Using this ship is a completely different experience 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. This ship reacts almost immediately to every command that I give it. If there is any lag I can't detect it. I might barely understand my master's work but he knows what he is doing.

  The ship behind us is not very bad though. not that I am too worried about it though. The ship shouldn't be particularly strong in combat, for the simple fact that it has managed to ambush us. That means that these pirates have invested quite a bit in their camouflage formations. (And you can tell most pirates never spend much on their ships. That is why they are such wrecks.)

  Even my master's sensory formations did not manage to capture them. That means that they should have spent a lot on it. With how much a pirate is even able to get, let's just say they don't have a lot of money to throw around.

  My master would have detected them for certain though. There is not much that escapes the man's eye. The man is the kind that he would not bother to mention such things so that I can have a learning experience. He is right now in the storage room, so I can't expect him to react. Well, I should be able to handle them or the enemy would have been destroyed before I even sensed them by my master.

  The ship is a mid-sized one and the reaction speed of the ship can be considered to be quite decent too. It is still a bit slower than mine. The problem is that their pilot is pretty experienced. At the very least, he is certainly more experienced than me.

  What can I say, I was given a ship to drive only when I was made a captain. While I have been studying the theory of piloting a ship since I was a kid, it is not really that helpful at the end of the day. The man is simply not letting me line my shots at his ship.

  Things would have been a bit better if I had detected the. The bastards managed to ambush me. They managed to get close enough to me that they managed to get a shot at my formation room.

  It is a common tactic to attack the formation room. You will end up missing most likely but you will still end up hitting something. (Especially since formation rooms tend to be in a central position anyway.) If it hit that would have wrecked most of the control formations. We would be a sitting duck for our enemies.

  The opposite side missed and I entered into action, quickly diving down to dodge any further attacks. That means that the opposite side doesn't have particularly strong cannons (granted my ship is smaller than the average.). It should be class eight or even class nine. The surprising thing is that my ship held against it. It is not easy even with relatively shitty cannons.

  The cannon did not even manage to penetrate the outer wall. There is damage but I think that I will be able to repair it on my own quite easily. After all, after using that heap of junk makes this ship feel almost invulnerable.

  Returning to the ship, right now we are trying to get into positions. The enemy ship is trying to get perpendicular to me. The reason for that is that is where their cannons are. Normally, cannons are put on the side of a ship. That is because it is easier to put more cannons there. These people have put them on the front of the ship. Such a placement is only done by scout ships, who expect to chase their enemies.

  That is why once they got close enough they are struggling to return to a position where they can use their cannons again.

  I am trying to get parallel to them. As is usual, I have placed the cannon on the sides of the ships. I guess I could pull off something like my enemies as well. It is something I am used to and it is not like I will only be using two in the future anyway. The fire-based one is on one side and the light-based one is on the other.

  Where the enemy suddenly turns forward or backward. 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 off the turn. It involves turning in line with the ship so I am parallel to it and peppering it with all of my shots. Then retreat up or down so that the enemy cannot get any shots in.

  I don't want to pull it off with the enemy pilot waiting for me to make a mistake. The seems to almost realize my intent and react according to it so well that I feel the man can read my mind. If I even show an inclination to go their way, the enemy turns so steeply, There is no way that I can follow.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  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 anyway. Certainly, no two-bit enemy will be able to pull it off. Heck even seeing them is a rarity. Some of the newer models, even the head office are not sure they exist. The scholars certainly do though and they will never tell us.

  So we dance, each trying to get a shot without the other hitting us. My trip to the north has at least increased my patience with energy-consuming chases. 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 can 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 with the pirates. They will end up destroyed but they will also end up taking you with them.

  (After about ten minutes.)

  Our enemies are wavering. Even as we have been trying to get into position they have been lagging as if they are not sure what to do. I don't mind their hesitation.

  We 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.

  The enemy finally does something decisive. Rather than try to weave around me, the enemy ship decisively comes towards 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 trying to board us.

  The enemy essentially allowed me to shoot at them 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 the cannon of the fire element. I let it rip, as the fires of the cannon eat into the enemy ship. 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 to. The enemy seems to have banked on that, expecting to catch me off guard. They did manage to get two hooks into my ship, but nobody is coming through it. My cannon must have caught them off guard.

  Already I begin to recharge the cannon. It will take a few moments. I am not too worried about the hooks. I have dealt with the hooks even when I barely had any tools at hand.

  This is even easier since I have a cannon on my ship. The mana in those cannons per shot is easily ten times the mana that I had overloaded my hook with. That means that the cannon doesn't even need to be particularly accurate to destroy the other side's hook. It will just burn up like a paper placed in a fireball's vicinity. On top of that these fireballs are still hitting the enemy ships, causing even more fires on the ship.

  With the failure of the boarding hooks, I think the opposite side has decided to retreat. The ship begins to dip falling behind me as if they cut their propulsion formation quite a bit. I could try and shoot my hooks into this ship but that would ultimately earn me nothing. Destroying this ship would simply mean that another pirate gang 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. 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.

  Well, the only armed force that I can rely on this close to the hexmountain is the guard corps. The problem is that they do not like to interfere much in local politics for obvious reasons.

  If it was the legion, all the pirates that are popping up here would be destroyed in a matter of six months. Then again, the legion doesn't know how to be gentle. They will raze the soldar plains to the ground in trying to get rid of the pirates.

  Even the guard corps can manage the pirates here quite easily. It sometimes feels like they want the soldar plans and its many powers to feel like the guard corps is way weaker than it is. Maybe that is their goal. I am not sure how effective it is though. They barely do anything unless something serious has happened. Even then they send newbies like me to the spot to manage it.

  Well, most of these tend to be easy missions, since nothing dangerous exists in the area. The only threat that can exist in the region is the pirate gangs.

  Most of them are nonexistent threats. Farmers who had their lands snatched or ambitious young men who 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 traveling would become quite a hassle if too many were allowed to pop up. (even more than it is right now.) while we are no trade center, the trade of grain is something that needs to happen and too many pirates don't help that.

  Anyways, regardless of how weak these pirates are, if they do manage to survive for long enough they will become a threat.

  After all, one just needs to see the existence of the pirate lords for just how much of a pain in the ass they can be.

  Most of the present pirate lords have started as mere farmers after all. They were not nipped at the right time. That is why they have grown so powerful so quickly.