Chapter 309
The hunt with Anne and the others proceeded smoothly. She was an experienced commander, apparently especially skilled at surrounding enemies and crushing them from every direction. Thanks to her leadership, they defeated their foes while hardly anyone took serious damage.
As for the roles of Cal and me—the only two who weren't underwater—we chased down individuals who escaped their encirclement. Cal finished off those near the surface with his claws and fangs, while I used magic against those who tried to dive deeper. Somehow, I felt a little pathetic, as though I were merely picking over the leftovers.
The next day, when I logged in, I found a message from Anne. According to her, the first stage of Konrad's plan had apparently been completed. Accordingly, the 'Blue-Scaled Pirate Crew' would be setting out as well.
Anne had apparently taken the trouble to send one of the pirates to the capital to inform me of their departure. However, since I had logged in late, she had left a message instead. Sei, who had logged in before me, told me about it.
Yesterday's battle had been difficult to call a pirate's battle. Since Anne and the others riding their orcas had probably already reached the designated waters, they might be fighting as pirates there right now. I thought I would be able to see it soon, so I would wait eagerly for that moment. Now, time to get to work!
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While Izam was logged in and engaged in civil engineering work, Anne and the others had reached the waters between the Luxresia Continent and Flama Volcanic Island, just as he had imagined. In the middle of the open sea, they kept only their upper bodies above the surface and searched for targets through telescopes. They soon found an unfortunate target.
"Cap'n, I've spotted a merchant ship to the southwest!"
"How many?"
"Three ships! Just as Konrad-san told us!"
Anne and the others currently had no ship of their own, and they were a small pirate crew with relatively few members. Though they were few enough to be considered a small clan, they were confident they could successfully raid three armed merchant ships.
They would not know the full situation until they got a little closer, but they were almost certain to win. Anne gulped down a diving potion with a fierce, beastlike grin, then submerged and began stealthily—but swiftly—approaching the merchant convoy with her companions.
However, one of her companions drew alongside Anne and sent her a hand signal warning her to be cautious. Like Ruby, that crew member possessed scouting-type Skills and a Job, and had sensed the commotion aboard the ships through those abilities.
The crew member had apparently realized that the merchant ships were beginning to notice that something hostile was approaching. They now knew the other side had a skilled scout, but that was no reason to call off the raid. Successfully carrying it out would be the first step in Konrad's plan.
Anne continued straight ahead without slowing down while using hand signals to instruct her companions in their tactics for the raid. They had anticipated several possible situations and drilled the appropriate strategies into their heads. Following those instructions, the 'Blue-Scaled Pirate Crew' began its operation.
(The lead ship reacted first, huh? Then that's where the skilled one is... If we're choosing a target, that's the one. Let's go, lads!)
After conveying her intentions through hand signals to those acting alongside her, Anne ordered the orca beneath her to leap straight up above the surface. She jumped from its back and landed gracefully on the deck. The other pirates likewise surged out of the water and climbed onto the decks.
"I'll say this only once, so listen carefully! Hand over this ship's cargo and I'll spare your lives! I'll let the other two ships go, too! Choose quickly: hand over the cargo while you're alive, or become fish food along with this ship!"
"P-pirates!"
The sailors panicked when they saw Anne and the others with their weapons already drawn. They were rugged men of the sea, but they were only sailors, not marines. This was an armed merchant ship, but the weapons aboard it were meant to keep pirate ships from approaching. Once the ship had been boarded, there was almost nothing they could do.
However, that did not mean they had made no preparations for such an eventuality. They had paid guards.
"We're counting on you, Wayfarer-sans!"
"Leave it to us!"
The five men and women wearing mismatched equipment who stepped between the sailors and the pirates were, as one of the sailors had said, wayfarers—in other words, a party of players.
They had been hired to guard this merchant ship. A ship was necessary to travel between continents, but passengers were charged a considerable amount to board one. If they were hired as guards, however, they could travel to another continent without paying a fee and even receive money for it.
Fully nine out of ten people who had departed from the Luxresia Continent had used this method, and it was becoming common knowledge among players. Most such voyages ended without incident, but there were inevitably a certain number of unlucky people like them.
"Tatsumi, watch out! They're the player pirate crew we saw on the forum!"
"Huh? Guess we're starting to make a name for ourselves. So what are you going to do about it?"
"We're obviously going to fight!"
The five players moved first. A warrior carrying a large shield surged forward as the vanguard, while a swordsman and a martial artist waited on either side, ready to attack from the left and right. In the rear, an archer and a mage stood ready to provide support at any moment. Their movements were practiced, and Anne understood that this was a winning combination for them.
Despite understanding that, neither Anne nor the other pirates were fazed. On the contrary, they waited in a relaxed state, with plenty of confidence to spare. Their attitude was as though victory had already been decided.
The player guards found the pirates' demeanor unsettling. They could not understand the source of their confidence when the pirates did not seem to be much different in level from themselves.
However, since they had been hired as guards, they could not withdraw before the merchant crew surrendered. They dismissed their vague unease as distracting thoughts and tried to concentrate on the battle.
"Negotiations have broken down, then. Can't be helped! Take 'em down!"
When Anne raised the sword in her right hand, the ship suddenly began to list. The people on deck lost their balance. Some staggered, others desperately dug in their feet, and still others fell over.
The sky had not changed, nor did there seem to be any sign that the waves had grown larger. So why had the ship suddenly begun rocking so violently? The reason soon became clear.
"Ropes! Those bastards are pulling us with grappling lines!"
"What!?"
The pirates had tilted the ship by using the grappling lines with hooks that each of them carried. The crew members remaining underwater had hooked the lines to the ship's rail, then tilted the ship by diving beneath the surface while holding on to them.
Of course, if this had been accomplished through player strength alone, even all of them working together could not have tilted a single ship. But they had powerful allies in the form of the orcas. They tied the ends of the grappling lines to the saddles and used the orcas' strength to pull.
All three ships tilted farther and farther, until their highly polished decks became smooth walls. Those who had somehow managed to keep their footing fell one after another. Everyone except the lucky few who managed to grab protrusions such as the masts or other handholds fell into the sea.
"Damn! B-but if it's tilted this much, they're...!?"
"Attack!"
The deck of a tilted ship was difficult footing for fighting. However, the pirates had no trouble at all. They secured their bodies with grappling lines held in one hand, while Anne, who had no line in her hands, was being carried by one of her companions. Their confidence came from their ability to fight under these conditions.
Following Anne's command, the pirates ran along the wall with a grappling line in one hand and attacked those who had not yet fallen. The other pirates could use only one hand, but they could brace themselves with both feet against the wall. Compared to them, the guard players could do little more than cling on and keep from falling. The difference in the strength they could bring to bear was like heaven and earth.
"You cowards! Fight fair!"
"Seriously? We're as serious as they come—dead serious."
The only player who could stand atop the mast now lying on its side was a male Elf with a scouting Job. He shouted angrily and fired an arrow, but it was cut down in midair. Anne, who had been thrown by one of her companions, had sliced it apart.
Anne landed on top of the mast with that momentum. There was not the slightest trace of guilt on her face. If anything, she held her head high with a proud expression.
As she had told the man, Anne had devised this strategy after considering her crew's numbers and strength so that they could secure victory. Since it had worked, she could only be pleased. Calling it cowardly seemed completely beside the point to her.
The two glared at each other on the straight, inescapable mast, but the scout moved first. He drew his bow again and used a combat technique to fire a volley of arrows. Anne blocked them with her two swords as she advanced along the mast. Since her footing was so limited, dodging was difficult.
The scout saw his chance. If dodging was difficult and she could do nothing but block, then he had the advantage: he could attack her unilaterally from a distance.
"Tch! You're the one fighting dirty!"
"I'm the brains here!"
The scout varied his targets between her head and her legs, shifting his aim up and down. If this had been a wide stretch of ground, dodging left and right would have been easy. But this was a one-way path atop a mast. Because the space in which she could move was narrow, so was the area he needed to target, giving him room to feint high and low.
With things like this, Anne's options were limited because she had no long-range attacks such as magic. She could endure until his arrows ran out, advance stubbornly while blocking the incoming arrows, or close the distance and bring him into her range while accepting that she would be hit. She chose the third option.
"You think a reckless charge will work!? Triple Flash Shot!"
"Gah...!"
The scout fired three arrows wrapped in light at the charging Anne. She blocked them with her swords, but their force knocked her off balance and made her lose her footing.
The scout tried to follow up against Anne as she fell, but when he peered down, a huge orca—the Ram Orca, Anne's partner—burst from the sea amid a spray that made it look as though the surface had exploded.
"Kyuoh!"
"I said I'm fine, you worrywart. But thanks."
Anne spoke affectionately to the Ram Orca as she landed on its snout. The Ram Orca then flicked up its snout and tossed her into the air.
The scout hurriedly tried to shoot her down as she rose like a bullet, but it was already too late. The two swords in her hands slashed deeply into his body.
Anne and the man were evenly matched in both equipment and level. Therefore, unless she landed an instant-kill attack such as beheading him, she could not defeat him with a single blow. However, he was standing on the narrow footing of the mast. The impact of being cut knocked him off his perch.
"Damn... But she fell, too... Wait, no!?"
The Ram Orca had thrown Anne upward with all its strength, so her trajectory should not have allowed her to land on the mast. Yet Anne was standing there as though nothing had happened... on the tilted deck.
In fact, the shoes Anne wore were magic items that could stick to walls and ceilings. They were not particularly rare as magic items, and since they did not improve one's stats, they were not very popular. However, they were extremely useful when considering the 'Blue-Scaled Pirate Crew's' fighting style. Anne had equipped them as a hidden trump card.
"You know what they say: Save your trump card for last. It's a cliché, but sayings like that are closest to the truth. Well, bye-bye."
The scout-class man fell while glaring resentfully at Anne, who waved at him with a triumphant expression. Before he could hit the sea, however, he was eaten by Anne's Ram Orca. By then, no one remained to resist, and Anne and the others sank all the ships, recovered their cargo, and withdrew.