for about twenty minutes. The giant beast swarm suffered losses exceeding seventy percent. The Ancient Legion seemed to realize the situation was hopeless and withdrew the remaining beasts under the curtain, using combat robots to fill the gaps left by the retreating swarm.

The armored division attempted to pursue the retreating beasts through the Ancient Legion’s defensive line but was immediately pushed back by a flood of robots.

Since the battle commenced, Fortress Number One had been ceaselessly deploying combat robots. The initial contingent of over one hundred thousand had swelled to more than two hundred thousand, with replacement rates exceeding attrition. Furthermore, heavily armored vehicles, geared up to their teeth, joined the combat robot forces on the battlefield. The ape-men controlling the robots directed them from within these armored transports via remote links.

The Ancient Legion’s combat robot force was significantly depleted, most having been lost during the fierce battle for Fortress Number Two, fought over ten days prior. In that engagement, the Ancient Legion had excavated numerous concealed bunkers across a ten-kilometer radius, hiding a million robots within. They unleashed them all at once, hoping to annihilate the Earth Army’s ground forces in a single stroke. However, this only served to showcase the formidable defense and overwhelming offense of the Thunder God units, which subsequently became legendary.

Now, mustering another million robots for a comparable assault was no easy feat.

The battlefield was a chaotic tapestry of dense energy beams, flying missiles, and colorful explosions. Under such harsh combat conditions, both robots and human soldiers relied purely on luck to survive.

Among the three Thunder God units, Yang Ying’s clone received new orders from ground command: the Thunder Gods were to cooperate in clearing the anti-aircraft artillery surrounding the fortress, thus carving out a clear path for the escort fleet to advance.

The gravity on Io was light. Medium and small warships like destroyers and frigates could operate within the gravitational sphere due to their relatively low mass. Their power cores were sufficient for reentry and takeoff. However, this was not true for the larger capital ships; once caught by the planet's gravity, they risked crashing into the moon. Even if they managed a successful emergency landing, relaunching would require massive mass accelerators or external power systems; otherwise, they would be limited to just a couple of low-altitude circuits.

“It’s indeed a clever tactic to send the three thousand escort frigates into Io Three to assault the fortress.”

What the clone of Yang Ying knew, Yang Ying also knew. The two Ghost fighters disengaged from the frontline combat and streaked toward the anti-aircraft artillery positions.

At this time, the aerial battle remained fiercely contested. The Earth Army possessed roughly one and a half times the number of aircraft as the Ancient Legion, including cutting-edge models like the first-generation Ghost fighter.

While slightly disadvantaged against the Fang fighter, they held a significant superiority over the standard Ape-man fighters. Engagements where one Ghost fought two of the enemy were considered even. For experienced, highly skilled ace pilots, a Ghost could take on three or even four adversaries. Top-tier aces could even fight the Fang fighters to a standstill, given that the performance of the first-generation Ghost was not inherently inferior to a standard Fang.

However, the ground-based anti-aircraft fire caused considerable trouble for the Earth Army pilots. While engaging the enemy, they constantly had to watch out for the barrage below. Sometimes, a momentary lapse in attention resulted in being struck by flak, or they were forced to abandon a prime attack opportunity just to evade ground fire.

These anti-aircraft guns were equipped with IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) systems, only firing on hostiles. Consequently, the Ancient Legion’s fighters enjoyed the full advantage of fighting on home turf; otherwise, they would never have lasted this long.

Yang Ying and Dao Feng fixed their attention on these anti-aircraft emplacements. With the reaction speed of quasi-masters and their cloaked hulls, the two Ghost fighters slipped through the curtain of flak with relative ease, arriving deep within the anti-aircraft artillery zone.

This single position covered an area spanning twenty kilometers, hosting thousands of anti-aircraft guns, ranging generally from Level One to Level Three energy yields. For the smaller escort fleet, these numerous, lower-yield weapons posed the greatest threat. The hundred or so Level Six Fortress Cannons, however, were the primary source of trouble for the main battle fleet.

Currently, beyond Io, the main fleets of the Earth Army and the Ancient Legion were locked in battle. These Level Six Fortress Cannons relentlessly spat out blood-red beams of light, ten meters in diameter, toward the Earth Army fleet. Even from ten thousand meters away, they were clearly visible—slender red lines piercing the void of space, stabbing into the Earth Army fleet like long spears. Every ship struck resulted in a catastrophic explosion.

These fortress cannons were protected by the fortress's defenses; unless struck dead-on, they were difficult to silence with external attacks.

The two Ghost fighters approached these Level Six Fortress Cannons. Although their mission was to clear a path for the escort fleet, it was clear that, at this crucial moment, the fortress cannons inflicted far greater casualties. The escort fleet could wait, but every moment the fortress cannons remained active meant the main fleet risked massive losses.

The floating turrets were deployed once more. Ordinary quasi-masters would have been utterly exhausted after such expenditure, but Yang Ying and Dao Feng could replenish their psychic energy from their clones. Thus, they deployed the floating turrets with undiminished vigor.

Focusing hundreds of Level Two Uranium beams onto a single point was enough to punch through the barrel of a Level Six Fortress Cannon, incinerating everything inside. The two Ghost fighters split up, methodically destroying the cannons one by one.

Halfway through the process, Yang Ying felt a sudden internal shift: “Hmm, a Master-level expert is approaching.”

The Ancient Legion’s fighter corps detected the activity. Over twenty Fang fighters, led by a black Ape-man Master-level fighter, returned to the anti-aircraft zone, intending to locate the enemy destroying the fortress cannons.

However, they were powerless against the cloaked targets. Even the black Master-level fighter could not locate the Ghost fighters. Protected by stealth, as long as Yang Ying and Dao Feng didn't aim their muzzles directly at him, he could not generate a lock. In the continuous cycle of hunting and fleeing, one fortress cannon after another was silently obliterated by tightly focused beams.

Still, a Master-level expert possessed keen senses. On several occasions, when the floating turrets fired, the black Master-level fighter accurately sensed the timing and position of the beams and launched fierce counterattacks against the turrets.

Yang Ying and Dao Feng ignored his assaults, focusing entirely on destroying the fortress cannons. Time flew by in the repetitive labor. In just ten short minutes, all hundred-plus Level Six Fortress Cannons were completely neutralized.

By the time the fortress cannons were all gone, Yang Ying had lost three floating turrets, and Dao Feng had lost the same amount, both left with nine turrets remaining.

Soon after, the black Master-level fighter was engaged by another Master-level fighter from the Psionic Temple. As their duel commenced, all non-Master level fighters in that sector immediately withdrew, leaving the airspace to the two Master-level combatants.

Yang Ying and Dao Feng, with a shared sense of relief, vacated the area. They weren't overly concerned about being shot down by the black Master-level fighter—cloaked aircraft were notoriously difficult to destroy. But being entangled would have rendered their secondary mission, eliminating the anti-aircraft guns, impossible. Seeing him pinned down by the Psionic Temple Master-level fighter allowed them to breathe easier.

The work of eliminating the remaining anti-aircraft guns was now routine for Yang Ying and Dao Feng. The beams fired by their floating turrets descended like a torrential downpour, embodying the essence of speed, precision, and ruthlessness. Every beam struck the chassis of an anti-aircraft gun. The overwhelming barrage swept across the sector, silencing vast batteries of artillery in swathes.

From one position to the next, the two Ghost fighters ripped gaping holes in the Ancient Legion’s anti-air defenses. The Ancient Legion commanders were forced to dispatch reserve squadrons of several hundred fighters to patrol above the flak batteries, attempting to halt the Ghosts' destructive activities.

However, fighters below Master-level were merely serving as fodder for Yang Ying and Dao Feng. Both Ghost fighters now possessed performance metrics nearly comparable to Master-level craft. Even an Ape-man quasi-master flying a Fang fighter with massively enhanced performance was far inferior to the two Ghosts.

Yang Ying and Dao Feng wreaked havoc across the anti-aircraft positions, tearing the defensive curtain wider and wider. Eventually, many Earth Army fighters utilized these newly opened gaps to enter low altitude, joining the barrage against the ground defenses.

Half an hour later, the anti-aircraft guns across the entire sector were sparse, and the barrage had largely ceased.

“Thank you, Commander Yang Ying and Colonel Dao Feng, for your assistance!”

The ground command somehow learned the identities of the two Ghost pilots and sent a message of gratitude.

At this point, the Thunder Gods and the Earth Army ground forces continued their advance toward Fortress Number One. The troops formed by the combat robots operated tirelessly and without fear; morale was irrelevant to them, as they merely executed programmed tasks based on intelligent judgment protocols.

The Earth Army artillery units had successfully suppressed the fortress’s defensive fire and now had surplus capacity to pour firepower onto the combat robots. Still, breaching the line formed by the combat robots would not be a matter of moments.

After another ten minutes or so, the escort fleet finally arrived at the battlefield before Fortress Number One. The three thousand ships layered in the sky created a shadow that obscured nearly the entire moon from view in the starscape.

The warships aimed their main batteries at the robot forces of the Ancient Legion and unleashed a simultaneous salvo—it was as if the sun had burst forth, illuminating the entire battlefield with blinding white light!

The Level Two main guns of the frigates and the Level Three main guns of the destroyers, though not heavy siege weapons individually, struck with overwhelming force due to sheer number. One volley generated an effect akin to a nuclear detonation. The relatively flat ground where the combat robots stood was instantly plowed anew by the raging fire!

When the thick smoke and dust cleared, what remained before the Earth Army was a scene of utter devastation. The robot formations, stretched across the landscape, were annihilated. At least seventy-five percent of the robots had been rendered combat-ineffective in that single wave of attack; those remaining were negligible.

Witnessing this onslaught, Yang Ying knew the tide had turned irrevocably. Without further comment, he executed a sharp turn, guiding his fighter back toward the primary vessel in space.