Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

About an hour after the Vineta Fleet withdrew from the bay, on the grand road connecting Red Sulfur Harbor with the entrance of the bay, a group of Tanilian was swaggering towards Red Sulfur Harbor with a line of prisoners in tow.

Less than twenty people were stretched out in a column along the packed dirt road, half of them being the Tanilian sailors responsible for the escort, the rest bound at the wrists and chained together were Venetian.

A gaunt pirate with missing teeth held a long spear aloft at the head of the procession, the spear's tip pierced through the head of someone wearing a Venetian military cap. The face beneath the cap appeared unnaturally pale, the result of having been drained of blood.

Among the group was even a large cart, its pitiful mule foaming at the mouth from exhaustion. Several Venetian corpses were covered with a casually thrown straw mat, revealing only their lower halves, and were tossed brazenly onto the cart.

Aside from the corpses, many heads were piled up. The cart creaked along its way, and a trail of blood dripped behind it.

There were almost no civilians on the road; a few passersby who spotted the group from a distance quickly scurried into the neighboring woods to hide.

The island of Red Sulfur had long been under martial law, and the locals were aware that the Venetians were coming to raid Red Sulfur Island. But more than the Venetians, the locals feared the pirates who had converged on Red Sulfur Island from every direction.

At this moment, the island's defenders included not only the militia guard and plantation private soldiers but also mercenaries and irregulars recruited by the Confederation with generous bounties—pirates.

These pirates touted themselves as defenders of Red Sulfur Island, finding it perfectly rational to demand some additional fees. Not daring to provoke the large plantations, the pirates specifically victimized the civilians.

Within just a couple of days, there had already been several clashes between the militia and the pirates, with both sides suffering casualties. If the Venetians didn't arrive soon, Red Sulfur Island might well descend into internal strife.

Now, having won a great battle, the pirates' arrogance had swollen even further.

The ones escorting the prisoners didn't bother paying any mind to the onlookers hiding in the woods, simply proceeding along the road toward Red Sulfur Harbor.

The scrawny lead pirate, suddenly in high spirits, broke into a raucous sea shanty:

"Feast on the rib, the choice part of meat~

Marry a bandit, with him life's complete~

Midnight awakes to the sound of steal clashing~

Sister in silk while brother's head smashing!

..."

The ghastly song broke through his windy mouth, and in a thick Tanilian accent at that, so thick it was almost indiscernible to anyone but the singing pirate himself.

The few farmers hiding in the woods looked at each other in dismay, unsure if the pirates with heads on their spears were more terrifying or the donkey-like clamor of the song.

Another group of pirates, heading to support the battery, appeared from the opposite direction. The two parties brushed past one another, and those pirates who hadn't gotten a chance to fight or take captives enviously eyed the prisoners and severed heads on the cart that their comrades were escorting.

"Hey mate, a fine haul!" called out a pirate half in envy, half in admiration to those escorting prisoners, "You lot have struck it rich; spare me a few heads, will you?"

"Plenty of heads up front, chop 'em off yourself!" retorted the toothless skinny pirate with a hearty laugh: "Don't you XX think about touching my merchandise."

"Mate, I reckon there might be heads of the old island farmers among those, huh?"

"[Crude sailor jargon]!"
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The two groups passed each other and quickly left each other behind. The road meandered and, after a bend, the others were out of sight behind the trees.

"Those damn donkey's turds, they must've chopped a few farmers from the nearby homesteads to make up the numbers," said the pirate who had shouted at the skinny, toothless one, jealously, to his companion: "How many even managed to get ashore? I reckon there's at least fifteen heads on that cart!"

The adjacent pirate nodded in agreement.

"Ah! Why don't I have that luck?" lamented the shouting pirate, full of self-pity, "We also need to think hard about where to get a couple of heads ourselves."

Time rewound to a little earlier.

Accompanied by two explosions, a strike force burst out from the dense forest, and the Tanilian, caught between attackers from front and rear, immediately lost all morale.

A few quick-witted ones on the edge of the battlefield turned tail and ran, triggering a chain reaction; the outnumbered Tanilian scattered in every direction.

The Venetian officer holding the bow didn't bother with any Tanilian attempting to counterattack but aimed only at the sailors trying to flee.

"Chase! Don't let them escape! If they get away, we're all dead," Andre shouted harshly, urging on the weary Venetian.

Running all the way to the low cliff, the Venetian who had been fighting on pure adrenaline found their opponents turning tail to flee, and they literally didn't have the energy to give chase.

Instead, the reinforcements who had rushed out were desperately trying to intercept the fleeing pirates, and the Venetian officer with the bow took down several men in quick succession.

Nevertheless, two pirates managed to slip into the dense forest, their figures quickly vanishing among the leaves and bushes.

"We're finished!" Andre thought desperately in the middle of the battlefield, "The second wave of pursuers will slaughter us all."

But the bloodied and muddied officer who had led the reinforcements into the fray followed the footprints of the pirates into the broadleaf rainforest.

How much time had passed was hard to tell; it felt short yet simultaneously endless.

Footsteps and the rustling of branches were heard once more from the woods, and the officer reemerged carrying two heads.

The clothes and shoes of the two fleeing pirates, along with their heads, were tossed to the ground with a thud.