Chapter 986: The Losses Have Grown

The method Feilong told Bisimai was very simple and crude: use the usual practice shells and directly attack those who are confused.

Such an attack will awaken those trapped in the illusion, yet it won't cause them much harm; fundamentally, it is the simplest and most direct way to solve this kind of problem.

Besides that method, Feilong also told Bisimai another approach: let ships with soul abilities cleanse the minds of those ships that have fallen into hallucinations.

Compared to directly attacking with practice shells, this method is obviously much gentler, but its drawbacks are also clear: it cannot instantly resolve the hallucinations affecting ships, and ships with soul power are not easy to find.

At present, the ships with such ability are mainly from the Sakura Empire and Iris, such as Zhang Men, Lu Ao, Shan Cheng, Fu Sang, and of course Lisailiu and Zhende, etc.

Because they all worship deities, their research on souls is relatively deep, so such phenomena are comparatively easy to resolve.

Bisimai recalled the recent reports; indeed, the fleets those few are in have not suffered much damage, and such incidents occur easily and can be resolved immediately.

So she only mentioned it briefly in the documents, without requesting support or solutions.

However, such a method certainly cannot be widely adopted. Although some shrine ships can be summoned from Iris, ordinary ship girls, while possessing soul power, still fall short of awakening ships confused by the Arbiter.

Moreover, the offensive has reached a critical moment, and there's no time to waste, so after informing several leaders as the flagship, they decisively chose to resolve it with practice shells.

This method is both swift and quick, causes little harm to ships, does not delay the overall sea‑area campaign, and can be widely promoted.

With that decision, the progress across the sea area indeed sped up again, and such matters have become a teasing joke among many ship girls.

Have you fallen into an illusion today? If so, could I fire a practice shell at you?

Amid such mutual teasing, everyone finally arrived near the Siren stronghold.

This time the plan to capture the stronghold is far more thorough than the first; if the first was pure adventure, this time, under basic control of the sea area, it is a general assault on the Siren stronghold.

Aside from a few ship girls assigned to control the outer waters, essentially all main‑force ships have joined this stronghold battle.

Compared to the difficulty of the first battle against Stratelicus, this time is obviously much easier.

Under the restraint of Yujin, Feilong, and others, facing Hermes who carried an overload module, everyone's attacks also became extremely fierce.

Although the enemy's attack is not lacking and is even stronger than Stratelicus', without the gravity field controlled by Stratelicus, our attacks are no longer so cramped.

At least each shell can be fired precisely according to one's will, without interference from other factors.

As the smoke of the whole battle settled, the calculated battle‑damage ratio was far higher than when we fought Stratelicus.

"This battle's losses are far greater than those against Stratelicus; even our Sardinian Empire has lost about half its strength and can no longer fight." Weineituo's condition is also poor; the ship gear she wears is completely scorched black, and even a turret has been destroyed.

"There's nothing we can do; although Stratelicus is formidable, she is essentially a heavy cruiser, so her attacks focus mainly on the vanguard ship girls. Thus our forward losses were larger last time, while the rear suffered some loss but not to an unacceptable degree.

"But now, facing Hermes—who is a standard battleship and also possesses that nether‑flame ability, occasionally manipulating the ships' hearts and minds—"

"This has caused our rear‑line main‑force ships to be hit more often, resulting in severe damage to the main‑force fleet."

"Just counting damaged ship gear, there are at least over a hundred; it seems we cannot advance any further in the short term." Wuzang's condition is also poor, but better than Weineituo's; her words are heavy, clearly the Sakura Empire's losses this time have exceeded her expectations.

"However, looking on the bright side, although we lost a lot in this battle, no personnel were killed; even if a ship is heavily damaged and enters protection status, it can still be dealt with.

"If any ship were actually lost, I truly wouldn't know how to write this combat report for the commander." Bisimai said somewhat relieved; her flagship suffered the least damage, and Gereon kept switching between offensive and defensive postures, indicating her damage tolerance is far higher than that of the others.

"That's true." Enterprise smiled and said, "In short, we won this battle, and the commander is very close, so let's rest properly; after we submit this battle's outcome report to the commander, we'll meet up with him."

"Indeed."

………

Holding the combat report in his hand, Qin Ge read it over and over; unlike before, he couldn't help but frown.

"Commander, overall this was a very fine battle; with casualties kept to a minimum, we've completed the sea‑area capture, and next they can join us." Zhenhai said from the side.

Qin Ge nodded, moved his eyes away from the combat report, and said, "I know, but seeing these damage numbers makes me feel a bit heart‑broken. Although I had anticipated this from the start, when the scene actually lay before my eyes, I still felt uneasy."

"Hehe, for us this is already the best result; Bisimai and the others have obviously done very well. Moreover, as commander, you should now affirm their achievements rather than become despondent over some losses." Zhenhai laughed.

Qin Ge rubbed his face, shook his head with a wry smile, and said, "You're right; this was exactly the expected outcome. If I were to feel down about it, I would truly be letting down their expectations of me.

"Zhenhai, help me draft a reply. Let them temporarily hold the current situation, first let the damaged ships recover, and there's no need to rush to meet up with us.

"And tell them that we still need about a month to reach and capture the Siren stronghold; if possible, we can then form a pincer movement."

"Understood!"