Although that took a while, Ferdinand's fleet didn't return to try the second wave of attacks. The reason for that was that they lost a good number of their best ships, and those could be used against them. The mercenaries that worked for him were used in fighting against smaller and weaker ships, but not against those beasts that could break into pieces mediocre ships in a single charge.

  Zaos and Drannor didn't have time to check it, but in the end, it seemed things ended well for his allies. The smuggler's ship was almost gone, but he managed to endure the first wave of attacks by relying on his experience. By using the sudden movements and the waves in his favor, he managed to avoid direct hits.

"Man, that was awesome," Drannor said while he was helping Ameria and Noemi join the new ship. "By the way, where is Zaos?"

"He went to pick up his things, you know, his research," Ameria said.

  The smuggler's ship was almost sinking, but Zaos couldn't care less about it. Fortunately, the smuggler captain helped him on picking his things. So, they left just in time.

"Thanks," Zaos said.

"Hahaha, don't worry about it, lad," The smuggler captain said while smiling from ear to ear. "Thanks to you, I gained six fearsome ships. It is the least I can do."

"Our agreement was ten," Zaos said.

"Well, you only got twelve, and that is half," The smuggler said. "Besides, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I don't need more than six of these beauties."

  Another one who was in a good mood was Erean. He had a lot of faith in Drannor and Zaos, but he didn't think that they would be able to pull that off so smoothly and without suffering a single scratch. It was like he could see the future of the kingdom growing in front of him with his own eyes. Zaos and Drannor were fearless, skilled, hard workers and don't let their skills and position get over their heads. Not to mention, Ameria was quite diligent as well, and she had a great sense of responsibility. Although she didn't have the same training as the other two, she has earned the respect of everyone during the last few months. Regardless, he soon recovered his focus because the battle wasn't won yet.

"Assume your positions because we are going to set sail to the island," Erean said. "The enemy fleet suffered a major defeat and were forced to retreat, so their morale is low. The perfect moment to attack is now."

"These ships are really something else…" Drannor said. "Anyway, how many of these this Ferdinand guy has?"

"I would say at least forty more, he split his forces, so he should have twenty other more in another island and other twenty are fighting the forces of your kingdom," Orleand replied. "Still, I don't think we should relax now. Those ships escaped with the information of the last battle, so they won't repeat the same mistakes."

  Zaos could think of several ways to counter-attack that crazy plan of his of invading the enemy ships from above, the crew just had to protect the captain by staying close to him, or they just have to keep a certain distance and decrease the enemy forces by using arrows since they still had the numerical advantage.

"Is there any other thing that Ferdinand might use against us that we should worry about?" Erean asked.

"Well, he has always been quite the secretive man. So… I am not sure, but it would be wiser to expect more headaches," Orleand replied.

  Since the ships began to move to the next island, Zaos decided to use that short amount of time to meditate and recover his mana. It was evident that things wouldn't get easier just because they had bigger, sturdier, and more powerful ships on their sides. Besides, Zaos was pretty sure that Ferdinand had some unpleasant surprises in store for them. At least his instincts were telling him that.

  Although they tried to reach the next island as fast as possible, and they reached faster because of the better ships, they still didn't arrive in time. The whole port of the nearest island was completely empty… the enemies had escaped.

"As I had expected, those ships are good, but our sailors aren't used to them," Orleand said. "So, in terms of speed, Ferdinand and his men still have the advantage."

  The rest of their fleet was left behind so that they could hurry, but in the end, not even that worked in their favor. Pursuing them wouldn't be of any use as well, so they decided to land on the port to treat their wounded and restock supplies. At the same time, Orleand and Noemi walked around town with some soldiers revealing the truth that Ferdinand had hidden from them.

"You know… I have a feeling that Ferdinand's men retreated too fast," Drannor said. "Do you have any idea why, Captain?"

"I can only speculate," Erean replied. "Most likely, they received new orders… or they already had received some orders previously and obeyed since the requirements for them took place in the battle against us."

Although Zaos heard that and was worried about it, he decided to focus on his research again since his mana was entirely back. It was better to do something productive instead of worrying endlessly about things beyond his control.

After a while, Orleand and Noemi returned with some bad news. The first was that no one knew where the next base Ferdinand was using was, and the second was that his men stored something in the port for a while, and they took it with themselves, but no one had any idea what that was either.

"What now?" Drannor asked.

"We will pursue the bastard and try to attack him from both sides as planned," Erean said.

"We got five more ships and ninety soldiers this time, so we are a little better than before," Orleand said.

One could only hope that they would be helpful now that they knew that Ferdinand has another card up their sleeve.