Chapter 87 Cat and Mouse.

Mercurius saw the pirate ship in the distance. He didn't expect it was just one pirate crew, and he looked a bit disappointed because he thought there would be more of them. He decided to send three of his units to deal with that pirate ship. He watched as three of his ships went past his at full speed. He wanted to see how a single pirate ship, not to mention that it was just a medium-sized ship managed to sink a big ship. He thought something was fishy, but he didn't see any other pirate ships in the distance. Dozens of fireballs were released into the sky toward the pirate ship which would be impossible to prevent all of them from hitting the ship, or at least that was what Mercurius thought. The fireballs disappeared into thin air before they could reach the pirate ship. At that moment he realized the pirates on that ship had a Sage with them. Before he could order his other units to assist those ships ahead of him, he saw flashes of lightning from the pirate ship. He narrowed his eyes and that was when he saw the three ships torn in half because they got hit by bolts of lightning. He watched the ships sink into the water and lifeless bodies floated around the debris. "Lightning magic. He's no ordinary Sage," Mercurius muttered as he clenched his fists. "What should we do, Commander?" The man in a white robe asked. "Advance. I don't know any pirates that can do something like that, so I want to know the mage who could cast a powerful spell like that," Mercurius answered without hesitation, there was no fear in his eyes. All the ships sailed at full speed toward the pirate ship, following Mercurius's orders. When Mercurius was close enough to the pirate ship, he walked on the bowsprit with his long sword in his right hand. He combined both Aura and Mana on his sword and then he swung his sword as hard as he could horizontally. A massive slash wave flew toward the pirate ship, but to his surprise, someone from the pirate ship released the same slash wave, clashing his with theirs. "A Swordmaster?" Mercurius narrowed his eyes and gripped his sword tightly. "No, that's not possible." Mercurius felt the thrill within him again after countless days of boring jobs at his desk. He began to throw more slash waves toward the pirate ship to see how far the pirates could keep up with his strength. The knights and mages who saw the slash waves clashing were shocked and terrified by the immense amount of energy that was released. They couldn't believe there was someone as strong as their commander. The sea was no longer calm and big waves were created and began to push the big ships away. "Hmm?" Mercurius narrowed his eyes and stopped attacking relentlessly. "Activate the shield!" He shouted as he turned around, ordering the mages. The mages chanted magic formations and activated all the runs that were written on the ship's body. A sphere of thick Mana shield appeared and protected the ship. As soon as the Mana shield was formed, bolts of lightning struck the ship, but it was protected by the Mana shield. All the mages and the knights were startled and petrified when they watched the bolts of lightning from up close. The terrifying sound of lightning made all of them cover their eyes, their hearts trembled, following the rhythm of the rumbling of the lightning. Mercurius was unaffected even though he was standing on the edge of the bowsprit, facing the bolts of lightning a few meters away from his face. He was fascinated by the destructive power of that magic, but it wasn't enough to break the Mana shield. The answer to the strong Mana shield lay inside his ship, powerful Mana stones were placed all over the ship making it impenetrable by anything. Knowing it was pointless the bolts of lightning stopped attacking the ship. "Your magic is useless against my ship," Mercurius smirked as he scoffed. "You must have wasted all of your Mana already, don't you?" He chuckled. It was as Mercurius had expected, but then suddenly the bolts of lightning were pointed at the other ships. He didn't expect that the pirate could still release such a destructive spell like it was nothing. He turned around and saw the other ships sink and listened to the screams of his soldiers. He immediately ordered the mages to bombard the pirate ship. All the mages used different types and elements of magic spells. Mercurius watched as the spells flew toward the pirate ship, but once again, the spells dispersed into thin air. "We can't fight those bastards from a long distance, the sage on that ship can easily stop any magic spells..." Mercurius gritted his teeth. "It's time we make a move, Ciel," he glanced at the man in a white robe. Ciel nodded with understanding and ordered the helmsman to ram the pirate ship. Rasmus noticed Mercurius' ship was planning to ram his ship with the remaining ships following from behind. He smirked immediately and turned the helm, following the wind and getting away from them. "It's according to your plan once again," Videl said as he swung his sword around, the sword that he used to fight against Mercurius's slash waves. "We are pretending to be pirates after all," Rasmus looked over his shoulder and watched all the ships following them. "We need to act like one, playing cat and mouse. You take the wheel while I piss them off," he added as he removed his hands from the helm and walked to the back of the ship. Because Rasmus's ship was a medium-sized ship, it went faster than Mercurius's ships. He had all the advantages and made it impossible for them to do anything to him and his ship. Rasmus cast a magic formation with six magic circles and pointed it at Mercurius's ship. A fireball appeared from his palm and released it at Mach 1 speed. The moment the fireball touched the Mana shield, the first layer of the fireball exploded and was followed by the second layer, lastly, when the third layer was exposed, its explosion was concentrated on that same spot. The Mana shield that was supposed to be impenetrable suddenly cracked. "That's not good enough?" Rasmus was surprised at how strong the Mana shield was. "Even with armor piercing method isn't enough..." Mercurius was shocked that his impenetrable Mana shield got cracked from a single spell. He didn't know what had happened, but thankfully the mages could easily reinforce and regenerate the Mana shield. He was shocked because the sage might be able to destroy the Mana shield once he knew which spell to use. "Those damn pirates..." Mercurius clenched his fists, frustrated because he couldn't do anything. Rasmus created the same magic formation, but this time he added one more magic circle inside. Mercurius who saw the formation immediately ordered the mages to use more energy from the Mana stones to reinforce the front shield. That also meant it drained more energy from the Mana stones that he had. "You can't break my vessel, you damn pirates..." Mercurius muttered, holding his irritation. When Rasmus smirked and pointed the magic formation at the other ship, Mercurius realized that Rasmus's target wasn't his ship in the first place. Mercurius felt like he was being played and fell for such a cheap trick. He then watched Rasmus release the spell and destroy the ship along with the soldiers onboard. Mercurius had never been played around like this and knew that he couldn't catch up with the pirate ship due to its smaller size, and weight, and pirate ships were meant to be fast compared to a normal ship. He couldn't do anything and it was the first time he felt powerless while at the same time losing manpower due to the skilled sage. "Fall back!" Mercurius shouted. "We are wasting our time here..." Everyone was in disbelief that their ruthless Commander, Mercurius said something like that, including Ciel. Without asking a question, all the ships stopped chasing Rasmus and slowly turned around. Rasmus stretched his arms and neck as he watched the ships stop chasing him. He looked at the sky and it was morning already and the sun had risen. "It's good enough, right? We destroyed a lot of ships..." Videl walked toward Rasmus. "We got enough information and experience. I don't think we will have any issues with our shipping business when I have to compete with Vivelda and Urion companies," Rasmus nodded and saw the rowboat. "Let's head back," he added as he changed direction to pick up the pirates. "Sounds good to me..." Videl sat down and leaned against the railing, enjoying the morning breeze in the vast sea. Searᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.