Madam Zheng and the Second were just left there in shock at what Zheng He had said to them. That mysterious lady was such a capable person that even Zheng He had to admit to such a thing? He had always been the condescending type, so saying this was no easy feat for him.
(MZ) "Her skills are far beyond what you and I are capable of, did the egotistical Zheng He really just say that? Unbelievable!" Madam Zheng said with a hint of fear lingering in her voice.
(H2) "Don't worry too much, dear. We'll think of something to counterattack what they have in store for us, we usually do." The Second said in a reassuring voice.
(MZ) "I'm still not convinced, could Zheng He have said all of this just to confuse us and make us overthink the situation?"
(H2) "I think that might be the case, it was like this as the others and I were defending the island. We were so busy overthinking that our enemies ended up leaving right under our noses and we had no clue."
(MZ) "Alright, we just have to go about whatever plan they have rationally and we will be alright."
(H2) "That's the powerful woman I know. Come on, what can they do to us that will be more effective than what they have been doing the past couple of days anyway? Both of us are down to only a quarter of the forces we started out with, I don't really think there is really any way for them to take us down with a few moves."
(MZ) "You are absolutely right. Thank you, I really needed that, even if I could already figure that out. Another thing that we have going for us is that we have a few of their best as hostages, they wouldn't dare to try anything funny. Unless they were willing to kill them as well."
(H2) "Let's go, our allies are waiting for us. We must not show fear to our enemies nor to those close to us. That would be bad."
The two of them left the little communication room that they were in and the Second returned to his ship. He had only come at the request of madam Zheng, and now that that was over, he had to once again lead his men. However, what was odd was that the Vesper fleets retreated back a few more kilometers. Everyone on the Forever Pirates side reckoned this was a good thing because this gave time for their men to rest, and wounded to heal. It didn't matter how long this would last as any amount of time was useful.
Zheng He and his fleet were now about 5 kilometers from Madam Zheng's fleets. However, they did not seem to be making any move and just waited there. This would go on for another day, but neither side made a move. The pirates were contemplating on whether or not they should pursue their foes. One of the things stopping them from doing so was the fact that they were supposed to be the ones who were defending. It didn't make much sense for them to go on the offensive. However, this was exactly what Madam Zheng decided on doing as she was growing suspicious of what Vesper was planning on doing.
Whenever her fleets advanced, Vesper retreated the same amount. When she stopped, so would the Vesper fleet. Eventually, she sent in Zheng Jing to use the rest of his ships to test Vesper's reactions as his ships were faster than most and Zheng He would not be able to maneuver his entire fleet faster than Zheng Jing could. The small detachment of Zheng Jing's ships was ordered to get close, but not close enough that they would be in jeopardy. So, he took his ships and used them at full speed to the location of Zheng He's fleets.
As expected, Zheng Jing's ships were far faster and he caught up with them in no time flat. This was where he decided that it was best to see whether or not he could try something new. First, he circled around the Vesper fleet so that the Vesper fleet would be between his own fleet and Madam Zheng's fleet and he chased them down. Just as he had hoped, the entire fleet was now moving towards the pirate queen's forces.
Suddenly, new Vesper forces appeared out of a small island to their east and most appeared to be carriers. All of them were spitting out airplanes and it seemed as if there was no end to them. Also at this time, the fleet was no longer running away from Zheng Jing but to him. It was a good thing that Madam Zheng's forces were already en route to this location, otherwise, Zheng Jing would have been finished pretty quickly.
In a matter of a few minutes, the two sides were at it again. Duking it out, but this time, Madam Zheng had to be careful of the enemies in the sky. Zheng Jing managed to escape and fire at the aircraft from a distance but his troops were not very accurate.
Coming out of the clouds in the sky, there were no longer just fighter aircraft now, there were bombers, and even a few Boeing's. Apparently, this was the cue that the forces in the water were waiting for as they reacted immediately to surround the Forever Pirates as best as they could. Faced with this wall of enemies now all around them, the pirates focused virtually all of their firepower at the ships instead of into the skies.
The planes came ever closer and once they did, they did a lot of damage to the ships. However, the real surprise was just to come, the Boeing B-20 Superfortress housed some of the biggest shock that this tournament would see in a long time. Even more than the Anonymous group that had shown up in the previous aerial tournament.