I realized as I was about to rejoin the battle that something had changed. It took me a moment to figure out what it was. The pirates had stopped fighting amongst themselves and the survivors were all looking toward me and my crew.

Even Barcos and Sarvis had broken off their conflict, neither man looking tired at all from the prolonged fight. But they weren’t staring at us, they were staring past us. I risked a look over my shoulder and saw we were barreling toward Sarvis’s ship.

“Oh, fuck!”

My words seemed to be the match as the pirates boiled into a frenzy of motion, some went for the hatch, others activated their flight skills, and the rest rushed us as if we had any control in this situation.

I felt Barcos clap his hand on my shoulder before speaking, “might wanna hold on, Captain, The next bit could be a little rough.”

I barely had time to nod before the null beam fired. The enemy ship’s shield popped like an overinflated balloon only moments before the ravening blast of mana tore through its deck like tissue paper. What surprised me was the fact that the ship was still aloft and not crashing into the ocean below after the attack.

Then I felt like my body weight increased several times over as the Retribution soared skyward. I was confused by Khikall’s maneuver for a moment before I felt my entire body tingle. I groaned in realization and had enough time to store my staff and drop to the deck, followed shortly by Barcos and a surprised Em’ah.

The Retribution practically skipped off the deck of the enemy ship with a grinding lurch skyward. Not all of that was due to the collision though. The full-body tingle I felt was Khikall adjusting the levitation plates. Only he must have realized he turned them the wrong way before quickly correcting his mistake. Not that it would have saved us from hitting the ship, the system wasn’t designed for rapid height changes without being close to another surface.

I did feel when the runes kicked in though and if we hadn’t been laying on the deck, it would have likely broken bones, even so, I grunted under the strain of the ship launching into the sky off of the other ship. If we survived through this madness, I was going to have a word with Khikall about this little maneuver.

Using what little strength I could spare, I managed to look up and see the remaining pirates were far worse off than us. A few had been smart enough to hit the deck but most were collapsed and screaming, their shin bones being shoved through their legs and out through the sides, or worse, were flattened outright. Their low Strength or Endurance made it impossible for some to survive the high-G maneuver.

As soon as the weight lifted, the surviving pirates jumped to their feet to continue their assault. Oh those foolish pirates, so eager to kill us they didn’t yet realize what comes after an unaided rise. The ship experienced a moment of weightlessness before dropping from the sky like a brick.

Startled by the ship falling while they were rushing toward us, the pirates lost contact with the deck and we whizzed past them before they could even activate their skills to try and fly back. At least that’s what happened with the uninjured survivors. A few of the wounded managed to clear the back deck but I heard more than a fair share of wet slaps as bodies and wounded impacted the raised section along the back of the ship and went sailing off the top or sides.

I didn’t spend long on thoughts of dead pirates as I hurried to pull my control tablet out while desperately clinging to the deck plate with my weakly magnetized boots. It didn’t help that Barcos and Em’ah are clinging to me as well, and I can feel myself sliding back towards the hatch where there is no magnetization to keep me stuck to the deck. I managed to pin the tablet to the deck with one elbow and use my free hand to scroll through the controls to get to the correct setting.

I realize at this moment, I should have designed a better interface. I cursed as I scrolled past the command I needed and quickly scrolled back, tapping the control to bring up the field strength. I use my finger to push the slider to maximum and feel every bit of metal on me get sucked tight to the deck.

I groaned in pain again as I realized my mithril wasn’t as non-magnetic as I thought, just weakly magnetic. But it was enough to force the breath from my lungs. I decided breathing was more important than a bit of extra magnetism, so I dialed down the force until I could breathe again.

It seems it was just in time as the Retribution was starting to level out but we were far lower than our normal altitude. I dialed the field back some more as our ship fled from the combat zone. In the distance, I could make out the damaged but still flying enemy ship.

There was no sign of the ship we were pursuing but I was not overly surprised by that. What I was surprised by was all of the survivors heading to the damaged ship. I know for a fact some were from the other ship.

“Captain, we got a problem,” Em’ah pointed to the east.

When I looked over, I was greeted by the sight of four ships trying to cut off our escape. Somehow the enemy managed to secure their prize or win over the former slave pirates. Well, some of them at least.

“Get below deck, we need to make a run for it and I want off this insane rollercoaster.”

Em’ah scurried to the hatch while Barcos stepped up beside me and looked at the ships coming for us. He let out a sigh, “a shame, I was having a good fight.”

I looked at him incredulously. “Why didn’t you just kill him so we could clear the deck, then perhaps we could have taken down at least one of those warships?”

Barcos had the audacity to shrug, “the man was good. Better than I thought, but not quite good enough for me to commit to using any more skills on him. But if we ever tangle with one of the pirate kings’, I’ll be sure to give it my all.” With that, he turned and headed below, leaving me to gape. I really wanted to punch that smug ass smile off the man’s face but I needed to get much more skilled before that day would come.

With five ships to our one, the enemy had options. Likely they would try and box us in, but without an island to act as a wall, it wouldn’t be nearly as effective. If they were faster, they could surround us but even with the damage the ship endured during the fighting, we held the speed advantage.

I took one last look at our new enemy and tromped below deck.

***

Khikall was rattled by the impact against the other ship. He knew the captain was going to be pissed. Then there was the damage to the ship itself. Large portions of the display were blinking yellow or red. The parts of the display that were still working, that was.

The impact broke a key component for the external view and half the outside view was just the interior wall. He was effectively blind on the right side of the ship until the captain fixed it. Khikall really hoped the captain could fix it, he had gotten used to having a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of everything.

Em’ah was the first to stumble into the command room. He heard her hiss quietly as she took in the damage before she took her seat and strapped in before there were any more violent moves.

Barcos came next and Khikall heard an aborted snort of amusement that the man tried to cover by coughing. Barcos came up and patted Khikall on the shoulder. “Not your best flying but we’re alive. Although, I should probably mourn for you now since the captain will probably kill you after seeing the damage you caused.” The man laughed as he leaned away from Khikall’s half-hearted punch before taking his seat as well.

“You really think the Captain will kill Khikall over this?” Em’ah asked in concern, which only made Barcos’s snorting laugh even louder.

“Probably not… although, this ship is like his baby so who can say for certain. Khikall, do you prefer casket or cremation? Assuming the captain doesn’t just toss you into the ocean.”

Khikall didn’t rise to the provocation, he knew this was Barcos’s way of getting back at him for that little joke earlier. It was probably a good thing he didn’t as the captain took that moment to walk in.

“Oh, what the fucking hell!”

***

I was too tired and sore to be pissed about the damage, although, I did glare at the back of Khikall’s head for a good thirty seconds in complete silence. It felt good to make the man fidget nervously but even that small enjoyment wasn’t worth it as I realized I needed to get the ship to at least yellow status or we may actually fall out of the sky.

I quickly checked on the mana reserves and while they were holding, they were barely holding and that was without the shield being on or any other stealth system. I quickly ran through the damage list, each new system making my hopes fall just a bit more.

Half of the turrets were scrap from the fight and would have to have the entire dome replaced before they would be functional again. But they were still drawing power. It was a simple command to detach the damaged units as they were only connected to the ship by runic means. All but one successfully detached and plunged into the ocean below. That freed up a bit of energy but it seemed like one of the main power conduits was leaking mana. I was glad that raw untamed mana wasn’t inherently dangerous, at least in this quantity. It took something focusing the mana before it became deadly.

“Keep us heading in this direction. I'll try to make some repairs so try not to move too much or you’ll scramble my brains while I'm in the maintenance corridor.” I waited for Khikall to nod before I hurried out of the room to grab tools and spare parts. I was hoping fixing the power conduit would also fix the view screen. If not we would be shit out of luck until we made it back to port because I didn’t see any damaged runes, which meant tearing out entire walls to find the damaged section behind them.

I vented my frustration by grumbling about getting a better crew and having a larger ship for next time.