Chapter 30: The Crazy Stones, Section 1

The Fifth Fleet of the Dark Hand Archduke truly had unique tactics—and quite remarkable ones at that. Just as Hei Fa and the others had hidden their fleet properly, turned off all engines, and activated anti-scan camouflage, they discovered that the massive fleet had disappeared without a trace. It vanished as suddenly and silently as it had appeared.
Fast—extremely fast. Hei Fa thought he had acted quickly enough, yet still failed to track them down in time. This alone showed how well-trained the fleet was and, indirectly, how desperate they must be. Looking at the empty starry sky, Hei Fa became even more convinced of his judgment.
The Killing Emperor turned slightly to face his subordinates behind him—a full hundred elite mechs, each one of the finest. This was almost the entirety of his forces for this mission. He had brought quite a number of mechs when entering the Moor Empire, but most of them were now left in Li Feng’s cabin. As Li Feng already had plenty of ships for this mission, Hei Fa sent him back to Death Star. Hei Fa realized that these were the only forces he could use to test his tactics.
One hundred mechs, all elite among elites. Each mech cost an astonishingly high amount—enough to build thousands of ordinary mechs instead. With such a lineup, probably no other force in the universe, aside from Death Star, could match them. And aside from a leader like Hei Fa, who valued individual combat, no one else would invest resources in mere cannon fodder mechs!
With such a leader and a group of fierce, warlike subordinates, who could say what he might achieve? Unluckily for others, this leader also had a seemingly small but extremely solid foundation.
The resources from Death Star, the Twins, and the Centimex Mining Planet were beyond what ordinary people could even imagine. To put it bluntly, Hei Fa was now nothing short of a fat, greedy nouveau riche! Don’t discuss money with him, and certainly don’t talk about resources…
However… the Light and Dark Stones were an exception.
“Boss, we’re ready. As you ordered, the brothers have equipped themselves with heavy firepower and added extra auxiliary engines. We’ll definitely surprise those guys!” Blood-Pupil laughed heartily as his Blood-Red Mech raised an arm. The enormous pulse rocket launcher immediately caught everyone’s attention.

But what they never expected was that the ones truly shocked were themselves. When Hei Fa and the others, like a group of ghosts, followed the energy trails left by the enemy fleet to reach their destination, they immediately witnessed a scene that left them stunned. It was an extremely massive celestial body—roughly three times the size of Earth. The Fifth Fleet they had seen earlier was now arranged in neat formations in space, its ships touching each other like a belt, encircling that planet completely. Glowing energy balls and countless beams as thick as buckets rushed at the planet like a storm. Visibly, the planet’s surface was riddled with impacts. Craters appeared rapidly only to be shattered by further attacks. Was the Fifth Fleet fighting? The pirates behind Hei Fa looked at each other in confusion, unable to believe they had followed them for so long only to see such a scene. But what really surprised them wasn’t this. It was the creatures fighting against the Fifth Fleet. They were very strange beings, somewhat similar in appearance to elite mechs, only larger and more robust. Their armor was so thick that even their heads couldn’t be seen. Their most distinctive feature was the dense array of sharp spikes on their surfaces—short but extremely sharp. Under the intermittent energy flashes in space, they appeared as dark gray, indistinguishable without close inspection. But upon closer look, their shapes seemed eerily familiar… “Echidna warships?” A groan suddenly came from the silent cabin, from Blood Pupils. Indeed, with his reminder, all the pirates immediately remembered. Didn’t the appearance of these strange creatures resemble those of the echidna warships from the footage of the war that destroyed Death City? Those violent explosions, even beyond the resistance of light and darkness, and those mushroom clouds symbolizing death and destruction—still a nightmare for all pirates even after several days of rest. But weren’t those echidna warships once the secret weapon of the Moor tribe? How could similar ones appear in this region now? And their opponents were none other than the Moor tribe itself? For a moment, all the pirates were confused by the chaotic battle situation, so much so that they hid in an asteroid belt, secretly observing. But the more they observed, the wider their eyes grew…

Because the fighting style of those sea urchin creatures was all too familiar. These seemingly bulky creatures were actually very agile compared to the even larger Moor giant ships. The protrusion behind them, resembling a boulder, could emit extremely intense energy streams that propelled them through space at high speed. Meanwhile, their weapons left every pirate in awe.

Giant stone axes!

Exactly the same as those of the Rockmen—giant and razor-sharp stone axes!!

Just as seen in the war footage. Although these stone axes were ineffective against enemies at long distances, once within range, they were truly… impregnable! The pirates witnessed a sea urchin creature swinging its stone axe into a group of Moor giant ships and, with a single swing, cutting a long fissure along the side of one of the ships. The stone crystal armor, which the Moor giant ships took such pride in, was as fragile as paper in the face of these stone axes, offering not even the slightest protection. On the contrary, the sea urchin creatures armed with such weapons moved through the Moor fleet as if unimpeded.

Of course, if these creatures were allowed to keep slashing like this, the Fifth Fleet wouldn’t be called the Fifth Fleet anymore. As the direct fleet of the Dark Prince, their firepower was far beyond Blackhair’s imagination.

Unlike the Moor giant ships equipped by Blackhair, their own Moor giant ships, though similar in appearance, had diverse types of firepower. In addition to the powerful energy beams that all Moor giant ships possessed, they could also launch two special types of attacks.

One was a blue, circular energy sphere. It was unknown what these energy spheres were made of; they moved very slowly but had infinite fission capabilities. Once emitted, they began to split continuously, often producing tens of thousands of light balls from a single energy sphere before even reaching the target, easily covering a vast area. Moreover, the power of these light balls was astonishing—Blackhair saw a sea urchin creature unable to dodge their attacks, vaporizing and disappearing the moment it was hit.

The other type was a pulse beam with extremely fast firing speed. Unlike ordinary ship cannons, these beams couldn’t travel far—their maximum range was only a few hundred kilometers. Yet their speed was astonishing; they would reach the target almost immediately upon being fired, with an incredibly high firing rate. Once the attack began, it was impossible to distinguish between successive waves.

Of course, compared to the previous weapon, the latter pulse beam was much weaker. By a rough estimate, it could at most leave a mark of moderate size on elite mechs. Unless it hit a vital joint or wound internally, it would only serve to cause slight obstruction.

It was thanks to these two weapons that the Fifth Fleet could remain intact despite the attacks from these sea urchin creatures. In the vast starry sky, against the backdrop of a colossal star, the massive Moorish warships resembled ferocious ancient beasts, spewing countless deadly blue beams. Any sea urchin creature struck by these beams would instantly vaporize, leaving no trace behind.

On the other hand, the attacks of these sea urchin creatures were extremely fierce. Their numbers were enormous; once one wave was defeated, another would appear visibly on the star. They rushed forward one after another into the starry sky, wielding their sharp giant axes like brave warriors charging at their enemies, using those axes to tear apart their foes and bring fire and destruction upon them.

As a result, the battle immediately reached a stalemate. Both the sea urchin creatures and the Fifth Fleet suffered heavy losses. In just one hour, five Moorish warships were torn to pieces by these creatures. The explosions of their energy cores were like tiny suns suddenly rising in the universe—so dazzling and brilliant.

“Hehe, no wonder they’re in such a hurry to get us gone. It turns out things here are already this bad. They’re afraid we’ll take credit for their victories,” Blood Eyes laughed after observing for a while.

“It seems this planet is the destination of this journey. These Moors are really lucky—finding this place by sheer chance. Damn it, all our previous adventures were in vain. I wondered how they managed to crack the Mirage.”

“I don’t know how they did it, but I know they’ll win,” Black Hair said coldly. He manipulated the controls on the Emperor of Murder, and immediately, a torrent of data streamed across the monitor in front of him.

“After analyzing the battle situation over the past fifteen minutes, the number of those sea urchin creatures has decreased by about a quarter from the start. And it’s still dropping. If things go on like this, without any accidents, our great Fifth Fleet of the Dark Hand Duke will get what they want.”

“Dream on!!” All the pirates said in unison, their tones filled with disdain.

“In the name of the Death Star… taking advantage of the chaos!!”