Feng Chou was focused on his binoculars when Colbert shouted beside him, "Captain, look! Kuo-toans!"
Feng Chou hurriedly put down his binoculars and looked in the direction Colbert was pointing. Indeed, behind the Patrick, a group of shark-riding fishmen were cleaving through the waves and charging towards the ship.
Looking at the white waves that were quickly reaching towards the Patrick, Feng Chou took a deep breath and shouted, "Prepare for battle!"
He didn't know what species these sharks were, but their swimming speed was astonishing. They quickly caught up to the ship like speedboats.
Feng Chou could finally see that these fishmen were different from the sharks they were riding.
They were a type of dark green murlocs. They had an eel-like head, a humanoid body, thick and strong arms, a muscular body, strong legs, and a long tail with vertical fins that were about the same length as their bodies.
The biggest difference between these fishmen and the inland fishmen was their size. According to Feng Chou's estimation, their upper bodies above the water were about the same height as a human. They were so muscular that not even the ogres could compare to them.
These were the Kuo-toans that lived in the deep sea. They were a type of large fishmen.
The sharks they rode were also shockingly large, each of them seven to eight meters long.
When the sharks got close to the Patrick, the Kuo-toans changed from riding to half-squatting on the sharks' backs.
The sharks split into two and rushed past the Patrick. The Kuo-toans on the sharks' backs leaped off the sharks' backs and leapt onto the Patrick's hull.
The group of sharks swept past the Patrick. Hundreds of Kou Tao sahagins were already crawling on both sides of the ship.
These Kuo-toans used their sharp magical weapon-like claws to dig into the hull and climb up the ship's sides as if they were walking on flat ground.
The guards on the Patrick were no stranger to such a situation. Under the organization of the vampire spawn who served as the backbone of the guards, the guards formed a defensive line along the sides of the ship in small squads.
The composition of the guards on the Patrick was a little strange. The average standard of the guards was rather high. The average level of the guards was above level 7, and the captains were all level 10 professionals. However, the boatswain and two platoon captains were also only level 10 professionals.
What was even weirder was that the LV 10 boatswain was able to command the dozens of captains who were at the same level as him as if they were his own arms. Even the ordinary guards on the Patrick were amazed by this.
In fact, the captains of the guards and cannoneers on the Patrick were all his vampire spawn.
In order to make up for the lack of high-ranked warriors, he recruited the guards and cannoneers with a high salary.
In the blink of an eye, the three-and-a-half-metre-tall Kuo-toans jumped up to the deck from the ribs. The deck was instantly plunged into a white-hot melee.
The Kuo-toans were natural level-8 creatures. The green scales on their bodies were equivalent to + 2 magical leather armour. In addition to their natural scales, they also wore armour made of leather, bones, shells and other materials. These oddly shaped armours emitted obvious magical waves. They should have a magic level of + 3 or above. The tridents in their hands also emitted obvious magical waves. It seemed like they had a magic level of + 4 or above.
In the Underdark, there were alchemical civilisations that were not inferior to those on the surface. The Kuo-toans were at the top of the food chain in the subterranean world, so they did not lack equipment. In addition, the masters of these Kuo-toans, the mind flayers, were powerful magical creatures themselves. They also had excellent alchemical skills.
Therefore, these Kuo-toans were not lacking in equipment.
The elite guards of the Patrick were not at a disadvantage in terms of their profession level. In terms of equipment, both sides were equally matched. However, they had a clear advantage in terms of numbers.
There were only three to four hundred Kuo-toans on the deck, but in addition to the five hundred guards, the humans also had some cannoneers as backup.
However, the guards' morale was low and they resisted passively. If you looked closely, you could see the fear in their eyes.
As the only high-ranked Professional on the ship, Feng Chou did not join the battle. What was more strange was that he did not even take out his usual weapon, a two-handed sword. At this time, he was holding a shield and a one-handed sword.
Feng Chou did not seem to pay much attention to the battle between the guards and the Kuo-toans. He stood in the middle of the deck and looked around, as if he was looking for something.
As more and more Kuo-toans surged onto the deck, the guards' morale was low and they began to retreat in fear.
Fortunately, the vampiric spawns among the guards had no choice but to resist. These vampiric spawns relied on their strong regenerative abilities and excellent equipment to resist the advance of the Kuo-toans. In any case, this gave the guards some courage.
The Kuo-toans also had their own heritage. They inherited the ancient profession of barbarian fighters. Among this group of Kuo-toans who were at least level-eight, there were many barbarian fighters. There were even seven or eight high-ranked barbarian fighters. If it weren't for the vampiric spawns desperately blocking these barbarian fighters, the guards' morale would've been broken by the enemy long ago.
However, Feng Chou did not seem to care much about all this. His gaze swept across the heated battlefield, but did not fall on anyone.
Seeing that the guards on the merchant ship were retreating, Feng Chou had an idea. He opened a portal in the captain's cabin that led to the space in the tower. A few humanoid figures that were hard to see with the naked eye surged out of the portal.
According to Feng Chou's orders, these invisible figures passed through the layers of walls on the lower deck of the merchant ship and came to the bottom of the battlefield.
These invisible figures were all 'ghosts'. Feng Chou had taken part of the ritual in the Book of Lesser Ghoul Rituals and used the ideas in the book to control evil spirits to improve a weaker version of the ritual used to control ghosts.
Back then, before he left Casablanca, he went to Chapman Ghost Castle and used this improved and weakened version of the Evil Spirit Control Ritual to try to control a group of ghosts. After he succeeded, he put this group of ghosts under his control into the Universe in the Pagoda and carried it with him.
At this critical juncture, he had no choice but to use this trump card.
After the ghosts came to the bottom of the deck, a few telepathic commands suddenly landed on the strongest Kuo-toans on the battlefield.
These barbarians suddenly turned around and attacked the Kuo-toans around them as if they had gone mad.