Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Battle Between Escort Ships

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Let’s not talk about Shen Wenjie for now; the combat power of his Copper Halberd and the enemy’s warship was not much different. Although every attack and defense usually resulted in the complete annihilation of a nearby asteroid, it was clear that a winner would not be decided in a short time.

Therefore, the final victory in this battle would be determined by Song Chao’s Qingkong and that Silver Armored Battleship.

As a veteran Second Rank Torch Ship Captain, Song Chao’s Qingkong naturally had respectable configurations. Not to mention the Blue Quality Energy Shield, the Shipborne Main Cannon was also of Blue Quality.

After a short charge, a three-meter diameter laser beam fiercely shot out from the main cannon at the bow of the Qingkong.

Within the Silver Warship, Zhu Kang’s lips curled into a smile while his hands moved rapidly, the warship’s engines operating at full power. In the next second, the warship transformed into a silver afterimage and disappeared from its original position, easily dodging the attack from Qingkong.

After evading, he quickly retaliated, the fearsome main cannon at the bow of the Silver Warship unleashing a terrifying assault of its own.

Song Chao’s eyes narrowed slightly as he saw the speed demonstrated by the enemy’s warship. The quality of its engine components would certainly not be lower than Blue Quality and was very likely Purple Quality.

This realization caused Song Chao’s heart to sink, as it meant he would have a hard time hitting the enemy.

It also meant that the enemy held the initiative on the battlefield, naturally putting Qingkong at a disadvantage.

Controlling the Qingkong and narrowly dodging the enemy’s attack, Song Chao was rapidly searching for a strategy in his mind. If things continued like this, defeat was inevitable.

However, the Silver Armored Battleship on the other side seemed to use some special component, or perhaps its main cannon had an extremely short buffer time. No sooner had the previous shot passed than the second cannon roared again.

This time, Song Chao couldn’t avoid it.

Boom!

Another violent tremor shook the Qingkong, and its Energy Shield was down to half.

In the Silver Warship, Zhu Kang’s face revealed a sinister smile. The main cannon on his flagship had a Feature that gave each shot a 30% chance to trigger a Double Strike.

Having just activated this Feature, he watched the Escort Ship’s outer layer of the Energy Shield grow dimmer, his smugness growing.

He could already imagine the Escort Ship, once stripped of its Energy Shield, begrudgingly admitting defeat.

Pushing the control stick forward, the Silver Warship kept closing in on Song Chao’s Qingkong, while the four Secondary Cannons on the warship also started to fire continuously.

Aboard Qingkong, Song Chao relaxed his expression, noting that the enemy’s main cannon still required to charge. Immediately he felt much less pressure.

At the same time, a special Component called “Shield Repair Sphere” of White Quality on the Qingkong was activated by him. As the brilliance surged, the Shield Value, which had dropped below 50%, began slowly increasing until, twenty seconds later, it had unexpectedly reached 68%.

This “Shield Repair Sphere” component, while of common Quality, had excellent Attributes. It was capable of repairing the Shield Value of a Torch Warship, albeit not by a large percentage. Even after strengthening it to lv29, it could only repair 20%.

This component, typically of little use, was now proving to be incredibly helpful. With the Shield Value pulled back up to 68%, Qingkong’s situation was significantly alleviated.

On the other side, Zhu Kang, seeing the Energy Shield on the Qingkong regain much of its luster, immediately thought of the special class of Components that restored shields. His eyes lit up with intense desire, as this type of component was not only uncommon but also rare.

He coveted a component that could be so influential at a critical moment.

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However, he also knew that in order to obtain this component, he first had to completely defeat the escort warship hiding its title in front of him. Only by emerging as a victor could he possibly force the special part from the hands of the others.

Thinking this, Zhu Kang became more anxious.

On the other side, Tianyu Mining’s titanium crystal seemed to have already started to be mined. If he couldn’t quickly resolve the battle on his side, by the time the other party finished mining the titanium crystal and took it away, it would be like picking up sesame seeds but losing a watermelon.

Under his increasingly frequent attacks, the opposing escort warship gradually became overwhelmed. Apart from a few attacks that were initially dodged, most of the shots landed two out of three times.

As time passed and seeing that the energy shield on the surface of the opposing escort warship had once again dimmed to its limit, Zhu Kang, unable to wait any longer after his flagship’s main cannon had recharged, fired once more. Simultaneously, the silver warship he was steering also inadvertently moved forward a small distance.

As a Torch Ship Captain with substantial combat experience, Zhu Kang did possess the basic vigilance, which was evident from his persistent bombardment with the main and secondary cannons from the beginning, continuously suppressing the Qingkong without giving a sliver of hope for a turnaround.

What he didn’t expect, however, was that this tiny advance by the Silver Edge had become the biggest opportunity in the eyes of the enemy.

In the cockpit of Qingkong, Song Chao, who had been waiting for a long time, seized this opportunity with precision. He immediately activated another special component on the Qingkong.

[Super Magnetic Traction Beam Generator]

The silver warship, which had just entered the range of the super magnetic traction beam, was accurately captured by a beam shot from Qingkong. The beam came with a strong traction force, and upon contact, the silver warship was firmly bound by the beam, making it impossible for Zhu Kang to break free no matter how much he spurred the engines.

For a moment, Zhu Kang panicked, for the engine component equipped on his flagship was an extremely rare purple engine, yet it couldn’t break free from this traction beam.

This meant that the component emitting the traction beam was at least a purple component.

Inside the silver warship, after a brief moment of panic, Zhu Kang quickly regained his composure. What did it matter if it was a special traction component of purple quality? His attack was about to shatter the opponent’s energy shield completely, and with the blue-quality energy shield component on Silver Edge, even if it couldn’t dodge, it wouldn’t be heavily damaged in a single hit.

But at that moment, another situation arose that was not too good for him.

He saw that the energy shield, which had been previously dim and devoid of light on the opposition’s warship, was once again partly restored. This allowed the other side to survive the last shot fired by Silver Edge.

Inside Qingkong, Song Chao smiled faintly.

His “Shield Repair Sphere” component was not limited to a single repair. The component could gain a repair chance every 24 hours, with the ability to accumulate up to 2 times.

And it didn’t end there. Having preserved Qingkong’s energy shield, Song Chao smoothly activated the warship’s third special component.

The lv29-purified “Knurl’s Armor-Breaking Quiver” component of purple quality.

This component had no other function. Once activated, it would add a 50% armor-breaking effect to the warship’s main cannon for a duration of ten minutes.

With this layer of armor-breaking effect, the damage done by Qingkong against the silver armored warship would increase significantly.

The only regret was that, since Song Chao was still a Seed of Torch of white quality himself, the components on Qingkong could only be enhanced to a maximum of lv29. Otherwise, with the quality of “Knurl’s Armor-Breaking Quiver,” enhancing it to Third Rank (lv30–lv39) would undoubtedly make its attributes even more powerful.

Minutes later, the duration of the traction beam ended. However, by then, Silver Edge’s energy shield was left with less than 10%, while the effect from Qingkong’s “Knurl’s Armor-Breaking Quiver” component had not yet disappeared.