Ch.167″Instead of cowardly fighting head-on, let’s honorably resort to underhanded tactics.” (2)

Of course, our Shu-per Kraken, which collided with the light carrier at full speed, only ended up with a scratch on its frontal carapace.

Unfortunately, the light carrier, with its waist snapped and internal organs(?) exposed, ended its resentful ship-life without any time for automatic restoration or repairs.

“Aaaaaaaargh!!!”

Naturally, upon seeing his small and precious light carrier transform into a light/carrier, the commander Marshmallow’s mental state completely collapsed.

Hoping to preserve his remaining ships, he attempted an emergency warp back to base, abandoning the battle line.

But despite Marshmallow’s desperate intentions, the fleet’s retreat simply couldn’t happen because…

“Why can’t we retreat when I pressed retreat?!”

Unlike the mentally broken, wailing Marshmallow, there was a good reason his ships couldn’t escape even if they wanted to.

And that reason was none other than…

-“The Commander has ordered a retreat! Push them back somehow!”

-“Kyahahahaha! A mere S-rank against me?!”

His remaining two light carriers had allowed Icarus’s superhumans to infiltrate them.

Suddenly finding themselves in the middle of a siege battle, retreat was impossible.

At least for the flagship light carrier…

-“Don’t you dare try to steal our Commander’s ship, nya!”

-“Urrrgh!”

-“Smeragi! We’re here too!”

-“Ooh, good timing, nya!”

His only SSS-rank superhuman, ‘Smeragi,’ along with S-rank ‘Lion’ and ‘Banshee’ who rushed over from other ships as reinforcements, launched a joint attack.

They somehow managed to drive out Partia and her forces who had infiltrated the flagship, successfully regaining control.

But the situation with the other carrier was quite different…

-“Kyahahahaha!”

-“Aaaaargh! C-crazy!”

-“Commander! We need to scuttle the ship!”

Unlike the flagship, which had to fight one against many with only Partia deployed due to the situation,

The other light carrier was under joint assault from Griyanar in monster mode—no, Great Monster mode—and Ignis.

In contrast, the defending superhumans were the slightly outmatched SS-rank ‘Aura’ and ‘Marfaga’.

Despite his mental breakdown, Marshmallow—a top 500 ranker in the top 1% of all users—made a decision.

Realizing that continuing to resist would only result in the deaths of his precious superhumans, he finally decided to abandon the light carrier with tears in his eyes.

He ordered the two superhumans facing off against Griyanar and Ignis to retreat, quickly extracting them from the light carrier.

Of course, not wanting to simply hand over what was going to be taken anyway, he tried to scuttle it by ramming it into nearby ships.

Unfortunately for Marshmallow,

And fortunately for Icarus, Berial, who had been trying to capture nearby ships, quickly launched an assault upon receiving the situation report.

While the duo of Griyanar (whose chest remained small despite her otherwise large and beautiful body) and the simply small-chested Ignis were forcing their way through the light carrier’s hangar,

Berial drove her assault pod straight into the carrier’s engine room, preventing any mindless ramming and successfully capturing the light carrier.

Anyway, while Icarus’s fleet was achieving great success by sinking one enemy light carrier and capturing another,

Marshmallow, who had been trying to force a retreat of his entire fleet, realized that with so many ships under assault,

His planned forced retreat to base was impossible.

He gathered all his remaining ships, determined to protect his last light carrier at all costs.

Of course, no matter how hard he tried, given the fundamental difference in scale,

And the significant numerical disadvantage, his last carrier would soon either join the others at the bottom of the sea,

Or suffer NTR at the hands of Golden Sun Icarus, with the light carrier confessing to Marshmallow, “I’m sorry, but I like this person more because they’re (ranked) bigger…!”

Marshmallow’s mental state was crumbling, and he was considering attempting a glorious scuttling like the Imperial German Fleet, but right after having such thoughts…

—————————————-

-[fck]

-[holy sht]

-[here now]

-[I’m here]

-[hold on tight]

-[hold!]

-[Hold on!](Ramuramu)

-[Oh](Marshmallow)

—————————————-

While Marshmallow’s ships were barely holding on as they were being torn apart,

Ramuramu of the Unity Clan, having received the distress call, arrived at full speed with his entire fleet.

—————————————-

-[Rohirrim are coming!!!!](Goliath)

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOL](Bayraktar)

-[Wow, it’s already a mess, but perfect timing, right?](Dolphin)

-[Sob](Marshmallow)

—————————————-

Like a cavalry charge from a medieval fantasy film, they bombarded and rammed straight into the flank.

“Commander, the enemy fleet is retreating!”

“Ooooooooooh-!!!!”

Even though Icarus’s fleet still had forces remaining despite the “massacre,”

They seemed to have judged that fighting a 2-to-1 battle with Ramuramu’s relatively fresh fleet would be too much, so they ceased their offensive and retreated completely back to their base.

Marshmallow, grateful for the reinforcements that appeared at such a critical moment, moved to salvage his devastated fleet, but…

—————————————-

-[Hey, I lost almost my entire fleet lol](Marshmallow)

-[How bad is it?](Bayraktar)

-[One light carrier sunk, one captured, and about 50% of the rest of the fleet destroyed?](Marshmallow)

-[Holy moly](Goliath)

-[That bastard might come back, so I’ll escort Marshmallow while returning to your position](Ramuramu)

-[OK, we’ll set up an anti-air formation and wait, so hurry up](Dolphin)

-[We await thy repair ship!](Bayraktar)

-[What are you talking about?]

-[With half my fleet gone, there’s no way my resource harvesting ships could have survived](Marshmallow)

-[Eh?](Dolphin)

-[My remaining light carrier isn’t in great shape either, so I was hoping to borrow a repair ship when I get there](Marshmallow)

-[About… that](Dolphin)

-[We don’t have repair ships either](Bayraktar)

-[We got ambushed from behind while repairing, our cruisers exploded, and the ships attached to them blew up too lol](Bayraktar)

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

-[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

-[Are you serious?](Marshmallow)

-[Yep](Ramuramu)

—————————————-

Unfortunately, during the chaotic battle, all of Marshmallow’s repair ships had been destroyed as well…

The Unity Clan had come all the way to Icarus’s distant territory on an expedition,

Only to find themselves in a situation where they couldn’t make any repairs.

==========

Meanwhile, at that same time.

“Look at that light!!”

“…”

“Gondor is calling for aid!!”

Seeing that the enemy had somehow called for reinforcements, perhaps through chat, and clan support had arrived faster than expected,

I judged that continuing to fight would result in excessive damage, making it impossible to face the enemy’s main force later.

So I sent a retreat signal to the superhumans who were still trying to conduct more boarding operations, and decided to run back to base faster than anyone else.

And since I had confirmed that the enemy’s mobile force was annihilated and their main fleet was pinned down,

I decided to return leisurely and unhurriedly focus on repairing the fleet…

“Commander, something seems off about the Kraken’s condition.”

“Huh?”

I wonder what’s wrong with our baby who had been fine after devouring a medium destroyer that charged at it and ramming a light carrier.

Perhaps, like how people sometimes don’t feel pain during combat due to adrenaline,

Now that the adrenaline has worn off, it’s suffering from something like a concussion?

With such concerns in mind, I quickly docked two battlecruisers and the rest of the main ships,

And decided to check on our Kraken’s condition first.