Chapter 163 Ambush

The two fought with fervent intensity, leaving the group of mercenaries in the monitoring room utterly dumbfounded.

Black Star was actually holding his own against a Calamity Grade esper?!

Their immediate thought was that the opponent might not be as strong as he seemed. Although they hadn't personally witnessed the power of a Calamity Grade before, they had heard too many rumors, all claiming how terrifying Calamity Grades were, how they could kill B-grade espers without breaking a sweat, and so on.

But seeing Han Xiao exchanging blows with Ash, perhaps the combat power of a Calamity Grade wasn't as exaggerated as the rumors made it out to be?

This gave the group of mercenaries a bit of confidence.

"I'm going down to help," a burly, bearded mercenary suddenly said, standing up and drawing his weapon.

The others were astonished. Even if the enemy wasn't as powerful as they had imagined, wasn't it better to stay here and do nothing? Why take the risk?

The bearded mercenary glanced at the others, secretly sneering. He felt this was an opportunity.

Since it wasn't that dangerous, then going down to help was a good chance to show his value in front of Black Star and leave a lasting impression. He was a lone mercenary, and maybe he'd even have a chance to be recruited into the Black Star Mercenary Group.

This person hurriedly left the monitoring room, while the others didn't dare to copy him, and simply watched the monitoring screen.

The bearded mercenary arrived at the battlefield, and the sheer force of the battle made him nervous and somewhat regretful. He took a deep breath, secretly telling himself that nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Then, with a bang, he burst through the door, raised his pistol, and fired at Ash's back, deliberately shouting, "Black Star, I'm here to support you! Quick..."

*Pa.*

In the blink of an eye, before the bearded mercenary could finish speaking, his body "collapsed," and dust leaked from his clothes.

"H-He's dead, just like that?"

The mercenaries in the monitoring room stared wide-eyed, terror spreading across their faces.

Not strong, my ass!

That was terrifying!

Calamity Grade was too scary. Let's just stay here and watch!

The courage that the mercenaries had just mustered was immediately thrown to the winds, and they instantly turned cowardly.

Only then did they realize that Black Star, who could exchange blows with a Calamity Grade, was not as weak as those mercenaries who recruited others privately gossiped about. Perhaps even if all those B-grade mercenaries who secretly thought highly of themselves and sneered at Black Star were combined, they still wouldn't be able to defeat him.

As expected, a good name is not without reason.

...

On the battlefield, Han Xiao felt inexplicably bewildered. Why didn't this bearded mercenary just hide properly? Was he possessed by Iso and deliberately running down to court death?

At this moment, Ash used the same trick again, wanting to paralyze the mechanical soldiers once more. He didn't believe Han Xiao could keep repairing them.

He was right. Han Xiao couldn't use [Discarded Modification] indefinitely. Besides having a limited number of uses, it also consumed a lot of stamina.

But Han Xiao knew something even more clearly: these carbon particles meant to Ash what machines meant to him. Losing them would greatly reduce his combat power.

To that end, Han Xiao had already made preparations.

With a snap of his fingers, the trap mechanics that had not yet been activated lit up.

In the black tide, one spherical light shield after another appeared, capturing clusters of carbon particles, and the black cloud immediately became much thinner.

These machines weren't anything special; they were very ordinary shield generators. They weren't traps in the orthodox sense, but in Han Xiao's eyes, all machines could be traps. These shields enveloped a large number of carbon particles, equivalent to trapping the carbon particles inside, turning them into a reverse prison.

Even if Ash could still control these carbon particles, he would have to break the shields, wasting time, and not only that, but also distracting him.

This move immediately weakened Ash's actual combat power!

And the material of this stronghold was a carbon-free alloy. Han Xiao's machines also did not use carbon steel materials. Except for the mercenary who had just come down to offer his head, Ash had no place to replenish carbon particles. His ability range was not small, but even if he could extract carbon elements from outside the stronghold, that would take time, unless he extracted the carbon elements from his own body.

The remaining carbon particles suddenly began to rotate around Ash, turning into a cutting tornado, wanting to drill through the ceiling. Ash had already realized that this terrain was very unfavorable to him. He wanted to change the battlefield. Outside, he could exert several times his current combat power.

Ash didn't realize, however, that his attitude toward Han Xiao had changed. From the initial contempt to even cautiously considering the impact of the terrain on the battle—he felt pressure from Han Xiao, from a B-grade esper, and regarded him as an opponent who could threaten him!

At this moment, Han Xiao didn't retreat but advanced, rushing towards the dangerous cutting tornado, while shouting loudly.

"Explode!"

*Boom!!*

The mercenaries in the monitoring room hurriedly detonated the bombs, and the stronghold directly collapsed, with countless steel fragments falling down.

Han Xiao respected Calamity Grade powerhouses, so the amount of explosives he planted was particularly large. Explosion was art, and the entire building where the stronghold was located began to collapse. The floor fell, and the two lost their footing, falling into a state of weightlessness.

*Rumble--*

Around them were fragments falling with loud crashes, and the pungent smoke obscured their vision, as if the earth was shaking and the mountains were moving, with great momentum.

Ash hurriedly formed a diamond tread under his feet to balance himself, wanting to fly out of the collapsing building, while using his remaining carbon particles to shatter the falling objects.

*Whoosh!*

A whistling sound of a slashing attack came from the dust in the distance. After fighting for so long, Ash had already recognized the sound of the high-frequency cutting cannon. He knew that Han Xiao was chasing after him like a mad dog again. Even if he didn't want to fight in the complicated falling environment, Ash had to respond.

Suddenly, a black shadow abruptly appeared in front of him, blocking his vision.

Ash was shocked. He couldn't see anything, and no matter what he did, he couldn't get rid of the black shadow's coverage. Moreover, he couldn't even touch this thing. He didn't know what this ghost thing was. At the same time, the sound of the wind breaking was getting closer and closer, mixed with the rumble of the collapse, making it difficult to distinguish the direction.

Ash could only set up an omnidirectional diamond sphere defense again.

*Clang!*

A hard object pierced into the sphere shield. Ash immediately performed micro-manipulation, and the sphere shield opened a gap at the moment of contact, clamping the hard object. The tactile sensation was obviously the cutting cannon.

Although he couldn't see, Ash immediately dissolved the other unknown diamond shields and turned them into piercing spears, firing them in the direction of the hard object. In his expectation, he should be able to hit Han Xiao, who was holding the weapon.

However, he didn't hit anything.

"Not good!"

Ash immediately reacted, but it was already a step too late. A mechanical hand grabbed the back of his head from behind, and without saying a word, unleashed a fully charged Void Eruption.

At the same time, Han Xiao also used the leader's character card [Armor Breaking Combo]. The attacks in the next five seconds had a certain armor-breaking effect and reduced the target's defense by 24%.

*Boom!*

Ash was struck by lightning. His brain buzzed, golden stars flashed before his eyes, and his abilities were momentarily stagnant.

It was this moment that caused the tread under his feet to collapse, and the two fell downwards with the collapsing building!

*Whirr...*

Smoke and dust hit his face, and the sound of collapse and whistling echoed in his ears.

Previously, Han Xiao had used the noisy and chaotic environment to perform a quick feint. He used the [Void Projection] to block Ash's vision, threw out his melee weapon, and then activated [Void Shuttle] to quietly come behind Ash, forming a rear attack output situation.

The opportunity was rare. At this time, Han Xiao would never let go. He didn't save energy at all. Void Eruption was fired in succession. This was an attack skill that came with the Void Dragon Mechanical Armor. It had no cooldown, but using it again within ten seconds would increase the energy consumption by 30%.

"Energy remaining 42%, buzzing... Remaining 26%, buzzing... Energy is about to be exhausted, buzzing..."

The mechanical armor's energy dropped wildly like a flood, and Philip's prompt echoed in the mechanical armor's helmet.

Ash hurriedly condensed his qi in his body. No matter what profession, qi had a universal effect, which was to increase resistance in a short period of time.

Encountering a series of heavy blows, Ash had to focus on protecting himself, and his control over his abilities dropped by 70-80%.

Han Xiao had already seen some of Ash's attributes through the panel. He was also a guy with a Boss template, and his resistance and health were also very high. Moreover, he was an A-grade, and his endurance conversion rate was too high, and his health was not less than his own. So, at this time, he didn't dare to be stingy with his methods at all. [Gene Liberation], [Overload], and various self-bursting skills were used in turn, as well as Hella's character card's mental attack. Mental damage could weaken the target's concentration to a certain extent.

This series of bursts was extremely fast, and the collapse process was only halfway through. The two were still falling in a state of weightlessness.

Ash was pressed down, and the shame and pain made him furious.

Although he couldn't see behind him, he could feel that Han Xiao's energy fluctuations were weakening, which meant that his qi and mechanical armor energy were running low, so this meant that Han Xiao's burst was about to end.

Although he had suffered a bit, at least he had achieved his goal. Once he was outside, as long as he survived until he landed, this would be his home ground!

The last Void Eruption drained the mechanical armor's energy. Ash sensed this, endured the headache, and said hoarsely, "You have no energy... Wait for me to drag you out of this tortoise shell and grind you into mincemeat!"

Hearing this, Han Xiao gritted his teeth and shouted, "Aurora!"

Aurora was unaffected by gravity and had been chasing the falling figures of the two. Her golden shimmering body passed through pieces of building debris. Hearing this, she turned into a stream of light, accelerated sharply, and stuck to Han Xiao's back, opening her arms as if hugging from behind.

*Buzz--*

The energy body poured into the mechanical armor's energy core like melting liquid.

At this moment, the Void Dragon Mechanical Armor's energy value instantly exploded!

"Energy remaining 327%, buzzing... Circuit overload, buzzing... Please release excess energy as soon as possible, buzzing..."

To him, Aurora's ability was like a large reserve battery.

Han Xiao tightened the strength in his hand, clamping Ash's head like an iron hoop, and the wind tore apart his voice.

"Energy, I have plenty of it! Are you ready for a severe concussion?!"

*Boom boom boom--*

Feeling the re-soaring energy fluctuations behind him, Ash's eyes widened, filled with shock and anger. He finally felt that things were not good, and the situation was out of control.

This feeling... couldn't help but remind him of his previous encounters with Han Xiao, grinding his teeth.

Every time, every time!

This bastard had different methods!

The series of explosions drowned his thoughts. The two fell all the way from the sky to the ground, and the huge impact shook them dizzy and sore all over, as if their bones were about to fall apart, and they couldn't get up for a while.

At this time, the shadow on the ground quickly expanded.

The next second, the collapsed building directly smashed down.

*Boom!!*

Smoke billowed!

The earth shook!