176: Chapter 176 Being Watched

"Boom!"

This split-second dodge narrowly avoided a fatal blow. The deep blue beam grazed the edge of the cockpit, completely vaporizing the warship's port side along with the auxiliary thrusters.

Although the command center was saved, the warship lost its balance instantly after losing power on one side. The gravity system collapsed completely, and the entire warship, like a bird with broken wings, rolled violently in mid-air and plummeted. The Dragonman soldiers inside were thrown into a chaotic heap, wailing in agony.

Just at this moment of chaos, another anomaly occurred!

"Bang—crash!"

A deafening sound suddenly came from the broken armored outer wall of the main ship.

A streamlined mecha, with four high-energy particle propulsion wings unfolded on its back, smashed through the bulletproof glass and slammed into the command center like a god descending from heaven.

It was Sheila, who had been lurking nearby!

"Enemy attack! Kill her!"

Captain Cliff's eyes turned blood red, and he fell into a complete frenzy.

He roared, and scorching white steam spewed from the gaps in his dark red dragon scales as a set of heavy power armor instantly covered his entire body.

He grabbed a high-frequency vibrating battle axe the size of a door panel with both hands, looking like a Tyrannosaurus Rex driven to a desperate situation. He stomped, causing the alloy floor to cave in with a boom, and swung it fiercely at the mecha.

Facing the full-force blow of a high-ranking Dragonman, Sheila did not retreat in the slightest.

The mecha's wrists flipped, and with a "hum," two plasma high-frequency light blades three meters long instantly popped out.

"Clang—!"

The battle axe and the light blades collided head-on, erupting with a visible shockwave of wild energy, and blinding sparks instantly illuminated the dim cabin.

Captain Cliff thought he could suppress the opponent in strength by relying on the Dragonman's racial talent, but he was horrified to discover that this relatively petite mecha's engine explosive power was like a monster, actually holding his heavy axe firmly in place, unable to move an inch!

"Reaction is too slow."

Sheila's emotionless voice came from the communicator. The next second, she utilized the Wing-kin's innate spatial sensitivity to maneuver the mecha into a ground-hugging lateral spiral dodge that defied the laws of physics.

The mecha slid under the blade of Captain Cliff's axe like a swimming fish, and the light blade on her right arm cut upwards along the long handle of the battle axe, pulling out a long trail of dazzling sparks, precisely cutting off the axe's power line!

Captain Cliff was shocked and wanted to abandon the axe and retreat, but it was too late.

The dark silver mecha took advantage of the momentum to close in. The left-hand light blade turned into a blue afterimage, piercing into the seam at the neck of Captain Cliff's armor at a tricky angle. With a "shhh" sound, it instantly severed his cervical nerves.

Before Captain Cliff could scream, the right-hand light blade of Sheila's mecha slashed horizontally!

"Splurt!"

A dark red head wearing a heavy helmet flew into the sky, and scalding dragon blood splashed onto the cold outer armor of the mecha, emitting wisps of white smoke. The arrogant Dragonman squad leader was beheaded on the spot!

With the commander dead, the remaining Dragonmen in the command center fell into immense panic. But Sheila did not give them any chance to breathe. Like a hungry wolf breaking into a flock of sheep, the mecha turned into a flashing silver lightning bolt. As the light blades danced, flesh and blood flew, and the remaining adjutants and soldiers were slaughtered in less than a minute.

The entire warship, except for the shrill alarm, was devoid of any life.

Cloud Top Fortress Core Control Room

Bringing the gaze back from the distant distance to the fortress in the rear.

Zhou An leaned comfortably on his leather boss chair, his eyes fixed on the individual combat footage transmitted in real-time on the holographic screen, and a satisfied arc slowly hooked at the corner of his mouth.

"Well done."

Zhou An picked up the hot coffee beside him and took a gentle sip.

Looking at the dark silver mecha standing in the blood and metal wreckage on the screen, Zhou An couldn't help but feel a little emotional. Recalling the slightly immature Wing-kin girl he first met, she was now a completely different person.

Fed by massive top-tier resources, supported by infinite resources, and tempered by countless life-and-death battles, the current Sheila had completely transformed into a cold, deadly, and absolutely loyal blade.

Both the decisiveness of her strikes and her ability to capture combat opportunities were far better than at the beginning.

"Boss, the Aurora Cannon array has entered cooling mode, and the battlefield has been cleaned up. Not even a hair of this vanguard group from the Dragonman Guild is left."

Luo Ning's communication sounded on the channel, her tone filled with excitement.

"Very good."

Zhou An put down his coffee cup.

"Classify and store all the loot collected. Since the Dragonman Guild has already reached out, the next act will be getting livelier."

As Luo Ning disengaged the charging state of the Aurora railgun, the sky full of deep blue light spots gradually dissipated into the thick clouds.

The twenty LV5 warships that went out to clear the area, along with Sheila who completed the solo harvesting mission, all successfully returned to the defensive perimeter of the main force centered on the wind chaser.

In the control room of the Cloud Top Fortress, Zhou An and Grace stood side by side in front of the huge holographic star map.

"The battlefield has been cleaned very thoroughly; except for the radiation that hasn't had time to dissipate, nothing is left."

Luo Ning typed rapidly on the keyboard, summarizing and uploading the data.

Zhou An nodded slightly, his deep gaze fixed on the coordinates where the firefight had just occurred, his eyes exceptionally clear.

"We can't stay here long."

Zhou An traced a forward route on the light screen with his finger.

"We just used three hundred railguns to sweep the ground; the energy fluctuations were too great. Moreover, a full thousand-man formation of the Dragonman Guild evaporated instantly; their top brass will definitely not let this go."

Grace agreed: "The Dragonman Guild has always been protective of their own and vengeful. Their main force must already be on the way. If we are surrounded in place by their army, even with the fortress's firepower network, we will fall into a very passive war of attrition."

"So, before their intelligence is updated, let's leave first."

Zhou An gave the order decisively.

"All fleets set sail! Maintain a stealth formation and advance at full speed toward the 40% zone ahead. Jump out of their existing encirclement and stir the water even more."

Following the order, the massive Cloud Top Fortress erupted with a low engine roar. Around it, fifty-three brand-new LV5 warships guarded the wind chaser like stars surrounding the moon. This steel torrent, armed to the teeth, tore through the sea of clouds and sailed towards the more chaotic star region ahead.

One hour later.

Original engagement airspace.

In the gloomy space, there was dead silence.

Space suddenly twisted violently, and dozens of massive Dragonman warships, like giant beasts tearing through space, suddenly descended upon these ruins.

This was the main fleet of the 4th Division led by Vice Minister Stella herself.

Standing in the warship's command room, Vice Minister Stella's face was so gloomy it seemed like it could drip water.

"Report, Vice Minister!"

The radar operator's voice was trembling.

"No signs of life detected in the surrounding area... Captain Cliff's 7th formation is confirmed to have been completely wiped out. And... and..."

"And what? Speak!"

Vice Minister Stella swept a cold glance at him.

"And we didn't receive any combat footage or distress signals. It's as if the 7th formation was directly erased by some irresistible destructive firepower in a very short time, not even lasting the dozen seconds it takes to transmit data to the main network!"

Hearing this report, Vice Minister Stella's dark red pupils contracted suddenly.

A full battalion of one thousand men and twenty LV5 frigates; even against a main fleet of the same level, they could definitely tear off a piece of flesh. How could they evaporate instantly without even making a splash?

"Conduct a deep energy backtracking immediately!"

Vice Minister Stella ordered.

A few minutes later, the detection results came out.

"Vice Minister, we have captured very clear space warp residues in the wreckage area. The system comparison confirms... it's the engine signature of two LV6 warships! And we have locked onto their flight trajectory as they fled, and they are escaping toward the 40% airspace ahead!"

"Two LV6?!"

The intelligence clearly stated that the White Feather Guild only had one LV6 warship. Where did this second one suddenly pop out from?

But after a brief shock, what surged in the depths of Vice Minister Stella's eyes was even more fanatical greed and murderous intent.

She knew very well that with the little force she had under her command, the risk of pursuing two LV6 warships with unknown firepower was too great. She had to pull others into the game.

Vice Minister Stella turned decisively and entered two top-secret authorization passwords on the console.

"Connect to Vice Minister Garick and Barton's private channels!"

Accompanying two bursts of static, two tall and burly holographic projections rose in the center of the command room.

These were the other two powerful vice ministers of the 4th Division.

The person on the left was named Vice Minister Garick, his body like a small mountain, his dark golden dragon scales covered in scars of all sizes, with a blind left eye, exuding a ferocious aura of having crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

The person on the right was named Barton, his arms unusually thick, with two huge high-frequency plasma heavy axes on his back, and a cruel and bloodthirsty grin always hanging on the corner of his mouth.

"Vice Minister Stella, pulling us online in the middle of the night, it better be something fun."

Barton scratched the horns on his head and spoke in a muffled voice.

Vice Minister Stella didn't waste words, getting straight to the point: "Captain Cliff is dead, and the 7th formation was wiped out by someone in the rear. It was done by the remnants of the White Feather Guild."

"A bunch of winged stray dogs, able to eat up Captain Cliff's one thousand men?"

"They didn't just eat them up; they insta-killed them. Because they have two LV6-level warships in their hands."

Vice Minister Stella directly synchronized the energy trajectory and escape direction captured by the radar to the two.

"They are currently squeezing toward the front line along this route, trying to escape our defense zone."

Hearing two LV6s, the eyes of Vice Minister Garick and Barton changed instantly, and the intense greed almost overflowed the holographic screen.

"Your current stationing positions are exactly in front of their escape route." Vice Minister Stella tapped the table coldly. "I will bite their tail from behind and pursue them, and you will open up a defense network from the front to intercept them. The three of us will encircle them and lock these two LV6s in the middle!"

"Hahahaha! Good idea!"

Barton laughed excitedly, and the two heavy axes collided heavily.

"LV6-level prey is not common. If we can smash them, the cores and high-level modules we can salvage will be enough to upgrade our subordinates' rides to another level!"

Vice Minister Garick also grinned, revealing his white fangs, and quickly calculated the combat power comparison between the two sides in his mind: "Although the opponent has two LV6s, their subordinate frigate fleet has at most fifty or sixty LV5s. Our three families combined have more than three times their number of LV5-level warships! Not to mention three LV6s fighting their two!"

"The advantage is entirely on our side."

Vice Minister Garick finalized the decision.

"Vice Minister Stella, you just keep driving the ducks from behind. As long as they dare to enter our interception circle, I guarantee I'll pluck all those white-feathered bird people, and throw them into the reactor as fuel!"

Looking at the fanaticism in their eyes, Vice Minister Stella nodded with satisfaction.

...

The massive mixed fleet was like a pitch-black steel dragon, with the Cloud Top Fortress as the core, cleaving through the rolling thick clouds, and advancing at full speed toward the deeper war zone.

The fleet had already flown several hundred nautical miles. Along the way, the radar had occasionally captured some ships with Beast race markings.

But after seeing such a massive steel torrent, these ships were like startled schools of fish, not even daring to charge their weapons, and immediately turned around, fleeing desperately in the opposite direction.

These were mostly low-level Beast race survivors drifting outside the main battlefield.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the fortress's control room, Zhou An looked at the tiny tail flames fleeing in panic, and couldn't help but sigh softly.

"It seems that war is not a good thing for those ordinary survivors who just want to develop peacefully, whether they are in the Human race or the Beast race."

Zhou An held a cup of warm water, his tone filled with emotion.

Not everyone was so tightly bound to those super guilds. Many people initially joined a guild just to find a platform in this cruel world where they could trade stably and huddle together for warmth. Who would have thought that one day they would be forced to be involved in this meat-grinder-like total war as cannon fodder.

The law of the jungle does not believe in tears; once the gears of war turn, no one can stay out of it.

Another few hours passed.

Just as the fleet was about to cross into the 40% boundary area ahead, the shrill red alarm sounded in the originally quiet main control room hall without warning!

"Alert! Ultra-large-scale fleet signal detected directly ahead!"

The radar operator operated the console with both hands, projecting the image onto the big screen, his voice filled with undisguised tension: "Signal source characteristics comparison complete... It's the main force of the Dragonman Guild! They have blocked our only path!"

Standing in front of the tactical table, Grace's eyes turned cold, and she gave the order without hesitation: "The 1st and 2nd formations, detach from the main formation and move out fifty miles for close-range reconnaissance! All other warships, immediately push the energy shield output power to the maximum, main guns start preheating, and the entire fleet enters the highest level of combat state!"

"Yes!"