Chapter 166: Air Combat

Xie Liu and his companions rummaged through the ruins and pulled out Wang Qi and his wife. Both of them were heavily injured, and Wang Qi was still coughing up mouthfuls of blood as Xie Liu carried him out. Qili’s condition was much better; at the very last moment, Wang Qi had shielded her beneath him, his body taking the brunt of the impact to protect her. Fortunately, Meng'er, whom Qili held tightly in her arms, emerged completely unharmed. When Ye Leng pulled her from the wreckage, the little girl was happily waving her tiny hands and grabbing handfuls of Ye Leng’s long hair, pulling so hard that Ye Leng winced in pain.

"What should we do now?" Ailu bit her lip. Though formidable in strength, she still felt somewhat helpless when facing battles at the capital warship level.

"They are currently locked in a stalemate and probably won't be able to pay attention to us for a while. Escaping right now should be feasible," Xie Liu suggested after a brief moment of thought. As if in direct mockery of his idea, one of the dozen Lunar-class warships near the Eagle-class fighter detached from formation and blocked their retreat path.

"Well, I guess we aren't leaving," Xie Liu said with a helpless shrug, simply finding a clean spot to sit down. "Since we can't leave, let's take a good rest and wait to see how things unfold."

Seeing Xie Liu sit down, Ailu and the others exchanged glances. Though puzzled, they followed suit and sat beside him. Xie Liu pulled two lollipops from his pocket and tossed one to Ailu, who was sitting nearby. "I know you all have many questions, but right now, it's best to rest and recover your stamina. Especially Wang Qi—continue his treatment. Ye Leng, thank you for your hard work."

Ye Leng was in the middle of treating Wang Qi. Hearing Xie Liu’s words, she shook her head slightly. "We have nowhere left to run anyway. We might as well stay here and watch the outcome of the battle."

With that, the group turned their gazes back to the two warship behemoths fighting in the sky. After several rounds of main-battery bombardments, the shields of both sides had reached critically dangerous levels. Among them, the Phoenix-class warship's shield already bore numerous breaches; had it not been for the endless stream of energy supplied by its energy arrays, the Phoenix-class would likely have been shot down the very next second.

"The firepower of the capital warships is starting to drop," Xie Liu whispered. Sure enough, following the final two rounds of main-battery fire, the principal warships ceased using their main guns altogether. Even their secondary batteries stopped firing in full force, reduced instead to sporadic suppressing fire.

"A drop in capital warship firepower means their power systems are overloaded. In the upcoming battle, they will divert most of their energy to maintaining shields and delegate offensive firepower to secondary-tier vessels." Although Xie Liu had never participated in aerial warfare, he had a solid understanding of this type of combat.

As expected, as the fire from the heavy ships dwindled, a vast swarm of small fighter craft—previously sheltered within the shielding of the massive Griffin-class capital warship—burst forth like a plague of locusts, charging toward the Eagle-class.

"Prepare the Fury-class fighters," Vladimir commanded with a wave of his hand. Instantly, the lateral flight decks on both sides of the Phoenix-class opened up, ejecting over a hundred small fighter craft that swept an arc through the sky before forming a compact fighter fleet to meet the incoming enemy armada.

"All units prepare! Switch to high-frequency armor-piercing energy matrices and send them straight to hell!" Among the countless small fighters, a vessel of bizarre design shot forward like a dark horse—it was the command ship of this fleet.

"Micro-space folding device initiating! All units align with the enemy fleet and prepare to follow the jump!" The command echoed through the radio signals from the flagship, and the massive fleet surged forward toward the enemy. A distance of several dozen kilometers was neither short nor long. The enemy fleet opened fire first, shifting the firepower of dozens of ships onto the oncoming armada. Dozens of energy beams converged from all directions, striking one of the ships in the fleet. Without a shred of suspense, the targeted vessel had its shields and armor instantly pierced, turning into a burning ball of fire that plummeted from the sky.

"Report, Captain! Fighter V-26 has gone down," the status report quickly echoed back. "The enemy's focused-fire efficiency is exceptionally high. Our shields cannot withstand their concentrated barrage at all."

"Hold the line! Space folding initiates in thirty seconds," came the order from the command ship. Simultaneously, enemy light beams locked onto another vessel.

"Report, I've been targeted. Initiating pilot transfer system." The pilot evacuated without a moment's hesitation, and the subsequent laser beam tore through the ship's shields and armor, instantly detonating the dozen-meter-long vessel into a bloom of fire.

"Damn it! The enemy is using long-range artillery, and we're being slaughtered out here," someone cursed furiously over the command channel. The enemy had initiated attacks from a distance of seventy to eighty kilometers; although the energy payload suffered heavy attenuation, the synchronized convergence of dozens of ships still allowed them to accurately and instantly eliminate smaller fighters.

In a mere thirty seconds, the Illusion City side lost over a dozen vessels. Finally, after the sixteenth ship was destroyed, a ripple-like halo of light lit up across the bow of the lead command ship at the head of the fleet.

"Systems ready! Fold-space jump commencing—everyone link to me!" a loud roar echoed from the flagship. Then, the ripples at the bow of the command ship expanded backward, engulfing the entire fleet.

A piercing shriek tore through the void. The next instant, the ripples contracted, and the entire fleet vanished completely without a trace.

"Boom..." Another deafening roar rang out. The fleet that had just vanished abruptly tore back out of the void—this time, appearing directly a few dozen kilometers right in front of the enemy, crashing straight into their formation.

"Alright, it's time! Beat the living daylights out of them, brothers!" shouted the occupants of the command ship. Their fighters were equipped with close-range penetrating cannons; though immensely powerful, these weapons could only target objects within ten kilometers. Previously suppressed by the enemy's long-range artillery, the two fleets were now locked in close quarters, and the terrifying might of the close-combat guns was finally about to be unleashed.

"Everyone follow me, maintain formation!" the commander ordered over the channel. "Deputy commander, broadcast target acquisition. Our firepower far exceeds their defenses. Split into two squads for focused fire; mind the distance and don't let them escape."

Both sides were battle-hardened veterans. Following the initial panic, the two armadas reorganized their formations, skimming across the sky as they frantically sought targets to destroy through concentrated fire.

This time, the advantage of Illusion City's close-range guns was on full display. After just a few minutes of engagement, over a dozen enemy warships were destroyed, while Illusion City lost a mere three.

Seeing this, Hagen smiled. "Good, Vladimir’s fleet has gained the upper hand. Now it's our turn. Prepare the Scorcher-class warships; target the enemy Griffin-class, four-ship focused fire."

At Hagen’s command, four dark-red Scorcher-class ships fired simultaneously. Four crimson beams slammed directly into the Griffin-class's shields, instantly tearing a massive breach in its defenses.

"Now!" Hagen waved his hand, instructing his subordinates, "Drop shields. Concentrate all energy into the main battery for a full bombardment."

"But Council President, isn't this too risky?" the executive officer chimed in with a warning. Hagen remained unconcerned, a cold sneer on his face. "What, are you scared? Fear is not an emotion a soldier of the city should possess."

The executive officer lowered his head. The very next second, the Eagle-class warship deactivated its shields. Accompanied by a sound resembling an engine dying out, the main battery of the Eagle blazed to life once more, spewing a colossal beam of light that punched straight through the breach in the Griffin-class's shields and slammed into its armor.

"Boom!" A massive explosion resounded. The Griffin-class's armor was shattered instantly. The beam from the Eagle-class's main gun pierced through the hull, punching completely through the port side of the Griffin-class and sending shattered fragments of the ship flying in all directions.

"Awesome!" Ye Leng raised her fist and cheered happily. Even as a complete outsider, she could easily tell that this single shot had played a pivotal role in the battle.

"Hmph!" A cold snort came from behind her. Ye Leng suddenly remembered that she had a Special Operations Alliance operative standing right behind her—and the warship currently being blasted to pieces belonged to her faction. Ye Leng shrank her neck and sheepishly stuck out her tongue.

Compared to Ye Leng's excitement, Xie Liu wore a furrowed brow as he muttered, "President Hagen is taking too big a risk. If the enemy had also dropped their shields and returned fire with a main gun blast, the end result would be the loss of a capital warship on both sides. The enemy could afford it since both of theirs were capital ships, but our Phoenix-class is not a combat vessel. Once the Eagle-class goes down, the Phoenix-class will only face destruction once its energy matrix runs dry."

"Well, it didn't happen, did it?" Ye Leng patted Xie Liu's shoulder with a smile. Xie Liu gave a cold huff and turned his attention back to the battlefield, casually unwrapping a lollipop and popping it into his mouth. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Ailu staring intently at him.

"What is it, Ailu?" Xie Liu asked, then noticed she was turning the lollipop he had given her over and over in her hands. "Never had one of these before?"

As if her thoughts had been read, Ailu looked somewhat stiff as she replied, "Not at all." With that, she tried to tear open the wrapper, but after struggling for a long time without success, she puffed out her cheeks in annoyance.

Xie Liu smiled helplessly, took the lollipop from Ailu's hands, and carefully peeled it for her. "It's normal not to have seen one. This is a mundane-world snack; let alone you, most people in Illusion City have never seen it either."

"Here you go. Oh, by the way, this stick isn't edible." Xie Liu handed the unwraped lollipop to Ailu. She took it, frowned, and stared hard at the tiny piece of candy as if facing an unprecedentedly powerful enemy. Finally, seemingly convinced the object posed no danger, she poked out the tip of her pink tongue to give it a gentle lick. Then, raising an eyebrow, she looked at Xie Liu with eyes filled with surprise.

"That's my favorite strawberry flavor," Xie Liu said with a smile, pulling the lollipop out of his own mouth and waving it in the air. "See? It's fine, no poison. Just do like this." With that, he tossed the candy back into his mouth.

Ailu looked at Xie Liu with puzzlement, her gaze darting back and forth between the lollipop in her hand and Xie Liu's face. Convinced at last that there was no danger, she cautiously put the strawberry lollipop into her mouth.

"Mmph!" Ailu's delicate eyebrows arched slightly, evidently surprised. At that moment, Ye Leng chimed in teasingly, "You dead-eyed idiot, how old are you eating lollipops anyway? And now you're corrupting others—aren't you ashamed?"

"I want to, what's it to you?" Xie Liu snapped back defensively. But as his peripheral vision caught sight of the battlefield, he suddenly let out a loud shout: "Not good!"

"The small fighter fleet has pushed in too deep! They've entered the effective sweeping range of the enemy capital ship's guns!" Xie Liu's face instantly twisted with deep alarm.