"Report. The Demon Race fleet's position has been found!"
"27,000 and more interstellar warships detected within the compass of that area."
Intelligence of every kind came in.
Leona at once put away all those thoughts of a moment before. She rose and walked onto the command platform; several virtual screens appeared about her, furnishing her, as supreme commander, with real-time intelligence.
"Legion fleets of the Dragon-folk tribe, execute the operational plan as laid down! The other tribal fleets to serve as reserve fleets, and stand ready at any moment to take up positions in each sector of the field! …………"
Leona's showing at this hour might fairly be called a commander's; she directed this operation without a slip.
Considering that the enemy were an elite fleet.
Leona's first step was therefore not a rash attack, but to spread her own fleets as wide as might be within the range of the enemy Demon Race warships' guns.
Forming at the last a three-dimensional half-moon of encirclement.
By which her 200,000 Dragon-folk interstellar warships could open their attack upon the Demon Race warships all in one moment.
This was the best operational plan against an elite fleet.
Leona had the range of the Demon Race warships' guns exactly in hand — for which datum she had still to thank that imperial father of hers, who had bought it with a whole battle.
And in the course of all this, those 27,000 Demon Race interstellar warships made no response whatever.
They held still to their defensive formation, unmoving where they lay.
For all the world as though they had never discovered these attackers.
Leona knit her brows. The enemy stirring not a hair, in the present case, left her uneasy at heart.
Wrong!
This was altogether too wrong!
Even granting that these 27,000 Demon Race interstellar warships had a strong confidence of defeating her side's fleets.
Still they ought not to be acting in no way at all.
All of it left Leona uncomfortable.
So that even with the fleets in every sector gone into their combat positions, she put off and put off giving the order.
"Princess Leona? What is the matter with you? The legion fleets in every position are already standing by; they await only a word from you." General Bolton, standing beside her, put in the reminder.
General Bolton too allowed that Leona was a fine battlefield commander; though in other regards she was somewhat lacking — in the wide view of things, for instance.
But she could at the least direct this battle; and General Bolton had looked over the operational plan Princess Leona had drawn up, and it might be called altogether excellent.
Even were it himself, he could have produced no plan better than this one.
"The Demon Race fleet has made no move at all; I suspect they have some plan. I think that we ought now to hold off the attack, and investigate the case thoroughly before deciding." Princess Leona said it cautiously.
A look of impatience flickered in General Bolton's eyes. To his eye, those 27,000 Demon Race interstellar warships opposite were a medal of merit and no mistake.
Take these, and with the fame of having avenged the late Emperor in hand, Leona could be pushed to the high seat, and their families would come at the last to hold more power and higher standing.
"Your Highness, there is nothing amiss here! The enemy are there before us. This, I judge, is simply their defensive formation; on account of the vast number of our fleets they have chosen this strategy of defense in place. All we need do now is attack, break the Demon Race fleet's defense, and destroy these 27,000 interstellar warships!"
Having got so far, General Bolton saw the hesitation in Leona's eyes, and added one thing more. "Were Princess Blanche here. She would assuredly make the wisest choice, and make it without wavering. Just as the late Emperor said, and as everyone within the Dragon-folk tribe says of Princess Blanche — she is the bright pearl of wisdom in the late Emperor's palm!"
At the mention of Blanche, Leona's face changed.
She clenched her fists, and gave the order to attack, resolute past recall.
"Open the attack! All fleets, out!"
The Dragon-folk tribe's 200,000 interstellar warships opened the attack first, and the ring about the Demon Race fleet drew ever smaller.
The two sides' interstellar warships began as well to come to grips.
And at this the Demon Race warships too made their first movement.
Star-shields opened; ship-guns took their aim; interstellar drones and interstellar fighters went out.
Every movement of the Demon Race warships might be called the standard drill of a defensive action.
But watching them, the unquiet in Leona's heart grew heavier and heavier.
This was too abnormal!
A Demon Race able to develop technology of such a kind — could they be fools at military command?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible!
And yet all of it now was going forward exactly by her own best operational plan.
Should it go on so, then by the outcome Leona had simulated.
Though her side would pay considerable casualties — some hundred thousand interstellar warships in combat losses — the Demon Race warships could be annihilated to the last.
Perhaps in an outsider's eyes, to fight at odds so overwhelmingly in one's favor and still come out at a loss ratio near three to one would be a costly victory and no better.
But consider: it was this very Demon Race fleet opposite which, upon 30,000 interstellar warships alone, had annihilated the hundred and fifty thousand Dragon-folk interstellar warships the Dragon Emperor led in person.
In this regard Leona was a sound and able military commander; she would not be blindly confident, but would run out her deductions and simulations upon the data in her hands.
A loss ratio of three to one, so far as Leona was concerned, already counted as a great victory.
But now… all of it looked far too smooth!
So smooth that Leona could hardly credit it.
The fighting ground on at its deadlock, and the Demon Race warships were destroyed one after another — at a threefold cost to Leona's side, to be sure.
And at the same time the compass of the battlefield drew gradually in.
The fifth hour of the fighting.
General Bolton was already standing by with a wine-cup raised, offering his congratulations. "Great Princess Leona, this battle of yours will be told throughout the whole Dragon-folk tribe. The people of the Dragon-folk tribe will know who is the leader of the Dragon-folk tribe's new generation!"
There was not the least smile upon Leona's face.
The anxiety within her swelled without cease. Were this battle not now past all stopping, she felt that in her heart she would choose to withdraw the army outright.
She hoped… she hoped all of it was only her own excess of care.
The demon commander on the other side glanced at the shifting picture upon the interstellar holo-table.
"Report. It can be confirmed that the enemy have sent out only these 300,000 interstellar warships this time. And our interstellar scout ships have discovered no enemy reinforcements whatever beyond them. Nor have the enemy made any communication with their rear." The subordinate made his report to the demon commander.
"I overestimated this pack of prey." The demon commander smiled in contempt, and then asked, "Are the other fleets in position?"
"Half an hour ago the other legion fleets all reached their positions."
"Then let us enjoy this hunt together." The demon commander stared at the Dragon-folk fleets within the interstellar holo-table, grinning savagely.
And at that same moment.
Leona, watching the interstellar holo-table, suddenly found that the friendly interstellar warships out at the battlefield's rim were turning grey, one after another.
Turned grey; the contact signal lost.
Which meant that these interstellar warships had come under attack.
But the enemy were all of them within the ring of encirclement — how should the warships at the rim be suddenly attacked?
"Emergency! Outside the battlefield, a great number of Demon Race interstellar warships have appeared out of empty air. My God — they… their interstellar warships can turn invisible! It is mass cloaking! It is mass cloaking! …"