Between the T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship's range and the T3 Divine-Spear-class Medium Interstellar Combined-Firepower Ship's range, whose reached farther?
Beyond doubt, the T3 Judicator's.
Then why had the T3 Judicators not struck first just now, but instead let the opponent's interstellar missiles open the attack?
The reason was simple.
It was so as to blanket the enemy fleet across the widest possible area — which meant letting the enemy warships voyage a stretch nearer first.
After all, the number of interstellar missiles the Owl Dragon Legion had to launch was a truly terrifying figure.
Not so simple a thing as the paltry 50,000 from the T3 Divine-Spear-class Medium Interstellar Combined-Firepower Ships across the way.
The firepower-strike zone, moreover, was magnified several times over.
By comparison, this bit of firepower from the Sacred Angel Legion was drizzle-grade, plain and simple.
So they needed to let the enemy fleet draw a little closer.
At this, Saint Cana's subordinates too noticed the Owl Dragon Legion's movement.
Before a duel, each side had to report the names of its warships.
They'd long known the Owl Dragon Legion was equipped with a T3-grade interstellar missile ship named Judicator.
But as for the exact count, that they hadn't known beforehand.
Only when this duel began, and the two sides started scouting each other's warships, did they learn some of the figures!
"The Owl Dragon Legion is equipped with fully 50 interstellar missile ships!" a Sacred Angel Legion NCO cried out.
An interstellar missile ship was a gold-devouring behemoth — and a T3-grade one at that.
Bear in mind, even their Sacred Angel Legion was equipped with only 10 T3 Divine-Spear-class Medium Interstellar Combined-Firepower Ships, and interstellar missiles made up only a third of those.
"Perhaps… perhaps their interstellar-missile count isn't very large. What's more, we came prepared too — we have escort ships and star-shields; we can intercept the enemy's interstellar missiles all the same," a Sacred Angel Legion NCO said, confident.
Hadn't their interstellar missiles just now been intercepted by the enemy?
Could they, then, not intercept in turn?
At this moment, they did not yet know that, interstellar missiles though they both were, some interstellar missiles were merely interstellar missiles.
And some interstellar missiles were called the Owl Dragon Legion's interstellar missiles.
The missile-launch gear of the 50 T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ships engaged; interstellar missile after interstellar missile howled forth, their density such that the Sacred Angel Legion's NCOs sensed at once that something was wrong.
This count…
Wasn't it a touch too many?
And those who looked closely found besides that these interstellar missiles were not of a single model, but of every kind.
In a mere 10 seconds, the interstellar missiles the Owl Dragon Legion had loosed already surpassed the 50,000 the Sacred Angel Legion had fired a moment ago.
And those Owl Dragon T3 interstellar missile ships showed not the least sign of stopping, launching on and on.
100,000…
200,000…
500,000…
1 million!
In this moment, the air around Saint Cana dropped to freezing.
To this point, the Owl Dragon Legion had launched over 1 million interstellar missiles.
What a terrifying figure this was.
Dense, tail-flames trailing, the interstellar missiles were for all the world like one vast meteor shower — a world apart from the sesame-speck of interstellar missiles the Sacred Angel Legion had fired a moment ago.
Saint Cana clenched her fists now, her expression grave.
The number of interstellar missiles the Owl Dragon Legion had loosed this round was unexpectedly large.
If the interception rate weren't high, their warships would take enormous losses.
At this moment, the Sacred Angel Legion's escort ships engaged one after another too, beginning to intercept the incoming interstellar missiles.
Originally, seeing the scene of the Owl Dragon Legion intercepting interstellar missiles, the Sacred Angel Legion's NCOs had supposed this should be no hard thing.
The result…
In under 10 seconds, they watched one of their own T3 Light-Shield-class Heavy Interstellar Escorts take several interstellar missiles to the hull.
Exploding into a fireball.
Then warship after warship was struck and destroyed without cease.
From escort ships to destroyers.
Even cruisers and battlecruisers took losses.
At this moment the Sacred Angel Legion's flagship bridge was a scene of chaos.
"Report — our firepower-interception system has all but collapsed! The enemy's interstellar missiles are simply too many, and they're of differing performance. Some are even that cluster submunition sort — as they near our fleet, they split into hundreds of sub-munitions, doing terrible harm to our defense system. To this point, our interception rate is under 30%! In a mere few minutes, we've lost near 300 warships, and the losses keep climbing!" The adjutant looked in terror at the acting commander before him.
The acting commander's face was beaded with sweat now; he was Saint Cana's deputy, one of the Sacred Angel Legion's deputy commanders-in-chief.
He'd been placed by Saint Cana as commander of this third battle of the Sacred-War Duel.
Never had he dreamed the enemy would deal him so great a blow at the very opening.
"Whatever it takes, we must weather this. Whole fleet, full-speed advance! At the same time, change our original battle plan — order the starfighter swarm and drone swarm at once to charge, sow confusion in the enemy fleet, and find a way to strike at their interstellar missile ships. Have the T4 Sacred-Lucent-class Light Interstellar Cruisers lead the T3 Light-Cone-class Medium Interstellar Battlecruisers and T3 Light-Ranger-class Medium Interstellar Cruisers in a charge — they must break through the enemy's formation! T4 Divine-Envoy-class Medium Interstellar Destroyers, lead the central host in a full-speed assault! We must land our fiercest blow on the enemy as soon as we can — we cannot let them fire those accursed interstellar missiles again!" This acting commander thought of a course at once.
He'd meant to go by the book, step by measured step, and let the Sacred Angel Legion's hard strength carry the win.
But the enemy's one terrible round of interstellar-missile bombardment had torn all that fair prospect to shreds.
This duel could not be dragged out — else another two rounds, or even one round, of interstellar-missile bombardment would bring the Sacred Angel Legion near to collapse!
"Order our T3 Divine-Spear-class Medium Interstellar Combined-Firepower Ships — heavy cannon, make ready! The moment they're in firing range, take aim across the way and give me a salvo!" the acting commander said through gritted teeth.
This was one of the Sacred Angel Legion's trump cards!
Used well, it could turn the tide for the Sacred Angel Legion.
Owl Dragon Legion flagship · the bridge.
"Report — our interstellar missiles are all loosed. Projected direct destruction of enemy warships tops 500; over 100 more crippled, and the rest affected to varying degrees. At least a third of the enemy fleet's warships affected! Among them, we've destroyed one T4 Divine-Envoy-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer! Crippled one T4 Divine-Envoy-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer! And drained the star-shield energy of near 10 T4 Divine-Envoy-class Medium Interstellar Destroyers." a subordinate reported the battle situation to Chitong.
Chitong stared at the Sacred Angel Legion's movements in the interstellar holo-table before her.
She said coldly: "Let them get a good taste of it — the terror of being utterly overmastered!"