While the players on the ground felt invigorated by the arrival of reinforcements, the Shadow Legion fleet in the sky sensed a grave crisis.
They had already gained little here and had neither the motivation nor any reason to keep fighting.
They had come to destroy Diamond City purely to vent their anger.
What they had not expected was that, just a few shots into their bombardment, their radar would suddenly sound a piercing alarm.
"Report! More than three spacecraft and one thousand drop pods are rapidly breaching the atmosphere!"
"Report! Red-wave lock detected!"
"Prepare defenses!"
"Open fire! Engage the enemy!"
A series of bombardments struck the Purgatory.
Faint tremors kept rippling through the ship.
Yet those hundred-odd shells clearly had little effect on this personal flagship-class vessel.
The Moon-Drinking Azure Wolf currently had only four Stellar-Class naval guns, their largest weapons; the rest were all Storm-class.
Guns of that caliber left only slight marks on the Purgatory's deck.
Crushed Stone's eyes widened. "Where the hell did these bastards get their ships?"
"Weren't the jump routes here obscured by the Life Devourers' shadow?"
His adjutant said, "We still don't know the exact reason, master."
"But we must retreat now!"
"Those small ships may not pose a threat to us, but if reinforcements can get here, that means the company's main fleet is already close!"
At that, Crushed Stone looked toward Diamond City and gritted his teeth.
"Retreat! There's no point dragging this out any longer!"
"Once we return to the Void Abyss, deploy every Punisher immediately!"
"Bring back every last one of those damned captains who fled!"
"I'll stuff their souls into my Purgatory Furnace! Let them suffer and scream for eternity!"
As the order to retreat was issued, an observer spoke up.
"Outer radar detected several drop pods crashing