The rain kept falling.
Dim, low-pressure clouds still blanketed the skies above the Moonshadow Archipelago, as though the dazzling starlight from before had been nothing more than a dreamlike illusion.
Along the muddy mountain path, two companies of Zelandian Dragonbound Knights kept the surviving sailors of the John Merchant Group protected at the center of their formation.
Fortunately, even in such awful weather, each of these generally frail-looking sailors, still dazed and unfocused, had a "white wolf" to ride—there were even a few extra.
The white wolves who had just endured a hellish battle only to be captured had it rough, though. Not only did they have to carry the sailors and corpses on their backs, they also dragged more than a dozen makeshift mechanical carts behind them.
Upholding the principle of making full use of everything and wasting nothing, Li Wei had his Retainers haul away every bit of supplies from the Dauntless that they could fit before leaving.
He had even dismantled the sixteen shipborne cannons that had not yet broken, then used the gears he had also taken apart as wheels to assemble them into crude mountain cannons with an utterly different art style.
As for the battered, hole-riddled Dauntless—
Li Wei, whose head was throbbing with veins after having "drained his mana," temporarily had neither the mood nor the ability to play nature's porter again.
That thing was too heavy. Even if the people of Luskan had ideas, they would not be able to move it anytime soon.
Still, Li Wei had no intention of abandoning a ship that had practically been scrapped the moment it entered service.
Not that he intended to take it back and repair it. In its current state, never mind the difficulty of repairs—the manpower and material costs alone would be