181: Chapter 181 Sargos

Fifty-three White Feather Guild LV5 warships charged into the heart of the chaotic Dragonman fleet like a pack of hungry wolves.

Without unified command, the Dragonman's 800 warships fell into complete disarray, even leading to the ridiculous scene of friendly fire.

When they discovered in horror that both high-ranking Vice Ministers had been killed and their warships reduced to scrap metal, the ferocity inherent in the beast-men was finally shattered, replaced by endless fear.

"The Vice Ministers are dead! The defensive line has collapsed!"

"Run! We can't fight this, the enemy's firepower is ten times ours!"

No one knew who shouted first on the public channel, but the situation of a total rout could no longer be reversed.

The surviving Dragonman warships completely lost their will to fight. They didn't even bother turning their ships around, instead activating emergency thrusters and scattering in all directions into the deep cloud sea like frightened flies.

An ambush that was originally a disparity in strength ended in the complete and utter defeat of the Dragonman Guild!

"Do not pursue too deeply! Do not chase a desperate foe; guard against the enemy's subsequent reinforcements!"

Watching the red dots scattering on the radar, Grace maintained absolute calm and rationality, decisively issuing the order to stop the pursuit.

She looked around at the devastated airspace, filled with the wreckage of countless high-tier warships, an uncontrollable excitement appearing on her beautiful face.

"Logistics squadron, all out! Deploy all engineering drones!"

Grace's voice echoed across the fleet channel.

"Drag everything on the battlefield back—engines, power cores, legendary grade modules, even a single screw! This is the first great victory for our White Feather Guild after our rebirth; go and collect your spoils of war!"

As the brutal battle drew to a close, what remained was a maddening feast of wealth.

In the air, tens of thousands of engineering drones moved back and forth through the debris-filled airspace like industrious worker ants.

The sound of cutting beams was incessant, and valuable weapon modules and various rare metals were continuously dragged back into the intake bays of Cloud Top Fortress.

In the command room of the wind chaser, Ivy watched the rapidly rising resource numbers on the system interface, her hands trembling slightly with excitement.

"Guild Leader! A huge harvest! An absolutely epic harvest!"

Ivy connected to Grace's communication channel, her voice filled with ecstasy: "Just now, the logistics team successfully dismantled the best spoils from the core areas of those two crashed LV6 warships! The materials produced from dismantling the two LV6s... we actually managed to gather all the core materials needed to upgrade an LV6 warship!"

Hearing this report, even the usually composed Grace couldn't help but gasp.

"Seal this core material separately."

Grace suppressed her excitement and decisively ordered.

"After the battlefield is cleared, I will personally deliver it to Zhou An's fortress. This is his loot."

Just as the entire fleet was immersed in the revelry and the cleanup was halfway through.

"Beep—beep—beep!"

A large area of glaring red dots suddenly lit up again on the edge of the master control radar, the urgent alarm instantly shattering the joy in the command room.

"Report, Guild Leader! A large-scale fleet warp signal has been detected 120 kilometers directly behind us! Judging by the identification code, it is the Dragonman Guild's fleet."

...

Meanwhile, on the Dragonman warships speeding towards them, the atmosphere was so oppressive it felt like it could drip water.

"Still haven't made contact?!"

Vice Minister Stella, clad in dark red battle armor, paced back and forth in the command room, her heroic face filled with anxiety and unease.

"Vice Minister... still nothing."

The radar operator was drenched in sweat, fingers tapping frantically on the console.

"We have sent over a hundred encrypted calls to the exclusive channels of Vice Minister Garick and Vice Minister Barton, but they have all vanished like stones into the sea. It's as if... as if their signals were completely erased from this airspace."

"Bullshit! Two main fleets, two LV6 warships, how could they just vanish into thin air?!"

Vice Minister Stella cursed angrily, her ominous premonition growing stronger. She slammed the console: "Switch the front-most optical reconnaissance footage to the main screen! Immediately!"

"Yes... detected! The feed is connecting!"

The holographic screen flickered, and then, a scene akin to purgatory was revealed without reservation before Vice Minister Stella and all the Dragonman commanders.

In the image, there was no fierce exchange of fire, only unilateral dismemberment.

The once arrogant 7th Squadron, Vice Minister Garick's right-wing main force, Vice Minister Barton's left-wing elite... over 800 Dragonman warships had now turned into scattered metal wreckage floating in the sky. Of the two LV6 warships that symbolized the peak combat power of the 4th Division, one had been cut in half, and the other had been melted through, left for the White Feather Guild's drones to cut and dismantle like hyenas.

What made Vice Minister Stella's scalp tingle even more were the Dragonman corpses floating in the air. Severed limbs, headless guards, even mechs split in two...

"This... this is impossible..."

Vice Minister Stella's dark red vertical pupils instantly shrank to the size of pinpricks, her blood seemingly frozen at this moment. She stared fixedly at the screen.

Three times the enemy's strength, two LV6s in command, a sure-kill trap with a three-sided encirclement. And the result?

Total annihilation! Not even a single survivor escaped!

"Vice... Vice Minister..."

The adjutant beside her asked, teeth chattering in fear.

"The enemy fleet is cleaning the battlefield ahead, wh... what do we do? Should we press forward directly to avenge the two lords?"

"Avenge your mother! If you want to die, don't drag me with you!"

Vice Minister Stella snapped out of her extreme shock, emitting a hysterical scream.

She kicked the brainless adjutant aside, lunged at the console, and roared at the top of her lungs:

"Engine overload at full power! Divert all energy to the thrusters! Turn around! Turn around and leave this place immediately!!"

...

On the other side, Zhou An, having received Grace's emergency notification, did not hesitate.

"Whoosh—"

Accompanied by a slight fluctuation, Zhou An's figure instantly appeared in the main control room of Cloud Top Fortress.

He walked quickly to the holographic radar, his gaze like an eagle locking onto its prey, staring fixedly at the large patch of flashing red dots on the edge of the screen.

"120 kilometers away, a scale of about 400 warships."

Zhou An quickly made his judgment, his eyes turning cold.

"Looks like reinforcements from the Dragonman Guild have arrived."

If you don't pull up the weeds by the roots, they will grow back in the spring. Since he had already killed two high-ranking members of the Dragonman Guild's 4th Division, Zhou An didn't mind sending this last one to join them.

"Fleet main cannons, preheat; fortress engines, start. Prepare to pur—"

Zhou An was just about to issue the pursuit order when he noticed:

The enemy... they weren't slowing down! They completed a 180-degree turn right on the spot!

Watching the group of red dots retreating wildly at an exaggerated speed on the screen.

EVA began to broadcast.

"System calculation: The enemy fleet has cut off power to all weapon and shield systems, pushing their engines to extreme overload. They are fleeing frantically toward the rear at three times the speed of sound!"

"Ran away?"

Zhou An was stunned for a moment, then the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch. He truly hadn't expected that the enemy would bring a fleet over without firing a single shot, only to be scared into fleeing at supersonic speeds.

Zhou An stared at the red dots rapidly widening the distance on the holographic map, his slender fingers tapping lightly on the edge of the console.

A flight speed of three times the speed of sound was extremely fast. If he sent the fleet to chase, they wouldn't catch up for a while.

If he performed a space warp to cut them off individually, he could theoretically catch up and board. However, at an absolute distance of 120 kilometers, for his current Tier 5 Peak physique, it would require continuous, high-frequency space warps. This intense consumption of stamina and vitality would empty his state in a short time.

"Too far; do not chase a desperate foe."

Zhou An shook his head, ultimately abandoning the idea of pursuit.

"Since they've been scared out of their wits, it's unlikely there's an ambush, but if I exhaust my vitality to chase them and encounter other unforeseen circumstances, I'll end up in a passive position."

Zhou An picked up the now lukewarm coffee beside him and took a sip.

"Need to get Grace to speed up the battlefield cleanup. Once these stray dogs escape back, they will definitely spread the news that we have the power to defeat an LV6 warship. The real storm has only just begun."

Under the efficient operation of tens of thousands of engineering drones, the battlefield cleanup soon drew to a close.

The massive steel torrent did not linger. As all materials were swallowed into the belly of Cloud Top Fortress, the fleet weighed anchor again and silently departed the airspace.

In the main control room of Cloud Top Fortress.

Zhou An leaned back in the command chair, casually scrolling through the virtual system panel in front of him, taking stock of the final harvest of this battle.

"130 million in Tier 5 unit resources..."

Looking at the long string of numbers that had suddenly surged in his account, Zhou An nodded with satisfaction, but then shook his head with some regret.

"If only the things in their storage could be dropped out too, the net worth of two Vice Minister-level figures would definitely be far more than just this 100 million-plus."

Zhou An muttered to himself.

At this moment, the automatic door of the command room slid open, and Grace, having just settled the White Feather fleet, walked in.

"Lord Zhou An, the fleet has finished regrouping, and each ship is undergoing self-checks."

Grace reported respectfully.

"Good work. In that kind of high-intensity legion clash, your ammunition consumption and armor damage must have been significant."

Zhou An didn't waste words, directly using system permissions to transfer the 100 million-plus in Tier 5 unit resources he had just seized, intact, to Grace's guild account.

"Take it to make up for the battle damage. As for the rest, give a generous bonus to all the members who participated."

"This... Lord Zhou An, this is too much!"

Grace looked at the overflowing resources in the account, a flash of shock and emotion in her eyes.

"Take it; I never mistreat my own people." Zhou An waved his hand.

Grace took a deep breath and did not refuse again. She stepped forward, holding a special sealed box emitting a deep purple light with both hands, and respectfully handed it to Zhou An.

"Lord Zhou An, this is the LV6 warship upgrade material dismantled and pieced together from the enemy warships. It is also the most core loot of this battle, and it should be yours to command."

Zhou An took the sealed box, feeling the surging energy fluctuation coming from within, and the corners of his mouth curled into a satisfied smile: "Well done."

Grace bowed slightly and tactfully exited the command room, hurrying back to her warship to handle the follow-up battle readiness work.

Just after she left, Zhou An pressed the internal communication channel: "Luo Ning, come to the main control room, there's work to do."

In less than a minute, Luo Ning came rushing in on a hoverboard, still chewing on an unfinished lollipop: "What do you want with me? The drone production line is still preheating!"

"Forget about the drones for now."

Zhou An casually tossed the purple-glowing sealed box in his hand over.

Luo Ning scrambled to catch it, and after looking down at what was inside: "Holy crap! A full set of LV6 upgrade materials?!?"

"Stop talking nonsense, take the materials and go upgrade quickly."

"Got it!"

Luo Ning excitedly hugged the sealed box, nodding like a chick pecking at rice, turned around, and ran back to the top-level armory in a flash.

Meanwhile, in the air hundreds of kilometers away from Zhou An's fleet.

Vice Minister Stella's warship was in a near-fleeing posture, having just ended its dangerous three-times-the-speed-of-sound overload flight, slowly reducing speed to conventional cruise mode.

In the command room, all the Dragonman officers were ashen-faced, morale at rock bottom.

"Stop the ship, disengage engine overload."

Vice Minister Stella slumped into the command chair, a cold sweat even seeping out on her dark red battle armor from the tension. Only after confirming that there were no pursuit signals on the rear radar did she finally let out a long sigh of relief.

But what followed was an even deeper fear.

Vice Minister Garick and Vice Minister Barton were dead, and more than half of the 4th Division's remaining forces in the rear had been wiped out of thin air. This matter had completely blown through the roof; it was definitely not something she, a Vice Minister, could cover up.

Vice Minister Stella took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, a flash of determination in her eyes.

"Connect to the division's highest command channel."

Vice Minister Stella ordered through gritted teeth.

"Call Commander Sargos for me!"

"Yes!"

The communications officer tremblingly entered the highest-level encryption command.

A few seconds later, the holographic projection table in the center of the command room hummed deeply. Light gathered, and a huge figure slowly emerged in mid-air.

The supreme commander of the 4th Division—Commander Sargos.

Even as just a holographic projection, that terrifying aura of vitality exclusive to a Tier 6 powerhouse instantly caused the air in the entire command room to drop to freezing point.