“The enemy ships are in range! They are firing!” Ruth reported.
“Not bad! But this kind of frontal clash is how you properly fight battles! Let’s go, Koutarou!” Theia said.
“Yeah!” Koutarou agreed with a nod.
The battle had unexpectedly turned into a frontal clash like Theia preferred. Koutarou accelerated the Blue Knight and rapidly closed the distance to the enemy fleet.
The size of the ship makes everything feel slow, but it is a little faster than the previous Blue Knight... Koutarou thought.
The new ship’s mass was ten times that of the old one, so flying at even the same speed as before required ten times the amount of propulsion. While Koutarou felt sluggish because of the doubling of the ship’s size, the maneuverability was sufficient. In fleet battles it was necessary to keep pace with allies, so excessive speed was pointless. In fact, Hidden Leaves was closely following the Blue Knight, covering its blind spots.
“Your Excellency, please focus on attacking! We will handle the defense!”
“Please do, Princess Nefilforan!” Koutarou answered.
The eight ships in the enemy fleet began firing their laser cannons all together. Each ship had two gunports, and they fired sixteen spears of light to attack the Blue Knight and Hidden Leaves. Since lasers moved at the speed of light, dodging them was impossible.
“Ruth-san!” Koutarou shouted.
“Yes! Deploying the active distortion field!” Ruth responded, as if she’d read Koutarou’s mind.
In addition to the standard distortion field that battleships came equipped with, the new Blue Knight had a second, sturdy distortion field that was limited in scope and the time that it could remain active. It had been built into the left arm and worked like a giant shield. Using that, the twelve lasers aimed at the Blue Knight were blocked, leaving the hull unscorched.
“And then I do this!” With the shield still deployed, Koutarou twisted the ship to the left, skillfully putting Hidden Leaves behind the shield, blocking the four lasers aimed for it as well.
“Thank you, Your Excellency!” Nefilforan said.
Understanding the situation, Hidden Leaves moved a little closer to the Blue Knight, making it easier for Koutarou to cover it.
“We’ll stay like this until we get close enough, Princess!”
The area behind and slightly below was a blind spot, but that only needed protection when the enemy was close enough. Right now, it could be ignored and the shield could be used to approach.
“Please do!” Nefilforan’s ship had been built to make full use of the Glendad family’s ideology. It was well suited for charging, and its front-facing hull and distortion field were extremely tough. Even so, it would be in danger if it were targeted by multiple destroyers simultaneously, and saving energy for later in the fight was important as well.
“Hmph, that was all sixteen shots.” Theia didn’t overlook the opening and immediately employed the beam cannon from the right arm as they came into firing range.
The unknown fleet that they were engaging was indeed from the Forthorthe Liberation Army. The battle was following the plans of the Gray Knight, who was nowhere to be seen on the bridge, with the captain of the destroyer handling the finer details. The captain had an abundance of experience and had skillfully brought together the ragtag fleet. It wasn’t his first time fighting with a group like this, and he wouldn’t let his guard down, knowing that the enemy was the Blue Knight.
“I don’t know who he is, but that Gray Knight is quite the strategist,” the captain said with folded arms.
The battle was proceeding like the Gray Knight had said. When he’d been told to start off with stealth missiles to scatter particles to diffuse lasers, the captain had wanted to use normal warheads instead, but the missiles had allowed them to survive the enemy’s long-distance bombardment. The attacked ship was fine, having retreated to the rear to recover its distortion field. Finally, the time they had waited for arrived.
“Captain, we’re in range!” an operator said.
“All right! All ships, open fire! Fill that giant with holes!” the captain ordered.
His only failing was ordering everyone to fire at once. Following the order, the eight ships began their laser bombardment.
“Captain, they have an active barrier! The attacks are ineffective!” the operator reported.
It was an unfortunate outcome, but the captain had expected as much. The bombardment had been made to confirm it.
As expected, it will be impossible to shoot it down from the front. The generator output difference is too high. We should focus on Hidden Leaves...
The Blue Knight could be taken down from its blind spot, which meant that the smaller ship covering it should be taken out first.
“Captain! The Blue Knight is barrel-rolling to the right!” the operator announced.
Koutarou had twisted to the left, but from the other side’s point of view, he was tilting to the right. The tilt moved the active distortion field and covered Hidden Leaves.
“Ah, so they believe it to be their weak spot as well,” the captain murmured.
Despite not suffering critical damage from the laser bombardments, the Blue Knight had moved to protect Hidden Leaves. In other words, the Blue Knight’s pilot wanted to preserve the other ship as well as they could. It was an action that proved the blind spot was a weak spot.
“All right, once we enter beam range—” the captain began, about to give an order to focus fire on Hidden Leaves with beam cannons. But just then, explosions and screams could be heard over the comms. The destroyer that had fallen back to the rear had been hit by a beam.
“Destroyer Salaguru was sniped! Its propulsion system has been seriously damaged, and it can’t navigate on its own!” the operator said.
“From this distance?!” The captain couldn’t believe it.
A beam cannon from the Blue Knight had sniped Salaguru when it was being protected by the remaining ships. Its distortion field had been knocked out by the first laser attack, so it didn’t stand a chance against a direct hit from a beam. But the distance was too far to snipe a ship. A beam cannon fired white-hot heavy-metal particles that were accelerated electromagnetically, so it had more power than lasers but it wasn’t suitable for sniping. If lasers signified the start of a battle, beams were meant to end it. Not to mention it was behind the other ships, so it was bizarre for a beam to be able to accurately shoot past them.
“Is this the Blue Knight’s doing too?” the captain wondered. “No, this is—”
The shot wasn’t totally impossible. When the captain had ordered all of the ships to fire, Salaguru had shot past the other ships as well. If the gunner had aimed at that laser cannon they could have weaved through the other ships’ distortion fields to score a hit. Logically, it made sense, but it was like sniping through the eye of a needle. Only a handful of people in all of Forthorthe could have done that.
“Princess Theiamillis!” the captain exclaimed.
One of the people in question was the renowned prodigy Princess Theiamillis. She was known as the Blue Knight’s partner, and her battle flag was majestically flying over the Blue Knight along with two others: a knight and dragon, a golden flower, and a moon shimmering on the surface of a body of water. They were the Blue Knight’s, Theia’s, and Clan’s crests, respectively. Considering the size, actual flags were unrealistic, so these were drawn with beams. However, real or not, they told the truth—the Blue Knight and two princesses had sortied. The beam flags could be seen from far away, and the truth shook the Liberation Army soldiers.
“I thought I already knew, but to see it with my own eyes...” the captain muttered. He could feel the unrest spreading across the bridge like a wave. The crew who would normally fulfill their orders calmly and efficiently were whispering to those next to them. He couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, but it wasn’t hard to imagine.
They were fighting the history and tradition of Forthorthe. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that they were facing a legend. The crew would naturally be shaken. The captain couldn’t criticize them for that. Even he felt like running away.
Our resolve was lacking... It was like we didn’t know what we were up against... he thought.
Even so, they had to fight. The curtain had already risen, and if they stopped here, their uprising might end in failure. They couldn’t let Ralgwin, who they thought was still in control, down by ending his battle here.