Pillar of Yita

”They are firing.”

Fang Hong quietly watched as the muzzle flames of the Oxin Silver Flame bloomed like petals, the cannonballs whistling as they swept over the Cloud Island and cut through the sky where the mast of the Seven Seas Traveler pointed.

”That’s a warning shot,” Bakins said, ”they want us to stop.”

Fang Hong nodded, ”Then let them have their wish. Their cannons are newer than the antiques we found on the pirate ship, with longer range and more power. We don’t have the advantage in long-distance combat, so let’s let them get closer.”

With that, he turned back, his voice calm as usual, ”Miss Tata, lower the sails.”

As the Seven Seas Traveler gradually came to a halt, a cheer erupted from the Oxin Silver Flame:

”They’ve stopped!”

”Good, let’s get closer!”

”But be careful, they’ll surely want to make a fight of it.”

But there was no need to say this, for everyone was not a greenhorn; those who could board the Sky Sea might not compare to the troupe members, but they were the core elites of various guilds.

The members of the Oxin Silver Flame, each with swords in hand, took a step closer to the ship’s rail.

The gunslingers and rangers also took their positions, and after a while, the magic guided conductors took off into the sky for the second time, trailing far behind the Oxin Silver Flame.

The mast was full of crew, mostly from professions like the Nightingale and Shadow Blade, holding ropes and ready for boarding combat.

The speed of navigating the Sky Sea was actually not fast.

The two ships could see each other early on, but it took almost four ”Talia ticks,” nearly an hour, from when the Oxin Silver Flame appeared from behind the clouds until now.

The Seven Seas Traveler, with its final inertia, gradually slipped behind the Cloud Island, leaving only a few masts exposed.

The Oxin Silver Flame was also gradually approaching the Cloud Island.

”Circle around!” their chairman shouted. He was a tall Dipelan Knight, a type of great sword warrior in heavy armor, his metal gauntlet on the sword hilt clenched and unclenched, looking quite excited.

The Oxin Silver Flame drew a half-arc around the Cloud Island, its swinging wing sails like snow-white fish fins.

The distance between the two was now very close, less than two ”links.”

At this distance, it was enough to see the stern of the Seven Seas Traveler quietly anchored behind the Cloud Island.

On the poop deck of the Seven Seas Traveler, a fat man and a lion person were pushing an antique cannon, aiming its dark muzzle straight at them.

The fat man straightened up, looked in this direction, and waved at them.

The captain of the Oxin Silver Flame was shocked when he saw this scene and picked up the communication crystal, shouting:

”Hard to port, raise the shield!”

But the big catfolk had already activated the array on the cannon.

The cannon spit flames, the cannonball whistled through the air above the Oxin Silver Flame, piercing through the yet-to-form silver shield net, exploding above the starboard side. It was a shrapnel shell, and the exploding fragments rained down a metallic storm over the Oxin Silver Flame.

Gray and blue numbers rose from the sides of the deck, representing evasion and block value loss—if it were Earth’s age of sail, this shot would have been enough to wreak havoc on those gathered on the deck.

But this was a fantasy world, and only a few people on the Oxin Silver Flame fell.

Shrapnel clinked against the heavy magic-guided armor of heavy professions, aside from creating some dents, it had no effect.

The Oxin Silver Flame’s hull shuddered violently, and Captain Elan almost had to hold onto his desk to stay upright, but years of experience made him feel a twinge of joy immediately—it was a shrapnel shell used by the enemy, and had it been a solid shot, it would have made a three-meter hole in the bow, causing much more damage.

The voice from the communication crystal intermittently reported the damage:

Two masts were damaged to varying degrees, three of the four sail faces on the foremast had several large holes, the remaining one barely better than torn rags.

The side wing sails were also damaged to varying degrees, reducing the Oxin Silver Flame’s maneuverability by at least twenty percent.

Two sailors were dead, and the Holy Chosen side should have losses too, but they didn’t inform him, Elan deduced it by inquiring about the holy ether consumption on board.

Still, it was much lighter than anticipated.

The enemy aimed to harm the people on deck, missing the opportunity to heavily damage them.

Still too young.

He waved his fist somewhat angrily, the Oxin Silver Flame’s upper and lower starboard cannon decks each had seven cannons, but after some consideration, he gave up the order to retaliate.

The desire to collect the bounty still lingered in his mind.

Actually, everyone’s thoughts were similar.

”Don’t stop, get closer,” the chairman of the Oxin Silver Flame crawled up from the deck and shouted: ”Their cannons have a close-range limit, seize the opportunity when they reload!”

They weren’t too worried about the Seven Seas Traveler escaping at this moment, the best chance would have been earlier.

Now the two ships were almost alongside, and the Oxin Silver Flame’s fourteen cannons were not just for show.

”That was their last counterattack—!” Everyone nearly thought the same in their hearts.

The Oxin Silver Flame was slowly adjusting its course, turning its side towards the Seven Seas Traveler in mid-air, preparing to ram.

The distance between the two ships quickly closed, rapidly shrinking from two ”links” to less than a hundred meters.

The gunslingers fired for the first time at this distance, the smoke and flashes linking into a string, bursting out like popcorn.