Chapter 13: The Long Night

The victory for the Battle just now did not last long, as people watch the vast fleet appearing up from North. The sheer size of the fleet is enormous that its sails went covering the horizon and the last trace of sunlight. This gives the massive fleet a kind of feeling, that they are the true ambassador of destruction, ready to descent eternal darkness and eventual death on the head of anyone, or anything there to stop them.

Abraham immediately turned to Antonius and asked in an anxious tone.

"What do we do admiral! Please give us orders!"

"Easy lads." Antonius gulped and ordered. "Wind is still blowing north, so we sail south, all the ships together at once!"

"Aye captain!"

The Roman fleet began forming a long snake formation for maneuverability, then they began following the fair wind with evening tide to try to get out of there as soon as possible.

"Full sails! Turn off all lights! All stations follow my lead!"

As night approaches and the surrounding light dims, the ships quickly began pulling off all limit to their speed, the sails are fully flown and sailors propel their oars in full strength , the pirates flags are lowered and instead replaced with Genoese flags.

"Signaler, take the signal lamp to the watch tower, tell all battle stations to stick in this formation, terminate all light sources, all men should remain utter silence, and restrict lamp signal communication to only once every Puncta of fifteen minutes. We are going stealth."

"Aye sir!"

The orange light soon began flickering up and down on the watch tower sending the signals, while the scribes that Antonius recruited and trained showed their capabilities. They quickly noted down the signals sent from the flag ship and translated it into proper language, then sent the signal of "Affirmative" back.

The sun has set.

In the night, the Mediterranean grows still like a stagnant pond of water. All streams of sunlight hours ago now fades, darkness falls over the entire Eastern Mediterranean like Jupiter has poured pitch black ink across the sky.

The ship's fashioned ancient oak groans as wave after wave of sea splashes against her, the crew perspiring from rapidly paddling their oars against the water, their shirts drenched in sweat. The sails trembling against the howling wind and continuously accelerates the ship in this unknown, mysterious and dangerous waters.

The just victorious fleet sneaks under the night sky and shadows, sailing and approaching the unknown proximity. No one dares to utter a single word in fear that it might be just loud enough to catch the ears of some painstaking Ottoman sailor.

Sailing in a night in full speed with no lights are can prove to be a fatal choice, especially in this area of sea which is filled with boulders. The Genoese helmsman, already familiar with this part of the sea, fluently controls the ship left and right dodging all potential places of rocks below water surface following the path left by the flag ship.

The Ottoman on the other hand is not so fortunate. Their fleet is too clumsy and huge to change direction and manoeuvre like the Romans. It didn't take long before tragic struck the Ottoman fleet – an Ottoman Galley found itself ramming a giant but well hidden under water boulder, a huge hole is made in the hulk of the ship and water started pouring in.

A Galley out of control messes up the entire fleet, as the ship gradually began sinking and the desperate cries of sailors can be heard even by Antonius. The Ottoman fleet is distracted and separated a potion of the fleet to proceed with evacuation work. While other ships continued chasing blindly in the darkness.

This kind of cat-and-mouse chase continued till the moon is up high right in the middle of the sky, and the northern wind gradually ceased, what replaced it is the wind blowing from South from Eygptus to Anatolia.

Antonius, as an experienced sailor in the seas, immediately sensed the change in the direction of wind, he immediately sensed an opportunity for battle is coming up.

However, in this crucial time, he hesitated.

He cannot be a gambler, he has the command of the entire fleet and thus he must make sure his decision won't bring his crew to death and destruction, it is something called responsibility that got into his mind. If he chooses to face the enemy and attack, he might score a victory but that will be like gambling. Just as Giovanni said earlier on, in a war, hope can get you killed.

Abraham and Abdullah sensed their captain's hesitation, they looked into each other in the eyes, nodded their heads and grabbed the hands of Antonius."

Abraham said first. "My captain, use your bravery like last time against the pirate hunters by the coast of Cilicia, face them, I am with you."

Abdullah followed. "My friend, I see you are a man of true courage, although you are fighting my country man, but I shall still stand with you. An old idiom from my country says. 'To threaten the brave with death is like promising water to duck.' Go my brother, may Allah guide you."

Antonius nodded, looked at the both of them and went back to the commanding deck without saying anything. He threw his Roman admiral hat into the water and instead wrapped his head with a black silk cloth like what he used to do when he was a pirate.

"Lower the sails lads! We are in open sea! Signal the other ships to turn back and face the enemies, then lit all the lights." Antonius breathed deeply as the crew hurriedly rushed to their posts and grabbing something to prevent themselves from dropping into the sea while turning.

"Signal them, we aren't sneaking no more. Raise the blue flag of death."

The entire fleet, as-if understood the spirit of their admiral, stopped fleeing against the wind and waves, turned back with their lights fully on and started facing the Ottoman fleet in the open sea. The Ottomans, still in the mid of chaos in their formation because of another two shipwrecks from hidden boulders, immediately alarmed by the sudden appearance of a fleet flying Genoese flags.

The Ottomans although knowing something is fishy, but still remembered their Sultan's command to not offend the Genoese before taking Constantinople, immediately sent questioning signals asking the purpose of a Genoese fleet showing up here.

They got no reply.

The two fleets became closer and closer, it is not until the two fleets are almost dangerously close that Antonius commanded.

"Throw that Genoese flag into the sea, fly the flag of the Empire and the purple flag of war!"

The captains of other ships, all with their eyes on the flagship, immediately noticed the change in flag and signals, which deciphers into.

"The Empire and our fate depend on the result of this battle; every man must do his sacred duty to achieve victory or die in agony."

This immediately sent the blood of every sailor boiling again, the scent of anger is like a fire seed spreading among everyone on deck, growing inside the heart and stomach, which it became as hot as larva tumbling inside the sailors. Their eyes were burning as-if flames have erupted out of their eyes, their brain sizzled with the sparkling fire of rage, like an inferno, an inferno filled with the rage to fight and destroy.

"Charge! Change formation! We are going headfirst!"

Antonius commanded the fleet to form a formation called Diekplous – another daring move right before the eyes of the enemy fleet, as a sudden change of formation might potentially lead to chaos and self destruction, providing a fatal opportunity for the enemies.

But still, his ships did not fail him, although they did suffer a few attacks, they managed to endure and finish forming the formation. Time slows as the two fleets meet closer and closer, Antonius can almost see the frightened face of Ottoman sailors, he narrowed his eyes and yelled.

"Bring out the siphons of Greek Fire! Send them to Hell!"