The attack was sudden but not outside expactation which was why the sky battle ships were not moving through the portal at a relaxed speed. The environment was the fragment but the fragment wasn't the environment, this being the case the fragment was aware of every corner of the moon and would more than likely know of their arrival in no time at all. It was only a question of whether its clone bodies could pop out anywhere at anytime.

  As such the only damage sustained was the destruction of the battle ships moving through the portal at the time, combined with a loss of men power from the few battle ships that hadn't even gone through the portal and were still waiting on the other side thus were not going to be part of the subjugation.

  "Let's just hope I'm right."

  Said Hiro as he emerged from the tear in space before he slashed.

  Rumble.

  Before the slash arrived an arm erupted from the ground then moved between the dragon head and slash. This was a space slash, faced with the blocking giant hand it sliced through with no resistance but seeing this the dragon head did not remain still. The ground thundered as it moved and the rest of the body began rising to the surface.

  Thud.

  Hiro stuck his landing as he gazed at it, it a considerable distance away. He was about to give chase and continue his attacks when he was signalled to retreat. He looked at it once more before slashing at space, another space tear was made that sent him farther from his current location than he could travel in the same time span.

  "It will explode soon continue to retreat, scatter if you have to."

  He heard from one of the commanding battle ships, the battle ships did as commanded moving away with their maximum speed. Not long after a terrifying explosion occurred caused by the disturbed energy used to fuel the portal. The ground shook, Hiro who was on it could feel its full force while the battle ships had to be wary of the flying debris of numerous rocks with varying sizes. The explosion wasn't fiery but instead had a strong repelling force, uprooting everything in its vicinity and pushed it away.

  A dust cloud had risen, obscuring most of the wreckage but as it cleared a deep crater could be seen, and in it the fragment's dragon clone body, knee deep relative to itself. It stood as tall as a mountain, three limbs firmly planted onto the ground at the bottom of the crater. Even with one limb missing it had no problem balancing its ridiculous size, it could even stand up relying only on its hind legs if it wanted to. After the explosion the remainder of its body that was still in the ground was exposed, it had countless cracks across its earth body, mostly concentrated on the front. Sustained from the explosion judging by the cracks now on the head, Hiro evaluated.

  (A chance.)

  He thought as he traveled through a space tear again, arriving before it in an instant. He unleashed a flurry of slashes while moving around it.

  (Where is it?)

  He continued to ponder as he assessed the clone's life force and how it was connected to the moon's life force as a whole. If there was and he could cut it then the clone's strength wouldn't remain the same as the original, falling to a degree that it was not far from how strong it appeared.

  Meanwhile on one side of the battlefield field the battle ships had formed a defense formation, within all the rune finders were getting started with their work.

  "Work fast, trace the moon's life force back to the core."

  Instructed the Rune King, even though he did not participate in the contest from the day before as the only king and rune master his commander role was guaranteed.

  (Fortunately more battle ships made it through than we expected. And rune masters were given priority for entering so they are all here. But is this enough, he said it could make a considerable number of bodies.)

  He thought anxious, but as a commanding officer he did not let show instead his expression was stern while he looked at Hiro's direction. The fight was intense he could see but he knew Hiro was holding back unlike the first strike. It was still not clear if the fragment could actually control several bodies with ease, so it was not wise to finish off a body that had such a degree of damage, it would only be giving it room for thought for a body in a much better condition.

  (It was not a terrible start but for how long can it last?)

  As he wondered so another thundering quake could be heard followed with a roar.

  "As expected of ants. It may be sooner than I anticipated but according to expactation nonetheless, one ant catching a whiff and a swarm of ants follows after."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  It said in booming voice, it had appeared before the battle ships.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  The command had been given long ago, the second clone body was bombarded by the outer ships. It also didn't stand on ceremony, seeing the barrage of attacks it immediately raining down lava. With its large body it actually towered over the battle ships, granted they weren't at maximum height, floating a modest height above ground. And they would not rise any higher for the moment due to the rune finders needing to be as close to the ground as possible to deduce the core's location through the moon's life force fluctuations while not putting themselves at risk.

  Swoosh! Splash!

  "Endure!"

  Jura roared as the ships shook when the lava hit their protective rune barriers. Some of the less experienced lost their balance causing slight delays their counterattacks. But with the help of one rune master the situation stabilised.

  (It either takes time for it to make clone bodies or it just can't control that many and is refraining from making more than one unless necessary.)

  Oldomus formed conjectures, regardless of which was true he felt bitter internally. The moment of his revenge for being deprived of a beautiful world had come, but he was too weak to strike personally, even against just a clone body. Only by staying within the battle ships' defense could he contribute as a rune finder without throwing his life away.

  "Sir Oldomus, there's a prolonged disturbance on my side. If it is you evaluating it perhaps you could find the core much faster."

  Said someone sitting beside him, another rune finder working on deducing the core's location. Oldomus nodded then switched places with him, it did not take long before he made some significant progress as he continued to analyse the unceasing fluctuations of life force to the far east.

  "This..."

  He exclaimed while standing up, beads of cold sweat dripping down his forehead, his eyes were wide open while the pupils had shrank. His calm persona was broken alarming everyone around him and soon they learned of the cause.

  "Your majesty, towards the east."

  The Rune King did not question and looked in the direction, from the horizon it looked like a sand storm was coming but it was merely dragon clone bodies charging to their location. Some were flying while others ran on the ground on all fours.

  The King's heart sank and he could feel his composure slipping, they were already struggling against this one if just one more joined it would not bode well for them. A slow demise, that is what they would face even with just one more clone body to defend against. And even if Hiro could fight off more than one, what they were faced with was tens if not a little over a hundred clone bodies, Hiro would definitely not be enough if they had no issue of thought.

  (Considering this clone body isn't showing any less cognition than before, then it can command all these bodies without its thought capacity diminishing.)

  Bang! Bang!

  It struck the barriers with its body, causing loud sounds to echo within. It was unsettling like the barrier would break at any time but right now to some it served as wake up call. Including the King whose attention was also drawn. They still had to deal with this one, there was no point in stressing about those that hadn't arrived.

  "Continue to search for the core."

  The king finally said noticing the drop in morale and slowed activity.

  (So many, were they ready made for our arrival? If so then it's likely that making bodies really is time consuming if not why not abandon those and make more here.)

  Indeed, these additional clone bodies were the remainders from the time Hiro was on the moon. They had been moved away to various parts of the moon to guard against intruders, but to think they would actually use the front door even on the second attack.

  (Took some time but I have finally found the connecting life force vein.)

  Hiro thought seeing some hope for their situation. Even though it took some time after he confirmed there was a connecting life force vein between the moon and clone body, he had now found it. Unlike rune practitioners the moon's life force and the dragon clone's life force was of the same source thus the same, it was no different from looking for a line drawn in black on a similarly black canvas.

  Slash! Slash!

  He released several ranged slashes, the dragon moved aside before they could arrive. But there was no issue, they were just a distraction while he made a space tear traveling right above its head, where the life force vein was most exposed. He severed it clean off.

  "No..."

  It roared before Hiro finished it off after seeing a clear decrease in power.

  Rumble rumble!

  The massive body collapsed on the ground after losing its head, it was cut by a space slash thus it could not mend itself despite the life force being present within the body.

  "Hmm?"

  Hiro was about to regroup with the others and relieve their crisis when he noticed that despite the life force vein being severed the life force could return back to the moon with no difficulty. But this was an insignificant matter, in the current situation more clone bodies would be brought down than made. Hiro was confident of this, he had taken note of the time it took for the second body to be made and join the battle.

  After he had confirmed this he did not linger, appearing right above the second clone body's head. It wasn't fighting him thus wasn't even aware of his actions until he landed on it. He did the same as before, severing the life force vein but instead of crippling it further he left this part of the battlefield after sharing his information.

  "Hahaha."

  Jura laughed jumping off the ship and outside the barrier, his axe grew while he chopped at the dragon hand that came to obstruct him.

  Bam!

  The battle axe and dragon hand collided, and contrary to their size the hand was pushed back as small cracks spread around the impact area.

  One after another rune masters were getting off their respective battle ships to join Jura while awaiting the arrival of the other clone bodies. Their moods had improved greatly, seeing Jura put up such a fight their morale also surged into an all time high.

  The clones could be weakened now, enough for rune masters to fight head on but still far too much for rune experts.

  (Sir Hiro has come through for us yet again.)

  Thought Oldomus feeling gratified, if they made a break through here as well not only would they be much closer to victory but he would also gain an opportunity to fight.