Piloting a ship this time is a completely different from the previous time that I fought in one( or more accurately ran away in one.) My previous ship feels like a tortoise compared to this one both in speed and the way that it moves. The ship reacts almost immediately to every command that I give it. If there is any lag I can't detect it.
The ship behind us is a pretty good vessel, though. I am pretty sure that the other side has atleast two cannons. They have been trying to get their cannons in position for quite a while.
Often the cannons are placed to the side for convenience and to put as many cannons in the place as possible, but the opposite ship have taken the option of keeping it to their front and back. They can keep much fewer cannons that way, but it is going to be harder to hit them with my cannons. That would be the case with any patrol ship i have to assume.
The ship shouldn't be particularly strong in combat though, for the simple fact that it has managed to ambush us. That means that these pirates have invested quite the bit in their camouflage formations. (And you can tell most pirates never spend much on their ships.)
The fact that even my sensitive mana sense did not manage to capture them, means that they should have spent a lot on it. It could also be that my senses have not recovered as much as I hoped. My master would have detected them for certain, but the man is the kind that he would not even have mentioned it to me so that I can have a learning experience. He is still in the storage, so I cant really expect him to react. Well, I should be able to handle them or the enemy would have been destroyed before I even sensed them. It could also be his way of punishing me.
I would have already taken down the ship too if they had not ambushed me like this. The ship is a mid sized one and the reaction speed of the ship can be considered to be quite decent too though still a bit slower than mine. The problem is that their pilot is pretty experienced too (certainly more than me. I was given a ship to drive when I was made a captain. Knowing only theory has its limits), so I won't be able to take him down just by basic tricks.
The ambush was a cannon shot that should have pierced through the ships defence and hit the navigators room. That would have wrecked most of the control formations and would have made the process of boarding quite a bit more easy for the other side.
The opposite side missed and I entered into action, quickly diving down to dodge any further attacks. That means that the opposite side doesnt have particularly strong cannons (granted my ship is smaller than the average.). The surprising thing is that the ship even managed to hold up quite well.
The cannon did not even manage to penetrate the outer wall. There is damage that I think that I will be able manage it. It will even allow me to test a surprise that my master managed to leave for me. The man was quite explicit that I should only use it when the ship is damaged only. The man never gives a warning lightly. As for what it exactly only God will be able to tell. I pissed of the man before he could tell.
Returning to the ship, right now we are trying to get into positions. The enemy ship is trying to get perpendicular to me while I am trying to get palleral to them. As is usual, I have placed the cannon to the sides of the ships. While three cannons are not particularly a large number of cannons, it is something I am used to and it is not like I will only be using three anyways. the flame element ones are on one side and the light based one on the other.
Where the enemy suddenly turns to either it's front or back. I immediately back down or go up, essentially dodging the shot but it also ruins all my chances of lining my shot. A more skillful pilot could maybe pull of the turn, essentially turning in line with the ship so I am parallel to it and peppering it with all of my shots. That is the standard method of operation based on all I have learnt.
That is the usual method, but I do not have the skill to pull it off, especially due to the opposite sides pilot. He seems to almost realise my intent and react accordingly to it. If I even show an inclination of going their way, the enemy almost dives down so steeply that I can't help but wonder if they are crashing. You can never really tell with pirates and the ancient stuff they use.
Otherwise, if the other ship was a combat worthy ship of this era, this would be a terrifying fight. Thankfully most such ships are not something the general public would be able to access anyways. Heck even seeing them is a rarity. Some of the newer models, even the head office is not sure they exist.
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So we dance, each trying to get a shot without the other hitting us. My trip to the north has atleast increased my patience with energy consuming chases that often end up with us being chased. Here I have quite a bit more control. This is especially since, we haven't even stopped making our way to the hex mountain. It is still a couple of days away. The closer to the hex mountain we are though, the more allies that we have. Not that we need them at the moment.
This particular dance where neither side is able to shoot the other will continue for a while. That is until the pirate would either retreat, attempt a boarding or do something crazy. It is the crazy ones you should be careful of with the pirates.
Anyways, We will have allies in the area, who would be able to help out a friendly ship like me. That puts the pressure of completing this fight early on the enemy rather than me for once.
After a while of this stupid chase, the enemy finally does something decisive. Rather than try to weave around me, the enemy ship decisively charges at me. Rather than try to charge at me, it takes a sudden turn which essentially puts it in parallel to us. The enemy begins to shoot hooks into my ship. So that proves that they are not crazy atleast.
The enemy essentially gave me the opportunity to shoot it in return for a chance at boarding my ship. A risky move for them so I naturally take the opportunity as the enemy presents it to me.
The side which the enemy has parked at is the side where I have placed two cannons in, so I press my attack, as the cannons of the fire elements eat into the enemies side. The fires that it will cause will be enough to leave the enemy ship quite damaged even if they manage to escape. Wood is wood, no matter how much you enchant it.
The hooks are a problem though. Fighting a boarding battle in such a small ship is unwise, even if I wanted too. The enemy seems to have banked on that, expecting to catch me offguard. Here I have to again thank my experience dealing with hooks from my journey to the north. (Thankfully there were no cannons involved in our journey north or we would be a wreck.)
My normal trick to deal with enemy hooks were to shoot it with my hook, essentially causing a head on collision. This is a good enough trick to deal with single ships and is useful even here.
This is even easier since I have a cannon on my ship. The mana in those cannon per shot is easily ten times the mana that I had overloaded my hook with. It would literally take me ten weeks to gather that much mana. That means that the cannon doesn't even need to be particularly accurate to destroy the other side hook. It will just burn up like a paper placed in a fireballs path.
The enemy certainly does not seem to have expected such a reaction, especially since what I have done is essentially shooting at myself to prevent the enemy from boarding. It does damage my ship but I expect a boarding would be harder to deal with and would certainly cause greater damage anyways.
With the failure of the boarding hooks, I think the opposite side seems to decide to retreat, as the ship begins to dip. I could try and shoot my hooks into this ship but that would ultimately earn me nothing. Destroying this ship would simply means that another pirate ship would take over this region.
After all, if the pirates were so easy to deal with, the guard corps have people that are expected to take on entire armies with their subordinates often outnumbered by a significant number. A few pirates would be quite easy for them I have to assume.
The pirates here must have something that allows them to fight with the guard corps on equal footing. I certainly am not in the mood to discover that ace in the hole, especially with this new ship of mine.
Pirate attacks this close to the hexmountain are supposed to be a rarity. It is almost a wonder to see one happen. Well, the widows tear is a relatively small ship.
Even my previous ship, is a size above this one, though no pirate would be likely to attack the thing simply for poor it looks. A small pretty ship means people assume the ship to be a easy prey. After all, anybody powerful enough to be a threat would be travelling In a ship that would be matching his strength.
As for why the hexmountain is stuck with such shitty on the ground protection. It has mainly to do with the fact that the black mountain holds control of only the hex mountain. The regions around the place are held by an alliance of forces that surround the hexmountain.
They do not like excessive influence of the hexmountain in their lands, especially that of the legion. I would assume the legion becoming active here would cause them all to rebel the way that everybody talks of it.
The only armed force that can operate near our home base is guard corps except the fact that the guards that are busy with their escort missions of the scholars.
They can barely keep their focus on our surroundings unless something serious has happened. Even then they send newbies like me to the spot to manage it.
Most of these tend to be easy missions, since nothing really dangerous exist in the area. The only threat that can exist in the region are bandits.
Most of them are non existent threats. Farmers that had their lands snatched or ambitious young men that are out to make a quick buck tend to be the targets of our missions.
It seems almost a pity to have to hunt them down, but travelling would become quite a hastle if it is allowed to continue though and while we are no trade center or a land people would like to travel to, trade is something that is still occuring and something that needs to occur smoothly.
Anyways, regardless of how weak these pirates are, if they do manage to survive our hunting they also tend to become quite the pain in the ass too. After all, one just need to see the existance of the pirate kings for just how much of a pain in the ass they can be. Atleast we don't need to deal with that.