Comparison of Strength

As an air force knight of the Dawn Empire, the man discovered that the bugs surrounding the girl were all exceptionally strong.

Their tiers were very high.

The scourges he had fought were already at Tier 5. If such creatures, capable of self-detonating in swarms without any external aid, had faced the Dawn Empire of twenty years ago, they would have been enough to deal the nation a heavy blow.

If not for the rapid advancement of magic technology, the Empire might truly have lost to these enemies at sea by now.

“Hah, what's the point of thinking about this? I've already been captured by the enemy.”

Facing the girl, the knight couldn't help but find his attention drawn to her face and body.

She was attractive—truly quite attractive.

“Tsk tsk, he's just like the others I've met before. I suppose that's what high charm does. Men are still men at their core; no matter how strong their willpower, they still like beautiful young girls.”

Since she was already used to such things, Xia Jin quickly shifted her attention away. She asked with a smile, “Sir Knight, could you tell me what you know? Regarding the navy or air force? Of course, it's fine if you don't; I'm simply curious.”

A terrifying fluctuation emanated from the girl's body.

It was powerful mental energy.

The knight's heart trembled. This was the first time he had felt such a terrifying spirit. Even the Empire's First Archmage only made people feel a faint pressure; could this girl before him already interfere with physical matter through pure mind?

“Sir, what do you think of the Zerg's strength? What you see now is just the tip of the iceberg of our fleet. In truth, no matter what happens, the Dawn Empire will eventually fail. It's simply not worth it to fight for a nation on the brink of extinction, is it?”

Hearing this, the knight shook his head. “Regrettably, I believe you are the ones who will lose. The true strength of the Dawn Empire lies in our faith. Once the nation faces destruction, God's messengers will descend. To destroy our country, your current strength is likely far from enough.”

“Is that so?”

Xia Jin felt that it was going to be difficult to get this fellow to speak the truth.

Though it was a bit of a shame, she reached out and instantly devoured the man before her.

Eventually, she left behind a few unwanted scraps and tossed them casually into the sea.

Before long, a member of the underwater Sea Race swam up and swallowed the remains.

“Bah, disgusting.”

Realizing it was just viscera, the Sea Race creature cursed and spat the remains out before swimming away.

“It seems the Sea Race really won't pick a fight with land creatures under normal circumstances unless they go underwater.”

This situation directly resulted in the lack of any submarines.

Shipwrecks were far more severe than expected; as long as you stayed on the surface, you were mostly fine, but the moment you dared to submerge, you would be treated as an enemy.

Well, strictly speaking, even floating on the surface carried risks, as the Sea Race would still be watching.

The two sides generally stayed out of each other's way.

However, looking at the underwater battles in the Great West Sea, the intelligence provided by the sharkmen indicated that land creatures and the Sea Race had engaged in massive wars in the past.

But there wasn't much point in the Sea Race attacking the land, as they couldn't stay for long and eventually had to return to the water.

Similarly, land dwellers couldn't survive underwater for extended periods.

...

By now, this fleet had been targeted by the Empire.

The Imperial Navy launched an offensive against the Zerg escort fleet positioned to the southeast.

Although this Zerg fleet was not weak, it was eventually sunk.

Of course, the jet-propulsion bug missiles were also put into use for the first time during this battle.

Bugs trailing long plumes of fire flew from their launchers; two hundred were deployed in a single wave.

This was equivalent to two hundred guided rockets.

In fact, calling them jet-propulsion bug missiles was perfectly accurate.

Ultimately, these two hundred missiles successfully sank two enemy escort ships.

At the final moment, several anti-aircraft vessels surrounding the carrier unleashed such fierce firepower that they directly blocked the jet-propulsion bug missiles. Only one managed to get close, but it was stopped by something like a magic net emitted by the ship, exploding twenty meters away.

The shockwave swept over the hull, damaging two magic fighters, though the damage was not lethal.

The Imperial Navy was profoundly shocked after witnessing these new bugs with their own eyes.

“Are they copying our weapons?”

It was too eerie.

They had only just rolled out rockets, and now the bugs had them too?

And they were biological ones at that.

“This is likely the trend of progress. The Zerg are indeed different from the enemies we've faced in the past; the higher-ups misjudged them,” the fleet commander lamented as he lowered his monoculars.

After this branch of the escort fleet was destroyed, the Zerg proactively sent out another escort fleet to draw fire, preventing the landing fleet in the center from being noticed.

This covert behavior, combined with the sky-covering defense network of scourges, successfully blocked all of the enemy's air force, ensuring they had no chance to discover the existence of the main Zerg convoy.

Before long, the fleet had reached the center of the East Sea, with only half the journey remaining until they reached the East Continent.

Although Imperial ships occasionally appeared within a thousand-kilometer radius, the enemy didn't realize what the Zerg were doing and continued to drift leisurely, observing the Zerg's movements.

At this rate, they would safely arrive in two days.