The howling winds of the night finally passed, and the allied fleet increased its speed after dawn. By noon the next day, the islands ahead gradually came into view.
That's Coral Island. This island is known for its abundant coral. Compared to Charme Island, this island is much smaller. In addition, the island is surrounded by coral reefs. These coral reefs, which have been formed over thousands of years, are exceptionally hard, making it difficult for warships to approach the island under normal circumstances.
Because getting too close could easily lead to a grounding incident, and if a ship gets stuck on a coral reef, it would be very difficult to move. Therefore, in previous voyages, the fleets of various countries had always sailed far away from coral islands.
And they are the same today.
Although the tide had risen slightly, submerging the reefs around the coral islands, Clemento, for safety's sake, chose to sail as far away from the islands as possible with his fleet.
However, as they sailed forward, someone on the right flank of the fleet spotted black smoke rising from the coral island, and the news quickly spread throughout the entire fleet.
Clemento frowned as he looked at the coral islands in the sea to his right. The black smoke, which was extremely thin due to the great distance, was indeed rising into the sky.
It's obvious that there are people on this island; this is the signal they're sending.
But who would be on this island? There are no islanders there.
During today's voyage, Clemento observed an increasing number of shipwrecks on the sea, leading him to conclude that the naval battle between the Federation fleet and the Yan Kingdom might be taking place in this area.
Now that someone is sending signals on Coral Island, it can only be one of these two forces.
Whether the people on that island are from Yan Kingdom or Delta Federation, it is a very strange thing, because Coral Island is not a suitable island for docking. Trying to get close to this island would risk warships running aground. No one would not have thought of this.
Having learned from his previous experience, Clemento was much more cautious. He did not rashly order his fleet to approach the coral island, because he suspected that the Yan Kingdom might be plotting to lure the fleet close to the island and cause it to run aground.
Conversely, it is also possible that the Federation fleet chose to dock at Coral Island for reasons that are difficult to explain.
The speculation needed to be verified, so it was necessary to take some risks. Therefore, Clemento ordered the Whale Fleet, which was located on the right flank of the Allied fleet, to send several warships to investigate.
This order naturally displeased Federich, but their fleet was sailing on the right flank, and it would be too biased to allow the Rose Fleet warships, located on the left rear flank, to circle around and investigate.
Therefore, he could only accept it with a belly full of complaints. He then ordered several light and small warships to be sent to check the waters around Coral Island. These warships had a shallow draft, so the risk of running aground could be minimized. Even if they were unfortunately stuck on the rocks, they could be towed out by large warships.
After these warships were dispatched, all the ships in the allied fleet reduced their speed.
After some time, the warships arrived near Coral Island. However, the closer they got to the island, the greater the risk of running aground, so they did not approach. Even so, they still saw a large number of Federation warships to the north of Coral Island. Those warships had suffered terrible bombardment, and almost every ship had unimaginable damage.
Because there were reefs beneath the surface, these damaged warships did not completely sink to the bottom of the sea, but one can imagine how recklessly they chose to rush towards the coral island.
Although they did not choose to land on the island, they still observed the soldiers on the shore through binoculars.
There were probably several thousand soldiers gathered on the shore. They lit bonfires in conspicuous places, their purpose was self-evident: they wanted to attract the attention of the Allied fleet passing by, so that they could be taken away from Coral Island.
The intelligence gathered was sent to Federich after these warships returned to the Whale Fleet.
Upon learning this news, Federich flew into a rage and cursed incessantly:
"These foolish Goths! Didn't their nautical charts indicate that Coral Island was an island riddled with reefs?!"
"Are their heads filled with shit? How could they bring a fleet to Coral Island?!"
"These idiots! So this is how the Yan Kingdom people defeated them!"
"They deserved to lose! These stupid idiots! They deserve to die!"
After finishing his tirade, Federich sent warships to deliver the message to the Dawn Fleet and the Rose Fleet.
Clemento learned of this news first.
Unlike Federich, he didn't launch into a tirade; instead, he shook his head with a helpless expression.
The last time they cooperated with the Federation fleet, the fleet was commanded by Muller, a man with strong execution and unwavering will. Clemento recognized and admired this marshal from another country.
Although Clemento had never met Edman, who was now in command of the Federation fleet, the fact that he made so many mistakes and led the entire fleet to this state showed that he was incredibly stupid.
Whatever happened to them in their battle with the Yan Kingdom's fleet, they should never have chosen to lead their fleet to Coral Island; it was an extremely foolish decision.
Now that the Federation fleet has lost its combat capability, those left on the island are no longer able to play a role, and it would be very unwise to risk running aground to rescue them now.
The reason why the Yan people did not land on the island and kill these people must have taken this into consideration.
After some consideration, Clemento chose to ignore the Federation fleet's distress call, at least not until the Yan people were defeated, it was not worth risking the fleet for this.
He ordered the fleet to hoist its sails and continue sailing.
The Rose Fleet, which received the news last, was also sailing, but unlike Clemento and Federich, Lucat ordered the fleet to adjust its formation, increasing the spacing between their ships, which was advantageous for turning.
At that moment, aboard the bow of the Lightning, Lucat gazed at the sea, his expression still grave.
“The Federation fleet wouldn’t have rushed to Coral Island without a reason; they must have had a compelling reason to go there,” he muttered to himself.
——
As dusk falls, the afterglow of the setting sun paints the sky crimson.
"Waaah!"
The piercing bugle call rang out, spreading almost instantly throughout the entire Allied fleet.
Immediately following, an even sharper warning sounded, startling everyone on board the warships, who immediately went on high alert.
On the distant sea, bathed in the golden light of the setting sun, an unfamiliar warship appeared.
After nearly two months at sea, they finally encountered their enemy on the vast ocean.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
