Sea Battle (2)

Roderick pours a broadside into the second pirate vessel and dismasts it just as he did the first. Undaunted, Bonebeard orders his final ship, the Captain Sharkrider, to press on no matter the cost. Roderick swings the Seahorse hard to port, and Bonebeard brightens, reading the turn as a surrender of the wind advantage, only for his crew to report their own ship trapped between the two crippled vessels and unable to follow, while the Seahorse vanishes behind a curtain of smoke from a burning wreck.

Roderick had a third reason for turning downwind, unspoken until now: the wind tips his hull just enough that any shots Bonebeard fires blindly through the smoke will strike the Seahorse's flank rather than its deck. He looses a broadside through the haze and batters the Captain Sharkrider. When Bonebeard finally clears the smoke, the Seahorse is nowhere in sight, having circled around to lurk in the murk while the pirate emerges exposed. With a clean target, Roderick fires again. Beaten, Bonebeard grudgingly calls the retreat, abandoning his two disabled ships and fleeing while swearing revenge, and Roderick lets him go.

The Prince of Ys praises his crew, granting them drink as a reward, then asks a stunned Isidro to tell Farnese the pirate danger has passed. The boy gapes in admiration, confessing that he had assumed Roderick's captaincy was a mere formality with no real skill behind it. Meanwhile the whole of Guts' party save Isidro, joined by Magnifico, has sheltered in the main hold where cannon fire is least likely to reach. Guts' fever has spiked severely, and Schierke explains that the burns coating his body keep him from sweating. Farnese proposes that Schierke enter his mind to break the nightmare gripping him, but the witch refuses, judging him too weakened to survive having his mind invaded. Within that dream, the Beast of Darkness, bound by Schierke's talisman, strains to work itself loose.

Roderick dismasts the second pirate ship and uses smoke and wind to outmaneuver Bonebeard's flagship, the Captain Sharkrider. Bonebeard is defeated and flees, abandoning his two disabled ships and vowing revenge. Roderick rewards his crew and has Isidro reassure Farnese. Guts' fever spikes because his burns prevent sweating, and Schierke refuses to enter his weakened mind. In his nightmare, the Beast of Darkness strains against the talisman binding it.

Concluding the sea engagement, this nineteen-page chapter of the Millennium Falcon Arc appeared in Young Animal issue eighteen on September 14, 2007. It highlights Roderick's tactical skill and plants the recurring threat of the Beast of Darkness that hovers over Guts.