“Take Cover!” [Mert Captain] Morris warns.
Not a moment after, several onballs impact the hull of the hauler bsp;Imperity. After each impact, the number on the side of his vision decreases rapidly.
Hull Iy
1121/2173 Mana
+1.7 Mana regeion per sed.
Hull Iy
8372173 Mana
+1.7 Mana regeion per sed.
Hull Iy
215/2173 Mana
+1.7 Mana regeion per sed.
Mrimaces at the damage. The Imperity withstand one more volley before his ship's hull won’t be able to withstand the attacks. He o get away.
“Tack right. Aim for the masts!’
The crew of the Imperity quickly follow his and. His ship swerves right and the eight s of his portside lo on the approag destroyer.
“Hold!” He raises a hand and studies the ship.
Anadasta (Five-Mast Destroyer)
Max Speed: 14 knots
stru: Wood
Modifications: Thick Hull
Hull Iy: 2771/3117 Mana
A Thick Hull greatly improves hull iy at the cost of internal ste. It’s a modification seen primarily on military designs. The fact that a [Pirate Captain] is in possession of such a ship is extremely rare and dising to behold. Such vessels are usually scrapped instead of sold on the open market.
Two masts. If he just take out two masts, the Anadasta would be slowed enough for the Imperity to get away. Otherwise, the volley will drain his hull iy and open his ship up to real damage. At that point, surrender is the only option.
With hand held ready, he watches the Anadasta start turning to its other broadside. As soon as the Anadasta’s bo w faces his ships broadside. He lowers his arm and yells.
“FIRE!”
Eight ons roar from his ship. The projectiles travel the distance, aiming at the Anadasta’s masts. But, his hopes are somewhat drowned as the [Pirate Captain] orders his ship to asd. The Anadasta rises right before his onballs make tact. To Morris’s dismay, four balls impaadasta’s hull, two pletely miss, and only two make it on the deck. Of those two, one of them actually rips into a mast.
He watches, eted, as one of the five masts aboard the enemy vessel crashes down on the deck.
With a mast down, he calls up the enemy ship's information again.
Anadasta (Four-Mast Destroyer)
Max Speed: 13 knots
stru: Wood
Modifications: Thick Hull
Hull Iy: 2771/3117 Mana
The Anadasta’s lost another knot of speed with that strike. sidering the Imperity travels at 13 knots, getting away and out of e before his ship takes too much damage won’t be possible.
Swallowing his growing spit, he watches as the Anadasta tiurning.
“Tack right and take cover. Prepare for impact.”
Imperity turns so that his stern is now fag the Anadasta’s broadside. If he’s lucky, his hull iy will withstand the impacts and give him an opening to try to take out another mast.
He hears the roar of a distance on and quickly huddles down. He hears an impact, and then the roar of several more ons.
From the side of Morris’s eye, he watches as twelve projectiles careey feet to the right of his ship.
fused, he looks back at the Anadasta and watches as another mast falls.
“[Captain]! ship to our left,” A member of his crew warns.
Looki, he indeed finds a distant ship. From a brief ghe ship looks to be ate css. But not your usual frigate. The first thiices is that the ships ons are very rge aend out of the ships gunports. The hiices is the shial pting throughout the ship hull. Lastly, some structure he ’t properly make out is settled directly atop the ship.
As he goggles the frigate, one of the ships ons fire with such force that the frigate tilts the opposite side. A sed ter, the ball impacts the Anadasta with enough force to slightly he ship.
Then he hears another shot from the on followed by an impact. Then another. And another. And another. A third mast falls on the ship's deck.
“[Captain], what are your orders?” His [First Mate] yells.
Breaking out of his fugue, he realizes the frigate is giving him an opportunity to escape.
“Full speed ahead! We’re retreating from the Anadasta!”
_____________________________________________________
“[Captain]! The Imperity is getting away!” the [First Mate] warns.
“Fuck the Imperity,” [Pirate Captain] Galdon Forceward curses. His experienced gre is focussed on the distant vessel ing his ons.
With a thought, he calls up the enemy ship.
Timbergrove (Three-Mast Cored Frigate)
Max Speed: 10 knots
stru: Wood
Modifications: Pted Hull, Enrged Gun Port, Installed Ballistae.
Hull Iy: 1233/1233 Mana
“Madness.” he whispers louder than usual. “Those are cruiser armaments. What insane idiot installs such ons on a frigate.”
“Sir?”
Another explosion rockets his ship and another mast falls.
Cursing his indecision, he calls up his own ship.
Anadasta (Two-Mast Destroyer)
Max Speed: 11 knots
stru: Wood
Modifications: Thick Hull
Hull Iy: 2613/3117 Mana
To his surprise, the damage to his hull iy is minor. Though the on has a le, the speed at which they are shot is g in sustained damage.
At this point, he has two options. Retreat out of enemy range, or hunt the enemy cored frigate down.
“Is the Imperity fully retreating?”
“They are, [Captain]. They’ll be out of e soon enough.”
Galdon grins.
“Good. Drop excess weight and full speed towards the Timbergrove. Be ready to board.”
__________________________________________________________________
“Myers, this is stupid. What’s the point of having badass ons if we only fire one of them at a time.” A puffy cute cat whiop an aged man’s shoulder.
“Firing more than one risks tipping the timbergrove over.” Myers expins.
On the gundeck, one of the ons fire. The ship tilts the opposite dire, only for Myers to manipute the top and side masts to force the Timbergrove bato a ral state.
“If we add more weight, think we could fire two?” the cat asks.
“Possibly, but this ship is already quite heavy and slow because of the armored pting and ons. More weight could make it impossible for the ship to reach higher isnds. A better option is to apply dampening ruo the ons.”
The cat waves its paw while rolling its eyes. “Right, just magic the problem away… except when you 't, because anyone who install dampening runes on Buxon designed ons isn’t going to be living in a [Pirate] ied city at the er of the world.”
The on goes off.
The old man sighs. “Yes, I’ll admit I made a mistake. I fet that Buxon ons are far more powerful than what’s normally avaible. But, you don’t have to find someoo install the dampening runes. You should be able to obtain the runes and have Emma learn them. She’ll level from it.”
The cat sighs. . “Yea, yea. big towop at we’ll try to find the runes. In the meantime.” He raises a paw towards the [Pirate] ship. “How long is it going to take- oh shit, they’re ing at us.”
Both cat and old man stare in the distance as the Anadasta is rushing at them.
“They’re faster than us. They’ll catch up.” Myers warns.
Right after his warning, another on shot from the Timbergrove causes the ship to tilt. This onball hits dead ter on the final standing mast of the Anadasta.
“And now we’re equal in speed.”
The old man shakes his head. “I’m rather surprised how accurate those shots are. Are you sure he doesn't have several dozen levels as a [oneer]?”
“Yea, Cillian’s a weirdo. Who’d have thought being an experienced gun-nut lets you shoot ons at pinpoint accuracy.”
“Gun-nut?”
“Someoh an obsession with firearms… actually, I think his obsession is with onry in general.”
Myers nods. “I’ve met the types. stantly polishing and colleg various ons. They tend to make great batants as well.” The old man points at the ining ship.
“Should we make a retreat now? They won’t be able to catch us if we leave now.”
The cat looks at Myers as though the man’s gone crazy.
“Why would we retreat? We’ve got them exactly where we want them. All we o do now is board.”
Myers groans. “Are you pnning on b every ship we e by? Is the idea of obtaining treasure so entig that you'd waste time and effort that could be better spent going to our destination? The tower is only two days away.”
The cat grins. “I o level. Also, I remember when the first time I wao board a ship, you thought I was going to get myself and my crew killed.”
“That's before I realized you transform into a damn Fenrimorph.” The old man shakes his head. “Fine, we’ll set to board. I doubt the pirates are going to attack us if we give them the option of b.” The ship swerves from its position and heads directly towards the Anadasta.
“Perfect. I’ll go grab the crew.”
The cat hops off Myers' shoulder and rushes down into the depths of the Timbergroves gundeck. Whe arrives, he finds the rest of the crew to be present. Boriss, the burly Russian, is busy loading the ons. Irmgard and Emma are maniputing the valves that move the on while Cillian, resident drunkard, is in charge of aiming and firing.
Finally, the st and most important member of the crew is Cy. The child of seven is following Boriss with a towel to wipe the man's sweat from his brow.
“Everyohe cat interrupts all present. “The enemy wishes to surreheir loot after a bit of bat.”
“We’re b already?” Cillian asks with a pout. “I’ve barely even fired the on.”
“The hell are you looking sad for? The st time we boarded a [Pirate] ship, we got a gun and a bunch of ons and armor.”
Cilliahe side of his hip where the three der magnum is located.
Boriss arrives with a towel in hand. “rade Cillian, is good exercise. We fight. We win. Then you drink, yes?”
“Alcohol!” the Siles. “They probably have some on their ship.” He gives a gre at Irmgard. “I’m sure what they have is better than the piss yht.”
The tall blonde raises an eyebrow. “I bought that piss because a certain Scot drinks so much that we’d have run out already if I bought the expeuff.”
“I only drank a wee bit more than anyone else.” Cillian ters.
Irmgard tiaring. “You gh five bottles a day.”
“It’s a normal amount.”
“I bought eighty bottles.”
“Far too little if you ask me.”
“We only have eight left.”
Cillian blinks. He looks at the cat. “We o board that ship.”
“I wholeheartedly agree. Now, here's the pn. Cillian will stay on the ship with Myers. Cy is going to hide in the hold. Me, Boriss, Irgmard, and Emma are going to board the pirates.”
“I’m b too?” Emma asks.
The ods. “I knard’s been training you with the sword, but there is er training than real battle.”
“I could die.”
“You’ll be fine if you wear your mothers armor.”
“But-”
“You’ll be fine.” Irmgard ys a hand on Emma’s shoulder. “You’ve taken to the sword better than most I’ve trained. Real bat will help your training take hold.”
The cat stretches. “Then it’s decided. Armor up a me on the deck. Boriss, don’t fet to grab my gaus.”
___________________________________________________________
As a level 42 [Deft Swordsman] and level 42 [Pirate Captain], Galdon Forceward is someone who has seey of a throughout his life. He’d joihe military, the navy, and rose up until he’d bee a proper [Ship Captain]. All within a decade. It was only civil war and the plete implosion of his kingdom which led him to the lucrative [Pirate] life thirty years ago.
So, at the age of fifty-faldon is easily one of the more experienced [Captains] on the seas.
And of all those years, never ever had he been in a position where a frigate is rushing at him.
“What should we do, [Captain]? Think it’s a trap?” His [First Mate] asks while holding a spygss to his eye.
Galdon scratches his long scruffy beard with a bulging right arm covered in glowing violet lines.
“Possibly, but unlikely. That ship doesn’t look like a [Nobles] vessel. It looks like some idiot modified a trading frigate with far te ons and a Ballistae.”
“The ship and equipment would sell high on the market.” The [First Mate] adds.
“Agreed. If they’re ing at us, then who are we not to accept them with open arms.”
The [First Mate] lowers the spygss. “Are we going to soften them up, first?”
“No. We’d risk damaging the ons and the ballistae. Just get the men ready to fight.”
“Aye, [Captain].”
