Victory in Hand

The fleet that passed through the gate immediately blinked apart. Clearly, they were trying to avoid an offensive by the Collectors at this moment. Before this, the Collectors had thoroughly demonstrated through their actions to the Sacred Worm Commonwealth's legion leadership what war was—and how it could be fought beyond the old methods.

The price of that tuition had been the loss of nearly seventy percent of the vanguard fleet. The Sacred Worm Commonwealth's command echelon would likely never forget the bitter lesson the Collectors had taught them.

If they survived, that was.

"All fleets, attention. This time, victory is ours."

"Three main fleets will hold the enemy at the front. The other five will jump around to the rear and cut off their retreat. At the same time, hold the gate at all costs. Do not let enemy reinforcements break our formation."

"We will win this battle."

Seeing the Collectors stretch their battle line so far, the Sacred Worm Commonwealth concluded that the Collectors' reduced numbers in the local battlefield had weakened their combat strength.

They could not feel that decline yet only because the enemy remained immensely powerful even after being weakened—that was what the Sacred Worm Commonwealth's decision-makers believed.

Thus, they came up with a method somewhat akin to using superior horses to defeat inferior ones: gather all the main fleets and use concentrated force to break through the enemy's currently weakened combat power, opening a breach in their defensive line.

Naturally, the Sacred Worm Commonwealth did not expect to win the entire war this way. War was no child's game; one or two victorious battles could not decide the final outcome of a war.

But it was enough to buy time. They intended to drag the enemy into a war of attrition and gain more time