Marco turned back to where he knew the captain must be by now. The man was rising to his feet near the wheel, carrying what looked like a halberd. A guard weapon, really, not something you normally saw at sea and not something Marco had ever had to deal with. His armor was expensive and glistening. Marco had hoped the enemy ship was just specialized for speed and that this was where most of the value of their ship came from. It now seemed it was specialized for speed and for crew quality, at least in terms of their equipment.

The halberd stung forward at Marco, who snaked his body to the side and around the point, then had to spring again as the pole spun in the captain's hands, shifting the chopping side in line with Marco's hip before he yanked it back. Rapid-fire, the captain pressed the attack, stabbing at just the right spots to force bigger movements, aiming at his balance so he'd have no chance to counterattack. A single mistake, and Marco would be skewered.

The reach of the weapon was a problem in and of itself. A rapier had a long range compared to most other swords, but it was so far from what the halberd could do that it might as well have been a dagger. The enemy captain didn't seem undefeatable or even that wonderful with his weapon, but as long as he had space to fight, Marco was at a serious advantage in terms of reach.

That was only true of the rapier though.

Having not used his gun much in this battle so far and intentionally tucking it into his belt, it would have been easy for the captain to forget about the fact that Marco had a long-range attack too.

Marco let the man work himself into a full lather, going heavy on defense until the man seemed as excited as he could get. Then, dodging to just the right distance, he baited the enemy captain into a particularly long strike. The man kept his head up as he thrust almost every time, trying to keep his eye on Marco and increase his chances of landing a hit. When he did so again, Marco fired at his neck. The captain was wearing a thick, expensive-looking leather gorget that absorbed the bulk of it, but it couldn't stop his reflexes at being hit in the neck.

The man stumbled back, coughing and startled. Marco took a deep breath, gripped on his much-improved saber, and stabbed at the captain’s face.

Marco’s enemy bellowed and stumbled back even further, unintentionally running into a blast of lightning Elisa had intended for an entirely other target. He stiffened up, stopping in place more than long enough for Marco to stab Elisa’s actual target a few times to keep her out of danger. The man went down, but it gave the captain enough time to recover and level his halberd again. Marco would have to get past his reach again, and there was the possibility he wouldn't be able to before something went wrong.

Riv changed the balance in his favor. Once his hand finally gripped the edge of the ship, his superior strength took over, negating the need for agility as he brute-forced his way onto the deck of the ship.

The captain was too distracted by pain and Marco's covering fire to notice the sopping Sturdy approaching before it was too late. Riv brained the man with a double-handed swing to the side of his head, and Marco took the opportunity to yank the halberd out of his hands before he and Riv went to work on the man with rapier strikes, continuous clubbing, and stabbing.

Aethe had been working the whole time, first helping Elisa clear the deck and then putting down the people from the other ship who were trying to climb their way back up to dry decks. Just like that, it was over.

Marco slumped back on the deck of his ship. This had been the hardest direct fight since the undead captain in the hidden sea. They had just barely pulled out the win, and the battle could have gone either way the entire time. He took a few moments to dwell on how risky his decision to fight had been and agreed that perhaps Elisa was right. He always took the hard route, sometimes to the detriment of his crew. It would take time to figure out the right balance, but Marco knew that he had to swing more towards the cautious side from now on.

At least he had something to show for the latest risky decision. His class had decided to jump to level 20, along with a few skill upgrades. He put those notifications away for, opting instead to check over his crew.

This story originates from NovelBin. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"That was a confusing fight," Marco said. He noted Riv holding a club that looked different than the one he had before. “That’s a new club, right?”

"Yeah. It's much better than my old one. I'm just lucky the guy who owned it wasn't a strong swimmer."

“Right.” Marco looked around. “It's just that all of these sailors were so well equipped.”

"I think this was probably a military force that mutinied, or something like that." Aethe kicked one of the fallen fighters. "They are too well equipped for anything else. Too uniform."

“I agree, but that's not quite what I mean. They were far tougher than I expected. I don't get how their ship could have also been as fast as it was and still only show up in the spyglass at a low number. It should have been higher, an enemy we never should have fought.”

“Maybe? We don't really know how that thing works,” Riv suggested.

"Still. We need to search that ship. Top to bottom."

What Marco was looking for was at the bottom of the ship. They almost missed it and only found it because it was in a box marked as holding a kind of smoked snack Riv particularly liked.

"That's a fairy,” Aethe said. "An actual fairy."

"I see that. But why does it have gears?" Marco asked.

"She doesn't look good," Marco said. The creature inside was sickly, clearly weak, and barely conscious that it was being observed. "What should we do?"

"There are a couple choices. We could try to heal it in the box. We'd have to guess at what it needs, but I have some guesses that might just work," Elisa said. “I’ve only read about them in books, and they weren’t really mentioned much.”

“And then?”

“And then we'd have a magic box that probably makes the ship work a little better. Like it did for these folks.”

"It's a little icky though, right?" Marco looked at the fairy again. "Life in this box clearly hasn't been good for her.”

"That’s the other option. We let it go and do our best to help it recover until it can decide what it wants to do. It's just that it might leave. I would suggest that, except I can't honestly say we don't need every advantage right now.”

Marco felt pretty solemn for a moment, then looked at the team. They looked as torn as he felt.

"Mind if I take the lead on this one?" he asked. "I can just make this decision myself."

"Yeah. Do," Riv said. "I'd appreciate it."

With nobody else objecting, Marco ripped the top off the box and started walking upstairs.

"Let's let it go, then. We are doing this to have freedom and adventures, right?" he asked.

"I'm doing it to not get killed. But yes, kind of,” Riv said.

"Then let's not ruin it by doing things none of us want to do. If we can avoid them, I mean."

The sunlight alone seemed to help the fairy, and when they put fresh food and water near her out on the deck, she stirred just enough to start eating and drinking. As the team worked to strip the ship of anything particularly valuable, they also took turns watching the fairy recover. It happened at a magically fast speed, and they watched as her flesh filled back out, her skin regained a certain glow, and the metal poking through here and there began to glint.

"It's leaving,” Elisa said. "You can tell by how she's working her wings. She's getting ready to fly. Last chance, Marco."

"I'm not going to hold her. That's that.”

"Good." Elisa leaned back against the mast. "Then let's watch her go."

With a happy little chirp, the fairy stood up, stretched, and took to the air. They watched it make a circle in the air before flying off into the distance.

"Happy little things, aren't they? Why haven't we ever seen one before?” Marco asked.

“Because in this part of the world, there's too many humans who want to catch them. They avoid towns and places close to towns. Almost every fairy has some effect humans can harness to accomplish something, so...”

“So they get caught by people who can’t even take care of them. Got it,” Marco said. “I guess we did the right thing then.”

It was easy to believe that in one sense and harder in another. Even a small advantage was big out here on the water, and advantages in speed were the ones that kept the safest in the most direct way. But Elisa said the system believed in balance, and somewhere, the system made good on her belief in it.

"There we go." Marco shared what he had learned with the team. "I feel better about that."

"Now, new problem,” Elisa said. “We have to decide what to do with this ship. We could use it for repair, but we weren't really all that damaged in that last fight. And it seems like it's worth a lot."

"You are thinking of taking it back to the island?" Riv said. "To give to them?"

"No. It's too far," Aethe said. "To that woman. She'll know what to do with it."

"At the bar?" Riv smiled. "Yeah, I'm on board with that. I'll get the tow ropes hooked up.