Chapter 395 - The Naval Battle Of The Century 1/4

After that cry, Einar used the flag system to inform all the ships that they had to prepare weapons and Nordic fire.

Unlike the Greek fire launcher on Byzantine ships, the Nordic fire launcher was made to launch the powerful jet of fire at least a few tens of meters.

So it was safer for operators to be able to use the Greek fire launcher on ships.

The crusader sailors, when they saw a series of ships with a red flag, knew that it must be the fleet of the Nordic kingdom.

But although they seemed to be many ships, they were confident because there were over 8000 ships in their fleet so they could easily win against the enemies.

Even if they had superior weapons, they did not care because they knew that the ultimate victory would be theirs because God was with them.

The archbishop who had come out of his cabin just yawned and touched Gautier on the shoulder, "Coordinate the ships to end this sea battle. I don't care what you do.

But I want you to finish quickly because I have more important things to do in my cabin with my nun.

I hope a victory Duke Gautier, because a defeat would be equivalent to losing the right of God and you would be remembered as the worst enemy of the Church of God, our Lord. "

After these words the archbishop went down to his cabin, so Gautier, with the help of Guido, coordinated the ships using flags.

In the vast majority of the ships of Einar's army, white flags were raised with the image of the Nordic cross, which was the Celtic cross.

It might seem like it would be a battle between pagans and Christians, but in reality, most of the fighters would be Christians against Christians.

Two different ways of seeing religion, one that advocated freedom and breaking centralization in order to advance, while the other followed the designs of a corrupt leadership that only looked after their interests.

All the crusaders were surprised to see that most of the enemy ships had on a flag the image of a cross.

Gautier was surprised as he did not know what the Konungar Einar was trying to do.

For their part in the ships of the army of Einar, the recent monks and priests who had converted to Nordic Christianity.

They took their bibles and prayed the gospel according to Judas Iscariot. In the main ship of Einar's fleet, they were all Nordic warriors.

So Einar only said a few words as the two groups of ships approached.

The tension on the battlefield could be felt, so Einar ordered all ships to be on standby so that they would start firing on his signal.

When the crews of the enemy ships could be seen, Einar raised his hand and, seeing that they were close enough under his hand, that the person in charge of giving the order with the flag did the same.

At that moment, the soldiers in charge of the Nordic fire launchers pulled their triggers and a blaze of blue fire came from hundreds of ships.

The fire surprised the ships in the front because it was so powerful that it burned their ships immediately.

The desperate crew tried to do everything possible to put out the fire, but it was useless. The fire did not go out.

Some desperate men jumped into the sea with the intention that the water will put out the flames, but their fear turned to terror when they realized that they were burned in the water.

The sailors screamed for help but no one could do anything as their ships were completely on fire. This caused the ships to lose speed.

So the ships that were behind them collided, breaking their allied ships, so thousands of crew ended up at sea.

Some who knew how to swim were lucky, but it was only momentary because the boats ended up destroying their bodies due to their speed.

Because the Nordic fire could burn in the water, the ships tried to avoid the places where there was fire burning in the sea.

But then it was the turn of the ballista operators on the ships of the Nordic nation. All the boats had 8 ballista operators.

Two in the front, four in the middle, and two in the back.

The ballista operators positioned the explosive-tipped arrows and began firing.

The gigantic arrows flew out and ended up creating explosions on the approaching ships.

The noise of the screams was drowned out by the constant explosions on the battlefield. No matter where you were, if one of those arrows could hit a solid surface, it could explode.

The sailors of the ships were afraid, first a blue fire capable of burning in the water and then explosions everywhere.

For the crusaders on those ships, that moment became a true hell on earth.

Gautier, who was looking at everything, gulped and ordered that all ships move freely where they could. They could be dangerous from the front but passing on the sides and from the rear.

Einar, seeing that the enemy ships separated, gave the order to break formation and start the real war.

So all the captains advanced with the sole objective of destroying the enemy. They had managed to win the first combat, but there was still a long way to go before they could achieve victory.

Kalevi, who had been looking at everything, felt admiration and fear for Einar's powerful army. It was the true power of Odin on every weapon and ship.

For some reason, he felt that the enemy fleet in front of him was only ships ready to be eliminated. They weren't even worthy enemies.

It was just a group of shooting targets to tell how powerful Einar's weapons were.

Einar's ship was the largest ship the Byzantines had brought, and it was the most modern in the fleet, because many improvements had been made to it.

From adding glass to the windows, to having a more advanced rudder system similar to that of 17th century ships.

Also, the sails could make better use of the air, and the hull was reinforced with steel plates.

It was a true Caravel-sized battle machine but with improvements for many years to come.