Ch.116The Path to the Miriam Continent (5)

The sound of machinery whirring!

The reinforced exoskeletons worn by the pirates were modified heavy equipment originally designed for carrying heavy loads, commonly seen at construction sites or in the military.

Parcival lacked the technology to produce such things, and even Faerus Vale could only manufacture tens of thousands of these annually, so the absolute quantity wasn’t large. However, they performed strength enhancement impressively well, making those who wore them the envy of others around them.

Of course, due to their price, they were mainly rented or inherited as family heirlooms.

“A knight-errant! I wonder if the noble knight’s steel sword can defeat a plasma blade?”

Seeing the sword I’d drawn, the bald leader of the pirates sneered.

“Well, we’ll have to see which is longer when we measure them.”

“Oh? Look at this! Just a kid not even twenty yet? Life on land must be getting tough these days, huh? Seeing milk-drinking brats who should be studying in high school pretending to be knights.”

“Ha! Those who mocked me like that never escaped death. You’ll be one of them.”

“Ohhh… but those losers didn’t have reinforced exoskeletons and beam swords, did they?”

He had a point.

Obviously, if my steel sword went up against a plasma blade, mine would lose.

Though my sword was well-crafted, it was still ordinary metal, which meant it would melt like soft tofu against a plasma blade exceeding thousands of degrees.

I could hold out for a few exchanges using aura, but I was already feeling overwhelmed about what to do after that.

But I had no intention of running away.

Swoosh…

I quietly coated my greatsword with aura, and seeing this, the pirates laughed heartily as they overcharged their exoskeletons and charged at me.

BOOM!

A thunderous sound that could hardly be considered the clash of swords echoed across the deck.

Our Iron Walker party each took on two opponents, and I was constantly changing the position of my greatsword to withstand the merciless barrage of beam swords.

“Ha! At least what you said seems true, kid! To hold out against the two of us like this!”

“Did you have generators implanted in your tongues? Do your exoskeletons’ batteries discharge if you don’t keep wagging them?”

“Hahaha! That’s an interesting idea! But no! There’s still 7 hours of battery left, and you’ll definitely collapse long before that!”

BOOM! BOOM! CRASH!

Blow and plasma, maintain and hydraulic servo motors competed fiercely.

They say in the ancient empire, you could buy such terrifying things with a child’s pocket money, but for now, my priority was to tear off those exoskeletons that were tormenting me.

SWISH!

“What?!”

I summoned a dagger in one hand, and one pirate, startled by the suddenly appearing dagger, desperately raised his hand to protect his neck.

But it was too late.

I infused aura and pierced through the pirate’s right arm where neural connection cables and carbon nanofiber protective plates were attached, then used my weight to stab his neck.

SQUELCH!

“Grrrrk…!”

The sound of boiling blood came from his throat, and at that moment, I felt a burning sensation on my back and turned around.

Having already slashed me once, a pirate was trying to raise his beam sword again. Our eyes met, and as the pain from the burning wound on my back coursed through my nervous system, I raised my arm and pushed him away with Tuta.

THUD!

“Urgh?!”

The pirate, whose posture had collapsed while retrieving his sword, staggered, and I raised my sword again and unleashed Ignatus flames upon him.

WHOOSH!

“ARGH!”

He swung his arms to break through the flames, but my aura-coated greatsword was already descending toward his head. Horrified, he hurriedly raised his beam sword to block, but it was already too late.

SLASH!

Seeing him split vertically, I quickly drank a potion from my waist.

Instantly, the pain in my back subsided, and taking advantage of that moment, I plunged my blade into the back of a pirate rushing to kill my wife.

“GAAAARGH!”

“How dare you target my woman!”

SLASH!

The remaining one had already been dealt with by Raisha, and the elf sisters were literally turning four pirates into porcupines.

The most dynamic battle was between Simon and two pirates. Simon was chanting resounding spells, as if to demonstrate that accumulated technology was meaningless before trained magical power, turning the pirates into sea/corpses.

“I am one who inscribes text on the parchment of Logos, and a sentinel guarding Moneta’s vault! I am one who wields the power of wisdom to bring forth prosperity, and a seeker of healing and regeneration!”

CRASH!

With his spell, one pirate died electrocuted as his reinforced exoskeleton sparked, and seeing this, the terrified pirate backed away, trying to jump into the sea.

“Divine punishment shall befall those who dare to intimidate wisdom with fear and seize prosperity through force!”

FLASH!

He raised his staff to the sky, then brought it down toward the pirate who had jumped into the sea, and lightning struck from the clear sky, hitting the pirate directly.

BOOM!

“Meet your doom!”

With his final phrase, the lightning-struck pirate drifted into the deep, deep sea.

*

As the battle on the deck concluded, the party members except for me drank potions to recover their health and quickly went below deck.

BANG-! CLICK! BANG-! CLICK!

“Need more ammo!”

“Boatswain Edward! They’re targeting the powder magazine!”

The sound of shotgun pumps being pulled and a desperate voice warning about the powder magazine could be heard. The crew was being overwhelmed by the numerically superior pirates, gradually losing ground as they were riddled with bullets.

However, at that moment, our Iron Walker party descended below deck, and as Lucia and Casia fired arrows, turning the swarming pirates into target practice, the crew’s morale instantly began to rise again.

“Listen, pirates! Your commando unit, enhanced with trivial technology, has fallen before the might of our Iron Walker party! If you lay down your weapons and surrender now, I promise you a merciful execution!”

“Bullshit! Merciful execution? What nonsense!”

“You reject the cup of mercy and choose the cup of punishment!”

Delivering a line I’d always wanted to say made me feel satisfied, and as if to drive the point home, the elf sisters precisely fired arrows, instantly breaking the momentum of the once-confident pirates.

In less than a minute, about 20 pirates had been killed.

“Damn it! After all our preparation! We can’t leave empty-handed after coming this far!”

“Nobody move, damn it! Unless you want to become fish food when the powder magazine explodes!”

As Raisha and I approached with greatsword and halberd, the pirates, in a last act of resistance, began threatening by bringing torches near the powder magazine.

That is, the powder magazine that Simon had enchanted with a spell.

“Foolish pirates! I’ve cast a spell on that powder magazine! It won’t explode unless struck by lightning!”

“D-damn it…!”

BANG!

Perhaps thinking there was no chance of survival, the pirates chose to take their own lives with their firearms before we could kill them.

We threw their bodies into the sea, and once the situation was resolved, we began attempting to enter the enemy pirate ship through the ram.

BANG!

At that moment, a gunshot rang out from inside the pirate ship, which was connected perpendicularly to the Ross through the ram.

“Seems the mage committed suicide. He ran out of spells to use, and all the pirates who could take bullets for him are dead, so it was inevitable.”

“Ha. What a coward.”

It might have been a rational choice for an individual, but because of it, over 100 crew members had died.

A pirate mage—it could be considered a rare experience, but a mage with his head blown off wasn’t a particularly attractive opponent.

“Boatswain Edward?”

“Yes?”

“Where is the captain?”

“…He’s dead, sir.”

“I see.”

I briefly expressed my condolences.

He shouldn’t have died like that…

“Bring the crew members who can move and follow me. There should be some materials to repair the ship on this vessel, but that’s a pirate ship, isn’t it? You’ll need money for proper repairs at a shipyard, not just makeshift ones.”

“A… Alright. Schmidt. Alexandro. Shkorbich. Go help Lord Viktor.”

“Yes, Boatswain.”

So we entered through the ramp door mounted on the ram, and we began searching for the storage room first.

And when ordinary sailor Shkorbich found the storage, we couldn’t help but be astonished, because inside was a mountain of gold coins that could probably buy a small city outright.