The night of the first day ended with both sides changing very crucial aspects of their battle plan. For the Forever Pirates, there would now be 1 elder that would be situated between the first husband and Zheng Jing, and another elder that would be between the second husband and Zheng Jing. This should allow for Zheng Jing to have an easier time battling hordes of enemy ships.

As of the start of the second day, all 8 of them would always be in contact with each other so that it was easier to send and receive help. As for the Vesper faction, the mysterious lady had taken away 70% of the fleet and left the other 30% to fend for themselves.

Once again, the pirates waited for the enemy invasion as they had yesterday. They looked at the smokescreen that their enemy had put up and maintained since yesterday as that would be where the ships would be coming from. The sun was at its midpoint when the 6 elders and the two husbands felt off and decided to hold a meeting between them.

(H1) “This is odd, if they sent such a large force to deal with us, then why are they not putting haste to capture the island? I’m not sure I understand this plan of theirs.” The first spoke his mind openly.

(H2) “I’d have to agree with you. What are they up to that they decided this was not the time to attack?” The second followed up.

(ZJ) “Should we send in our scouts further than they are right now? We might be able to get a glimpse of what is happening.” Zheng Jing spoke out.

(H2) “Excellent idea, everyone send 2 scouting ships and have them report back if they find anything out.” The second ordered.

(ZJ) “Already on it.”

“You got it, boss.”

“Sending them in now.”

“Roger.”

In total, 16 scouting ships went into the fog to see if they could get any intel on what the enemy was doing. All of them did not make it back out. They all had radio communications that should have worked had they anything to report, so that must have meant that the enemy had scramblers or something of the sort that could interfere with their radio signals. An hour in, none of them made it back out of the fog so the elders could only assume that those ships were lost. They all hosted another meeting using radio communications.

“This is odd, Vesper usually doesn’t use stuff like this.”

(H1) “I have fought Zheng He before, I don’t doubt that he has this sort of technology up his sleeve, but I have never seen him use it before.” The First said.

(ZJ) “What should we do then? Should we just hold our ground until the Vesper forces do decide to attack us or should we go to them?”

(H2) “I believe that it is best if we put a little bit more of our forces toward finding what the enemy is planning on doing.”

(H1) “Second, Second, Second, what will be the point even if we did something like that? What if this is exactly what the Vesper’s want and they are just waiting for us to send one scouting party after another so that they can ambush them and slowly weaken us? I say we wait for them to come to us, and that’s final!”

(H2) “First, I really don’t like this quality of yours, you are very stubborn when you think you are right. The fact is that the enemy’s plan remains a mystery to us so we need to find out what it is.”

(H1) “Oh? Very well, let’s put it to a vote. All in favor of going with Second’s plan say I”

(H2) “I”

(ZJ) “I”

“I”

(H1) “There you have it, Second. 3 to 5, we are going with my plan and we are staying here and waiting for them to make a move.”

(H2) “Humph, be that way.”

They waited and waited and waited some more, but the Vesper fleet did not even move any of their ships to engage with the pirates at all during the second day. Which was a stark contrast to the very brutal clashes of the day before. First, Second, Zheng Jing, and the other elders were astonished at the absolute gall of the Vesper’s who would waste an entire day to virtually do nothing.

However, for all they knew, this could have been a trap to lower their guard before they made an ambush, potentially in the middle of the night. In fact, their suspicions that the enemy would launch a night raid was emboldened by the fact that they had not even seen their enemy on this day.

The Forever Pirates prepared as best as they could for a night raid by organizing their nighttime ship defenses in a position that seemed weak but was able to be supported by surrounding fleets very easily. They had finished all of the preparations of the night raid by the time that the moon was just beginning to rise. There was too much at stake now for them to lose. So that’s where they stayed for the rest of the night. A few hours before the sun rose, they realized that there would be no night raid and ordered half of their sailors to sleep as much as they could for the next little while.

Once the sun rose, those sailors were woken up and the rest of the men who had stood on guard and all night were given a chance to sleep. These people would be woken up when there was an imminent attack. However, there was no attack, just like the previous day, they hadn’t even seen their enemies.

(H1) “Where the hell are they!”

(H2) “First, it looks like we have been overthinking everything and that was used against us.”

(H1) “Second, it looks like I was wrong in my decision, we will mount an attack right through the fog and see what they are truly up to.”