Swish! Swish!!

Beams of light and various missiles filled the void, attacking the fleet mechs!! Which immediately sprang into action as if they had predicted the attack—either backing off, intercepting, or successfully dodging the assault!!

While those who couldn’t quickly deployed their shields or reached out to nearby knight mechs to defend against the oppressive barrage!!

And Crown, not to be outdone, seeing this calmly gave the order!!"Lord, open the launch ports—turn our weapons and target the hegemony’s main fortress!! Let it rumble a bit!!"

"Yes!!" someone acknowledged the order, and the launch ports of the Oblivion-class dreadnought opened up!!

Swish ! Swish ! Boom ! boom!

Hundreds, if not thousands, of missiles—along with dense energy fire—rushed toward the hegemony flagship fortress!!

Within the Exterminator Fortress, systems quickly detected the incoming fire and missiles directed toward it and issued a warning—

[Warning, Lord Commander: incoming fire from the flagship of the human fleet!!]

"Wha—" before Pact could even react properly, intense antimatter missiles and dense energy projectiles—along with several railgun-fired antimatter rounds—struck the unprotected hull of Fortress Exterminator...

Boom!! Multiple small dark suns rose across the fortress hull, instantly evaporating huge chunks of the already weakened outer armor!!

Energy projectiles tore deeper into the structure and detonated, damaging internal sections, while the kinetic rounds ripped through, killing numerous deployed troops within the fortress, which rumbled violently under the relentless assault...

"Fuck!!" cursed Pact and the others as they barely managed to stabilize themselves. "Sons of bitches!!" Pact shouted, gritting his teeth!!

"Status on the damage, Exterminator!!" he demanded, quickly asking for the condition of his fortress and the scale of destruction.

[Warning: multiple breaches across fortress bow, port side, and starboard side!!]

[Outer armor sectors C-60 to C-10000 mostly destroyed!!]

[Additional functionality of fortress has suffered severe damage!!

Approximately 60 percent of weapons are offline!!]

[Warning: multiple levels are decompressed—suggest sealing them immediately!!]

[Warning: fortress hull integrity down by 39 percent!!]

[Most high-intensity weapons are now out of commission to prevent friendly damage and further deterioration of the fortress!!]

[Warning: more damage of this level and the fortress will become inoperable!!]

[Warning: fortress manoeuvrability has suffered extreme damage!!]

"What the fuck!!" cursed Pact, a sharp sense of urgency rising within him as he watched multiple warnings flashing before his eyes.

It terrified him—because he knew that if another attack of that level struck, his fortress would become nothing more than a sitting hulk, easily picked apart by the humans.

They were like wolves—already encircling them, taking them down one by one, reducing their numbers and strength.

And if his fortress fell... then he would fall with it. That was not how he wanted to die. There was still so much he had to do—he couldn’t die here... not like a sitting duck, without even a shred of dignity.

That thought terrified him even more. And so, he barked out orders—refusing to let it happen.

"Move Dreadnought Red Arc and Dreadnought Evil Fang ahead, along with all the battleships!! Let them form a protective shield for the fortress!!"

"Tell everyone to fight with all they have!! We are entering do-or-die mode now!!" he said, taking a deep breath before turning toward Exterminator.

"Exterminator, check—how long will it take for reinforcements to arrive? We can’t hold much longer!! The humans are already pushing toward us, and every loss is increasing the pressure on all of us!! We can’t survive like this any longer..."

The Exterminator replied calmly in a neutral voice—while at the same time passing his orders to every remaining ship and crew member across the fleet. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

[Based on my data and current calculations of distance, it will still take more than two hours for reinforcements to arrive.]

Pact’s face immediately paled hearing this. A hopeless look filled his eyes as he muttered, "That... that’s too much time. Looking at our state, even if we throw everything at the human fleet, we can’t survive for even one hour—no matter what!!"

"That isn’t exactly right, Commander. If we could pull in our three Genesis Law Realm elders, maybe we still have a chance? And out there, they are only holding off the human Genesis Law Realm powerhouse!! If they could finish that powerhouse quickly and come to our rescue, then maybe we could hold on for a couple of hours more easily?" one officer said, hesitation clear on his face...

Hearing this, Pact’s pale face quickly regained its color. "Why didn’t I think of this!!" he said.

Not long ago, he had received reports from Elder Bell that they had successfully trapped the human powerhouse in a Thousand Poison Formation!! It had weakened its strength by quite a bit, allowing them to suppress it.

While they hadn’t been able to deal any real damage, they were still holding it down...

"Quickly contact Elder Bell!! Tell him about the fleet situation and the reinforcement arrival time!! Tell him we need his help to hold on until reinforcements arrive—with support from the others!! That shouldn’t be a problem now that they’ve suppressed that human powerhouse!! If they can seal him for a couple of hours, we are saved!!"

"But Commander... those elders—you know how greedy they are. What they fear most is risking their lives without benefits in hand, especially when they still have the option to escape... words alone won’t be enough..."

Pact, hearing this, frowned but quickly sighed, knowing his subordinate was right.

"Then pass on these words if he doesn’t agree," Pact said coldly. "Tell him I know he has that treasure. And if he uses it, my family will personally grant him Fiery Law Elemental Ore—he knows its value... He should agree to this."

"As you command," the commandant said, though he sounded unsure. But seeing the serious expression on his commander’s face, he didn’t dare say anything more. He turned around and quickly reached out to the three elders...

Meanwhile, deep within layered folds of space, four figures could be seen fighting inside a green barrier formed from thousands of extremely dangerous poisons!! Each one was potent enough to kill even a Genesis Law Realm being with a single breath—they carried the very Law of Poison itself!! Even weapons, no matter their kind, were being corroded by the dense poisonous fog!!

Kael, who had been dominating the three Genesis Law Realm beings of the Hegemony fleet, now appeared suppressed!! Though he hadn’t suffered any injuries yet—and the poison fog did no harm to him or his mech—he was no longer as overwhelming as before...

Suddenly, he was kicked back by Elder Bell, slammed by Elder Hawk, and slashed by Elder Rigger’s claws!! The law shield he had manifested took another hit—flickering and dimming further!!

Seeing the weakening shield, the three of them grew excited!!

"Good!! A few more attacks and we should be able to destroy that turtle shell the human has created around himself!!" Lion said.

"With that gone, the poison law should finally do its work, no?" he added with an evil smile.

"Indeed..." Elder Hawk, usually silent, also spoke—excitement visible on his face!!

Just as Elder Bell was about to say something, his communicator suddenly lit up, interrupting him. He reached out, connected—and as he listened to the deputy commandant explain the current fleet situation, his expression darkened with anger.

"There’s nothing I can do right now!! That human powerhouse is breaking through our restrictions and putting pressure on us!! I can’t divide my attention!! If you have nothing important, I’ll close the channel—"

"Please wait, Elder Bell!!" the commandant said urgently, stopping him. He quickly relayed Commander Pact’s message...

Hearing this, Bell raised an eyebrow when he caught the hint about his sealing treasure. How did he know? he wondered briefly. But the thought was quickly buried as excitement took over—forgetting the implications of one of his secrets being exposed...

"Good!! Tell Commander Pact we will be coming to support him in a matter of minutes!!"

He cut the connection immediately and turned to the others.

"Hawk, Lion—just now I was contacted by Pact. The situation is not optimistic... and he’s requesting our support."

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"So?" Elder Lion said, clearly displeased by the interruption, not happy with what Bell was hinting at...

Elder Hawk was no different. "What are you trying to say, Bell? Be straight," he spoke bluntly, his tone equally irritated.

Elder Bell, hearing this, only gave a bitter smile before speaking—

"I’ve received word that reinforcements are on the way... but they will take more than two hours—less than three—to arrive. Our fleet, at best, can only hold for an hour... maybe an hour and a half before being completely routed by the human fleet!!"

"That’s not something you want to see happen, right?" he continued, glancing toward Kael. "Now that we have him under control, we should be able to go and support the fleet in defending it!! We won’t directly participate in their battle—we need to conserve our strength in case something goes wrong with this person..."

"And to be extra cautious..."