Chapter 460: The Ferocious Mech Squad
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It had been surrounded, a more precise word would be "besieged", by 30 metallic figures that looked rather similar to the one which broke its cradle in the first place. The sight was growing hopeless to the beast. The situation already felt hellish when it encountered the one knife-wielding machinery at first, now there were more, 30 of them.
Had the creator of this world decided to end its life there?
The beast regained its serenity. Knowing its fate, its arms crossed over its shoulders, as soundlessly it hovered in the space, at center of the siege formed by the 30 machineries. Its expression was undisturbed, yet its shaking tail with a raised tip and its quivering pupils had exposed the fear of death as well as the desperation for an escape within itself.
The beast intended a gush from the fishnet!
Because of its worsening condition and that metallic figure who stood in the dark with the deadly weapons, a gush did sound far-fetched at the moment.
It was indeed not an easy job to do.
Sneered the beast which had given up the thought of escaping alive. Its tail glowed redder than ever, in desolate vain to flaunt its one-of-a-kind beauty, as if recognizing the moment being the last of its life.
Yet strangely, the expected crowd attack did not happen.
Did the machineries aim to capture me alive?
Thought the red-tailed beast, as its eyes grew colder.
Hidden within the shards of asteroid, Ye Chong was finding the scene odd.
There were... actually mechs here? Not only a single mech too... a school of 30 mechs... in Calamitous Asteroid Belt, the deadliest place of the universe?
It was really strange. Yes, there would be squads who came for space-expedition to grab some loots for the moneybags but no squad should be insane enough to venture into the depth. Ye Chong knew the depth well enough after spending the last few days wandering here. The depth was far more dangerous than what he heard from the people outside. If it was because of Mu's guidance or the red-tailed beast's sense of danger, Ye Chong probably had lost his lives countless times.
He took a look at the mechs, which their models appeared to be model to him. These mechs resembled nothing of the 3 aristocrats.
He then sank within the shade of one giant rock, as he watched the situation.
Certainly Ye Chong did not expect the mechs to be capable of eliminating the beast. He piloted Han Jia to sneak towards the crowd.
"Mu, any info on those mechs?" muttered Ye Chong.
"No," replied Mu.
So from where these mechs came from? Ye Chong was feeling odd. It was the calamitous space zone after all, only the real pilots would risk their lives coming in as if cake walk. But these pilots did not appear to be under the aristocrats, while their mechs had a rather bizarre design. That aside, he should be figuring out a way to eliminate the red-tailed beast before things became handful.
Under the cover of the giant rock, Han Jia arrived behind the beast with stealth. It was not the time to strike yet. It simply was not. Ye Chong knew it after days of hunting the beast, which appeared to be the one of few most alert creatures he had ever encountered.
Behind the rock, Ye Chong took a better look at these mechs.
... (Meanwhile) ...
Scholes was the leader of the scouting group under Arwa. And Arwa had been leading the entire second army consisted of different trained groups ever since he took over the commandership. Reformation had been done with Arwa's leadership, with extra attention on the scouting team which only members of no more than 9 remained after the massive dismissal conducted. Scholes was fortunate enough to be the one of the only few "survivals" from the waves of reformation who managed to even grab the flag. He did not hold spite towards the changes however.
The reason was simple.
Who exactly was Arwa you ask?
He's the strategist! The most talented one at Gray Valley!
It felt like a dream when people heard him in the army as the leader. His charisma would convince even the greatest man to be his little serviceman. But well, if one were to mention about the real dignified figure in the troop, the figure would not be Arwa, but the mistress herself.
Regarding Arwa's motive of joining Xiao Wan's alliance, lots of theories had been heard among the people. Some claimed that Arwa fancied the beauty of the mistress, while the others stated that Arwa coveted the heavenly offer made by the mistress of Xiao family. It was indeed the hottest topic at that period whether it was true or not.
The members of the family army were very clear of the truth however. There was no love, no greed involved between them, only one simple loss to a gamble. Arwa had technically lost his bet and agreed to stay back to take over the second army. The leader of the first army remained as Bei Guang, certainly.
The moment Arwa was announced to be the commander of the second Xiao family army, the whole Gray Valley almost crumbled.
And now they were on an operation, with Scholes leading the intelligences. Scholes had a rather hefty body, looking more sizable with his 180 centimeter height. His eyes expressed an unperturbed solemnity. He had never failed an operation ever since he was given the leading flag.
The current situation was a little handful for him however. "Are there actually enemies here?" he frowned. The unknown creatures had been a pain in their eyes since these monstrosities had showed up disrupting the harmony after eradicating seven forces in Gray Valley. The catch was, the monsters had only gotten more handful ever since.
Fortunately the research team had formed a massive group in alliance with all talents from the forces around, dedicated to eliminating the unidentifiable creature. The group had also received a substantial fund from the research team of Xiao family itself.
Arwa was afraid of raids occurring at the side wings of the alliance army so he allocated a large flock of scouting units at both wings. And definitely he was right at his worries, the unknown threat indeed existed.
"Any other enemies?" asked Scholes profoundly with fret tumbling inside him.
"No sir. Within the proximity of 150 kilometers, no other enemies had been detected."
Then... is this beast a lone entity?
"All units take caution, into battle station!" Even though Arwa was not aware of how a creature that travelled in packs ended up alone being surrounded, he made his combat order. It would not be easy to take out this red-tailed monstrosity. But Scholes believed that they should have a better time as the beast was clearly outnumbered, a 30 vs 1. The research team had also discovered that the beast was not 100% invulnerable towards energy-based firing, as there was actually a limit to its energy absorption ability, once the limit was reached, any extra energy-based firing would deal solid damage.
Apparently, people outside the Gray Valley had named the monster as the red-tailed beast. It did not sound like a proper name but it did come from somewhere called Planet Yi Ju which was the only place where such beast had been exterminated, under the attack of a really... strange army called the Collision army... The world wanted to know what happened behind that fortress but it was too hard to overcome the defense so there was little to none information regarding them. There were all kinds of stories regarding the army, but that was not the main point. In short, people had accepted such plain name.
Red-tailed beast.
According to his previous experiences with the beast, under normal circumstances, a firepower formed by all 10 ranged units should be able to take the beast out, let alone 30 of them. "All units fire!" Scholes launched his attack.
Hundred beams showered upon the red-tailed beast, like a spotlight for its death. Glaring the dark space turned as flares blinded the place.
Scholes sighed in relief. He witnessed the scene, with clarity that the red-tailed beast did not dodge. It should not survive.
Wait, what?
Scholes's pupils enlarged as popped at the projection.
How in the Gray Valley...
After the beams faded out, the red-tailed beast was at the previous position, hovering, unharmed.
Chills ran down the neck of Scholes as magic somehow had occurred.
The red-tailed beast, hovering at the center of the siege a moment ago, had vanished, right in front of everybody.
"Ah!" A shriek was heard in the channel.
"Vegan!" The eyes of Scholes twitched in anger.
The young folk in his early 20s, his smile was friendly and bashful, had become a no-more.
"All units change your weapons, a 3x3 now!" rampaged Scholes.
The mechs had switched their weapons, going for a close-ranged formation. With the melee weaponry, triangular formations were spotted, with three mechs at a unit each.
The parry, the cover and the guard, in a formation of three musketeers the mechs charged.
And there Ye Chong was, all dazzled by the quick switch of armory by the little squad as he watched them behind the rock. He was surprised by how the squad coped with the situation so promptly. The switch of weapon was truly a game changer. The attack type switch from ranged to melee perplexed Ye Chong however. Clearly those mechs were ranged units by default, but why? Why would the leader think of using melee weapons?
After a moment of observation, Ye Chong finally knew why. The switch of weapon that became the salvation to their losing fight highly relied on their one-of-a-kind formation. The triangle would form an active circulation, where one unit would perform contact with the red-tailed beast while the other two would deliver extra hits from the sides. When one poked and retreated, the other would make a strike, the cycle continued.
The amazing part was how these mechs fought the red-tailed beast so fearlessly that it almost felt like a suicidal fight. They were willing to poke the beast and initiate a new cycle to gain more time for their mates to ready the following attacks.
The other triangles would also give a brief assistance or two if the musketeers faced issues during the process.
They might not be the greatest pilots, but they did have the bravery of the greatest. Ye Chong could not help but to compliment their ferocious formation.
Well, the red-tailed beast was going to lose. Ye Chong could see that. The red-tailed beast had stuck itself inside the triangle. The red-tailed beast was strong enough to wound the three units, in which one had lost its arm because of the tail attack and the others were heavily damaged. The mech that lost its arm was under a very dangerous situation as the circuits had been exposed to the space, an explosion could occur at any second. The pilot did not seem bothered however, as the pilot carried on punching the red-tailed beast with the last arm.
The other triangles appreciated the sacrificial strikes from their mate. They had completed another formation at all four directions.
Boom!
One of the heavily damaged units had blown up.
The shockwave produced was able to shake the red-tailed beast as it rolled into the new formation. That was also when the other two damaged allies joined the stars in a consequent explosion.
That was ferocious.
Ye Chong was shocked. It was rare to see someone being so ferocious in achieving goals, and everyone seemed the same ferocious throughout the squad.
The red-tailed beast shall be doomed.
It could no longer make any move. It got stuck. The close-combat units would have destroyed it within seconds if it was not the fact that the beast tried struggling, fully utilizing its agility and iron tail.
And the other mechs had freed from the triangle formation as they got into their battle position, transforming into a cage of firepower, enveloping the beast, shrinking.
A few seconds later, the red-tailed beast had new scratches over its body.
Ye Chong felt sentimental of the situation, not because of the fate of the beast but how a group attack would work wonders nevertheless. It took Ye Chong forever to make a single slash on the red-tailed beast with his pair of super daggers made out of probably the strongest mineral in the galaxy, yet it only took the squad seconds.
And the situation changed, before Ye Chong finished sighing.