Kaelin immediately panics. "There is a whole fleet of them! What are we going to do?"
"Don't worry. They can't harm us, after all, they are sky goblins riding in modified lifeboats."
"Hah! Seriously?"
I remember sky goblins very distinctly from 'Sky Bucaneers', as they were a kind of comic relief for players. They would show up in an entire fleet of 50 or 60 ships, but the catch was that the ships were nothing more than salvaged lifeboats the goblins had managed to procure.
Their usual voice line in-game was 'give shinies', and it became a meme among pirate faction players to ambush skyships straight out of aether gates, and then rob them while writing that line in game chat. I would recognize it anywhere.
I felt that this was a perfect opportunity to test out a couple of things. Firstly, can Kaelin truly handle the ship's guns without my help, and secondly, how much EXP will we gain for winning a sky battle?
I have absolutely no worries about the pirate gobbos. My memory tells me that they would normally attack people by boarding unshielded passenger ships, but we have a medium mana shield. Their lifeboats would probably disintegrate on contact.
"Ok, Kaelin, let's have some fun with these little green rejects, and then you can get some practice on the mana cannon."
She looks at me with a curious gaze. After my declaration that it is simply sky goblins, she has become perfectly calm, but when I say we will have some fun with them, she seems confused. I turn to the communication crystal.
It doesn't take long for them to come into view, and I can see that in total, there are 23 ships with them. Well, ships might be a little generous, in reality, they are barely functional lifeboats and rafts with propulsion systems strapped to the back.
Once they are close enough that I can see the individual goblins on the boats, I see one of the strangest and most hilarious views I have ever seen.
A gobbo pirate captain! The fleet flagship has a black flag and sails, the only one in the fleet built like that. On the front of the ship stands the goblin pirate captain.
Right at the prow, with one leg higher than the other, leaning on his knee, like he owns the whole damn sky. No taller than a cargo crate, but with the swagger of a sky admiral. His coat is stitched from half a dozen pillaged uniforms, his pointed pirate hat is comically large for his green, wrinkled head, and an eyepatch. Oh my goodness, a bloody eyepatch. (picture)
If he had been a human being standing on a warship, he would have been intimidating, but he was 3 feet tall and ugly as all sin. No doubt if he were within spitting distance, he would stink of waste and filth.
I felt the sudden urge to laugh, but Kaelin had a different opinion."I know goblins are detestable little beings, but there is something about one of them playing pirate captain that is sort of endearing."
"Don't be fooled by that infantile display of his, if I handed you over, they would breed you until you couldn't bear any more goblin spawn for them, and then chop you up for dinner."
I bring the ship around and once again jump on the communicator.
The comical captain points his cutlass at our ship, and one of the lifeboats starts cruising over.
"When I give the signal, rain down hell on them with the mana cannon. No need to waste torpedoes on these green-skinned filth."
Kaelin nods in understanding and turns her attention back to the gunner's console.
The goblin lifeboat continues its approach and finally reaches the mana shield of the ship. As soon as it makes contact with the shield, the small wooden boat starts to disintegrate and burn up, emitting some kind of black smoke.
The 2 goblins on board panic, not knowing what to do, they 'abandon' ship. Yep, the little green retards try to avoid dying by diving off the ship into the abyss.
[Destroyed - Goblin raft - 45EXP]
[Slain - Goblin pirate lvl 5 - 21 EXP]
[Slain - Goblin pirate lvl 5 - 21 EXP]
"Kaelin, how much experience did you get from that?"
"15 from the raft, and 7 each from the goblins."
So, because we are both on the ship when fighting, we both get all of the experience from the fight, and I don't receive a portion of her experience because I already received it from the fight. The EXP sharing is beginning to make more sense.
The stupid green shitbag thinks that he has a chance here, so I decide to let Kaelin loose on him. "Weapons free, Kaelin. Mana cannon only, I want to see how you handle it!"
"Aye aye, Captain!"
*Boom*
[Destroyed - Goblin flagship - 75EXP]
[Slain - Goblin pirate Captain lvl 8 - 45 EXP]
Zero hesitation. She immediately fires on the goblin captain's flagship. The explosion rips through the modified lifeboat, sending the captain's upper body one way and his bloody lower half another. Death is instant, and he makes no sound as his scattered corpse plummets to the aether maelstrom below.
The other sky gobbos have no idea how to deal with this situation. They start shouting and jumping and flailing around. I swear, one of them just simply jumped off his ship, leaving a trail of excrement in his wake.
"Save 2 ships for me and the forward-facing mana guns, the rest are all yours."
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
[Destroyed - Goblin raft - 45EXP]
[Slain - Goblin pirate lvl 5 - 21 EXP]
[Slain - Goblin .....
Ship after ship explodes and drops into the abyss, and my system notifies me time and time again about the number of ships destroyed and goblin pirates killed.
I am frankly shocked at the amount of EXP received from this. I expected full EXP for each goblin kill, but the ships themselves give decent EXP too, and they are basically lifeboats.
Kaelin doesn't miss a single shot! She lines up on her screen using the joystick like device, and rains hell down upon green-skinned retards. They stand absolutely no shot.
I feel no remorse when I watch, and Kaelin obviously doesn't either. With each exploded goblin vessel, she laughs! She is a complete natural on the guns, and I didn't even need to use my [Skyborne Command] skill.
"Ok, captain, the last 2 are all yours."
"I only need one of them, the last one you will practice a mana torpedo on before we return to our original course."
I line up the front of the ship and fire the twin-linked mana guns. The mana rounds that are released are far smaller than the rounds from the cannon, but far bigger than the rounds from Kaelin's revolver.
They fire with a speed of 180 RPM. The Goblin barge I am targeting is shredded. The goblin pirates disappear into pink mist, and the ship falls out of the sky as though abruptly dropped from a great height.
[Destroyed - Goblin pirate ship - 51EXP]
[Slain - Goblin pirate lvl 5 - 21 EXP]
[Slain - Goblin pirate lvl 5 - 21 EXP]
I turn the ship to face our original course and head off in that direction at a reduced speed.
"Ok, Kaelin, when you are ready. Seek and destroy!"
"Mana lock engaged... torpedo primed ....3...2...1.....away!"
The mana torpedo is released from the pod attached to the bottom of the ship. It arcs down, leaving a trail of black aether like smoke behind. I watch as it travels back up in an upward arc, colliding with the bottom of the goblin ship.
*Boom*
[Destroyed - Goblin pirate ship - 51EXP]
[Slain - Goblin pirate lvl 5 - 21 EXP]
[Slain - Goblin pirate lvl 5 - 21 EXP]