Across the boundless sea, burning steel stretched as far as the eye could see, painting the clear skies after the storm with the colors of sunset.
This was an unnamed stretch of sea less than five hundred nautical miles from the Baiyue Strait. The only nearby land was a small island of less than a few square kilometers, historically known as Serik Island.
The Southern Legion fleet and the South Sea Alliance fleet had encountered one another near that island.
The Southern Legion fleet had deployed a total of twenty-three vessels, along with five steel airships.
The South Sea Alliance fleet, meanwhile, had only the cruiser Harpoon, four destroyers, three nuclear-powered submarines, and a land-based anti-ship electromagnetic cannon deployed in advance on Serik Island.
Having just gone through a civil war, the South Sea Alliance had been severely weakened. Its battleships, the core of its fighting strength, had especially been sunk to the bottom of the sea.
Judging purely by the numbers on paper, the disparity in strength between the two sides was immense.
That was precisely why, upon discovering the South Sea Alliance fleet, the Southern Legion had not taken it seriously at all and marched boldly forward to meet it.
The entire battle lasted several hours.
Yet the final outcome left everyone dumbfounded.
Facing the Southern Legion's massive, supposedly invincible fleet, the South Sea Alliance used anti-ship missiles and artillery-launched drones to kite them around. After several exchanges, it sent all twenty-three of the enemy's vessels to the bottom of the sea at almost no cost to itself!
Not only that, two of the five steel airships providing air support were shot down by the land-based anti-ship electromagnetic cannon, while the remaining three could only flee the battlefield in panic!
Honestly...
This battle had been won a little