Moth felt a sharp pang of annoyance. He knew exactly what the Grand Elder was doing—trying to force him to spend the favours he had secured through a long ti of research and digging. So far, the Grand Elder owed him five favours, a staggering amount for any elder in the council.
"No thanks," Moth decided, his face returning to a mask of cold indifference. "I’m sure he can survive this. Perhaps he can even pull off a miracle."
"Against the Wyverns? Our Wyverns?" One of the other elders couldn’t resist a mocking laugh, his eyes fixed on the screen where the two forces were about to collide. "I can’t believe you even said that, Moth. You’ve lost your touch."
"Wanna bet?"
Moth’s eyes flashed with a sudden light of greed. The Grand Elder, sitting beside him, didn’t miss that fierce gleam. He knew Moth better than almost anyone in the room; this younger elder never played a losing ga, and he never wasted his breath on sentint. If Moth was willing to bet on the human, it ant there was a variable the rest of the council was missing.
"Let’s bet then," the Grand Elder decided, his voice booming with a mixture of challenge and curiosity. "Moorey, you’ll be responsible for this bet. I believe soone is going to either end up losing everything or gaining a ton of wealth today!"
The elders got busy placing their bets. Only two people placed their chips on Hye’s victory: Moth and the Grand Elder. To the others, Moth looked silly and idiotic, a young elder blinded by his own obsession with a human outlier.
But when the Grand Elder also placed his bets on Hye’s victory, no one mocked or took the action lightly. Instead, they mistook it as a generous gesture—a way for the Grand Elder to help them make up for the heavy losses they suffered during their first bet.
Away from the eyes of the Council, Hye was finalising the last touches on his grand fleet. The factor that made Moth believe he stood a chance against the Wyverns was exactly what Hye was executing right now: organising his other-universe ships to surround the rest of his grand fleet and act as a massive shield.
Many had witnessed what he did during the recent grand battles, whether against the Holy Cross or the Toranks. The most important factor that allowed him to dominate those engagents—aside from the terrifying presence of his Soulers and Reapers—was his deploynt of other-universe spaceships.
Moth knew that Hye wasn’t using these ships the sa way other forces in the universe did. Most races treated them as slightly better tal boxes, but Hye had a secret weapon: a legion of high-cultivation-base warriors who could showcase these ships’ true, scary might. Not to ntion, his ships were all intact, unlike the scavenged, half-destroyed vessels held by the Toranks or the Hectors.
Moth was betting on the efficiency of these shields against the Wyverns’ legendary abilities. And soon enough, that bet would prove its worth.
"I’m ready," Hye whispered, his eyes scanning the world around. He had spent close to half an hour ticulously arranging his forces into a protective sphere. The Wyverns, sensing the fleet, had stopped their haphazard swarm and begun to arrange theirs as well.
Just from one look, anyone could tell how intelligent these monsters were. They didn’t just rush in like mindless beasts; they organised their massive numbers into distinct groups, manoeuvring with the precision of a professional army.
Hye took this note to heart. However, he knew his best tactic wouldn’t be a simple defence-and-fire approach. The other-universe ships were the armour, and his standard vessels were the claws, but his cultivation technique was the heart of the plan.
Rumble!
The battle opened with a sudden, violent display of the Wyverns’ power. A group of the largest black dragons opened their maws, and the atmosphere in a specific region of the fleet began to warp. They were using their most feared ability: a localised increase in atmospheric pressure.
Hye was positioned away from the impact zone, yet through his connection with his warriors, he could feel the terrifying weight of the attack. It felt as if a mountain had suddenly materialised on top of the fleet’s hulls.
"They can increase the atmospheric pressure by a hundredfold!" His eyes shone with a dangerous light as he monitored the shield integrity. "Luckily for , the shields of my other-universe ships are sturdy enough to withstand this crushing. Ti to counter-attack!"
He gave the order, and the silence of the high atmosphere was shattered. All of his grand fleet opened fire without exception. Thousands of cannons, missiles, and plasma batteries unleashed their payloads simultaneously. The sky was filled with a rain of fire that slamd directly into the leading Wyvern ranks.
Yet, when the black smoke and ionised gas vanished, Hye was astonished. Most of the Wyverns were still airborne.
"They suffered different degrees of injuries, but the majority survived that volley," he chuckled, a mix of amusent and genuine amazent colouring his voice. These were monsters that lived in the heart of a high-pressure furnace; a simple explosion wasn’t enough to crack their scales. "Fine then. Ti for round two. Fire at will!"
All of a sudden, the entire battlefield erupted. It was a chaotic symphony of fierce attacks from Hye’s side and devastating counter-attacks from the Wyverns.
The dragons sent a vanguard of a few hundred Wyverns, dove through the barrages, using their wings to create sonic booms that disrupted the fleet’s incoming missiles, while breathing plus of elental death that licked against the ships’ shields.
Yet they were eventually captured by Hye’s technique. It was the first ti he ever used his technique since the battle started.
Hye didn’t hurry to use his cultivation technique early in this exchange. He was playing a deeper ga. He waited patiently, letting the Wyverns grow confident, letting them realise the danger of his long-range weapons so they would eventually try to close the distance. He needed them near. He needed them within reach of the arms of his black sphere.
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