This Battle Was Unwinnable

Eighteen Shipbreaker Cannons fired almost simultaneously. In an instant, the warship seemed to become a fortress unleashing volleys of flame.

The deafening roar made the entire warship list slightly. White smoke drifted upward from the gunports, shrouding more than half the deck.

Rowan had stuffed his ears with cotton well in advance. He gripped the railing tightly with both hands, his eyes fixed on the pirate warship nearby.

Eighteen cannonballs trailing flame traced a brilliant arc through the air, heading straight for Lambert's warship.

Though the cannons were not particularly accurate, with many solid cannonballs plunging into the sea and throwing up waves several meters high, three still struck the pirate flagship.

Two cannonballs blasted straight through the pirate flagship's mainmast. The towering mast snapped in the middle and crashed onto the deck.

Still shaken, Lambert stared at the wreckage on deck. Weren't those sailing warships sitting in the harbor supposed to be unable to put to sea?

"Quick, quick, quick! Counterattack while they're reloading!" Lambert tossed his speaking trumpet aside and shouted at the top of his lungs.

Rowan's modified warship had completely upended Lambert's understanding of Kul Tiras's medium-sized sailing warships.

Lambert had no desire to endure another cannon barrage that intense and concentrated.

The pirates reacted quickly. After enduring the first bombardment from Rowan's warship, they decisively swung their vessels around, bringing their Cannon Decks to bear on his ship.

Lambert pulled a spyglass from inside his coat. Watching the sailing warship nearby, he discovered that it was bizarrely turning on the spot!

Somehow, the entire warship had turned ninety degrees without taking in its sails.

In a naval battle, after a warship fired a volley, its Cannon Deck needed time to reload.

That brief interval was when the warship was most vulnerable. The captain at the helm would therefore turn the ship during that time, positioning its hull at a right angle to the enemy vessel—in other words, pointing its bow toward the enemy's Cannon Deck.

This allowed the warship to avoid the area covered by enemy cannon fire, reducing the risk of taking a fatal hit.

In actual Naval Battle, however, sailing warships could not change their heading quickly. With sails in play, turning the bow required accounting for the relationship between the wind direction and the sails, making the maneuver particularly difficult.

Rowan's warship, however, was powered by Steam Power. Simply stopping one Paddlewheel allowed it to spin on the spot.

Lambert felt as though a rock had struck him in the head. He was utterly bewildered.

Was there a mage aboard that warship?

But now that the battle had begun, it was kill or be killed. The enemy looked troublesome, but we had more ships.

Boom! The Rapid-Fire Cannons aboard the pirate warship fired nine cannonballs.

Compared with Rowan's soldiers, Lambert's pirates had clearly received professional gunnery training. Even though Rowan had turned the bow to evade the pirates' field of fire, four cannonballs still struck his warship's masts.

Both the mainmast and the mizzenmast were blasted apart, the two towering wooden masts snapping and falling into the sea.

"Beautiful! Let's see how you suicidal idiots fight me now!" Lambert planted one foot on the railing and pumped his right fist in the air, cheering on the men on the Cannon Deck.

A sailing warship without two of its masts was little more than a sitting duck. So what if it had more cannons? In a real fight, it was still easy prey!

Without wind power, the warship might as well have run aground. Lambert raised his spyglass, ready to savor the terrified expressions of the sailors on deck. After all, they were already mine for the taking.

Yet when Lambert looked toward Rowan's sailing warship again, the Cannon Deck on its other side had already swung around, once more taking aim at his vessel.

"Fire!" Rowan shouted.

Eighteen solid cannonballs trailing flame flew toward the pirate warships again. Boom, boom, boom! Explosions and the cracking of shattered decks rang out in succession as five cannonballs struck the pirate flagship and its escort.

One solid cannonball smashed into the deck less than two meters in front of Lambert, sending wood splinters flying everywhere.

The splintering deck sent violent tremors through the hull, especially through the planks beneath Lambert's feet.

Since the planks formed one continuous surface, the massive hole smashed into the front caused the other end to kick up, flinging Lambert straight into the sea.

Fortunately, there was a rope hanging beside the hull, and Lambert climbed back aboard.

What the hell kind of warship was this? Its sails had been blasted away, so how could it still turn?

After two rounds of cannon fire, Lambert's attitude changed. He threw his captain's hat into the sea and took the helm himself.

The warship from Morris Town had far exceeded Lambert's expectations in every respect, from its number of cannons to its performance and peculiar ability to turn.

There was no chance of winning a head-on exchange of fire. If this kept up, that warship would blast us all full of holes!

If Lambert wanted to win now, he would have to stake everything on one desperate gamble.

"Stuart, summon sea fog!" Lambert shouted at the cloth-robed sage aboard the escort ship.

Clad in brown robes, Stuart murmured an incomprehensible incantation. Gradually, a thick layer of white mist formed over the sea.

The white fog kept creeping toward Rowan's warship. Leonard frowned and said warily, "Young Master Rowan, they have a Tidesage!"

Before the fog rose, Rowan had clearly seen the pirate flagship sailing straight toward his warship. Obviously, the pirates could not match his firepower or his ship's performance, so they intended to use their vessel as a weapon and come at him in a fight to the death!

"Cease fire. Have all gunners stand by. Since they want to come over and fight us to the death, let's show them what real power looks like."

"Turn the Ramming Prow around and wait for an opening!" Rowan ordered.

Leonard turned the helm, steering the warship as far from the fog as possible to give them a clearer field of view.

Rowan's warship was fast. The Tidesage's fog trailed behind it, unable to draw any closer.

Combined with Leonard's excellent seamanship, that speed soon carried the warship out of the fog-covered area.

"Do you think this is dry land? How the hell can a ship move that fast?" Hidden within the fog, Lambert stared wide-eyed. He simply could not accept that such a thing was possible.

How could a warship without sails move so fast?

This battle really was unwinnable!