The night grew deeper.
Instead of returning to the cabin, Field lay on the deck, propping himself up with his arms. The weather was fine, and the sea breeze was gentle. He decided to sleep outside tonight, which would also allow him to keep watch.
Seeing this, Hilda and Qiqi came to his sides.
Qiqi leaned against his arm, while Hilda, like him, leaned against the deck, only a fist's distance away from him.
"Aren't you going to sleep inside?" Field asked.
"No, the bunks inside have been used by someone else, and I don't want to sleep on them," Hilda said.
Field nodded. Indeed, the sleeping quarters on the ship were occupied by the crew and sailors, and couldn't be expected to be very clean.
So Field took out two sleeping bags and handed them to Qiqi and Hilda.
Hilda was pleasantly surprised. "It feels just like that time in the Norfalcon Forest."
"But the campfire has turned into a boiler."
"And the forest has turned into the ocean."
"But we haven't changed," Field smiled.
"How haven't we changed," Hilda suddenly said, "We've become stronger, and our friendship has become even more solid and reliable!"
"Haha, you're right!" Field laughed, then took out a bottle of wine from his storage ring.
"Want some, to toast to our friendship?" he offered.
Hilda hesitated for a moment, feeling conflicted. Drinking might make her lose control a bit, and she still vividly remembered what happened last time. Field naturally knew this, but he suddenly wanted to see Hilda's rebellious side again.
After some hesitation, she nodded. "Just a little bit, then."
Just a little shouldn't hurt, right?
After a moment, the three of them raised the cups that were originally meant for tea, but were now filled with wine.
Field's cup was full, while Hilda and Kiki's were only half full.
"To our friendship!" Hilda smiled.
"To our friendship's meow!" Qiqi added.
"To that thing's that thing!" Field said.
Instantly, both Hilda and Qiqi looked at Field.
"What does 'to that thing's that thing' mean?" Hilda asked.
"Hehe, 'that thing' can be anything, like friendship, happiness, or the proud Hilda and the adorable Qiqi," Field grinned.
After considering for a moment, Hilda found it quite amusing, so she nodded. "Let's try again."
The three of them exchanged glances and raised their cups again.
"Here's to that thing's that thing!"
"To that thing's that thing's meow!"
"To our friendship!"
Hilda and Qiqi: "?"
"Field, you're just being contrary!"
"Haha, my bad, my bad, I won't do it again."
Raising their cups for the third time, they finally toasted to their friendship.
After finishing half a cup of wine, Qiqi yawned and then curled up in his sleeping bag, turning back into a cat bug and snuggling into Field's arms.
Hilda finished her half cup of wine, feeling a bit sleepy but otherwise unaffected. She felt relieved that she could handle alcohol, as long as she didn't have more than half a cup. Little did she know, her cheeks were starting to flush.
Field finished his cup of wine, then finished off the rest of the bottle and nodded satisfactorily, then stared ahead, lost in thought.
Dark hair, dark eyes.
Hilda had never seen anyone like him before.
Feeling a bit heavy-lidded and tired, she wanted to sleep but also wanted to keep watching him. So she kept looking at him, and then yawned.
Unable to resist any longer.
"I'm going to sleep," she said.
"Mm, go ahead," Field nodded.
Hilda's gaze gradually lowered, and she saw Qiqi snuggled up to Field's left side, sleeping peacefully.
For some reason, she felt a little moved.
Driven by the unconscious effects of alcohol, she mustered the courage to shift her body and lean towards Field, closing the distance that was just a fist's length away.
Field, who was looking at the sea, was slightly taken aback, then turned to look at her.
He saw Hilda leaning against his right side, her little head resting on his arm, eyes closed, as if already asleep.
Was it unconscious or just a little tipsy?
Field didn't dwell on it too much, just smiled slightly.
Alcohol truly was a miraculous thing.
Field closed his eyes contentedly.
The wind was calm, and the long night passed.
...
Field suddenly opened his eyes, the previously lazy look in his eyes instantly sharp.
The sky was getting brighter.
Qiqi, wrapped in his sleeping bag, had turned back into a cat bug and snuggled into his arms. And Hilda had somehow hugged his arm and was sleeping soundly.
If it were any other time, Field would be very happy, but now, his attention was elsewhere.
Because he heard a sound that shouldn't be on the sea, although very faint, he heard it.
The sound of cannon fire!
His powerful memory made him still remember the rain of bullets and cannon fire from his previous life. He was extremely sensitive to that kind of cannon fire roar.
His sleep wasn't a real sleep, but rather a light doze while practicing his breathing techniques.
When the sound of cannon fire came, he woke up.
He looked into the distance, squinting slightly.
On the distant horizon, there were two dots.
One of them kept lighting up with blue light, while the other dot would explode with large splashes of water around it.
After a moment, the sound of cannon fire hidden in the wind would come.
They were ships, two ships chasing each other.
One ship was firing at the other, and the light must be from magical cannons.
The ship being fired upon was slower and had flickering flames, indicating it had been hit.
The blue light flashed again, and Field saw two flashes of blue light on the two ships, followed by a flash of fire on the ship being chased.
It hit!
Then the ship firing turned around and headed rapidly towards the burning ship. Soon, the shadows of the two ships overlapped.
Field frowned.
Although far away, he could still see clearly.
The ship being fired upon should have the flag of the Sea Capital, he couldn't see the flag pattern clearly, but he could see that it was blue.
And the flag on the other ship was black.
Flags were like identity cards for ships, and not many legitimate ships would use a black background on their flags.
So Field guessed that it was likely pirates!
After all, this was already a hundred kilometers away from the protected sea area, and pirates were naturally lurking around. He just didn't expect to encounter them so soon.
What Field didn't expect was that the black dot soon changed direction and grew larger.
Heading towards them?!
Field knew he couldn't wait any longer.
So he gently rubbed the heads of the two girls. "Wake up, girls."
"We're about to fight!"
Once Qiqi woke up, being a well-rested little kitty, full of energy. But Hilda, on the other hand, groggily opened her eyes, looking towards Field.
"Morning..." she murmured softly.
Field chuckled, "Now that you're awake, get up. My arm is almost numb from you holding onto it."
Hilda blinked, looking beside her. It was then that she noticed she was indeed clutching Field's arm, and there was even a bit of glisten at the top of his arm, like... her saliva?
She drooled?!
She must have slept really soundly. Indeed, she slept deeply last night, not even dreaming.
But that wasn't her focus now.
She quickly released Field's hand, her cheeks flushing.
She remembered only having half a glass of wine last night, how could half a glass of wine make her do something foolish?
Well, it didn't seem foolish, just falling asleep leaning on Field's arm.
But she wouldn't normally do that!
Hilda covered her face, feeling too embarrassed to look at Field.
But then Field's deep voice came, "Go change your clothes. You can't fight in a swimsuit."
"Fight?" Hilda was puzzled, quickly asking, "What's going on? What happened?"
"Pirates are here," Field explained succinctly. Then he leaped up, jumping directly to the captain's room door, entering and starting to control the magic array to raise the anchor.
Meanwhile, Hilda looked into the distance and indeed soon saw a ship flying a black flag.
It was really pirates!
No ship flies a black flag except pirates!
Seeing this, Hilda didn't care about her embarrassment anymore, quickly pulling Qiqi to go change their gear.
Field, on the other hand, watched the speed of the anchor being raised, his brow furrowed.
Anchoring was fast, but raising it was quite slow.
After all, dropping the anchor only required releasing a latch, and the rest was left to gravity.
But raising it relied on the output efficiency of the magic array.
At the current speed, by the time the anchor was raised, the pirate ship would probably be close.
A moment later, Hilda and Qiqi had changed their gear and come out. Field said, "Hilda, you steer the ship. Turn around immediately after the anchor is up, I'll delay them."
Hilda was stunned.
The pirate ship was still several kilometers away. How could they delay it?
But she didn't ask further. Instead, she went to the captain's room to take over from Field. She then saw Field jump onto the deck, lie down, and then a flash of light from his ring, and a three-meter-long magic sniper rifle appeared in front of him.
Hilda's mouth fell open slightly as she watched Field quickly start up the magic sniper rifle.
She really hadn't expected Field to carry magic weapons with him.
After setting up the sniper rifle, Field aimed with a single eye, and three magic arrays appeared above the magic device.
Those were auxiliary aiming magic arrays, three overlapping magic arrays, just like a sight, capable of magnifying the field of view.
Combined with the universal magic Hawkeye, the effect was optimal.
Field didn't have Hawkeye, but his eyesight was quite strong.
Looking through them, Hilda could clearly see the appearance of the pirate ship.
The pirate ship looked like a sailboat, but it was actually a more advanced magic ship than Field's.
Because their sails had magic patterns, surrounded by green light, it was obvious that wind magic was boosting the sails, explaining why the pirate ship was so fast.
There was a female bronze statue at the bow of the pirate ship, with a dagger held high in her left hand, while the other hand was in a hugging pose.
And what she hugged was none other than a magic cannon!
Judging by the caliber, it was about twice as large as the ones Field bought.
The blue light just now must have come from this magic cannon.
On the deck of the ship, on the masts, on the crow's nest, and even on the ropes of the sails, there were many figures wielding knives, shouting as if they were excited, with excited smiles on their faces.
Like hunters seeing prey.
Field chuckled coldly.
Prey?
He didn't like being prey.
Magic surged, injected into the magic sniper rifle. Soon, the magic sniper rifle was fully charged.
After a brief aim, Field pulled the trigger.
"Boom!!!" A loud noise erupted, and intense blue light burst from the muzzle, with shockwaves spreading out, shaking Field's shoulders.
A basketball-sized compressed magic cannonball shot out in a beautiful parabola and landed in front of the pirate ship in the sea.
A splash erupted, estimating to be about twenty meters high compared to the ship's hull!
Through the targeting magic array, Field saw that the pirates seemed startled. A unlucky guy even fell directly from a mast over ten meters high, causing a commotion on the entire ship.
But soon, Field saw someone raising a knife, pointing towards their direction, and the magic patterns on the sails of the pirate ship lit up again, boosting the ship's speed.
Without hesitation, Field injected magic power again to complete the charging.
The last shot was a warning and trajectory correction. Now, it's for real!
"Boom!!!"
With the second pull of the trigger, the second magic cannonball shot out.
The speed of the magic cannonball was much faster than bullets.
In less than three seconds, it crossed the four or five kilometers. The magic cannonball drew a beautiful arc, then hit the illuminated sail.
If it were a physical cannonball, it would penetrate.
But this was a compressed magic cannonball. The moment it touched the object, even if it was just a sail, it would explode instantly.
A blue fireball several meters in diameter appeared to the right of the sail. This directly blew away several pirates on the ropes of the sail, and blew a huge hole in the painted sail, igniting it.
The distance was a bit far. Field originally aimed at the mast.
But it didn't matter.
Here it comes again!
The roar of the cannon fire made Field feel like he was back on that battlefield of bullets and gunfire.
He was a sniper carrying heavy anti-material weapons. Each shot could harvest one or even multiple lives!
"Boom!!!"
The third shot!
The magic cannonball whistled across the sea, showing a beautiful parabola. This time, it hit the mast!
The mast broke, the sails were completely ruined, the speed of the pirate ship greatly reduced, and several pirates around the mast were also thrown out, falling into the sea.
For a moment, there was chaos on the pirate ship. They probably didn't expect this crab-catching ship, which was supposed to have no combat power, to have long-range heavy firepower!
The power of the sniper rifle might not be as strong as the magic cannon, but under Field's operation, its precision was unmatched by the magic cannon.
After all, the magic cannon at the bow of the pirate ship could only make small adjustments and had to rely on the angle of the ship to hit the target.
At this moment, the pirates were obviously angry. The magic cannon at the bow of the ship lit up with blue light, and the next moment, a magic cannonball with a diameter of more than half a meter burst out
, shooting towards them at an extremely fast speed.
But Field didn't move because he knew it wouldn't hit!
Sure enough, the magic cannonball fell into the sea more than sixty meters away from the crab-catching ship, exploding and splashing tens of meters high water, as well as huge waves and a loud noise.
"Boom..."
Like rolling thunder, Hilda instinctively raised her hand in a defensive posture.
But Field still lay there.
As the water splashed down, wetting his hair.
But he didn't even blink, and the three-meter-long magic sniper rifle in front of him lit up with blue light again.
The fourth shot, directly aimed at the pirate ship's magic cannon!