Despite the absence of wind, Thunder Star Pillar felt a chill run down his spine. The entire spaceship fell silent, filled with fear.
On the other side, Gaiwuqi Joami, commander of the Crimson Alliance's Seventh Task Fleet, rose from his seat with a gleam in his eyes. He leaned forward instinctively, trying to make sure that what was appearing in the projection was not a hallucination caused by his exhaustion from commanding the battle.
Soon, Gaiwuqi was certain that he hadn't misread it; an Ashes Fleet had actually appeared in their encirclement.
"Could it be a decoy? Or a decapitation strike?" Gaiwuqi remained calm and did not immediately order his troops to attack, resulting in a strange stalemate between the two sides.
However, at that moment, an Ashes warship suddenly turned around and retreated. Gaiwuqi's spirits lifted instantly. The enemy had actually escaped. The probability of a conspiracy had greatly decreased. He must have just been lucky and encountered a lost Ashes fleet.
Once this was confirmed, Gaiwuqi immediately ordered a full-scale attack, launching a concentrated assault.
Our Crimson Alliance's fine tradition has always been to strike while the iron is hot and kill the enemy!
What if the enemy comes to our doorstep? Needless to say, aim the cannons and blast them to smithereens!
As the fleet commander gave the order, the main guns of the Crimson Alliance warships charged up, and clusters of dark blue energy balls gathered inside the thick gun barrels, resembling a field of stars, or hundreds of terrifying eyes slowly opening, watching intently, exuding a terrifying aura.
"Who gave the fourth ship permission to act without authorization?!"
Thunder Star Pillar let out a roar that almost broke his voice, but no one was in the mood to answer him. Everyone's face was pale, and the warship pilots were desperately turning the shield power to the maximum, trying to block this wave of cluster attacks.
Thunder Star Pillar, a veteran of countless battles, understood that this was a futile effort. The shields on his warship were no match for the combined attack of a large-scale space fleet from the Crimson Alliance; there was no hope whatsoever.
"Kid, use all your defensive skills! Don't die!"
Thunder Star Pillar lowered his head and said in a solemn tone, then suddenly opened his blood-red maw and swallowed Gustavo whole.
Since he sensed no malice, Gustavo did not resist.
"Get out of there, my head is the hardest part of my body..."
Thunder Star Pillar's voice rang out again, and the next moment, it seemed as if Endless thunder surged from his body, turning part of the Starry Sky into a sea of lightning.
In this ocean of blue and white lightning, a giant python, ten thousand meters long, roared and coiled its body. Then, its head suddenly plunged in, tightly enveloping its body and forming a serpentine ball.
At the same time, thousands of energy beams attacked from all directions, first colliding fiercely with the sea of lightning, annihilating each other, and the remaining beams struck Thunder Star Pillar's body with their remaining force.
Click! Click!
Under the energy attack, the scales on Thunder Star Pillar's body rapidly cracked and shattered, followed by flesh, bones, and so on...
The terrifying energy flows converged, seemingly creating a blazing sun out of thin air, its light shining brightly and instantly making the dark Starry Sky incredibly clear.
This wasn't over yet. Gaiwuqi clearly had no intention of giving the Ashes Fleet any chance of survival, and waved his hand coldly, "Secondary guns, second salvo!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A denser barrage of beams than the first round shot out, but its overall power was much lower, as it was a secondary cannon and couldn't compare to the main cannon's power.
After two consecutive waves of attacks, the energy spheres within the fleet's encirclement grew even larger, exceeding 300,000 meters in diameter. Various warship fragments and corpses were ejected, flying in all directions.
Gaiwuqi calmly issued the order, "Activate the electromagnetic field capture net! Don't let even a single fragment escape the encirclement. That giant lightning serpent is the Thunder Star Pillar of Ashes, Demigod with extremely strong vitality. It's very likely that it will attach its soul to a fragment of flesh to escape. We must ensure it is reduced to dust!!"
As a fleet commander, Gaiwuqi has an exceptionally rich war experience. This is not the first time he has experienced a battle like this, where he is tasked with encircling and suppressing individual strongmen. He is very experienced.
In fact, just as Gaiwuqi had predicted, among the countless flying fragments, a dark, oval-shaped object, whose original form was no longer recognizable, flew rapidly outwards.
Inside the object, Gustavo had transformed into his true form, his eight bladed legs curled up into a ball, his body covered in spikes, and surrounded by layers of gravitational fields. Judging from the multiple layers of protection, he had not suffered much damage.
The blade split open, revealing eight eerie green spider eyes. Gustavo's voice rang out. "Uncle Lei, how are you? Are you dead?"
"Shh, don't make a sound!" Thunder Star Pillar's weak voice came from all directions, and the tension in his tone was obvious.
"What's the situation now?" Gustavo asked hurriedly.
"I'm disguising myself as a piece of warship debris and flying outwards; maybe I can get away with it."
Gustavo sensed the lack of confidence in Thunder Star Pillar's words, and his heart tightened; the situation seemed far from optimistic.
Just as he was about to say something, a picture suddenly appeared in his mind: a large net made of electromagnetic energy, shimmering with blue and white light, enveloped him from the left. The weakened Thunder Star Pillar was unable to dodge in time and was caught by the electromagnetic energy net.
[Future Insight] worked; what appeared in my mind was something that would happen in a few seconds.
It was too late to tell Thunder Star Pillar now; the other party might not believe him, a junior. Before he could explain, Gustavo suddenly unleashed a powerful soul-shaking attack.
Caught off guard, Thunder Star Pillar felt as if he had been struck on the head, his head spinning and he temporarily lost control of his head. Taking advantage of this moment, Gustavo's muscles bulged, and a terrifying force capable of moving mountains and filling seas suddenly erupted. Propelled by gravity thousands of times stronger, he slammed into the right side of Thunder Star Pillar's mouth with a bang.
Click!
Several sharp cracks occurred almost simultaneously. It turned out that several of Thunder Star Pillar's right fangs had been broken. Under Gustavo's conscious control, the powerful kinetic energy, like the hand of God suddenly reaching out from nothingness, yanked and pulled Thunder Star Pillar's dark head hundreds of kilometers away.
Almost simultaneously, a massive electromagnetic energy network brushed past them.
Thunder Star Pillar had just regained his senses, was about to utter a curse when he saw this scene and immediately fell silent.
"Uncle Lei, from now on, follow my instructions!" Gustavo said calmly.
"Okay, okay!" Thunder Star Pillar replied blankly, as if he had returned to the time when he was commanded by Sylvain, and was unusually obedient.
Subsequently, thanks to Gustavo's [Future Insight] ability, they were always able to evade the electromagnetic energy network at the last minute, passing one spaceship after another, and slowly flying out of the encirclement.
"What happened? Is there nothing left?" Gaiwuqi frowned and muttered to himself.
The adjutant beside him chuckled, "After multiple combined strikes by my Seventh Task Fleet, these Ashes Terrorists must have been reduced to cosmic dust. Isn't it normal that we haven't found any signs of life?"
"No, the moment Demigod falls, they release a powerful life magnetic field, similar to a star explosion, but the detector isn't reacting at all. This is abnormal! Quick, expand the detection radius immediately! Thunder Star Pillar is very likely still alive and is fleeing outwards!!"
The commander's words caused the deputy's expression to change drastically, and he immediately gave the order, without doubting his superior's judgment.
Half a minute later, an operator reported, "Commander, target spotted, fleeing towards coordinates K-12, almost breaking out of the encirclement."
"Immediately order the nearby warships to surround him. Given Thunder Star Pillar's arrogant personality, the fact that he's still so cautious even near the edge of the encirclement means he must have been severely injured. We absolutely cannot let him escape. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Taking down a Demigod is no less valuable than annihilating an enemy medium-sized fleet!"
All the soldiers of the Crimson Alliance understood the reasoning Gaiwuqi was making, and it wasn't just a matter of honor and profit. Because of the impact of the K11 Virus, the hatred of the Alliance's people towards the Ashes even surpassed that of the Blood Clan, Dragon Clan, and Sea Clan for a time. Killing a Star Pillar -level officer was undoubtedly a great opportunity to vent their hatred.
As soon as the order was given, warships immediately surrounded them menacingly. Upon seeing this, Gustavo immediately realized that the Crimson Alliance had discovered them.
"I'll cover your retreat, you take the opportunity to escape!" Thunder Star Pillar said in a deep voice, deciding to sacrifice himself to give Gustavo a chance to leave.
This man is a true die-hard fan of Spider Dad Sylvain, and his loyalty is beyond question. However, his ability to make such a choice at the critical moment of life and death still deeply moved Gustavo.
"Don't worry, Uncle Lei, you don't need to cover our retreat. I might not be able to break through the core of the encirclement, but I'm already at the edge. Hmph, these warships can't stop me!"
Gustavo snorted coldly, then made Thunder Star Pillar open his mouth. After flying out, he put the latter's head back in, and his body rapidly expanded, transforming into a ferocious beast a thousand meters tall in the blink of an eye.
"What is that?" Gaiwuqi was stunned. Wasn't Thunder Star Pillar a giant lightning python? How did it turn into a spider?
"Uh, perhaps it's another form of the Thunder Star Pillar?" the adjutant asked, scratching his head in confusion. Since he wasn't a high-level Transcendent, he didn't recognize Gustavo's race.
"Have the results of the energy level detection come out yet?" Gaiwuqi asked, turning his head.
A junior officer immediately reported, "Commander, they've emerged. The unknown spider-like creature before us has a life energy level fluctuating between 2600 and 3000 Dale."
"Hmm? Only Epic Tier One? Are you sure I didn't misdetect?" Gaiwuqi raised an eyebrow, quite surprised.
"Well, the detectors on board our Seventh Task Fleet are the latest products from the Steel Refining Academy, they shouldn't be wrong!"
"Ha, Epic Tier One, is this the end of the road?" the adjutant sneered.
"Don't be careless. Don't forget Lord Lancelot, the Crusher of the Fifth Fleet. He's Legendary who unleashed Peak Epic combat power, leaving countless people speechless." Gaiwuqi turned and glared at his adjutant, giving him a warning.
The adjutant nodded repeatedly, but inwardly he was unconvinced, muttering, "That's the pride of our Crimson Alliance, a super genius who only appears once every few centuries. Can some random spider monster compare to Lord Lancelot? You're kidding!"
Clearly, the adjutant, a devoted fan of Lancelot, strongly disagreed with Gaiwuqi's words.
But what happened next quickly left him speechless.