Gaya gawked around the calm sea with the goggles on her eyes. At first, everything darkened but soon, a red appeared before her sight.

"What is this red dot?" Gaya raised her hand, trying to touch the virtual dot.

"That's how you aim the torpedoes. They will hit wherever you put the red dot and push the button. This button is just a temporary measure. I will build a trigger in the rudder later," said Michael. Of course, Michael himself could have worn the goggles and fired the torpedoes. The reason he chose not to was he had other plans. To be precise, a backup plan in case the ghost ship crew tried to kill themselves before they could apprehend them. As far as Michael was concerned, this facade had gone long enough. It was time he weeded out his enemies one by one.

"I have to adjust myself to this," Gaya stepped away from the rudder and joined Michael on the ship's front. Michael's long coat and hair fluttered in the wind as he stood there with his hands tufted into his pockets. Everyone on the ship had their gazes fixated on the ghost ship. Since the Dark Lord himself was with them, the crew's morale was sky-high. Excitement coursed through their veins as they waited for the ghost ship to get closer.

The closer they got to the ghost ship, the more excited everyone felt, especially Shorty, who couldn't wait to put the olympus and the spell he had learned recently to use. The cannon crew was on the verge of lighting the fuse and bombarding the ghost ship. However, the ghost ship was still out of their range. Suddenly, they all heard a strange cry in the air. Michael recognized the sound. This was the same cry he heard when Fairbank and his ship were attacked.

"They have noticed us," said Michael.

"Don't attack them until I say so," Michael said before diving back into the sea. After Michael disappeared into the ocean, Gaya returned to Corey at the helm. To Gaya's surprise, the ghost ship halted sailing toward them just outside the mortar's firing range. It was like the ghost ship crew knew exactly how far the mortar could hit them.

"So they had done their homework," Gaya muttered under her breath.

"What are they doing?" Core asked as she saw the ghost ship slowly turning around.

"They want to stay outside the mortar's firing range," Gaya said.

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"Should we catch up to them?" asked Corey, but Gaya shook her head.

"If we rush them, they might escape. I have a feeling their ship is faster than ours," Gaya said, walking to the rails. She leaned on the rails and watched the ghost ship without batting an eye. The red dot in her sight was right on the ship; if she wanted, she could fire the torpedoes. However, she had to wait for Michael's order.

Meanwhile, inside the sea, Michael soared through the deep sea toward the ghost ship. He dived deeper into the ocean and used the lightning dash to increase his speed. In a few moments, he vaguely saw the ghost ship's dark shadow in the near distance. As he moved closer, he noticed strange ripples under the ghost ship. He closed his eyes and focused on the surroundings. A strange noise, a rhythmic pulse, reached his ears. The ghost ship was creating some kind of pulse around it. Because Michael was a resident of earth, he was familiar with the sonar technology ships used to detect things underwater.

To be honest, Michael was surprised and couldn't even believe the ship was using something similar to sonar. But the energy pulses he felt were definitely some kind of detection system. Everything made sense to Michael when he thought about it. If the ghost ship didn't have a way to detect hostels under the water, one could swim underwater and catch them off guard, just like he was planning to do. There were some runes and arrays to achieve the same in cultivation continents. Considering the Southern continent was inside the void line, runes and arrays wouldn't work here. Hence, someone had to build a new device to achieve the same effects. Michael was surprised that someone who wasn't him had actually managed to do so

"System, scan the ship," Michael ordered the system. He needed to be sure.

[The system requires ten thousand badass points to scan the ship]

"Go for it," Michael confirmed. While the system's invisible rays were scanning the ship, Michael moved backward from the ghost ship. He didn't want the pulses to detect him. No matter what contraptions they used, today, he would start dismantling this unknown enemy. His enemies had mistaken his patience for a lack of action.

[The system can confirm the host's suspicion. The ghost ship has indeed, a device that mimics sonar pulses to detect hostile activity underwater in a ten-meter radius. A powerful bolt of lightning to the hull could disrupt the device]

As Michael was contemplating whether he should disrupt the device or not, he heard the cannons crackling inside the hull. The very next moment, the cannons exploded, sending a volley of flaming cannonballs toward Big Bertha. Michael was pushed back for a few meters by the shock wave that traveled around the ghost ship. Michael quickly turned on the thermal vision and turned in the direction of Big Bertha. Once again, the ghost ship surprised Michael with its cannon gun range.

After he heard the explosion, Michael formed a bubble around his head and contacted Gaya through the earpiece.

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"Are you hit?" Michael asked Gaya.

Michael heard Shorty and the crew shouting and cursing the ghost ship. It took Gaya a few seconds to respond to him.

"How in the fuck are they hitting us from this far? Where are you? I am losing my fucking patience here," Gaya roared in pure hatred toward the ghost ship. Her thumb was itching to press the button and fire the torpedoes.

"Fire the cannons and pretend you are putting up a fight. Let them think they have the upper hand," said Michael. No one in the ghost ship knew Michael was watching them from below. Having no idea, they kept bombarding Big Bertha. Michael didn't worry about his ship because it was built to withstand huge amounts of damage. It would take two man o wars to attack Big Bertha from both sides at the same time to cripple her down. Surprisingly, the ghost ship's cannons had both range and power. On top of that, the reload time was way shorter than Michael had anticipated. After the third volley of cannon fire, Gaya contacted Michael.

"We are taking some damage, human. Anytime now," said Gaya. Michael noticed the ghost ship slowly sailing toward Big Bertha, Now that they had successfully damaged Big Bertha, the ghost ship crew had gotten more courageous. As Michael ordered, Big Bertha fired all her cannons, but none of the cannon balls could reach the ghost ship.

For a few minutes, the roars of both ships echoed through the calm sea. As they continued the naval battle, the air reeked of gunpowder and burnt wood. From an outsider's perspective, Big Bertha was losing the battle because she caused no damage to the ghost ship while the latter bombarded Big Bertha with each round of fire. When the ghost ship fired the cannons for the fourth time, Michael clenched his fist as lightning bolts appeared and crackled around his wrists. He waited for the cannons to stop spitting out cannonballs. With lightning bolts crackling around his wrist, Michael followed behind the ghost ship.

"Gaya," Michael contacted Gaya.

"Do the honor," Michael snickered.

"Finally," Gaya was elated to hear Michael's order.

On Big Bertha's upper deck, Gaya stood up from the cover and strolled toward the edge of the ship. Wooden splinters flew everywhere as the cannons on each side let out thick clouds of smoke after firing. Despite the chaos, Gaya stood firm and raised the button.

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"Say hello to this, bitch," Gaya pressed the button as the entire ship trembled for a moment. Except for Gaya, none of the crew were aware of the new weapon Michael installed in Big Bertha. She creased her sword-like brows as she saw no smoke or fire. In fact, nothing happened for a few minutes.

"My lady," Short crouched toward Gaya and pulled her sleeves.

"You should duck down. They are preparing to fire again," Shorty warned Gaya.

Boom!

Suddenly, they heard a clap of thunder rumbling in the distance, and boom, the ghost ship's left half exploded to bits and pieces. Michael's crew was completely stunned.

If Gaya didn't know about the torpedoes, she would have thought the gunpowder barrels stored inside the ghost ship had caught fire somehow and exploded from within. The torpedo obliterated the ghost ship and turned its one-half into charcoal wood.

"HELL YEAH!" Shorty bounced up and down in pure joy. But Gaya wasn't as happy as the crew. Instead, she focused on the calm sea around the burning ghost ship.

"Anytime now," She mumbled under her breath. As she expected, Michael shot out of the water like a whale on drugs and landed straight beside the ghost ship's captain.

The crew atop the ghost ship was in chaos. They ran around like headless chickens in their weird gray robes. When Michael landed on their ship, they were completely caught off guard.

The man in front of the rudder reached for his sword, only to get stabbed in the neck with an injection. His body froze as he fell down on the deck. Then, Michael turned his focus to the rest. The moment Michael's gaze swept across the deck, an invisible force snuffed out the flames and darkened the ship. Everything turned dead silent for a few moments. The only sound they heard at that time was the lightning bolts crackling around Michael's wrist. The surviving crew immediately reached out for the dagger dangling on their waist. According to Corey, they used this dagger to cut their throats to avoid being captured.

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As the crew reached for the dagger, Michael simply raised his hand, sending a couple of wind blades toward them. The next moment, several heads flew in the air as blood sprayed out of headless bodies. From the beginning, Michael had no plans to take everyone hostage but one, the captain. As for the others, they could go to hell and wait for the others.