Staying Alive Cautiously in the Celestial Realm and Becoming the Strongest-Chapter 1334: Star Sea (139)

The Nether Dragon, having lost its head, seemed as though it had been subjected to petrification magic, frozen in the void, immobile.

However, its severed neck spewed out a bright Purple Light, and the glow grew increasingly intense.

Having just succeeded in decapitation, Wang Chen suddenly felt a chilling sensation.

Without a second thought, he maneuvered the War God Mecha to fly backwards, boosting the power of the four engines to the maximum!

Meanwhile, the Nether Battleships and Ghost Fighters scattered around the Nether Dragon fled in all directions as if doomsday had arrived, some even crashing into one another.

The Imperial Army pilots also sensed the danger and retreated in droves.

Only a few seconds had passed when the headless Nether Dragon began shooting out Purple Light from its entire body, shortly before exploding completely.

This sector of space seemed to have detonated a nuclear bomb of one hundred billion tons, the blast’s shockwaves indiscriminately sweeping up both retreating sides, engulfing them in a violent energy storm.

Wang Chen, having reacted swiftly and retreated the fastest, thus avoided the first wave of the Nether Dragon’s self-destruction.

Though swept by energy ripples, he managed to withstand them thanks to the force field shield.

Yet, many of his comrades perished.

This was an unavoidable situation.

With the fall of the Nether Dragon, the battlefield situation further shifted in favor of the Imperial Army.

Wang Chen seized the moment to retreat into the cockpit of the Radiance Cruiser.

The War God Mecha had run out of missiles, and its Warship Blade was damaged; these needed replenishing and replacement.

After the intense battle earlier, the losses of Radiance were significant, with its power and defense down by more than 25%, yet, still under the cover of many Destroyers and Escort Ships, it unleashed strong firepower upon the Nether Legion.

The Space Fortress of the Iron Lion Star Cluster had no Titan-class Battleships stationed, thus aside from the fortress’s few super-caliber main guns, its firepower was the strongest.

After a brief resupply of ammunition, Wang Chen piloted the War God Mecha once again into the vast outer space.

By this time, the battle had completely tilted towards the Imperial Army side.

The destruction of the Nether Dragon dealt a heavy blow to this Nether Legion, and its sudden self-detonation dragged many of its kin’s forces into an abyss.

The battle damage of the Nether Legion had surpassed one-third, with half of the previously released Ghost Fighters shot down, let alone the prospects of destroying the Space Fortress to seize the Star Gate; returning was now in question.

The Nether Tribe are not emotionless beings devoid of fear; realizing the inevitable outcome of defeat, they retreat en masse towards the Star Gate area, attempting to utilize its power for a warp escape.

Yet, the Imperial Army, having seized momentum, was not about to let the remnants escape freely.

A fierce pursuit battle thus unfolded!

Given that the warp of Nether Battleships requires preparation time and fails upon interference, the two fleets of the Imperial Army deployed an abundance of Space Torpedoes towards the Star Gate area.

These mighty Space Torpedoes did not directly target Nether Battleships, but rather disrupted the spatial stability of the Star Gate through explosions, hindering their warp.

Proven effective, few Nether Battleships managed to warp escape under companion cover, while most were lost amidst the Imperial fleet’s encirclement.

Some Nether Battleships tried to dash into the Iron Lion Star Cluster, using the planets’ cover to evade capture.

But the Imperial Army had anticipated this maneuver, dispatched forces to sink them one by one, not letting a single ship flee.

This battle encircling the Star Gate concluded an hour later.

Wang Chen returned to the Radiance.

He handed the War God Mecha over to the ship’s logistics personnel for maintenance and came to the upper main cabin.

Though they had just won a significant victory, nearly annihilating a Nether Legion, few crew members of the Radiance Cruiser wore smiles.

Because, in this battle, the losses of the Seventh Rapid Response Fleet were enormous.

Due to Wang Chen’s status as Glory Nobility, alongside being a Dragon Cavalry pilot, he had the authority to access combat data.

Understanding the loss situation was easy.

And in this Star Gate battle, the distant-coming Seventh Rapid Response Fleet had a total loss of five Destroyers and thirty-seven Escort Ships, with assault ships numbering in hundreds.

As for armed mechas, battle damage exceeded four digits!

The full personnel casualties were yet to be tallied, but predictions were for no less than seventy thousand—merely as sacrifices!

While the Radiance Cruiser remained largely intact, many of its pilots did not return from their sorties.

Some crew members suffered casualties as well.

Under such circumstances, how can they be happy about victory?

Wang Chen rested in his cabin for a while after which he uploaded his combat data via the internal network.

Each Imperial Army mecha is equipped with a dedicated recorder capable of accurately documenting combat achievements.

This is used to determine merit.

Wang Chen’s greatest achievement was undoubtedly the Nether Dragon; although destroying this strongest weapon of the Nether Tribe wasn’t solely his merit, he definitely accounted for sixty to seventy percent.

This accomplishment alone was enough to promote Wang Chen from Major to Lieutenant Colonel.

Add to that the Ghost Fighters and Nether Battleships he shot down; estimating a double rank promotion wouldn’t be out of question!

Though Wang Chen wasn’t overly concerned about this. freewebnøvel.coɱ

Several hours later, the reassembled Seventh Rapid Response Fleet completed rescue operations and berthed into the Space Fortress’s base.

Although the battle had ended, much follow-up work was still needed, including replenishing ships and personnel for the Seventh Rapid Response Fleet.

But these matters had nothing to do with Wang Chen, nor did he want to stay "locked in" at the fortress base, thus he applied for temporary leave.

This application was approved the same day.

So Wang Chen left the Space Fortress and went for a vacation to Lionheart City, the capital of Iron Lion Star.

Iron Lion Star is a uniquely inhabited planet, with land comprising 75% of the planet’s surface area, desert and rust plateau covering 75% of the land area; thus, the habitable area isn’t vast.

But the mining resources of Iron Lion Star are exceptionally abundant; currently known minerals, over 98% can be found on this planet, including special mineral deposits with very high reserves and good quality.

Therefore, the Empire invests massively in manpower and resources for development on Iron Lion Star, driving the planet’s economic prosperity.

Iron Lion Star’s population only amounts to a mere two billion, mostly concentrated in dozens of large and super large cities; Lionheart City alone has a resident population exceeding three hundred million.

With so many people concentrated in the habitable zone, congestion is inevitable, its architectural scale being the largest and densest Wang Chen has ever seen.

Lionheart City, truly a super-modern cyberpunk city!

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Here comes the second update.