Chapter 254: Counterstrike III
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Guang’s eyes shone brightly. His left hand moved to distract, but his right hand turned into a fist and came straight towards Ye Chong.
Ye Chong was overjoyed, and met Guang’s right fist with his. Strength was always Ye Chong’s forte. His physical strength was also top class, enough to surprise even Mu and Shang. Besides, he was a practitioner of the September Lan family’s muscle control technique, where strength amplification was an important part of it. With Guardian’s support, Ye Chong’s punch was packed with so much power that even he himself would not take it lightly.
It seemed that the fastest way to finish this was with brute force.
Guang did not evade, his features dancing with fiery vigour.
Crack!
Guang’s right arm exploded into a rain of flesh and bones, like it had been hit with a mech head on. His right arm was completely useless now. With such a serious injury, even the best available medical treatment would not be able to restore it. If one were to dissect Guang’s right arm, you would see that the bones in his arm had all crumbled into numerous minute fragments. Ye Chong’s punch was powerful and astonishing.
At the same time, Ye Chong felt something warm rush up his throat, and he spitted a mouthful of blood behind Guardian’s mask. Guang’s strength had greatly exceeded Ye Chong’s expectations. He tried to steady himself, but his mind was still whirling in an attempt to understand what had happened.
Was this truly something a human body was capable of?
This was terrifying! Ye Chong had never met anyone who could compare with him in terms of physical strength. All these years, his strength seemed to have reached a point of stagnation, and even Mu and Shang agreed that he must have reached the limits of the human body. Hence, Ye Chong had devoted most of his effort in mastering techniques.
However, this puppet-like middle-aged man had completely shattered Ye Chong’s belief. The man was bare-handed, without any tools to aid him. Ye Chong himself had Guardian’s protection, and yet he was still injured. The power behind that punch was incredible.
Without Guardian’s aid, even if he used the Lan family’s amplification technique to the fullest, he would not be able to attack with so much power like Guang. If the man was not right before him now, Ye Chong would not have believed that he was human.
The world was truly full of surprises!
He could only thank his lucky stars that the man was more heavily injured than he was. After receiving such heavy damage, the man would not be able to fight back again.
Ye Chong felt a pressure building in his chest, feeling a little dizzy. "Looks like I’m also hurt bad," Ye Chong laughed bitterly to himself.
He hesitated no longer. Ye Chong lunged at Qiu Man.
Du Yun was stupefied. The gold figure was too powerful. In his eyes, the gold figure and the middle-aged man had only exchanged a single blow, and the so-called expert middle-aged man was gravely injured from it. He did not know that the exchange had left both sides heavily injured. Ye Chong was hurt from the exchange, on top of his injury earlier.
Qiu Man’s snow white throat looked so enticing to Ye Chong.
However, at that moment, a single hand blocked Ye Chong’s advance. "Guang?" Ye Chong paused, his movements stalled. Guang’s expression was unchanged, still as vigorous as it was before, completely ignoring his injuries and lacking any signs of pain.
How was that possible? Even with Ye Chong’s calmness, he almost let out a gasp. With his biology studies, he knew exactly what that kind of injury meant to the victim. It would have been difficult to stay awake, much less continue continuing. The pain would have instantly led to a blackout, while the huge blood loss would not have allowed for further vigorous movements such as combat.
However, Ye Chong was looking at him right now. Guang did not seem ill at ease. If he could not see Guang’s right hand hanging beside him uselessly, Ye Chong would not have guessed he was injured.
Ye Chong momentary pause was an opening for Guang. The man’s left hand came quickly, trailing upwards from Ye Chong’s right arm. When Ye Chong recovered, Guang’s left hand had already grasped tightly onto Ye Chong’s right hand like some mysterious vine.
Ye Chong was shocked. His left hand came into a fist and went straight for Guang’s chest. If Guang did not let go, Ye Chong’s attack would kill him.
Guang seemed unfazed, and Ye Chong felt his right arm tighten.
Crack! A faint sound, followed by Ye Chong’s pained groan! He felt a powerful grip and sharp pain coming from his right arm.
His bone was broken! The pain was like an adrenaline injection. It had been a long, long while since Ye Chong had been injured again and again.
Sometimes, an injured animal is more terrifying than a calm animal.
Ye Chong instantly saw red! All the emotions suppressed by his calmness erupted. He yelled loudly, left hand delivering a blow on Guang’s chest like a hammer. Ye Chong’s punch was much stronger than the last one, and Guang was flung backwards like a sandbag. His chest was sunken, and the sound of bones breaking could be heard clearly in the room.
Ye Chong did not leave him at that. Guang’s left hand was still gripping onto his right arm. Ye Chong pulled his right arm, the pain evoking another groan from him, while Guang was once again brought before him.
The elbows, the knees … Ye Chong’s attack came like a storm, raining down onto Guang’s entire body. In less than three seconds, Guang’s body was beaten to a pulp.
"Huu …" Ye Chong exhaled deeply, blood still trickling from the edge of his mouth. He finally calmed down. Qiu Man was already frozen in shock. She had been well protected since young, and had never seen bloody scenes like this. Her face was drained of blood, and she finally could not hold it much longer and began to throw up.
Ye Chong turned back to look at the silver mech. The silver mech stood there frozen in place like a puppet.
Du Yun was shocked beyond reason! The two persons before him were not like any human at all. The middle-aged man was practically a maniac, a fearless maniac. The gold figure, on the other hand … Du Yun shuddered! It was too scary! The middle-aged man was already inhumanly strong, he was sure about this. A master like this was stronger than even those so-called combat instructors. However, this master of masters was beaten to death right before him. Ah, no! This was not just death. The man was now more like a pile of bloody meat. Du Yun wanted to get away from the man as soon as possible. While he had never heard of anyone breaking a mech’s armor with their bare hands, Du Yun could still feel a chill as he sat inside his mech.
When the gold figure turned back to look at him, those black-white eyes looked like the eyes of the God of Death, promising the end of many, many more lives. Du Yun almost lost it.
Ye Chong waited no longer. He dragged Qiu Man, who was still throwing up, over to himself without any care for delicateness. His hand reached and closed around her snow white throat. This was because Ye Chong heard the other mechs coming towards him.
In fact, it was not that the mechs reacted too slowly; it was that everything had happened too fast. From the moment Ye Chong broke through the wall and began fighting with Guang, it was only three seconds. The fight between Ye Chong and Guang was only 10 seconds at most. In these 13 seconds, only the ones present understood the risks and close calls involved.
The other mechs were not as bold as Du Yun, and did not break straight through the wall. Just as they were in a confused state, a golden figure suddenly came out in a flash, and quickly escaped.
The group was shocked, still not understanding the situation, only standing around the doorway.
"You idiots, go after him!" Du Yun roared through the comms. The other mechs were all standing around the doorway, and he could only watch as Ye Chong escaped. In truth, he could do nothing, but pursuit was necessary. The enemy had taken Lady Qiu Man hostage. If any of the fools opened fire … He shuddered as he thought of facing the old man Qiu should that had happened.
In any case, Lady Qiu Man’s life was top priority - Du Yun decided then and there, and quickly went out by breaking through the adjacent wall. He scanned from the air above and finally located the golden figure. Quickly, he gave chase to the enemy.
Ye Chong had already given up on the escape route that Mu designed for him. Given the circumstances, that route was already pointless. Now, he must get onboard Coxcomb as soon as possible. Ye Chong chose the shortest route to his objective.
The gold figure moved so quickly that Du Yun could barely believe his eyes. Even Windchime’s engines on full blast could not keep up. If it was the Alliance’s Aren mechs, they would only trail from far behind. Du Yun chased as fast as he could as he reported the current situation to the higher-ups.
Ye Chong and Du Yun were both oblivious to the fact that far away, on another battlefield without any traces of firepower, the battle was reaching its climax. Ye Chong’s actions had a direct influence on the future of this battlefield.
"Switch the calculation module!" Mu’s voice sounded strained like never before, as he continued, "Initiate structural improvements. Reinstall the three lines of defenses."
Sweat trickled down from Little Rock’s forehead, but he dared not be distracted. His eyes were staring straight ahead at the ever-changing data on his holographic screen, as he transferred his calculation results to Mu. Suddenly, a handkerchief came and wiped off the beading sweat on his forehead.
Little Rock was startled, and looked up. It was Zhu Ling. He returned a sincere smile, and returned to his calculations. Zhu Ling said nothing, only holding onto the handkerchief as she stood beside Little Rock.
Lian Yue took in the scene with interest. He moved closer to Zhu Ling and began sweetly, "Dear Ling’er, why don’t you wipe off my sweat too." He nudged his forehead towards Zhu Ling, which was not sweating at all.
Zhu Ling returned with a look of ridicule and humphed coldly. She raised her leg and kicked Lian Yue hard, sending him flying.
Qiu Yuanlie studied the transformation happening before his eyes, and could not help but be impressed. The opponent was excellent, powerful in his calculations, the traps almost flawless. While he thought they lacked some creativity, but such impressive computation skills would be enough to do as one wished in the virtual world. This must be the strongest Maverick in computations in the entire virtual world.
Qiu Yuanlie could not help feel a little competitive. Experts were hard to find. He had never needed to do things himself for so long, mostly because there were no worthy opponents.
Computation, decryption, trap setups, assault … The entire Intelligence Division’s resources were directed to him for his disposal. He was now like a general, directing his soldiers and infantry, while his officers were the data that he entered into the system.
The opponent was strong, blocking all his attacks. However, Qiu Yuanlie did not turn hasty. The battle between Mavericks could be won in a split second, but the probing and defense efforts that came before would be long and arduous. Every Maverick must learn to be patient. Beside, no one knew the Rainbow’s virtual world like he did. This was his territory for 20 over years. He could reach every corner of the Rainbow’s virtual world. Given time, he would be able to find the opponent’s weakness.
Infiltrate and counter-infiltrate, attack and defense, diversion and counter-diversion … The entire battlefield was in a constant state of push-and-pull. In order to prevent wide scale effects, Qiu Yuanlie tried his best to contain the range of the battlefield. However, the side effects were inevitable. Rainbow planet’s virtual world was already affected in many places.
Bang bang bang! It was a panicked series of door knocks. Qiu Yuanlie was furious. He had ordered for his subordinates to not disturb him no matter what, and now they had dared to defy him.
Besides, the battle climax was near, and Qiu Yuanlie did not want to be distracted.
Bang bang bang! The knocks came even more urgently.
Qiu Yuanlie was already at the peak of his anger. He would smash whoever it was to pieces once his battle was over. For now, however, he could only suppress his emotions. He breathed in deeply for a few times to calm himself.
Bang! Someone broke through the door.
"General, bad news! Lady Qiu Man was taken hostage!"
Rumble! Qiu Yuanlie could feel something snap inside his mind. He took off his helmets, revealing bloodshot eyes as he said hoarsely, "What?"
Qiu Yuanlie felt like a tearing off a person’s head. The subordinate who came in to report gulped heavily and continued, "According - according to mech pilot Du Yun’s re - report, Lady Qiu Man was taken hostage!"
Qiu Yuanlie nearly blacked out. After a long moment, he finally recovered. His voice was bitter and hoarse as he asked, "Is this information reliable?"
"This just came in from mech pilot Du Yun. He’s now in pursuit of the enemy." The subordinate stole a quick glance at Qiu Yuanlie’s pale face before asking, "Mech pilot Du Yun is requesting further orders. Please advise."