When four more rifles joined the fray from the main s.h.i.+p, the attackers clearly lost their wits to continue rus.h.i.+ng forward like idiots. Yet just a single look at their moves betrayed that while they had some kind of power backing them, they were clearly not real soldiers!

At least, not all of them. Maybe it was their survival instinct or just a bit of luck, but some of the aggressors found out the one simple problem that separated our two situations right now.

With the engine of the s.h.i.+p stalled, it would take a while for it to start running again. Yet to set it up, someone had to go to the lower deck of the s.h.i.+p! And in the heat of the current battle, especially when the enemies learned that they could inflict far more damage by hiding behind the treeline and only showing up whenever someone was trying to move on the deck, there was no way I would even attempt forcing my people to risk their lives pointlessly like that!

"Sir, what do we do?!"

As the situation stalled down, there wasn't really that much that could be done in this moment, yet that didn't free me from the duty of commanding over my men. With how little of the actual experience even those soldiers of mine had, there was no way I could rely on them to manage on their own!

"For now, wait. Don't waste ammunition, shoot only when someone approach!"

With how this journey was nothing but a diplomatic mission at most, I didn't bother stocking up a huge amount of bullets or the preloaded magazine belts. Even though we could still fight for quite a while, the longer the fight stalled the worse the situation would be.

"Mike…"

With the gunshots slowly dying off with both sides realising what kind of impa.s.se situation we found ourselves in, Elia crawled on the floor of the shed and peeked through the small crevice between the door of the shed and its frame.

"Stay down. It's not over yet."

While seeing the worry on her cute face pained me to no end, I couldn't get distracted right now. If I were a normal n.o.ble, I would never stomach the dishonor of being attacked by the bandits, forcing me to look for the way to decisively deal with them. But seeing how set they were on attacking us, despite how little of effect it brough, it was fairly obvious that sending my men away from the safety of their current cover would be no different from forcing them to suicide!

After all, even if I found the way to prevent them from being killed by the numerous bandits that were hiding and waiting for such opportunity, there was a huge chance that even more people was hiding behind the treeline!

But just what was the aim of this attack? I was long past the point where I could believe it was just a silly attempt to rob me! After all, even if one considered the worth of those exotic goods packed on both of my s.h.i.+ps, they would still amount to at most a single thousand of golden coins at most! 

On the other hand, this kind of ambush had no meaning if it was aimed at claiming my life. After all, if I were to be coldhearted enough, then I could just ditch the other boat, set it on fire and hope that most of my men would manage to reach the main boat by swimming to it.

As I thought about it, I looked at the line of the trees where the enemies were hiding… Only to spot something that for the last time nailed the possibility of those bandits acting alone. They brought a f.u.c.king cannon!

"Don't let them shoot this thing!"

Instantly screaming to the soldiers on my boat, I realised that this kind of stalemate could only last for so long. For now, the main problem was that the men on the other s.h.i.+p were incapable of moving it, while the soldiers on my boat had to focus on preventing the cannon from shooting!

Just what was the aim of those people?!

"f.u.c.k it. Captain, get some men to throw the ropes to the other s.h.i.+p! We will haul them away!"

No matter how hard I thought about it, there were only two possible targets that whoever was behind this attack could hope to achieve. Getting their hands on my rifles or the steam engine powering the boat. Thinking about this, if it was the first case, then those people might not even be employed by Ostros!

"Yes sir!"

Thanks to the relatively greater distance from the sh.o.r.e to the boat I was boarded at, as long as they kept their heads low, sailors didn't need to fear getting hit by a stray bullet. In just a few moments, several ropes were thrown to the other s.h.i.+p, prompting the sailors hiding there to bind it to any possible part of their vessel that would force them to exit their cover.

As all my men were working, the rifles of both sides tend to speak up every so often. With multiple attempts of the bandits to prepare the cannon for firing it, my men relentlessly forced them away from it with a barrage of shots, instantly provoking the reply from the sh.o.r.e.

"Sir, we are done!"

Just like I couldn't be bothered to hide behind any real obstacle, so did the captain of my s.h.i.+p. Looking at his moves I could tell that rather than acting recklessly as I did, he was moving in a special patter that made it nigh impossible for any aimed shoot to hit him when the accuracy of those old types of rifles was taken into account!

"Good, push the engines to the maximum. Even if we burn them, as long as we will let the current carry us, sooner or later we will meet with other s.h.i.+ps sailing from the mining town!"