Chapter 164

Chapter 164. Lots to Worry About for Victory☆ (3)

“So, what I’m saying is, the aircraft are melting way faster than expected, right?”

“The anti-air formation is insane!”

“Even considering that, they’re melting too fast. Are those forum posts just full of it?”

“Sigh.”

In war and battle, it’s often said that complacency is a no-go. But they forgot that.

Icarus’s ‘light aircraft carrier’ planes were mistaken for the ‘Kraken’s’ aircraft mentioned in the forum.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just have one person break off and smash the enemy carrier?”

“Hmm.”

Led by the Goliath, which blocked the aircraft assault, it became clear that the danger of Icarus and the Kraken, as mentioned in the forum, was overestimated.

The idea of just rushing in and taking out the carrier started to creep in.

Of course, the Unity Clan members agreed with Goliath’s opinion, but…

“But still, they’re ranked 3rd. They wouldn’t gamble on that, right?”

“Honestly, it seems risky. I don’t think moving recklessly is a good idea.”

Ramuramu and another user, who had been cautious from the start, were less enthusiastic about Goliath and the others’ reactions.

“Why are we even doing this? It’s all because of those damn aircraft, making us move so slowly, right?”

“Well… that’s part of it, yeah.”

Of course, the real concern was that if they charged in recklessly, the Kraken’s teleporting aircraft could rain down on the ‘rear,’ the blind spot of most ships, and all the ships they brought could explode, leaving them in a mess.

“But look at those aircraft now. They’re not even targeting the whole fleet, just one anti-air network, and hundreds of them are melting.”

“Plus, you can see the user frantically trying to control them, but they still got wiped out.”

“Hmm.”

Beyond their expectations, Icarus’s aircraft melted away too easily.

“Interesting…”

“Hey, why don’t we just push through?”

“Agreed.”

“If we take too long, Humanity Clan will throw a fit.”

Worried about the wrath of their backers, the Humanity Clan.

“Also, think about it, the mercenary office is down right now.”

“Yeah.”

“If we drag this out and some event screws us over, the office might come back online sooner than expected, and we could get wrecked.”

“Oh, right?”

The thought that once the mercenary office is back, Icarus might not care about resource rates or reserves and just throw in dozens of mercenary squads mindlessly.

“Just got info from Humanity. They sent that Pirate Empress and her fleet to where the Loki Clan is.”

“Probably some external mercenary nonsense.”

Realizing that Icarus’s fleet strength was much lower than expected.

“Ah, time’s not on our side, huh?”

“Huh? Reporting.”

“Ah.”

“Now’s not the time for that. It seems like we’ve pretty much decided, so let’s wrap this up.”

“Right.”

The Unity Clan, shedding their timid attitude, finally started to take action to take down Icarus.

“Alright, so Goliath, ‘Dolphin,’ and ‘Byraktar’—you three have the cruiser battleship, so just head straight to the base.”

“Okay.”

“Got it.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Then I’ll flank?”

“Okay.”

Of course, they weren’t planning to go all-in against the 3rd rank.

While Icarus would need to bring out most of their fleet, including mercenaries, to stop the ‘bait and main fleet’ they were advancing, Marshmallow, leading the light aircraft carrier, took their fleet on a flanking route.

The plan was to directly strike Icarus’s base and force a surrender.

Meanwhile, Ramuramu would protect the main fleet but be ready to support Marshmallow’s fleet if needed, speeding up their advance.

But while they were busy trying to coordinate their plans, with everyone out of sync…

Our Icarus had already successfully recharged the aircraft that had been shredded.

On top of that, seeing the enemy fleet drop their anti-air formation and switch to an assault formation, while the light aircraft carrier user took a separate flanking route to secure air superiority…

“Ah, perfect.”

“What kind of exclamation is that?”

Finally seeing them take the bait, I let out a triumphant (?) exclamation and decided to put the plan into action.

And that plan was none other than…

“Alright, from now on, it’s not the light aircraft carrier’s planes, but the ridiculously well-leveled Kra…”

“Ken aircraft incoming~”

“You’re gonna be shocked.”

Deliberately sending out level 1 aircraft to loosen their attention.

Then deploying the Kraken and its aircraft, which have become ridiculously strong after a week of rapid leveling.

This is what you’d call the ‘Carrier One-Tool Operation,’ aiming to give them a grand ‘big screw-you.’

Honestly, if you look closely, it’s similar to the way I dealt with other users before—like a bowl of soup.

“Did the Kraken and all the light carrier aircraft launch?”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Divide the Kraken’s aircraft into three waves and initiate the attack as planned.”

“Understood.”

Out of the 3,000 Kraken aircraft divided into three waves.

The first wave follows the light carrier aircraft, avoiding enemy anti-air aggro to deal damage.

The second wave teleports to strike from the rear when the first wave is hammering the enemy fleet.

Finally, the third wave, mostly filled with fighters rather than bombers, is sent to engage in aerial combat with the light carrier user, including about four mercenary groups.

“Commander, wouldn’t it be better to use the third wave to strike the enemy’s main fleet…?”

Of course, Jessica brought up the idea of focus and concentration in my plan.

“I’ve thought about that too, but adding another Kraken attack wave wouldn’t exponentially increase the effect.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Plus, we wouldn’t have a way to counter the light carrier’s aircraft then.”

“Oh, right.”

Instead of focusing on something that wouldn’t make much difference.

We decided to counter the light carrier, which can spew out a Kraken attack wave’s worth of aircraft with just three ships.

I then focused on the ongoing battle, preparing for any contingencies by deploying the main fleet, including the 1st and 2nd Cruiser Battleships, and the remaining mercenary groups.

==========

And shortly after, the Unity Clan’s main cruiser fleet…

“Hey, more aircraft are coming.”

“Already recharged?”

“We’ve been dragging this out for a while.”

They smirked at the aircraft flying towards them like flies.

“Fleet anti-air, commence!”

“Wipe out those flies!”

Of course, despite their smirks, they didn’t want their precious ships to get scratched by those pesky flies.

So they unleashed a barrage of anti-air fire at the incoming aircraft, not even bothering to form an anti-air formation.

And once again, the aircraft melted away like ice cream under that anti-air fire.

“Now I get it, those aircraft are trash.”

“Agreed.”

Through the sight of the aircraft melting without the fleet’s anti-air buff, the word ‘caution’ regarding aircraft also melted away in their minds.

So the three users leading the fleet—Goliath, Dolgodae, and Bairaktar—didn’t prepare any countermeasures even as the next wave of ‘about 1,000 aircraft’ approached.

And right after…

“Uh, what the hell?!”

“Why aren’t those bastards getting shot down?!”

They paid the price for their complacency.

While Icarus’s level 1—no, now around level 5—light carrier aircraft melted away, drawing aggro.

The Kraken’s level 50+ aircraft, unscathed by the fleet’s anti-air, swooped in…

Unlike the light carrier aircraft, the Kraken’s aircraft, which are hard to shoot down without the anti-air formation buff.

And the combination of the slow and weak anti-air of the cruiser battleships and heavy cruisers, which weren’t designed to intercept small, high-mobility aircraft like fighters.

-KABOOM! BOOM! CRASH!

“Ah, what the hell?!”

“KYAAAAAH!!”

“Wait, my heavy cruiser!”

Unlike the cruiser battleships, which are tankier than cruisers but still weaker than battleships.

The heavy cruisers, exposed to the Kraken’s bioweapon bombers loaded with torpedoes, bombs, missiles, rockets.

And all sorts of other armaments, were literally melting away, causing a massive disaster.