In his sector Brigadier Pello had facing only one opposition, a single Buriek’s destroyer with hull code Jeve-01. Even so, he did not dare to lower his guard. Previously, he had seen how Buriek Riders with ease slaughter Makai Riders even though they were outnumbered. So he believed that the lone Buriek's destroyer must be also had an unpleasant surprise for his units.

And turned out, Brigadier Palleo intuition was correct. Without any warning, Jeve-01 suddenly launched a salvo consisting of eight flaming bottles into the air. The salvo made a high arc before accurately landed on the corvettes that tightly following the landing boats.

Blaaarr! Blaaarr! Blaaarr! Bla-bla-blaaaarr!!!

Fierce and huge fire instantly covered eight corvettes, along with some of its crews. Then, heartbreaking screams were filled the air as some human torches jumped into the sea.

Meanwhile, the second salvo of flaming bottle had already in the air, followed by the third, the fourth, the fifth, and so on. Chaos immediately descended among the warships that sailed behind the landing boats. Their formation broke and of course they were also lost the ability to give the landing boats an effective fire support.

In a serious tone, Brigadier Palleo immediately ordered, “Row faster. The sooner we reach the destroyer, the lesser the casualties we have to suffer.”

”At once, Sir.”

Wasting no time, Lieutenant Hamm carried out the order. A moment later, rowers at each landing boats increased their efforts as if their life were on the line. Then, as the leading landing boats had entered a distance of 300 meter before Jeve-01, and Brigadier Palleo immediately ordered, “Bowmen, get ready! Engage as soon as you can.”

“Aye Sir.”

Wasting no time, bowmen in the leading landing boats knocked an arrow to their long bow. Wind was on their side, so they would be able to fire their arrow at a distance of 275 meters. However, Jeve-01 suddenly fired hundreds of arrows into the air, following by the second, third, and fourth salvo almost without pause.

At first, Brigadier Palleo thought that the first salvo would not reach his position. But he instantly corrected his calculation as the incoming arrows reached a height that was far higher than his calculation before starting went down in full speed.

“Shield up!”

Even if Brigadier Palleo’s order slightly too late, the shield holders managed to rise their wooden shield on time.

Tap! Tap! Ta-ta-tap! T-ratatatatatatap!!

At almost simultaneously, more than a hundred of arrows hit the wooden shields, followed by the next salvo and so on. However, painful moans and curse still filled the air afterward.

At the same time, grim sensation gripped Brigadier Palleo's heart as he realized that the shield holder in front of him trembling, than fell to his knee.

Wasting no time, Brigadier Palleo went to support the shield holder. Then, chill ran on his back as he found out that a crossbow bolt was deeply buried on the shield holder's chest, and leaving behind a hole in the shield.

“What the… it's not an arrow but crossbow bolts.”

In an instant, Brigadier Palleo’s mind spun wildly. It was too hard for him to imagine what kind of crossbow that able to send a crossbow bolt up to a distance of 300 meters, and then penetrated a wooden shield cleanly. Moreover, the next salvo already in the air even before the first salvo hit its target.

Unfortunately, Brigadier Palleo could not think about it any further. As before long, he also became the victim of the insanely dangerous crossbow.

---

With a calm gaze, Captain Phoker observed the sea surface in front of him. It was littered with hundreds of bodies and dozens of landing boats. At the same time, 37 opposing warships were burning violently in the distance, while other hundreds warship tried to establish a new attack formation.

Then, Lieutenant Mirriz approached Captain Phoker and reported, "Sir, catapult crew had landed along with their equipment. Right now, they were on the way to third defensive line."

"Good. We also had to retreat into second line immediately."

"Yes, Sir."

Seeing Lieutenant Mirriz still stood in his place, Captain Phoker immediately asked, "Lieutenant, is something bothering you?"

"Sir, may I ask you a question?"

"You may."

"So far we did a good job. So why we don’t just reload this ship with Molotov cocktails and crossbow bolts, then continue defending this position. Not to mention, we had destroyed only opposing corvettes or frigates, but not a single destroyer."

Captain Phoker calmly replied, "Well, in short, we can lose this ship but not our crossbowmen and catapult crews.”

A question mark immediately appeared on Lieutenant Mirriz's forehead, "Sir?"

"Lieutenant, you should start learning how to see the big picture of the battlefield. That's how high-ranking officer decide what they can throw away, or preserve for later action.

As for now, let's just faithfully follow command center's order."

"Aye Sir."

Even though his mind was still full of questions, Lieutenant Mirriz decided to hold his curiosity. Wasting no time, he then carried out the retreat order.

Swiftly, 120 crossbowmen started moving into landing boats. Meanwhile, as two highest-ranking officers in the ship, Captain Phoker and Lieutenant Mirriz became the last crew who left Jeve-01.

As he poured a bottle of Molotov cocktail to the deck, Captain Phoker said, “Fortunately, this ship has not used the engine and communication system promised by TF Amethyst."

“Yeah,” Lieutenant Mirriz replied as he poured second Molotov cocktail. “I wonder. What kind of ship we will receive as Jeve-01's replacement."

“We will know if we can survive and win this battle."

“Aye Sir.”

Wasting no time, Captain Phoker and Lieutenant Mirriz then boarded the landing boat. After giving last salute to Jeve-01, the two then threw two torches to Jeve-01's deck. After that, the journey to the beach started.

As each landing boats was equipped with a portable engine, the sailors did not need to row it. Only one sailor was needed to man the engine, every landing boat while the rest looked at the burning Jeve-01.

Some sailors only looked at Jeve-01 in silent, while some others sobbed as the destroyer was like second home for them. Seeing this, Captain Phoker immediately said, "It’s better to let Jeve-01 rest, rather than to let it fall into opposing side’s hand.”

“”””Aye Sir.”””

All sailors around Captain Phoker calmly replied. After that, they continued the journey to the beach in silent.

---

All night, 12th Base Guard Regiment's personnel tried to cover most of the beach around Sommer Island with anti-personnel mines and barbed wire. They only left a few gaps to be used by Buriek's Sailor when they retreating. After that, they established second defensive line at the distance 200 meters from the beach.

Once all Buriek’s sailor completed their retreat maneuver, Captain Brad immediately reported to Major Blackburn. “Sir, Buriek’s crossbowmen had regrouping with us in second defensive line, while their catapult crews had setting up new firing position in third defensive line."

"Very good." Relief was clearly visible in Major Blackburn 's eyes as he continued, “4800 crossbowmen will lessen up our burden a lot, while Molotov catapult will help us to form firewall in case we get overwhelmed by human wave tactic."

“Aye Sir, and we were fortunate Buriek's sailor didn't suffer fatality from previous versus contact."

Of the 380 personnel under 12th Base Guard Regiment's command, only 143 of them were infantry, while the rest were heavy weapon operator or support personnel. Therefore, defending Sommer Island from landing troops numbered tens of thousands was undoubtedly a heavy objective for Major Blackburn and his men. So they would deeply appreciate any help they could get.

Major Blackburn then calmly said, “It seems our guest change their tactic."

"Do they?"

"Yes, they no longer try to land, but send their warships as close as possible to the beach."

"They intend to use fire power, before launching the next landing attempt."

"It seems so." Major Blackburn nodded and continued, "That's why command center want our beast to welcome them and prevent any salvo from their destroyers."

"I see,” Captain Brad replied as he nodded his head.

*****