Chapter 202 Suspicious Retreat

Since the group lost their surprise factor, some of the pirate ships turned around to face them, and they also used their cannons to attack them. Only those that had long reach stayed from a certain distance from the island, and those had magic cannons…

"Aion!" Sauros said. "Those magic cannons can't hit our ship!"

"Easy for you to say…" Aion said and then sighed.

Unlike theirs, which fired Ice Spears and Thunder Spears, the newest target fired Ice Balls and Fire Balls. Those would freeze and burn everything around a certain area of the impact… In any case, Aion had to keep an eye on them and prevent those from hitting the ship.

A quick succession of Ice Balls was fired, and amidst the darkness of the night, Aion managed to follow them with his eyes, thanks to Force release. His arms blurred as he nocked and fired the arrows toward those. Much to everyone's surprise, the magic projectiles were stopped midway through the ocean, and the impacts made them explode, creating small icebergs on the battlefield.

The pirates wondered what went wrong… they certainly aimed well. There was no need for the ice balls to have fallen on the ocean… they couldn't see Aion's arrows, after all. In any case, waiting for those guys to fire was a bit bothersome, so Aion enhanced his next arrow with fire magic. One could see the tip burning before it was fired to hit the enemy ship three hundred meters away.

The arrow landed on the side of the pirate ship and exploded on contact damaging and messing with the position of the cannons… thanks to that, The Breeze of the Sea managed to approach without being bothered.

Their ship hit agaisnt the enemy's ship and made some of the pirates fall onto the ocean. Still, it seemed that things would change a bit… one big guy jumped from the pirate ship and then landed on the Breeze of the Sea… they had a captain this time. Unfortunately, that didn't help much… Sauros created a massive staff with his weird magic and swung it toward the pirate. He blocked it with the bracers that he had in his hands, but Sauros' brute strength forced him to fall into the ocean… that might not be so good…

"Ah, I can use that as well…" Aion thought.

Another pirate ship was approaching from the side, and they fired their Fireballs. Aion clicked his tongue and hit those as well, but then he took those bracers in his inventory, the ones he got from the old man martial artist, and then he fired at the enemy's ship. The impact made the target turn to the side a bit, and while it made some cracks appear, they weren't that impressive.

"It would have been easier if I could just use my death knights and go full retard on the offensive…" Aion thought and then sighed.

Aion fired two other boulders until a hole appeared on the enemy's ship. That was enough magic for the day… people might think that a crazy magician was on the defender's side… even though the strange ship was from a totally different direction.

While Sauros and Seris were dealing with finishing off the guys on the second ship, Aion looked in the distance and saw two groups of ships ahead. One attacked, and the other tried to protect the port city. Since the encirclement was tight, the defenders couldn't do much or turn around that often without putting themselves in danger.

"I guess the idea of having lookout ships sounds dumb for the people around," Aion thought.

Several parts of the city were on fire. Aion didn't expect that more pirates could win a battle against a city that probably had more than fifty thousand inhabitants. Still, in the end, Aion realized that in a battle of ships armed with magic cannons, fifty thousand wasn't much agaisnt three five hundred pirates and their twenty ships. It was a battle of twenty battleships and fifteen or so commercial battleships of the defenders…

That being said, the back attack caused by a third party messed with the plans of the pirates. Their focus was on two sides now… Even after defeating only two ships, Aion's group completely changed the flow of battle.

When they destroyed the third ship, the pirates decided to retreat… They didn't make any progress since the new ship joined the battle, and it was a battle that risked everything and lost everything.

"What now?" Aion asked.

"We will retreat as well… We can't fight by ourselves, and we can't count on the defenders to watch out back," Sauros replied. "We helped them, but we are too suspicious of this ship."

Aion agreed. In the first place, they couldn't draw too much attention, even while disguised. Besides, they were supposed to have some rumors around, and that would only complicate things.

"We will head to the third island first now since this place will have to take some time to recover, and merchants would look suspicious now…" Sauros said and then sighed.

Sauros had made up his mind for that kind of delay, but he still couldn't help but sigh. As for Aion, he felt that their intervention would cost them more than a bit of a delay… in that kind of situation, it was better to avoid all problems and destroy all of the enemies, but it wasn't possible…

That being said, not helping might be the same as giving the pirates a chance to steal all of the magic stones… and once they head there later, they would either find nothing or find magic stones at insane prices. Aion couldn't complain because he realized that from the beginning of the battle…

In any case, dealing with the pirates was going to be bothersome later. Still, it would be good since it would be the same as doing a favor to the world and its people and making Aion recall his job in his previous life.