"Attack of ourselves?" The secretary officer beside her looked at Commander Wei Shishi in surprise — to attack above two hundred thousand Demon Race warships with twenty thousand-odd warships.
The gulf in strength between the two is truly somewhat wide, and this at a time when the Owl Dragon Seventh Legion's ordnance is running short besides.
"Carry out the order," Wei Shishi said to the secretary officer; and thereafter she raised both hands and touched lightly and without cease upon the star-chart tags of the several fleets of her Owl Dragon Seventh Legion, publishing this order and that.
The several fleets of the Owl Dragon Seventh Legion, ten of them, turned at once from defense to attack.
Each carrying out its own task of battle.
Which change, coming so of a sudden, did indeed catch the other side unready.
But after all the strength of the two sides lay as it lay, and this small interlude worked no very great effect upon the case of the fighting.
But at just this moment.
Several rings of light appeared outside the field.
Interstellar warship after warship appeared out of the empty air.
"Warning! Warning! Warning! A great quantity of interstellar warship energy signals detected; they appear to be interstellar missile ships under the Owl Dragon Legion!"
The alarm sounded at once aboard Marshal Hell-Baron's flagship.
"This is bad — it is that special fleet of interstellar missile ships of the Owl Dragon Legion's!" The secretary officer, seeing those missile ships in dense array, judged it on the instant.
Of this special fleet of the Owl Dragon Legion's they have long since had a clear understanding.
"Give over the attack; defend!" Marshal Hell-Baron gave the order without hesitating.
But his secretary officer said in his anxiety, "The Owl Dragon Legion opposite have gone mad.
"They grudge no price whatever in tangling with us, and give us no chance at all to form a line of defense by districts!
"Have their missile ships opened their attack?
"Can it be that they take no heed at all that their own friendly ships are still exchanging fire with us?"
Marshal Hell-Baron kept his brows drawn and his eyes upon the picture before him.
Far off, the special fleet of interstellar missile ships, so lately appeared, opened its missile launchers at the first moment of completing its assembly.
Interstellar missile after missile went screaming out, falling upon the district where the Owl Dragon Seventh Legion and the Hell-Baron Legion's fleet clashed.
Taking no heed whatever that their own friendly ships were in that sheet of it!
"Madmen! This crew of madmen!" the adjutant beside him said, staring past all belief at the light of fire welling up from those bursting missiles.
That opposite is the bombardment of three thousand interstellar missile ships, and among them thirty, plain to see, are the famed T4 Hell-Angel-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships!
And within that terrible dust of the bursts.
Commander Wei Shishi's own flagship stood likewise.
Yet though she stood within that mad bombardment of interstellar missiles, there was no look of concern whatever upon Wei Shishi's face.
For one saw before her a chart; and this chart came from the Owl Dragon special fleet of interstellar missile ships — it is the expected targets of attack, and the compass the bursts would reach.
Upon it were circles of a deeper red, and outside the deep red circles a ring of pale red besides.
While the safe green districts were few indeed.
Within the compass of the deep red circles is the missiles' chief district of attack, while the pale red compass outside will take some effect, but no over-heavy hurt.
It is because she has this chart of the attack that Wei Shishi dares stand so easy within this gunfire with her own fleet.
This is a kind of courage, and a kind of trust besides.
Trust in a comrade.
The ten minutes were very soon over.
The smoke and dust about them had not yet dispersed.
And the Owl Dragon Seventh Legion's warships began to move.
"Open the friend-or-foe identification signal, and go on with the task of battle," Commander Wei Shishi ordered.
Though the dust barred their sight, yet with the friend-or-foe identification signal opened, so long as the district of the enemy's ships may be roughly fixed, one may fire blind outright.
For this compass is of no great radius.
And the more so as the Hell-Baron Legion's case at present is likely in great confusion.
To attack at such a moment is beyond doubt the best chance of all!
At the same time a window of video communication appeared before Wei Shishi.
"Well? You were not frightened by this lady's display, I hope!" The wolf-girl Baixue set both hands on her hips and said it with a laugh.
Wei Shishi of course knows the temper of this queen of gunfire of the Owl Dragon Legion; she said with a smile, "It should rather be said that you truly dare to open fire."
The wolf-girl Baixue lifted her head and gave a snort. "This tactical disposition of yours — so long as your Owl Dragon Seventh Legion does not flinch.
"My special fleet dares open fire!"
Thereafter the two of them looked at each other and laughed.
"Enough; by the plan of battle as first laid.
"I have not much left in store on my side either, and can support you this once only.
"Afterward I must take on interstellar missiles again and answer the Commander's next order.
"As for the field to the front, your Owl Dragon Seventh Legion must lean upon yourselves for it," the wolf-girl Baixue said, her face set.
One round of attack by three thousand interstellar missile ships — even the Owl Dragon Legion, with some depth stored up at present, has not laid by much of it.
And so in this operation the chances for the wolf-girl Baixue's Owl Dragon special missile fleet to appear are few.
Until the critical moment Zhao Chen would rather not use it, for it burns money in earnest.
"Mm. Leave it to us." Wei Shishi nodded without a word.
And at this time her secretary officer had reckoned up the casualties on both sides under that fierce gunfire of the past dozen minutes.
"Under that saturating firepower strike of the Owl Dragon special missile fleet just now.
"The enemy was dealt a loss of at least fifty thousand interstellar warships outright, and among them the share of T4 warships is rather high!
"And near fifty thousand warships besides have taken damage in differing degrees.
"At the same time, upon our side, three hundred and twenty-seven interstellar warships did not withdraw out of the pale red district of attack, and took the after-wave of the missile bursts.
"Of these the most grievous case is one ship whose hull is broken in several places and whose power has failed; she has now been given up and abandoned.
"Of the rest, the lighter cases have their star-shield energy lowered, and the heavier have hull damage.
"It is at present being determined by the case in fact whether they are to be abandoned," the secretary officer said in particulars.
This hurt by mistake was in truth all within Wei Shishi's expectation.
The wolf-girl Baixue's side had given the districts of bombardment exactly; but what help is there when upon a field, and above all when the blades are crossed at close quarters with an enemy, one very often truly cannot withdraw at the wishing?
Some price cannot but be paid.
But set against the fruit of it, this price is nothing at all.
"Grudge no price whatever; you are to destroy the Hell-Baron Legion to the last ship for me!" Commander Wei Shishi's voice, hard as a nail driven through iron, went out through the Owl Dragon Seventh Legion's channel of command.
Though the difference in the two sides' warship numbers stands at a startling sevenfold still!
Yet the momentum of the Owl Dragon Seventh Legion's attack was as if the one holding the sevenfold advantage were not the enemy, but they!
Marshal Hell-Baron looked at the picture of the field before him, and for a long while said nothing; and in the end left but one sentence behind him. "An unimaginable interstellar legion…"