Chapter 181 Sparring

Hela was the newly appointed vice-commander, a newly born Super A-grade, and had been the center of attention recently, a time when her brilliance was fully revealed. The higher her reputation, the greater the benefit to the legion, so Han Xiao would not damage her prestige at this juncture.

Therefore, the spar between the two was purely private. Han Xiao didn't need to defeat Hela to gain prestige; he didn't need to hog the limelight.

Quietly leaving the Black Star Army headquarters, the two found a desolate planet. Han Xiao used anti-detection devices to isolate external energy scans, forming a secret battlefield.

"Let's do it here."

The two landed on the lead-gray ground. Han Xiao raised his hand and opened the Sub-Dimensional troop barracks. Groups of mechanical soldiers marched out, the black mass of machinery spreading like a tide.

With his main body present, he could use all of his troops, on an incomparably grand scale. Even if Han Xiao didn't summon the entire legion, it quickly filled the earth and sky.

Youzu and other Apostle Weapons stood in a row. They had returned from the Flickering World and were now accompanying Han Xiao, serving as the top combat power of the Mechanical Army.

Han Xiao summoned a Sovereign Avatar, and his consciousness descended into it, then he had his main body move away from the battlefield.

This was just a spar, and he had no intention of shortening his lifespan. His main body came to show his attitude, but switching to an avatar in person was a sign of caution.

Seeing this, Hela narrowed her eyes, said nothing, and acquiesced.

Although she hoped that Black Star could go all out, she also knew that her abilities were a bit strange and didn't want to cause any hidden damage to Han Xiao. Moreover, even Black Star's avatar was difficult to deal with, and there was a pile of Apostle Weapons beside him.

Stepping into the Super-A grade, Hela was high-spirited, but she also knew that the possibility of defeating Han Xiao was extremely low. She mostly wanted to see how big the gap was between her current self and Han Xiao.

Hela let out a breath, and her eyes suddenly lit up with red light. A stream of red death energy continuously poured out of her body, soaring into the sky, reflecting a blood-colored glow in the sky. The red energy surged and churned like a roaring sea, and it continued to expand, its momentum competing with the overwhelming mechanical army.

"Are you ready? I'm coming."

Hela entered a battle state, her expression becoming calm and indifferent.

Han Xiao closed the Sub-Dimensional troop barracks, manipulated the avatar to twist its neck, released machinery force to bless the entire army, and then looked down at the ground beneath his feet, shaking his head helplessly, "Such a good planet, it's going to suffer again."

As soon as he finished speaking, Hela made no further ado, pushing out with both hands, and launching an attack with a bang!

Rumble!!

The death energy condensed in mid-air crashed down like an avalanche, as if the sky was falling, encompassing all the mechanical troops in front of it within the range of attack!

The outer armor of each mechanical soldier reflected the blood-red tide. Youzu looked up and slightly raised the Youzu Battle Spear in his hand, gently slamming it on the ground.

Bang!

Centered on him, a circle of light-blue Youzu energy barrier suddenly popped out, its area expanding rapidly, directly covering the entire mechanical army.

The tsunami-like death energy slammed into the Youzu energy barrier, bursting out with earth-shattering sounds!

With a flash of light, an energy shock wave mixed with red and blue suddenly swept out!

Rumble—

The earth cracked inch by inch, dust rose like a fountain, rift valleys appeared, cliffs sank, tectonic plates squeezed together, and mountain ridges rose, the terrain within hundreds of kilometers around changed rapidly!

Hela's expression changed. Youzu could actually contend with her head-on, which was beyond her expectations.

In her opinion, Han Xiao should use legion tactics to deal with her, relying on quantity to win, but she didn't expect that Han Xiao's Apostle Weapons had been strengthened to this point.

Hela's eyes narrowed, and she soared into the sky, raising her hand and pressing down. The power of the death energy that was eroding and impacting the Youzu energy barrier increased again. The Youzu energy barrier, which was already barely holding on, suddenly showed large cracks.

Suddenly, with a loud bang, the barrier shattered into a sky full of light dust!

After all, Hela was not the same as the likes of Kohler and Beyoni; there was still a gap between the Apostle Weapons and them.

The mechanical army suddenly dispersed, each popping out a Youzu energy shield, while preparing to resist the impact of death energy, while raising their muzzles and taking counterattacks.

The dense energy cannons focused on Hela, and the dazzling light seemed to cut through space, leaving trails of light. Not many Super A-grades were willing to take such a fierce mechanical legion's concentrated attack head-on, and Hela was no exception.

Her figure moved rapidly in the air, dodging the attacks. A continuous stream of death energy poured out of her body, forming layers of tight protective covers, wrapping her body in them. From time to time, energy cannons bombarded them, blasting open openings.

Death energy could attack and defend, something few Super A-grades who lacked shield abilities could do.

The [Power of the Dead] ability was actually a bit disadvantaged when dealing with the mechanical army. Ordinary mechanical soldiers were inanimate objects, and Hela's "vampiric" attribute could not be triggered, thus cutting off an important way to recover health.

Moreover, the mental damage of death energy was of little use to the mechanical army, thus losing another advantage.

Only when facing living opponents could her abilities exert their greatest power.

Defense was not Hela's forte after all. The attack power of the mechanical army, which had been strengthened many times, had long been reborn. As soon as the legion's battle formation was deployed, Hela felt the overwhelming pressure. Han Xiao's artillery fire constantly pierced through the shields and shot at her body, causing her health to drop section by section, and her injuries gradually accumulated.

However, Hela's recovery ability was not bad either. Although it could not compare to Aurora, it was also extremely considerable. When she was at a very low level, she had a [Fast Healing] specialty. The Power of the Dead nourished her flesh and blood, with a normal recovery rate of +500%, and a recovery efficiency of +1000% to 2000% when using energy.

Now that she had stepped into the Super-A grade, Hela had also obtained more recovery-type abilities. Even if the "vampiric" attribute could not come in handy, her health recovery speed was still extremely fast, belonging to the type that looked very fragile, but was actually very tanky—in this regard, she was in the same vein as Han Xiao.

For the time being, she could withstand the concentrated fire of the mechanical army.

"Not bad, it looks like you won't lose so quickly." Seeing this, Han Xiao smiled gratifiedly and continued to bury his head and swipe his steps.

After the battle started, he had his avatar activate [Charge - Endless Momentum], and began to wander around frantically, swiping the moving distance.

When this skill was activated, it entered the guidance preparation stage. The moving distance in the guidance stage was the effective distance. Before this strike was released, the skill was in a continuous activation state. Only when the attack was launched would the skill begin to calculate cooldown.

Although the power depended on distance rather than speed, the skill name after all carried the word "charge". It was impossible to stop and go. The so-called "sprint distance" in the skill description meant that you had to keep moving after the skill was activated. Speed didn't matter. If you stopped, then you would start from scratch. Even if you continued to move later, the skill would only calculate the latest moving distance between the last stop and the launch of the attack.

Once you charged, it was best not to stop. With the mechanical army in check, Han Xiao could easily do this, and [Charge - Endless Momentum] only took effect on the next melee attack, so it did not affect his long-range shooting.

Since his level exceeded Hela's, after the exchange of blows, the interface combat information displayed Hela's current complete attributes, with a panoramic view of her various abilities. Han Xiao was remotely checking her while browsing the combat information.

"As expected of an S-level potential ability, the attributes are really good."

After watching for a while, even Han Xiao was a little jealous.

Compared to his "fake genius" who touched specialties everywhere, Hela was the real thing, naturally gifted, with a large number of specialties, many of which were unique personal abilities, with the potential to be a super thug.

Given time, when she grew up and her basic attributes became higher and higher, the role of these specialties would become even more perverted, but now she was far from her peak in her previous life. Even if she finally became a Super-A grade, she was still tender in Han Xiao's eyes.

Hela's Super-A grade rank specialties were also as Han Xiao expected. One chose [Supreme Might], which greatly increased the intensity of the ability, and the other chose [Cell Reactor], which greatly increased energy value and greatly enhanced endurance.

Although he had to hold back to maintain Hela's self-confidence, Han Xiao did not intend to let go too much, and did not want to fight a protracted war.

Although the deterrence of the legion's concentrated fire was great, Hela was not afraid for the time being. What really made her life difficult was a group of Apostle Weapons led by Youzu.

Each of the Apostle Weapons could stand alone, and they had been strengthened a lot compared to when they fought Ames. Now, they were ganging up on Hela all at once, immediately forcing her into a fluster.

Bang bang bang!

Streams of death energy rays were defeated halfway. The Chihuo Troop, with the turret as its main body, spurted out countless dark energy beams, intercepting most of Hela's long-range attacks aimed at the Apostle Weapons.

Zhen Tianqi charged all the way, and occasionally a stray death energy shot over, but it was constantly switched weapons to split it, unable to stop him. He was equipped with countless high-tech melee weapons and was a weapon master, serving as the chief instructor of combat skills for the Mechanical Civilization.

Successfully getting close, Zhen Tianqi immediately rolled and jumped, switching electromagnetic combat knives, high-frequency chain blades, cutting axes and other weapons as smoothly as flowing water, playing a set of Mech Warrior-like combos. The mechanical body was extremely agile, like a war dance, with a sense of beauty.

Hela had to condense the death energy on her body, turning her body into a weapon, to deal with Zhen Tianqi's offensive. Unfortunately, her melee ability was far inferior to that of a weapon master who had mastered countless weapon genres, and she soon became stretched, basically only left with being beaten.

Clang!

The vibrating battle axe made of alloy was blocked by Hela's raised hand, leaving a shallow blood mark. She suddenly raised her leg high and stepped on the battle axe, then her jade-like palm struck out from the air, like a hidden flower at the bottom of a leaf. A beam of highly concentrated death energy spurted out from the palm, blasting the close-range Zhen Tianqi far away.

Before she could catch her breath, the space behind her fluctuated, and Kuang Tianlie flashed over, opening his huge mouth full of metal teeth, and biting at Hela's neck.

"Get out!"

Hela reacted quickly, lowered her head and raised her hand, turning around and elbowing.

The tip of the elbow hit Kuang Tianlie's chin, the death energy exploded, bursting out a circle of shock waves, blowing the mechanical beast away.

At this moment, a purple figure killed from above, wrapped in a twisted special force field, dragging energy trajectories like lightning arcs, and slammed into Hela, knocking her to the ground.

This was a purple, strong mechanical soldier filled with nano-biochemical tendons, entwined with lightning-like energy. It was Zi Tianling, who had entered an overclocked and berserk state, with powerful combat effectiveness.

Hela spun like a top, while stabilizing her body and spraying death energy to force back the Apostle Weapons, trying to buy time to breathe.

But at this moment, a bit of cold light suddenly broke through the red curtain and lit up in Hela's eyes.

Swish!

Hela hurriedly turned her head, and the bit of cold light brushed past her cheek, leaving a faint blood mark.

The cold light came from the tip of the spear, spewing a deep blue, highly concentrated Youzu energy blade. The one holding the spear was Youzu.

Among the Apostle Weapons, Youzu was the strongest, and Hela had a hard time dealing with him. In addition to the other Apostle Weapons causing trouble, she fought more and more passively.

The fierce battle between the two sides lasted for a long time. The surface of the planet was devastated, like an egg that had been cracked open. Molten lava flowed in the crevices, spraying out from time to time. Countless areas of the earth's crust were active, and tectonic plates collided, causing strong earthquakes.

"Huff... huff..."

Fresh blood dripped from the sky. Hela was covered in blood, with a tired look on her face. The specially made tight-fitting combat uniform was full of holes, revealing large areas of white skin. Melee weapons were stuck in her shoulders, abdomen, and thighs. Just looking at her appearance, one could tell how tragic the battle was.

"Too fierce." Han Xiao secretly grimaced.

Hela's shot was always a habit of going all out. Even if she was sparring with Han Xiao, she fought desperately, without regard for her body.

Han Xiao released a little water, so that the mechanical troops restrained themselves a little, so as to give Hela a chance to go all out. Only on this premise of maintaining an overwhelming advantage and letting her fight to her heart's content, could she be convinced.

At this time, Hela pulled out the weapons stuck in her body, and the bloody wounds slowly closed and recovered. She glanced around at the Apostle Weapons, who were glaring at her, and suddenly took a deep breath and snapped her fingers.

After a long battle, all the Apostle Weapons, including Youzu, had accumulated 15 layers of [Death Erosion], and they were detonated at the same time!

Rumble!

Red light exploded on all the Apostle Weapons, and they were all severely damaged.

The core of [Death Erosion] was the attached highly corrosive death energy. Detonating these energies had nothing to do with vitality, so unlike the "vampiric" attribute, this ability could take effect on any target, and machines were no exception.

The instant death of mechanical life was equivalent to the extinction of the fire source. Death energy erosion also had the opportunity to do so, but Hela would not lose her mind in battle and would not poison Han Xiao's important combat power, so she did not trigger the instant death judgment, but only triggered the basic effect, evaporating a large amount of life value from these Apostle Weapons.

Under the heavy damage, the Apostle Weapons, such as Youzu, revealed flaws. Hela took the opportunity to break out of the encirclement and went straight to the Sovereign Avatar that had been wandering all the time, like a red meteor, blasting away one mechanical soldier after another along the way.

"The final blow, huh."

Han Xiao's eyes flashed. He could see the combat information. Hela was at the end of her rope, with her health at the bottom.

Knowing that Hela could weaken recovery ability, Han Xiao had not let his avatar take the attack. He could seriously injure Hela just by relying on the Apostle Weapons and the mechanical army. At this time, he stopped wandering, manipulated the avatar to turn around, and charged towards Hela.

On the devastated earth, two meteors, one black and one red, crashed together with a bang!

Han Xiao did not hold back at all, and the power of [Charge - Endless Momentum] was fully integrated into his fist, and he hammered it fiercely on Hela's chest.

Bang!!

Like a thunderclap!

A strong shock wave instantly exploded, blowing away all the smoke and dust around.

A huge hole appeared in Hela's chest, running through the front and back. All the organs were smashed into pieces, and blood from her whole body, mixed with pieces of flesh and blood, spurted out, leaving nothing behind.

Hela's eyes instantly lost their luster, and she fell downwards, landing with a bang and smashing out a large pit.

"The target has lost signs of life." Youzu glanced at it and was a little surprised, "Sovereign, you, you killed her?"

Wasn't it agreed that it was just a spar?!

Han Xiao glanced at him, released the Sovereign Descent, and the main body slowly landed beside Hela.

"Did we, did we go too far?" Many Apostle Weapons followed and looked at each other, all lowering their heads, like children who had done something wrong, trembling.

Han Xiao didn't speak. At this moment, a stream of gray energy suddenly converged from all directions and merged into Hela's "corpse". Her eyes suddenly regained their stature, but the dark red light turned gray-black.

In the next moment, her broken body recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye. Flesh and blood proliferated, organs were reborn, and wounds healed quickly.

Her pale face slowly turned rosy, Hela sat up, took a few breaths, the light in her eyes suddenly disappeared, and immediately coughed violently:

"Cough cough cough—"

Han Xiao had expected this and smiled as he gently patted her back, "Does it hurt? Take a deep breath and take it easy."

Hela had the specialty of [Ignore Instant Death], which he had already seen. It was clearly written on the interface. He knew that Hela could not die once. No matter how much damage she took, it would be fine, so he simply did not hold back and directly relied on the explosion of [Charge - Endless Momentum] to beat her into a near-death state.

He had already figured out Hela's personality. She was extremely competitive. Beating her up thoroughly would make her feel satisfied. She had the potential of being a masochist.

After a while, Hela stopped coughing and looked helpless.

"You were too heavy-handed. You killed me."

Han Xiao raised his eyebrows and spread his hands, "Isn't this what you wanted? Don't you like it?"

Hearing this, Hela hummed and did not refute.

Hela didn't feel any dissatisfaction in her heart for almost being beaten to death. Since she went all out, what she wanted was such a desperate battle. Han Xiao didn't hold back, and she was very satisfied.

Moreover, after this spar, Hela had a direct experience of Han Xiao's combat power among the Super A-grades and secretly clicked her tongue.

She didn't expect that after stepping into the Super A-grade, she would still be beaten by Black Star. The gap was still so big.

Hela was not depressed or disappointed because of this. Instead, it aroused her fighting spirit.

"As expected of the person I want to catch up with. It's not that easy to catch up with you. There are challenges and difficulties, and that's what makes it fun." Hela secretly cheered herself on.

She had always respected the strong and couldn't help but have a deeper sense of awe.

"I lost, but it was a very enjoyable fight. It was worth it." Hela smiled sincerely. She didn't have many hobbies, and fighting was one of them.

"Tsk, combat madman." Han Xiao shook his head and smiled, touched her head, "Can you still walk?"

"Don't touch my head. Let's go back."

Hela shook her head to avoid Han Xiao's big hand, supported her knees to stand up, but she had just recovered from near death and was in poor condition, almost overdrafting her physical strength. Seeing this, Han Xiao put his arm around Hela's shoulder and helped her up.

Hela glanced at him, but did not refuse, allowing him to help her walk onto the spaceship, and even took the initiative to move closer to Han Xiao's arms.

…

After this fight, the relationship between the two improved a bit.

Although they had friendship before, they were not on the same level after all. Now that the two were at the same level, their identities were equal, and they immediately had more common language, and their relationship warmed up quickly, quickly eliminating the awkwardness and estrangement of not seeing each other for twenty years.

Hela enjoyed this feeling very much. In the past, she could only look at Han Xiao's back, but now... she should be able to stand by his side, right?

The private spar did not leak out, and the outside world did not know about it, so naturally it did not cause any waves.

What the Shattered Star Ring was most curious about now was a phenomenon—more and more Super A-grades were arriving here, without any concealment, leading their respective fleets to the Black Star Army headquarters.

The interstellar citizens of the Shattered Star Ring moved at the news, and all eyes were focused on these Super A-grades and the Black Star Army, and they all smelled the scent of big news.