Chapter 16: The Fall of the Fleet
The air outside the Chronos field was crisp, but it quickly grew hot as the friction of twenty Bureau airships displaced the atmosphere. General Vane's flagship, the H.S.S. Leviathan, loomed like a predatory whale made of blackened steel.
Below, on the edge of the floating mountain, Leo stood alone. To the Bureau's long-range scanners, he looked like a solitary, defiant speck.
"Target sighted," a cold voice crackled over the fleet's external comms. "Leo Heart, by order of the Global Research Bureau, you are declared a 'Level 1 Bio-Hazard.' Surrender the anomalous turtle and the Founder's data, or we will commence orbital bombardment."
Leo didn't look up. He was adjusting the straps on his gloves. "Jud, Kaelin. You take the escorts. I'll take the whale."
"With pleasure," Kaelin whispered. She and her Wind-Armored Gorilla vanished into the treeline, moving like ghosts. Jud patented the flank of his Continental Toad. "Let's show 'em what a 'support pet' looks like, big guy."
The Opening Salvo
"Fire," General Vane commanded.
Ten airships unleashed their primary batteries—concentrated beams of ionized mana designed to melt through mountain ranges. The sky turned a blinding white.
"Grim," Leo said softly. "Corona Aegis."
The Solar-Storm Colossus didn't hide in its shell. It stood tall, its draconic head held high. A sphere of white-hot plasma erupted around them, spinning at such high velocity that the air turned into a vacuum. The Bureau's beams hit the shield and simply... ceased to exist. They were vaporized before they could even register an impact.
The Counter-Attack
"My turn," Leo growled. "Grim, Solar-Flare Propulsion!"
Grim's hind limbs ignited with the fury of a miniature star. The three-ton turtle didn't crawl; it launched. It broke the sound barrier in a millisecond, trailing a wake of violet and gold fire.
Leo rode on Grim's back, his Sovereign's Mirror active. He wasn't just watching the fleet; he was syncing with the Leviathan's engine frequency.
CRASH!
Grim slammed into the lead escort ship. He didn't use a skill—he simply used his mass and the heat of his shell. The airship's hull buckled like a soda can, exploding in a fireball that lit up the three moons.
Chaos in the Skies
While Leo tore through the center of the formation, Jud was causing havoc from the ground.
"Gravity Well: Sky-Drop!" Jud roared.
The Continental Toad didn't need to fly. It jumped. At the peak of its arc, it projected a massive gravitational field toward the nearest airship. The ship's flight stabilizers shrieked as they were suddenly pulled toward the earth with ten times the force of gravity.
The airship dived nose-first into the jungle below, where Kaelin's Shadow-Panthers were waiting to "decommission" the surviving crew.
Facing the General
Leo landed Grim directly on the flight deck of the Leviathan. The metal groaned under the turtle's immense weight.
A man stepped out of the command bridge. General Vane was tall, with a cybernetic eye that glowed a menacing red. Beside him stood a Platinum-Rank Chimera—a beast that had been artificially fused with dragon scales and mechanical limbs.
"Impressive," Vane said, his voice amplified by his armor. "Six months of growth in a single day. The Founder's secrets are even more potent than we theorized. But I am a Platinum-Rank Evolver, Leo. I have conquered three S-Rank Portals. Your 'pet' is still just a reptile."
The General's Chimera lunged, its mechanical wings buzzing. It was faster than anything Leo had ever seen.
[Eye of Truth: Warning!]
[Target: Cyber-Dragon Chimera]
[Level: 68]
[Skill: Absolute Zero Breath]
The Chimera opened its maw, and a blast of frost that could freeze time itself rushed toward Leo.
"Grim, Void-Storm: Solar Inverse!"
Leo didn't block the ice. He used the Pet Encyclopedia's hidden knowledge. Grim opened his mouth and created a gravitational singularity that sucked the "Absolute Zero" energy into his shell.
"You think I'm just defending?" Leo smirked.
The violet runes on Grim's shell turned a brilliant, frozen white. He had just "recorded" the General's attack.
"Mimicry Release!"
Grim expelled the energy back at the Leviathan. The ice didn't just freeze the deck; it shattered the structural integrity of the ship's main thrusters. The massive flagship began to tilt, its alarms blaring "Critical Failure."
"This ship is going down, Vane," Leo said, his gold eyes glowing with a terrifying intensity. "And I haven't even used my second pet yet."
Vane's cybernetic eye flickered. For the first time, he saw not a boy, but a Sovereign.