By now, having fully understood the enemy’s entire battle plan, Xiao Yu couldn’t help but feel a hint of admiration for them.
It was a masterful strategy, sacrificing Star System Number 2 to ensure the safe return of one billion people, while also creating an opportunity to heavily damage his fleet. In this plan, they first allowed Star System Number 3 to be taken, then let the mineral transport ships fall into his hands, using this to lull him into complacency. After that, they tied down a large portion of his military strength at Star System Number 2 with an empty fort trick, while concentrating all available forces in Star System Number 4 to prepare a perfect ambush.
Up until this point, the Molian Civilization’s plan had proceeded smoothly, and Xiao Yu had indeed fallen for it, just as they anticipated.
The Nation-Class Japan formation had a total of five hundred thousand ships, now spread out across a void spanning over one hundred billion kilometers, too far apart to support each other. Only by dispersing them over such a large area could Xiao Yu search for the enemy’s trail with maximum efficiency, but this same dispersion meant he had no strategic advantage, no coherent formation, and was lacking in both offensive and defensive capability.
One Province-Class ship, leading three subordinate City-Class ships and several hundred medium and small vessels, was fleeing desperately through the void. Behind them, an uncountable mass of Molian ships gave chase. This Province-Class ship was the Tokyo, part of the Nation-Class Japan formation. Equipped with a Four-Dimensional shield, the Tokyo outclassed Molian Province-Class ships in every way, but now, the enemy’s numbers were simply overwhelming.
Mass assault tactics had always been Xiao Yu’s forte, but here, thanks to the enemy’s careful planning, the situation had been reversed. His side, a blend of mechanical and intelligent civilizations, was now being smothered by the enemy’s sheer numbers. It was an irony he could not ignore.
In battle, entering curvature flight was impossible, and at conventional speeds, linking up with the main fleet would not be achievable in a short time.
“We can’t get away.” Xiao Yu accurately judged the situation and, steeling himself, piloted the Tokyo and its escort fleet to abandon escape altogether. They turned to face the oncoming swarm, ready to fight head-on.
A torrent of firepower engulfed the Tokyo instantly. Uncountable streams of negative matter, death ray bursts, material disintegration beams, gravitational bombs, and antimatter bombs lit the surrounding tens of thousands of kilometers in blinding light. The Tokyo’s shield energy was dropping rapidly.
Amid the fierce crossfire, the Tokyo and its three City-Class escorts, all equipped with Four-Dimensional shields, displayed their formidable power. After half an hour of fighting, the hundreds of ships were reduced to just these four, and only because of the protection those shields provided.“If these ships can’t escape anyway, then taking one of theirs is breaking even. Taking two is a profit.” Xiao Yu thought grimly. As the City-Class ships’ shield energy dropped to the warning threshold, he sent one of them hurtling straight into the middle of the enemy formation.
Xiao Yu targeted an enemy Province-Class ship. In this cluster, he saw no sign of any Nation-Class vessels, otherwise, he would have been tempted to trade the destruction of his own Province and City-Class ships just to teach one a lesson.
The enemy Province-Class ship sat deep within layers of protection, exuding arrogance. Its high-powered negative matter cannon could make a Four-Dimensional shield ripple violently with every shot, the result of massive amounts of energy being drained in an instant.
One of Xiao Yu’s City-Class ships closed in on the enemy Province-Class, and under the fierce barrage, suddenly exploded. The tremendous energy released as Four-Dimensional space collapsed into three-dimensional space blasted outward like a tangible hurricane, melting nearby small ships instantly. Shards of wreckage spun wildly away into the distance, their destination unknown.
Under the violent impact of that energy, the massive hull of the Province-Class ship trembled slightly, its multi-layer shield system rippling violently, strange flashes of light flaring as if on the brink of destruction. But the sight Xiao Yu had been hoping for did not occur, the shields of that Province-Class ship were gradually stabilizing.
“One City-Class ship isn’t enough?” Xiao Yu thought viciously, and decided to go all in, piloting the remaining two City-Class ships to charge again.
Perhaps recognizing the devastating power of a self-detonating ship, the Province-Class vessel began retreating in panic. Several small escort ships threw themselves into its path, seemingly willing to sacrifice themselves to block the City-Class ships’ advance. But it was too late, one of Xiao Yu’s City-Class ships had already closed in enough. At the last moment, a single fatal shot from the Tokyo Province-Class ship ended the City-Class ship’s existence, and it self-detonated.
The explosion of this City-Class ship once again cleared hundreds or even thousands of kilometers of space around it, causing the Province-Class ship’s shields to surge violently once more. It was already on the verge of destruction.
“Still not enough?” Xiao Yu thought with grim resolve, sending the last City-Class ship hurtling forward.
This City-Class ship was already badly damaged, barely able to mount a proper attack, but that didn’t matter. For a vessel equipped with a Four-Dimensional shield, its most powerful weapon wasn’t its guns, but its final act of self-destruction. Carrying the spirit of mutual annihilation, it rammed straight in.
The larger the ship, the worse its maneuverability, a truth that held for civilizations of Level 6 and below. The Molian Civilization was no exception. Under the desperate pursuit of the City-Class ship, the Province-Class’s evasive movements were like those of a clumsy, overweight man trying to dodge the bite of an agile, vicious hound, futile.
The two ships, one large, one small, slammed into each other head-on.
A head-on collision was not an attack in the usual sense; strictly speaking, it was a kinetic weapon strike. But a starship’s hull was no ordinary kinetic weapon, its mass, its structural properties, and the kinetic energy it carried far exceeded conventional munitions.
Force acts equally in both directions. The massive impact that the City-Class ship delivered to the Province-Class vessel rebounded upon it with equal magnitude. The force was so great that the City-Class ship instantly shattered and exploded. At such close contact, the massive energy of the Four-Dimensional shield’s detonation poured directly into the enemy vessel without loss.
When it had been caught in the blasts of the previous two ships, the Province-Class vessel had already been close to destruction. This final attack pushed it over the edge into the abyss.
Xiao Yu could almost hear the desperate, terrified screams of the Molian crew inside, but nothing could save them now. Under the engulfing power, the ship turned a deep crimson, like a prawn dropped into boiling water.
The red came from the intense heat. According to blackbody radiation principles, matter glows in different colors depending on its temperature, red meant over two thousand degrees Celsius. At that moment, the entire hull had been heated past that threshold.
This was the result of overwhelming external energy, internal power circuits thrown into chaos, engines destroyed, and reserve fuel exploding. The red hue lasted only an instant before turning yellow-white, the color of the Sun, meaning a temperature of around six thousand degrees Celsius.
In the next moment, the yellow-white shifted to a searing white. All three color changes happened in the blink of an eye, and three seconds later, the vessel exploded.
A Province-Class ship was gone.
After its destruction, the remaining medium and small Molian vessels swarmed like maddened piranhas toward Xiao Yu’s last ship in the area, the Tokyo. They attacked relentlessly. The Tokyo was like a massive whale, but its size gave no advantage here. The small ships could not be killed off completely or driven away, and they gradually drained the Tokyo’s shields until, inevitably, it was doomed. Xiao Yu had no way to save it.
“If it’s destined to be destroyed, then let it go out in glory.” Xiao Yu decided.
Under his control, the Tokyo darted wildly through the void, charging wherever enemy ships clustered most densely. Along the way, countless small Molian ships were smashed to pieces.
The final moment came, timed exactly as Xiao Yu intended. Now, the Tokyo was in the very thickest concentration of small ships. Xiao Yu could clearly see some of the nearby Molians trying to flee in panic, knowing they might escape if they got clear.
But it was too late. With Xiao Yu’s command, the Tokyo’s tens of thousands of engines had their overload protection systems disabled. Without those safeties, the massive energy demand instantly drove the engines into extreme overdrive, and the scorching heat burned away their protective casings in a flash.
The Tokyo exploded.