As the dragon wings disappeared, the young lady’s costume restored its original appearance—a gorgeous and elegant battle costume. The battle costume looked like a sophisticated evening gown. The bracers on her wrists flickered in a silver radiance and the silver accessories around the collar made her seem accomplished and experienced. The long dress almost touched the floor, its hem accentuated with gold silk and silver threads, emanating a dazzling magical radiance. What was more eye-catching was the glittering light dust floating above it. Matched with this dark, flowing long dress, the young lady was as though standing on a heavenly river and looking into the distance. Even though the battle costume was beautiful, it looked unseemly, matching the huge murder weapon of almost two meters long.
“How’s this, Big Brother? Does it look nice on me?”
Gazing at the dress that accented her figure, his younger sister spun around, lifted the hem of her skirt, and shot a witty look at Rhode. Upon seeing her gaze, he nodded in agreement. Even though the costume didn’t match the menacing battle ax in her hands, it did suit her perfectly if he disregarded the huge battle ax. But the only issue now was exactly what sort of power this costume possessed. Rhode couldn’t help but consider whether he should borrow the costume from her and check its attributes. After all, he had knelt in admiration after looking at the stats of the battle ax. He was highly suspicious that he might lay flat on the ground this time after seeing the stats of this battle costume…
Shortly after, Rhode didn’t need to stress over it anymore because he heard Celia’s voice from their spiritual communication.
“Reporting, Master. We’ve been ambushed!”
***
“Ambush!”
“Enemies are attacking from the right! Madam, what should we do?!”
An earth-shattering barrage of artillery filled the sky. Gaya stood on the bridge and observed the battlefield ahead. A few moments ago, the floating magic warships she led faced an ambush from the ghost fleet. She was stunned as the ghost fleet appeared out of nowhere, where even the sensory crystal from the Munn Kingdom failed to detect their arrival. If it weren’t for the enchanted field of the Holy Maiden Statue that was triggered, perhaps they would have faced an imminent catastrophe after they finally realized the infiltration of enemies.
When did the ghost fleet become so competent in concealing themselves so well?
Gaya couldn’t help but knit her brows. She pondered deeply. Even though the ghost fleet was widely known for their powerful concealment, it was due to this reason that the floating magic warships in the Munn Kingdom focused a lot in countering this aspect. Logically speaking, the ghost fleet could never pass through the cordon of the floating magic warships without being discovered. But this time, they actually succeeded.
Could it be that the ghost fleet has something that helped them sneak in?
No. Now isn’t the time to consider this question!
“All warships, hear my orders. Attack formation—onward assault!”
“Huh? Are we really going to attack them, Madam?”
Upon hearing the command, the battle angel steering the ship was startled. She couldn’t help but turn around and gaze at Gaya as the latter nodded swiftly.
“That’s right. The enemies were prepared to catch us off guard. If we choose to retreat now, based on our speed, we will be shot down before we turn around successfully. I will never do something so stupid. Pass down the order—all warships engage in attack formation. Target: Ahead. Everyone, get ready to attack. Activate the defensive shield and ready the cannons. After we break through the encirclement, turn in the anticlockwise direction and move toward the rear!”
In quantity, even though there were more floating magic warships from the Munn Kingdom than there were in the ghost fleet, Gaya didn’t underestimate the enemies. It was apparent that the enemies decided to focus on one breakthrough point, which was why Gaya chose to retaliate in a similar style to have a high chance of succeeding. But if she were to launch a counterattack naively based on the larger number of warships on her side, it would be an entirely different matter.
The bugle sounded. A holy brilliance shone and coalesced into a sturdy barrier that enveloped the floating magic warships. Fortunately, Gaya’s reaction was quick enough. Apart from the dozen floating magic warships on the periphery being surrounded and sustaining different extents of damage, the rest on the inside was mostly fine. At that moment, under Gaya’s command, the Munn Kingdom’s warships gathered together and burst ahead like a razor-sharp blade.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Countless flares erupted along with explosions on the defensive barrier, causing the warships to tremble and rumble. However, no one backed off. They continued to charge into the sea of the ghost fleet, taking on the artillery barrage. One had to admit that this move from Gaya was indeed effective. She chose to attack head-on and this decision decreased the amount of damage taken by the warships. On the other hand, in order for the ghost fleet to deal the highest damage to the Munn Kingdom’s warships, they were basically positioned sideways from where their attacks were launched. Therefore, when Gaya grouped up the warships and advanced, the ghost fleet couldn’t resist their breakthrough. Even though the ghost fleet tried to change their direction and continued to launch attacks from the sides of their hulls, Gaya wasn’t foolish either. How could she possibly give them that chance?!
“Continue to advance. Fire all cannons. Target: enemy warships ahead. Fire!!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A string of flashes erupted in the sky ahead. Facing this retaliation from the Munn Kingdom’s warships, the ghost fleet reacted correspondingly. Their hulls flickered in a spiritual radiance before turning indistinct and transparent, swiftly and merging into one with the fog. Then, most of the artillery barrage from the Munn Kingdom passed through the ghost fleet, blasting at the empty sky in the distance.
Spiritual form!
This was one of the strongest skills of the Country of Darkness’s ghost fleet, and they relied upon this to become the dominator of this night sky. But now, this was also the chance that Gaya was waiting for!
“Continue to fire the cannons. All warships, heed my command. Move at top speed! Attack!”
Along with the whizzing cannon blasts, the warships penetrated the illusory ghost fleet mercilessly and turned anticlockwise swiftly. The ghost fleet didn’t expect the enemies to seize this opportunity to pass through their blockade line and couldn’t help but fluster in an instant. Even though the ghost fleet wanted to launch attacks on the warships ahead, the biggest flaw of their spiritual form was that they couldn’t materialize when objects were passing through them. If not, the objects might split them apart entirely. In this case, if the ghost fleet were to materialize at that moment, the Munn Kingdom’s warships inside them would surely tear them apart and they would collapse thoroughly.
“This group of damn bast*rds! Worthless!”
Gazing at the Munn Kingdom’s warships that were breaking through his defensive line, Rolan gnashed his teeth tightly. He gripped his smoking pipe with his hand and tapped on the armrest anxiously. Rolan thought he could split up the ghost fleet’s formation and launch a pincer attack as soon as the enemies ambushed. But he was surprised that the enemies were so determined in their assault. Before the ghost fleet was able to separate themselves, the enemies had already arrived before them. If Rolan decided to put up a tough fight by sacrificing a few of his warships, it wasn’t impossible to stop the opposition. But the problem was that the ghost fleet was too skillful in the spiritual form, so they turned into spiritual form instantly at the sight of the pouncing enemies. In the end, this allowed the Munn Kingdom’s warships to puncture them instead.
“Trash! Nothing but a pile of worthless trash!”
Rolan was also aware that this wasn’t the fault of his subordinates. After all, turning into spiritual form was kind of like an instinctive reaction for the ghost fleet. However, what made him blow his top was that these guys acted so quickly, but on the wrong occasion… If their ambush earlier was this fast, perhaps they would have already taken down several Munn Kingdom warships!
These bast*rds! When it comes to surviving, they act quicker than anyone!
At this thought, Rolan let out a sigh. But this didn’t mean that he was out of ideas. Apart from turning into a spiritual form, the ghost fleet also had another unique skill—teleportation. They could traverse in the death fog freely and launch attacks at the same time. But despite that, the Munn Kingdom also had a trick up their sleeves. The aura protection of the Holy Maiden Statue eradicated the surrounding death fog, so the ghost fleet was unable to roam within the death fog. Facing this situation, Rolan let out another sigh. He turned around and bowed respectfully to the pitch-black figure behind him.
“I’m seeking your help, Sir.”
“All warships turn in the anticlockwise direction. Target: ghost fleet. Contain their firepower and retreat at full speed!”
At that moment, standing on the flagship, Gaya gazed solemnly at the ghost fleet and gave a quick command. Even though it was effortless for them to penetrate the ghost fleet, this raised her guard even more. Based on her understanding on the ghost fleet, if the ghost fleet didn’t have any strategy and relied upon terrible skills to enter a contest against the floating magic warships, the ghost fleet would be basically throwing their lives away. However, since the ghost fleet had ambushed her, she was certain that there was something they could count on and wouldn’t be as useless as they were right now. Due to that reason, Gaya chose to retreat instantly after breaking through the encirclement. It wasn’t that she was timid, but that something was definitely unusual. As the Munn Kingdom’s warships were in charge of the front lines while Rhode’s magic fleet were responsible for the rear, Gaya’s top priority was to withdraw the warships back to the defensive range of the magic fleet in the rear and figure out—in safety—what exactly was going on with the ghost fleet!
At that moment, the situation took a sudden turn.
“Madam, something strange is happening!”
“What?!”
Gaya was startled. She looked out of the window hurriedly and twitched her brow upon witnessing the vast white fog turning into a scarlet hue! She felt like the situation was far from good. She had never seen the ghost fleet’s death fog turn scarlet all of a sudden.
Gaya raised her guard and ordered swiftly.
“Everyone, retreat at the fastest speed! Activate all defens—!”
Boom!
Before Gaya completed her command, her warship rocked heavily to the side as though it were hit by something. Not only that, but the speed of the warship also decreased drastically. This bewildered Gaya immediately. She knitted her brows and scanned the surroundings.
What exactly is going on?
At this thought, Gaya shook her head and remained silent. She knew the red fog was a strange phenomenon. But now, she didn’t have the time to ponder it any longer. As long as her warships separated themselves from the death fog and returned to the safety of the magic fleet, it would be her victory. But this apparently wasn’t as simple as she had imagined. She didn’t know what strategy the enemies deployed that reduced the speed of her warships by two-thirds. It was so slow that it felt like they were dragging their feet in mud.
At that moment, she heard another loud, sudden explosion.
Boom!
“Reporting Madam, three of our warships are destroyed!”
“What?!”
Gaya was flabbergasted. She looked at the direction of the explosion and turned grim.
A pitch-black figure was hovering where the three destroyed warships were. Even though she couldn’t identify who that person in the red fog was, she sensed a powerful, surging energy!
“Damn it!”
Looking at this scene, Gaya gnashed her teeth and ordered swiftly.
“Fire the signal immediately! Request for backup!”
