Chapter 44: The Medal of Peace and the Banner of Heroes

A colossal boulder crashed down, blotting out the sky and sun. The formation spirit shattered, unleashing a wild gale. The boulder was simply too massive; the artifact-controlling spells of the five sect masters could only barely slow its descent, not halt it entirely.

The gyroscope of the Angel was an ancient seven-star distributed array, most susceptible to storms—and after all these years, it hadn’t been maintained…

Golia’s footing slipped; she staggered, swaying unsteadily. Forcing her sword free, she slashed upward at the sky!

Whoosh—

The sword energy was perfectly straight, razor-sharp. Incredibly, she split the boulder in two with a single blow! Thus, the single falling boulder became two, both still plummeting toward the Angel.

“You fool, get out of the way!”

Lu Chen, piloting the Angel-class warship, shut down the energy-draining defense array and rammed the ship directly into the boulders.

“Huh?” Golia’s face turned ashen. She leapt aside, swift as a startled hare.

The engines roared as the Angel soared upward, using its prow to pulverize both boulders into dust. A rain of stones fell over the mountaintop.

Swept along by the collapsing formation’s gale, chaotic spells, and roaring engines…

After the impact, the Angel wobbled briefly as it descended, then landed atop the mountain, keeping its warp engines idling.

Lu Chen carefully analyzed the formation laid by the draconians. Unlike the insectoid races with their central brood mothers, this was a multi-point, web-like structure, each point serving as a center. Hoping to break the enemy by slaying a single leader, as in the stories, was out of the question.

He immediately activated the radar, locking onto all targets above level twenty in the vicinity, then fired a continuous barrage of low-powered laser shots at them.

This was a multi-point decapitation tactic—each shot struck true, burning the draconians to ash, not even leaving a magic core behind. Of course, shadow fiends who retained their sanity and form lacked magic cores and couldn’t be used as fuel… nor did these draconians.

Lu Chen’s marksmanship was elegant, but ultimately futile. There were simply too many targets above level twenty! In an army of a million draconians, at least tens of thousands met that threshold, while his laser cannon could only sustain a few thousand shots.

The draconians surged forward in dense waves, tireless and fearless, storming the Angel. Among them, giant stone skiffs appeared at intervals.

The ship’s hull was designed primarily for magical defense, not to withstand impacts from boulders.

“Golia, you and the sect masters break into the demon formation and destroy the giant stones—start with the largest!”

“Isn’t this ship a bit useless?”

“It’s better than nothing.”

“Fine!”

Golia led the five sect masters, flying their swords into the enemy ranks to target and remove the stone skiffs. The other disciples remained on the mountaintop, casting attack spells and weaving defensive formations to hold off the demonic onslaught alongside the Angel.

As a tactical arrangement, it was sound. The individual combat strength of the Angel, Golia, the sect masters, and their disciples vastly surpassed that of the draconians. But once the enemy’s numerical advantage was organized, it became a terrifying force.

An hour passed. The disciples atop the mountain suffered heavy casualties, forcing Lu Chen to activate the Angel’s defensive array and allow the wounded to take refuge inside.

Worse still, the ship’s hull was being breached by concentrated draconian attacks—dents and cracks appeared in several places. Activating the defense array was a last resort. This meant the battle was nearing its end.

To conserve energy, Lu Chen could no longer fire continuously—he could only snipe enemy commanders who threatened the ship, focusing on single-point eliminations. It was the most efficient strategy left.

Another hour passed.

Three of the five sect masters, exhausted and encircled, were forced back to the ship’s defensive array, severely wounded. The remaining two were not faring much better. Only Golia, drenched in blood—demon blood—remained unbowed. Whether it was her half-demonic resilience or something else, her stamina seemed inexhaustible. With sword in hand, she charged in and out of the demon formation seven times, growing fiercer with each assault, fueled by emptied flasks of wine.

“They’re a respectable swarm, but true demons would never rely on sheer numbers!”

Aboard the Angel, Lu Chen thought, “Aren’t you just a one-woman slaughter machine?”

By now, the laser cannon’s output had dropped; it could no longer reduce draconians to ash, only scorch their flesh and expose dripping muscle and gleaming bone. It couldn’t even kill them outright anymore. Watching the mutilated, skeletal draconians rush forward, Lu Chen could no longer bring himself to fire. He set the ship to automatic targeting and shooting, then climbed into his scavenger armor, opened the airlock, and left the Angel.

He would fight in armored form—wielding a lightsaber, he’d cut his way through the demon formation from the mountaintop to the edge of the atmosphere, unflinching.

Soon, the last two sect masters also retreated to the ship’s defensive array, unable to continue. In the sky, only Golia and Lu Chen’s armor remained in battle.

Golia fought in earnest. Lu Chen, after a brief bout of killing, relied on his speed to kite and pick off targets. He decided to hold out for ten more minutes, then make his escape.

The sect masters and disciples watched on, moved to tears.

“It seems there truly are Chosen Saviors beyond the stars, not only demons.”

“He’s weaker than we imagined, but braver than we’d hoped.”

“Hurry and take your elixirs, restore your power—when we’re replenished, we must fight on!”

Hardly had the words left their lips when the ship’s defensive array was breached. A tide of draconians poured in…

Seeing this, Golia panicked, turned, and slaughtered her way through the invaders, fiercely defending her beloved ship. It looked as though she was protecting the disciples, but in truth, she was just one person.

The disciples who were doomed, still died. The ship, if it was to be damaged, was damaged.

Ten minutes later.

The ship’s engine nozzles, laser turrets, and upper hatches were all breached. Countless draconians swarmed inside…

In her fury, Golia hacked wildly at the entry points, inadvertently damaging the ship’s engines.

Lu Chen found it all rather convenient. With the draconians causing destruction inside, no one would notice him absconding with the ship’s sword-key and various antiques.

Another ten minutes passed.

More than half the disciples were dead or wounded. Lu Chen’s armor was nearing its limits; the hazard warning had already issued a basic evacuation alert.

Just as he’d given up hope for imperial rescue and prepared to make a ruthless escape—

The imperial fleet finally arrived.

A single Seal-class destroyer, leading six Wolf-class patrol ships, swept grandly into the storm of the Blue-Eye Star System. This was the smallest fleet in the imperial core, sufficient to conquer an entire star system—especially since they carried no demon-annihilation weapons.

The fleet’s origin from the imperial core showed this was a matter of importance. Yet, their deployment of only the smallest fleet suggested it was not of the highest priority.

Lu Chen guessed that incidents like this weren’t rare in the Milky Way.

Just as he told the disciples to hold on—a just and righteous human fleet had arrived—a farcical scene unfolded. The imposing imperial fleet, upon entering the storm, became hopelessly lost in the black fog!

Lu Chen was dumbfounded and had to send Ellie, piloting the Rionin, to lead the imperial fleet in.

He gritted his teeth and held out for another ten minutes.

Finally, the imperial fleet made it through.

Following Lu Chen’s instructions, Ellie briefed Major Matsue Ito from the imperial core on the general situation in the Blue-Eye Star System. The major had little interest in the system’s story, but was quite impressed by the Primal Starvault Adventuring Company.

“You can traverse the black fog, yet you can’t handle these half-baked mutant aliens?”

The fleet soon reached True Spirit Continent.

The Wolf-class destroyers emitted demon-eradicating ultrasonic waves blanketing the planet. Humans heard nothing. Golia, half-demon, only found it piercingly unpleasant, but suffered no ill effects.

The draconians, however, collapsed instantly—some with exploding skulls, others bleeding from every orifice, others fainting dead away. The rare high-level draconians who endured were caught in patrol ship energy nets. The fleeing ones were hunted down by laser fire.

In less than an hour, the imperial fleet had wiped out or captured every draconian.

Clearly, while their navigation was abysmal, their demon-slaying methods were exceptionally practiced and professional.

Afterward, the fleet salvaged the wrecked Angel-class warship.

Golia would have protested, but Lu Chen quietly stopped her.

Next, the imperial fleet did not impose a news blackout. On the contrary, they awarded the humans of True Spirit Continent with peace medals, commending the Angel’s crew for uniting humanity and making a meaningful attempt at peace with nonhuman civilizations.

The empire, upholding a pan-humanitarian philosophy, would actively promote peaceful engagement with humanoids, demonfolk, and all manner of subhuman species.

Furthermore, the imperial fleet bestowed hero medals on the Primal Starvault Adventuring Company—along with five hundred spirit stones and a hero’s banner.

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