Ch.141″Western learning is the right civilization.” (1)

“Holy shit, that’s definitely at least battleship-class!”

The Blue Fang pirate band of Koltar began to panic at the sudden appearance of the massive vessel.

Of course, if they had been simple, ignorant pirates, they might have thought the enemy was underestimating them by sending just one cruiser and two destroyers as escorts for such a large ship.

They might have chosen to flee at full speed without looking back…

“Captain, what should we do?”

“What can we do here?! Everyone prepare for battle immediately!”

As Icarus’s command staff had suspected and Marian had guessed:

They only appeared to be “ignorant pirates” on the surface. In reality, they were a proper “privateer group” operating under orders from the Xenovia Empire.

Unlike other ignorant regular pirate bands, they understood that the imposing massive vessel that appeared before them with only three escort ships meant that:

The surrounding airspace was already surrounded by a “fleet,” and they were deploying such a massive ship to crush them through sheer difference in class.

The fact that they would deploy such a monster meant they had no intention of letting them or their ships survive.

=They would never let them live! Understanding this…

“Damn it, we need to break through that fucking battleship and its escorts somehow!”

“If we destroy those bastards, their encirclement will fall apart!”

“Wow!”

“Ooooh!”

“Kill them all!”

Though not Koltar’s original intention, the pirates, who suddenly found themselves with their backs against the wall, began to burn with fighting spirit at the thought of subduing the enemy fleet and escaping.

Of course, regardless of that fighting spirit…

“Shit, what do we do?”

“Let’s try to escape during the chaos, Captain.”

Koltar and his executives were consumed by the thought of surrendering if necessary to preserve their lives.

———-

A few minutes earlier.

While our friend Koltar or whatever his name was falling into shock and terror…

-“The pirate fleet has left the resource zone.”

“Good, good.”

I was admiring the beautiful backside of the Kraken when other superhumans who had nothing to do came to find me.

Since everyone adamantly opposed me going to the front lines personally, Berial boarded the ship in my place.

I was receiving real-time briefings from Jessica at the command center and beginning to command the mixed fleet.

But seeing my imposing appearance, Jessica approached me again with a concerned expression.

“Commander, are you sure four ships will be enough?”

“Hmm?”

“The only real countermeasure for small ships is just two destroyers, and they’re not even the Azukran-class we bought from the event shop, just regular destroyers.”

“Well, yes.”

I was deeply moved to see our Jessica, who seemed to know nothing about military matters, growing up so well.

I wiggled my finger at Jessica, indicating there was no problem.

Logically speaking, a pirate band whose largest and “strongest” ships were just three light cruisers…

Against them, we had the Overseer-class heavy cruiser, which is among the top five in its class in terms of size, specifically designed to carry “battleship-class main guns.”

And the Kraken-class, which is over five times longer and equipped with hundreds or thousands of carrier-based aircraft, missiles, and assault pods.

There’s no way we could lose.

Anyway, seeing that the enemy fleet wasn’t fleeing but preparing to fight, I nodded and was about to open all of the Kraken’s biological hangars to launch an attack group of carrier-based aircraft toward their fleet.

But at that very moment:

—————————————-

<Warning!>

<‘Blue Fang’ pirate band has been granted the ‘Fight to the Death’ trait!>

<Fight to the Death>

<Attack power +10%, Rate of fire +10%, Evasion rate +5%, Surrender probability -95%>

—————————————-

‘Why is this happening to me?’

Seeing this unexpected development working against me, I decided to abandon any hope of a smooth operation and focus intensely.

“Launch all of the Kraken’s carrier-based aircraft, and position the first attack group.”

-“Understood, commencing launch of all carrier-based aircraft.”

Upon receiving my order through Berial’s direction, the Kraken opened its biological structures that resembled the breathing holes on a giant insect’s abdomen.

As the firmly closed biological structures opened, thousands of biological bomber “Gargoyles” commonly used by “monsters” revealed themselves.

Perhaps because so many came out at once, the launched Gargoyles appeared quite disorganized.

But that didn’t last long.

“Form attack groups one through three, and have the first attack group fly directly to the enemy fleet and attack from the front.”

-“Yes, Commander.”

“As soon as the second attack group completes position alignment, use the Kraken’s teleport system to attack the enemy fleet from the side.”

-“Understood, first attack group departing!”

-“And finally, launch the third attack group after the first attack group has delivered their attack.”

-“Understood, Commander. Next, second attack group into position!”

As we began to control the situation more methodically, the biological bombers, the Gargoyles, became as obedient as dolls.

They began to take on a brisk attitude and commenced their offensive according to my orders.

But unfortunately, the real challenge was just beginning.

-Brrrrrrrrrrrt!

-“Commander! The enemy fleet’s anti-air capability is stronger than expected!”

“No, my carrier aircraft!”

Since the ship classes “light cruiser” and “destroyer” inherently receive bonuses to anti-air capabilities, I had anticipated some aircraft losses when attacking.

But incredibly, whether the enemy fleet’s leader had some anti-air buff or not, one of the light cruisers turned out to be an “anti-air type” cruiser.

Thanks to the “Fight to the Death” trait that had just appeared, their already strong anti-air capability was further enhanced.

Even worse, all these anti-air capability enhancements were multiplicative.

The enemy fleet’s desperate anti-air attack intercepted more than 95% of the first attack group’s frontal assault.

More than 50% of those who managed to escape became casualties, except for the lucky few who got through.

Of course, thanks to the first attack group’s tragic sacrifice, the enemies’ attention was directed to the front.

Not missing this opportunity, I immediately deployed the second attack group via teleport as planned.

While their vision and attention were focused on the front, my second attack group poured a large number of torpedoes and missiles toward the distracted enemy fleet.

The pirates, receiving this surprise attack from our second attack group, hastily changed their formation.

At the same time, they managed to shoot down 10% of the second attack group that was attempting to attack again after failing to deliver their payloads or trying to retreat.

Of course, in the process, their precious ships accumulated various degrees of damage.

In particular, one destroyer took seven torpedo hits from the second attack group and exploded, providing only leveling points for the Kraken.

Nevertheless, they maintained their terrible anti-air formation and thoroughly maintained air superiority over their fleet.

At this rate, the Kraken’s babies… I mean, carrier aircraft would all be shredded, so I thought it might be better to just advance the Kraken and tear them all apart with its abundant tentacles.

“Oh, Commander!”

“I see it. They’re advancing toward us.”

Fortunately, rather than staying in one place and grinding down all the carrier aircraft, after receiving three massive carrier aircraft attacks—one of which came through a “teleport”—they must have judged that they would slowly die from the carrier aircraft at this rate.

The pirate bastards disbanded their anti-air formation and began charging toward us.

I pressed the return button for the carrier aircraft and decided to proceed with a proper fleet battle test.