Ch.478The Second Siege of Tannhäuser. (3)

Anyway, perhaps it was because such an insanely large-scale battle was taking place.

Unlike usual, my ships weren’t making much of a presence…

But that was only because of the sheer scale of the battle.

It wasn’t that my peculiar special ships weren’t doing anything.

—

<Tannhäuser Alliance Chat Room>

-[Artillery squad, let’s go!]

-[Annihilation ship ON]

-[Wow, look at that intense bombardment]

-[Shame it can’t do rapid fire]

-[For real]

-[I want an Ouroboros too]

-[If we raid Humanity, we might get one]

-[We’d die if we went there…]

-[That’s the level of commitment you need to eat well lol]

—

There was Urong, who was part of the “Artillery Squad” formed by users’ annihilation ships and siege battleships, delivering satisfying damage with 140% overcharged bombardments.

*KWAAANG!!*

“Direct hit on enemy front line!”

“Hresvelgr has sunk an enemy ship.”

“Excellent.”

“Enemy carrier aircraft approaching, interceptor missiles launched!”

“…Somehow it seems to be shooting down more carrier aircraft.”

“That’s because other ships are focusing on the front line battle.”

Despite clearly using its awesome strategic missile function to deal significant damage to the Punishment Fleet’s main ships, or showering missiles along with other ships to inflict considerable damage on the enemy front line…

Somehow Hresvelgr was hunting down more carrier aircraft than anything else.

*KWAAAANG!*

“Enemy fire hit Kraken, no damage!”

“I guess it’s because its frontal armor is dreadnought-class, it’s withstanding the incoming fire.”

“That’s fortunate.”

Two Krakens that had long since used up their teleport assault, but were serving as tanks thanks to their surprisingly sturdy frontal armor despite being “aircraft carriers”…

They were all diligently doing their jobs and helping in the battle.

And as always, our joker pick Neranjara was…

—

<Tannhäuser Alliance Chat Room>

-[Oh shit]

-[Anomalocaris’ propulsion system exploded!]

-[Who hit it?]

-[Seems like pure luck, but sweet as hell!]

-[Hit it with siege battleship warheads, blow it up good]

—

“Commander, we’ve destroyed all propulsion systems of the enemy super-large aircraft carrier.”

“Oh.”

“We’ll continue attacking the remaining enemy main ships as ammunition allows.”

‘How capable!’

Despite beams and shells with diameters thicker than its own hull length flying around crazily…

It would stealthily slip past missiles or torpedoes several times larger than its own hull while submerged.

Then it would immobilize those annoying and irritating Punishment Fleet main ships…

Or it would fire torpedoes at weakly armored areas like external bridges, temporarily disabling them.

It was showing meaningful results by carrying out perfectly appropriate terror operations to give the Punishment Fleet all kinds of hell.

Of course, if Neranjara were traveling alone, given its characteristic of having a “periscope” sticking out from subspace…

It would have been spotted early by the enemy fleet, had its periscope destroyed, and become useless…

—

<Tannhäuser Alliance Chat Room>

-[Hit Titan Arum’s bridge, hell yeah!]

-[I hit it too!]

-[With hundreds of small ships rampaging nearby, impossible to tell who did what lol]

-[Let’s just say everyone did it]

-[Like riding a bus with free kills]

—

As the chaotic but spirited chat room showed, the area where Neranjara was currently operating was already packed with allied user fleets.

With ships far, far larger than mere periscopes moving around, our Neranjara could leisurely humiliate the enemy fleet by spewing torpedoes.

Of course, if we had brought close-combat Superhumans aboard Neranjara, we might have been able to capture enemy ships as well…

“By the way, if we had people like Smeragi, Ignis, or Partia aboard the Neranjara-class, couldn’t we have captured a few ships?”

“To deploy those Superhumans, Neranjara’s hull would need to emerge from subspace, which would be too risky.”

“Ah, that’s quite unfortunate.”

Just as Neranjara’s overpowered spatial torpedoes had their damage severely nerfed due to balance issues, it seemed like another balance issue prevented us from using “assault pods” in subspace or allowing Superhumans to exit the ship.

‘Don’t restrict my creativity, administrators.’

With Jessica’s sentiment of “how unfortunate!” in mind, we had no choice but to deploy only Neranjara by itself.

And truthfully, even if Neranjara didn’t have such balance issues, bringing Superhumans wasn’t really recommended anyway.

“Besides, right now there are so many ships and Superhumans being deployed on both sides, aren’t there?”

“That’s right, the Superhumans deployed for close combat by commanders alone exceed 100,000 across all ranks.”

“The scale is so large that if my Superhumans were deployed, they might get swept away and die horribly.”

“I see.”

Just like the fleet battle, the “siege battles” (?) happening on each ship were equally insane in scale.

Over 100,000 close combat-oriented Superhumans, and nearly 150,000 if you included command-type or buff-providing Superhumans.

Add to that the troops from assault pods pouring out from ships that had crashed into the enemy fleet…

No joke, there were tens or even hundreds of millions of “regular troops” or “Superhuman battalions” fighting fiercely with the Punishment Fleet forces.

It was understandable why I’d be reluctant to carelessly deploy my precious Superhumans.

—

After the initial phase of unlimited firepower exchanges ended…

Both users and the Punishment Fleet had their forces reduced by more than half compared to the beginning.

The user side, which already had relatively fewer ships, had lost over 50% of their forces, partly because they kept sacrificing “common grade” ships that could be built anytime as meat shields.

This was worse than the Punishment Fleet, which had lost about 45% of their forces.

But paradoxically, thanks to the reduced scale, users’ creative and bizarre strategies began to truly shine…

—

Title: Now that the Tannhäuser battle scale is reduced, all kinds of crazy tactics are emerging

Author: Anonymous

Content: [gif of 50 salvage ships including Anchorage simultaneously attacking and dismantling one Titan Arum]

Like a Titan Arum getting torn apart

[jpg of a user’s wailing chat after teleporting carrier aircraft between the multi-layered decks of a Laflesia II-class, causing a suicide charge]

Some people are even copying the Kraken teleport tactics that AIs showed in previous events, but with carrier aircraft

Just watching this unfolds all kinds of absurd things

Comments:

-[Super fun~]

-[Now it’s finally starting to look like a proper game with maneuvers and stuff]

-[The firepower was too crazy before to do any flanking, but now that the scale is reduced we’re seeing some interesting scenes]

-[Carrier aircraft kamikaze… the spirit of the Imperial Japanese Army lives on…]

-˪[lolol]

—

Just as that post described, all kinds of creative tactics were being used.

—

Title: Wow where did all these Gigantia-class ships come from

Author: Anonymous

Content: [jpg of 50 Gigantia-class super-large cruisers from anti-establishment users performing flanking maneuvers and firing broadsides]

So that’s why the Pirate Union was so angry about them being stolen

But damn those are powerful

They’re not Titan Arum-class but they can destroy most things

Comments:

-[I think those are supposed to be the Pirate Union’s next main ships or something?]

-˪[As if pirates would make “next main ships”] (Author)

-˪[Our game was always like this, just think of the Pirate Union as another nation]

-[Other ships like Paragon-class or Lingua-class that were stolen from various factions keep showing up too]

-˪[Are they using four-dimensional pockets? They clearly fled after getting beaten by factions, but ships keep appearing from somewhere]

-˪[For real lol]

—

As the post comments suggested, with “high-grade ships that kept appearing from somewhere” joining the battle line…

The poor Xenovia Punishment Fleet was having a mental breakdown as they realized they weren’t punishing anyone – they were the ones being punished.