Lord of the Sky City

Rocky was not without experience. He had personally commanded the fights against Baron Wolin and the Wild Horse Air Pirate Group, and these battles had allowed him to amass quite a bit of experience. Thus, he had immediately adjusted his formation after the first battle to prepare for an even larger conflict—a decision that clearly stemmed from experiential judgment.

However, his experience, while perhaps rich compared to some, paled in comparison to that of Madison, a veteran of many battles. This gap led to Rocky’s relatively superficial understanding of aerial combat, his immature grasp of the situation, and incorrect judgments on the spot.

Take the present situation, for instance.

Earlier, after Madison had led his fleet in observing from a distance, he had in fact given Rocky ample time to prepare. Indeed, Rocky had taken this opportunity to adjust his formation, so, in theory, he should have been the one waiting at ease in this battle because he was already prepared and just waiting for the enemies to approach.

However, faced with Rocky’s well-prepared defenses, Madison chose to respond with long-range artillery strikes.

It must be said that Madison’s command capabilities were demonstrated in this single decision alone!

The fleet sent out by Wild Horse City, though numerically superior, had only two additional destroyers and its core comprised two patrol cruisers; on the other hand, Rocky’s fleet, though numbering only ten ships, was formed around a battleship and a patrol cruiser as its core. This clearly outlined the disparity in the actual strength between the two fleets.

The firepower of a battleship was undoubtedly stronger than that of a patrol cruiser, so a battleship paired with a patrol cruiser was definitely stronger than two patrol cruisers. Furthermore, Rocky’s fleet consisted entirely of the most advanced fifth-generation ships, whereas Madison’s fleet was a generation behind, with fourth-generation ships. Although Madison had two more ships, a comprehensive comparison still showed Rocky’s fleet to be more formidable.

This disparity was calculated by Madison after he had a clear view of Rocky’s setup. Hence, he ordered his fleet to attack from a distance using their main guns, knowing that his fleet’s overall firepower was definitely inferior to his opponent’s, especially since Rocky had a battleship. If they had exchanged fire directly, particularly when the opponent was all set and waiting in anticipation, he would definitely not come out on top.

But since his fleet had more ships and therefore more main guns, he ordered them to use the range advantage of their main guns to strike from a distance. This way, they wouldn’t need to compete with the enemy’s firepower directly, ensuring more safety for his own side and causing significant damage.

The formidable power of the main guns on large warships, coupled with the targeting systems on the ships Madison commanded, ensured a degree of accuracy that was crucial. More importantly, as Rocky had already adjusted his formation, all warships were quite concentrated, making them even more likely to be hit.

Consequently, the well-prepared Rocky was forced to disperse his fleet, as he dared not let his ships endure the bombardment directly. The battleship and patrol cruisers might have held up, but the destroyers and escort ships certainly could not withstand the bombardment from the main guns of patrol cruisers; particularly the escort ships, which would sink after two hits.

However, from the moment he ordered his fleet to disperse, he lost the advantage of being prepared in advance and waiting for the enemy to enter into his fire network.

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Indeed, if Rocky could have judged more accurately and made a more decisive decision, he should not have let the fleet disperse, but rather should have charged forward despite the attack.

Because while Madison’s offensive looked frightening, the main guns, though strong in their attack, fired slowly and couldn’t form an effective and sustained fire network. This meant that if Rocky could withstand the first round of attacks, he might have been able to get close to the enemy before the second round began. At that point, it would be the enemy covered by the fire network.

Unfortunately, the battlefield does not entertain ‘what ifs,’ so in this initial exchange, Madison was clearly more adept.

Of course, Rocky was not going to sit idly by; as he ordered his fleet to disperse, he also commanded all warships to immediately strike back with their main guns.

Thus, the battlefield saw both fleets attacking each other with their main guns from a great distance, the deafening sounds of gunfire echoing continuously—a truly spectacular scene.

“Thunderhawk City is going to lose…”

“The gap between the two commanders is too obvious.”

“Who is commanding at Wild Horse City? Quite shrewd, aren’t they?”

When Rocky and Madison were staging a great battle in the sky, more than ten Sky Cities were spectating around the battlefield; as the fight continued, these spectators each had different reactions.

Outside the airspace of Eternal City, there were always dozens or hundreds of Sky Cities docked, so when Rocky suddenly launched an attack on Wild Horse City, many nearby Sky Cities were startled, causing many of their fleets to urgently take off, and it wasn’t until they confirmed that Rocky was not attacking them that the City Lords of these Sky Cities felt relieved.

Meanwhile, these City Lords developed an intense interest in this great battle. Disputes openly fought under so many watchful eyes were exceedingly rare, so even royal figures couldn’t resist their curiosity and turned into eager onlookers, starting to enjoy the spectacle.

Among those watching the battle were many seasoned war experts who could immediately discern the strengths and weaknesses, pointing out the disparity between the commanders.

Not only that, but they were also the first to spot the danger Rocky was facing; even in their view, Rocky was already teetering on the edge of defeat—if he didn’t react soon, he would lose!

In fact, it was indeed so!

Fortunately, shortly thereafter Rocky made a response, because after several rounds of cannon fire, he finally recognized the problem!

After several rounds of cannon fire, Rocky realized something was amiss.

First, in the process of the main cannons firing at each other, he found that he was not gaining any advantage at all. His side was already short by two warships, but more importantly, because the Dominator Type 2 battleship’s main cannon was extremely powerful, it only had one cannon and it took a long time to charge after each fire. This meant that his strongest battleship couldn’t do much in the fight, which made the number of main cannons on his side even fewer and completely unable to compete with the opponent in terms of firepower.

Secondly, the opponent’s formation was too dispersed, making it very difficult to hit them.

Rocky’s side was already short on main cannons, and coupled with the enemy spreading out too widely, they had even more space to avoid being hit. Thus, after a long exchange of fire, not a single shot hit them, while two of his own Escort Ships had already been hit and had to hide behind the battleship.

With this, who was advantaged and who was disadvantaged became very clear.

Only at this point did Rocky realize the severity of the problem, finally understanding why the opponent had their Fleet in such a dispersed, straight line formation, and realizing that he had fallen into the enemy’s trap!

So, after realizing this, he immediately issued a new command!

“Order the Fleet to adjust formation, with War Steed and Hunter as the vanguard, the Escort Fleet behind, quickly close in on the enemy!”

Realizing that continuing the battle this way was too disadvantageous, Rocky immediately ordered an adjustment of his Fleet’s formation to have the battleship and patrol cruiser with the highest defensive power lead the forefront, to withstand the enemy’s attacks while quickly closing in on them.

Although somewhat slow to catch on, Rocky finally reacted and decidedly made the most appropriate response.

However, facing his response, especially facing the advancing battleship-led Fleet, Madison was calm and composed, as he had already anticipated that Rocky would make such a move—this reaction was precisely what Madison had hoped to see!

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