Belson’s doubts were met with a response from the Dawn Messengers.

"Please trust us, we’re enough to handle this."

To Belson, the words of the Dawn Messengers seemed absurd.

What do you mean enough? How do you just believe that?

Have you encountered such enemies?

We have faced these enemies directly, suffered, and experienced their threat. We’ve told you they’re tricky and require strong support, and yet you dismiss it so easily?

This can’t be real!

He nearly lost his temper.

However, what happened next drastically changed his perspective.

The arriving Dawn Messengers quickly launched an attack on the enemy after just a brief notice.

Without any special preparations, they used conventional tactics, at most putting away long-range weapons and charging forward primarily with melee weapons, using methods suitable for close-quarters combat.

Against ordinary enemies, it wouldn’t be an issue.

The long-range fire from the Dark Spirit Race troops mostly missed, and even when it did hit, the protection of the power armor deflected it. Moreover, for the fire that did hit, most could be endured without much damage. The Dawn Messengers didn’t deliberately take hits but chose to dodge attacks that would be less damaging, avoiding potentially lethal blows.

Seeing this, Belson found nothing extraordinary.

Although the Dawn Messengers advanced quickly and dodged fire with precision, so what?

The real threat was the Nightmare Executioners they brought, and that threat hadn’t been resolved.

Belson was getting anxious, but what more could he do? Before the Dawn Messengers arrived, he had already informed them of the characteristics and threats posed by the Nightmare Executioners.

What could he do if the Dawn Messengers didn’t take it seriously?

He had no intention of watching the Dawn Messengers fail and then smugly pointing out, ’I told you so.’

Though angry, he fought for humanity and didn’t want to see a neighboring battle group suffer heavy casualties, making the situation worse.

Frustrated and helpless, he ordered his troops to maintain a tight formation, defensively postured to prevent internal breaches, while supporting the Dawn Messengers with weapons like Blast Bomb Guns and Plasma Guns.

However, this significantly minimized the impact of the governor’s dozens of warriors on the battlefield. Their long-range support helped, but not critically.

Ultimately, it depended on how well the Dawn Messengers fought themselves.

When the second wave of Dawn Messengers clashed with the enemy, blades bared and battle erupted, the last thing Belson wanted happened—the Nightmare Executioners hidden within the enemy ranks appeared silently, like smoke, behind the Dawn Messengers.

Their dark, artful curved blades from the Dark Spirit Race struck down suddenly.

Then came the shocking moment for Belson.

The expected scene of heads rolling, which had occurred among his soldiers, did not happen.

During the ambush, only two Dawn Messengers were unable to react in time or were attacked by exceptionally skilled foes, resulting in fatal injuries with their helmets and heads falling. The rest realized the ambush and many swiftly counterattacked!

This was completely different from the governor’s experience!

Among Belson and his warriors, some did react and even counterattacked, killing the Nightmare Executioner that ambushed him. But if half of them managed to respond and survive, that was good enough; the other half, nearly twenty brothers-in-arms, were instantly killed.

The Dawn Messengers had a completely different ratio!

Was it because they were prepared by his warnings?

Yes, but not solely because of that.

Otherwise, Belson wouldn’t fear the Nightmare Executioners so much.

Even with preparation, the Nightmare Executioners came too quickly and suddenly, and they themselves were formidable warriors, strong even against veteran Interstellar Warriors. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

The Dawn Messengers lost only two!

Furthermore, in their counter and counter-kill, they directly killed over twenty Nightmare Executioners!

The survivors didn’t dare to continue fighting the Dawn Messengers and hurriedly activated short-distance teleportation to flee.

The Dawn Messengers remained unflustered. They continued with their plan, slaughtering the other Dark Spirit Race troops.

If Nightmare Executioners weren’t opponents for the Dawn Messengers, the ordinary Dark Spirit Race troops stood even less of a chance.

When the Dark Spirit Race numbers rapidly dwindled, the Nightmare Executioners could no longer hide among the crowd.

Their short-distance teleportation wasn’t endlessly usable; if it were, their power would far exceed the present situation.

Short-distance teleportation could serve as a ghostly strike method but was difficult for long-distance escape.

In the end, fewer than ten Nightmare Executioners escaped by various means. The rest were all slaughtered.

After annihilating the fifty-strong Nightmare Executioner squad and wiping out the guarding forces drawn from the target warehouse fighting alongside them, the Dawn Messengers paid the price of only eleven lives.

The help from the governor warriors couldn’t be entirely ignored. Their earlier intelligence and participation in the chase after the Nightmare Squad threat was neutralized did contribute somewhat.

But just somewhat.

Belson himself acknowledged that winning relied entirely on the Dawn Messengers’ exceptional prowess.

Now, he could see clearly. The Dawn Messengers’ high survival and counter-kill rates during the Nightmare Executioner ambush weren’t due to any special method. Or, if they had one, it was because their individual power was incredibly strong!

If merely the Nightmare Executioner ambush wasn’t enough to see it clearly, or if one could deceive themselves into thinking a special method was involved, then the subsequent waves of confrontation and seeing the Dawn Messengers slicing down Dark Spirit Race in melee proved it was truly a matter of strength.

All being Interstellar Warriors, why was the gap so wide?

Belson fell into deep doubt.

Especially during post-battle discussions when he learned the Dawn Messenger Battle Group had been established less than twenty years and the Comoros campaign was their first significant war, his self-doubt deepened.

We’ve fought for so many years... How are we still not as good as a newly formed battle group?