Chapter 232

Episode 232. The Final Push is the Mark of a Masterpiece…! (4)

Of course, most of the All-Star team weren’t ranked for nothing.

Despite the shock and horror, they started pouring on the attacks within a minute of spotting the Kraken.

The problem was, apart from the settings they’d heard before, the Anomalocaris, also a “battle carrier,” had its armor pierced too easily by assault pods.

On top of that, the Kraken was going full throttle, unleashing all its firepower (missiles, main guns, additional assault pods, and a few aircraft).

The sheer size and grotesque appearance of the Kraken added to the intimidation factor.

Without realizing it, they made the mistake of focusing all their firepower on the front instead of targeting the Kraken’s sides or weak points.

Of course, the price of that mistake was that during the precious time they could’ve stopped the Kraken’s charge, their firepower was concentrated on the “Dreadnought-class” frontal armor—something no one else had at this point.

As a result…

—

[Why isn’t it breaking?] (Menaldu)

[Oh right, that thing has Dreadnought-class frontal armor.] (Laura)

[Why are you only saying that now?] (Menaldu)

[We’re screwed.] (Indypatible)

—

The cruiser under Indypatible’s command, responsible for side defense, got neatly swallowed by the Kraken’s maw.

Like a transfer student running late with a piece of bread in their mouth yelling, “I’m late, I’m late!”

Our Kraken, with the cruiser in its mouth, charged forward and cleanly snapped the waist of Indypatible’s “Royal”-class cruiser battleship.

After using its massive weight to break the fleet formation, it unleashed its abundant tentacles.

Swinging tentacles with the firepower of heavy cruiser cannons in all directions, it plunged into full-blown chaos.

Of course, while the Kraken’s initial appearance had them panicking and stupidly focusing fire on the frontal armor, the ranked players quickly regained their senses and tried to flank the Kraken to target its “sensitive and fragile” areas.

But…

—

*Boom!*

*Kaboom!*

—

[Ugh, that thing brought four ships and it’s annoying as hell.] (Menaldu)

[They don’t have many ships, but neither do we, so it’s hard to push recklessly.] (Laura)

—

With all users except Betelgeuse barely managing to field more than 10 ships, most of their fleet was tied up by the 9-player fleet charging from the front or the 100-man (?) suicide squad from the rear.

Even though three users were assigned to this position, they only had less than 20 ships to work with.

—

[That cruiser’s bad enough, but the Kraken’s way too dangerous.]

[At least the aircraft are completely depleted, and it seems like they’ve run out of missiles after firing everything, so it’s just the tentacles and main guns we need to watch out for.] (Laura)

*[Icarus’s Kraken-Class Assault Battle Carrier has sunk Menaldu’s Kazemaru-Class Destroyer!]*

[Ah, damn it!] (Menaldu)

—

Thanks to that, even though they could’ve easily wiped out four heavy cruisers in no time, they were too busy dealing with their own problems, frustrated by the Kraken’s sneak attacks from behind.

—

Meanwhile, at the same time…

—

[Damn, the Kraken’s so OP!] (Menaldu)

[Icarus’s control is insane.] (Laura)

[Ugh, those four heavy cruisers keep covering it, this is tough.] (Indypatible)

—

As the Kraken tore through the fleets of the three users, Antares, who had taken command in place of the disconnected Betelgeuse, was starting to miss someone at this point.

-[Where did Raksha go, disappearing alone and what on earth is she doing?](Antares)

Of course, that person, naturally, was Raksha, a human weapon who had racked up nine consecutive wins with a heavily modified destroyer and had taken down a fellow top-ranked player, holding the second spot in the rankings…

But now, at the start of the battle, she had vanished somewhere with only her destroyer, leaving no clue as to where she was.

Could it be that the guy who made it to second place had given up on the battle and was hiding somewhere? Such suspicions began to creep in.

But surprisingly, as Antares desperately cried out for Raksha in the chat, right after that, two kill logs popped up, followed by Raksha’s chat messages flooding in.

—————————————-

-<Raksha’s Shimakaze-class destroyer has sunk Icarus’s standard-class light aircraft carrier!>

-<Raksha’s Shimakaze-class destroyer has sunk Icarus’s standard-class cruiser battleship!>

-<Raksha’s Shimakaze-class destroyer has sunk Chuchu’s standard-class destroyer!>

-[Holy cow]

-[Was a bit busy]

-[Anyway, I took out the main fleet that was trying to flank us, so I’m heading back to the main front](Raksha)

-[???](Antares)

-[I believed in you all along, seriously](Menaldu)

-[How on earth did you manage that with just one destroyer?](Arcadia)

-[Just… well?](Raksha)

—————————————-

Naturally, right after Raksha’s chat messages appeared, as the enemy fleet’s movements started to feel oddly complicated, Antares and friends(?) realized what Icarus’s plan was and let out sighs of relief.

—————————————-

-[So, the frontal assault from the beginning was just a decoy?](Menaldu)

-[Yeah, they lured our superhumans with a surprise attack from the rear, then used their capital ships to smash into the fleet’s flank, right?](Laura)

-[Smart guy](Menaldu)

-[It’s a pretty good strategy, though I doubt anyone expected Raksha to pop out and wreck everything](Indypatible)

-[We wouldn’t have been able to do that either](Laura)

—————————————-

No one knew exactly how she did it, but considering this was the same person who once toyed with three cruisers using just a patrol ship while wearing nothing but underwear, what couldn’t she do with a destroyer?

They could only nod at Raksha’s existence, which itself served as a kind of plot convenience.

But around this time, Melon, who had been silent until now, opened her mouth—no, her chat—again.

—————————————-

-[Hey, guys]

-[Didn’t we say Icarus only has five ships left?](Melon)

-[Yeah](Laura)

-[And among them, Kraken is busy fighting over there, and the light aircraft carrier and cruiser battleship are already sunk, right?](Melon)

-[Yeah, that’s right?](Antares)

-[Then where’s Hreðsvelgr, the one who was raining strategic missiles on us?]

-[Where did that one go?](Melon)

-[Oh](Antares)

-[…Right?](Königs)

-[Raksha, was Hrevel there when you attacked?](Menaldu)

-[…Nope](Raksha)

—————————————-

As the question “Where did our Hreðsvelgr go?” popped up in Melon’s chat, everyone following the battle felt a wave of confusion.

But less than a minute after that question arose, the Hreðsvelgr they had been searching for boldly appeared from a place they had never expected.