Chapter 73: The Vanished Ghost Knight
Salian doesn’t dislike Colin; it’s just that Colin is getting old. After the Magic Net Instability, he suddenly aged a lot and should retire to Paros to enjoy his later years.
But Colin himself doesn’t think that way. A halfling’s life can’t be without friends, and all his friends are here. Getting him to retire… no chance.
Nightfall deepened, the light rain gradually stopped, but the wind grew stronger.
With Finn’s Greyhawk there, Salian wasn’t in a hurry to chase.
“Out of the bay.” Finn shouted again.
Salian finally stood up: “Set sail—”
“Wooao…” Accompanied by a strange cry, the crew members took their positions.
Untying ropes, raising sails, turning the rudder, departing from the dock… Without the dawdling and sluggishness of a common sailing ship, 【Quesser】 was much nimbler than imagined. The bow swung, drawing a smooth arc, breaking through the wind and waves, setting sail into the wind.
The drifting cloud sails changed shape with the wind, appearing soft yet providing strong propulsion for 【Quesser】, accelerating quickly and steadily.
‘Good ship.’ Anse felt the rhythmic undulations under his feet and couldn’t help but secretly admire it.
Sword Coast trade is prosperous, with sea shipping accounting for most of the credit. Owning a ship like this is more enviable than owning a massive manor.
About half an hour passed, 【Quesser】 sailed out of the bay, the wind and waves grew larger, and the hull rocked and pitched violently.
Greyhawk flew with increasing difficulty, but fortunately the target had only run one or two nautical miles, no need for it to keep watching; it could land on the deck to rest.
“How’s it going, still adapting?” Salian jumped onto the top of the sterncastle, striding steadily no matter how the hull rocked.
“Not bad, I don’t get seasick.” Anse replied.
Seasickness is a physiological reaction, with the core mechanism being sensory signal disruption, related to personal constitution.
“Current speed is about six or seven knots; it’ll be higher soon. The prey won’t escape.” Salian said confidently.
“The wind and waves are pretty big; won’t be easy to fight, right?” Anse looked doubtful. Navigating in such conditions was already tough; hitting the enemy with cannon fire would be hard.
“You don’t think we’ll settle the battle with a few cannon shots, do you?” Salian chuckled in amusement. “We just need to tail them and fire a few shots when we get the chance. One hit and they’ll lose most of their power.
Don’t rush; if there’s no chance today, there’s tomorrow. We’re short on manpower, so avoid boarding combat easily. I once chased a pirate ship for over half a month…”
Anse’s mouth twitched. Even with such a good ship, combat was this troublesome.
“What if… they have reinforcements?”
“If no chance, retreat temporarily. 【Quesser】 comes and goes freely; they can’t catch us.” Salian said naturally.
Anse pursed his lips. No wonder 【Quesser】 had only taken down dozens of ships in so many years; the efficiency wasn’t great.
【Sea Shark】 dared to set sail, so it must have a backup plan, maybe reinforcements waiting.
“I think there’s a better way.” Anse stood and walked to the edge. “Remember to cover me.”
With that, he leaped off the sterncastle. Nolnos caught him precisely, then bounded into the sea, galloping over the churning waves toward the distance, vanishing into the night in the blink of an eye.
“Good horse, good equipment, like a lone brave knight.” Salian sighed, quickly calling to the first mate, “Lower all cloud sails, accelerate!”
He wasn’t worried about Anse’s safety. In this weather, flying spells couldn’t fly fast either; almost no one could threaten him.
Over the dark sea, Nolnos let out a long neigh, as if declaring war on the wind and waves.
This was Anse’s second time riding a horse at sea, but the first was being chased, the second was chasing others.
Looking out, it was dark, wind howling, endless waves layer upon layer, vast heaven and earth, only himself remaining—a sense of panic from being swallowed by darkness, helpless and bewildered. Most people couldn’t endure it.
“Hoo—” He took a deep breath, trying to dispel that feeling.
He had darkvision, could fly, could swim, and with Nolnos underfoot creating a force field to stride flat ground over the waves. It looked dangerous, but was actually very safe.
Soon, under the flickering lights ahead, a massive black shadow emerged, with only some sails lowered, rocking back and forth in the wind and waves.
【Sea Shark】!
Man and horse appeared like phantoms in the night amid the waves, unnoticed, unseen, unthinkable.
‘In this wind and waves, burning the sails shouldn’t capsize it, right?’ Anse held the orb in his palm, wrapping the chain around his wrist.
If it capsized, losing the loot would be minor; there were over a hundred commoner slaves on board. Salian would be furious with him.
The wind and waves now were moderate; 【Sea Shark】 was a circle fatter than 【Quesser】. Even without sails for auxiliary control, it shouldn’t capsize.
‘Destroy the main sail first!’
He cast 「Great Step」 on Nolnos, keeping the distance at about sixty or seventy meters. At this range, they couldn’t see him in the darkness, but he could roughly make out the deck situation using the ship’s lights.
“”
Sorcerous Burst—Flame!
Low dragon speech was scattered by the sea wind. A dim red light quietly streaked through the night, exploding into a burst of flame on the main sail.
The damp sails were forcibly ignited by magical flames, smoke and fire spreading. With the wind’s help, a large hole burned through in the blink of an eye.
“Fire—”
“Quick, put out the fire…”
“What happened…”
“…”
The people on board were alert and immediately noticed the anomaly, but no one knew how the fire started. They could only frantically extinguish it.
‘Can still cast spells.’ Anse breathed a sigh of relief.
Nolnos had to keep running over the waves with huge jolts. Without the stabilizing effect of the 「Iron Cavalry Saddle」, he probably couldn’t even cast a cantrip.
Seconds later, as the wave passed, Nolnos steadied itself with small steps again. Anse seized the moment to cast, a spell light flashing as the main sail exploded with another burst of flame.
‘Smart, just like that.’ He excitedly patted Nolnos’s big head.
Man and horse grew more in sync, repeating the tactic. Seconds later, another red light flew from the darkness, igniting the main sail again.
By now, 【Sea Shark】 was in chaos, the main sail burned with several large holes, speed dropping sharply.
Nolnos no longer needed to chase; walking and stopping easily controlled the distance, making spellcasting even easier.
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh—”
Several rockets shot toward their position, but Nolnos had already moved. The rockets streaked through the night, seeing nothing but the vast sea.
Anse changed position, a sorcerous burst snapping several ropes, then quickly withdrew.
Rockets flew again, still seeing nothing.
Then, the enemy seemed frustrated, firing dozens of rockets in all directions continuously, but to no avail.
Anse was sixty or seventy meters away; a slight retreat hid him in the darkness. Those rockets, aimed to find people, were mostly flat-fired with ranges of only dozens of meters.
“Heh heh, you can’t handle just this one trick. Ridiculous…”
This wasn’t simple: extraordinary mount, multiple powerful magical equipment, mounted spellcasting, darkvision, ultra-long spell range… All essential.
He didn’t slack off, instructing Nolnos to stay vigilant underwater and avoid lingering in one spot, lest the enemy sneak up from below.
But the sea was surging with waves, and swimming at night carried huge risk; one wave could lose you in the swells, never to resurface.
“Boom…”
Explosions every few or dozens of seconds left 【Sea Shark】 exhausted. The fire hadn’t spread to the hull, but the sails including the main one were tattered, barely providing power.
The hull bobbed like driftwood, completely at the mercy of the gale and waves.
Distant lights approached; a slender hull was vaguely visible.
【Quesser】 closing to within hundreds of meters!
Salian couldn’t see Anse but saw 【Sea Shark】 “paralyzed” on the sea surface with flickers of firelight. He was both shocked and delighted, laughing nonstop.
‘Came pretty fast.’
Anse ignored it, locking onto the crew on the deck. These were walking combat experience; he couldn’t let 【Quesser】 steal the kills.
Man and horse quietly approached to about fifty meters. The orb in Anse’s palm bloomed with rings of mana glow.
