Connor Richard lit the cigarette in his hand. His slightly curly brown and gray hair looked a little messy, and his bloodshot eyes looked through the window at the navy below the Vulture Castle.
Looking at the fully armed and neatly arranged soldiers below, there was a hint of distress in his expression.
A ditch nearly ten meters wide surrounded the Vulture Castle located in the center of Black Crow Harbor, blocking the group of tigers and wolves below in the dark and dilapidated streets outside the Vulture Castle. Although the bridge connecting the two places had already been hurriedly fled to The pirates here are cut off, but this is not the key to hindering the navy.
The lower part of the Vulture Castle is densely lined with engraved magic seals. These seals are connected to each other and together form a high-level defensive array. On the second floor of the fortress, almost every hole in the wall is lined. , the muzzle of a musket was drilled out. Obviously, once the navy enters the shooting range, the pirates hiding in the Vulture Castle will launch a desperate counterattack at any cost.
"The Duke of Annecy's subordinate troops are still led by Black Blade. Leader, they did not lose unjustly." Connor's eyes hurriedly passed through the naval troops assembled below, and finally stopped at a man in black armor among the crowd. Stomach of woman.
"Such an elite group used to clear out a pirate port entrenched on the border of the empire is somewhat overqualified."
Connor looked at the two pitch-black short blades attached to the woman's waist. Some terrifying rumors about the "black blades" slowly emerged in his mind, making him feel palpitated.
Connor exhaled the smoke and said goodbye to the ferocious eyes of the navy lined up outside the window for the time being. He turned to look at the pirates around him and said in a low voice: "Has the leader come out of the room?"
"Not yet, Captain Connor."
The person who answered Connor was a bald man nearly two meters tall. His vest was stained with blood, and there was a skull tattoo on his right arm. His exposed body was covered with dense scars. It was obviously not... Good kind.
"Is our leader dead inside?"
Connor sneered, and after his cold eyes slowly scanned the faces of the surrounding pirates, he then turned to the room at the end of the passage.
"The incomplete defensive formation that the leader deceived from Beicanglan can only last for another half hour at most. Everyone knows that the key to the secret passage to escape to the back of Vulture Castle lies with the leader."
"The leader was injured in the battle just now, but barely managed to save his life. As soon as he entered the Vulture Castle, he hurriedly fled to the pharmacy on the second floor. He didn't come out after nearly ten minutes. I think... we It’s time to take action.”
Connor gradually walked towards the pharmacy at the end of the passage, his dark eyes flashing with a faint light: "After all, none of us can place our hopes on a madman."
Although Black Crow Port is a large-scale pirate force that occupies the entire abandoned port, the internal relationships are extremely complex and chaotic.
In addition to the management "leader", there are a dozen small pirate groups grouped together. They are each in their own camp. They are generally divided into four fleets and are led by their respective captains. Although they nominally obey the leader's orders, they have a very high degree of freedom and are basically equivalent to an independent pirate team. However, in some aspects they still need to be restricted by the common interest group "Black Crow Port", but at the same time they You can also gain certain shared benefits in this group that hugs each other for warmth.
Connor is a pirate leader belonging to Black Crow Port, and he also serves as the captain of Fleet No. 1 among the four major fleets.
In the fifth era when basic breathing techniques were widely spread and low-level extraordinary people increased rapidly, Connor was the only extraordinary person among the four captains who had not reached the awakening level. Likewise, the fleet he led was also the least powerful in Black Crow Port. There are only two or three cargo ships, and they are mainly responsible for various logistics work in Black Crow Port.
Before Connor, there was a Captain of Fleet No. 1 in Black Crow Port. As early as two years ago, this captain had led part of his crew to leave Black Crow Port. It was precisely because of the vacancy caused by the captain's voluntary departure that the successor Connor was able to serve as the captain of the entire fleet with the strength of a high-level knight.
But talking about these now is meaningless. The captains of the four key fleets in Black Crow Port based in Norton Province, except for taking the "Venom" out, have the chance to escape this sudden attack. Apart from the captain of the second fleet, "Sea Viper" Nami, the only one is Connor who is currently hiding in the Vulture Castle.
As for the other two captains who had reached the awakening level, "Sea Wolf" Kazzak and "Iron Armored Rhinoceros" Morid had just died at the hands of this sudden group of elite navy.
The leader of that group of marines was Luas, known as Black Blade. He once served in the mercenary organization in the Sarst Sea and had a notorious reputation.
During the previous battle, Luas severely wounded their leader.
The former led the navy with greatly improved morale to break through the pirates' defense line, while the latter hurriedly fled back to his home Vulture Fort, barely surviving the naval gunfire.
However, according to some terrifying rumors about the former, even if their leader did not return to the embrace of Styx just now, he is probably very close to death, but the death process will become even more weird and painful.
Connor Richard was lucky. He did not directly join the frontal battlefield in this one-sided raid. When the warships and artillery destroyed the defense outside Black Crow Harbor, he happened to be at Vulture Castle with a group of cronies. In the hall, a batch of goods smuggled from Beicanglan were sorted out.
It is precisely because of this that Connor and a group of cronies around him were able to hide in the Vulture Castle safely, and carried out defensive measures in time to temporarily isolate the enemy from the Vulture Castle.
But this is only temporary.
Connor and the pirates around him knew very well how long the incomplete magic circle outside Vulture Castle could last.
Once the continuous effect of the magic circle disappears, just a ditch without a bridge and a dozen muskets, as well as less than 100 pirates and less than two digits of low-level extraordinary people in the Vulture Castle, are simply unable to fight against the people outside. A group of elite navy.
What awaited them in the end was either blood splattered on the spot or the gallows lined up in the glorious square of Pearl Harbor.
The only hope is under the broken sculpture in the center of the Vulture Castle hall. There is a secret passage there. This was built by the original owner of the fort, Baron Caddo, about a dozen years ago. At that time, Black Crow Harbor was still under construction. It is not occupied by pirates and belongs to the territory under the jurisdiction of this baron.
It was a pity that a sudden plague took the lives of Baron Caddo and most of the people in this port. The remaining people fled to other towns or ports as early as possible.
And those who chose to stay for various reasons either died of poverty, hunger, or disease in the following days, or gradually degenerated in the port abandoned by the Governor's Palace, becoming a major specialty of Norton - -pirate.
This is the initial history of Black Crow Port. Many pirates know the predecessor of Vulture Castle and the location of the secret passage. Through this secret passage, you can directly pass through the dock to the east of Black Crow Harbor, where there are many small Ships are also a place that the navy has not yet occupied.
While the navy was thinking of ways to break through the magic circle and focused its attention on the Vulture Castle, it secretly followed the secret passage to the east dock. This was obviously a feasible escape plan in such a difficult situation.
The pirates who have lived in Black Crow Port for many years know the location of the secret passage, but those foreign navies may not know it.
The only problem now is the key to the secret passage.
There is only one key, and it lies with the leader of Black Crow Port, who has a bounty of up to 80,000 dollars, Pleasant Wilson, who is known as "Black Crow". And their leader, in the one-sided naval attack He was seriously injured, covering his eyes and hurriedly fled into the pharmacy on the second floor of Vulture Castle, which was the room behind the door in front of Connor.
Connor guessed that he was using potions to treat his wounds inside, but the time he went in was indeed a bit long, so long that Connor wondered...if he had died inside.
Looking at the dark wooden door in front of him, Connor took a deep breath. He knew that he could not delay it any longer. In fact, when the defeat of Black Crow Port was already obvious, he had prepared two different plans for his retreat. planning.
One is to follow the leader with his cronies and run away through the secret passage. The other is to kill the seriously injured leader and surrender to the navy with his cronies and the remaining pirates.
In the early years, he worked for Count Macassius, the acting governor of Blue Pearl Harbor. With the relationship of "the Count's internal response in Black Crow Harbor", he chose to surrender with the head of "Black Crow", even if he could not save it. Even if he takes the lives of his cronies, at least his own life can be guaranteed...
Being able to save your own life...this is a very important point.
Are you following a madman to the end of the world? Or choose to abandon freedom and bow to the empire's navy? For Connor, this is a question worth thinking about.
But no matter what choice he made, Connor had to face one thing, open the door in front of him and see what kind of state their current leader was in.
Connor threw the soon-burned cigarette under his feet and stepped hard on the remaining sparks with his black leather boots. He held the door handle of the pharmacy with his hand and opened the door.
When he entered the pharmacy, what caught Connor's eyes were broken medicine bottles and colorful liquids all over the floor. A man wearing a captain's hat, dark blue and almost black hair, and a dark gray coat was leaning against the window sill. , as if holding something in his hand, seemingly unaware of Connor who opened the door.
Connor closed the door, and then said to the man with a hint of confusion: "Chief? What are you... doing?"
The man wearing the captain's hat said nothing, but Connor, who was getting closer, saw clearly what he was holding in his hand.
That's a bunch of crumbs.
On the windowsill, there were a few crows pecking at the bread crumbs in the man's hands, and making squeaking sounds from time to time.
When the navy arrives, the pirates are in catastrophe, and Black Crow Harbor is about to be destroyed, their leader is... feeding the birds? !
