Pillars of Ita

"Ed, there are pirates." Luo Hao pushed the door open, and the biting sea breeze mixed with rain blew in his face, immediately blowing out a wall lamp. The sea water wet a corner of the map, and Fang He immediately covered it with a book, and his spirits lifted. He had been sailing along the Volaticus Islands for so many days, but he didn't expect that pirates would finally appear shortly after meeting the imperial people.

This group of monsters really got together. Although the main target of the imperialists was not them, the timing of the pirates' appearance was too coincidental, and it was hard not to make associations.

"Are you sure it's them?" He folded up the map and looked up. The ship was shaking violently, and rain continued to pour in from the main deck.

There were signs of a storm, with the wind speed measured at 21 knots on the mast. It was pouring rain outside, with rain flowing down the deck and pouring into the lower deck.

Luo Hao nodded: "They have been following us for a quarter of an hour. They came around from Lopulas Island. There should be no main routes along this road."

Fang He was not too surprised. Ever since they got the news from Alice, they had been prepared for this moment. "Let's go out and take a look."

The two men came to the main deck. The sky was already gloomy. Lightning kept passing through the clouds. The clouds kept changing shape under the push of air currents, like waves.

It was thanks to the observer that he was able to spot two tiny shadows on the horizon under such sea conditions. Fang He picked up the bronze telescope, but could only see a blurry sail through the foggy lens.

"A schooner Brittingen, with square-rigged sails forward and fore-and-aft aft, and a pair of sloops, near the stern," he concluded quickly, "and a frigate, about a cable's length off, at eight o'clock."

This is indeed a typical configuration of pirates. The rear-wing schooner is even smaller than the Seven Seas Traveler, and the escort boat is a sloop.

Neither ship flew any flags, but on an empty sea, not flying a flag is itself an act of piracy.

"Who is in charge of the observation?"

"I heard they are our people," Luo Hao replied, "members of the Second Regiment."

"Ask him over," Fang He said curiously, "I want to meet him."

The person who came was one of the three liaison personnel sent by the military. He was a shy young man. He saluted Luo Hao first, and then saluted Fang Yu:

"Captain."

"How did you find them?" Fang He asked.

The two pirate ships were nearly three miles away from Storm No. 7. It was impossible to see them clearly in this sea condition. Although there were sighting devices on the watchtower, the direction of the target had to be determined with the naked eye first.

"Captain, I'm a scout, and all my experience has been used in reconnaissance skills." The rain wet the young man's forehead and slid down his nose. "In addition, I have a talent for reconnaissance."

"You have talent?" Fang He was a little surprised. He also had talent. Everyone who possessed the Dragon Knight system had talent, but the Twin Alliance had been further upgraded after Elaine's rebirth.

Now he and Mia not only share the starlight, but in an emergency, he can also directly summon the other person to his side, or vice versa.

Moreover, he can obtain some of Mia's new abilities, and vice versa. It's a pity that this ability cannot be applied retroactively, otherwise he would be invincible.

However, the ability to summon has huge limitations, similar to Mia using the Star Dagger to open up time and space, which may lead to serious consequences.

Luminia (Elaine) told him that the essence of that ability was actually the projection of coordinates, but the cost of opening up space had to be paid by oneself.

"She (they) opened up time and space twice, both times using the power of the Hailin Crystal to pay for it. But even so, her dragon soul once fell into an extremely weak state."

Fang He doesn't want anything to happen to Miss Tata, so he doesn't plan to use this ability unless it's absolutely necessary.

However, acquired talent is not surprising, but innate talent is rare. This young man from the military obviously does not have the dragon knight system, and it is unlikely that he is the owner of an unawakened natural dragon soul.

That only means one thing:

When he was blessed through the star gate, he gained an innate talent, an ability that was not much less rare than a natural dragon soul.

The young man nodded frankly, "But my abilities are quite average."

Talents in reconnaissance are certainly not the strongest of the bunch, but innate talents are proportional to their rarity, and are often very powerful.

Reconnaissance talents are certainly useful on the battlefield, and scouts are also a top priority for each guild to cultivate, but compared to other innate talents, they are indeed only at an average level.

But even so, it is really rare. It is unlikely that Star Gate Port is unaware of this ability. Su Changfeng still sent people over, which shows how much they value it.

However, Shang Wangyou and Su Changfeng had never told him about this. Fang Yu couldn't help but ask again: "Is there anyone else with a similar situation?"

"Number 7 has one too," the young man answered truthfully, "but her ability is for planting, so it's not very useful."

The ability to plant crops is really not very useful. Although it is very suitable for being a druid, it is impossible to really do agricultural research.

Due to the differences in crops, soil, air and sea environments between the two worlds, agricultural-related exchanges have been slow, because the relevant disciplines in the real world are of little use here, and the experience here cannot be applied to the world on the other side of the star gate.

Therefore, naturally no one will do something that has no benefits, and the demand for related talents is naturally very small.

However, Fang He thought that he could let that lady work with Miss Attila. The elf lady was not an ordinary druid.

She managed the nursery on Mr. Graystone's platform in an orderly manner, and later ran the greenhouse of the Seven Seas Traveler. When she was there, a large part of the Seven Seas Traveler's alchemical expenses were covered by her greenhouse.

After she left, Tianlan and the others made a mess of the greenhouse and even killed the Arrow-tailed Hawk - although it couldn't be entirely their fault.

At first he thought it was because Tianlan and the others were too capable, but later he found out that it was actually because Miss Attila was too powerful - the Grand Saint of the elves, the unicorn girl, the keeper of the sacred tree, the maid of Aimaya, and also one of the elders of the Great Druid Council. How could she not be powerful?

Letting Miss No. 7 work there is also a way to make the best use of her talents and let them shine. Fang He suddenly felt that his way of thinking was becoming more and more similar to Tianlan and Sylvie.

However, among the three people sent by the military, two had innate talents, which surprised him greatly: "How many of you are like this?"

The young man shook his head. "Captain, we have a confidentiality policy."

"Ok."

They had time to talk because the pirates' ships were still far away.

Although the end of Sankongli can be seen at a glance, based on the relative speed of the two ships, it will take at least three or four hours for the other party to catch up. During this period, the increasingly severe storm will pose a greater threat than the pirates behind.

Fang He calculated their position on the sea chart. This place is about eighty miles away from Nimber-Cetus. The other party will catch up with them around dusk.

But at that time they had already entered the patrol range of the Gulf Alliance. Were the pirates of Volaticus so bold as to attack them under the noses of the alliance?

During this time, he walked out of the room for the second time and observed the position of the pirate ship behind him. He found that the relative positions of the two ships behind had not changed much, and they were not even obviously close.

Fang He took out his pocket watch and checked the time:

Half past one in the afternoon.

He couldn't help but frown, feeling that something was not right.

"I'm afraid their goal is not to attack us," Luo Hao, who had been observing outside in the rain, also noticed this and turned around to say at the side of the ship, "but to keep an eye on us."

"Then we can't enter Nimber-Certus."

Fang He also realized that the pirates had already set their sights on them. If they dropped anchor in Nimber-Cetus for one night, they would be in big trouble when they went out to sea the next day.

Even if they don't care about the Volaticus pirates, the local pirates are very likely to be in collusion with the Blood Shark Pirates, not to mention that there may be the shadow of the Empire behind them.

He couldn't help but think of the two imperial warships he encountered a few hours ago.

Is it really just a coincidence?

"Luo Hao, tell Ms. Catherine to slow down," Fang He decided to test the other party.

Luo Hao nodded and ordered to lower one-third of the sail. Half an hour later, the message came back to confirm their worst guess - the other side was also slowing down.

"Instead of getting closer, they're getting further away."

Fang He put down the bronze telescope. At this time, the wind and rain had become stronger. Rain fell along the mast and gathered into streams on the oilcloth.

"They noticed we were slowing down."

His brows were knitted into a line.

"Prepare to deploy the Lancers—"

This was not a solution. Even if they sailed to the port of Nimber-Cetus, the pirates would know that they would anchor there, and endless harassment would follow.

The enemy could even go around and set up an ambush on Firmant Island or Sandestad Island, the latter of which is a rare volcanic island in the open sea, on the route that Nimber-Cetus must take to the south.

Not every place in the sky and on the sea is suitable for navigation. All relatively economical routes have been explored by our predecessors over a long period of time. Others either take a long detour or are full of dangers.

Although it is not impossible for the Seven Seas Storm to take a detour, it still has to pass through a few fixed passes - straits or island chains. The pirates are the local bosses in this sea area and they know very well where they will go.

Unless the Seven Seas Storm chooses to turn back.

He intends to solve the problem once and for all.

The simplest method is naturally the most direct method - deploying Lancers, but there is no Fairy Heart on the Seven Seas Storm, so it is naturally impossible to activate the large-scale information crystal.

Before leaving Silverwind Harbor, they modified the lower gun deck of the ship and placed four Lancers there, but they could only be lifted one by one onto the main deck through the cargo well using two cranes.

The whole process was quite long, especially in the pouring rain, the ship was shaking violently, which also caused great trouble for the lifting. It took Elisa, Box, Luo Hao and May an hour and a half to set up the four Lancers one by one.

Miss Nightingale looked at the time.

Four o'clock in the afternoon.

The members of the 2nd Regiment were divided into four groups and placed the Lancers on the modified slides on the main deck.

At this time, Fang He had handed over the command to Catherine. He was on the stern of the Seven Seas Storm, raising the magic gloves in his hand, and then pulling down the goggles with his other hand.

The rain hit the glass lens and then flowed down in streaks.

At Alyssa's command, everyone opened the locking device on the Lancer chassis and watched it slide down the rails in the rain, creating a trail of sparks and falling into the sea of ​​clouds.

Then the tail nozzle lit up, and it shook off the rain and flew into the clouds.

Marigold and Ian looked at the green trail that disappeared in the rain and couldn't help but cheer, even though they had seen Lancers flying low over the battlefield in the autumn woods before.

But it was the first time for them to launch an air combat structure on an airship. It gave them the feeling that the Seven Seas Storm had become a real air carrier.

Although there were only four Lancers in total, they disappeared into the clouds one by one.

Little did he know that Luo Hao was complaining to Miss Nightingale: "I don't want to do this kind of work a second time."

Elisa smiled bitterly and shook her head. This really exhausted her. The Lancer weighed 1.5 tons when empty, and there was no other auxiliary equipment on the Seven Seas Storm except for two old cranes.

In fact, the cargo wells were temporarily converted. They were originally passages used to transport flour and water to the bottom hold, and were not suitable for such a huge ship at all.

In the past, it’s not that no one has ever thought about using air combat equipment on sailing ships, but the restrictions were too many and too great, so the best solution was to bring combat craftsmen on board.

The combat craftsman has his own information crystal and can carry a small amount of air combat constructs to participate in the battle. Although it cannot be replenished after the battle, in the past air combat constructs were generally used in reconnaissance missions.

At this time, both of them began to miss the Seven Seas Traveler infinitely. The Fairy Dragon Knight was indeed one of the greatest inventions in the world.

At such a long distance and with bad sea conditions, it was naturally impossible for the two pirate ships to discover that the Seven Seas Storm had already launched its air combat construct.

But about a quarter of an hour later, the sailors on the two ships began to make a commotion.

"Sir," a pirate leader wearing a sharkskin jacket was walking down the deck and hurried into a small cabin with a piece of paper.

Mara Isaac's lining was sewn with shark teeth, and her footsteps made a crackling sound. "They dropped those things."

The person who was listening to his report looked up, but his face could not be seen in the dim light, only a pair of dim eyes - the other person reached out and took the page of paper from him.

The exposed skin of the arm that stretched out from the darkness was a sickly blue-gray color, and the back of the hand was covered with white spots of salt crystals. It didn't look like a human hand - it looked more like a corpse's hand. Seeing this scene, even the pirate leader couldn't help but be surprised, and subconsciously swallowed back a few words of excuses.

"Don't worry," the other party said, "Their air combat equipment is indeed powerful, but from what we observed, it is just an old model-"

The information on the paper came from the escort boat.

They installed the latest wind element detector on the ship to prevent this kind of thing.

The voice in the darkness replied hoarsely, "Now you open the drop deck and release our constructs, and you don't have to worry about the rest."

"Yes, sir," Myra Isaacs bowed respectfully.

He didn't know where these people came from, but the Blood Shark Pirates all obeyed their orders. He knew there were a few troublemakers in the early days, but not long after those people left with the fleet, their bodies were hanged on the gallows.

The image of the dried corpse lingered in his mind and gave him a stomachache.

He didn't want to be one of those people. He had an idea in his mind that these people were all from the empire, but they didn't look like Oshurs.

Mara Isaac asked someone and found out that the opponent these people asked them to deal with was not a good one and even the Imperial Navy had no way to deal with him.

These people of unknown origin probably used them as cannon fodder for testing. Otherwise, why wasn't a single Blood Shark Pirate ship seen in the first round of operations?

He had the idea of ​​escaping in his mind, but he couldn't think of a good way to get away for a while, and at the same time he coveted the modified escort boat very much.

He was almost certain that it was the technology of the Oshus. If he could get that new sailing ship, he would have the final say in this sea area.

However, these people were keeping a close eye on them. He knew that there were also people from the other side among the sailors on the ship. He privately asked the sailors who were loyal to him and accidentally learned a piece of news:

This person has a code name.

M。

Fang He tried his best to control the Lancers to fly close to the clouds, in order to shorten the enemy's observation distance in severe sea conditions. Although the Lancers' magic power was consumed just as quickly in the storm, he thought it was worth it.

This wasn't on the Seven Seas Traveler, where he only had four Lancers total.

The enemy had two ships, including a escort boat. If they did not engage in battle with him, it would be difficult for him to catch up.

The magic power in the main crystal only gave him about ten minutes to resolve the battle, which also included the time for pursuit - if he exceeded the combat radius, the Lancer would not have the magic power to return.

However, when the two Lancers in front approached within a mile of the pirate ship, an accident occurred.

Fang He looked through the observation eyepiece and saw two tiny points of light falling from the Brittingen sailing ship. He had almost never seen the same scene before.

But Fang He immediately judged it:

The other side also deployed air combat constructs.

It's getting interesting.

There were combat craftsmen on the opposite ship, which was extremely rare among pirates because alchemists had a high status in Ataria, let alone combat craftsmen.

Except for extremely special circumstances, how many people are willing to be pirates?

And that's not all. The role of combat craftsmen is limited in the air and sea environment. One important reason is that the distance at which airships engage in combat is generally far beyond the combat distance of flexible structures.

Without the support of the Fairy Heart, the maximum cruising range of the longest-flying Clockwork Fairy is only three to four air miles, and the combat radius of heavier offensive constructs is even lower.

This distance is almost the visual distance of the airship fleet's combat operations, and the combat craftsmen's advantage of super-visual combat cannot be brought into play at all. Therefore, generally speaking, combat craftsmen are responsible for logistics-related work on the ship.

In close combat situations, their air combat constructs are occasionally useful.

Only on those countries' large battleships that have installed control plug-ins and crystal control towers will the scene of combat craftsmen fighting in clusters appear.

But it is not an exaggeration to say that a warship like that is a mobile palace in the sky and sea. Only a handful of forces have flagships of this level, and they are often the absolute center on the battlefield.

Once these Dragon Knight-class warships are deployed, they are often protected by multiple fleets.

For example, the Osu people’s main flagship, the Empire.

But there is only one exception in this world. Intelligence analysts from various countries and spies from various guilds have actually discovered long ago that the combat range of the Seven Seas Traveler is extremely long.

This situation first occurred in the world-shocking air battle at Kelan O.

Airships from multiple guilds participated in the siege of the Seven Seas Traveler, but the final result was that the Seven Seas Traveler escaped the siege unscathed, ultimately leading to the sinking of multiple airships.

This outrageous exchange ratio attracted everyone's attention as soon as it came out.

Almost all the people who participated in that air battle mentioned the attack of the air combat constructs in the end, and according to subsequent statistics, the waves of air combat launched by the Seven Seas Traveler were arranged in sequence.

In all the battles, the two sides did not even come within visual distance of each other.

So it is not difficult to draw a conclusion:

This dragon alchemist possesses a talent for controlling flexible constructs over extremely long distances.

After all, compared to the Fairy Dragon Knight, the concept of talent, which is unique to Ataria, is easier to understand, and judging from the strength that Fang He later showed -

This talent itself doesn't seem to be one of his most outrageous abilities.

These assessments and reports were naturally eventually summarized by the military, and then handed over to him by Su Changfeng for sharing - so Fang He was also roughly aware of the outside world's assessment of his abilities.

Therefore, Fang He discovered the other party's intention at first sight.

The air combat construct under the control of the Fairy Heart has an extremely long cruising range, which can be said to be unparalleled in the world. If the opponent is desperate and wants to attack him, it will naturally be a dead end -

But if the air combat construct is only used as a defensive force, then this shortcoming can be said to be naturally eliminated.

Fang He's eyes lit up:

“That’s pretty clever.”

But no matter how clever he was, he frowned as he watched the two silver lights flying towards him, and his suspicion deepened.

Because there is obviously a small problem here. Most of the evaluations and reports about him come from various major forces, and the ones who can obtain relevant information are at least first-tier guilds and above.

In any case, at least it is not something that the local pirates of Volaticus can understand. Even the Blood Shark Pirates behind them may not be able to understand it in such detail.

Not to mention arranging measures to specifically deal with his strategy.

When the two air combat constructs broke through the clouds and came in front of him, Fang Yu could not help but let out a soft "huh" and made a surprised sound -

The two silver-white air combat structures were the Oshu Empire's newest Xs-1 annihilation/attack aircraft, equipped with fourteen wind element repulsion engines of different sizes all over their bodies.

Its crystal core is an improved version of the Empire's latest 'Central Nerve X' magic furnace, and it also has a spare arcane core.

The streamlined fuselage is actually part of the ZH-Ω'Storm Falcon's weapon system, which includes a lightning elemental blade formed by atmospheric magic constraints, a ray spear, and a wind pressure bomb carried on the shoulder.

Moreover, this thing has the same technological roots as the Angels. The subspace rings behind them allow them to have the ability to teleport over short distances. This new type of construct is an experimental weapon that has not even been equipped by the Empire's front-line troops.

Fang He almost missed and was bumped into by the Lancer.

Do you believe that the pirates have the latest weapons of the empire? Or do you believe that he is actually the next Warcraft Tenth King?

If he still didn't know who was behind this, he might as well find a piece of tofu and kill himself.

However, cold sweat broke out on Fang He's forehead, and he felt that he might have gone too far this time.

Of course, he was confident that he could surpass any pirate's combat craftsman. Even if the empire sent someone, as long as they were not at the level of a master craftsman, he was still sure that he could fight.

But there are some things that technology cannot make up for.

For example, the generation gap of constructs.

In the past, his Lancers were simply modified from the chassis of port machinery, and they were able to kill so many people before purely because - one, they relied on their large numbers, and two, other people generally seldom used air combat structures on a large scale in air and sea environments.

But this time, the Empire obviously did not intend to play any tricks with him. The opponent obviously analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the constructs he used, and then used targeted equipment.

Fang He immediately felt the pressure. In the past, he could always take advantage of the empire's loopholes and find ways to defeat the opponent by surprise.

But that is ultimately based on the arrogance of the empire.

This time, his opponents finally began to take him seriously. Faced with the intelligence, system and manpower advantages brought by a behemoth, the pressure was overwhelming.

But at the moment when cold sweat was dripping down his face, his opponent was not going to waste time talking to him.

In the field of vision, the silver petrel-like attack aircraft had leaped high into the air, and the lightning sword in its hand seemed to part the rain curtain as it slashed down at him.

The amazing thrust of the fourteen typhoon element repulsion engines was fully demonstrated at this moment. Before Fang He could react, the sword blade with electric light had already arrived in front of him.

Fang He subconsciously flicked the magic glove in his hand, and the attacked lancer almost instinctively raised the large shield in his hand, and then the entire body sank down.

"I go!"

Before Fang He could even scream, the Empire's manipulator couldn't help but say the F-word.

He thought that his sword was a sure win, but he didn't expect that the old-fashioned port machine would deflect his sword in a strange way.

The lightning elemental blade swept across the surface of the shield, leaving a huge gash there, but Fang He also used the power of this sword to sink directly into the clouds.

The operator of the Xs-1 looked through the eyepiece at the Lancer who disappeared without a trace and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, "Wolverine, be careful, the opponent is very difficult."

"I know." A calm response came from the communication channel.

When the other Silver Petrel arrived, it didn't even have time to engage with the Lancers behind it.

Fang He had already alertly ordered the Lancers to go under the clouds, and their movements were so swift that it seemed as if each construct had a separate operator controlling it from behind.

He couldn't help but confirm whether his opponent was actually a person. After receiving a negative answer, the opponent immediately realized that the next battle might not be as simple as originally expected.

"Raven, you go left and I go right," Wolverine said calmly, "Be careful not to let him get close to our ship."

"I see."

But Fang He didn't have such a plan.

The destructive power of the Lancers is actually very small, and the way to attack a sailboat is to destroy the opponent's sail system to force the opponent to stop.

If they don't plan to capture the ship, then in general, they will have to use the Fire Giant to make a round of finishing blows.

But he obviously didn't think that the four Lancers could calmly attack the two sailboats under the pincer attack of the two Xs-1s, not to forget that the sailboats themselves had firepower.

In fact, after he ordered the Lancers to sink into the clouds, he immediately checked the damage to the one in front of him on the left. He couldn't help but gasp when he saw it.

The sword that swept across the shield lightly almost split the thick shield in two. Since the Lancers did not have hand designs, the shield was actually fixed on the right arm.

If the sword had gone a little further down, half of his Lancer would have been scrapped. After all the air battles he had experienced, he had never encountered such an outrageous situation.

In a one-on-one situation, he was almost killed instantly by the opponent?

However, Fang He let out a light breath. The more he was in this situation, the calmer he became. He pondered for a moment, then raised his right hand and gave an order.

The next moment, a silver halo flew up from behind the Lancer.

...(End of chapter)