Starting from the Planetary Governor

Chapter 927: Chapter 498, Death of Erso, Restoration of the Entire Territory_2

After their powered swords connected them as one, the two Battle Group Leaders stood still like wax statues, not moving an inch.

Even with Kalduce’s keen vision, he could not discern the final outcome.

On one hand, it was somewhat distant, but most importantly, the two men’s battle was too intense, the differences in the last moments too subtle, making the possibility of victory or defeat, life or death, all plausible.

There was even a considerable chance that both men might perish together in this duel.

Even Priest Rizzo, at this moment, furrowed his brows. What Kalduce couldn’t see, he couldn’t see either.

Despite his strong convictions, he remained silent at this time, just like everyone else, nervously watching the situation in the arena.

The brief wait seemed very long at this moment.

Finally, movement came from the two still figures.

Matins slowly withdrew the powered sword that had pierced Erso’s body.

Erso’s body lost support and fell backward with a crash, his heavy Terminator Power Armor kicking up a cloud of dust.

Matins stumbled a few steps backward, the powered sword still embedded in his helmet. He let go of his own sword, grasped Erso’s sword, pulled it out, and then took off his helmet.

A fierce bloodstain was on his face, starting from the forehead, slicing open his left brow bone, bursting one of his eyes, and completely tearing open his left cheek…

Erso really came close to splitting Matins’ head open.

But in the end, it was Matins who survived.

After the silence, came the jubilant shouts of the Phoenix warriors.

In stark contrast, the Fury Flame was as silent as a library.

Amidst the cheers of his battling brothers, Matins raised his damaged helmet, not caring about the blood on his face, and shouted triumphantly!

…

The duel between Matins and Erso was also the last of all the Battle Group duels.

Not even a hundred rounds had been completed, let alone the one hundred victories required by Fury Flame.

Up to now, they had only won 11 rounds.

For these 11 victories, Fury Flame Battle Group sacrificed from Battle Group Leader, to Company Commander, to three Battle Group Champions, a series of squad champions, and veteran sergeants.

The eleven captives they exchanged fell to their knees, not even feeling their lives were worth that much.

And those remaining eighty-nine, under Phoenix’s watch, had absolutely no desire to continue the fight.

It was not possible to continue.

The still-living high-ranking members of the Fury Flame Battle Group—three company commanders and the Chaplain—stepped forward.

No matter how bitter they felt inside, they could only negotiate with the Phoenix as they dragged back the body of Kazimir Erso:

“Let’s stop here, the duel is over.”

“You’re surrendering?” speaking for the Phoenix, it was Kalduce, with Priest Rizzo standing beside him.

Matins was also very severely injured. After returning to the ranks, he actually fell into a coma and was urgently treated by the Pharmacist.

Faced with Kalduce’s contemptuous inquiry, Adler Politos, representing the Fury Flame Battle Group, bowed his head: “Yes, we surrender. You have won.”

“But there are still 89 prisoners, and according to the rules, they won’t be released.”

Giving up comrades.

Even though Politos stepped forward to surrender, having anticipated and accepted all the consequences, when he actually had to verbalize it, he still felt as if he were being cut with a knife.

He even thought, why wasn’t he the one to go down during the earlier battles?

He would rather die in the dueling arena than bear such humiliation.

However, the humiliation had already arrived.

With only 11 wins in 68 battles, with the Battle Group Leader killed, and probably all 800 men dying here without achieving even a hundred victories, the honor of Fury Flame had been utterly lost.

Humiliation was inevitably going to fall on Fury Flame Battle Group, and it would ‘spread far and wide’ throughout the universe with this duel.

Politos truly wished he could just die.

But he couldn’t.

The Battle Group had to persist, as living required even more courage than dying.

He could only take a deep breath and say, “Do as you see fit.”

Having spoken, he left without looking back.

Accompanied by the silent members of Fury Flame, before boarding the ship leaving the planet, they heard gunfire.

It seemed intentional; the distant gunshots happened one after the other.

No one counted, but every Interstellar Warrior from Fury Flame heard exactly 89 shots in the distance.

Right before he boarded the ship, as the last person to do so, Politos couldn’t help but turn back for a glance.

Actually, it was too far, even for the enhanced vision of an Interstellar Warrior, to see clearly.

But in his mind’s eye, he vividly saw the site where 68 core fighters of the Battle Group had bled and the execution of 89 Fury Flame captives, deeply etched into his heart.

…

The backbone of the Fury Flame Battle Group was shattered.

Perhaps, with the resilience of the Interstellar Warriors, they could recover from such a blow in the future.

But not now.

They fled the Dragonhawk Star Domain like bereaved dogs, not lingering any further.

The effect of crushed morale was unavoidable, even for Interstellar Warriors.

They tried to take all the naval ships under their control with them, but it wasn’t just they who had lost morale.

The outcome of this duel spread quickly, causing many of the ship commanders who had followed Fury Flame to doubt: Was following Fury Flame really a good choice?

The direct fleets brought by Fury Flame themselves, their Battle Group Fleet, didn’t have this issue. Although morale was low, they were all their own people, and Fury Flame could still lead them away.

However, in the Dragonhawk Star Domain, many of the ships that had stood with them were not from their direct fleet. Over half of the ships were actually from the Imperial Navy.

Among them, the Yunluo Fleet was the main force. Additionally, some support ships gathered from various parts of the Space Domain by the Eastern Cosmic Realm Government during the previous Iron Teeth War also came under the command of Fury Flame.

When Fury Flame was about to retreat, these ships didn’t have any obligation to go with them. After this duel, they were even less inclined to leave.

Many ships ended up ‘falling behind’ during the retreat; particularly at several jump points in the Star Realm Tunnels, some ships appeared to activate their Jump Engines, but after the jump, a few, perhaps as many as a dozen, stayed behind as if their Jump Engines had malfunctioned.

From afar, the command center of the Alliance Navy smoothly ‘incorporated’ these ships.

It wasn’t exactly an incorporation, since that wouldn’t be proper, as these ships all had their own fleet alignments.

However, Yelisia, now an Imperial Navy Admiral, ordered these ships to temporarily obey the command, which wasn’t a problem.

Until Fury Flame Battle Group left the Dragonhawk Star Domain, only the direct fleet they had brought with them remained by their side.

Even fewer than when they had entered, as many had been lost in the war.

As for the evacuation plan prepared by the command structure of the Fury Flame Battle Group before the duel, all plans failed to keep up with the changes and were thus discarded.

They simply didn’t have the time, nor the mindset, to conduct plundering raids on various planets.

Even if they had forcefully executed this evacuation plan, it wasn’t realistic.

The main fleet of the Alliance, as well as the formidable Phoenix, were following them.

They had considered such a scenario before; if the Alliance dared to do this, they would turn around and fight a battle with the Alliance, creating a localized conflict. Who would be afraid?

But now, having admitted defeat, there was no point in fighting.

Could they have won?

The spine-broken dogs had no will to fight, only wanting to quickly leave this nightmarish Star Domain.

And thus, the Alliance reclaimed the entire Dragonhawk Star Domain.

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