As the crew of the half-ruined alien battleship desperately conducted damage control activities in an attempt to stop her from collapsing any further, an important duel took place just in front. The Trampler of Stars used his own godblood-infused body to challenge the human ace mech that sought to finish the job. After a few exchanges of blows, it became clear that the two possessed distinct strengths and weaknesses. The nunser warlord showed unflinching courage and great endurance against his larger and more destructive opponent. His spatial barriers were uncommonly strong and he excelled at shaking and destabilizing wide swathes of space around his body. What was particularly admirable about the nunser warlord was that he fought as if he could fight all day! The Trampler of Stars was like an inexhaustible engine of destruction that could continually generate one shockwave after another without showing any signs of flagging! Unfortunately, the Trampler of Stars did not excel in launching concentrated attacks. This made it difficult for the nunser powerhouse to punch through the ace mech's Saint Kingdom and pierce through the powerful armor system of the enemy machine. The Unrelenting on the other hand was a much more focused war machine. Its shoulder-mounted gauss cannons could exert a decent amount of pressure onto the alien god and inflict severe structural damage on the less armored portions of the alien battleship. Its hammer strikes were even more destructive. While Saint Neville Magrin was still plumbing the depths of his potential by sustaining the state of Unity of Man and Machine with his ace pilot, the Unrelenting's warhammer steadily broke down the strong spatial shields that safeguarded the alien warlord's life. However, the Unrelenting's unreasonable level of performance could not be sustained! This was most evident when its Saint Kingdom had started to shrink and lose more and more cohesion. Every time it was struck by a spatial shockwave attack, it lost more and more strength. This was highly concerning for the humans who depended on the protection of the heir of their great leader. Not only was Saint Neville Magrin unable to sustain the state of Unity of Man and Machine much longer, but he was unable to make any further progress in finishing off the alien battleship. The front half of the alien craft might be ruined to the point that much of it was crippled, but her rear half retained a remarkably degree of functionality! 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎 Her segmented energy shields easily resisted the damage inflicted by the surviving mechs of the human pioneering fleet. Her intact and relatively unaffected gun batteries continued to pound the remaining human carrier vessels with great power! The fact that the battleship was able to perform so well despite receiving such a heavy blow was a testament to the design and the construction quality of the hybrid alien vessel. Not all was well, though. Many intact sections of the ship lost a lot of power or control, causing many different functions to weaken or become inactive entirely. The systems responsible for generating a powerful and far-reaching warp interdiction field had weakened to an extent, allowing many human starships that had traveled far away enough to enter into warp travel again. Some of them fled immediately while others waited to pick up as many mechs and mech pilots as they could. Seeing the surviving fleet carriers and combat carriers escaping the effective range of the damaged alien battlefield was a relief to Saint Neville Magrin. As the heat of his fury began to fade and as exhaustion increasingly settled into his mind and body, his Unrelenting started to experience greater pressure from its immediate opponent. Even when Saint Neville tried his best to keep his Unrelenting at an angle where the damaged alien battleship couldn't fire her gun batteries at his ace mech, the Trampler of Stars constantly tried to push his machine into killzones! The more time passed by, the harder it became to prevent the Unrelenting from being shot at by the surviving secondary laser cannon batteries! "Saint Neville!" A surviving mech officer of the remnant pioneering fleet transmitted to the faltering ace mech. "You need to leave right away! You have done enough for us. We anticipate that the damage sustained by the alien battleship will prevent it from entering into warp travel and chasing after the few ships that we have left. There is no need for you to risk your life any further. Please fall back before it is too late." "I am not done yet!" Saint Neville hissed as his hatred against the alien warlord and his damaged battleship exceeded his desire for self-preservation. "I am not leaving this job unfinished. This is my best chance to finish off this alien ship and take revenge for what they did to my father!" "Your father did not want you to throw away your life in vain! We need you, Saint. Our ranks are in a mess and none of us have anything close to the prestige of your father. You are his only recognized heir. You are the only son of his that can suppress the monkeys that are jumping around and keep our fleet and organization together. Think about it, Neville. Your father invested over two centuries of his life to build his empire. All of his hard work will collapse if you continue to risk your life and get buried in this inconsequential star system. Forgive me for saying so, sir, but protecting his legacy is more important than giving in to mindless rage." Saint Neville sobered up a bit after hearing this. His father had told him to prioritize his survival and the survival of the fleet, but it was hard for him to obey these instructions when the unthinkable happened. As his ace mech futilely tried to circle around the alien battleship, only for the small but hardy alien warlord to charge and collide against the machine to push it back, Neville became increasingly more frustrated at his lack of progress. Aside from the initial heavy charge attack, the Unrelenting failed to cripple the alien battleship any further. In fact, the opposite was taking place. As the alien damage control teams steadily put out fires and repaired damaged systems, the battleship showed signs of revival. Her segmented energy shields started to gain more cohesion and integrity than the opposite. Her warp drives were being repaired and readjusted as fast as possible so that she could regain her mobility. The alien vessel even started to launch her modest complement of starfighters! Despite his aggressive and tyrannical reputation, the Trampler of Stars was not a mindless beast. He patiently focused on displacing and exhausting the enemy machine as opposed to breaching its formidable defenses. He clearly understood that the human ace mech in front of him could not sustain its peak performance for long. The alien god was more than willing to stall the Unrelenting and wait until it had lost steam before going on the attack! When Saint Neville Magrin could no longer maintain the Unity of Man and Machine, he felt a lot more drained than usual. This was one of the downsides of entering this extraordinary state. Its power was incredible, but all of the energy had to come from somewhere. Right now, Neville had severely overdrafted his strength. His willpower was normally strong and incredibly resilient, but now that he had fought at a level of strength that could rival that of a senior ace pilot, his entire head was buzzing with excessive strain. The Unrelenting kept getting pushed back more and more by the Trampler of Stars. Seeing that it was impossible for Saint Neville to complete a part of his quest for vengeance today, the ace pilot let out a disgusted noise and decisively turned his machine around. The ace mech's transphasic resonance-empowered flight system easily allowed the powerful machine to distance itself from its immediate adversaries. The Trampler of Stars did not race after the retreating ace mech. He instead hovered in front of his damaged ship and remained on guard in case this was a trick. Ultimately, the two sides diverged from each other. Neither side were willing to perpetuate this battle any further due to the heavy damage that they had sustained. Only a fraction of the Cenatus Prospecting fleet was left, and many of the ships that had fled during the panic were scattered all across the star system. The Fractured House of the Collapsing Star on the other hand was under no condition to pursue any of the fleeing human vessels. Though she could still put up a decent fight if she started to run down individual human carrier vessels, that would only exacerbate the damage. As the flames of battle started to fade, the masterminds who caused these two parties to collide in the first place were reasonably pleased at this outcome. Ves had many reasons to be happy. First, the Golden Skull Alliance managed to exact heavy punishment onto a vulture fleet. Even if it was impossible for the Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers to admit their responsibility for this scheme, plenty of smart people would be able to figure out the truth! Once that happened, a lot of opportunists who held malicious intentions towards the expeditionary fleet should withhold their greed. Hardly any other vulture fleet would dare to challenge a tough and aggressive opponent! Second, the alien battleship codenamed the Tower of Babel had sustained enough damage to cripple her, but not enough to destroy her entirely! Though Ves was disappointed that the rear half of the Tower of Babel held out remarkably well against the Unrelenting's brief assault, she was much less overpowering than before. The most important question in his mind was whether Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik managed to survive this turbulent battle. "Is our target still alive and well?" Ves asked as he concentrated his mind onto Ylvaine. The design spirit responded with a single affirmative impression. "Thanks. It is nice to know that all of my efforts so far haven't been in vain." The confirmation suggested that Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik was being held in the rear half of the battleship. From the perspective of the alien crew members, the human captive resided somewhere in the lower decks. The upper decks were mostly gone or heavily damaged, but many of the most essential ship systems were located below. Ves became a lot more inclined to turn the expeditionary fleet around and jump straight back into the Ramage Repulsor System to complete his objective. The alien battleship was probably at her most vulnerable condition at this time! He would be a fool if he failed to take advantage of this crucial window of opportunity! The Golden Skull Alliance just needed to be wary of the intact gun batteries of the enemy battleship. The remaining primary kinetic cannons and the secondary laser cannons could destroy a lot of starships if they happened to get close enough! Ves quickly contacted General Verle. "We need to finish off the Tower of Babel as quickly as possible." "We are already on it, sir. We will need to employ all of our advantages as it will not be easy for us to minimize the damage. We also need to act as soon as possible as the greatest priority of the Tower of Babel is to leave human-occupied space before she is hunted down by a more powerful human force." "Hmm. I understand. Keep studying the condition of the Tower of Babel. If you don't have enough confidence to pull off a clean attack, then maybe we can reconsider. I do not want our fleet to suffer the same degree of damage as the vulture fleet. The gains won't outweigh the losses if that happens." General Verle smiled. "There is no reason to throw away the lives of a lot of good soldiers. We can still live without completing our mission." The following days were crucial. The Golden Skull Alliance needed to pounce as quickly as possible in order to take advantage of Cenatus Prospecting's hard work!