Xiya was the first to react. The kitchen had no windows, so she took two steps as one, crossed the narrow cabin, and saw sailors rushing back and forth across the deck. The shouts mingling with the thunder of cannon fire instantly brought her back to the battlefield.
Boom—
A howl came head-on. Xiya saw a pitch-black cannonball streak past the ship's side at high speed, knocking loose some splinters of wood before heading toward the mainmast at a sharp angle of impact.
If that cannonball hit the mainmast, this ship would probably be doomed. In an age that relied on sails for power, a broken mainmast was essentially an incurable condition. The only option was to abandon ship and escape.
There was no time to react. Xiya did not move, yet some invisible force instantly bound the cannonball in place.
The fuse had already burned into the cannonball and was about to make intimate contact with the gunpowder, creating a tiny spark of civilization.
But the flame was snuffed out by the invisible force. In the end, it failed to shine and burn to its fullest, unable to offer up its youth.
Looking past the cannonball, Xiya saw three ships in the distance.
Those three ships were slightly smaller than this one, with only two masts. Such ships were nimble, fast with the wind behind them, and inexpensive to build. They were usually used as short-distance merchant ships or coastal escort vessels.
However, black flags hung above the masts of those ships.
The black flags were painted with swords and skulls. Clearly, they were pirates.
Xiya did not know what kind of waters these were, but since they had been sailing for some time without making port, they were obviously in the open sea. It was perfectly normal for