Just as Aeros finished his sentence, his body became a blur. Nothing could be made out of his figure other than the colour of his garments.

The figure moved left and right, as if trying to throw off Roseus’s sense of tracking.

It worked, and eventually, he completely lost sight of his older brother. His eyes swept across the deck and saw no sign of him.

Then a voice spoke behind him.

"Let’s go home."

Roseus tried to turn, but before he could, he felt a hot wound open across his back as a sword sliced into him.

He let out a roar of agony before spinning around and swinging his blade instinctively.

It simply swung through empty air, as his brother had already moved positions.

This speed shouldn’t have been possible.

Through this, Roseus had already assumed that his brother was above the rank of Rookie. In fact, he might have been two whole ranks above. It felt like he was trying to keep up with an opponent twice as fast as him.

Roseus cursed to himself as he heard his brother’s footsteps appear behind him once again. He turned and saw the blur travelling along the deck.

I can’t face him... Not like this.

Roseus finally reached for an item that had long since been hanging from his waist. He didn’t want to have to use it, but he saw no other choice at that moment.

He pulled his father’s hat from his waist and placed it on his head.

To his brother, the act seemed foolish. A hat couldn’t fix the giant wound that had been carved across his back, unless it was a very high-tier Treasure above the rank of rare.

However, Roseus had no intention of healing himself.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Suddenly, three Suckers landed on the deck consecutively, positioning themselves around the two brothers. Yet Captain Roseus didn’t remove his hat like he normally would. Instead, he kept it on for a few more moments, allowing three more Suckers to land on deck.

Only then did he remove the hat so that the six suckers wouldn’t target him, but would instead go for the nearest prey.

Aeros’s body was no longer a blur. He looked around at the Suckers and raised a brow.

"Summonings?" he guessed incorrectly.

Then the Suckers attacked.

Roseus had already positioned himself atop the railing, as he needed to create distance between himself and the creatures. That way, they would decide to all target Aeros instead.

Just as the Executive Officer started fighting against the sea creatures, Roseus noticed a figure emerging from the stairs leading below deck.

The figure was the short, black-haired Pip, who was running as fast as she could on a seemingly injured ankle.

Tears streamed down her face. There was no sign of Lucas.

Eventually, she screamed at her allies who were still engaged in combat.

"It’s been done!" she shouted through her tears.

That was it. The sign that they had removed enough of the coal to successfully slow down the ship.

Roseus looked around. There was no time to take in who was where. At that moment, he needed to make sure that those who could hear him understood the circumstances.

"RETREAT!" his voice roared ferociously as he placed his hat back on his head, drawing more Suckers onto the ship.

His crewmates had heard his call and were already beginning to board their own ship, removing the grappling hooks that anchored the two vessels together as they ran past them.

Roseus waited until at least ten Suckers were on the navy ship before removing his hat once more.

Afterward, he started to run down the bridge back toward his own ship.

Along the way, one of the Suckers obstructed him. Using his father’s cutlass, he sliced the beast’s head from its body and watched as it fell into the sea.

The swing sent hot pain soaring through his back.

[Lesser Soul Absorbed +1]

There was no time to focus on the pain or the souls. It took all of his concentration just to stumble back onto his deck.

Once there, he heard gunshots.

Seeing that the Redflower Pirates were trying to make their escape, the navy sailors had given up on trying to capture them alive and instead started shooting to kill.

Those of the Redflower Pirates who had guns started firing their own shots at those shooting at them.

A navy sailor tried crossing the bridge, but Roseus unhooked it from the railing and watched as the man fell into the depths of the sea below.

At this point, their ships were fully unattached from one another. All they had to do was sail.

Silius understood this as he called out to Jackson, telling the boy to loose the sails.

As he did, he caught a gunshot to the arm. Yet still, he managed to lower the sails.

The navy sailors tried to fire shots at the sails so that they would no longer be able to catch the wind, but that didn’t work. Due to Dawn’s Hardened Hull skill, the entire ship was more durable against this. They would need something like a piercing shot in order to do substantial damage.

And as the navy sailors turned their attention away from the pirates, it became easier for the Redflowers to pick some of them off with their own guns.

...

Back on the navy ship...

Aeros stood beside his Lieutenant, asking what their next move should be.

"Should I chase them onto their ship?" he asked after slaying the last of the Suckers.

Lieutenant Bushwight looked down at the creatures scattered across his deck. Then he shook his head.

"No, we don’t want to fall into any of their traps. There is no need to rush. Continue pursuing them and let our healer restore our men’s condition. With our steam-powered ship, we are too close for them to create distance between us. When we are ready, we will—"

"Lieutenant, Healer Graham has been slain! The pirates... they’ve taken our coal supply!" A navy sailor suddenly called as he emerged from below deck.

Even Aeros’s eyes went wide as he heard these words. They had already lowered their sails, ready to chase the fleeing ship.

Without their steam...

The Lieutenant’s face twitched for a moment.

"Fucking pirate snakes," Bushwight spat before rubbing his bearded chin. "My wind skills can still provide us with enough wind to travel with sails, but without our steam... It will be much harder to catch them. Even if we do, we are injured without a serious skilled healer..." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Then the navy sailor who had reported the news spoke again.

"There isn’t only bad news, Lieutenant. One of their men is dead, resting next to the Healer with a green spike in his throat. We also managed to capture one of their crew members during their attempt to flee. We used rope to pull her right from her deck."