Chapter 508: Ch 508
"Grand Marshal," Barrack coldly spoke, with little hesitation left in his voice at this point. "You need to hold back that human mech, no matter what. Don’t let it run amok. We now have a chance to turn all of this around, and that chance could slip from our hands if we don’t control the human mech right now."
"So do whatever you have to, but don’t let that human mech free its hands."
The silence that followed Barrack’s transmission was truly deafening.
For a moment, neither Dark Soul nor White Kalen seemed to understand what they had just heard. Their brains had literally frozen, almost forgetting where they were. Dark Soul remained completely frozen as the voice of his subordinate, who could even be considered half his student, continued to reverberate through his head, striking him so hard that he almost completely lost control of his emotions.
"Wh-what did he say?" Dark Soul blurted out.
For a moment, he was genuinely and completely confused.
Was Barrack still the same person? And was he still the Supreme Commander of the Bright Moon Republic’s naval forces? Or had that little achievement of his given Barrack the gall to take over his authority? A mere junior officer, a hatchling whom he himself had taught, now dared to stab him in the back and take over his authority?
The confusion began to give way to Dark Soul’s anger.
And within the luminous, tempestuous expanse of his Sea of Consciousness, on the ethereal radiant side, the silhouette of White Kalen had his face twisted into one of deep disbelief as he processed what he had just seen and heard.
"Did that little shit of your student just give you an order?" he practically roared at Dark Soul.
Even his phantom-like figure rattled, showing just how angry he was.
"How dare he? And he didn’t even wait for you to confirm it! How dare he issue a command to a Grand Marshal, and in such a deeply disrespectful way at that! He really has guts to order us to hold back that thing in human skin!"
He pointed toward the Dark Knight standing across the battlefield on the opposite side, making no move, as if simply waiting for them to make the first move.
"Are we such disposable troops that he can just give us any ORDER TOOO?! WHO DOES HE THINK HE ISSSS?!"
Hearing this, Dark Soul clenched his jaw so tightly that the crackling sound was almost audible.
He felt slighted.
He felt humiliated.
He wanted to roar and rush back, beat the crap out of that filthy Barrack, and make him remember who was whose subordinate and who was whose superior.
Yet, as his anger intensified, it began to recede almost as quickly as it had come.
The moment his eyes fell upon the Dark Knight floating across the battlefield, Dark Soul gritted his teeth.
"Dammit. That bastard... I’ll deal with him later," Dark Soul muttered.
Even though his pride was hurt and screamed at him to disregard everything, rush back, and teach that filthy bastard a lesson, his instincts and sense told him otherwise.
As bitter as the humiliation was, Dark Soul understood his situation better than anyone.
If that demonic human pilot and his Mecha were actually left entirely unchecked, there would be trouble.
Big trouble.
Maybe then whatever was left of his armada would be gone.
Maybe even he would be gone.
As slighted as he was, he understood what Barrack was trying to do, even at the cost of trampling all over his face. Something that was done by choice.
As for the true meaning behind the order, how could he not understand?
This human Mecha really couldn’t be allowed to move freely.
If it did, the chances that the advantage his armada had created might actually lose its flavor. And then his survival would no longer be a matter of certainty.
Against a fleet that powerful, if the human Mecha pilot in front of him considered him nothing more than a plaything, he would surely be erased.
And that wasn’t something Dark Soul wanted to see.
There were still things he wanted to do.
"Fine," Dark Soul exhaled heavily. "I’ll do whatever you want, Barrack. But be prepared. If we survive this, something very bad is going to happen."
He muttered the words through gritted teeth.
Then he opened the communications channel. "I’ll hold it back. Just give me sufficient support."
With that, Dark Soul cut off the communication channel.
"Youuu!" White Kalen roared furiously within the Sea of Consciousness, seeing Dark Soul agree to the orders given by someone beneath him in such a manner. "Yet you relent?! How could you relent?! Don’t you know what is happening?! You are being slighted! No, I am being slighted and humiliated, and yet you still licked the shoe of the one who humiliated you! Damnit, what is wrong with you?!"
Dark Soul felt displeasure hearing this and immediately refuted him.
"Shut up and calm down, you fury, Kalen!" Dark Soul roared back, his face pale and his voice hoarse. "This isn’t the time for me to go berserk over this. To live, even if I have to bend my back, I’ll do so! You as well, swallow the shame. Our focus should be on that thing in front of us. If we don’t pin that human Mecha and its pilot here, then neither of us might live to see another day, or witness the futures of the Fallen Society that we have—no, that I have—worked so hard for."
"Anyway, we can have our revenge anytime."
"And give some thought to what would happen if we continued going at this human Mecha."
White Kalen was stunned for a moment.
His spiritual body shuddered as he actually gave Dark Soul’s words some thought. Slowly, he realized why Dark Soul had endured the humiliation and even acted upon Barrack’s order.
Realizing that his outburst had not exactly been right, he finally calmed down and remained silent.
Dark Soul didn’t pay any further attention to him either. Instead, he pushed the control jacks.
The thrusters of Dark Demon came online.
The Mecha roared back to life and rushed toward the Dark Knight.
At the same time, dark-violet mana began to gather within one of the rear-mounted cannons of Dark Demon.
PEW!
The energy surged forward, tearing through space before striking the Dark Knight.
BOOM!
An explosion followed.
Simultaneously, the order issued by Barrack took effect across the Republican fleet.
The already-rushing battleships and cruisers began to roar as their weapons came online, launching one violent attack after another through their weapon batteries toward the location where Dark Soul had just landed an attack and detonated the previous blast.
The battlecruisers moved first, followed by the battleships along with the entire formation of support vessels. Their weapon batteries rapidly fired into the area around the Dark Knight.
Seeing bright explosive suns rise around his enemy, Dark Soul knew that this wasn’t the end. If that barrage could finish the Dark Knight, then he wouldn’t have been struggling here in the first place.
But he also knew that while he couldn’t kill the human Mecha and its pilot, he could definitely suppress it.
"Everyone, keep up the momentum! Just like that! Don’t give it any opportunity!"
As he spoke, he joined in, firing one cannon after another.
Swosh!
Just then, the Dark Knight emerged from the raging storm of fire and explosions, rushing toward the battleships and cruisers as if it intended to take them down first.
"Hmph. As if I’ll let you do that."
Having regained some of his confidence, Dark Soul immediately disappeared from his position.
Dark Demon appeared beside the Dark Knight and attacked it with a shield bash from behind.
Ritika gritted her teeth in surprise at the sudden attack, but she didn’t have much of a chance to think before another wave of blue energy rushed toward her.
BOOM! BOOM!
Two blasts exploded against the Dark Knight, rapidly pushing it backward step by step.
The battleships, battlecruisers, and other support vessels of the Republic seized the opportunity and launched another suppressive attack.
They had formed a cycle.
Dark Soul prevented the Dark Knight from reaching the fleet and harming it, while the fleet provided suppressive fire whenever the Dark Knight was forced into an awkward position.
As a result, every time Ritika attempted to approach from one direction, she was struck by Dark Soul with some weird stunt, only to be attacked immediately afterward by groups of hundreds of warships.
"Damnit," Ritika cursed as she saw her energy shield visibly dropping in integrity.
[Shield integrity down to 79%.]
[78.5%.]
It wasn’t dropping that fast, but still, if things continued like this, she worried that she might eventually lose her shield. Then she would have to go through a bit of trouble to handle things, and the Dark Knight might even take some damage.
While thinking about this, she continued to.....