As James suspected, the withdrawn fleets went directly to attack Dora and Rigo combined forces. In fact they weren't that effective, yet they told the enemy what he needed to know.

James was just the decoy, while the other two were the real deal. This realization made the enemy fleet do a full withdrawal after the small war of their retreat fleet.

"Emperor, they are retreating on all fronts," the droid said, and James was smiling widely. "Relay the news to the others, and make everyone start to chase."

James was waiting for this moment for days, and once the enemy fleets withdrew, he started to relentlessly chase them.

However just as he was heading fast after them, a weird report came in all of sudden.

"Emperor, they stopped."

James instantly glanced over the hologram where he saw the general arrangements of the hostile forces along with his fleets here and at the capital.

"They aren't that close to the capital to stop and regroup," he muttered before suddenly a thought came to his mind. "Take us off the course now."

"Here?" the droid seemed alarmed, "we are still way too far from them."

"Just do it," James was suddenly anxious before adding when the fleet stopped traveling, "spread out scouts, we need to take a full scan of the area."

"Our sensors aren't getting anything," the droid argued as he relayed the orders to avoid the wrath of James.

"Your sensors are wrong," James sighed, "we are already trapped."

"Trapped?!" the droid was doubting what James said.

"Relay the news to Rigo and Dora, the fleet defending the capital is away and it's now trying to crush us with the other fleet."

The words of James were strange, yet the droid relayed them nonetheless.

"They are asking for instructions," the droid said without adding a single word of his own opinion.

In his opinion, these were just speculations and fairy tales of his leader and emperor.

"Tick… tick… tick…" James was tapping on the arms of his seat while thinking about the best course of action. For him, the capital must have a secret weapon hidden somewhere, making the enemy confident about leaving the capital unsecured like this.

"Or they might be bluffing," he thought of this possibility, yet he couldn't risk everything over this simple hypothesis.

"Tell them to send part of the fleets towards the capital and test their defenses," he said before adding, "and the rest of the fleet will move on my mark."

"To where?" the droid asked.

"To here," James smiled, "if they wanted to make this the last place for me, then I shall flip the tables and make this their grave."

"Do you know what this is all about?" Dora asked Rigo in direct call while Rigo sighed.

"I really have no clue," Rigo said before adding, "my men there said there is no clue about what the leader suspected."

"James can't take the risk of calling such a decision without concrete evidence," Dora defended her man.

"I know," Rigo nodded, "he sent scouts to scan the area, and soon we will know everything."

"So?" Dora asked, referring to the words James she and Rigo received a couple of minutes ago.

"We can't leave things to chance," Rigo muttered, "at least testing the current defenses of the capital is something crucial to our war. We'll proceed with this first step while waiting for the scout reports to come."

"Agreed," Dora nodded before closing the call and started preparing the invasive forces of her side. Rigo also did the same, and before an hour passed a strong attacking fleet was formed of the two forces combined, and headed directly towards the capital nearby.

The first reports coming from the scouts were shocking. A grand fleet was drawing near their place, and some scouts sent to the rear never heard from again.

"Emperor," the droid said while feeling regret, "the scouts have returned. All the reports are forwarded to your personal screen."

"Thanks," James started examining the reports. The more he read, the more he felt gloomy. "They are here as I feared," he sighed before adding, "give the orders to Rigo and Dora to come to our aid."

"I've already forwarded a copy of the reports to both," the droid said.

"Good," James nodded, "send out the word, we'll break through."

"From the rear or the side?" the droid asked.

"No," James grinned before adding, "we'll come from the place they least expect."

For any trapped monster, the first direction to run to was the direction it came from, then the sides.

Yet James didn't select any of these. He knew his enemy wasn't that easy, and such thoughts were surely calculated by his enemy, and his way to the rear or the sides was blocked entirely.

If he went there, he would be risking more damage and might even fall per his enemy's plan.

So, he decided to go full force to the front, attacking the fleet he was fighting before.

"We are now engaging the enemy," the droid said before adding, "more reports came, and they are all indicating the rapid movement of all fleets to crush us from behind and sides."

James was in a dire situation, yet he wasn't panicking. As long as he wasn't playing in his enemy's game he had a chance of winning. "What about Rigo and Dora?" he asked.

"Couple of hours and their vanguard fleet would appear."

"Good," James nodded, "keep pushing hard forward, don't keep anything to defend the rear or sides."

"But…"

"The only way to survive is through breaking that strong line ahead of us. Other than this, we'll lose everything here."

"We'll lose many of our fleet this way," the droid said while turning to relay orders.

"Losing some and winning the war is worth the risk," James said back before muttering, "this is war, not a walk in the garden of my palace. I need to be prepared to lose even more to win."

The droid heard him yet he didn't open his mouth. He knew despite how cruel this might seem, this was the true dark nature of any war.

"Good you know how life is," the droid muttered to himself while relaying James' orders to the entire fleet and Dora and Rigo's fleets as well.