The biggest problem with CTF was the noise it made. Not the physical turbulence, but the spatial disturbance.
When the ghost ship Cross Tunneled into Thunder Abyss, it was found out precisely because of the spatial fluctuations.
As a result, Varian, Enigma, and Bali were chased by Thunder King himself! If not for Sovereign Ares personally stalling Thunder King, they'd have died.
It was a profound experience for Varian who didn't expect such a high degree of difficulty in the escape.
But after the incident passed, he got thinking.
'What if we can hide the spatial fluctuations? Stack that with ghost ship's stealth, we should be able to Cross Tunnel into any Abyss without being found, wouldn't that be awesome?'
Kyle agreed with him. But lamented that despite being a genius, he wouldn't be able to create such a machine without a decade of experimentation.
Then came Dr. Thomas and suddenly, the once distant dream was in hand's reach.
As a result, when Ghost Ship Cross Tunneled to Mirage Abyss this time--
"Take a deep breath. It's gonna be fine." Kyle said as he continued to wipe the sweat off his forehead. The pulsing of his racing heart clearly reverberated in the rather silent room.
Varian rolled his eyes at the ironic scene.
Even if the spatial fluctuations get noticed, he was confident in returning to Mars safely.
And as he suspected, Mirage Queen had given already given orders to the level 9s and level 8s that were warring on the planetoids.
'Go back to Mirage Abyss! Keep the cities safe. That brat will surely try something funny.'
A few minutes before he met Kyle and Maya, Varian also got the intelligence from the military stating that a significant number of level 8 and level 9 abyssals were leaving planetoids.
While this was bad news for him, the human army sighed in relief. For them, the fewer Abyssals, the better.
The space around the ghost ship went from black to white in an instant and Varian took a deep breath.
"Maya, be prepared to use CTF in case of emergency."
The next moment, a sea of silver clouds came into view. Under them was a vast mountain range.
Varian's space sense scanned the vicinity of the ghost ship and confirmed that no spatial fluctuations were leaked out.
"Phew." Sighing in relief, Varian controlled the ghost ship and flew to a specific region.
The map of the region popped up, highlighting the most important cities.
"It is do or die."
The situation was direr than it seemed.
Unlike him and Sia who killed a few level 8s and weak level 9s, Mirage Queen killed some of the strongest level 9s on the planetoids.
But the real blow was her killing nearly fifty level 9s.
It might not sound much, but 70% of Mars' level 9s were gone. Now, only twenty-three level 9s were left in Mars' forces.
'With our force of thirty, we have to kill sixty level 9s. Fuck!'
Clenching his left hand, Varian swiped the map with his right and locked six cities.
Two of these cities were responsible for making processing herbs and creating potions. Two other cities were the hub of forging. The last two cities were training centers.
No sane ruler would keep a lot of important cities in one place. Even though they're in the hinterland, it's just too risky in case a war broke out.
But Abyssals were confident that humans wouldn't be able to invade them.
Of course, while Abyssals were confident, they weren't delusional. The security of the cities was still high as they had three level 9s each.
Varian shared the information with his Strike Teams and said.
"Unlike this city where we can find level 9s in bulk, the level 9s everywhere else is scattered. This is a chance we can't pass up. Do your best."
The six teams nodded at his words as they prepared themselves for the fight.
Varian named the team captains Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta. The members of the team were named Alpha 1, Alpha 2 and so on, based on their strengths.
The teams discussed among themselves and picked their targets.
Two minutes later, three members of the Alpha and Beta teams jumped off the spaceship and launched an attack on the medical cities that were adjacent to each other.
As a result, the three level 9s in each city came out and confronted them.
A large battle ensued.
After waiting a few seconds, Varian released Alpha 4 and Beta 4. They quickly entered the city and attacked the Castles.
To be precise, they attacked the altar and the formation surrounding it.
When he was Prince Ron, he 'teleported' from the initial Teran City to Demon Abyss Capital.
So, Varian instructed the teams to destroy the altars and the formation at any cost.
If the level 9s from other cities use the formation and teleport here, then their whole plan would fall apart!
Thankfully, except for the three defenders, there was no other level 9s in the city. So, Alpha 4 and Beta 4 slaughtered their way into the castle and destroyed the altar.
Then, they quickly joined the battle raging at the edge of the city and started suppressing the city defenders.
In the few minutes that followed, the same thing happened with Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta teams.
According to real-time reports, the battles were skewed in their favor as the Strike Teams were fighting four vs three.
But if he didn't take further action, then even with that advantage, the Teams would need a lot of time to kill their enemies.
By then, other level 9s would've entered this city and encircled them.
"Need to hurry up."
Varian steered the ghost ship and returned to the medical cities.
It had been only five minutes since the Alpha and Beta teams began fighting, but the outskirts of the city were completely destroyed.
Lava flowed in the north of the city while Ice spread to its south. The once fresh herbal valley to the east of the city was now smashed to bits. The beautiful forest was crushed to the ground.
At least a quarter of the city was destroyed, but unfortunately, the city defenders were able to pull away the Alpha and Beta teams to a remote location.
After all, despite being outnumbered, the abyssals had an advantage, even though it's not game-changing.
The Abyss Will was on their side!
So, even though they were fighting three against four, they were able to avoid getting any fatal injuries.
Varian watched them battle above a lush mountain range.
With every attack, a mountain crumbled. With every counterattack, the ground split.
Varian raised a brow as he noticed a detail and pointed to a location. "Boo."
"Leave it to Boo!" Boo patted its chest and sneaked the ghost ship to that exact place.
High in the sky, the battle of the fourteen level 9s colored the sky in a mix of colors.
Two of them, a human fire awakener and a telekinetic Abyssal exchanged blows before they headed towards the mountain peak that the ghost ship was waiting at.
At the same time, a human ice awakener pushed the fully armored psychic and the two of them also headed to the same mountain top.
Varian took a breath as he addressed Alpa 5 and Beta 5.
"Your one strike will decide success or failure!"
When the two Abyssals reached the mountain top and were about to attack the opposite human according to their secret plan, something unexpected happened.
"Die!"
Two fully charged attacks reached them in the blink of an eye.
