Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Although they had recalibrated twice, in Winters' and Andre's view, the several heavy cannons aimed toward the bay were still lobbing thirty-two-pound iron balls into the shipyard with no accuracy at all.

Rather than providing fire support for the sailors, it was more like they were firing off cannons to cheer. The main purpose was to make some noise and incidentally notify everyone that the fort had changed hands.

After a period of silence, when the artillery at the Duckbill Fort roared back to life, the Navy Lieutenant Colonel commanding the sailors assaulting the shipyard acutely sensed that the tide of battle seemed to be changing.

The Duckbill Fort's guns, which had originally fired at the water, now turned to start firing at the Navy shipyard.

Although the shells were hitting attackers and Navy sailors alike, making it seem like the assailants' poor marksmanship might be to blame, there was another possibility—the reinforcements had arrived and recaptured the fort.

The morale of the over four hundred hastily assembled sailors was on the verge of collapsing, and had it not been for the thirty plus boarding party members retained by the Navy Lieutenant Colonel as a supervisory team, this ragtag bunch would have long thrown away their weapons and scattered.

The Navy Lieutenant Colonel knew all too well that this disorganized group could only fight when they were winning; now that they had lost confidence in victory, they would turn tail at the slightest resistance.

Sailors are not soldiers. First and foremost, they are sailors and only then, members of the Navy. Their usual workload aboard a ship is extremely demanding, leaving them no time or energy to undergo land combat training. That's why ships have specialized boarding parties for close-quarters combat.

Likewise, the Navy Lieutenant Colonel's job was that of a captain, and rallying the sailors amidst the chaos for a counterattack was already playing way out of his league; he truly lacked the ability to lead this motley crew to recapture the shipyard.

Thus, the sailors' several attempts to storm the shipyard ended in immediate routs; one person turned to flee, and everyone else followed suit, running back. The Navy Lieutenant Colonel, watching from behind, was filled with anxiety, yet helpless to act.

Realizing that the fort might have been retaken by the reinforcements, the Navy Lieutenant Colonel was overjoyed. Leaving a captain in charge of the supervisory team to watch over the dispirited sailors, he took a few guards and headed straight for Duckbill Cape, bypassing the shipyard.

————

Atop the high wall, the officers on night duty noticed a horseman approaching the fort gate from the darkness, the sound of hooves particularly clear in the night.

Without a word, a highly tense officer yanked a red-hot iron spike from the brazier and thrust it into the cannon's touch-hole.

A cannonball roared out of the barrel, flying into the night unknown.

Before the sound of the cannon faded, the gunner received a resounding slap to the face.

"Who the [expletive] told you to fire? Can't you discern the sound of hooves? Just one person! Why would you fire?" the officer on duty cursed angrily and dealt the gunner another fierce slap.

Winters and Andre, drawn by the noise, stayed silent as mice, not wishing to draw fire upon themselves.

The horseman, however, was not deterred by the shot and soon arrived at the gate. But instead of declaring his identity, he simply clamored to see the person in charge of the fort.

The rider clearly didn't look like a messenger from the East Camp, and exchanging glances, the officers on night duty unanimously grabbed their muskets and began to load them, while Winters reached for his bayonet.

"We are the Vineta Army, declare your identity!" the officer on duty called out to him.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, the horseman outside the fort turned his horse around and fled without a word. This left the army officers on the wall feeling utterly bewildered.

A few minutes later, the same horseman returned to the fort gate with the Navy Lieutenant Colonel.

It turned out that as the outline of the fort became clearer and clearer, the Navy Lieutenant Colonel's heart had grown more and more anxious. In the end, he decided to be cautious and sent a guard to scout the situation first. As soon as he knew it was the Vineta Army that had retaken the fort, he quickly came over to ask for help.

But the overjoyed Navy Lieutenant Colonel didn't even make it through the fort gate.

The duty officer refused to open the gate for him without orders from a higher-ranking officer. When Colonel Kara arrived at the wall after being informed, he bluntly told the Navy Lieutenant Colonel, "Whatever your business is, say it from outside."

Left with no choice, the Navy Lieutenant Colonel explained his purpose while looking up, only to be immediately rejected by Colonel Kara, "The orders from Admiral Zio were to recapture the fort, and we must hold here until further orders. I'm sorry, but I cannot spare men to support you."

"The pirates won't come to Duckbill Fort anymore; their ships have fled. This is just a rock, a dead rock!" the Navy captain shouted in anguish, "Are you going to just watch as the pirates burn all of our warships?"

Standing behind Colonel Kara, Winters caught a few key words: pirates, fled. Winters doubted his ears. "What pirates would dare attack the Vineta Navy's home port? Did I hear wrong, or does 'pirates' mean something other than what I think it does?"

However, Colonel Kara remained unmoved. Pointing to the lone ship on the sea, he replied to the Navy man, "The sailors on your ship, along with the people now present, are enough to retake the shipyard."

"That's not our ship! It belongs to oath-breakers! They won't help us." The Navy Lieutenant Colonel retorted angrily, then pleaded desperately in a lowered voice, "Please help us. Pirates have already taken four of our large ships; if we let them burn the ships in the shipyard as well, the fleet won't recover for years."