Chapter 22 - Despair

The Ronin Titan retreated its blade back to its back.

In front of it lay the scraps from the armor of dark elves, now nothing but metal rubble.

The other Titans had already torn the remaining armors apart with precision.

The combat capabilities of the dark elf heavy armors were paltry in comparison to the Titans, and the superior numbers of the Titans only served to heighten the disparity.

Onlookers couldn't help but shudder as they watched the Titans tear through the heavy armors like they were nothing.

These mechs were terrifying.

To think-the dark elf heavy armors, so feared on the battlefield-were completely outmatched here.

As though crestfallen, a roar echoed through the air.

The dark elf captain retreated to his flagship while the Titans were destroying the heavy armor.

With a wounded heart, he sat at the front of the A-class firepower ship Night Raid and stared on the battlefield, his eyes taking in the scattered forces.

The heavy armors, so expensive to manufacture, had been reduced to junk.

Returning to report this failure would almost certainly lead to punishment from his superiors.

Still, hope lingered.

If I can kill these Titans and seize the relic on board that ship, I can redeem myself.

Setting himself, the dark elf captain said his orders:

"Prepare tracking missiles! Target those ground units and annihilate them!"

Then, as if recalling the value of the relic, he added

"And watch your aim! Do not damage the surrounding ships."

His crew quickly began operating the ship's systems.

The Night Raid's deck-mounted missile launchers deployed and unleashed a barrage of tracking missiles toward the Titans.

But before the missiles could strike, the Titan lon activated its vortex shield.

The missiles, it was if stuck in midair, floated within the reach of the shield.

The next instant, the Titan lon hurled them back towards the Night Raid.

Boom!

Explosions illuminated the hull of the Night Raid as its missiles tore into it.

The dark elf crew froze over, unable to understand what had just happened.

"Did that Titan just reflect our missiles?"

The dark elf captain pounded his fist against the console.

"Curses on these machines! If only they were under my control!"

However, to fully harness the power of Titans, elite human pilots had to pilot those machines by synchronizing with them.

Not having such pilots could mean even the dark elves couldn't unleash the full strength of Titans.

"Fire everything! Destroy them all! What's the use of our firepower if we can't hit them?" the captain yelled.

But his artillery operators had doubts. Though Night Raid's arsenal could destroy the entire dock, it hadn't destroyed the relic on the cargo ship.

Destroying that too would be an even worse defeat.

His hesitation proved fatal.

Rodgraim was already returning to his own ship, Aether Dominion, which was now taking off alongside the White Night.

The dark elf captain's face changed to panic as he watched them rise.

"The relic is in that cargo ship! Don't let it get away!"

The fleet turned their guns toward the White Night, but Rodgraim's Aether Dominion launched a preemptive strike.

A laser array erupted from the Aether Dominion, obliterating a dark elf frigate in a explosion.

The dark elf captain's confidence sagged. "This S-class ship. its firepower is unreal!"

Realizing the Aether Dominion was the greater threat, he changed his aim

"Forget the cargo ship! Target the S-class ship first!"

The Night Raid unleashed its full firepower, missiles and laser cannons raining down on the Aether Dominion in a relentless assault.

Such was the barrage that even onlookers at the dock froze in fear.

Luna whispered, "Can the Aether Dominion withstand such firepower?"

Inside the Aether Dominion, Rodgraim was composed. He pressed a button.

[Space Warp begins.]

In an eyeblink the Aether Dominion was invisible.

Dark elf artillery flailed at empty air, firing harmless shellbursts.

The dark elf captain sprang from his chair.

"Impossible! Where'd they go?"

And then the alarms went off as the radar picked up something big behind their fleet.

The captain turns just in time to see the Aether Dominion come out of nowhere at their rear.

"Yamato Cannon ready," a voice announced from the systems of the Aether Dominion.

Bow of the Aether Dominion was aglow with intense energy, an overwhelming sense of dread sweeps through the battlefield.

BOOM!

And with a concentrated beam of light, the ship shot forth, piercing through the Night Raid.

The flagship shuddered as its systems failed.

Two accompanying frigates were instantly annihilated, bursting in flames.

The Night Raid, crippled, plummeted back toward the dock.

The dark elf captain crawled from the wreckage, bloodied but alive. He looked up to see an even larger fleet descending:

Rodgraim's reinforcements had arrived.

His voice trembled as he muttered, "Defeated. here. of all places."