Chapter Three Hundred and Sixty-Two - If the Enemy is in Superior Strength, Evade Them

Caprica, my other friends, and I, all made haste to the rear of the ship. This ship had a proper wheelhouse, with a roof and windows overlooking the deck and sides of the ship, from which the airship could be directed without having the wind in our faces.

Actually, that was a pretty great idea. I’d have to ask Awen if we could do something like that on the Beaver. As it was, the Beaver’s wheel was right out in the open, so when it was windy, or when we rose high enough that it got fingertip-freezing cold, whomever was at the wheel just had to deal with it.

Behind the pilot stood the ship's captain in a well-trimmed uniform and his hands folded at the small of his back.

“Captain,” Caprica said.

“Princess,” the captain replied. “We’re coming around now. At our current pace we should be sliding into formation with the Featherfall and the, ah, Beaver in a few minutes.”

“I see,” Caprica said. “Captain, do you believe it is possible that we could charge the pirate vessel?”

“Charge it?” he asked. “Your highness... this isn’t a warship.”

“Exactly. If we were close we could start boarding procedures.”

“Belay that,” Bastion’s voice rang through the cabin as he stepped in. “Captain, plot a course southeast, we’re leaving the area.”

“What?” Caprica asked.

Bastion spared her a glance. “We’re not here to win an airship battle, your highness. Our objectives are complete. Leaving the area with as many ships intact as possible means that we will be victorious.”

“But we could strike down that vessel,” Caprica said with a gesture to the pirate ship still some ways above and away from us. I looked over to it with some trepidation. The Beaver Cleaver was circling around it, trying to keep Awen’s repeating ballistae on target but it was having a hard time.

The pirate ship wasn’t exactly as manoeuvrable as the smaller ships harassing it, but for all that it was slower it still had more armaments pointing in more directions and was able to return fire towards every ship near it.

It was accumulating damage though. Even as I watched a bolt from the Featherfall snuck past its magical defence screens and stabbed into a nacelle protruding out of the side. The engine burst into flames for a moment before a wash of what I imagined was water magic slammed into it from the deck and the fire was replaced by torrents of smoke.

The ship was studded with eight little nacelles, two others were already either smoking or missing outright, and losing one more probably wouldn’t be enough to stop it.

“What about the others?” I asked.

Bastion turned my way. “The signal was already sent and received. The frigates are moving to disengage and the Featherfall and Beaver Cleaver have responded in the affirmative already. If the pirates give chase, then we’ll turn around and deal with them, but part of combat on any scale is knowing when to cut away and retreat from an unfavourable position. We’re in one of those at the moment. Let’s not push our luck any more than we have.”

Caprica’s cheeks puffed, and I was reminded that she was a princess that didn’t often get told no in such a stern way. I sighed. "Are certain that the frigates will be able to escape on their own?" I asked Bastion.

“As certain as I can be,” he replied.

“Then let’s leave. We’ve done enough fighting for one day. The former hostages will be safe, and the pirates will be left with damaged ships, no hostages, and dozens of injured.”

Bastion nodded, then he looked to the ship’s captain who nodded back. “Forty degrees to port, we’re changing our heading south and east.”

“Aye aye,” the pilot said before he turned the ship’s wheel around a smidge and the Lunchbox started to turn.

I hovered by the windows, looking out at the ships that we were leaving behind... for the moment. The Featherfall broke off right away. I imagined they’d kicked their engines to max and they started to really gain some momentum as they flew past the pirate ship.

The Beaver executed a half-turn, which meant that it couldn’t fire back at the pirates for a moment, but then its big prop spun faster and the Beaver took off, gaining altitude even as the pirate ship found itself facing in the wrong direction to chase us.

Further out, the two frigates disengaged and cut over to meet us, leaving a damaged but still air-worthy pirate ship behind.

The two pirate ships hovered around, clearly they hadn’t expected the battle to end on such an anticlimactic note.

“I guess it’s over,” Amaryllis said. She let out a long breath next to me as if she was deflating a little. Awen giggled on my other side. She looked relieved too.

I grabbed my nearest friends, hands wrapping around their waists, and pulled them closer. The nearness made me feel a little better. “It’s done, for now,” I said.

I think Mister Menu caught on that the action was over because no sooner had I spoken that I was caught in a small flood of messages that I’d missed out on.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Way of the Mystic Bun skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!
Rank B costs 2 Skill Points!

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Hugging Proficiency skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!
Rank C costs 1 General Skill Point!

I blinked at the wall of notifications. “Whoa,” I said.

Calamity chuckled from somewhere nearby. “Got hit with the level ups, huh?” he asked. “That’s normal enough after nya worked so hard and took a few big risks.”

“Yeah. I’d kind of forgotten that I would be hit with a few level-ups. Or skill-ups, I guess.”

And then Mister Menu flashed another pair of boxes up for me.

Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Cinnamon Bun Bun class has reached level 14!
Health + 5
Resilience +5
You have gained: One Class Skill Point

Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Wonderlander class has reached level 5!
Stamina +10
Magic +10
You have gained: One Class Skill Point

“Oh, a double level-up!” I cheered. That was going to make a big difference!

“Hmm, only one here,” Amaryllis said. “Thundere’s now at fifteen.”

“Oh, you’re ahead of me with your main class,” I said.

“My secondary is still only at three,” she demured. “Not too many opportunities to practise it, I’m afraid.”

“Awa, I’m at thirteen and four,” Awen said. “I think I’m still behind.”

“Not by much,” I said. “And with all the dings and dents on the Beaver Cleaver...”

She giggled. “Ah, yes, I guess having our ship damaged does have that silver lining.”

I grinned back. It wasn’t often I heard Awen being... well, not quite snarky but clever with her words. I leaned my head to the side so that it was resting on her shoulder. “Urgh, now I’m going to have to decide what to upgrade and where to spend all of my points.”

“Yes, I’m sure that’s a terrible burden,” Amaryllis said. “Come on, if you really need the help, we can sit down later and go over everything and pick out what skills would help you the most if improved.”

“Thanks!” I said. “I’ll make some tea, and we can make a nice evening of it.”

“I doubt it would take all evening,” Amaryllis said.

Caprica moved closer to us, her eyebrows were knit as she looked over us. “You’re quick to dismiss all of the trouble we’ve just been through.”

“Dismiss?” I asked. “We’re not dismissing it, we’re just focusing on what we can do now.” I gestured to the pirate ships and the friendly ships flying away from them. The tower was slowly growing more distant. “That’s done, right? We’ve kind of won.”

“There’s still lots of work. We need to transfer the rescued from ship to ship, as well as redistribute cargo. Then we need to decide where to go, how to communicate what happened, and to whom we should communicate to begin with.”

I paused, then pulled back from my friends. The void seemed to bother Amaryllis and Awen who looked at where I was, then looked at each other. I could almost see gears turning in their heads as they considered whether they should close ranks for hugging purposes or not. But then they were both just a little smidge too shy for that.

I still had some work to do there!

“Come,” I said to Caprica.

“Are you going to try and hug me again?”

“Do you want a hug?” I asked. “Because I don’t mind delivering them.”

She shook her head, and I didn’t push. There was a time and a place to hug someone when they didn’t think they needed one, and I didn’t feel like this was the right place for it. “I’m just... I don’t know.” She raised a hand and I noticed that it was shaking a little bit.

I grabbed her hand and held it between mine, warming her up as best I could. “I think it’s all the adrenaline leaving you,” I said. “It makes your heart thump-thump mad fast, but then when it’s all done you get this big crash.”

“You seem fine,” she said. It was almost an accusation.

I grinned. “I’m not you, and you’re not me, Caprica. There’s more than one ingredient in a soup.”

Caprica stared, confused for a moment before the horrible realisation hit. “Broccoli, did you just make a play on words based on your name being a food?”

“Did it distract you?” I asked.

“Amaryllis was right,” she said as if coming to a decision. “You’re an idiot sometimes.”

I giggled, then she joined in a moment later.

“Come on,” I said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, isn’t there? You need to look good for the soldiers, and we need to figure out where and how to divide the rescued.”

“The nobles are going to be trouble,” she pointed out.

“Then we figure out which ones are the most trouble and split them from the people that’ll encourage their trouble-ness,” I said.

She nodded. “That easy, huh?”

“Well, no, but it’s a good first step. Besides, I've noticed that keeping noble-sorts distracted tends to work great.”

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. “Right,” she said. “Let’s get things in order then. We need to ensure that each ship has enough medical personnel to watch over everyone. I don’t think we have enough berths, but we can set up a simple rotation that’ll give everyone a bit of space until the ships arrive in Sylphfree. And I’m going to have to contact the port authorities to prepare to take in a number of refugees.”

“Okay, let’s get to work then.”

***