180: Chapter 180 The Front Lines Collapse

As Vice Minister Garick's headless corpse collapsed, the power of the flagship serving as the right wing's energy array core decayed drastically.

The crimson joint defensive barrier that had stretched across the sky, once seemingly indestructible, was like a building that had lost its foundation; a massive energy void instantly appeared on its right side, flickering violently.

Luo Ning, who had been staring intently at the radar data, suddenly lit up and slapped the console in excitement. "We got them! Their shields are breached!"

"Muzi, get all the high-explosive stock from our warehouse! Pour it into that gap with everything we've got!"

"Understood!"

Beside her, Li Muzi immediately took over the fortress's conveyor belt network through her terminal. Although she was usually in charge of the ecological zone, she now transformed into a ruthless "reloading machine." Supported by a massive amount of supplies, tens of thousands of high-explosive incendiary bombs, toxic spore bombs, and micro-antimatter mines were launched from the fortress's heavy projectors, pouring into the flickering energy gap like a torrential storm!

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Deafening chain explosions erupted inside the Dragonman fleet. The right half of the shield, already teetering, was ravaged by the internal blasts and finally shattered with the crisp sound of breaking glass, dispersing into the vacuum as a shower of light.

The right-wing defensive line was blown wide open!

"Our chance is here!"

Within the White Feather Guild fleet, which had been cruising the outer perimeter looking for an opening, Grace suddenly drew her commanding sword, her eyes sharp as knives. "First, Second, Third, and Fourth Formations, hear my command! Charge into the gap at full speed! Tear the Dragonmen's formation to shreds!"

The engines of a full forty fully-armed LV5 warships roared. Like forty steel beasts unleashed from their cages, they charged straight through the gap and into the heart of the Dragonman fleet.

This half of the star sector instantly turned into a brutal, chaotic meat grinder.

Leveraging the range and power advantages of their legendary grade weapon modules, the White Feather Guild's warships executed main cannon salvos almost right in the faces of the Dragonman frigates.

Blinding plasma beams wove into a net of death. One Dragonman warship after another exploded into brilliant fireballs in the close-quarters firefight, their wreckage raining down into the abyss.

While the external battlefield was filled with earth-shattering battle cries, the atmosphere inside the flagship's main control room on the left wing was suffocatingly tense.

"Beep, beep, beep—!"

Sweat pouring down his face, the radar operator stared at the sub-screen in front of him, which had turned completely to static. His voice trembled violently with sheer panic: "V-Vice Minister! Lord Garick's flagship... its signal has completely vanished! The joint shield on the right wing has completely collapsed, and the main force of the White Feather Guild has broken in!"

"What did you say?!"

Barton grabbed the radar operator by the collar, lifting him entirely into the air. His furious roar made the control room ceiling hum: "That useless Garick got killed without even sending a warning?! He was a Tier 5 Peak! Who could have killed him in such a short time?!"

"Bang—Boom!"

Just as Barton's words fell, the main control room's half-meter-thick super-alloy blast door suddenly bulged inward under a terrifying, immense force, then collapsed with a screech of twisting metal!

Amidst the rising dust, a mecha stained with Dragonman blood stepped over the ruins and slowly walked into the main control room.

"You will join him soon."

Hila's cold voice echoed through the mecha's loudspeaker, her plasma lance pointing straight at Barton.

"So it was you, the little rat who broke into our ship!"

Barton flung the radar operator away, drew the two heavy axes from his back, and curled his lips into a cruel, wild grin.

"You killed a few soldiers and really think you're invincible? Today, I'll chop you and your iron shell into scrap metal!"

"[Wind Gods Sting]!"

Hila wasted no words and unleashed a killing blow right from the start. The mecha's thrusters ignited instantly, its dark silver body turning into a gale of azure wind. Her lance, carrying 50% absolute penetration power, thrust straight toward Barton's chest!

However, faced with this terrifying strike that had once instantly destroyed a Lunar-class mecha, Barton did not choose to take it head-on like the other Dragonmen.

As a battle-hardened Vice Minister, Barton's combat instincts were extremely sharp. The moment the tip of the lance was about to touch him, his massive body performed a bizarre twist that completely defied common sense, barely dodging the direct thrust. At the same time, the heavy axe in his left hand parried fiercely from the side with a loud "Clang!", accurately striking the weak point of the lance's force and instantly neutralizing the kinetic energy of the Wind Gods Sting!

"Your movements are too straight!"

Barton grinned savagely. Leveraging the momentum from his block, his right hand's heavy axe whipped up a fierce streak of crimson lightning, slashing upward with immense force!

"Crack!"

The power of this axe strike was beyond imagination. The dark silver mecha's chest armor tore open instantly, and sparks flashed wildly alongside shrill alarms.

A hideous two-meter-long tear sliced directly through the mecha's cockpit wall, offering a faint glimpse of Hila's solemn face inside.

Although the nano-repair fluid configured by Luo Ning immediately surged out to fill the gap, Barton's strike had damaged some of the drive shafts, causing the mecha's movements to become visibly sluggish.

"Fighting me in a cramped space while piloting this clumsy iron shell? You're looking for death!"

Barton showed no mercy, his twin axes hacking repeatedly like a torrential storm. Under the suppression of absolute strength and seasoned close-combat skills, Hila's mecha was beaten back step by step. The self-repair speed could not keep up with the destruction at all, making the battle extremely difficult.

"The mecha has become a liability..."

Hila bit her lip in the violently shaking cockpit. With a fierce look in her eyes, she slammed the eject button!

"Swoosh!"

The cockpit canopy blew off, and Hila abandoned the expensive mecha, leaping out.

In mid-air, the pristine white wings on her back suddenly unfurled, and her Tier 5 vitality erupted without reservation. Free from the shackles of the mecha, the Winged Race's peerless mobility was finally on full display!

"Whoosh!"

Like a white specter, Hila instantly distanced herself from Barton. Gripping two short blades in a reverse hold, she used her extreme speed to weave back and forth between the load-bearing pillars of the main control room. Every flash of her movement was accompanied by a silver gleam, instantly killing the Dragonman grunts trying to corner her.

"You sure run fast!"

Although Barton possessed terrifying strength, he was being kited in terms of speed. Unable to even touch the hem of Hila's clothes for the moment, he roared in frustration.

But before Hila could catch her breath, she caught a glimpse of a sinister sneer playing at the corner of Barton's mouth.

"Stupid bird, what do you think I forced you out for? I was just waiting for you to abandon that hard shell!"

Barton waved his large hand.

Several Dragonman guards hidden in the shadows suddenly pulled the triggers of some special launchers.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

A massive electromagnetic capture net woven from high-voltage electromagnetic fluid suddenly burst open in mid-air, instantly blanketing all of Hila's evasion paths.

Unable to dodge in mid-air, Hila had her wings tightly entangled by the electromagnetic net.

"Argh—!"

A current of tens of thousands of volts instantly surged through her entire body. Hila let out a painful groan as she fell heavily from mid-air, slamming hard onto the alloy floor. Wrapped in electrical arcs, her muscles spasmed uncontrollably.

"Break!"

In this desperate situation, Hila gritted her teeth. Enduring the agonizing pain, she pushed the wind elements within her to their limits, transforming them into countless tiny wind blades that sliced outward. In just two seconds, the tough electromagnetic net was shredded to pieces.

But that two-second delay was more than enough for Barton.

"Die!"

Barton's massive body leaped into the air like a collapsing mountain. The heavy axes gripped in his hands erupted with a blinding red light, carrying a momentum that could cleave anything as they slashed down toward Hila, who was half-kneeling on the floor having just broken free!

This strike was meant to cleave her and the floor beneath her completely in two.

Hila wanted to dodge, but the powerful electric shock from earlier had left her legs completely numb, forcing her to watch helplessly as the shadow of death expanded rapidly in her pupils.

"Clang—!!!"

Just as the heavy axe was less than ten centimeters away from the top of Hila's head.

Space rippled violently in front of her.

A tall and straight figure materialized out of thin air without warning. Gripping the pitch-black star-falling horizontal saber with one hand, Zhou An took a step forward, blocking right in front of Hila.

The violent axe blade slammed into the flat of the saber, unleashing a visible, terrifying shockwave of air that blew away all the surrounding Dragonmen.

And at the center of the storm...

Zhou An's feet didn't even budge half an inch. His deep eyes stared coldly at Barton in mid-air, his tone carrying a heart-stopping chill.

"What? Do you think you can just lay a hand on my person whenever you please?"

Barton gripped the handles of his heavy axes with both hands, his dark-gold vertical pupils filled with unbelievable shock.

His full-power strike, which was enough to cleave a small frigate in two, had actually been blocked effortlessly and without budging by this human who had appeared out of thin air, using only a single hand to hold a slender horizontal saber!

"You... what kind of monster are you?!"

Barton gritted his teeth, his muscles bulging as he tried to force the heavy axes down, only to find that the black horizontal saber was like an ancient mountain with deep roots—no matter how much strength he exerted, he couldn't budge it in the slightest.

"I wouldn't call myself a monster. I just specialize in killing scaled beasts like you."

Zhou An looked at him coldly.

"Get off me!" Barton roared. Seeing that he couldn't win the contest of strength, he decisively abandoned the heavy axe in his right hand and threw a left punch that caused a sharp sonic boom, aiming straight for Zhou An's head.

"Too slow."

Zhou An's eyes turned cold. The moment Barton punched, his previously motionless body suddenly moved!

Without using any fancy skills, Zhou An relied solely on his crushing Tier 5 Peak physical strength. His left leg suddenly exerted force, launching a heavy, powerful high roundhouse kick that struck first despite starting later, slamming brutally into Barton's left ribs.

"Bang—Crack!"

Accompanied by the hair-raising sound of bones cracking, Barton's proud, thick dragon scales shattered instantly.

His massive body, nearly three meters tall, was sent flying as if hit by a high-speed interstellar train. He smashed straight through two super-alloy walls behind him, crashing into a deep pit amidst the ruins.

"Cough, cough... Blech!"

Barton struggled to rise from the ruins, spitting out a large mouthful of blood, a trace of fear finally appearing in his eyes. His proud close-combat skills were actually as laughable as a toddler learning to walk before this human!

"I will kill you!!"

Driven into a corner, Barton went completely mad. His vitality erupted past its limits, even burning his life source. Like a frenzied rhino, he shattered the floorboards and charged madly at Zhou An once more.

"Boring struggle."

Zhou An shook his head. He slowly raised the star-falling horizontal saber in his hand, pouring the power within his body into the blade without reservation. A blinding crimson blade glow suddenly lit up on the black edge.

"Swish!"

The two figures crossed paths in mid-air.

The main control room suddenly fell into a deathly silence.

Barton's massive body froze in place, maintaining his forward pouncing posture. A few seconds later, a smooth line of blood spread from his left shoulder all the way to his right waist.

"Splurt!"

His upper body, along with his terrified head, slid down, instantly splattering internal organs and blood all over the console. Barton, the Vice Minister of the Dragonman Guild's 4th Division, was cleaved in half at the waist with a single strike!

"Nothing special after all."

Zhou An flicked the blood droplets off his blade, not even sparing a glance at the corpse on the floor. His figure moved like lightning, turning into several afterimages inside the main control room.

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"

Amidst the flashes of blade light, the dozen or so Dragonman guards who had been hiding in the corners trying to take cheap shots were all decapitated before they could even let out a scream.

In just half a minute, there was not a single living soul left in the entire main control room.

With Barton's death, this flagship serving as the left wing's energy array core also completely lost its command center. Shrill alarms echoed throughout the hull, and the crimson defense grid on the left half, which had been struggling to hold on, finally flickered twice like a holographic projection losing power before shattering completely!

"Can you walk on your own?"

Zhou An sheathed his horizontal saber and turned to walk over to Hila, who was half-kneeling on the floor.

"Boss, I'm fine. It's just a bit of electromagnetic paralysis."

Hila gritted her teeth and stood up. Aside from her wings being slightly charred, her body was mostly unharmed.

"Let's go. This place is about to blow."

Zhou An grabbed Hila's arm and activated Space Leap, instantly vanishing along with the mecha in a ripple of space.

As the LV6 flagships of both the left and right wings were disabled one after another and the joint defense grid collapsed entirely, the Dragonman fleet, which had previously seemed as solid as an iron fortress, instantly became a flock of plucked sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

"Their turtle shell is broken! Brothers and sisters, beat these big lizards to a pulp!"

High in the sky, Luo Ning squealed with excitement. Controlling the fortress hub, she rained down the remaining hundred thousand-plus kamikaze drones onto the enemy camp like a torrential downpour. The three hundred aurora railguns also began indiscriminate targeted strikes, specifically focusing their bombardment on the massive LV5 warships.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield below...

"Deploy all formations! Fire at will!"

Grace stood on the command deck of the [wind chaser], suddenly swinging down the longsword in her hand.