The group continued sailing in anxious silence for another three hours. During that ti, they occasionally caught a glimpse of the Sigmusi trailing after them. At first, Alice thought that the Sigmusi would outright attack them again. That would make the most sense, after all - the Sigmusi had clearly locked on to their group as so sort of target, and now was the ti the group was weakest. Ethan had used up a few of his Perks keeping the ship intact, Allira was still out of commission, and Doll hadn’t had ti to build up defenses for the ship yet. If the enemy wanted to destroy their ship and deal with them, this was the best opportunity they had.
However, despite Alice’s fears of an imminent second attack, the Sigmusi seed oddly hesitant to initiate another battle. It didn’t look like they were planning to ignore the group - but for so reason they didn’t ever move back into combat range. They just hovered in the distance and kept the ship in sight.
“Why aren’t they attacking us?” asked Myra after three hours of constant tension and anxiety. “If they want to win, now is the ti, isn’t it? Even if they don’t know the specific details, they would still know that Immortals have a bigger advantage when we have ti to reset our Perks and rest in between combat encounters.”
Allira frowned. “Their actions really don’t seem to make very much sense. Especially because they now know about the fog. The fog seems to hunt down the nearest life forms in order to feed itself, and while it’s currently distracted, it will be back on their tail within a few hours, at most. Are they just planning to sacrifice another ship when that happens? I don’t understand.”
The group fell into thought, as Alice tried to think about the potential dangers and implications of the Sigmusi actions.
“Well, part of this could lean back into the question of why the Sigmusi was out here in the first place,” said Cecilia. “We have assud thus far that they are here for us, and that information about our journey was sohow leaked. This makes sense, but there is always an outside chance that the Sigmusi are here for another purpose. For all we know, perhaps they learned that the System has a physical frawork sowhere, and know that it’s in the ocean, but not where. Or perhaps they are trying to deal with a powerful monster that attacked them and then escaped off the coastline. Both of those are plausible reasons for a large Sigmusi fleet to be present off the coastline of Illvaria. After all, besides [Pirates], its not like there’s much of a navy in the area to deter their presence.”
“There are [Pirate] outposts in the Illvarian south?” asked Alice.
Ethan shrugged. “The Illvarian south has been uninhabited for decades. We don’t have the ability to drive the pirates out because we have a hard ti locating them, and it’s also not really our problem. So there are definitely so [Pirate] hideouts in the uninhabited region of Southern Illvaria. But that’s beside the point.”
Alice realized she had gone off-topic, and returned to Cecilia’s speculation. Why was the Sigmusi navy in this area? Was it for them, or another purpose? If it was for another purpose… was it possible to shake the Sigmusi off? If the Sigmusi weren’t here for them, they might ignore the Illvarian ship if they managed to escape.
On the other hand, if the Sigmusi knew that there was a physical mainfra for the System sowhere, they might decide that following Alice was the only way to find it. After all, if there was one obvious target in the world who might know where the System was, it was Alice.
She spent worrying about this issue, as the Sigmusi navy continued to stalk them in the distance. Alice eyed the ships warily, and grimaced.
Regardless of the reason, being stalked by the Sigmusi navy was unnerving. Alice wished there was so way that the group could either shake them off, or destroy them. Otherwise, there was no telling when the situation would erupt. However, Alice didn’t have a good plan for how to resolve the issue. Charging over to bring the fight to the Sigmusi would just be suicide. The Sigmusi still outnumbered them, and while the group had destroyed three ships during the previous skirmish, that didn’t an they could pull off the sa thing again. Realistically, now that the Sigmusi knew what tricks to watch out for, they would probably be surrounded and then captured or killed if they tried to raid the Sigmusi navy without their perks back online.
However, being tailed like this felt like an executioner’s axe was hanging over their heads.
Alice returned to her quarters in the midst of this uneasy stalemate, and tried not to think about the Sigmusi navy. The downside of being focused on research instead of combat was that Alice genuinely didn’t have much to offer in situations like this. Her grasp of military tactics was weak, bordering on nonexistent.
She spent an hour trying and failing to get so rest, before she returned to the deck. In addition to [Sailors] and crew mbers going about their business, Alice found Allira, Ethan, and Myra on deck. Allira was grinning as she stared at the Sigmusi - which made Alice wonder if she was up to sothing. Allira also still had slightly ssy hair - which made Alice suspect that the woman hadn’t arrived much earlier than she had.
“Did you find a solution for this situation?” asked Alice.
“Not a direct solution so much as a long term one,” said Allira. “The good news is that I can fight properly. Even better, my shades struggle far less when trying to handle humans instead of whatever the fog is. It is… not idea for when my shades die, especially if I need to constantly resummon them. The fog consistently wiped out my shades, which ant that I needed to spend quite a bit of ti recovering after each feeding session. I doubt that the Sigmusi navy can match that - especially if I focus on the weaker ships,” said Allira. “I intend to start harassing them and see how they respond.”
“We’re slowing down a bit so that Allira can get closer,” said Ethan. “That’ll make things easier. With any luck, we can dissuade them from following us.”
Myra’s eyes also brightened. “The other good news is that we’re much safer. We have three combat-oriented Immortals ready for a battle. Doll should have also had ti to make at least a few weapons and get ready for a proper battle.” Then, Myra turned back to Allira. “Did Doll give you any updates on what she’s working on? We haven’t had ti to go down and check.”
“She’s doing sothing with the bottom of the ship,” said Allira. “I’m not sure what, though, and I couldn’t get a clear response out of her when I tried to ask her. I think she’s building so kind of ballista? I’m not sure what differentiates it from the ones we already have installed on the bottom of the ship, though.“ Allira shrugged. “I’m sure she has a reason for it, I just don’t understand it. I think she also had a few golems close to done - it looks like they’re supposed to replace the [Sailors] we lost during the last battle. They won’t have any Perks or System-related abilities of their own, but they should still be better than nothing.”
Myra nodded. “Golem replacents are certainly better than no crew at all. How long until they’re ready?”
“I don’t know, but I’m guessing several hours at least.” said Allira with a grimace. “Doll’s Perk toolkit isn’t very good at making things quickly - she’s too focused on quality. Unfortunately, that doesn’t match our current needs very well.”
Ethan sighed. “Well, at least for now, the Sigmusi ships aren’t closing the distance with us, so we have ti. If we drop back to let Allira harass them, that might change - but I also think it’s too good of an opportunity to ignore. Allira could start dropping weaker ships and really narrow the combat strength between them and us, if they let us. I don’t have a better plan, at least.”
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“The question of why they aren’t catching up to us is still worth pondering, though,” said Myra, after a few monts. “The Sigmusi wouldn’t tail us like this if they didn’t have a backup plan?”
The group fell into silence. Myra’s words made sense. The Sigmusi were typically quite aggressive when they had the upper hand, and they clearly weren’t afraid of making trouble. In that case, why were they holding back now?
“Maybe they’re waiting for reinforcents?” said Cecilia. “It’s already obvious that the Sigmusi ca here with so sort of purpose in mind - whether that purpose is us, or sothing else entirely is irrelevant. The fact remains that they might have backup that is a day or two away. That would also make our position far more dangerous than expected, unless Honored Immortal Myra has a way to maneuver our ship around a Sigmusi blockade.”
“I doubt I can,” said Myra. “I have a lot of good Perks, but not very many of them work well with my [Admiral] Perks. After all, I never focused very much on sailing once I got my secondary Class up to a certain minimum standard. I’m only a little better than average among [Admirals], even with all of the weird and interesting tricks my build can pull off. I doubt it will be enough. The Sigmusi nation is spread cross two continents and boasts one of the strongest navies in the world. If we’re surrounded, we’re screwed.”
Alice shuddered.
So the group was at risk of being ambushed by another, larger group. That changed things. Alice glanced at Allira again, and hoped that she could drop another few Sigmusi ships safely. Of course, the Sigmusi would adapt and find a way to prevent Allira from taking action after the first encounter or two, but Allira could at least shrink the gap between the power of each side a bit.
Unfortunately, that seed to be the best plan they had. An outright confrontation wouldn’t work, and if Cecilia’s speculation was correct and another Sigmusi fleet appeared, they would desperately need every advantage they could get to escape.
Twenty minutes later, Alice saw Allira unleash her attack. A swarm of shadows darted across the water, before alighting upon the deck of one of the Sigmusi fleets. Alice heard the distant clash of tal and screams, and she allowed herself to relax as the other Sigmusi ships veered off course. Clearly, they hadn’t expected Allira’s counterattack. They probably hadn’t even thought Allira was with the ship, since Allira hadn’t made a move until now. Thus, Allira’s shadows caught the besieged ship off-guard and seed to be making good progress in silencing one of their pursuers.
Ten minutes passed as Alice watched Allira’s first target start to struggle. Other Sigmusi [Sailors] finally reached the besieged ship and started to help, but Allira’s shadows imdiately darted back towards their ship once enemy reinforcents started to arrive. Allira hadn’t managed to take down the enemy ship, but she had definitely done so damage.
After that, the Sigmusi ships maintained a much tighter formation, and showed a level of caution that they hadn’t previously. Allira occasionally sent a few shadows to harass a different ship - not enough to really strain her Perk, but enough to keep the enemy on their toes and occasionally pick off a [Sailor] or two. Alice watched the enemy fleet, and started to relax when she confird that they hadn’t changed up their strategy. If things went well, maybe the Sigmusi would decide they were too troubleso and leave them alone.
Unfortunately, the Sigmusi didn’t disappear. Instead, an hour later, Alice spotted another group of ships in the distance. These ships also bore a Sigmusi flag.
“So they really do have reinforcents,” said Ethan, followed by a curse. “There goes the plant of harassing them and waiting for our Perks to recover. Alice, do you see if they have any Immortals?”
Alice squinted at the ships in the distance, before she made a face. “I think I see one. It looks kind of familiar?” Alice frowned. “Maybe Emilia.”
“Fuck. She’s a pain to deal with. The Sigmusi were waiting for reinforcents.” Ethan squinted into the distance, before he sighed. “I count another ten ships. Combined with the nine chasing us, that’s nineteen in total, with at least two enemy Immortals on our tail. This fight is going to be rough.”
Myra also made a face, and rainbow mana flooded the ship a mont later. “I’ll do my best to get us out of the way before a fight happens. But I can’t make any promises. Ethan, Allira, how many of your Perks are ready to go in case of a crisis?”
“I still have most of my Perks for the day ready,” said Ethan.
“I haven’t been pushing myself during my harassnt tactics, so I’m basically fresh,” said Allira.
Myra nodded. “Alice, dear, could you go ask Doll if she has any heavy-hitting projectile weapons or items for contingencies? I would like to see if we can properly take out an Immortal before the fight starts. Or, at the very least, take out a chunk of one of their ships and inconvenience them a great deal.”
“Got it,” said Alice, before she dashed below deck and started searching for Doll.
It only took Alice a few minutes to find Doll. The Immortal woman was planted in the middle of a workshop near the bottom of the ship, with heaps of tal laying around. Alice couldn’t see any rhy or reason to Doll’s setup - it looked like each pile was completely random. Doll was currently working on carving out the tallic head of a humanoid puppet - likely one of the golems that Alice had heard about.
“Doll, the Sigmusi have another fleet in front of us, and the one behind us is starting to catch up. Do you have any good projectile weapons that we could use to buy ourselves more ti, or dissuade them from pursuing us?” asked Alice. “We’re hoping to at least temporarily remove one of their Immortals from the battlefield.”
Doll blinked at Alice, and looked up from the golem she had been working on.
“A way to take an Immortal out of combat for a few minutes… I do have sothing that might work,” said Doll, after a few monts of indecision. “It’s not a projectile weapon though - I originally designed it as a trap to defend my workshop. I typically rotate my traps out every so often so that nobody can morize the defenses of my workshop and slip in. This is from the setup I used a decade ago. I have other stuff, of course - but most of it is a lot less useful in naval battles, since my workshop is not located near the ocean.”
Alice nodded. Doll almost never ca out of her workshop, so if she used it to safeguard herself, the item must be good. After all, as Ethan had drilled into Alice’s head, Immortals were frequently the target of assassination attempts and robbery attempts for people who dread of making it big. In order to survive long-term, they needed a way to keep themselves safe.
“Got it. How does it work?” Asked Alice.
“It’s simple. It’s not very hard to set up, and if things go really well it could even take an Immortal out. However, even if that doesn’t work, it should definitely buy you so ti…” said Doll, before she handed Alice a set of tal wires and started explaining how they worked.
Alice looked at the little bundle of what looked like yarn, and scratched her head. To be honest, it looked like barbed wire, but the number of Perks embedded in the sh of tal was no joke. She had no idea how functional this item would have been without Perks to make the whole thing function. Then again, the item clearly had so kind of logic to it.
Alice rushed back up to the deck of the ship, and handed off the ball of barbed wire to Ethan and Myra, along with Doll’s instructions for how to use it.
After hearing Alice’s words, both of them grimaced. “So we have to set this up in advance, and then lead the Sigmusi over it, huh.”
“That’s what Doll said,” said Alice. “It’s a stable trap. But it’ll float after you deploy it, and it’s already made, so there isn’t a need to wait around for it.”
“Well, it’s better than nothing,” said Allira. “Ethan, can you help set up a trap? I can use my shadows and illusions to try to drag an Immortal ship over the setup, and then you can use your kinetic magic to give a final push if needed.”
Ethan thought about it, before he turned to Alice. “Alice might actually be better suited for that. Her dinsional magic gives her a HUGE range when it cos to kinetic magic, and if she just uses it to ss with a ship’s helm or a smaller part of its steering chanism, it might work. Alice, what do you think?”
Alice considered Ethan’s suggestion for a few seconds, before she nodded. “That makes sense to . I can try it.”
Ethan smiled. “Then I’ll put pressure on them when they’re distracted and see if I can give them a fatal blow.”.
With that, the group got to work preparing Doll’s trap, as well as other preparations, while the two Sigmusi fleets closed in.
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