The Lines Collapse
A belly that had swollen to bursting from stuffing itself with everything in sight ruptured like a balloon pricked by a needle, spraying its horrific contents in every direction.
Meanwhile, at the very moment the Kraken was going down, things were not looking much better for the hundred-man (not really) special forces unit operating in the rear.
And how could they? Through the Kraken's teleport function, they had thrown roughly eighty superhumans and every available assault force into a single simultaneous boarding strike.
> Monalisa's standard-grade light carrier has been captured by Icarus's 'Griyanaar' and Phoenicia's 'Demiurgos'!
> Koenig's standard-grade heavy cruiser has been captured by Icarus's 'Oxianor' and 'Ignis'!
> Betelgeuse's Jupiter-class electronic warfare cruiser has been captured by PampakaPam's 'August'!
In the opening moments, they leveraged their overwhelming superhuman firepower to seize every ship in the vicinity in the blink of an eye, forcing the All-Star team to open an entirely new front of fleet-on-fleet combat separate from the superhuman engagement — a genuine feat of arms.
But that dominance was short-lived.
Koenig's Koenigstiger-class battleship has sunk Koenig's standard-grade heavy cruiser (captured)!
Between Koenig's doctrine of scuttling his own ships the instant they were seized, and the other players' superhuman forces pouring in as reinforcements from every direction, Icarus's side began to get pushed back — even though, in raw numbers alone, their superhumans still held the advantage.
Ultimately, the problem came down to grade. Unlike the All-Star friends, who typically fielded three or four SSS-grade superhumans each, the users on Icarus's team usually only had one or two. So while Icarus's team had the greater headcount, every superhuman arriving as All-Star reinforcement was SSS-grade. Taking one of them down required a minimum of three S-grades — and for anything A-grade or below, a full ten had to pile on. The net result was that Icarus's team was the one getting outmatched.
And if there was one mistake Icarus's teammates had made, it was choosing Monalisa's Anomalocaris-class as a target — a ship that was simply too big. A full third of their already-stretched superhuman force had to be committed just to seize that single hull. Layer on Koenig's scuttling strategy, which traded a few ships for several superhuman lives, and most of the vessels they did manage to capture were sunk by surprise attacks before they could even be properly crewed.
The superhuman corps of nine users including Icarus — SSS-grades among them — found themselves increasingly cornered as time dragged on.
And at the same moment, on another front — specifically, the Icarus team's combined fleet, which occupied the strange dual role of both diversion and main force…
That was Betelgeuse laughing at them… or rather, not just her.
As if to prove he hadn't claimed the number-one ranking by playing Go-Stop, Antares was putting on a defense so exquisite it minimized his own losses while maximizing the enemy's. Arcadia's ironclad mobile defense covered Antares's fortress-like durability at every turn. And while the other users were busy answering the superhuman assault corps, ships that had been pre-positioned earlier…
Finally, the dozen or so ships that had survived the Kraken's sinking joined the line. Having thrown every superhuman into the fight short of non-combat personnel, the opposing side was receiving no proper command buffs at all — and all they could manage was to flail uselessly against a front they simply could not break.
And one more piece of bad news was unfolding for them.
Raksha's Shimakaze-class destroyer has sunk Chuchu's standard-grade battleship!
Raksha — a walking plot device in human form — had finished annihilating Icarus's flanking detachment, and instead of returning to the main force, he was now driving a single ship into the enemy rear and raining fire on them from behind.
If there was one silver lining for Icarus's side…
Heaven must have been smiling on them. In a twist so absurd it defied belief, the very instant Antares's heavy battleship sank another player's battlecruiser, Raksha's destroyer happened to be passing right through the blast zone — and that paper-thin destroyer armor vaporized on the spot.
They say ruining the ending is what makes a masterpiece…! (7)
Raksha, who had been tearing across the battlefield as a one-man overpowered highlight reel, was abruptly reduced to an observer by a teamkill that wasn't quite a teamkill. But the problem was that even with Raksha eliminated, a battle situation that had already tipped past the point of no return was not about to tip back.
The chaos he had sown cutting through the fleet's interior right up until the moment his destroyer exploded was nowhere near a scale that could be patched up in a short time.
"Nyaa, there are too many enemies, nya!"
"Tsk. Full retreat! That carrier must be seized or rendered useless at all costs!"
In the midst of all this, most of Icarus's superhuman special forces were either routed or pushed back, forced into a siege confined to the Anomalocaris and a handful of other ships. And while the All-Stars used their own superhumans to pen the special forces in, the ships they had finally managed to reorganize in the rear joined a full-scale offensive — every scrap of available firepower committed at once.
Combined with battle lines already disordered by what could only be described as "the late great's god-tier control" from Raksha's funeral, and the blind spots that had opened in every ship's firing arcs, Icarus's team now faced a reinforced assault layered on top of the overwhelming difference in ship performance that separated true rankers from merely high-tier users…
> Chuchu's standard-grade light cruiser has been sunk by Antares's Texas-class heavy cruiser!
> Raizengan's Guardian-class protected cruiser has been sunk by Betelgeuse's Odin-class battleship!
> PampakaPam's Oracle-class heavy battleship has been sunk by Arcadia's Hood-class battlecruiser!
> PampakaPam's standard-grade aircraft carrier has been sunk by Laura's standard-grade heavy cruiser!
Elrance's Chao-class heavy cruiser has been sunk by Antares's Griffin-class heavy battleship!
They were being ground down like meat fed into a shredder.
Of course, these were still players who ranked among the absolute top tier in their own right.
> Menaldo's standard-grade heavy cruiser has been sunk by Raizengan's Bessarabia-class battlecruiser!
> Laura's Ukulele-class destroyer has been sunk by Elrance's Meteor-class heavy cruiser!