And at this moment the duel of two quasi-T7-grade interstellar warships the Flame Elf Queen was looking forward to had already begun at the Devourer Civilization's bridgehead positions.
On one side was the Troll Monarch's own ship, the T6 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship, pushing forward in a powerful attack toward the universe-space fold-jump point the interstellar hive-race swarms were pouring out of.
And on the other side,
blocking the front of the positions before that universe-space fold-jump point the Owl Dragon Empire controlled, was a T6 Hive Mothership!
Everyone present, whether the commanders of the Shadow Hunter ace fleet group or the commanders on the Devourer Civilization's side,
or the Hive Princess herself,
knew very well what the two sides' strategic aims were now.
The Troll Monarch's only way out of the deadlock now was to seize control of this point, and cut off the stream of interstellar hive-race being sent over from the Owl Dragon Empire's universe.
That way there was still hope of recouping their losses in this battle.
Otherwise, if they fought on as things stood now,
even if they won, their losses would be heavy.
They were fighting the interstellar hive-race, after all.
Everyone knew very well that fighting a war of attrition against the interstellar hive-race was an extremely foolish thing.
They were a war race in the truest sense; so long as there was food enough, the Hive Motherships used up now would recover in a short time.
What was more, the interstellar hive-race from the Owl Dragon facing them now were no ordinary interstellar hive-race in fighting power.
They had already brought them enormous trouble.
Not far off, Zhao Waner held a peach in her hand, munching on it while she watched this scene.
She muttered, "And here I was wondering whether we'd get a chance to take a crack at that big fellow. Who'd have thought the chance would get snatched away by that girl the Hive Princess."
"Lady Hive Princess's flagship dueling the enemy's Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship: is there any danger? Should we give her some help?" the secretary-officer beside her said, somewhat worried.
Before this they had seen for themselves the terrifying fighting power of that T6 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship.
Hive Motherships by the tens of thousands had attacked it without having any effect on it at all,
a good many T6-grade Hive Motherships among them.
So the worry now was not without reason.
Zhao Waner took another bite of the peach and said, "Don't underestimate that girl the Hive Princess, or this Hive Mothership of hers. That's no ordinary T6 Hive Mothership. And that girl the Hive Princess has a good head on her; all this while she's been breeding her own interstellar hive-race, and their fighting power isn't in the same class at all as the interstellar hive-race we met back then. If our Owl Dragon fleets had faced this kind of interstellar hive-race back then, even my brother would have lost his shirt."
The secretary-officer broke into a sweat beside her.
She did not know whether she ought to be hearing this.
My lady, please mind yourself a little. That's your brother; it may be nothing for you to talk that way. But for us to hear it is rather awkward.
"Then we just…… wait and see?" the secretary-officer asked.
Zhao Waner tossed away the peach pit, wiped her mouth, and said, "Just keep an eye on it. We finish the task given us first. If there's still a chance later, or the Hive Princess needs help somewhere, we can make a move then."
The secretary-officer understood Marshal Zhao Waner's meaning at once. "Understood."
Zhao Waner swept her eyes over the Shadow Hunter ace fleet group's interstellar fleets on every battlefield; basically all were carrying out the planned battle plan step by step.
Her gaze came back to the battlefield of this super-flagship showdown before her.
"This is a sight you rarely get to see. I bet my brother is very curious right now how this duel will turn out too," Zhao Waner said with a grin.
She had never thought she would be so lucky this time.
"My lady Marshal, how is Lady Hive Princess's flagship different from the other T6 Taotie-class Hive Motherships of the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race?" the secretary-officer beside her asked curiously.
She had heard the Marshal say just now that it was different from the ordinary Taotie-class Hive Mothership, but to the naked eye, apart from its larger form, she could see no great difference.
"First, this Taotie-class Hive Mothership, as the Hive Princess's personal ship, has a name of its own. And it's in keeping with our Owl Dragon Empire's rules for naming interstellar warships," Zhao Waner let slip.
The secretary-officer's eyes went wide at once.
She knew these Owl Dragon-line rules for naming interstellar warships.
First, mass-produced interstellar warships were not allowed any nickname on any official public occasion; that is to say, the captains and crews of those starships could give the starships they served on pet names, but these could not appear in official publicity.
Were there exceptions?
There were!
That was when a model of interstellar warship had been upgraded in some way so that its fighting power far exceeded that of other ships of the same model; then it could be given a name.
But this had not yet happened with any model of interstellar warship now in active service in the Owl Dragon Empire.
For before this, the interstellar warships in the Owl Dragon Empire's service had usually been replaced by a new generation within a short time, so there was no need, as some interstellar powers or kingdoms did, to keep upgrading and refitting a given model of interstellar warship.
I'll just switch to a stronger one.
And at present the only interstellar warships in the Owl Dragon Empire with names of their own were those few flagships:
the Rakshasa-Hades, the Dragon Emperor, the Gluttony Demon King and the other super-flagships.
But now this Owl Dragon hive-race ship, originally a T6 Taotie-class Hive Mothership, had a name of its own, which was enough to show that its fighting power had won the recognition of the Owl Dragon Empire's military high command.
"How much do you know about this Hive Mothership?" The secretary-officer blinked curiously, looking at Zhao Waner.
Zhao Waner was an Imperial marshal too; she ought to know a good deal about it.
But Zhao Waner shook her head now and said, "The Hive Princess's Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race comes under the Owl Dragon military in name, but in practice it answers directly to the Owl Dragon Emperor. So everything to do with it is reported by Secretary-Officer Lilith straight to His Majesty the Emperor, and then settled among His Majesty the Emperor, Secretary-Officer Lilith and Marshal Charlotte, the three of them."
The secretary-officer nodded in understanding.
Given how special the Owl Dragon interstellar hive-race was, such treatment was quite understandable.
"But I do know a little. For instance, this super-flagship of the Hive Princess's is called the 'Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership'!" Zhao Waner said.
The Dragon-Bones Taotie.
Hearing the name, one could roughly see why it had been chosen.
Rumor had it the Hive Princess was like a younger sister to Zhao Chen, and add to that the special meaning of "dragon" to the Owl Dragon Empire.
The Hive Princess worshiped the Owl Dragon Emperor so; naturally there was something in common in the name too.
"In fighting ability, they say it's over ten times a T6 Taotie-class Hive Mothership," Zhao Waner gave a still more startling figure.
But on second thought, it seemed quite reasonable too.
First of all, in hull, this T6 Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership was several times larger even than the largest of the T6 Taotie-class Hive Motherships, the Leviathan-type Taotie-class Hive Mothership.
That alone was enough to show its fighting power had been enormously raised.
As everyone knew, the great bulk of a Hive Mothership's fighting power came from the hive combat units it carried, which meant the larger the hull, the stronger the fighting power.
Add to that whatever special weapons it might carry, and being ten times stronger than an ordinary Taotie-class Hive Mothership was reasonable too.
Only, just what had been improved in it was unknown.
That made both her and Zhao Waner very curious.
"Whatever else, the Dragon-Bones Taotie still uses the Hive Mothership as its technological core, so the Hive Mothership's carrier-starship style of fighting very likely won't have changed. Its main way of fighting should still be that. So in the duel of the two super-flagships, the Dragon-Bones Taotie should make the first move, releasing its hive combat units. Then the Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship on the other side, being a heavy-fire, fortress-bastion type of interstellar warship, will most likely close the distance first, come within range of fire, and then open fire on the Dragon-Bones Taotie," Zhao Waner said, giving her own view.
At this point things did begin to change in the video picture.
On the hull of the T6 Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership, like a fish, every scale on its body opened out of its own accord.
Then batch after batch of hive combat units could be seen swarming out, so thick that there was no telling how many there were.
"Going by the ordinary figures for a T6 Taotie-class Hive Mothership, fully loaded it carries hive combat units on the order of at least 1 billion. And since this one is a super-heavy Hive Mothership, its full load should reach the order of 10 billion," the secretary-officer muttered.
But Zhao Waner shook her head and said, "As far as I know, the T6 Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership's full load of hive combat units is still around the order of 1 billion."
"How can that be! A hull that big, how could it hold only 1 billion…… unless……" The secretary-officer thought of something, and at once enlarged several shots of the T6 Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership releasing those hive combat units.
Sure enough, she found something different.
First, there were those low-grade unit types.
In interstellar warfare now, the interstellar hive-race was the only armed force that still kept low-grade combat unit types,
T1 and T2-grade combat units, for instance.
And these were no more than T1 Flying-Bugs, T2 Thorny Serpents, T3 Self-Detonating Beetles, T3 Corrupted Wyverns and the like.
The T6 Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership before them kept these too.
But they were not quite like the low-grade hive combat unit types they knew.
Take, for instance, the dense swarm of T1 Flying-Bugs caught in the footage.
Compared with ordinary T1 Flying-Bugs, they were ten times the size outright!
And they looked far more savage besides; called bugs, they nonetheless had fangs, wings and scales.
And the T2 Thorny Serpents, for another, actually looked more like flood-dragons!
The T3 Self-Detonating Beetles: you call that a beetle? It was at least thirty times its old size outright, more like a "self-detonating mammoth"!
And then the T3 Corrupted Wyvern, which had looked somewhat rotten and listless before.
But the T3 Corrupted Wyvern now truly did look like a great dragon, huge in size and ferocious in form.
As for the higher-grade hive combat units, there were no small changes in them too.
"Lady Hive Princess has upgraded these hive combat units, and their size has changed a good deal. So the number in a full load isn't very different from an ordinary Taotie-class Hive Mothership's," the secretary-officer said excitedly.
Zhao Waner nodded. "That must be it."
But as Zhao Waner stared at that T6 Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership, she in fact had some other guesses in her heart that she did not say aloud.
If only the hive combat units had grown larger, they could not possibly fill so huge a hull.
Unless, inside that huge hull, some other secret weapon lay hidden.
But that answer could only be revealed by waiting.
Back to the battlefield now.
In truth, on the battlefield of the two super-flagships' duel, there were not only the two super-flagships; naturally there were other "passersby" too.
But over 90% of them were Devourer Civilization interstellar warships.
For the T6 Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership had taken the lead, out in front of the other Hive Motherships.
So, for now, the hive combat units the T6 Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership sent out attacked first the enemy starships along the way.
And faced with these terrifying swarms, never mind T5-grade interstellar warships, even T6-grade interstellar warships were no match at all!
Almost as soon as these swarms closed in, in the blink of an eye the whole surface of a starship was covered by the dense mass of bugs, and then it was torn apart into pieces, hardly leaving so much as a "whole corpse."
Mind you, these interstellar hive-race creatures could feed on anything at all; even these interstellar warships' metal armor, so long as they could gnaw it, they would eat clean.
As for the Devourer Civilization crews inside, they naturally ended up as snacks.
But these little ants were not the Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership's target.
Its real aim had only ever been one thing:
the T6 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship opposite, which had been sailing toward it all along!
And as these swarms came nearer and nearer to the T6 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship,
the weapons on the T6 Troll Monarch Interstellar Fortress Ship opened fire one after another too: if it could not reach the Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership yet, it could hit these swarms first.
What was more, the Troll Monarch knew how the interstellar hive-race fought, too, and naturally would not let these hive combat units get too close to his own super-flagship.
Otherwise, however little he thought of these little bugs, in numbers they were no small threat to his own super-flagship either.
The Dragon-Bones Taotie Super-Heavy Hive Mothership · the bridge
The Hive Princess stood on the command platform; her small, delicate frame stood there like a giant.