People always seem to underestimate just how dangerous pirates can be. I mean I can see why that is the case, though. They don't have any individual strength. I am sure that I could easily fight an entire troop of them on my own, even without having any information on them.
The problem here is not fighting the pirates individually, but when they gang up on you. I can fight ten pirates, but then a hundred of them will kill me. Most of them tend to be at the second or third foundation stage. (Granted that is about my present cultivation.)
A single pirate swinging at his full strength can only leave a flesh wound at most. A hundred such wounds though is a different matter. It would be very hard to handle so many injuries without my sword. A thousand such wounds would be fatal, even with the sword.
I can think of a couple of cases just from history about how effective pure quantity can be. The dragonsword and his fight with the necromancer Lumen is one such example. It might have taken a week for the dragonsword to die, and he did manage to decimate half of Lumen's army. The dragonsword still did end up dying against Lumen. (It is my master's favourite example of underestimating your enemy.)
Thankfully, there are just so many people that can be fit on a ship. I am sure that every inch of the enemy ship was packed to its brim. Even then, the enemy would have struggled to fit more than fifty soldiers in that ship.
You could easily fit a hundred soldiers in the ship if you were to squish everybody together. Where exactly will you be storing the food that is needed for a hundred soldiers? You can't cheat with that. The nearest city is about three weeks away in any direction. There is also no possibility that the land here will yield any food. I have never seen a more barren land. They have at most sixty people on the other ship.
Still, if the other side has managed to send even ten to twelve people, it is going to be a fight. An easy fight, but still a fight. Fighting them will be easier in these cramped quarters. Here, their swords will hit each other (and the walls) more than me. You would be surprised by just how much training it takes to fight effectively as a group.
Any shields they have will make it harder for them to move in this place. That is, if they have shields. Shields tend to be costly, and the people that they send are cheaper to replace.
By the way I was making my way to the storage room of this ship since the start of this log. (I have reached it by the way.) It is the best place in the ship to hold back a large group of enemies, you see. It is the largest room in the ship, large enough for me to swing my sword comfortably.
Right now, the room is being held by the other two soldiers from my troop. Their names are Jacob and Andrew. They are reinforcing the door to this room by blocking it with furniture in the room. (Don't even get me started on that. The people at the shipyard were using this ship to store all of their broken furniture.) It won't hold the boarders for long, but it should buy us some time. At least that is the theory.
They have finally stopped their boarding up of the door as they notice me.
"Jacob, describe the situation to me." I speak.
"Yes, my lord. We have confirmed that enemies have managed to pierce the ship." he says. "We can't yet confirm their numbers, but they all seem to be concentrated on the other side of the ship. We plan to use this door as a chokepoint."
They don't even need to speak for their plan to be clear. They have surrounded the door. The minute that anybody pierces the door, they are going to attack and kill the other side instantly. Then they will use the corpse as an additional blockade to make getting into the room harder. It is a pretty standard strategy, if I am honest.
I am quite sure that this particular strategy will not work. For how barren the land here is, the men here are more resilient. They are not that easy to kill. They also tend to be more trained. Such a basic strategy won't work against them. Well, that is why I am here in the first place.
"Andrew, retreat to the formation room." I speak to Andrew, directing the duo to the room I had just left. "You shall find Trevor nearby. The three of you make sure that the formation room is secure. Don't let anyone get into the place."
"But, captain." starts Andrew.
"Can you confirm if there are any boarders behind us." I ask.
"No, we can't." Andrew answers.
"Then, if said boarder were to stumble into the formation room, do you think Trevor will be able to hold them back?" I ask. "Even if he could, do you think that the man will be able to hold against the enemy without damaging the room."
"No", this time it is Jacob.
"Then go and reinforce the formation room." I command them.
Within a few moments, I am alone in the room, preparing my armor. Well, calling it armor would be wrong as it is closer to a frame of vines covering my vitals. It will do well to stop an enemy strike or two but it won't be able to do much beyond that. Well, this armor is not meant to protect me. This thing is a weapon.
Well, I was studying this thing mainly to pass the time. I never actually expected to use it. After all, with my sword at hand, why would I need such a weak weapon? Still, to speak of my armor's ability. It has only one, called thorn growth which allows me to manifest thorns from anywhere in the armor. It might make my armor sound quite useless, but it just depends on how you make use of it.
It does not take the boarders long to appear, as I manifest a couple of thorns in either hand. It isn't particularly durable, but that is how it is meant to be. I can summon quite a few of these thorns. I can certainly imagine a formation like this causes a lot of damage if used the correct way. Now, if I can just get the efficiency of the damn thing right. (Technically speaking it is already pretty efficient for a prototype. It is not enough for my mana stores, though.)
The door breaks open with a snap as the enemy raiders swarm into my room. They are using an old bookshelf to break open the door. (This ship has a lot of junk stored in it. The people maintaining this ship never expected the ship to fly ever again.).
At the very least that is one hypothesis of mine proved correct. these guys seem to have been trained, if not particularly well. I would say that they were part of a militia. There are five of them in the room now, with three more in the room beyond. They know at the very least that overcrowding a room is about the quickest way for them to get killed. Well, it is not going to help them thou....
(After about five minutes.)
....m going to break this stupid thing. Oh, it's on again.
I am surprised that I managed to get the thought logger working again. I half expected that it would take me another month for me to get the damn thing working again. Looks like it will take me a while to get the hang of this thought logger.
Well, I have taken care of the enemy boarders. Right now all eight of their corpses lying around me. To summarise the fight I was just in, I wouldn't call it a fight, even by mistake. I think that it would more accurate to call it a test.
How much mana do I need to supply to the Armor to keep it working? The amount of durability and strength of a thorn that I will get for each unit of mana that I provide. What is the maximum length of each thorn? How many can be summoned in a single burst? I answer each question that pops into my mind related to the armor. As for the enemy, they are already dead.
Well, I have to admit that combat is not the ideal way to be testing a formation. This formation wasn't meant to be in use at all right now. I just don't have anything else I can use in a fight. That is why my testing has mostly been basic. I have tested out everything I can with only the formation at hand.
Any testing that requires more tools is beyond me at the moment. For example I can't experiment with poisons now. The armor that I am wearing is most used by assassins due to how easy it is to infuse poison into the entire thing. It was my plan to infuse the armor with vampire's kiss. It is a poison that prevents your blood from clotting. (For obvious reasons it is the favorite poison for vampires.)
Before thinking about all of that, though, I will have to increase the efficiency of the formation. Right now, the formation is not up to my standard. It is going to be a long process, one that will require me to get used to the armor and modify it to a certain degree. I already have quite a few ideas popping into my head. For now, I have to shelve all of those thoughts. Experimentation takes energy and time. I have to devote both to keep the ship flying.
I guess now that I have moment of peace, I have to point out that the pirates have no reason to attack us. Let's just say they are being forced to give us a welcome. A very brutal welcome. Cowardice is the nature of a pirate. They certainly would not have attacked me like their life depended on it.
Returning to me, I have to admit that this fight has left me more injured than I would have liked to admit. It has been a while since I have stepped into a battle, like this. There is a stab wound on my back, that stings pretty nastily. Other than that, there is a dull ache in various parts of my arms and my chest. This is where the enemy clubs struck me. I am sure that something is broken in my body, but it is already healing. The pain itself is not an issue. I have faced much worse.
At least I am cycling my mana to make sure it will heal before becoming anything more serious. If I had my sword here I would not have had to worry about such paltry injuries. I guess I should stop complaining about the sword now, I was the one who had left it at home after all.
I should get back to my formation already. I was just waiting for a couple of the bruises on my face to disappear. I have already taken a risk by leaving it unmanned for this long. We have already passed through the burning field outside. I am hoping that the destruction of the third ship will spook the other two ships into not approaching us. We won't even be able to handle the remanent of a burning ship this time.
I will have to get up soon though. The room stinks of blood. it is going to be a pain to clean up this place. (I am leaving it to Andrew and Jacob.) This is something I would not need to worry about with my sword, you know.
Well, I have complained enough. It is time to return to the formation room.