The Night Rose

"Shoot them down! Shoot them! If you don't, we are going to blow up!" A panicked captain was shouting out loud since his life depends on it.

It was just his cursed luck that he was now robbed by the infamous ship that was given dread for any experience ship captain to sail.

No one knew who was the Captain of the airship that suddenly appeared to the side of them. The airship immediately bombarded its target to take it down, aiming to clearly steal from them just like how it usually does to other Merchant ships.

The airship name was Night Rose. With its pitch-black appearance, it has gotten a lot of nicknames. Some call it the bloody rose, while the other says it the rose that marks the death as it only left chaos and death behind it.

It was too fast for anyone to catch, and it seemed to know its way around the skies avoiding the kingdom's airship and wyvern patrols.

The Captain remembered how he had pridefully said before leaving the harbor yesterday that his ship was fast enough to escape, and his canons were enough to destroy any vessel or ship, including Night Rose.

His life was in the line. That was the case even without the sky robbers as he was transporting magic stones. It was not only the low-grade ones, but most of the stones were high-grade ones that were so valuable that only the wealthiest men could see them.

Because of that, if the kingdom who trusted him to transport them would know that there would be few missing, he will be executed from treason.

The Captain, touched his neck nervously after thinking that possibility. He had the feeling of regret choosing to deal with such type of goods. Regardless, there was no time to waste. He will just have to give his all to protect this valuable shipment that will cost his life.

"Have you tried to make the emergency call for the near air patrols or anyone?" The Captain asked from his right-hand man.

"Yes! Unfortunately, there is something currently blocking the signal Captain. We cannot get past or get any contact with anyone!" The man responded, looking fearful as beads of sweat were running from his forehead to his cheeks.

"Use any of our remaining magic stones to the engine and the magic cannons!" The Captain ordered before asking in urgency, "How is our black powder and cannonballs situation for now?"

"We still have over two hundred cannonballs left, and we have fifty barrels of black powder stored in the spatial storage." The right-hand man answered.

"Good! Shoot everything against that damn Night, Rose!" The Captain ordered before placing his hands on the steering wheel and trying his best to avoid the enemy's cannonballs.

***

^On the night rose^

"Capitan, this will be our biggest haul in a while. We have been pretty unlucky as the security measures have gone up in this area lately." A middle-aged man with a bald head said as he grins excitedly. He was looking forward to his share and already imagining how he will spend it later.

"Hmm…" The Captain who looked to be in his twenties, hummed after giving the nod. "Something is up. This is too easy."

"We are lucky, that is why!" The man replied cheerfully.

With a snort, "That is the reason why I'm worried about it. This is just too simple and lax for upper-grade magical stones. There should be at least a few airships for security reasons alone. But just look at that!" The Captain said, pointing at the Merchant ship before continuing, "That ship dared to travel alone, even when they know we are in this area recently. I have a bad feeling about this."

"Hehe. You are worrying too much, Capitan! They are just too busy to catch you. I bet there is a decoy somewhere with lots of ships to protect them and a rumor that they are guarding it because they are transporting the stones. But they don't know we have inside information about the harbor. They are not aware that our information network is constantly supplying us with the right information." The middle-aged man said while looking at the Captain Despite the possibility for the worse, the man was not afraid.

The Captain, to him, was someone he looked up and would always be loyal at even though the Captain was a young man that was talented with airships and using different kinds of guns and swords. Someone that managed to raise a band of robbers and picked everyone up, giving them a chance to live and get rich, was someone worth the bandit's respect and loyalty.

Because of that, most of them looked up to their Captain. Regardless of the situation, they are confident that after looting any ship, just like the Merchant ship in front of them now, they will go home and drink for days.

***

"Captain, we are being boarded! I repeat they are sending a boarding party!" the right-hand from the Merchant ship, suddenly shouted out loudly.

"Everyone prepare your weapons! Prepare for close combat! I repeat to prepare for close combat and repeal the enemies!"

"We cannot let them have the cargo!" The Captain shouted out loudly and started to feel panic.

The Captain had to leave the steering wheel and leave the airship to stand still in the air. After that, the Captain went to the near chest that had his weapons stored and took out his short sword first, then a pistol, before he went out from the room to the deck.

His pistol only could fire one time before he had to reload it. However, the reload would take almost a minute, and because of that.

He needed to use his sword more as he didn't want to stay out from the combat and stay behind to have time to reload his pistol.

In the deck, he saw that a massive cannon had fired a robe bridge to their airship, and there were boarding hooks with ropes attached to his ship. Some of the robbers used only some ropes from their ship to try and swing to his airship.

"Everyone focuses on the bridge! Shook it off or destroy it! Bring anything you can get off from the ship!" The Captain shouted out and took his pistol aiming towards the bridge.

He pulled the trigger and hit someone trying to board the ship, and the man he hit, fell off from the bridge to the bottomless pit that was under them.

The Captain threw his pistol away after that and took a shield from he's dead comrade.

"See, they do bleed and fall like us, so just focus and hold on! Reinforcements are coming! We just have to hold one and kill them! We will be hailed as the heroes who took and destroyed the Night Rose!" The Captain shouted out while trying to defend against the next bullet's that were fired towards him.

The crew was ready to fight with their Captain, however...

Boooommm!!

***

"Captain! Captain! Something is wrong!" One of the boarders from the night rose tried to shout out, but then suddenly, the merchant ship exploded.

The Night Rose shook from the explosion, and its right side took some damage, but their magic shield showered most of the blast.