Ch.164Victory☆ Requires Much Contemplation (3)

“So like, the carrier aircraft are melting way better than expected?”

“The anti-air formation is amaziiing!”

“No, even considering that, they’re melting too easily. Are those gallery posts just lies?”

“Tsk.”

As the saying goes, in war and battle, one should never forget the golden rule against letting down one’s guard.

They mistook the “light carrier” aircraft deployed by Icarus for the “Kraken” aircraft mentioned in the gallery.

“Wouldn’t it be better if just one of us broke off and went straight for the enemy carrier?”

“Hmm.”

After Goliath successfully defended against the aircraft assault, opinions began to surface that the dangers of Icarus and Kraken mentioned in the gallery were clearly exaggerated.

The suggestion to just go and capture the carrier began to creep in.

Of course, all the Unity clan members agreed that this certainly seemed to be the case, but…

“Still, they’re ranked 3rd. They wouldn’t have achieved that through gambling, right?”

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

From the beginning, RamuRamu and another member who advocated caution seemed quite displeased with Goliath and the other users’ reactions.

“Why are we even hesitating here? It’s all because of those fancy aircraft that we’ve been moving so damn slowly, saying it’s dangerous.”

“Well… that’s part of the reason.”

Of course, the precise concern was that if they charged forward recklessly,

Kraken’s teleporting aircraft could attack from the “rear” – the blind spot for most ships –

And all the ships they’d brought along would be destroyed, resulting in a complete disaster…

“But look at those aircraft now. They’re not even facing our entire fleet, yet hundreds of them melted against just one person’s anti-air defense.”

“And you could tell a user was desperately controlling them manually in the middle, but they still all melted.”

“Hmm.”

Beyond their expectations, Icarus’s aircraft had dissolved too pathetically.

“Hmm-teresting…”

“Hey, what if we just push through now?”

“Agreed.”

“If we take too long, those Humanity bastards will probably throw a fit.”

They worried about the extreme anger from the Humanity clan backing them.

“Plus, the mercenary agency function is currently suspended, right?”

“Yeah.”

“If we waste time dragging this out and some bullshit event happens where the agency returns to function sooner than expected, we might be screwed.”

“Oh, that’s true.”

Along with the thought that once the mercenary agency normalized, Icarus might mindlessly deploy dozens of mercenary groups without caring about resource acquisition rates or stockpiled resources.

“According to information just provided by Humanity, that bastard sent the Pirate Empress and her fleet to where the Loki clan is.”

“Must have hired some outside mercenaries.”

They realized that Icarus’s fleet power had decreased much more than they had anticipated.

“Oh, time isn’t on our side after all.”

“‘After all’? I’m reporting you.”

“Ah.”

“This isn’t the time for that kind of talk. It seems like we’ve basically reached a decision, so let’s finalize it and move on.”

“Right.”

The Unity clan abandoned their cautious attitude and began taking action to thoroughly destroy Icarus.

“So then, Goliath, ‘Dolphin’, and ‘Bayraktar’ – you three have cruiser battleships, so just head straight for the base.”

“Okay.”

“Got it.”

“Yep yep.”

“Then I’ll take the detour?”

“Okay.”

Of course, they weren’t planning to risk everything against the 3rd-ranked player.

While advancing their “bait/main fleet” that would require Icarus to bring out most of his fleet including mercenaries to stop them,

“Marshmallow,” who commanded the light carriers, would lead his fleet on a separate route.

They formulated a plan to directly strike Icarus’s base to force surrender,

With the remaining RamuRamu basically protecting the main fleet and supporting Marshmallow’s fleet if necessary, and they increased their advance speed.

But while they were busy devising countermeasures against Icarus, struggling to piece together a plan among people who weren’t even coordinated…

Our Icarus had already succeeded in recharging the shredded aircraft.

Additionally, after observing the situation and seeing the enemy fleet abandon their anti-air formation for an assault formation,

While simultaneously watching the light carrier user break away to take an alternate route to secure air superiority…

===========

“Ang gimoring.”

“What kind of exclamation is that supposed to be?”

Seeing that the guys had finally taken the bait, I blurted out an exclamation(?) and decided to put my tactical plan into action.

And that plan was none other than…

“Now, instead of light carrier aircraft, here come the extremely well-leveled Kraken aircraft~”

“They’ll be quite shocked.”

Deliberately sending level 1 aircraft to lower their guard,

Then deploying Kraken and its aircraft that had become excessively powerful due to rapid leveling over the past week,

It was the so-called “Carrier One-Trick Operation” aimed at serving them a grand big-screw-you.

In fact, looking at the details, it was similar to the same old reliable method I had used against other users before.

“Have all the Kraken and light carrier aircraft launched?”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Divide Kraken’s aircraft into three groups, and begin the attack according to plan.”

“Understood.”

Among the 3,000 Kraken aircraft divided into three groups:

The 1st attack group would follow the light carrier aircraft, avoiding the enemy’s anti-air aggro to deal damage.

The 2nd attack group would teleport to strike from behind when the 1st attack group was delivering its blow to the enemy fleet.

Finally, the 3rd attack group, composed mostly of fighters rather than bombers, would engage in aerial combat with the light carrier user along with about four mercenary groups.

“Commander, wouldn’t it be better to hit the enemy’s main fleet with the 3rd attack group…?”

Of course, Jessica raised the question of focus and concentration in response to my tactical plan.

“I’ve considered that too, but I don’t think adding one more Kraken attack group would exponentially increase effectiveness.”

“Ah.”

“Besides, if we did that, we’d have no means to counter the light carrier’s aircraft.”

“Oh, that’s true.”

Instead of concentrating forces in a way that wouldn’t yield significant results,

I decided to counter the light carriers that could produce aircraft equivalent to one Kraken attack group with three ships.

I focused on the unfolding battle situation while also preparing to deploy my main fleet, including the 1st and 2nd cruiser battleships and the remaining mercenary groups, in case of emergency.

==========

And shortly after, the Unity clan’s main cruiser squadron…

“Hey, more aircraft incoming.”

“They’ve already recharged?”

“We did drag this out quite a bit.”

They sneered at the fly-like aircraft heading straight toward them.

“Fleet anti-air commence!”

“Sweep away all those flies!”

Despite their sneers, not wanting their precious ships to be scratched by these pathetic flies,

They unleashed massive anti-aircraft fire haphazardly at the approaching aircraft, not even bothering to form an anti-air formation.

As the aircraft melted like ice cream under this anti-air barrage…

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

“Agreed.”

Seeing how the aircraft melted even without the anti-air formation buff, any sense of caution regarding aircraft similarly melted away like snow in their minds.

Therefore, the three users leading the fleet – Goliath, Dolphin, and Bayraktar – took no precautions even when they saw the “approximately 1,000 aircraft attack group” following right behind.

And immediately after that.

“Wh-what the fuck?!”

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

They paid the price for their carelessness.

While Icarus’s level 1… no, now about level 5 light carrier aircraft melted away drawing aggro,

Kraken’s level 50+ aircraft that had flown in unharmed by the fleet’s anti-air network attacked…

Unlike the light carrier aircraft, Kraken’s aircraft were difficult to shoot down even one without the anti-air formation buff.

The result of combining slow and weak individual ship anti-air defenses of cruiser battleships and heavy cruisers – ships designed for fleet battles, not for intercepting small, highly maneuverable flying objects like aircraft.

-BOOM! BANG! CRASH!

“Oh shit?!”

“KYAAAAA!!”

“No fucking way, my heavy cruiser!”

Unlike cruiser battleships, which were less durable than battleships but still tougher than cruisers,

The heavy cruisers exposed to the massive torpedoes, bombs, missiles, rockets,

And various other weapons mounted on Kraken’s organic bombers were literally melting away in a catastrophe.