My concern over being singled out and bullied didn’t come to pass. It seemed the fight had been left at just that and nobody came to harass us after. That gave me time to restock all the food and alcohol that had been consumed during our journey so far.

Food was cheap, I didn’t splurge on anything fancy. I wasn’t nearly a good enough cook to waste good food, not that the others seemed to care or ever complimented or complained about what was provided so far.

Barcos and I arrived back aboard Retribution before Khikall. With nothing else to do, I asked the man if he wanted to spar with me again.

“I would, Captain, but we have enough eyes on us as it is.”

“Wait… we do?” I asked in surprise.

“You didn’t notice the additional glares or furtive looks?”

“No, I mean, other than the normal amount.”

Barcos chuckled, “that was hardly normal. No, I suspect word has already gotten around about your ship's exploits and at least part of your crew.”

“What! All this extra attention because I offed a few pirates and took on Khikall? Is this because of that stupid black ring of his?”

Barcos shrugged but I sensed he knew more about this issue than he was letting on. I could try to force the issue and make him tell me but I suspected he would up and leave the crew if I tried. And despite the man’s faults, he was a proficient fighter and dare I say, a decent teacher.

I could tell my combat ability had grown at least a bit in our training sessions. At least I felt more confident and that underlying disconnect from the knowledge I had been given to my actual skill was slowly growing smaller.

It was just more proof that actual skill trumped the knowledge of how to do something. I was still years away from being a master though. Which was made even harder since the one trainer I had come across, Old Man Trumbo, said my style diverged too far from his own for his training to be effective.

Technically, the duels Barcos and I were having weren’t training either. He only helped make me aware of my deficiencies, it was up to me to figure out how to correct them. One thing he did point out was that I should be utilizing my whole body. A weapon was great, but I had hands, feet, elbows, knees, even a thick skull as he put it. The last one might have been a joke.

My problem was tunnel vision. I would attack with my magic and my staff and that was really it for the most part. Very rarely would I need to use the rest of my body to engage an opponent. This was partly my fault as I had out-leveled most people and skill hadn’t really come into play more than a handful of times since the world changed. Which brought up another question.

“You have skills, right?” I asked Barcos.

He pulled the open bottle of liquor from his mouth and nodded, “course I do, just like everyone else.”

“Then why don’t you use them in our fights?”

He shrugged, “other than the fact that I don’t need to, relying on something that isn’t yours can be a crutch. I’ll use them if I have to but I’ll stick to my good ol’ steel to get the job done,” he replied, a knife appearing in his hand, balanced on the tip of his finger before he flipped it into the air and made it vanish as it landed back in his hand with a smirk.

His words made sense. Take Fiona for example. Even at her lower level, she had the ability to reflect magic. Now she has a weapon that can nullify magic. I guess if something as powerful as magic had been around on Earth for as long as it had been on other worlds, we would have developed counters against it as well. Hell, I had already developed a few of my own in the form of my scrambler and drainer. Although, those only worked against enchantments of a certain type.

Khikall eventually returned. “I have good news,” he said as he stepped into the galley, where Barcos and I were sitting.

“Good, we can get out of here, I feel like the locals’ eyes are boring a hole into the ship. Any idea why that might be?”

“I imagine it’s because they don’t like me much,” Khikall responded indifferently

I sighed, figuring that was the best answer I was gonna get for the moment and let it go.

“Fine, what’s this information?”

“It may be more than the three of us can handle… but, I got the location of a local pirate hideout. Three ships max, with the possibility that only one may be moored at the moment. If we can take out their ship, we can secure any looted goods we can carry.”

I grunted, rubbing my chin in thought. It hadn’t slipped my attention that Khikall seemed a little more enthusiastic about the loot than I thought warranted. Pieces of the puzzle that were Khikall were coming together in my mind and the picture it was providing wasn’t pretty. He hadn’t done anything to harm or hinder me though so I would hold off on my opinion until I learned the truth or he did something to make me have to kill him.

“Ok, let's go and scout the location. You sure, nobody else knows where we are going?”

“If you’re asking if I trust my contact, the answer is no, Captain. That’s why we have to do this quickly.”

“Alright, get the ship running and get us on the way. You ready for a fight Barcos?” I asked, turning to the drunken man.

The man huffed in indignation, “your idea of a fight and mine are entirely different, Captain. I doubt I will even get a workout out of this.”

I just shook my head and got up to head to the command room. At least Barcos wasn’t shy about a fight, that would have been an enormous waste of time if he was. Still, with just the two of us on this pirate hideout and Khikall piloting the ship, it was going to be difficult. I had to put faith that my recent improvements would be enough to carry me through. At least it was on an island, that would make it easier on me.

***

It took a day to locate the island in question. Unlike some of the other floating islands, this one was spewing magma from a volcano on one end. The only explanation for this phenomenon I could come up with was magic fuckery. Probably an elemental vent. Thankfully our target was on the far side of the island away from this terrain feature.

Unfortunately, our luck wasn’t as good there. Instead of the single ship, we had been hoping for, there were two docked on the island. They were also pointed broadside out and all of the weapons were manned. The hidden fort rested in a rough cave on the island's side, making an attack from any other direction impossible.

“I think your contact sold you out,” I said to Khikall.

“I think you are correct, Captain. What do you want to do?”

I mulled over the problem as we circled the area like an invisible shark.

“What would you do if you were these pirates?” I asked Khikall.

The Jerboa didn’t bat an eye before he responded. “Have the third ship nearby to trap us as we attacked.”

“Yup, that sounds like a sensible plan. Let's go find this third ship.”

The missing ship was a bit harder to locate. But we did eventually find it, hiding near the island within a stealth field. Thankfully, their stealth field was not as good as ours and it left a distortion in the air. They masked this by hiding near the volcanic side of the island. A smart move, assuming they stayed far enough away that the lava elementals didn’t catch them.

There was one problem with attacking them though. We couldn’t tell what size of vessel it was. I could assume it was similar to the two vessels docked at the pirate base but that was a dangerous assumption.

“Well, how should we handle this unknown ship?” I asked the other two.

Barcos was the first to respond, “It’s likely their flagship as it would be too risky to leave it in the dock while we attacked. Probably a triple-deck dirigible.”

“Barcos is probably correct,” Khikall added, “but it may also be longship.”

“Longship?” I asked.

“Similar to the triple-deck but about half again as long, giving it an additional nine cannons per side.”

“So, you think we can take it?”

“Maybe,” was the only response I got from Khikall and a shrug was all I got from Barcos.

I sighed, “well, no reason to back down now. Let's use our speed to our advantage and streak past them as I fire.”

“Well, I’m gonna go strap myself in near the hatch, I suspect we will have some boarders to deal with,” Barcos replied, strutting out of the room while he hummed an unknown tune.

Khikall circled away from the ship’s hiding spot as I prepped the weapons. It was going to be a fast flyby from stealth, then I would have to switch to the shield. Without a visual reference, I decided to spread the weapons fire across the blurred area, at least this way I would land at least a few hits. I also engaged the continuous fire option for my mana lasers.

We reached our destination and Khikall arced the ship in a tight turn before maxing out the throttle. Eighty miles an hour wasn’t fast when compared to planes or jets but when you were in a solid chunk of metal it seemed pretty fast. We quickly covered the distance to our target and I fired off all the weapons that could target the ship.

The screen didn’t white out this time as there was no mist to scatter the intense light of the energy discharge. I quickly turned off the cloak and engaged the shield. The Retribution rocked as enemy fire struck only a moment later. But my attack had been a success. Sections of the now visible enemy ship were no more than splinters and large scars ran down the length of their ship from my mana lasers.

Despite the success, the enemy ship was not out of the action and I could see the damage I had caused them starting to heal.

“They have wood mages,” Khikall grunted.

The ship rocked again as another cannonball found us.

“Get us back in range so I can remove their cannons!”

Khikall, jerked up on the control stick and the Retribution did something it wasn’t designed to do, and that was flip over. I gripped the arms of my chair hard as the ship rolled and then fell from the air as there weren’t any runes on the top deck to keep it flying. With a Jerk of the stick to the side, the ship righted itself again and I nearly lost my lunch.

“Dammit! Warn me before you’re going to pull a stunt like that,” I swore, quickly realigning the weapons as we raced back toward the enemy vessel.

The enemy ship was a triple-deck dirigible but thankfully, not a longship. We took hits but the shield was holding at forty percent after three strafing runs and recharging as we got out of their arc of fire. The enemy ship was trying to maneuver their undamaged side toward us as I saw the first boarders, flash off the enemy deck. Who needed ropes when you had magic. I keyed the intercom. “Barcos, you have company.”

I didn’t need to worry about the boarders getting inside the ship, the teleportation scrambler prevented that.

The sounds of shouting and the screams of wounded penetrated the deck as we fired once again at the beleaguered vessel. We kept firing on their damaged side as we were too fast for them to get their other side turned toward us.

The ship rocked upward violently.

“What the hell was that!” I shouted, looking around until I spotted the culprit.

We had been forced over the island in order to keep the enemy's damaged side facing us but had earned the ire of the locals. Three lava elementals were below and charging a massive glowing ball of magma which shot our way a moment later.

Khikall jerked the ship sideways, avoiding the projectile while I fired one of the mana cannons at the three monsters.

Unfortunately, that only seemed to make them mad. And a pillar of lava struck the underside of the Retribution, lifting the ship and tossing it around. The shield was nearly depleted by the attack before Khikall managed to get us away from the island.

Thankfully, the elementals were equal opportunity assholes and had also attacked the enemy ship, which was now burning as lava pooled across their deck.