In just an instant, the "Spike" turned into a ball of flame. The speed was so fast that even Christopher was surprised. Of course, he had not considered this possibility at all. But the opponent's counterattack was so fast

, the accuracy of the judgment and the fierce firepower still surprised him. Because this did not look like the reaction of a group of new recruits, but rather seemed like a decision made by experienced veterans.

It is said that it is better to cut off one finger than to injure ten of them. The difference between sinking a warship and damaging a warship is naturally self-evident.

Not only that, after successfully destroying the target, the three metal warships immediately evacuated from the battlefield at a very fast speed without any hesitation. They turned sideways at a speed that was definitely not inferior to the task force, and then fled quickly. So this immediately

This posed a difficult problem for Christopher - should we continue to track? Or evacuate first?

For Christopher, he certainly could not forgive the enemy who destroyed his battleship for escaping in such a swagger. But on the other hand, the powerful force that the opponent unleashed during the counterattack forced him to choose to act cautiously. In the end,

Christopher did not choose to move forward - the reason why wolves are wolves is because they are not tigers and leopards. They will not confront their prey head-on. Once entangled and at a disadvantage, it is best to evacuate immediately. So Chris

Dov gave the order decisively.

"Stop the pursuit, immediately dispatch reconnaissance troops to track, and maintain surveillance of the enemy..."

But what Christopher didn't expect was that not long after, he got a reply that was beyond his expectation.

"Report, the target is missing."

"What?"

According to the accounts of the gryphon knights, they were able to follow each other at first, but not long after, the three warships far in front of them suddenly disappeared out of thin air. Not only that, even if

There was no response even on the crystal specially designed to detect magic power fluctuations, which confused them greatly, but if it was lost, it was lost, and they had nothing to say about it.

"Retract your formation immediately and move closer to the first fleet."

Christopher did not feel humiliated because of his own embarrassment. On the contrary, this scheming aristocratic officer smelled danger from the opponent's unusual behavior. The opponent's combat effectiveness was unknown, the capabilities of the battleship were unknown, and everything was unknown. And

Now after contact, the unknown parts are not only not clear, but more and more.

For example, how did the opponent lock the target and start attacking? The Magic Empire's warships fired magic cannons, and the firing of magic cannons could only be handed over to skilled operators. In other words, each cannon

Magic cannons are all controlled by a mage. Moreover, the fire fired by the magic cannon is not like the magic missiles released by the mage. It has the ability to track itself, so calculation and aiming in advance are also necessary. This is precisely because

In this way, in order to obtain the maximum results, the general battle of a magic warship is to break into the opponent's side as much as possible without the opponent reacting, and then pour the artillery fire on the most vulnerable part in the shortest time -

Overall, this is not much different from fleet battles on the ocean.

But the battle just now was different. In other words, the formations of both sides were in a T-shape. The parts of the opponent's fleet that were most vulnerable to attack were under the artillery fire of our fleet. However, because our fleet was moving head-on,

Therefore, there was almost no part that could be attacked. But in this case, the opponent's artillery fire accurately hit its own warship.

In a fleet battle, the difficulty is no less than hitting a long sword thrust from the front with a hundred arrows. But the opponent did it, or the opponent has countless experienced warriors who are able to hit the target with every shot.

The gunner, or the other party has adopted some new method unknown to them. The possibility of the former is almost zero, and if it is the latter, if you continue, you will only suffer more losses. This is not only

It is a battle, but a war that will determine the future life and death of the Sorcerous Empire. From this perspective, any risky move absolutely needs to be considered before consideration.

"The enemy retreated."

Looking at the retreat of the task force, Hank frowned, but he was not disappointed. In the battle, he always moved forward according to his expectations, which only meant that the enemy was stupid enough. In fact, most of the time,

, the enemies are not that stupid. This is one of the lessons Patilina told them at the beginning. Of course, Hank will not be swayed just because the enemy's actions deviate from his expectations. Because soon, he will

A new order was issued.

"Then, let the Imperial Army taste their own bitter pill!"

The moment Hank finished speaking, the orderer immediately passed the order through the probe to the screen of the distant reconnaissance fleet.

At the same time, First Fleet Balck also received the order from Christopher.

"It actually failed..."

Looking at the content on the parchment in front of him, Balk could not conceal his inner surprise. The reason why he allowed Christopher to take the initiative was because he took a fancy to the assault capability of the task force. In his opinion, even if the task force

The fleet will not succeed, but at least it should not fail. But now, Christopher meets the other party, and loses one of the empire's most elite battleships in just one encounter. This can be said to be unbelievable - if not

Because there is indeed Christopher's magic mark on it, Captain Balk may even think that this is some kind of enemy's trick.

"Immediately move closer to the task force, set up a defensive formation, and monitor the surrounding area!"

What worries Balk the most is the information that Christopher later mentioned that "the surveillance was fruitless and the enemy escaped." Although this is not a problem in a literal sense. But everyone knows that there are enemies who have disappeared.

Times are even more dangerous. If the hunter becomes the prey, the situation will only get worse.

But soon, Balk's bad prediction became a reality - just half an hour before he was about to rendezvous with the task force, a report came from the left wing of the First Fleet that they had been attacked by the enemy.

"They suddenly appeared like this!!"

The middle-aged man who appeared in front of Balk looked depressed, even a little scared.

"It's really sudden, sir! We all followed your orders and monitored the surroundings, but there was no movement at all. Even the magic crystal did not transmit abnormal pulses. But just like that, they suddenly appeared

It’s…”

With the unlucky man's rambling narration, Balke finally understood the specific situation. When they moved their formation, the "Bird" was conducting reconnaissance and surveillance on the flanks of the fleet in accordance with Balke's orders. But just

Without any warning, three metal warships suddenly appeared in front of them out of thin air, and then launched a fierce artillery fire on the "Bird". Hundreds of magic beams hit every target at the same time almost instantly.

The unsuspecting "Asuka" turned it into an erupting ball of fire. This scene left other friendly ships around stunned and unable to react at all. And when they hurriedly moved their guns to counterattack,

The other party suddenly disappeared without a trace, just like when he suddenly appeared.

"This is simply..."

After hearing the report, Balk couldn't even make a wry smile. The other party was simply retaliating with tooth. This was the tactic that Christopher's advance fleet was best at using. But he didn't expect that he failed to use this tactic just now, but was succeeded by the other party.

I learned from the past. But now, the First Fleet is actually required to taste the bitter fruit.

"It seems that the other party also has an opponent that we can't spy on."

As for how the other party found him, Balk is not without ideas. If the other party has been monitoring the task force, then when he sees the task force retreating, he will naturally consider the possibility of joining the main force, predict from the opponent's movement trajectory, and then

Finding the merged troops to launch an attack is not a clever tactic—in fact, there are no clever tactics on the battlefield, only effective tactics. Any effective tactic is clever, but conversely, clever tactics

Tactics are not necessarily effective.

"What should we do next?"

After finally reuniting with the main force, Christopher also learned about the encounter of the First Fleet. He could only be speechless about it - being defeated by the enemy is depressing enough, but being defeated by the enemy using the method he is good at is depressing.

That's really depressing.,

"Gather the fleet and carry out a full-scale defense. The opponent relies on elusiveness, so we should not give them the opportunity to elusive. Once discovered, we will immediately attack head-on and force them to enter the frontal battlefield to confront us. Before that, we only need to strengthen our vigilance.

"

As the commander-in-chief of the First Fleet, Balke gave the safest answer. But Christopher obviously didn't care about such a trivial matter.

"Then, how should we report to those high-ranking mages behind us?"

"………………"

After hearing Christopher's question, Balk was silent for a while before giving the answer.

"Just report it truthfully."

In fact, when the archmage sitting firmly in the rear received the report from Balk and Christopher, they were really surprised.

The archmages are not good at fleet battles, but in their opinion, there should be no problem with the empire's two most powerful fleets fighting against a group of battleships built by a group of mage apprentices and low-level mages. But they didn't expect that it was just now.

At the beginning, both sides lost two elite battleships as well as those brave and fearless soldiers and mages during just a trial period. This was really beyond their expectation.

"Is it true that the Parsus leader did not directly intervene in this?"

This was the first question that came to the minds of the archmages immediately after receiving the report, and to this, Archmage Nicholas also gave a positive answer.

"Including Lord Zhan, no one in Parsus was directly involved. I can guarantee this."

After hearing Nicholas's answer, the expressions of the archmages did not get better, but became more and more gloomy. If Zhan and others were playing tricks on them, they would be able to accept it. But now, just because of differences in concepts and development directions, a group of mages

Apprentices and low-level mages can actually compete head-on, and even defeat the most elite magic warships in the empire...
Chapter completed!