When they heard the order, everyone couldn't help but look shocked.
"What?!"
"Run away?"
"Leaving all this stuff behind would be such a waste!"
"Enemies behind us? I don't see any."
"If there are enemies, let's fight them! No big deal. We've got eight hundred people and over two hundred minotaurs, making over a thousand. Even if they come with three or four thousand, who cares!"
"We're fine on land, but naval battles aren't our thing. Our people are either fishermen or merchant sailors; none of them have fought at sea."
"Naval battles aren't that scary; they're pretty much like land battles. Once the ships collide, it's just like fighting on land. We get our weapons and shields ready, drink, go berserk, kill all the enemies, and we win."
"But we've got too few people on each ship; we need to gather our forces."
"Leave the plundered merchant ships for now. We'll come back for them after we win. Maybe we can even capture a few hundred Roman soldiers to row them."
At that moment, Roman warships crossed the horizon and came into view. One, two, three... ten, twenty... two hundred, all of them powerful quinqueremes. These ships were huge and luxurious, beautifully decorated, all with massive rams.
Everyone went silent; it was clear this was an elite Roman fleet. If these two hundred ships were fully manned with four hundred people each, that would be eighty thousand men. Even if they weren't fully manned, there'd still be fifty to sixty thousand. On Linley's side, including the minotaurs, there were just over a thousand people. Even if they fought ten to one, they'd only take down a little over ten thousand. What about the rest?
They stopped talking, quickly brought the ships together, gathered everyone onto the modified ships, raised the triangular sails, left the channel, and used the crosswind to sail into the depths of the sea.
On the bare sea surface, there was no cover, and the distant Roman fleet soon discovered their ships. They sailed for a while and found that these ships were not going in the direction of the wind, so they immediately extended their oars and pursued Dionysus's fleet.
Human strength is limited and cannot row for long periods, but in such short distances, they could catch up. After all, Linley's triangular sails were not perfect, the crew was not fully trained, and the ships' levels were uneven, so they were quickly closing the distance.
A falcon flew across the sky, constantly circling above the Nemo. Romans liked to tame falcons for scouting the enemy and also as messengers. The fact that the falcon had flown over proved that the Romans had already locked onto their target.
Linley closed his eyes and entered the divine realm, sitting on the throne, sending a message to all his followers: "My followers, we are facing the most severe challenge. The Roman Empire has dispatched an army of one hundred thousand, along with the cardinal, to try to extinguish our just cause. We will never surrender or give up, but now the enemy is too strong, and we can only temporarily hide. I order you to leave immediately, hide in the sea until you shake off the enemy, then return to Dionysus Island. I will be back soon to join you. Do not lose hope. Now go quickly, I will divert the enemy."
After speaking, Linley put on the dragon-skin armor, jumped into the air, and instantly transformed into a dragon, flapping his wings as he took flight. However, since he wasn't used to the dragon's body yet, he lost his balance after flying only a few meters and plunged into the sea.
Swimming in the sea was somewhat like flying in the sky, but it was obviously much easier. Linley quickly swam back to the fleet and noticed they weren't fleeing at full speed. Furious, he turned to yell at them but accidentally spewed a mouthful of flames. The flames hit the water and set an empty ship on fire.
"Get moving!" Linley shouted angrily after spewing the fire.
Nemo immediately raised all the sails, and the other ships followed his lead. With the help of the sea breeze, the fleet gradually moved away. Suddenly, someone started singing a hymn to Dionysus, and the song quickly spread through the whole fleet. The slightly raspy chorus echoed across the sea. Amidst the singing, Linley turned and flew determinedly towards the Roman fleet.
After flying another few meters, he lost strength again and fell into the sea, but this time he didn't look back.
In the distance, the Roman fleet commander, Clark, stared intently at the fleet on the sea and urgently ordered, "Speed up! We have to catch them! If they're running just from seeing us, something's definitely up."
The messenger quickly passed the order to the signalman, who waved red and white flags to relay Clark's command. Seeing this, other ships also waved their flags to pass on the order.
The Greek world had been peaceful for over a century, and regular folks wouldn't run at the sight of Roman warships, nor would they risk leaving their route to head into the deep sea. However, even if this fleet did not run, Clark would still pursue them.
This time, they deployed a full sixty thousand elite Roman troops. Feeding such a large group was no easy task. If they encountered a large fleet loaded with goods at sea and had no connections, they'd definitely be stopped; even if they had connections, half of their goods would have to be handed over. The army could not make the trip in vain.
At this moment, the chorus of the hymn reached them, and Clark's spirits lifted. "What song is this?"
"It's the hymn to Dionysus," Cardinal Theodore replied. "It is indeed Dionysus's fleet; we are in luck."
"All thanks to your foresight," Clark said.
"My faith is not yet firm enough. The foresight could only find a vague direction. I thought we would be wandering the sea for months, but we found them so quickly," Theodore said.
"Isn't that great? The longer we stay at sea, the more uncomfortable it gets," Clark said. "When I was young, I could stay on a ship for dozens of days without disembarking. Now I can't stand ten days without getting off."
"Dionysus Linley is likely in the fleet. Someone used divine magic to spy on us just now," Theodore said.
"That's even better," Clark said. "Let's quickly take down Dionysus, and we can return sooner. He has at most sixty thousand troops; we also have sixty thousand. We have no reason to fear them one-on-one."
"It won't be sixty thousand. Under the light of the true god, the false god cannot act recklessly. You only need to deal with the mortals deceived by the false god. Do not kill too many; all people are the lambs of the true god," Theodore said.
"Of course not. If we can capture them alive, it's better to do so," Clark said.
As the fleet commander, he had to consider the interests of all sixty thousand people in the fleet. What benefit would there be in killing the enemy? Capturing them and selling them as slaves would be profitable.
Who knew how many followers of Dionysus there were? Hopefully, there would be many. Otherwise, selling them all might not cover the costs of this deployment.
At this moment, Theodore stared at the sea and said solemnly, "The enemy is coming!"