Ch.166″Instead of cowardly fighting head-on, let’s honorably resort to underhanded tactics.” (1)

As expected, when Unity Clan saw Icarus’s tactical counter-charge, they immediately thought this was their chance for a major comeback and prepared to rush in.

“See? That guy’s just a one-trick carrier user. If we get in close, we’ll win!”

“Ohh…”

But their dreams and hopes were shattered upon colliding with reality.

—————————————-

<Cruiser propulsion system destroyed!>

<The ship’s speed and maneuverability reduced by -99%.>

—————————————-

“Argh!”

“Please get up, battle cruiser!!”

“Did you just dare call a cruiser a battle cruiser…?”

“Is that really what matters right now, you idiot!”

As they tried to pursue Icarus’s retreating fleet, all the cruisers that should have been chasing and annihilating the enemy had become completely immobilized.

Even with three medium cruisers pushing each disabled ship with all their might, there seemed to be a limit to what they could accomplish.

“Let’s stop and wait for now.”

“This is hopeless.”

Unity Clan’s main fleet ceased advancing and formed a defensive formation to somehow endure while waiting for auto-repairs. Of course, once they took this stance, Icarus’s fleet, which had been slowly retreating, completely turned around and disappeared.

Someone suggested they couldn’t just let them go and should pursue with only the undamaged ships, but…

“We have 7 cruisers and 10 medium cruisers completely immobilized. What’s the point of going after them with just the functioning ships…?”

“They still have 2 cruisers, and according to the wiki, they have Kraken and Overseer with battleship-level firepower.”

“The mercenary units took significant damage, but Icarus’s main force hasn’t suffered any losses except for some carrier-based aircraft. If we charge in, we’ll be slaughtered.”

Since the consensus was that pursuit would be realistically impossible, that suggestion was quickly shut down.

With the decision made, Unity Clan’s main fleet—unable to move their cruisers anyway—resolved never to be fooled by Icarus again. They abandoned mobility entirely and formed a complete fleet fortress formation—or rather, an anti-air formation—taking a thoroughly defensive stance.

But as they were diligently arranging their formation, suddenly playing what amounted to a base-building tycoon game, an urgent chat message from Marshmallow, the light carrier user, came through:

—————————————-

-[FKN HELP]

-[HELP]

-[COVER]

-[SMALL SHIPS]

-[SML SHP]

-[COVER ME!]

-[YOU GODDAMN BASTAAAARDS](Marshmallow)

-[?](Dolphin)

-[What the hell happened for you to curse like that?](Bayraktar)

—————————————-

Since Icarus’s fleet had retreated as soon as they started losing the artillery battle, they naturally assumed the light carrier user would also survive the battle with Icarus’s detachment and return soon.

The sudden flood of messages and cursing made the remaining four Unity Clan members confused, but right after that:

—————————————-

-[HLP]

-[HELP ME]

-[YOU FCKNG BSTRDS THE ENTIRE FLEET AGGRO CAME HERE](Marshmallow)

-[Image: A Kraken’s maw descending onto the light carrier’s deck, which is firing 250mm machine guns at 5,000 rounds per minute via CIWS]

-[Image: Kraken and 2 cruisers penetrating the center of the fleet]

-[Oh shit](Bayraktar)

—————————————-

When the images arrived from Marshmallow, who was typing with so many typos in his panic, they realized what had happened.

Icarus, recognizing he couldn’t defeat them head-on, had made it appear as though he was retreating to his base to repair his ships.

But in reality, instead of repairing his damaged ships at the base…

He had accepted some losses and brought his entire fleet to attack Marshmallow’s light carrier fleet, which had been operating separately for flanking maneuvers.

==========

At the same time.

Just as Unity Clan was realizing they’d been baited by Icarus…

“My, it’s terrifying when 7 cruisers fire all at once.”

“But with the enemy’s main force immobilized, the battle situation will resolve easily.”

I was feeling exhilarated as I threw my entire fleet at the enemy fleet that had been trapped, unable to move, pinned down by 4 mercenary units and 1 squadron.

-“For our savior!!!”

-“You crazy bitch!”

While it was fun to one-sidedly harass them with well-developed carrier-based aircraft, ultimately, as a real man, going all-in with no-guard mindless brawling was truly the golden rule of rules.

Besides, how refreshing was it to be able to beat them one-sidedly when we were taking almost no damage while they were?

Additionally, in the previous battle, the combat distance had been so great that unless you were Pashtra, who could fire battleship-class beam cannons, there was no chance to shine.

But now, we were beyond just bringing our ships close to the enemy fleet for a brawl…

“Commander! An enemy destroyer is ramming toward our cruiser’s bridge!”

“Contact the nearby cruisers and sink it.”

-“Commander, we’ll charge in now!”

“Yes, yes, though it seems Partia has already rushed in.”

With assault pods allowing superhuman deployment, and ships intentionally or unintentionally ramming each other, the situation had become complete chaos.

-“I will never surrender this position!”

-“Hmph! Give up!”

Ignis, wielding her newly made energy blade—doubling as a whip—fought even more spectacularly.

-“All troops charge, we must seize this ship’s command center and engines.”

While I was in charge of fleet command, Berial, who hadn’t participated in ship-to-ship combat for a long time, immediately boarded the enemy’s light carrier instead of a regular ship and quickly began taking control of various ship sections.

-“Eeeek, get away!”

-“Go!!!”

…Despite being on our team, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the enemy.

And as mentioned earlier, Partia had already rushed in on her own and turned an enemy cruiser into a slaughterhouse.

“Kyahahahaha! It’s a carnival!”

-BWAAAAAAANG!!!

Pashtra, with her “Trigger Happy” mode activated, was indiscriminately firing battleship-class beam cannons at the enemy (excluding allies), creating a massacre.

-“Commander, how do you like the power of my new ship-based combat monster?”

“Oh…”

Finally, Griyanar, saying she would shine after a long time, was buried in the body of a huge monster that looked like Ultr*man.

As soon as she charged into a destroyer, she showed overwhelming power by destroying everything inside.

All five superhumans were deployed for ship-to-ship combat against the enemy.

In addition, Kraken was swinging dozens of lush tentacles instead of carrier-based aircraft, supporting close combat.

The enemy fleet, filled with just the right escort ships except for the light carrier, couldn’t withstand the attack from our fleet led by cruisers.

Of course, since the opponent had come to face me, they seemed to be a ranker in their own right.

They quickly changed their ship placement, launched counterattacks with carrier-based aircraft that had survived the air battle with Kraken, and even rammed our charging ships with their light carrier, accepting damage.

-“Who dares try to take over our Commander’s ship!”

-“Oh my, the enemy’s superhuman has appeared.”

-“How impudent! You’ll pay with your life for attacking our Commander’s ship!”

-“I’ll slice those pathetic claws to pieces.”

Not only were there S-class or higher superhumans on the main ships, but the light carrier that Ignis had assaulted even had an SSS-class superhuman in charge of defense.

They were showing resistance, using every means at their disposal.

But no matter how much the opposing user struggled, our small and precious Kraken, as mentioned in the wiki tab, demonstrated extreme efficiency in these “small fleet battles.”

While the cruisers and other fleet ships covered its vulnerable flanks and rear, Kraken’s overwhelming size—nearly 10 times larger than the Overseer when seen up close—along with dozens of tentacles with medium cruiser main gun-level attack power at close range, and thousands of monster-style assault pods and short-range shotgun missiles, made it unstoppable.

The enemy, with their fleet in disarray, couldn’t retreat or resist effectively. When Kraken charged straight at their light carrier, they desperately tried to save it by turning the bow and sending a destroyer on a ramming course toward Kraken.

Of course, seeing that a regular destroyer wouldn’t be enough, they sent what appeared to be a gacha-obtained “heavy destroyer” with armored equipment.

But from Kraken’s perspective, this was merely like a crispy light donkatsu piece enlarged 1.5 times.

Our Kraken simply swallowed the heavy destroyer with its massive maw, chewing it up as it continued its charge.

Naturally, with the heavy destroyer becoming nothing more than a quick snack, not even buying a single second of time, the desperately turning light carrier ended up exposing its wide flight deck and side to Kraken.

The carrier frantically fired its remaining CIWS, anti-ship missiles, and even surviving bombers at Kraken, but our Kraken, with battleship-grade armor on its front, ignored such feeble resistance and charged straight in.

Under Kraken’s serious headbutt, the enemy user’s light carrier’s flight deck collapsed with a crash, and unable to withstand the mass of the much larger Kraken, its spine—no, its hull itself—split in two, resulting in its sinking.