In his desperation, Xiao Li used all three of his missiles to blow a hole through the defensive formation to his front and ordered his men to take the land that was in front of him. Though his blast did do a lot of damage to the ships in front of him, there were still a dozen or so that were standing in his way. All he had to do now was to blow right past them and take the land before Baron caught up to him and that would be his win, no matter how many he had lost.

Xiao Li’s ships were quite a bit slower than the Greeks under Baron’s control, but he had been given quite a headstart, something he suspected would be enough for him to claim victory. Indeed he pushed his fleet onward and the few pitiful ships and men in front of him could not even hold a candle in front of them and immediately crumpled under the mighty Persians. Now the only thing that could pose a threat to his fleet aside from Baron’s own few ships were the flaming archers to the side. In front of him was nothing but the open seas.

Then he got the worst surprise of his afterlife. There were a bunch of Greek soldiers just waiting at the docks for him. This meant that if he wanted to finish the objective of claiming the land, he would need to engage in a slight land skirmish before he could do it. Which would give Baron ample time to catch up and burn everything to the ground with the ancient flamethrower. What to do, what to do? He was short on time, men, patience, and resources.

Everything option that was available to him wasn’t great. If he chose to pursue the land fight, Baron would catch up for sure. If he went to clash with Baron head-on, he would be inviting disaster since there was nothing in his arsenal that could counter the flame thrower. The strait in front of them split up into two and he knew there was a way for the remainder of his fleet to retreat if he so chose to do so.

He knew that there were no good options and if he did choose to retreat then he would have lost more ships and men while trying to escape. In the end, he chose to retreat, it was way better in his opinion to allow his men to fight another day than to all perish here and now. He headed for the channel to his right and tried his best to get away with Baron’s fleet fast behind them.

They made it a little ways before they saw yet another enemy fleet in front of them! There weren’t many ships, less than 30, but getting past these ones would use up valuable time to get away. It was entirely possible to beat them quickly, but they would never be able to beat them fast enough that Baron would still need to chase them down.

They were now out of the range from the archers with flame arrows, but what does that matter now that they were surrounded in front and behind them, and landlocked to the left and right? The Greek soldiers that were inhibiting their taking over of the land earlier had followed them and were keeping them in their line of sight.

Xiao Li knew that this was the end for him. How was he supposed to get out of this situation? There weren’t many options and even then they were almost guaranteed to get slaughtered. If only he had kept one of his missiles from before he might have had a chance to get out of this situation. He decided that he would just try his best to muscle his way through the small fleet in front of him. The situation was so dire that he himself took to the battlefield in hopes of getting out as quickly as possible.

The two sides clashed in a fervor of battle cries, screaming, and cursing. Xiao Li fought with all his might, as did the Persian soldiers that followed him into the thick of battle. In some miraculous way, they actually made it past them with Baron’s group still a reasonable distance away. They still had almost 400 ships left in their fleet, and since Baron’s ships were faster than the much bigger Persian ships, they would be upon them in a few more minutes.

The strait became narrower and narrower the more they went forward and soon enough, the back of their fleet was beginning to engage with Baron. They stood close to no chance as Baron barely needed to even stop before sinking the ships into the water full of flames. Baron quickly made his way through and he personally sunk over 50 ships with the Persian soldiers still inside them screaming at the pain.

It was then that Xiao Li got the worst surprise of his life. In front of them were another 25 or so ships. It was likely that they were the last of Baron’s defenses before he could get out. However, Baron was already engaging with the rear, there was nothing he could do now, he had lost in such a way. Baron’s progress could only be said to be demonic. With just one flamethrower he was able to decimate nearly all of Xiao Li’s remaining forces.

The 25 ships in front of him were not even moving, just waiting for them to come to him. Baron continued and eventually, the sea was dyed with the bodies of burned men and thousands of pieces of burnt wood. Xiao Li’s fleet still pushed forward, but with every passing minute, all they could see behind them was a path of carnage and destruction. They had started off with almost 800 ships, and now they were a pitiful, measly 200. Though they had fought valiantly they were, in the end, no match for Baron’s flamethrower. Xiao Li surrendered.