Chapter 165

Chapter 165. Lots to Worry About for Victory☆ (4)

“Ahhhh! The Heavy Cruisers are meltingggg!”

Along with an air raid that was completely different from what they had imagined—no, experienced—three Heavy Cruisers on the outermost edge couldn’t withstand the assault and were sunk on the spot.

“Kyaaah!! Light Aircraft Carrier! Light Aircraft Carrier!”

“The aircraft! Quickly secure air superiority!!”

The three users, horrified by the insane damage output, urgently requested support from the Light Aircraft Carrier that was circling around… but…

“Ughhh.”

“They’re coming to save us!”

“No, I’m under attack too.”

Unfortunately, the Light Aircraft Carrier user they were desperately seeking for air cover was exposed to a surprise attack by four mercenary groups accompanying Kraken’s third assault team.

It wasn’t about providing air cover for the main fleet anymore—they had to worry about the survival of their own fleet.

The only silver lining for the main fleet users was…

“Why aren’t you falling back?! Anti-air cover is coming in now!”

“Oooh.”

“Thank you… overwhelmingly grateful…!”

Ramuramu, the Small Ship user, quickly assessed the situation and moved his Small Ships—anti-air ships—forward to form a fleet-wide anti-air network.

Although they took significant damage, they managed to pull the heavily damaged Large Ships to the rear and survive by tanking the hits.

“Ah, let’s get the repair ships running.”

“Ugh, I almost died.”

“We need to repair as much as possible while we have air cover to hold out.”

They decided to quickly repair the heavily damaged ships on-site using the repair ships that were moving in real-time with the fleet.

But just as they made that decision and the five repair ships in the fleet began repairs in earnest, about a minute later…

As Ramuramu’s Small Ships all moved forward to deal with the incoming aircraft spam, creating a gap…

“Oh, shit.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Enemy aircraft just teleported in from behind!!”

“Oh, crap.”

Icarus’s second assault team, using Kraken’s teleportation, struck the rear with impeccable timing.

The users, who were about to relax, quickly pulled back their Cruiser Battleships from the rear and tried to reposition them to the front.

Of course, no matter how fast their control was, the reaction speed of the Cruiser Battleships couldn’t keep up, and there was the fundamental issue of the ships being immobilized for emergency repairs, hindering their mobility.

Despite their urgency, most of the ships, including the Cruiser Battleships, were left in a clumsy and defenseless state.

Exposing their vulnerable rear, they were hit by the second assault team’s massive air raid.

But as the saying goes, “In misfortune, there is fortune.” The damage taken from the second assault team was, “on paper,” quite minimal.

The toughest Cruiser Battleships at the rear drew the aggro of the aircraft, drastically reducing the attacks on other ships, inadvertently preserving the fleet’s overall strength.

However, despite the minimal numerical damage, the users felt the impact even more…

Unlike the Cruiser Battleships, which were battered in the rear but didn’t break, the heavily damaged Heavy Cruisers and the repair ships clinging to them…

Suddenly exposed to a swarm of bio-flies without any cover, they desperately canceled the repair process and tried to move into the anti-air zone of the Small Ships.

But despite their desperate efforts, shortly after…

“Whoosh, cleanly!”

“Ah.”

No matter how tough the Cruiser Battleships were, their rear engine nozzles couldn’t be that sturdy.

As they were relentlessly pummeled, spewing smoke from the rear and becoming sitting ducks, the remaining bombs from the aircraft exposed them.

Not long after, the heavily damaged Heavy Cruisers and the repair ships attached to them were caught in the explosions caused by the aircraft’s attacks, ending their lives.

Even as they watched Icarus’s aircraft exhaust all their weapons and retreat…

“Shit, we’re screwed!”

“Why?”

“All our repair ships are gone!”

“Uh-oh.”

“We have no way to repair the Cruiser Battleships, Heavy Cruisers, or the rest of the ships.”

“This is bad.”

They…

Due to the failure to “store” the 5 repair ships organized in the fleet, the cruiser battleship became a sitting duck due to engine and propulsion destruction, and now we must protect it.

Instead of advancing as is, we formed an anti-air formation again around the wrecked cruiser battleship.

“We have our supporters, right? Let’s use them and figure something out.”

“Oh, genius.”

Originally, the support superhumans were brought in to speed up the repair ships.

Even if it’s slow, we decided to try to regain mobility through self-repair.

Of course, no matter what, those superhumans were only brought in to “increase the repair speed” of the repair ships.

The speed boost wasn’t something the superhumans actively did, but rather it came from the natural “buff aura” they emitted.

“We’re so screwed.”

“How are we gonna handle this…?”

“Ugh, relying only on auto-repair will take like a month.”

“This is a disaster.”

At least, we sent a signal to join the fleet of “Marshmallow,” which still had repair ships, and stopped there.

We formed an anti-air formation again, trying to survive the relentless aircraft raids from Icarus.

But while panicking and focusing solely on optimizing the “anti-air” formation, the Unity Clan members…

“Uh, oh, a fleet is coming from the front.”

“Wow, what the hell is that size?!”

“That’s freaking huge, like three times bigger than our cruiser battleship.”

Soon, they forgot that they came here for a “fleet battle,” not just to deal with mindless aircraft spam.

After Icarus’s main force, including a Kraken-class and two cruiser battleships, along with eight mercenary groups, appeared…

They were mercilessly bombarded by a barrage of powerful firepower, becoming utterly helpless.

And here, there was one more sweet problem for Icarus and a horrifying one for the Unity Clan…

“Ahhhhh!”

“Oh, crap…”

“Hey, you idiots! The fleet is attacking, and the large ships are stuck in the back!”

Earlier, while dealing with the incoming aircraft, Ramuramu’s anti-air ships—small ships—were on the front line.

Meanwhile, the large ships of the other three users, including Goliath, had retreated to the rear to avoid the air raids.

When Icarus suddenly brought out their main force and mercenaries to start a bombardment, Ramuramu’s small ships couldn’t even resist due to range issues and were slaughtered.

The problem was, unlike Ramuramu’s fleet being slaughtered by the superior range of the Kraken, cruiser battleships, and heavy cruisers including the Overseer…

“Ugh.”

“Ah, damn, the engine’s busted, can’t move…”

“Ugh, seriously.”

While retreating to the rear, they were out of range of Icarus’s fleet.

Due to the second wave of air raids, all the cruiser battleships, the core of their firepower, became sitting ducks.

Even as Ramuramu’s fleet was being slaughtered, they could only watch helplessly.

But fortunately, since Ramuramu was a top 500 ranker…

They managed to keep their cool and, while their fleet was being destroyed, carefully lured Icarus’s fleet back while retreating.

Sadly, our Icarus and fleet, thinking they had crippled the enemy’s main ships and were slaughtering them, got overconfident and advanced…

“Surprise, motherf***er!”

“Oh, sh*t.”

Thanks to Ramuramu’s solid mental game and camouflage tactics…

The Unity Clan members came up with a brilliant plan: pushing the immobile cruiser battleships to the front line with three intact heavy cruisers from behind.

As a result, they were exposed to a front-line bombardment of 7 cruiser battleships and the remaining heavy cruisers.

On the other side, there were 7 pure cruiser battleships, and even excluding those pushed forward, about 30 heavy cruisers joined the bombardment.

Even with the Kraken, two cruiser battleships, and the firepower of the Overseer, Icarus’s fleet was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer firepower difference.

They gave up the frontal fight and retreated to their base.