I died and was reincarnated as Warship in a fantasy world

After several days of patrolling the ‘Black Demon’ was retrofitted.

The pirate flagship now has two times less guns per side but has better armor. Also, she is barely capable of moving. The sailing rigging was removed, and now this ship will be moved by towing it after a destroyer.

“A floating battery is a good idea. I wish we could fit a steam engine in.” (E)

“A full-armored ironclad is still better than nothing.” Yoizuki will be towing the ‘Black Demon’ until Fairy builds another ship.

The dry dock is now free, and Fairy receives shipments of steel from the blast furnaces. She claims that it will take her two days to build a new Akizuki-class ship.

I am happy that I won’t spend money to build ships but I will still have to buy new torpedoes.

While I was thinking about the looming torpedo-procurement crisis, Emmanuel stopped looking into the distance, and faced me.

“The fleet would arrive soon. Can I ask you to help clearing a path for them?” I felt like it was not a request.

“Clear a path from what? Have you encountered something problematic that could stall the fleet’s passage?”

“Yes. There is a sea dragon. A single ship can run away from it without issues but when a fleet passes, they cannot accelerate and maneuver that easily.” (E)

“Then let’s set sail.” If that is the same huge dragon thing that almost ate me twice, I would be glad to see how it will fare against my new torpedoes.

I surely did not do it for monetary reasons.

The subjugation fleet gathered soon. Two Kuronami-class destroyers, one Akizuki-class destroyer, and one makeshift ironclad towedboat.

Two days later we reached the Abyss.

The weather was good, and the sea was full of fish. The seagulls were happy and did not cause us any issues.

We were paying a lot of attention to feeding them only because we have a very problematic ship that would capsize if there are large waves.

It costed us bombing several large schools, and me begging Yuriko to beg the seagulls to avert all storms nearby.

Now that we were in the open sea with the floating battery, I hoped it will prove to be worth it.

All stations were monitoring the surroundings.

We formed a triangle with a large distance between each destroyer, all for the sake of broadening the sonar coverage.

Despite all of our efforts there were no monsters here.

The squadron continued sailing around but encountered nothing.

According to Emmanuel’s maps we already crossed the Abyss, turned around, and were on our way back.

As the days went on, I had more and more ships in my reserves, until I had two more ships to deploy.

The triangle turned into a long V formation.

Only when we crossed the Abyss and returned to the Eastern side, Harutsuki reported a sonar contact.

‘Ping…’

“All pennants, except for Yoizuki, form up on the leader!”

[“Orders confirmed.”]

‘Ping…’

Everybody was called to the bridge.

“Is it starting?” Patricia was agitated, and had her sword sharpened to the level when it could cut a paper that falls on it.

‘Ping…’

“Finally, it is. Can you help me message the ironclad?”

“Sure thing.” (P)

The ironclad was warned to drop their anchors, and prepare to fight.

Their top deck guns will have to be rolled around during the fight.

Yoizuki let go of the towing cables, and rejoined the squadron.

‘Ping’

“All pennants, maintain 30 knots.” Our speed is limited by the golden ships. The platinum ship would be able to sail faster.

‘Ping’

The squadron prepared to fight, and turned after me to show the broadside.

‘Ping’

“All pennants, fire depth charges on my mark.

‘Ping’

3!

‘Ping’

2!

‘Ping’

1! Fire!”

‘Ping-Ping-Ping’

Pom Pom

The charges scattered around, like a rain of barrels.

From several kilometers I saw how the barrels hit the water, leaving splashes around the target area. Then, a square kilometer of water lifted into the air.

From there, a huge green head flew out of the sea.

‘RAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!’

“ALL PENNANTS, FIRE AT WILL!”