Amidst the boisterous hotchpotch of clacking steps, muffled voices made their way through the water and drifted near Ewan and Nana; some were indistinct clamors of panic while a few held the authoritarian rumble that restored order. And when quiet returned to the deck, an array of Ryvia cascaded down the ship and wandered around in the ocean with various ranges. Ewan hushed his presence and Nana held her breath, and they waited for the ripples of his action to reach the peak. Soon it did, and one after another, the variety of Ryvia went back up with only a few persisting with their stubborn search.

  This was the extent of what Ewan could do to confirm their inference without sparking a conflict, and since he had his answer now, he held Nana again, sank to the bed to minimize exposure, and whizzed back to Stormfalcon. The errand concluded in success and the result solidified their porous presumptions—the peak of the pirates on the ship was the zeroth surge in Step-1. Nevertheless, Ewan wanted repeated successes with the same results before he moved on to the conflict phase.

  And so, the following days on Stormfalcon monotonized within the bounds of a regular routine.

  ….

  Stormfalcon, Meeting Room.

  “This much should be enough to move forward,” Ewan said, closing the holographic panels of data he’d gathered over the last few months, the recent additions denser than the past inclusions. “We can start planning out an attack now.”

  “Since Kidd got exposed in the last scuffle, we can't really use him for stealth with confidence, sir,” Lance said. “They’ll be on guard against his sneak attack.”

  “We should’ve gone all out and killed them then and there,” Kidd said, crossing his arms at his chest while his nose wrinkled. “No one listens to me,” he grumbled, leaning back.

  “It would’ve become one against two if we did that,” Stefan said, his paled face getting rosy again since this morning, he’d almost recovered from the damage. “They could’ve also pulled out and let us and the pirates fight and weaken each other before making their move.”

  “Next time I see that whore, I’ll gouge her eyes out,” Kidd said, gnashing his teeth, Stefan’s words bouncing off his ears. “Then I’m going to shove them up her ass.” He gesticulated his mutterings.

  “Focus, fucker.” Ewan hurled his open pen at him, and the tip drew a line on his cheek as it hit him.

  “It stings, Boss,” Kidd scratched his cheek, spreading the blank ink, and slid the pen back over to Ewan.

  “Sir, they might butt in again, we should prepare,” Lance said.

  “The baldy actually looked like he was trying to give us a hand at first, then that ugly duck-lipped motherfucker messed it all up,” Kidd said.

  “Unsolicited help; probably was trying to make Ewan owe him a favor,” Stefan said.

  “One started it and the team followed; I was expecting them to be more pragmatic than that. Or maybe he thought it better to eliminate us when he couldn’t help us. If he hadn’t attacked us though, I would’ve attacked them. So, good decision I suppose,” Ewan said, tapping the pen on the table. “But anyway, I’ve checked our warship from corner to corner. I’ve also checked each one of us and our inventories, there’s no tracking spell marked on us. Last time was most likely a coincidence, but let’s stay on guard, nonetheless. And just in case, I cast too. Now for the pirates.”

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  “They still don’t know about me; I can sneak under their ship and create problems. If I can sink it, we can easily control the battle,” Nana said, tinkering with the fist-sized midnight-blue cube artifact that she created from the Runeslag—she named it Runecube, the compressed water version.

  “No, too risky,” Ewan said and vetoed the idea. “Their shield won't even budge against your attacks, the best you’ll do is create a nuisance. And our target isn’t their ship anymore anyway.”

  “So, stealth is out,” Stefan said.

  “Let’s fight head on then,” Kidd said, rubbing his knuckle as Walyn’s ghostly cackle echoed in the room. “We’re good in that too.”

  “Sir, our formation was pretty bad last time, we should work on that if we are to fight them again,” Lance said.

  “Can't be helped,” Ewan said and had Nyte display a virtual map of the local waters over the table, with heights and depths, with islands and isles, and with ridges and plains. “We have you and the brats for melee, this numbskull and Stefan for mid to long range, and I control the field. But when we fight over the ocean, unless we latch onto the enemy ships or we disembark on an island, you can't go melee, and these two can barely cover that range. So, it becomes a fight of who can fly and who can hit farther. We can't work on our formation unless you three catch up with us, unless we all stand at the same step. Now, with what we have, let’s formulate a plan for a frontal attack. I’ve added the feedback I received from my tracking spell to the map, find me their lair.”

  The other side hadn’t marked Stormfalcon or any of the five, but that didn’t stop Ewan from doing the same. Since he confirmed the peak of the pirates onboard, with the last battle bearing out the proof, he cast the tracking spell under the guise of an attack and marked the ship. And it hadn’t disappeared yet—there was no abrupt change in position; no fluctuation in feedback strength; no weird shift in speed; and the mark’s height relative to the ocean was still the same. They’d neither found it, neither moved the mark to a decoy, nor hidden it. The mark was still valid.

  . And it has 40+ chapters ahead of the Royal Road release on it!

  You can also join my

  Note: Members are charged on the day they join, and then monthly on that same date. For example, if you join on the 10th, you'll be charged on that day, and then monthly on the 10th.