Chapter 129: THIRD POV.
He couldn't hear what they were discussing across the open water because of the wind and the shouting of his own crew, so he could only speculate about what was happening.
He figured Douglas was probably begging the women to cooperate so they wouldn't all get killed.
And yet, despite the brief delay, Harold couldn't wait to get his hands on them.
He was already imagining having those two beautiful women in bed with him once the fighting was over.
Not once in his entire criminal life did he ever think such a miraculous day would come, where two high-class beauties would just fall into his lap on the open sea, and yet, here it was. Or so he thought.
BAM!
BAM!!
BAM!!!
In the blink of an eye, the entire situation changed.
The three attacking pirate ships suddenly began to tremble greatly, shaking so violently that several men lost their balance and tumbled across the decks.
The wooden planks groaned under the sudden force, and the masts creaked as if a massive underwater earthquake had just struck the area.
'The hell? What on earth is going on?!' Harold shouted, his cocky attitude vanishing instantly as he became highly vigilant.
He gripped the main railing with both hands to keep himself from falling over as his ship tilted sharply to the left.
"Captain! I think it's coming from directly below us!" one of his first mates screamed from the lower deck, his expression completely covered in a look of worried panic.
He was pointing down into the dark water, his hands shaking as he backed away from the edge of the hull.
"Get out of my way, you useless coward!" Harold roared, pushing his men aside as he hurried to the side of the ship to see for himself.
He couldn't understand what could possibly be hitting three separate ships at the exact same time with so much power.
He grabbed the thick wooden railing and looked straight down into the blue sea, only for his forehead to be instantly covered in a thick layer of cold sweat.
The confident smile was entirely gone from his lips, replaced by a sudden, choking terror.
On looking down, his face turned a pale, ghostly white, all the blood draining from his skin in a fraction of a second.
Because down below, in the clear blue water, countless massive sharks were seen ramming their heavy heads directly into the bow of the three ships over and over again.
The sea was absolutely churning with gray fins and sharp teeth, the water turning white with foam as dozens of the ocean predators attacked the wood with mindless, unnatural fury.
With each heavy impact against the hulls, the thick oak wood would crack loudly, sending splinters flying into the deep water as the sharks continued their relentless assault.
It looked as if the very ocean itself had turned against them, and Harold could only watch in absolute horror as his ships began to take on water from below.
The sharks were hurt in the process of hitting the thick hulls, their rough skin tearing against the iron bolts and heavy wood, but their bleeding forms only served to push the others into a deep, wild frenzy.
The smell of fresh blood in the water made the entire pack lose their minds. The ocean became a swirling mess of gray fins, white bellies, and snapping jaws, each creature trying to smash through the wooden walls with even more fury than the last.
"Sharks!!" a pirate screamed from the top mast, his voice cracking with terror as he looked down at the boiling water.
"Sharks!!" another echoed from the back deck, dropping his rusty weapon as the ship tilted under his feet.
"Why are there so many of them!!" the men shouted, running around in useless circles.
They had spent their entire lives on the ocean, but nobody had ever seen or heard of a regular pack of fish acting with such organized hatred.
It looked like an army of monsters had been called from the darkest corners of the deep sea just to tear them apart.
"ARRGHH!! They breached the lower deck!" a young pirate yelled, rushing up the wooden stairs with water spraying out behind him.
His face was covered in dark grime, and his eyes were wide with panic. "The wood gave way! The water is pouring in like a river! We need to patch up the hull!"
"Someone hurry up and block the breach!!"
Chaos quickly ensued across all three vessels as the pirates began panicking completely.
The previous looks of greed and lust vanished in an instant, replaced by the ugly, pale look of men who knew they were staring directly at their own graves.
They dropped their ropes, forgot all about the beautiful women on the medium ship, and began tripping over each other as the floorboards began to tilt.
"You blooming fools, aim the cannons at them!" Harold roared at the top of his lungs, his face turning an angry shade of purple as he grabbed a running sailor by the collar and threw him toward the lower deck stairs.
"Stop running around like a headless chicken and shoot them!"
Several of his men quickly went into positions, stumbling into the dark gun decks. They dragged the heavy iron cannons forward, lighting the fuses with shaking hands.
In a matter of moments, loud cannon shots filled the air, the massive explosions shaking the entire area.
The water exploded into giant white fountains as the heavy iron balls crashed into the sea, sending waves rocking back and forth between the trapped vessels.
"Captain, we can't get a clear shot! They're just too many of them!" the pirates began saying when they noticed the truly deadly situation they were in.
The black smoke from the cannons filled the air, making it hard to see anything, but the steady thumping against the bottom of the ship never stopped for a single second.
It was completely impossible to hit the sharks because they were attacking the ships from all directions at once, moving much too fast under the shifting waves for a clumsy iron cannon to track them.