SS1 Andraid’s Pov

I am Lord Andraid of Crescent Town, I was doing another trading run to feel the nostalgia of my younger days, I used to trade big time when I was younger but now i'm in my 40s and have more important matters, but I managed to get enough spare time to do a trading run with some of my older friends.

“We’re all here getting older but you still don’t look a day over 20!” (Denvis)

“C’mon Andraid, tell ya pal your secrets to youth!” (Monchri)

Denvis and Monchri, my 2 oldest friends, we traded big time when we were young, we arranged to do a trading run to reconnect after some time and live out some of our pastimes.

All was going well until that moment.

“Captain, 5 ships ahead, they are heading straight to us!” (lookout)

It's not often pirate groups are larger than 3 ships, so there being 5 means this is a more professional group.

*fwoom*

*kssshhhh*

A fireball whizzed past my ship and crashed into one of the escorts, setting it ablaze, our group formation is 4 escorts and our 3 merchant ships. But at that moment we lost an escort to a fireball, we knew our chances were small.

*fwoom*

*pshh*

The fireball crashed at my ships magical shield, they are expensive items but work wonders against spells, to sink my ship you would need to brawl in a gunfight, and my ship is no pushover, armed with 80 64 pounders and 60 32 pounders, along with several swivel 16 pounders, it could easily be mistaken for a military ship.

Several moments later, mine and the 2 other merchant ships were remaining, but at that moment my heart sank, one of their ships was sailing straight into mine, but it was on fire, they abandoned their ship and got onto the others, but with no time to maneuver, the ship crashed onto my port bow, exploding.

When I came to, only me, my friends and a few crew members were alive, but we were all in cages.

“You, you are the captain of that large ship right?” (Pirate Captain)

“Yes” I replied to him

He locked me up in a different cage, but the treatment was better, probably thinking my ransom would be higher if I’m kept well.

Several days later I heard one of the pirates yell out

“Ship incoming, its really big, but it's alone” (Pirate Lookout)

“Alone?” (Pirate Captain)

“Affirmative” (Pirate Lookout)

Several moments later the captain yelled at hooded figure on another ship

“Do your thing, set them ablaze” (Pirate Captain)

“I may be an arch mage but at that range the accuracy will suffer” (Pirate Mage)

“Just rain hell on them, bonus if you burn it at this range” (Pirate Captain)

He may have a hood but I could tell his eyes lit up at that, he ran to the bow and started raining fire on the solo ship from afar, he is probably confident at hitting it at this range purely for its huge size.

He missed the first shot, which made the ship turn broadside, I thought it was scared away, but to my surprise, it accepted the challenge.

*pap pap*

could be heard from afar, several seconds later, screaming fell from the sky and one of the ships exploded, several figures on the nearby ship were riddled with pieces of wood and died on the spot.

At that moment the Pirate captain yelled to get into line formation, obviously realising that the ship wasn't going down without a fight, although it was early dusk, the figure of the giant ship in the distance was clearly reacting to the Pirate mage, I’m glad I’m not on his ship, as I know it's going to prioritize that mage if it has any battle sense.

*KOOM*

*KOOM*

The roars of the cannons could be heard from the remaining 3 ships, as they fired at the flashes of the opposing ship, despite its enormous size, it only got hit by one of the salvos, which was seen by the sparks of what most likely be a direct hit on a cannon.

But what really piqued my interest is the smoke billowing from the wide mast, Is this one of those steam engines? Could that ship be an iron clad? No wonder they are so ready to fight a group, but if it's an ironclad, why is it afraid of the fireballs? Could it be that it's not a true ironclad? But why fight uneven odds?

While pondering on that, suddenly the ship with the pirate archmage exploded in a huge ball of fire, the pirate captain’s face shrunk upon realising this, and his fear was even further fueled as the giant ship slowly turned around towards us.

Many salvos fired later the ship was even closer, it was huge, that ship is well over 100 meters long, one of the guns at the front of it fired.

*KOOM*

*KRAACK*

It fired at the mast of the ship behind us, slowing it down drastically while injuring or killing the crew on the deck, it could have fired at our ship in lead with the cannons on the side but it probably saw the prisoners on the deck, meaning it plans to rescue us. During this time the Pirate captain had an evil look on his face, then went to his quarters, during that time, you could hear the crew on the ship behind us panic, they were getting shot at from behind, or in the naval terms, ‘Raked’.

*KOOM*

*KOOM*

Sounds of gunfire, tearming limbs and screams of agony could be heard.

*KOOM*

*KABOOM*

Another shot, this time an explosion following through, they definitely have those explosive shell, but at this moment the pirate captain was on the deck with a scroll in his hand, as the scroll rose up, he pointed at the ironclad, then the scroll burned up, above the ironclad a giant magic circle appeared, then a large icicle pillar appeared and pierced the ship, it must have hit the gunpowder stowage because that was an explosion no ice magic could make.

Several moments later one of the pirates fished up a girl from the burning wreck, there were no other crew members from the ship strangely. But for a lone girl to be captured from an enemy ship, a fate worse than death awaits her.

Upon waking up the captain tried to taunt her, the other pirates were eager for permission but the captain didn't let them, he probably wanted to go first. Strangely enough the girl was calm, even smirked back at him as he walked off, does the girl not fear him? Does she have a plan?

A few moments later, a huge ship, slightly smaller than the previous, but this time made of iron, appeared in front of this ship, the ship's bow crumpled a bit under the force, which knocked everyone over, the girls cage cracked open then...she disappeared?

The girl appeared on top of the other ship in the blink of an eye?!

“Lest you want to kiss a cannonball, I suggest you bring your ass out mister captain and the second I see an icicle, I’m blasting your ship to the next life” (Girl)

She taunted the captain to come out, he surprisingly complied

“Lady, I have no idea what you think you are doing, if you so much as-”

*KOOM*

Without letting him finish his sentence, the cannon blew off the upper half of his torso

She probably thought that he was a magician and not that it was a scroll, while reasonable it was incorrect.

She taunted the rest of the pirates and made them free us and capture themselves.

The other merchants were calling her the ‘goddess of the seas’ while strange, it's not unreasonable, who else could summon a ship and teleport?

Several weeks later her ship suddenly gained crewmembers? As if summoning a full scale warship wasn't enough, she even now has a crew for it? They aren't undead, nor homonucli! Real living breathing humans! It's as if they were there to begin with!

As if she wasn't a spectacle so far, her ship went toe to toe with an ironback septopus!, I just had to meet the captain!

Fortunately their crew could hear us and we managed to get aboard for a meeting, the one who greeted us and accepted to call the captain for us was called Momoi, what a strange name.

When I finally got to meet the captain, who looked like a little child, she greeted herself as ‘Septaria’

They agreed to sell the Ironback to us, and soon we arrived back at my town, as she was getting off it seems another thing was pulled out of thin air, full on uniforms for herself and her crew! I already told my crew to keep quiet about the peculiarities of herself and her crew but at this rate, I fear she will pull a whole navy out of thin air.

The Ocean is a strange place indeed~