The exclamation of the Eastern Roman admiral Thalassa startled Marshal Mendez as well. He felt bad in his heart, and immediately turned his head to look out. Through the gloomy mist of the sea, countless black spots were rising from the deck of the Illyrian fleet in the distance.

Mendez was also puzzled, but in any case, he didn't have to think about it to know that it would definitely be bad for his own combined fleet! In the face of the extremely unfavorable situation and the tremendous pressure, the marshal only felt cold in his hands, and could only desperately think of countermeasures.

These black dots that rose from the Illyrian fleet were actually the Partanon puppet legions that came with the army. These puppet units have been moored on the decks of warships since they set out from Delos, and there are hundreds of them. When the main force of the Eastern Roman fleet arrived at the exit of the strait, the warriors of the Mermaid Kingdom, who were lurking in the sea and were in charge of monitoring, soon discovered the situation, and they immediately informed Prince Prian. When Ellens heard the news, he realized that now was the right time, so he immediately led the puppet army to attack and pounced on the main force of the Eastern Roman fleet trapped in the strait.

War Puppets are a new type of magic weapon in recent years, which is still not accepted by most countries and generals due to its relatively high cost and complex control. Around the Balkan continent, only a few countries, such as the Holy Rome, the Eastern Romans, and the Olympian League, had the ability to produce this magic machine, and only the city of Athens had integrated it into a separate legion to join the battle, and the rest of the countries were only used as auxiliary armies to fight.

But in fact, the puppet has proven its worth on the battlefield in many wars. Especially flying puppets with multiple uses. In terms of seizing air supremacy, it is extremely effective in terms of tactics. Although this new individual weapon is far less powerful than the floating ships that also fight in the sky, it is superior to the ability to fly at ultra-low altitudes and move very flexibly. Even in difficult terrain and weather, it is still easy to fight.

At this time, over the Strait of Salamis, hundreds of puppets, led by Elrens, broke through the fog and swooped down on the head of the main force of the Eastern Roman fleet. The mournful and dense whistling sound continued to be heard, and the Eastern Roman warriors standing on the deck were simply stunned by the sight. Most of them had never seen such a steel monster flying in the sky, let alone so many of them at once!

The Partenon Puppet Legion was scattered under Elrens' orders, and they formed hundreds of squads, flying and circling like wild bees. On one side, it was surrounded by warships and bombarded indiscriminately. Many of the Eastern Roman sailors who were still standing on the deck in a daze were suddenly hit by the dense artillery fire, and their heads were broken and bleeding and they suffered heavy casualties, and the sailors who were lucky enough to escape the catastrophe had to find all kinds of cover and hide. And those fighters, who were wounded and unable to move, had to lie on the deck and cry out miserably for help

Seeing the tragic scene in front of him, Marshal Mendes couldn't help but be furious!

In the short ten minutes that the enemy's air force composed of dragons and puppet legions attacked, several warships had already been damaged and destroyed. The marshal immediately realized that if he continued like this, he would soon be completely annihilated without waiting for the fleet to break through!

"Bastard!!"

Marshal Mendes shouted angrily: "Organize a counterattack immediately." Shoot with all your might to stop the enemy from approaching!Give me contact Narciss!Let his floating fleet under his command strike at once. Chase away these abominable puppets and cover our breakthrough!"

The liaison soldier immediately took the order, Mendez gritted his teeth with a pale face, ten fingers clenched the command platform in front of him, and his eyes were red as he stared at the fierce battle outside.

For this sortie, Emperor Justinian's original plan was to combine naval and air operations in order to concentrate all his efforts on annihilating the enemy's naval fleet to the greatest extent possible. However, the fog at sea made it impossible for the floating fleet to function, and it had to abandon the plan for joint operations. The base camp, including the emperor and several marshals, did not pay much attention to this. Because they all think that since their own air force cannot attack, then the enemy's air force will naturally do the same. But with the sea power of both sides. The Eastern Romans still had an absolute superiority enough to destroy the enemy.

But now the situation was completely unexpected, not only did they fall into an ambush and were trapped in the strait and could not move, but the enemy also dispatched a puppet army that could fight at low altitudes and was not afraid of fog, so that the Eastern Roman fleet could only be beaten passively. Even if Narcissus really dispatched a floating fleet, it would be difficult to play a role in such a weather environment, what should he do to break through the encirclement safely?

While Mendes was thinking hard about what to do, the other side of the battlefield was now decided.

The Holy Roman Naval Fleet, which was originally the vanguard, was transformed into a broken rear force after Mendez discovered that it was surrounded. In order to allow the main fleet of the Eastern Romans to escape, the marshal also ordered Archaius to command the Holy Roman fleet to take the initiative to attack the enemy forces, in order to disrupt the enemy's arrangement and buy more time to retreat. Unfortunately, things often went not as expected, and the main force of the Eastern Roman fleet was blocked at the exit and could not retreat along the way, while the Holy Roman fleet, which was ordered to take the initiative to attack, was quickly defeated.

Although Archaius ordered his ships to launch a suicidal charge against the main force of the enemy fleet, the Admirals of the Holy Rome were unwilling to die for the Eastern Romans. They disobeyed each other, but on the surface they charged, but in fact they stopped and even waited for an opportunity to escape.

On the other side, Field Marshal Ptolemy, who commanded the southern naval fleet of the Olympian Alliance, saw this situation and immediately judged that the enemy had sensed that it was surrounded, and the main forces began to retreat. Ptolemy immediately made a decision and led the Southern Fleet to launch an onslaught. The Holy Roman fleet, with its small number of warships and different intentions, was simply unable to resist it, and was defeated in the blink of an eye.

Next, Ptolemy personally commanded the flagship Poseidon to rush to the forefront, and the morale of the warships was greatly boosted and they charged bravely. The Holy Roman fleet was even more crushed, and many warships were sunk in a short period of time, and the rest had no fighting spirit, either raising the white flag and surrendering, or fleeing in panic towards the other end of the strait. Taking advantage of the victory, the Southern Naval Fleet continued to charge forward without stopping, and soon rushed to the rear of the main fleet of the Eastern Romans

(To be continued......)