Looking at the few remaining fiery wrecks, Betty felt that this wasn't a war at all, but a one-sided slaughter.
Ethan simply stood there calmly from beginning to end. The Prinz Eugen was not tested at all in this battle. The closest enemy attack landed only fifty meters away on the sea surface.
Such a distance didn't even trigger the outermost magical protective shield.
"Isn't this too cruel?"
Although Betty was a military academy student, she had never experienced the baptism of war. Regardless of what knowledge she had learned, she was essentially still a young girl, she had just slept for a long time.
Looking at the sailors struggling in the water, Betty began to feel sorry for them.
"Don't pity these people, because when you fall into their hands, they won't pity you."
These people, as the Guild's thugs, guarded this sea area and had killed countless adventurers. It could be said that none of them were innocent.
Ethan's action against them this time wasn't for the sake of justice, but acting against bad people is always more acceptable than acting against good, kind people.
The Prinz Eugen patrolled in the distance for a while longer. New warships were sent out from the circular building, but these warships still couldn't threaten the Prinz Eugen. As soon as one appeared, it would be sunk.
In the end, apart from a few ships rescuing their companions which Ethan didn't sink, any warship that showed aggressive intent was mercilessly targeted by the Prinz Eugen.
Having fought to this extent, the battle could be considered to be entering its final stage. When the enemy realized they couldn't do anything about Ethan's warship, they even gave up on further rescue efforts. The remaining two rescue ships also turned around and retreated. Subsequently, the docks surrounding the massive circular building began to close, as if they were preparing to escape.
"Have you found the enemy's energy core or propulsion system?"
With the various black technologies equipped on the Prinz Eugen, it wasn't difficult to find the location with the strongest energy reaction within the enemy's building. In fact, during the battle just now, Maria Hill had sent small reconnaissance drones to infiltrate the enemy building while their attention was focused on the Prinz Eugen.
"Not yet, but it shouldn't take much longer."
Just as they were talking, someone suddenly connected to the Prinz Eugen's communication channel.
It wasn't the magic stone communication facility that Ethan had added later, but the communication equipment that the Prinz Eugen originally came with. Currently, only their own people on the Prinz Eugen could connect to this signal.
Looking around, Ethan noticed that Ada had disappeared at some point and immediately guessed where this woman had gone.
"You found the target?"
"You know me so well."
Ada's voice came through the loudspeaker. The people in the bridge looked at each other, all wondering when this woman had left and even infiltrated the enemy's interior.
As for how Ada moved from the Prinz Eugen to the opposite building, it wasn't hard to guess. Naval battles often take a long time. Just turning and maneuvering to find the next firing opportunity could take several hours.
The battle between the Prinz Eugen and the Guild fleet was considered a relatively quick naval battle, but it still took a considerable amount of time.
This much time was enough for Ada to get from here to the other side. There was plenty of equipment on the ship, like small underwater propulsion devices in the warehouse.
Furthermore, with the battle raging fiercely, it was even easier for Ada to carry out her infiltration work, as the enemy's attention was drawn to the Prinz Eugen, making their internal defenses more lax.
Just like that, Ada successfully found the building's power room and easily destroyed the power facilities.
The circular building, having lost its power source, activated its backup energy. However, although the docks closed, it didn't submerge. It seemed that submerging underwater required the main power source, and the backup energy wasn't sufficient to drive such a large building underwater.
It could also be for other reasons, such as problems with underwater life support systems, but since he didn't know the exact reason, Ethan couldn't be sure.
"Let's go over."
Originally, Ethan wanted to destroy this facility, just like the warships that were destroyed, blowing them all into pieces. Later, he thought that there might be some secret information hidden inside, and there was a high probability of finding information about the control room of this training ground world, so he resisted the urge to destroy it directly.
The Prinz Eugen began to approach the enemy rapidly, and the distance between the two sides was quickly decreasing.
Even with its main propulsion system destroyed, the massive circular building, like a small island, wasn't completely defenseless. Numerous turrets extended from around the island, and as the Prinz Eugen approached within a certain distance, these cannons furiously unleashed their firepower on Ethan's warship.
Dense energy projectiles rained down from the sky. The power of these energy projectiles was stronger than any shell fired from any main gun on the previous fleet.
Combined with the astonishing number, theoretically, any warship approaching them would be torn to pieces by this terrifying attack.
Unfortunately, these warships did not include the Prinz Eugen.
As the Prinz Eugen, equipped with countless black technologies and specializing in astonishing defensive power, it could fully withstand the bombardment of the rain-like energy projectiles with its magical shield activated, moving forward resolutely.
"Their firepower is so intense, why didn't they use it before?"
"Too slow, too short range."
Ethan saw the biggest problem with these defensive turrets at a glance, without needing the Prinz Eugen's intelligent system to analyze it.
In the area where the Prinz Eugen had been operating previously, even if these turrets locked onto the target and calculated a certain lead before firing, by the time the energy projectiles flew near the Prinz Eugen, the Prinz Eugen would have already sailed far away.
Of course, they could continue to increase the lead, but the Prinz Eugen wasn't moving on a fixed route, so it was impossible to determine the Prinz Eugen's movement path over such a long distance.
In addition, it's not that energy weapons have no concept of range. After flying a certain distance, these energies would lose power due to decreased cohesion and energy loss during flight. Once the energy intensity of pure energy weapons drops, their killing power at the extreme range might not even be as effective as a little girl's casually swung small fists.
Without special technical means, for the same level of energy consumption, solid ammunition weapons are more powerful. However, because this world's mineral resources are too scarce and there is the peculiar product of magic stones, this world focused on developing energy weapons.
Ethan also considered the difficulty of resupply, which is why the Prinz Eugen's main guns are energy weapons.
But the Prinz Eugen's main guns can fire solid ammunition.
"Use armor-piercing rounds!"
Armor-piercing rounds are much more suitable than pure energy projectiles for dealing with fortress-like structures like this. With the automatic loading system running, the Prinz Eugen's front main guns were already loaded with solid ammunition and locked onto the target while sailing.
"Fire!"
The roar of the ship's cannons sounded continuously. At this moment, it felt more like a warship. Compared to firing energy projectiles, the shock generated by firing solid ammunition was much greater.
People like Laura and Betty, who had absolutely no concept of solid ship cannons firing, were startled by the loud noise. Betty was even almost scared into falling, thanks to Jonathan catching her.
Compared to these inexperienced young girls, Jonathan and O'Connell were not unfamiliar with ship cannons firing due to the era they came from. They were from Britain, which had the world's strongest navy at the time.
Due to the large number of enemy turrets, the Prinz Eugen adjusted its direction again after advancing a certain distance, turning one side toward the circular building and fully unleashing the firepower from that side.
The power of the armor-piercing rounds was very strong. Almost every shot could destroy a defensive turret. Compared to the circular building that could only float on the sea surface and couldn't move, the Prinz Eugen could move to avoid the enemy's concentrated fire zones and focus on clearing the most threatening defensive positions.
The enemy, on the other hand, could only passively unleash firepower. After a few exchanges like this, the side of the circular building facing the Prinz Eugen had almost no intact turrets visible, and fires were burning everywhere. This was also caused by the incendiary shells fired by the Prinz Eugen. Because the enemy was using energy weapons, there was almost no chance of secondary explosions, and there were no ammunition depots or other facilities for the Prinz Eugen to perform one-hit kills.
"Should we continue firing?" Hill looked at the situation on the other side. The enemy had basically lost the ability to resist. If she were in S.H.I.E.L.D., she would now consider sending in Marines for a landing operation to directly occupy this building.
Unfortunately, the Prinz Eugen didn't have a Marine configuration. Similar landing and boarding operations were the responsibility of the ship's crew, and the highest commander on the ship often undertook such tasks.
"I'll go over and take a look."
Ethan indeed decided to take action himself. No one tried to dissuade him. As the strongest combatant on this warship, if Ethan were to encounter danger, then no one else could perform this task.
Unexpectedly, everyone was very enthusiastic. Not only did Logan, as always, decide to act with Ethan, but O'Connell also expressed his desire to participate, and Sherry wanted to test her current strength.
Not to mention Mordred, who would join in any excitement.
Except for Annette and Evelyn, the two women who would definitely not participate in combat, even Jonathan was willing to join in. In the end, only Selene would stay behind to protect the logistics and command personnel remaining on the ship, while the rest would follow Ethan and charge into that massive building on the other side.
Ethan gave everyone some time to prepare. In the blink of an eye, everyone had changed into their combat gear. This was the convenience of space items.
And for Ethan and the others, there was something even more convenient. The so-called landing operation was actually just opening a portal in the enemy's core area.
"Ada, help with the positioning."
(To be continued.)