The shockwave from the explosion swept across the water. The smoke rising over the bay gradually dispersed, and the pain in people's eardrums slowly faded. Aside from the Invincible Ironborn turning into an invincible bomb and vanishing after completing its mission, the Night Walker still lying capsized, and the Serenity taking on water and sinking, it was as if nothing had happened.
However, time could not be turned back.
If the saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal used to blow up the Invincible Ironborn had been made into artillery powder, it would have been enough for twenty cannons to fire a hundred rounds. Yet packed into barrels as explosives, it destroyed only two ships of the Iron Fleet, killed a few dozen men, and caused less than one percent damage to the fleet. Calling this cost-effectiveness appallingly low would not be an exaggeration.
Yet it was this single explosion, costly but seemingly insignificant, that completely changed the course of the battle.
Aside from Asha successfully using the chaos to tie stones to the King of the Iron Islands and drown him, another equally important factor dealt an irreversible and devastating blow to the Ironborn's morale. Although Daenerys's fleet had only this one self-detonating ship, they did not know that.
More than half of the naval forces were tied down by the Royal Fleet, leaving fewer than a hundred warships to deal with the Ironborn. The tonnage ratio of ships in direct confrontation was one to two, while the numerical ratio reached an astonishing one to five. Furthermore, most of Daenerys's navy consisted of new recruits, while the opposing side was made up of seasoned, natural-born pirates. The combat strength of the two sides was completely unbalanced, and there had been no suspense about the outcome.
Euron's final order before leaping onto the Invincible Ironborn had been a full-scale assault, to surround and ram Daenerys's ships from all directions and begin boarding actions.
It could be said that if this order had been fully carried out, not a single living soul from the Targaryen fleet would have escaped the battlefield.
However, after the earth-shattering explosion, an unavoidable question arose in the minds of all the captains. Among the dozens of enemy ships that had charged forward in formation despite certain defeat, how many more might be like the Invincible Ironborn, capable of exploding violently as if by sorcery?
This thought spread like seeds scattered in spring, taking root in the hearts of hundreds of captains. If the Serenity had not sunk and Euron Greyjoy were still alive, he might have forced the fleet to carry out his command through intimidation and authority. But leaderless, fear of being destroyed by an unknown weapon and the instinct to protect their own ships quickly overcame the Ironborn's desire for glory and victory. Warships charging at ramming speed began to hold their oars, slow down, and change course, continuing to fire at range while observing and waiting for the situation to develop.
The ships Daenerys had captured from Volantis's fleet were all large, and large ships could mount heavier equipment. Whether scorpions or trebuchets, her fleet steadily suppressed the Ironborn longships in both range and power. Projectiles and arrows filled the sky. After realizing they held no advantage in the exchange of fire, and with no news or orders from King Euron at the center, the Iron Fleet, which had never intended to fight a drawn-out battle against a regular navy, began to collapse just as Asha had predicted.
The Iron Fleet still held overwhelming naval strength, but no one remained to coordinate it.
By coincidence or by fate, the source of the collapse came from Asha's father's former flagship.
After the Serenity sank, the Leviathan, largest in size and highest in status, should have assumed the role of flagship and taken up the burden of command. But it had been one of the two ships closest to the explosion. Though not overturned, the shockwave had thrown many men from its deck into the sea. Among them was the captain.
With the hull damaged, personnel lost, both captain and king missing, and none of the survivors commanding authority, the crew fell into confusion. In chaos, a mob often makes astonishingly wrong decisions. Fearing abandonment and destruction, the crew of the Leviathan decided to turn the ship around first, ensuring that if the battle turned worse, they could immediately raise sail and flee.
They were not cowards. They were simply untrained in formal command, incapable of strategic thinking, lacking perspective, acting without considering consequences, and devoid of discipline.
They were not fleeing. They merely turned their bow toward the mouth of the bay, still advancing slowly while attacking and obstructing the approaching fleet as best they could.
They did not intend to rout and believed they were still fighting effectively, unaware that this so-called wisdom and courage were meaningless in the face of the consequences caused by a quasi-flagship making the wrong move.
As the fleet's new core, the Leviathan's role was like that of a standard-bearer. Its task was not to kill the enemy, but to keep the commander's banner from falling.
As long as it held its position in the first battle line, even if feigning damage and stopping in place, or even if it had been capsized or sunk like the Serenity so that flagship status passed naturally to the next ship, the battle could have continued in some form.
Even if they had lost heart and signaled a full retreat, it would at least have been an effective command, capable of withdrawing hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of men from Blackwater Bay in relatively good order.
Yet among countless choices, having lost its captain, it selected the worst. Without coordination, it adopted the posture of preparing to flee in the face of the enemy.
This silent signal instantly shattered the fighting spirit of every longship captain within sight. Before colliding with the enemy line, the fleet's formation disintegrated. Though the two sides appeared to clash and entangle, many ships altered course at the last moment, turning head-on collisions into near passes. The thin line of Daenerys's fleet passed almost unharmed through the seemingly formidable first line of the Iron Fleet and drove deep into the mass of enemy ships.
A deep, resonant roar rose from the west, from the direction of King's Landing, fading into the glow of the setting sun. Hearing the explosion signal, Daenerys mounted her dragon and took to the sky. After circling once above the city walls and the Red Keep as a warning, she flew east, becoming the final strike in a series of coordinated blows against the Ironborn's morale.
Dragons are powerful, but their greatest weakness is short range. Their fire reaches only twenty or thirty meters, and at such heights even ordinary scorpions and trebuchets can threaten both beast and rider. If ships cooperated closely and wove a net of anti-air fire, even if they could not easily bring a dragon down, they could at least force it to keep its distance.
But after the self-detonation of the Invincible Ironborn, the Iron Fleet fell into chaos, each ship fighting alone. On one hand, they anxiously awaited a second explosion that would never come. On the other, their formation had already been disrupted by Daenerys's fleet breaking through. Having lost the will to fight and the resolve to face danger, expecting them to coordinate against an aerial threat amid such disorder was impossible.
Two dragons swept across the battlefield, avoiding the densest areas where ships clustered and cannon fire was thick. Instead, they circled and targeted smaller longships that had strayed from formation. One light vessel after another was engulfed in dragonflame, turning into blazing torches upon the sea.
This forced the longships to draw closer together, yet fearing another self-detonating attack, they dared not gather too tightly. Forming loose clusters, they became ideal targets for artillery.
The inescapable predicament created a vicious cycle. After more than ten minutes, the charge turned into entanglement, the standoff soured into withdrawal, and the strained situation finally snapped.
Another great rout, reminiscent of the Battle of the Blackwater, began.
(To be continued.)