Chapter 260 : The Battle of Luke

"No! No! No!... "

"Adjutant! Send out the Dragon-type Air Cavalry Regiment and find those bastards for me!"

"I'm going to tear them into pieces!"

"Yes, sir!"

Ashadron stared with bloodshot eyes at the place below where his invincible army had stood proudly only moments ago.

In the blink of an eye, it had become a living hell shrouded in black poisonous smoke.

The central portion struck by the rocket barrage was beyond saving.

At least three legions had been annihilated as complete formations.

Casualties already numbered in the tens of thousands.

No nation's elite legions grew on trees.

Large-scale losses were almost impossible to replace—

especially when they died in such a humiliating and theatrical manner.

Ashadron could not even imagine how he was supposed to explain this to the nations those legions represented.

Following his orders, several thousand Griffin Cavalry rapidly rushed toward the direction from which the rockets had been launched.

Trailing behind them were two Dragon Rider squads.

The remaining troops desperately searched for ways to extinguish the raging inferno still burning below.

Meanwhile...

Far away in the deep ocean...

A modest fleet converted from merchant ships was making its final preparations.

One fighter aircraft slowly taxied to the center of the flight deck.

As the signal lights along the edge of the deck changed color, the engine erupted with a thunderous roar.

The fighter accelerated rapidly toward the end of the deck.

As it shot off the carrier, it generated sufficient lift and climbed smoothly into the sky.

By now, more than a hundred fighters were already circling overhead in formation, waiting for the remainder of their comrades to launch.

In the end,

Ten converted aircraft carriers assembled an air wing of more than six hundred fighters equipped with external fuel tanks.

They immediately headed toward their designated objective.

"The first wave has been extremely successful."

"Our friendly forces have safely taken off and are currently withdrawing toward our position."

"Captain!"

"The final inspection has been completed."

"The entire fleet confirms full combat readiness!"

Hearing the report, Lapland lowered the binoculars in her hands and turned toward the communications officer.

"Have they arrived yet?"

"Reporting, Captain."

"Our latest transmission came five minutes ago."

"The naval air group has reached airspace approximately sixty-three nautical miles from our fleet."

"The land-based long-range heavy fighter formation is farther away, roughly ninety nautical miles."

Lapland shook her head.

"Too late."

"The entire fleet will immediately enter Level One War-readiness Status."

"All sailors to battle stations."

"Full speed ahead."

"Prepare for anti-air combat!"

"Full speed ahead! Prepare for anti-air combat!"

The adjutant's orders echoed throughout the fleet via loudspeaker systems.

Anti-aircraft commanders aboard every warship immediately climbed into their fire-control towers equipped with electro-optical targeting systems.

Around every anti-aircraft autocannon position,

large Bear Tribe soldiers hurried back and forth carrying enormous ammunition crates, stacking shells beside the gun mounts.

The twenty-millimeter magazines used by the autocannons were extremely heavy.

Ordinary people simply couldn't carry many at once.

Even handcarts provided only limited efficiency.

Only members of the Bear Tribe and Bull Tribe possessed sufficient strength for the job.

At the same time,

the four triple-mounted main batteries and secondary guns slowly elevated their barrels toward the distant sky.

Their chambers were loaded with delayed-fuse high-explosive shells.

Every boiler valve was fully opened.

Thick black smoke soon billowed above the fleet.

Ever since the previous naval battle, when Wyverns had practically landed directly on top of her fleet,

the very first thing Lapland did after returning to the Alliance was submit a report proposing improvements to shipborne weaponry.

She especially emphasized the issue of the main guns' elevation angles.

For Lapland,

defeat itself wasn't what frustrated her.

What truly pained her was that her battleships possessed overwhelming firepower...

yet were completely incapable of attacking enemies in the sky.

They could only compensate through far more costly methods.

That, above all else, was what she found unbearable.

Her proposal quickly gained unanimous support from the other admirals within the Navy.

The technical standards governing the elevation angles of every active battleship's main guns were immediately revised.

Improved hydraulic systems were installed,

allowing the guns to elevate high enough for large-angle anti-aircraft fire.

This battle...

would become the beginning of her redemption.

The Allied vanguard Griffin Air Cavalry quickly caught up with the retreating airship force.

Filled with rage,

they charged forward intending to tear those despicable enemies apart.

Instead...

they crashed straight into a wall.

Everyone knew airships were slow.

So why had the Alliance continued relentlessly improving them?

The answer was simple.

Because nothing else of comparable size possessed greater payload capacity and endurance.

The moment the Griffin Knights entered the engagement envelope,

they were greeted by a storm of steel.

Airships ranging from several dozen to well over one hundred meters in diameter had almost universally abandoned machine guns.

Instead,

they mounted large numbers of dual-purpose 20mm autocannons and recoilless guns.

Tactical squadrons composed of eight to twenty-four airships possessed astonishing sustained firepower.

Coincidentally,

the retreating force consisted of five fully staffed tactical squadrons.

One hundred twenty airships unleashed such overwhelming defensive fire that they formed a gigantic hedgehog defensive formation.

Until their ammunition ran dry,

the Griffin Knights simply could not break through.

The airships continued fighting while retreating.

Behind them,

the Griffin Corps repeatedly launched probing attacks,

only to be driven back each time.

The battle remained deadlocked.

It wasn't until the Dragon Rider squads finally arrived much later

that the Griffins' embarrassing predicament was broken.

The Dragons' Breath released by the giant dragons covered an enormous area and lingered for a considerable time.

It effortlessly detonated every incoming shell,

allowing the Dragon Riders to penetrate deep into the defensive fire network and engage the airships in close combat.

From time to time,

an airship exploded into flames before crashing toward the sea.

Elsewhere,

Griffin Riders tumbled into the ocean.

Realizing that the Dragon Riders posed the greatest threat,

the surrounding airships simultaneously shifted their fire and concentrated everything upon a single dragon.

The Deshka Heavy Machine Gun's large-caliber tungsten-core armor-piercing rounds displayed astonishing effectiveness.

The purely kinetic projectiles effortlessly pierced straight through the blazing Dragon's Breath,

peppering the dragon's tough scales with countless bloody holes.

Before long,

the silver dragon's body and wings had been completely torn apart.

The entire rider squad upon its back was massacred.

Amid sorrowful cries,

the gigantic creature plummeted toward the sea below.

That sight appeared to enrage the remaining Dragon Riders.

Wave after wave of Ninth-Tier Magic hammered relentlessly against the Composite Shield field generated by the linked airship formation,

rapidly draining every airship's energy reserves.

From time to time,

an airship exhausted its power source and lost shield protection.

The moment it became exposed to the raging elemental storm surrounding the battlefield,

the entire vessel was swiftly ripped into pieces.

Just as the airship force stood on the brink of collapse,

the fleet finally appeared upon the distant sea.

The airship commander was overjoyed.

"Reinforcements are here!"

"Stop conserving ammunition!"

"Full firepower!"

Every autocannon that had previously maintained controlled firing rates due to ammunition concerns suddenly erupted with firepower far exceeding anything before.

Dense streams of tracer rounds exploded across the sky like a magnificent fireworks display,

forcing the surrounding Air Cavalry backward.

It wasn't as though the Griffin Corps commander hadn't noticed the naval fleet below.

He had certainly been surprised by the sheer size of several of the warships.

But...

that was all.

He simply didn't believe a surface fleet could produce particularly formidable anti-aircraft firepower.

So he paid it little attention.

Five minutes later...

he realized just how catastrophically wrong he had been.

The greatest strength of industrial technology was its ability to solve problems through practical experience.

Once a weakness was discovered,

it was corrected as quickly as possible.

Having previously suffered at the hands of aerial cavalry,

virtually every Alliance warship had undergone massive anti-aircraft upgrades.

Compared to before,

the number of anti-aircraft gun batteries had essentially doubled.

The barrage fired by quadruple-mounted heavy machine guns effortlessly shattered the encirclement surrounding the airship formation.

Caught completely off guard,

large numbers of Griffin Riders were instantly blown apart by dense streams of tungsten-core armor-piercing bullets.

Before they could even react,

the elevated main guns of the battleships began firing one after another.

One 305mm high-explosive shell even flew directly before the face of a giant dragon.

The dragon instinctively breathed Dragon's Breath to intercept it—

Only for the shell to detonate instantly,

blowing the dragon's enormous head completely off.

"No good!"

"Their firepower is too strong!"

"Rear guard become the vanguard!"

"The entire force withdraw!"