The Black Hellion mecha charged forward alone, wielding its tentacle staff.
Ye Ying reacted instantly, saying softly, "Qiao Weiwei, cover!" Then, the Nightingale mecha flanked to the left, engaging the enemy.
The Unbound Red unfurled its limbs, and a multitude of red warheads emerged from its body, streaking towards the enemy with thick white smoke.
Just as the Black Hellion made contact with the enemy, the missile barrage arrived. Continuous explosions lit up around the Black Hellion.
The irregular shockwaves failed to budge the Black Hellion. It swung its staff in a furious arc, smashing into the enemy mecha’s hull. Several black mechanical tentacles detached from the staff and crawled towards the enemy mecha’s body.
The Nightingale emerged from the billowing black smoke and explosive fire, its sharp twin swords striking the enemy mecha rapidly and without reservation.
A black enemy mecha lagged slightly behind, escaping the explosion radius and flying towards the Unbound Red.
“A straggler, a ridiculous bug, hee hee hee ha ha ha!” Qiao Weiwei’s arrogant laughter now sounded unrestrained and terrifying.
The Unbound Red unleashed its ultimate skill, "Crimson Blaze Phoenix," surging forward like a mountain range engulfed in wildfire. It retracted its limbs, tightly embracing the enemy mecha that had flown into its trap.
“Ultimate Skill, [Crimson Coffin]!”
With a deafening roar, the enemy mecha melted into a pool of orange-red molten metal in the Unbound Red’s fiery embrace.
Hundreds of black wreckage pieces from the enemy mecha rained down from the black smoke, impacting the ground. Each piece had an incredibly neat cut, as if sliced instantly by an extremely fine and sharp blade.
This was the Nightingale mecha’s masterpiece. By altering the subtle vibration frequency of the arm controlling the beam sword, the beam sword became an even deadlier offensive weapon.
This was a new skill Ye Ying had learned from the ultimate skill “Offensive Synchronization.” Offensive Synchronization was not just a defensive mecha maneuver; it could also be transformed into a potent tool for cleaving through heavy armor.
As the black smoke dissipated, only the Nightingale, the Black Hellion, and the enemy mecha bristling with spikes remained in the sky where the explosions had occurred.
The Nightingale mecha shook off the enemy wreckage that had melted and stuck to its beam sword, poised to strike again.
The Black Hellion and the Myriad Venom Spikes were still locked in combat.
Utilizing its spiky exterior to its advantage, the Myriad Venom Spikes contracted its body and charged at the Black Hellion like a hedgehog ball. After its advance was blocked by the tentacle staff, two long spikes on its shoulders suddenly extended and shot towards the Black Hellion.
Ye Ying noticed that the bodies of the spikes were embedded beneath the armor. When attacking, internal mechanical mechanisms drove the spikes outward.
The metal tentacles, detached from the Black Hellion’s tentacle staff, tightly wrapped around the incoming spikes. However, with a sharp twist, a spike snapped a tentacle with a "crackling" sound. Immediately, more tentacles rapidly crawled over to entangle the spikes.
But then, more spikes were shot out from the enemy mecha.
The Black Hellion’s metal tentacles seemed to possess sentience, crawling towards wherever spikes were fired.
In less than thirty seconds, the Black Hellion’s tentacle staff was gone. The Myriad Venom Spikes was covered head to toe in hundreds of black tentacles, appearing as if it was crawling with black venomous snakes, making Ye Ying and Qiao Weiwei’s scalps tingle.
“Alright, it’s over.” Shen Jingming forcefully pushed off the enemy mecha with his legs, creating distance.
As soon as the two sides separated by more than ten meters, hundreds of black tentacles immediately burrowed into the enemy mecha’s armor seams. A grating, skin-crawling sound of metal friction and collision emanated from within the enemy mecha. After a series of “creaking and pinging” sounds, the enemy mecha suddenly froze and plunged headfirst towards the ground.
“What a bizarre combat method!” Qiao Weiwei gritted her teeth and said, unable to bear watching.
Hundreds of black tentacles slowly crawled out from inside the Myriad Venom Spikes, converging on the enemy mecha’s chest. The tentacles continuously condensed, eventually twisting into a large, wiggling, dark mass resembling a giant “maggot ball.”
“My god! I’m never looking again!!!” Qiao Weiwei screamed in horror and flew away in the Unbound Red.
The Nightingale rushed forward, preparing to deliver the final blow to the enemy mecha. Shen Jingming suddenly shouted, “Stop!”
The Black Hellion mecha slowly descended next to the Myriad Venom Spikes, kneeling on one knee with its arms braced on the ground, carefully observing the dark “maggot ball.”
Numerous black tentacle heads suddenly emerged from the maggot ball, and the tentacles lunged menacingly towards the Black Hellion.
As fast as lightning, the Black Hellion recoiled rapidly, activating its propulsion flames. Its back thrusters skimmed the ground, propelling it into the sky in an exponential curve.
Those black tentacles lacked the ability to ascend, only able to crawl rapidly on the ground towards the Black Hellion.
“How could this happen?” Ye Ying asked, perplexed.
“Blast it with long-range weapons!” Shen Jingming shouted.
The Nightingale drew its two beam swords, swung its arms forcefully, and the beam swords flew towards the Myriad Venom Spikes like missiles. One pierced its head, and the other shot into its waist-level energy battery.
“Boom!”
The Myriad Venom Spikes exploded on the spot, rising a small mushroom cloud.
By the time the Nightingale and the Black Hellion returned to the ground, the enemy mecha had already been reduced to scattered wreckage. A large, dark hole had been blown into the enemy cockpit, and inside, it was like a smashed orange, with black and red liquids mixed with mechanical parts splattered throughout.
“What was the principle behind this enemy mecha? How did your weapons attack you?” Ye Ying asked, confused.
Shen Jingming did not answer Ye Ying’s question, merely sighing softly and saying, “The pilot is dead. I wanted to capture him for interrogation.”
Just then, Qiao Weiwei’s panicked and enraged voice came through the communicator: “They… those Black Star Walkers killed all the hostages! The underground facilities are destroyed! They’ve escaped!”
Ye Ying’s eyes widened, and her brain buzzed. Fragments of memories of witnessing civilians being killed before flooded her mind.
A surge of anger immediately arose. In the darkness, the terrifying face of a woman grinning broadly appeared.
“No!” Ye Ying clutched her head, desperately trying to stop it, but the more she resisted, the clearer and more vivid the images became. She even recalled the scene of Xian Xia civilians dying miles away.
“Let me out—!”
“No!!”
“Ha… ha… hahahaha, hahahaha!!!” Ye Ying began to laugh wildly.
Facing the sudden turn of events, Shen Jingming looked at the monitor vigilantly and asked in a low voice, “Ye Ying?”
“I’m Susan Ray! Kill those bastards!” A familiar yet unfamiliar voice suddenly came through.
The Nightingale mecha rapidly ascended, flying towards the underground facilities.
Susan Ray, awakened, took one look at the hundreds of civilian corpses lying scattered on the ground. Her fury instantly turned into sky-piercing killing intent. She forcefully pushed the control stick, and the Nightingale mecha transformed into a gray-blue beam of light, streaking towards the direction the enemy mechas had fled.
The Black Hellion intended to pursue the Nightingale, but Shen Jingming considered that the ones who escaped were ordinary Black Star mechas. With Ye Ying’s strength, she could definitely destroy them, so he did not follow.
After Shen Jingming exited his mecha, he looked at the corpses scattered on the ground, his eyes filled with pity, and sighed heavily.
Qiao Weiwei shook each Xian Xia civilian’s corpse one by one. After confirming they were all dead, she approached Shen Jingming.
Her eyes were red from crying. Looking at the dead people, she recalled the scene of her parents’ death. Indignation surged from her heart, and she stomped her foot fiercely.
After a long while, Qiao Weiwei calmed herself and asked, “What do we do now?”
Shen Jingming said in a low voice, “I’ll go find Ye Ying. Her mental state seems to be problematic. You be responsible for contacting our superiors to handle the aftermath. The nearest satellite mechas are less than a thousand kilometers away, and there are no enemy forces on the route, so it’s very safe.”
Qiao Weiwei had wanted to handle the aftermath for the corpses herself, but after thinking about it, she decided to let their superiors handle it. They were a combat unit and were not responsible for civilian casualties; it was better to leave it to the professionals.
Moreover, given this underground facility, there were likely many more like it on the Xian Xia continent.
...
The Nightingale found the fleeing Black Star enemy mecha group in less than twenty minutes.
A vast formation of over thirty combat mechas and nearly a hundred functional mechas flew ahead.
They also spotted the rapidly approaching Nightingale mecha. Twenty enemy mechas turned their direction to intercept the Nightingale.
“Get out of the way, you bastards! Murderers! War criminals! Butchers! All of you die!!” Susan Ray roared, controlling her mecha to fly head-on. Her backup beam sword was pulled from her body, and the beam frequency was turned to maximum!
The blue ripple instantly turned into an extreme white, then gradually into pink ripples, a glow achieved only when energy output was pushed to the maximum.
The lightweight Nightingale, specialized in assassination, transformed into a berserk melee fighter, adopting wide, sweeping attacks without regard for consequences. After a fierce battle, the Nightingale’s body bore dozens of new cracks, while all the enemy mechas were shot down.
“It’s not over yet!!!” the enraged Susan Ray roared and charged towards the enemy mecha formation.
However, for a single light mecha to defeat over a hundred enemy units was still somewhat difficult.
The enemy mecha formation reacted quickly, all turning to fly head-on. The combat mechas charged forward, drawing their weapons and engaging the Nightingale in close combat.
After an exchange of blows, the Nightingale mecha was already staggering as if severely injured. At this moment, dozens of heavy engineering mechas behind the combat mechas flew forward, attacking the Nightingale with construction tools like excavators, pile drivers, road rollers, and rock crushers.
Susan Ray sat in the cockpit, enduring the violent shaking and the extremely fast system alert sounds, her eyes blazing, fighting desperately.
But in the end, the Nightingale could not withstand the onslaught of the numerous enemy mechas. Its entire armor was dented and uneven, with countless cracks and holes. The mecha stiffened and plummeted towards the ground.
Just as dozens of enemy mechas were about to crush the Nightingale with their own weight, the Black Hellion arrived in time.