Right now every single person in the troop is here with me in the formation room. The reason for that is simple. If what I am planning works then this room is going to be the safest in this ship. That is very ironic considering it is also the most dangerous room in this ship.

  Right now the major problem that I am facing is the fact that this is not going to be the standard battle, involving my cannons or anything else. The ship is too fragile right now to survive such a fight. Even a single shot might just end up ruining this ship. That is simply a risk that I will not be able to take.

  That means that I am going to get to try something that I have never really done before. I am going to be trying the dance. (technically it is called advanced airship maneuvering, but everybody calls it the dance.)

  You see, airships and the way to control them is usually quite restricted. After all, if you were to twist and turn the ships as you wanted things become very chaotic. The result is going to be everything inside of the ship flying around like a ping pong ball.

  That is why you have basic maneuvering, which treats flying to be similar to sailing a boat. (This is not to say basic maneuvering is not more complex than advanced maneuvering. It is just more stable and less likely to cause the ship to careen out of control.) basic maneuvering is used more because shooting a cannon is easy with it. If you have a cannon, you have to make use of basic maneuvering.

  I am not in the least prepared for the dance. As far as I know, every ship of the guard corps has protections in place for the dance. Even my crappy ship before had formations to root everything to the floor, though it had begun to fail much like everything on that ship.

  Well, the gentle sword does not have that. Maybe my master did not expect that I would be trying to pull off something like this. Maybe he simply did not have the time to put it in, but it has ended up screwing things for me. We have had to fasten down everything using the standard method, which would be ropes.

  That is another reason that the troop is in here with me. When the ropes do end up snapping, there is nothing pointy here that might blind somebody.

  As for what we are doing right now, we are all waiting down here with enough tension in the room that it can be cut with a knife. Right now there are a bunch of patrollers looking for us somewhere up there. I guess that I should be thankful that it is not the shadow at the very least.

  I guess I should explain to you what the shadow is. It is the name of the brawler that is led by the archer. As Trevor explained it to me, every captain in the Bloodfire gang is given the charge of a brawler.

  Along with the brawler they are also given control of a legion of patrollers and it is these ships that are looking for me right now. Luckily, I am certain that the brawler is not here. Even injured I should be able to sense that much mana. Still, I think think that there are at least ten patrollers here.

  Well, it also suits with this archer's personality. He tends to make use of his brawler very rarely. Instead, he focuses on arming and strengthening his patrollers to make ambushes like the one that led to my situation.

  At the moment, it seems that these patrollers are looking for me. As for why I am saying it seems to be, is the fact that my mana sense is barely able to catch it. I could use my sensory formation to sense it better, but that would also mean that the other side would detect me.

  If I was at my peak, I wouldn't have needed the sensory formation to at least tell that there was something up there. Right now all I can feel is the flashes of the sensory formation activating. I can't tell where it is nor give a direction to it. All I can tell is that sensory formations are being used. It is like seeing a blob, where I should be seeing a bullseye. I can't even say if I am imagining this right now.

  Being blind like this is more scary than I have expected it to be. Every time that I hear a leaf rustling outside, I imagine it to be a ship landing on the ground next to me. Why the hell is the forest so windy?

  The only lucky thing about this is that their patrollers are spread apart looking for us. This is another place where the stinginess of the pirates has benefitted us. Their sensory formations are very crappy.

  These are active sensory formations of the worst quality. (The reason they are called this is due to how much mana they release when being used. They also are not very useful.) They are active sensory formations of the kind that only enhance the five senses at that. Of these five senses, only two are a real threat to us right now. That is sight and hearing.

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  We have somewhat managed sight by camouflaging ourselves. The troop has been particularly busy doing that after fixing up the ship. They have been covering the ships with branches and leaves.

  It is not a good camouflage in any way, but it should be able to fool a ship looking at us from five or ten kilometers away. If we are lucky, they might even end up passing us by without finding us. It depends on how sensitive the mana sense of the pilot is.

  As for hearing, it is the reason that we are trying to be as quiet as possible. Right now, none of us are even twitching for fear that somebody would be able to hear it.

  That is the only benefit of this search party. Every ship is pretty far from the other ship. I just need to think about a single ship for now. If I escape that single ship, then most of their ships will be too far away. It will allow us to escape all the ships.

  I don't know what I will do after escaping though. With the way that things are going my hope of finding allies near the Mayfire castle is decreasing. If the mayfires were active, they would have already revealed their presence here. The bloodfire gang wouldn't certainly have been able to function with such boldness.

  Right now there is no use in thinking about it. The mayfires are not weak. Even if they are not able to leave the castle, they should still have control over a decent chunk of the place.

  (After about ten minutes.)

  Right now the ship is silent enough that I would be able to drop a pin and it would be heard at the other side of the ship. The reason for that is quite simple. Right now there is a ship above us.

  You are always able to tell with sensory formations. It feels like somebody is staring at you from a distance. Right now though, their sensory formation is visible to me now. They are pretty close to us. I can't be fully certain, but I would say they are about two kilometers away.

  I can feel thoughts pop up, causing my back to become slick with sweat. Anything that we do right now might end up screwing it for us. The camouflage has an already decent chance of failing. I need to be ready to move the minute that they look like they are about to attack. Still I can't move prematurely, because that will reveal us. Right now I have no way to tell how our present situation is going to end up. I don't even know if there are ships in my path. All I know is that my plan seems stupider with each passing second.

  If we do end up being discovered things are not going to be pretty. Up there are at the very least ten ships of which any could have the archer in it. If the ship above us passes over us, I will be able to run away. If it manages to hold us for even a bit, the other patrollers will catch up to me.

  At my full speed, I am not worried about any of the patrollers. Thankfully the brawler is not here.

  After all, a brawler would have had five cannons at least. Even dancing I would not be able to handle that many cannons, even without the archer.

  A slight tilt of my head shows Trevor. With Trevor, his gaze holds the patience of the hunter. He is keeping his entire body still just to spring into action as would be needed.

  The other two, it is more the fear of being prey and is more reactive. I have to be thankful that the two have not unlocked their mana sense yet. With how nervous they are, they would have ended up doing something.

  Not that being completely still like this is really that necessary. Very few ships tend to have formations that can enhance a person's hearing to such an extreme degree. It is just such a finicky sense, and so prone to overloading a person's mind that it is not very useful. There have been more than a few cases of people losing their hearing when they crank it up to such an extreme degree. I don't want to take a risk though.

  Still, that is a risk that none of us want to take. By the way, every second that I am speaking, the mana signature is becoming clearer and clearer. This means that the ship is getting closer every second.

  Now it makes me wish that my mana sense was better, to tell just how close it is. Every second, it is taking all of my will not to just connect to the formations and bolting away.

  Fuck off, I am stopping this log. The more I record, the more I can feel myself slipping into a panic.

  (A few minutes later.)

  Well, it looks like we have managed to fool the ship for now. They will return soon enough, but we will not be here by then. Right now, the mana signature of the ship is blurring again. This can only mean that they should be going away from us.

  Right now we are all getting into position. This means that I am connecting myself to every formation here in this room. Once the ship has gone a decent distance (if it gets even more blurry.) away I am going to activate the ship at its maximum throttle.

  The speed of my ship is enough that I should be able to leave them in the dust. That is especially true if they have to turn back to chase after me.

  Right now the main threat that I will be facing would be the ships that are still in our path. While even they would not be able to keep up with us, they will still pose a threat. Especially because I have to assume that they are going to have the archer in there somewhere. Still, as long as they do not manage to make me pause, I will escape.

  He might not be there, but it is better to assume that he is.

  "In a minute captain.", it is Trevor that speaks.

  His voice is barely a whisper but in this silence, it seems like a thunderclap. Well, I was the one to tell him to time the launch for me. I will need to warm up the propulsion formation after all.

  It is a bit of a risk, but I hope there is no way that just that bit of mana would be enough to be a real risk. It would be more risky for us to not be able to achieve our maximum speed immediately. They might have cannons in the back of their ship after all.

  "Now."

  Trevor's voice interrupts me, as I release the propulsion formation to go at its maximum speed.