quickly!"
There was a sudden commotion in the hundreds of boxes. It was the pirates trying to open the boxes from the inside - not only this cabin, but the same noise was also coming from other cabins.
Aulus' face turned blue. He never expected that it would cause such a big commotion. Given the size of this ship, if each cabin was filled with such boxes and the boxes were filled with pirates, it could probably hold a thousand people!
"Follow me off the ship immediately!" Aulus clenched his sword tightly, turned around and rushed towards the deck.
The sailors on the deck saw that what had happened was exposed, and they broke free from the soldiers' grasp, preparing to block Aulus's retreat. Fortunately, these pirates disguised as sailors had no weapons, and it would take some time for the pirates in the cabin to climb out of the box. Aulus led the soldiers to fight a bloody path and successfully rushed to the deck.
"It has been confirmed that it is the enemy!" Aulus shouted to the fleet surrounding the flying Sealander, "launch an attack immediately!"
At this moment, the first group of pirates who climbed out of the box rushed up with axes in hand and fought with the soldiers around Aulus. Taking advantage of the opportunity obtained by the soldiers, Aulus climbed back to his ship along the ladder.
"Are you ready for the Ocean Fire?" Aulus asked the soldiers around him as soon as he got off the boat. After receiving a positive answer, he shouted at the top of his lungs to the soldiers on the flying Sealander: "Stop fighting! I'll give you five seconds. One, two, three..."
Not to mention it was an enemy ship, in order to destroy the enemy, Aulus even dared to fire on his own ship. The soldiers who knew Aulus' temper well knew not to climb the ladder slowly, so they jumped directly into the sea from the flying Sealander one after another.
"...Four, five, ocean fire, jet!"
Different from Aila's formula, Aulus's fleet is equipped with real ocean fire. It burns on the surface of the sea, which means that if a ship is set alight by it, the fire is extremely difficult to extinguish.
Once the Flying Zealander is attacked in a substantial sense, it will mean the beginning of the war between the Pirate Kingdom and the Seven Hills Empire.
However, just as the soldiers were about to step on the jet pedal, a figure familiar to Aulus suddenly walked to the side of the ship and shouted to Aulus below:
"Aulus! Do you want to declare war with the Khazar Khanate?"
