"Blimey! That thar be some old salt!" Morakan shouts and points his walking stick behind him at the empire's battleship that has been chasing us for the past three days and nights. Due to the fact that the weather has been clear and the half moon is bright over the ocean, they didn't lose us even at night.

Anthera and Nezera have tried assassinations in the dark, but they were unsuccessful in identifying their fire mage at those times, instead only managing to whittle down a few of the soldiers on deck, before being shot at with arrows. The captain has expressed many times that he regrets being unable to bring his old crew, of whom many were able to breathe underwater just like him. They could have turned this situation around by boarding the enemy at night and launching a surprise attack. But with only him alone, it's impossible.

Why were they not here? Because of their age, they moved up to become captains or already retired, and are now leading the navy standing up against the empire's invasion. There are not many marine demons like Morakan - he's the sole representative of his kind, as far as he knows - so they can't all gather on a single ship in these most crucial of times.

Really, if only Szaga was able to fly. Unlike Anthera and Nezera, she's strong enough to carry me over to the enemy ship. Then I could just burn the whole thing down with a fire spell. Then again, she could sink it herself, if she were able to fly over and use the earth in shallow waters to work her magic. But there's no point in thinking about what-if scenarios. It'll take Szaga a few more weeks to heal to the point where she can fly, but we hope to get away from them before it comes to that.

After all, they've sent several pigeons to request reinforcements. We were unable to intercept them, even though they flew past us, since their altitude was too high for our arrows to reach. The enemy captain was also smart enough to always pick the times when Anthera and Nezera just returned, exhausted from the extended flight and sharp maneuvers they had to perform to stay outside the enemy's range of fire, and thus unable to chase them down.

At this rate, we have to expect that there will be reinforcements, potentially from the front. We won't be able to evade them without making a huge detour, which could even lead us straight into even more enemy ships. That's why we need to lose the one chasing us as soon as possible.

"New moon's approaching, the sea's gunna be as black as pitch." Looking across the calm sea, Morakan comments. The sun is about to set on yet another day of carefully watching from the ship's aft. The empire vessel appears to be gaining on us from time to time, while falling back on others. I'd like to ascribe that to our captain's abilities, but their ship - while much larger than ours - has more surface area on their sails. Under these circumstances, they should be able to steadily catch up to us, until their mage can burn us down.

The only explanation for why they are keeping their distance from us is because they fear that we may have a mage capable of destroying their ship onboard as well. Luckily for us, they don't have any way to know for sure until they actually approach us, since we certainly don't have anyone on par with their mage. Szaga's earth magic may be powerful, but its range is far more limited compared to the enemy's due to the depth of the water.

My range is much shorter than either of theirs, and my ranged firepower is inferior, too. Among my people, cloaking ourselves in fire is an inborn ability, but shooting it out any further than half a dozen steps is something few ever master. I'm not the most talented, and the only reason I was admitted to the Royal Academy is because I made for a great research subject due to that inborn ability. But I took that to an extreme and can at least cause a small explosion of fire around me similar to what Kanundra did - only much weaker. If I could make it to the enemy's deck, I could instantly set it all on fire, though.

I turn to look at the ship following behind us. From here, I can't make out any of their faces, but I can see that there's one on the crow's nest and one at the front of the bow, keeping tabs on us at all times. Their eyes trained on our tail, they follow every movement we make and don't miss any maneuvers we try.

"Let's try to do something during new moon. Humans can't see in the dark." The best bet would be to extinguish all lights on the ship at night and make a break for it in another direction, but that's not a permanent solution. If they keep up with us somehow, we'll have wasted an opportunity to maybe sink them and get them off our tail forever.

In either case, that is still four days away from now. Let's hope that we won't run across any other enemy ships until then.

"Ship sighted to our front!" Szaga shouts down from the crow's nest. It's the sixth day since the enemy pursuit has begun and the Khurut Sultanate's coasts should be coming into view tomorrow. In other words, that ship can't be anything other than a human vessel, which means it's an enemy. Considering the fact that our pursuers sent a message ahead of us, there's no doubt about this.

"What flag they be flyin'?" Morakan shouts up in response, clearly more concerned with the fact that when a ship comes into view, the flag should always be the first thing one sees - and that Szaga didn't make a mention of it.

"I dunno, never seen it before!" As expected, her ignorance as someone who was born in the boonies shows. The only reason she can recognize the empire's flag is because there were some discarded flags in the streets of the capital and she was taught about it then. Knowing about any other nation's heraldry is asking too much of her.

"What's it look like, ye scallywag!" The captain stomps his wooden stump leg on the deck and yells impatiently.

"There's a red emblem with lotsa fancy lines that look like words, and a curved sword on dirty white." Comes from above.

"That ain't dirty white ye lame parrot! That be beige!" Banging his cane onto the railing before him, he immediately takes out his monocular and looks across the horizon. Folding it up again, he addresses his crew which has been listening intently. "She be right, that thar be them sandy swines from the Khurut Sultanate! Get to yer stations ye scurvy dogs, prepare for evasive maneuvers!" Growling in a deep voice, he edges on his men, before stepping up to the helm and grabbing the wheel to personally take the helm.

Since we have rather favorable winds, we can hear a commotion breaking out on the ship hot on our tail. They seem to have also spotted their reinforcements and are preparing to close the gap, so as to force us into a pincer move.

"Comin' in straight ahead, cap'n!" The lizard-faced first mate keeping watch over the horizon using his own monocular states.

"Hard port!" The captain announces and the first mate repeats it loudly. The crew immediately works to recalibrate the sails, while the wheel is turned to its very limit, causing the ship to slightly list to one side. I look behind us to find that the pursuer from the empire appears to immediately follow suit.

"We be goin' into the Devil's Crooked Teeth, watch them landlubbers from the sultanate try'n follow us into there." Exposing his rows of straight sharp teeth, Morakan grins in glee. He says nothing of the ship behind us, most likely because he has recognized their captain's skills. We'll have to shake them in some other way, or confront them if there's no other option.

The Devil's Crooked Teeth, according to the captain, is a sailors' nickname for an area of shallow waters, most likely due to an undersea volcano, which has jagged rocks barely jutting out over the surface and many hidden just under the waves. Arranged in a gigantic circle with a very deep center, the area is rarely navigated by human ships due to its remoteness - and the fact that the Khurut Sultanate has a weak naval tradition. In Morakan's past, he has scouted it out extensively, as a place to escape to when set upon by a large enemy naval force.

But it will still require half a day to get there, so we'll have to evade the ship coming from the front and our pursuers who are now clearly trying to catch up to us. At this rate, it's possible that they'll pincer us from both starboard and port, and if the ship from the sultanate carries a fire mage, we'll be burned from both sides. Yet, if we make it to the shallows and they get close enough, Szaga will be able to utilize her earth magic to pierce their hulls.

"Sultanate ship is changing direction, coming straight for us!" Szaga is at least doing her job as the lookout, even if she doesn't know any nautical terms. I hate having to stand around, unable to do anything, so I watch the captain's every move intently.

"Let's hope them sea dragons don't show their scaly mugs." I hear Morakan mutter while carefully looking at the ocean.

"Wait, sea dragons?" Did I hear him right? Unlike the land counterpart, these dragons can't fly or breathe fire, but they are much larger and possess incredibly strong tails with which they can break ships effortlessly. Furthermore, they're said to be able to spit water in a pressurized jet, capable of cutting even steel.

"There be dragons 'round these parts, aye." But he doesn't look that concerned for some reason.

"... are they not dangerous?" Maybe the ones in these parts just ignore ships, since they're not worth the attention. At least I hope that's the reason why the captain can keep his calm despite speaking about such powerful beings.

"Nay, they be deadly. If ye see a sea dragon, ye better start prayin' and makin' yer peace with the sea." Laughing with his sharp teeth exposed, Morakan doesn't say anything that reassures me of our safety at all!

I think I'm about to freak out here...

The sun has moved halfway across the sky when the sultanate's ship is close enough for us to see the faces of their crew. The vessel is about as big as ours, but has a different sail formation, arranged to look like two giant wings. The hull is also more narrow and it's less tall, which would allow us to look down onto their deck if they were right beside us. There's a company of soldiers onboard, readying javelins and bows, even though they're too far away to hit us. And with the strong winds, it'll be hard to hit either way.

At the same time the empire's ship is slowly but steadily gaining on us from the port side. Our sails are fully unfurled, but this is just the difference in design which we can't do anything about. The captain has ordered the large ballista to be moved to our port, so that it can try to hit the mage when he comes into range, but I fear that it may be too close for comfort at that point.

A blast of flames flies our way, but doesn't reach us; it fizzles out halfway without doing any harm. The crew tenses up at the sight, buckets filled with water at the ready to put out any fire before it can spread. Morakan is concentrating on steering the ship as efficiently as possible, and it's a testament to him and his sailors' incredible capabilities that we've been going at this steady speed despite being forced to sail in a straight line due to the two flanking ships, which may cause us to miss more favorable winds.

I run from starboard to port, watching both ships as they continue to come closer. Ahead of us is no indication that we're entering The Devil's Crooked Teeth, and my nerves are tensed to the breaking point. While a layman would say that fire is nothing to fear on the sea, since there's so much water around to put it out with, it's actually one of the biggest dangers to a ship. The sails, the lifeline of any ship, can catch on fire and burn down completely; of course, there's a replacement for the largest sail of the center mast, but that would leave us at a snail's pace.

Furthermore, any important wooden structures burned to brittle cinders can't be replaced while on the sea. And from this point forward, all ports are enemy territory, so we can't exactly stop by for repairs. The old sailor's saying "what is lost at sea remains lost forever" is an appropriate analogy for this danger.

"Yo ho ho! We entered the teeth. Time to see if these old bones o' mine still remember the way." Morakan points forward at a jagged rock formation jutting out of the sea like a marker. There's a reddish circle on its side, as if someone painted it there as a warning sign. Wait, did he just say that he might not remember the way?

A loud crashing noise from our starboard takes my attention away, and I quickly rush over to see what happened. It came from the sultanate's ship, where agitated voices grow louder and are carried to us on the wind, speaking in a language I don't understand. They must have hit one of the rocks underwater and realized that they've entered perilous waters. But there's no such sounds from the other side, meaning that the empire's ship is doing well in avoiding any dangerous rocks. As expected of someone the captain has approved of.

Then I behold something incredible.

The sultanate's ship crashes straight into a rock right under the surface, and the bow bursts into pieces as the entire vessel comes to a sudden stop. Due to its speed and the force of impact, their stern is lifted out of the water and into the air, before the entire ship falls onto its side. Wildly flailing people and broken wood fly all over the place and drop into the waves.

My mouth hangs open at the sight.

This is what will happen to us if we run straight into a rock! I turn to look ahead of us, where the captain's first mate is standing at the very front of the ship's bow and acting as a lookout. But at these speeds, I doubt his warning will make it in time for an evasive maneuver, so all we can do is hope for a miracle.

I look over to the empire's vessel, where a lookout is stationed at the front as well, relaying warnings to the helmsman. Then I see a flash of red - a ruby gleaming in the sunlight - from their starboard, before a burst of fire comes our way. It very nearly reaches us, but because of the winds, it impacts the water and causes an explosion that rocks our ship. The resulting rain of seawater comes down onto the deck, immediately alerting the crew to the imminent threat.

"Shiver me timbers!" Exclaiming thus, Morakan braces himself and holds the wheel steady. "They be gettin' closer because of all the maneuverin'!" In other words, because we can't travel in a straight line anymore and the enemy ship no longer follows in our wake, our paths may bring us closer to each other from time to time. Using those opportunities, the fire mage can shoot at us and may even be able to hit.

"Szaga, come down here!" I shout up to the crow's nest. "We need your magic!"

"Understood!" Jumping out and nimbly landing on the topgallant, the gargoyle girl immediately responds to my call. Normally, she doesn't like to leave the lookout unless it's for a meal or when nature calls, but the current circumstances are different, and she has agreed to listen to Flann and me during emergency situations.

Climbing down the rigging quickly, Szaga seems to be muttering something - most likely already preparing a spell. The moment she lands on deck, she leans over the railing and extends her arm downwards as if grabbing at something. Then from next to us a rock shoots out of the water and straight towards the empire's ship. It impacts the water surface next to its starboard but seems to have missed.

The enemy mage immediately responds in kind, throwing a fireball towards us. It hits our side in a burst of flames, and several sailors with buckets of water immediately run over to douse the blaze.

Szaga immediately begins chanting again and lifts a rock out of the water, aiming its trajectory at our opponent's deck. It doesn't fully reach, but impacts their flank, creating a hole in the ship's side. Unfortunately, it's above the water line, so it doesn't count as a hull breach which would cause them to take on water and slow them down.

During all this, Morakan and the enemy helmsman are navigating the shallows from which some rocks jut out visibly, while others are hidden under the surface or masked by waves. Neither of them drop their speed, as the exchange of magic barrages continues. I move to our aft and gather flames around my hands, trying to help as best as I can even though I know that my magic won't reach the enemy from here. Maybe, if we get closer, I'll have a shot, but for now all I can do is try to scare them.

Throwing out a shower of small flames, they flicker out less than halfway to the enemy ship, but I don't let it dishearten me. I'll try again, with more focus, and begin to gauge my range, while waiting for a chance to hit them with my blaze.

In the meantime, the enemy has prepared crossbowmen on deck, who are beginning to shoot at us. Even over the rocking of the waves, their aim is steady and several of them just barely miss our deck, with very few of them falling into the foaming sea harmlessly. Our crew responds in kind, letting loose their arrows and shooting the ballista at their deck. The weapon doesn't have enough penetrating power to breach their hull, but it can be devastating if it hits a human being.

As we sway back and forth due to evading the dangerous shallows, we exchange volleys of magic, arrows and bolts. It's clear that this may end at any moment, when either of us runs aground or sustains heavy structural damage due to the magic. The conventional ranged weaponry only serves to whittle down each other's manpower, but since the railings are thick, everyone can take sufficient cover on both sides.

Anthera, Nezera and Xaggavea must be scared to death below deck. None of them possess any magic that could help us at this range, so they're taking cover and helping the crew to put out flames that may penetrate downstairs. None of them are long-distance fliers or sea-going demons, so it's pure bravery that they came along in the first place.

Then I hear words I didn't want to hear under these circumstances coming from the first mate at the bow of the ship.

"Sea dragon ahead!"