I stared with fascination and maybe a touch of horror at the destruction my weapons had wrought. My estimate had been thirty seconds to a minute to burn through the shield based on what I knew of the shields I had on the fortress and the power of the weapons. But the barrage from all sixteen mana lasers – set to continuous fire – had burned through whatever shitty defense they called a shield in less than three seconds.I had been so surprised that I didn’t get the beams turned off until most of the building facing me had been sliced through. I knew the beams had passed through the building and out the other side because I could see smoke rising from behind the taller building. Honestly, I had been more worried about overloading my weapons by using this setting more than anything else. They weren’t designed for continuous use. But the time frame had been so short that no damage occurred to the weapons.There were a few small explosions from the building and shortly after the main targ

No other dangers jumped out to attack as I closed in on my destination. I was now close enough to see what it was.Massive chunks of stone and dirt floated above the ocean. At first, it was just off the ocean surface but as I got closer I could see it rose up higher, with huge chunks of land just floating in the air with no apparent means to keep them there.It wasn’t uniform either but more like rocky outcroppings and small islands leading to a massive island near the center. I call it an island but it was enormous. I had once seen the smaller Hawaiian islands from above and this one island matched that in size. But I could see more off in the distance. Some were far higher in the sky than even this island.One thing was certain though, the island was lush and inhabited.A veritable jungle of connected vines – turned into bridges – clung to smaller outcropping islands. Each one sported small clusters of homes and what appeared to be… docks. But they weren’t normal docks, seeing as th

“So, Captain, what are your plans?” Khikall asked as he walked beside me through the city.I shrugged, “not sure. I originally came to this part of the world to simply explore. But as you know I was attacked. I’m not the kind of person to forgive and forget. First, I need to make some repairs to my ship, then decide what to do. Although, I would still like to explore the Isles of Fog,” I stated, letting him know in no uncertain terms what might happen if he turns on me.He grunted, “that may be difficult and not just because of the pirates.”“Oh?”“If you aren’t planning on running trade, most ports will deny you entry at the least, the rest will simply fire on you as a precaution if you have an armed ship. Even pirate hunters may turn their guns on you if they can’t identify your vessel. Safer to apologize to the survivors than let a pirate escape.”“Well, that’s discouraging to hear. I certainly don’t want to run supplies between ports. How can we avoid this?” I asked, not disclosin

“That could have gone better,” Khikall said as I reentered the command room.“Yeah, but I got the captain so it all worked out. Any idea why only three pirates tried to board the Retribution, I can’t imagine we incapacitated the rest of crew,” I said, running my hand through my sweaty hair after I put my helmet away.“The rest were probably slaves,” Khikall replied offhandedly.I froze, the bile rising in my throat as I realized I just damned a ship full of slaves to a watery grave. I had to grip the edge of my chair to remain standing. Khikall didn’t seem to notice my distress as his seat was farther ahead in the room.I didn’t know these slaves but just the thought of people being in a similar position as I had been not more than a year ago was sickening.“Khikall, how many of these pirates use slave crews?”I don’t know if it was the tone of my voice or something else, but Khikall turned to look at me, I could feel an underlying tenseness to his actions.“I take it you do not appro

I waited on the deck, enjoying the sun as I watched him approach.It turned out Khikall was overly optimistic in his estimation on how long it would take to return. And when he finally did return, I noticed he was returning alone.Khikall stumbled his way down the rickety pier. The Jerboa was plastered by the looks of him but he still managed to jump from the dock to the deck, although, his landing wasn’t graceful and I saw him choke back some vomit before he stood on unsteady legs.“Want me to fix that for you?”He shook his head very slowly, “A cost of doing business,” he said with a burp. “Barcos agreed to join the crew on one condition.”“Oh, and what’s that?” I asked, curious as to what a man like Barcos would want for his cooperation.“You need to bring in his replacement.”“… That’s all? Why can’t he just contact his government and have them send one over?” I asked in confusion.“He did. But the man refused to come to the island and is hiding out at another, more prosperous por