"weren't you very clear that the bloodheart gang was unlikely to attack us, Trevor.", I ask, finally remember that I was supposed to log too. They exist for moments like this after all.
"Captain, my assumption was that the blood heart gang would be very busy with their hunts. I certainly did not expect them to maintain constant patrols like this.", Trevor replies. "At the very least it is none of their named ships. It is about as strong as a regular pirate ship."
"Doesn't change the fact that they are chasing us, now is it.", I reply. "This is going to be quite a tough time."
"Well, I am sure that you should be able to manage them. After all, you have fought their type of ships so many times by now." Trevor speaks. "You only encountered these kind of ships in our journey to the north after all."
"That's a boarding ship not a battering ram, one that is actually built for the task at hand. It is going to be a rough ride.", I reply. "Boarding would be easy to deal with on any other ship, but every strategy I can use is ineffective against the ship in front of me."
"I am sure that you will figure out what to do.", he replies.
Hearing this I wonder, what the man is even doing here. It does not look like the man is particulary bothered at helping me. Well, I can't really keep him in the other areas. Most of our environmental formations are not that good and at the moment I certainly do not want to worry about the old man.
The problem at my hand is my ship is not equpped to fight a boarding ship. A boarding attack and a boarding ship is not the same thing. A boarding ship is specifically designed to facilitate boarding. You can see that in the way that they are designed.
Most do not tend to have sleeping quarters or weapon stores. All of these are replaced by boarding rooms, where you stuff quite a few number of people. These rooms each would be connected to an harpoon which would grant easy entry into enemy ships. If normal ships can have fifty people. These ships can easily have four to five times that.
Harpoons are a more aggresive version of a hook. They are literally created to board ships and are nearly impossible to remove once it gets into the enemy ships.
They are rarely used by pirates because of the costs involved in using them. They would also damage the ship too much in obvious ways to make selling them later a pain in the ass too.
Still, a pirate group like this might just end up making more money keeping a ship rather than try to pawn it off. After all the hexmountain have no ship industries. No group of people to whom they can make backend deals with. The only people with anything like that is the hexmountain and we are certainly no going to be doing anything like that. That would be like inviting rats into our own house.
These ships still can take quite the punch before they are forced to retreat and throughout all of them they are able to send waves and waves of boarders at me. The most important part of a boarding ship is their harpoon though. They will need to be able to have their harpoons bite into the ship.
Thankfully, the only good thing that I can think of is that boarding ships tend to be pretty light on their long range weaponry and the distance between both the two ships is significant enough that I need not worry about the harpoons yet.
I greet the enemies ships by shooting my cannon. They are on the light cannons side, so I finally get to use that. (what light based weaponry tends to be quite rare. Even I rarely tend to see them.)
The cannon looks like a big beam of light as it hits the other side. Not that it has much of a impact. Beam of light almost seems to be blocked by a invisible wall, not even touching the ship. I would have to assume that it is some kind of an air magic based defensive shield. Those tend to be quite a pain in the air. A couple more shots might penetrate the shield, but the enemy ship can catch up to us in that period. The fire cannons would have been better in this situation, but I am not in a situation where I can turn the ship around.
The opposing side takes this opportunity to come closer to us. I quickly shift gears as the ship accelerates, increasing the distance between us again. Not that I think it will be helping me too much anyways. The ship has managed to crawl a bit closer. Not enough for the harpoons thankfully.
Somehow I have to imagine that this kind of slow and steady battlestyle is something that they are really familiar with. A rare battlestyle for bandits I have to say. Most tend to focus on agility and quick escapes. Else most situations would develop into risky encounters. This is something that I would expect more from the legion.
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Anyways, fighting on time is something that I cannot afford. After all, the enemy ship is a patrol ship and they have only to delay us until reinforcements come to them. Then it will be quite the disadvantageous situation for me, to say the least. Having to deal with enemy cannons while a boarding ship is approaching us. That is the nightmare for most pilots.
"Just direct the ship towards the mayfire castle, captain.", I hear the man next to me speak. "The blood heart gang will be wary of going in that neighborhood. The mayfires might have removed protection for their caravans but I struggle to believe that they would have removed the defenses of their castles."
"But that would mean going towards the boarding ship. We are literally going in the opposite direction to the castle.", I reply. "Unless you suddenly have the ability to fight hundreds of pirates, I do not have much option to get close to that ship."
It was something that had crossed my mind, but how the hell would you achieve something like that. Going close to a boarding ship especially now would be a suicide.
"We do not have an option. Just remaining here is death. Anyways, you are a creative flyer and it is about time that I show this trick to you.", he replies. "Captain give me the controls to the two brats up there. They will know what to do."
Saying that I remove the strings of mana that I have added to runes that I had added just a while ago, giving me remote control over the cannons.
"Captain, be ready to push the ship to its maximum speed towards the enemy ships.", Trevor speaks next to me, bracing for a sudden increase in speed.
"Are you sure, if they get a single hook into us. It will be out defeat. Even I can't fight against an entire ship full of pirates. I have only my sword." I reply, as I feel the comfortable weight of the sword in my hand. It is feeling that I have sorely missed in my previous mission. Fuck that old man and his missions.
"Well, you are fucked regardless. This is quicker don't you think.", the man in front of me replies.
Well, how the hell can I argue with that. So I do what is needed to be done. Sadly this is not a sledder now, or I could have caught the enemy off guard. The ability to go both front and back is such a simple abilty but it would play such a key role in battles.
The only way to reverse the ships movement would be to turn the entire ship. That means that the enemy would know of my movment and would be quite comfortably pick the position to board me. That is the absolute last thing you must allow to happen if you are dealing with a boarding ship.
As I expected, so it happened. As I turn I can sense the enemy ship slow down, plot its route and then pick the ideal spot to throw that harpoon at me. If that thing enters the ship. Well, the two idiots will be dead before me at the very least.
I expect exactly that to happen, as the two idiots do something good for once. They activate the cannon at its lowest intensity and begin to scale it up. The entirety of the enemy ship just seems to stop for a second as I safely use that moment to slip away from the ship.
"Well, it is an old trick that I learnt from a mercenary from the south. The beam from the light cannon can temporary blind people.", Trevor, looking at my curiosity. "Shot at its full power, most people are able to instinctively avoid looking at the beam directly. That is why you have to tempt them with a weaker bolt. So, the weaker bolt which might have looked like a weird glint of the sun can be used to have them look at the cannon directly. Then just crank up the cannon and it can act like a flair."
"Does it really work.", I ask.
"Well, we have escaped from the enemy haven't we.", he replies. "Well, to be franked I am quite surprised myself that it worked. It always seemed like a tall tale."
"Well, I am surprised that you allowed them to handle this though.", I ask.
"Well, they are capable enough if you know how to train them. Anyways, for now our goal will have to be the mayfire castle. Whatever is happening here is very serious. I have never seen the bloodheart gang act with such ruthlessness.", trevor speaks. "They must be angling for a very valuable prey if they are willing to mess with the guard corps. We would be quite bad for their business if we truly went serious against them."
I guess that I should have taken note of his statement at that moment but at the moment I was distracted by the visual in front of me. My mind became completely blank as at the very least five different enemy ships appeared in front of me, with a few more at the edge of my views.
For a moment the ships in front of me look at me in surprise, while I look at them in surprise. I guess that I should have used that moment to escape, but I was too late as I hear the sound of a cannon ball hitting ship.
The enemy side had already begun to act, bombarding me with cannons shots. Well, what should have been a move that should have brought me to safety ended up Putting me right in middle of the two forces.
Well, I can't really blame this in trevor too. The man was assuming my only enemy to be the one in front of us. It is too early, they should not have been able to make their way here from anywhere too quickly. What is the point of having a patrol if your main force is right next to it. It would be pointless.
Well, the only direction left for me to move are either above me or below me. At the moment the latter seems to be the safer option for me, though I will have to be careful. One wrong move and the ground will kill us before the enemy can. The only thought I could think as I enter into action is. "Just how crappy is my luck."