The Legendary Mechanic, page 459
“Piss of! Refund!”
Han Xiao saw this small incident on the forums. A player made a post to show off that he got the first kill of the traitor. He felt this was something worth praising, so he sent extra experience and Enas through the faction interface.
The analysis post of Summer Night Flower became popular again. Many were mocking him and laughing at it. Summer Night Flower said that him getting killed was nothing; it was just a usual faction conflict, and the storyline in the future would prove that he was right. He was clearly very stubborn.
After killing some time, a day later, Rexson gathered the troops and attacked Stronghold W-58.
With Han Xiao’s current experience, he had seen many small galactic skirmishes fought around a single stronghold. He did not even need to observe the battlefield to know what would happen.
The fleets fought intensely. Han Xiao was observing from the flagship and did not participate, nor did he let Hila and Feidin participate. Seeing that there were countless deaths on both sides, only then did he turn to look at Hila.
“Try the effect of absorbing souls of the dead on the battlefield.”
Hila nodded. A tint of red light flashed across her eyes. Then, black red energy covered her entire body. It was like she suddenly grew more than twenty centimeters taller and gave off a vibe of an ancient God-merciless, enormous, and solemn.
In the wide galactic battlefield, gray fog appeared in the countless spaceship wreckages floating in space. They formed countless gray snakes and gathered into Hila’s hand through thousands of miles.
The remaining energy of all the warriors that died on the battlefield was absorbed by her.
Hila exhaled deeply, clenched her fists, and said, “Both the strength and range of my Esper ability are enhanced. That saved me at least half a year’s time.”
“Great, it works.” Han Xiao was delighted. This was good news. The quicker Hila became stronger, the earlier she would be able to fight in his place. He would be able to let Hila help him get rid of those unimportant enemies.
He decided to call the quick growth method exclusive to Hila ‘Gray Soul Absorption’. It was almost like a cheat.
At this time, a strange energy suddenly exploded in the middle of the battlefield. From the fleet of the Stronghold W-58, three Calamity Grades flew out. The interference of high-level combatants quickly toppled the balance of the battlefield and became something that Rexson’s troops could not deal with. Originally, they were only slightly at a disadvantage, but they were now constantly forced to retreat.
Inside the flagship, the deputy exclaimed with shock, “Why are there three Calamity Grades? The intelligence says that there’s only Manudo!”
However, not only did Rexson not panic, he even smiled instead.
“It doesn’t matter if there’s three of them. With Black Star here, even if it were thirty…” Rexson paused. Although he was extremely confident in Han Xiao, he still did not dare exaggerate too much. He coughed and then said, “Even if there were 13 of them, His Excellency Black Star would still kill them all.”
At this time, the scenery viewing window of the flagship zoomed in and focused on Manudo.
In the window, Manudo did a provocative sign toward the flagship, and the flagship received a video message from Manudo. His pale face appeared on the screen. His forehead was covered in sweat, and he had a very twisted mocking expression on his face.
“Black Star! I know you’re in there. Don’t hide. I’m not afraid of you. Us three Grade A Supers are challenging you right here. Do you dare accept it? Hahaha!”
In the end, Manudo laughed stiffly as sweat rolled down his face. The skin on his face was even shivering as if he was about to cry, and he was barely keeping up the ferocious expression.
The people in the flagship command room had strange expressions on their faces.
The enemy is taunting us, but why does it feel so unconfident?
Han Xiao held his forehead. Taunting with such bad acting skills, are you serious?
Rexson turned to Han Xiao and respectfully said, “Your Excellency Black Star, we can’t deal with Calamity Grades. Please help.”
In his eyes, if Han Xiao attacked, killing three normal Calamity Grade Supers would be a piece of cake.
However, Han Xiao shook his head and patted Hila’s thin waist. “These three people are yours.”
Despite having to face three opponents of the same grade, Hila did not look troubled at all. She turned and prepared to strike immediately. She was someone not afraid of obstacles and was happy to conquer them. Since Han Xiao could fight multiple opponents of the same grade, Hila took this as her target as well. She had very high requirements for herself.
Furthermore, she also wanted to fight strong enemies and test her limits so that she could gain a clearer idea of where she stood in the Calamity Grade.
Manudo and the other two attacked the battleships while waiting for Han Xiao to appear. To Manudo, every second was torture. It was as if he had stepped into the execution ground and was waiting for the blade to land on his head. If not for Jorde’s orders, he would have run away immediately.
Jorde was also observing the battlefield remotely, waiting for Han Xiao to appear.
This time, a dark red meteor appeared in the eyes of those people at an extremely high speed. It headed right toward the three of them. A Grade A Cannon Master beside Manudo fired from far away. High energy particle beams landed on the dark red meteor one after another, slowly reducing its speed.
However, the next moment, this dark red meteor suddenly erupted and released thousands of red energy beams that almost covered half of the entire battlefield. These energies were extremely thick, like thousands of enormous pythons. They spun their head and crashed into the Bloodshed Land fleet.
Manudo and the other two people were also hit by dozens of almost solid red energy beams. Other than having the usual heat and explosive damage, Hila’s energy beams also gave the three of them psychic damages. They hastily backed away with shock.
“This energy is very strange.”
“This energy beam tried to absorb my spiritual body away like tentacles with suction cups.”
As the tsunami-like red energy release ended, Hila appeared. The black-red armor on her body was focused on mobility and enhancing energy release. She did not wear a helmet, but her head was covered by a half-transparent energy layer, providing life functions and a wide vision.
Manudo was shocked. He had expected Black Star to attack, but who was this woman?
“Is there such a person in the Black Star Army?”
“It doesn’t show on the intelligence. Could she be a new officer?”
“She’s very strong. I feel a sense of threat from her.”
The three of them spoke in their communication channel. They all felt the pressure.
Jorde, who was remotely spectating, was also confused. He carefully sized Hila up and was sure that he had never seen this person before, yet Black Star had sent her to fight three Calamity Grades alone. Was this because he believed in her strength?
“The Black Star Army sure has a lot of talents.”
Jorde clenched his teeth. Seeing that Black Star was not going to fight, he had no choice but to tell Manudo and the others to fight with Hila and see how strong Hila was.
At the same time, the others on the battlefield also noticed the confrontation between the high-level combatants.
The Black Star Army players saw Hila’s look and were shocked.
“Aye, this beauty looks kind of familiar.”
“I remember, isn’t this Hila who appeared in both 1.0 and 2.0?”
“That’s right. It’s her. I thought she’d died by Version 3.0, but it turns out she’s still alive and much stronger.”
“She appeared in the mid to later stages in Version 2.0. When did she join our army?”
“If I remember correctly, when Black Star went deep into the Germinal Organization’s base in Version 1.0, it was to rescue her. Could she be the captain’s old lover?”
“Oh…”
Many players let out meaningful grunts before quietly activating the video recording function.
Chapter 734. Mislead |
On the battlefield, Hila released dark red energy and fought with the three enemy Calamity Grades at the same time. Hila felt the pressure immediately. She clenched her teeth and tried to hang on, barely standing her ground using the uniqueness of her Esper ability.
Han Xiao observed for a while and figured out Hila’s actual combat capability.
These three enemies are normal Calamity Grades around level 180. With Hila current strength, she’s in the upper-middle ranking among Calamity Grades. She still lacks experience in fighting with Calamity Grades, but due to her unique Esper ability, she can deal with two such enemies at most. Three is too much.
Although Hila had sufficient strength to be part of the battles that he was in, she was still some distance away from becoming the capable assistant that he wanted.
However, with her growth rate, she would be able to overcome that distance very quickly.
As he was pondering, the situation started to gradually worsen for Hila.
Han Xiao was not worried about Hila’s safety. Not only did Hila have the Molding Talent that would lock her health, Aurora was around as well. It would be difficult for her to die even if she wanted to.
At the same time, a small incident was happening on the battlefield that Han Xiao was unaware of.
A small Bloodshed Land assault ship was fleeing in the battlefield, chased by dozens of Black Star Army battleships.
“Quickly run, they’re coming again!”
Its shield endured attacks continuously. The spaceship was trembling as the piercing red alarm echoed within. On the spaceship, Summer Night Flower and the others were covered in sweat, panicking.
They were being chased by a large group of Black Star Army players. Phillip had sent their coordinates to all the army members on the battlefield.
Quite a number of players taking part had seen it and thought, Nice, bonuses!
Thus, Summer Night Flower and the others’ nightmare began. No matter how they changed their location, it was always shown on the radar of the army players.
Originally, fighting with opposing faction players was very common. However, in this skirmish, the number of players on the Black Star Army’s side was more than a hundred times the number of players on Summer Night Flower’s side. Hence, it became one-sided, and Summer Night Flower’s group was chased by the other players.
Summer Night Flower’s mood was extremely bad. He regretted going to Stronghold W-58. He should have requested to be deployed to other strongholds that did not have to face the Black Star Army!
The Black Star Army was full of bad people that were just merciless. He was afraid.
As a player of the opposing faction, he decided to avoid the Black Star Army in the future. Even if that meant that he had to play alone in a remote stronghold, the game experience would be better than being chased by enemies all the time.
As Summer Night Flower was in a meltdown while being chased by the army players, the battle between Hila and three enemy Calamity Grades reached its climax.
The few of them kept shifting the battlefield, moving across the various areas where the fleets were fighting. With continuous explosions, people died nonstop, and gray souls entered Hila and recovered her energy.
So, this is my current limit.
While fighting, thoughts flashed through Hila’s mind.
This was the first time that she had fought in a true battle with a Calamity Grade. She quickly gained combat experience and a clearer understanding of her own combat capability.
Ames and Han Xiao who had trained her all along were much stronger than her, so she could not really measure her strength. Now that she was fighting with normal Calamity Grades, although she had the lower hand, she felt amazing. She could now finally fully utilize her strength in a battle where she was not completely thrashed.
Hila thought that she seemed quite strong, but she was not satisfied with that.
I can barely deal with three enemies… but Han Xiao can fight ten at once. There’s still a huge difference… Hila clenched her teeth.
She saw Han Xiao as the goal to chase after. Now that she felt the pressure of fighting three enemies at the same time, she had a deeper understanding of Han Xiao’s combat capability.
If he was in my place, the battle would have already ended.
Feeling the difference between the two of them, Hila clenched her teeth and increased the output of her energy.
On the other side, Manudo was communicating with his comrades.
“This woman’s ability is very strange. It gives me a Necromancer feeling, but it’s not really the same.”
“Her energy can cause both physical and psychic damage. After getting hit, even the vitality of my cells was suppressed, and the efficiency of cells creating energy decreased. It’s as if… as if my life force is suppressed.”
“What do you think, Staff Sergeant Jorde?” Manudo asked.
Jorde, who was watching remotely, nodded slowly and said with a serious tone, “I have already saved the video of her battle into the database. Although her ability is strong, it’s not the focus this time. Black Star is the target that you’re supposed to test.”
“But he’s not joining the battle. Does that mean we can retreat?” Manudo asked hastily. He did not want to stay even one second longer near Black Star.
“Maybe it’s because he’s training his subordinates or because of something else,” Jorde said with a deep voice. “Attack harder. As long as this woman’s life is in danger, Black Star will definitely do something.”
Aren’t you just hurrying us to die?
Manudo felt miserable.
The few of them fought intensely for a while. Eventually, Hila showed a flaw under the aggressive attacks from three enemies. Manudo’s Cannon Master teammate caught the opportunity. He shot a particle cannon beam that was enhanced with many burst damage abilities right at Hila’s hasty defense attempt. It shattered her armor and blasted her away.
“Er…”
Hila stopped herself from rolling in the universe. Her body was covered with black wounds and dead cells. The area around her left shoulder and half of her neck was gone, an injury a normal person would have immediately died from and was considered heavy even for Calamity Grades.
Manudo and his two teammates were just about to chase when Manudo suddenly felt alarmed and slowed down behind the other two.
Hila took a deep breath. Suddenly, thick light shot out from her eyes. Her wounds started to heal as her cells multiplied at an extremely high speed.
The flesh on her neck and her left shoulder grew back in an instant, showing her white skin under the broken armor. Energy was flowing through her entire body, and she was almost back at peak performance.
In the flagship, Aurora’s eyes were shining as well. After Hila recovered, only then did the light in Aurora’s eyes slowly disappear. She quickly gasped for air as if she had just spent quite a lot of energy.
Hila and Aurora’s Esper abilities had a special connection. Through their blood relation, Aurora created a life force link between the two of them. If Hila was too heavily injured, Aurora would send her life force and heal her remotely.
As long as Aurora still had stamina, Hila would be able to recover at a terrifying speed. Its effect was similar to Han Xiao’s Aurora Character Summon Card.
Hila fought the battles, and Aurora healed her. The number of times that she could heal depended on her stamina. It was only slightly less powerful than Han Xiao’s health-stamina cycle. When the two sisters fought together, they were almost undefeatable.
Jorde was stunned, and his expression changed slightly—this reminded him of Black Star.
Black Star had this kind of horrifying recovery ability as well!
Could it be that this redhead woman had a special relationship with Black Star?
Could she be his… daughter?
Initially, Jorde did not take Hila too seriously, but he suddenly felt that he needed to do thorough research on her.
Manudo and the others stood in place and were stunned as well.
Hila felt the overflowing energy in her body, but instead of being happy, she was filled with discontent.
She had been keeping Aurora away from harm, but because of her mistake, Aurora had to use her life force to heal her. She felt that this was her fault… Although Aurora could gain that life force back very quickly, because of what had happened back in the Germinal Organization, this was still a taboo for Hila.
Just as Hila was about to attack in rage, a large hand suddenly pressed on her shoulder. She turned around. It was Han Xiao.
“That’s enough. There’s no training value if you carry on. It will just be a battle to see who’s stamina depletes first.”
Han Xiao softly pressed on Hila’s smooth, soft cheeks. Nanoparticles extended from the tip of his finger and formed a helmet, replacing Hila’s broken helmet and allowing her to speak in the communication channel.
Hila clenched her teeth and said, “Understood.”
“Leave this to me.”
Han Xiao turned around and looked at the three nervous Calamity Grades.
Manudo was panicking. Black Star finally was going to attack.
This time, Han Xiao suddenly thought of something
The enemies clearly knew of his capabilities, yet they made such a bad attempt at provoking him, so their goal should be to lure him into battle. Of course, this was definitely not because they were kind and sending him free kills.
After thinking for a short moment and recalling Manudo’s nervous expression when provoking him, it then occurred to Han Xiao. Jorde was definitely behind this. That little weasel had used Psyker’s psychic weapon on him two months ago, but he had gone to the Palace of Hidden Spells, so he did not take part in any battles for one and a half months. This had made Jorde anxious, so he was using this to test his current state.
Having realized that, Han Xiao had an idea and did not immediately attack. Instead, he connected to Manudo’s communication channel and slowly said, “Are you sure you want to fight me? I don’t know if this is your own decision or someone ordered you to do so, but think about it carefully. People are going to die from this.”
