Chapter 408 - Reversal!
At this time, Lingtian No.7 was just like a ferocious beast which had broken out of its cage. Facing the more experienced Leiting No.9, he showed no hint of fear. The speed of his mecha's sprint did not slow down at all due to the emergence of the enemy — those with keen eyesight could even tell that Lingtian No.7 had actually become faster and nimbler than before.
Meanwhile, after preparing his weapons, Leiting No.9 saw Lingtian No.7 charging at him fearlessly. This move clearly carried a whiff of taunting — this made Leiting No.9 rather angry, thinking that he was being looked down on.
So that he would not lose in terms of force of presence, Leiting No.9 did not hesitate to send his mecha sprinting towards Lingtian No.7 as well. Both combatants chose to speed towards each other — about 10 seconds later, they finally entered the effective range of their respective long-range attacks.
The hearts of the audience were raised in suspense, all of them wondering which side would react faster and be the first to open fire. "Leiting is attacking." Now, from the looks of it, Leiting No.9 had more experience in attacking while running, thus managing to beat Lingtian No.7 to the punch. He aimed the beam gun in his right hand at Lingtian No.7 and pulled the trigger.
A powerful beam of energy burst out from the muzzle to hurtle wildly at Lingtian No.7.
"Ah, watch out!" In the audience, in contrast to the composure of the seniors, the new students as well as those who were concerned for the Lingtian Mecha Clan could not help but cry out.
Right then, the attention of the entire audience, both juniors and seniors, was focused on Lingtian No.7. If Lingtian No.7 could not find a way to handle this shot properly, whether or not he was hit, he would still be forced into a passive position. Then, it could be expected that Leiting No.9 would inevitably be the final victor in this clash. On the mecha battlefield, being the first to gain the upper hand would basically determine the final ownership of victory, unless the power gap between the opponents was really too wide.
"Alright!" The entire audience burst out in wild applause and cheering.
This was because Lingtian No.7 had handled the attack beautifully, leaving everyone speechless with amazement. Lingtian No.7 did not panic and choose to use his beam gun to fire back in an attempt to neutralize the other's attack, nor did he let himself be forced into a passive defensive position by swerving to avoid the opponent's attack. He had calmly controlled his mecha to execute an evasion manoeuvre, allowing that beam to brush past him mere millimetres from the outer shell of his mecha. The beam struck the ground and sent up a spray of dust and dirt, instantly making his figure hazy.
Seeing the other's figure suddenly being partly concealed by the dust and dirt in the air, Leiting No.9 paused for a beat but did not give up on his offence. He predicted the possible angles the opponent might dodge to and frantically shot a cascade of beams from his gun.
"Bang bang bang!" Consecutive gunshots sent even more dust and dirt into the air, and Lingtian No.7's figure was now completely obscured. The Leiting mecha found that its attacks were ineffective and only then did he begin to feel that something was not right. He immediately retreated, thinking to pull some distance away. While he could not be sure of the opponent's position, pulling a sufficiently safe distance away was one of the best ways of protecting oneself.
Unfortunately, he had still reacted too late. He had just mobilized his mecha when a shadow abruptly appeared on his left. By the time he could see clearly, he found that that Lingtian Mecha No.7 had already come up beside him. There was a cold flash of light, and the opponent's beam saber came at him from a position he could not block, stabbing in at a strange angle ...
"What's going on? How could he have appeared before me in an instant?!" Although Leiting No.9 could not believe what he was seeing, he still operated his mecha calmly. He pushed his mecha's engines to maximum power, attempting to evade at top speed and dodge this unexpected attack from the opponent.
Those who are closely involved cannot see clearly 1 — Leiting No.9 had not been able to see Lingtian No.7's movements, obscured by dust as the other was, but the spectating cadets could choose to erase all visual obstacles and had seen Lingtian No.7's actions without any obstruction. Just as Leiting No.9 had been using his beam gun to attack, Lingtian No.7 had suddenly performed a movement that could not be explained by normal logic. The strange and unsettling footwork he executed allowed a certain distortion to appear in the area around Lingtian No.7, and in the very next second, he had already appeared at the opponent's side, creating an illusory sort of teleportation effect.
"This is the nature-defying technique that advanced mecha warriors are most unlikely to master — Erratic Flicker!" Everyone was shocked; some cadets who recognized this technique could not help but exclaim.
Compared to the miscellaneous footwork that advanced mecha warriors practised, such as Figure-8 Step, Z-shaped evasion, or whatever else, this Erratic Flicker was a top-class technique which advanced mecha warriors dreamed about. To carry off the Erratic Flicker, one needed to be completely proficient in all of the basic steps, perhaps even to the point where they had become instinct. But this was still not enough — Erratic Flicker also required extremely high comprehension and perceptiveness. Without this type of innate intuition, no matter how thoroughly one mastered those basic moves, they still would not be able to convert these into the Erratic Flicker.
The evolved version of the Erratic Flicker was the Irregular Flicker 1 , which was an important milestone to advance to ace operator status. Consequently, in the world of mecha operation, there is this one saying — if you have mastered the Erratic Flicker, you basically already have half a foot inside the realm of ace.
Unfortunately, a majority of advanced mecha warriors were often unable to master this nature-defying technique. There were even many mecha operators who had entered special-class operator level who would not dare to say for certain that they had mastered this top-class skill. This was also why the number of ace mecha masters were so few. To a large extent, many excellent seedlings were wiped out on this point.
This was also something that could not be helped. If one was unable to master the Irregular Flicker, even if they were allowed to move on and pilot ace mecha, once they arrived at the battlefield, an operator who could not execute an Irregular Flicker was pretty much just there to die. Therefore, in the world of mecha operation, there was no such thing as making do. The advancement of each level had stringent requirements — an operator must achieve the regulated stats, or else they would never be permitted to advance.
Tang Yu saw this move of Lingtian No.7's, and his eyes once again shone with an unnatural brightness. If the principal had not already agreed to his request to take on another student, at this moment, he was likely to cast aside his earlier reservations and abandon one of his initially determined students just so he could take in this Lingtian No.7.
No matter how gifted a prodigy of mecha piloting was, if they did not have formidable intuition, their future development would also be hindered in the end by the barriers of advancement. For this Lingtian No.7 to be able to come so far, he must have already entered Mecha World at thirteen to train in mecha controls. By all calculations, for him to have mastered the heaven-defying Erratic Flicker in these 4 years' time, it was clear to see that his intuition and comprehension skills were truly outstanding. And this aspect was even more precious than his talent in mecha piloting, which was yet another reason why Tang Yu was greatly moved.
"Clang!" Mecha and beam saber collided violently. Leiting No.9 felt his mecha judder violently, and the lights in his cockpit dimmed for a moment before being restored to normal again almost instantly.
Experienced as he was, he could immediately confirm that he had been hit. His evasion manoeuvres had not helped him to escape the opponent's strange and sneaky attack. What's fortunate was that he had activated his mecha's beam shield even as he had dodged. Under the protection of the beam shield, the opponent's saber had not caused much damage to his mecha.
However, this did not mean that he was out of danger. Even though he was piloting his mecha in a swift retreat, the opponent was on his tail like a shadow. The other's beam saber was still viciously pressed to his mecha's cockpit, drastically whittling away the power of his beam shield. As soon as his mecha's beam shield ran out of power, that beam saber would pierce through his cockpit without mercy. At that time, he would certainly face death and dismissal from the field.
"Warning! Mecha's power only enough to hold out for 10 seconds. 10, 9 ..." The A.I. began to report the time frame left for the remaining power the mecha had. Leiting No.9 did not dare to gamble that the opponent's saber would run out of power before his beam shield. He could only accelerate further to try and distance himself from the opponent's unrelenting beam saber, as only then could he salvage the situation.
Just one move had been enough to turn the tables in this fight. Leiting No.9 had seemed to have grasped the upper hand at the start, but anyone with a discerning eye could now see that the one who was in a passive and desperate state was him and not Lingtian No.7.
"Who would have guessed that Lingtian No.7's close-range offensive capabilities would be so strong?" At this point, the spectating cadets could not help but sigh in awe. This was because, judging from the external appearance of Lingtian No.7's mecha and the equipment he carried, he was more inclined towards long-range attacks. This was also why the spectating cadets had believed that this would be an intense long-range battle at the very beginning.
The spectating students naturally did not know that this was because this Lingtian No.7 had been following a close combat maniac of a boss all this while. The long-range attackers in the team such as Lin Zhong-qing and Han Jijyun, after over a year of ruthless torment under Ling Lan's hands, had all seen their close-combat skills improve tremendously. Their close-combat standards were not much weaker than those actual close-combat mecha operators — it could even be said that they were even better in terms of close-combat reflexes.
It couldn't be helped — up against their boss, Lin Zhong-qing and Han Jijyun had had no chance at all to execute any long-range attacks. Boss Lan's speed was just too fast — no matter how much distance they put between them and their boss, their boss would have caught up to them in the blink of an eye to attack from close range. In this kind of situation, they could only weave around their boss in close range. This was also one of the reasons why Lin Zhong-qing and the others who favoured long-range attacks would have such high close combat standards — after so much torment, it was impossible for their close-combat skills not to become strong.
Under this desperate situation, Leiting No.9's forehead was already dripping with sweat. He revved the engine of his mecha in a frenzy, pushing it to the extreme. Not just that, his two secondary engines also began to roar. The mecha's engines suddenly revved beyond capacity, causing the mecha's speed to go up a notch. Lingtian No.7 did not seem to have taken this into consideration, his reaction a beat too slow. Leiting No.9 successfully pulled a distance away, escaping the threat of Lingtian No.7's beam saber ...
Leiting No.9 saw that he had managed to pull away, but before he could breathe out a sigh of relief, his mecha's A.I. suddenly emitted a jarring alarm. "Warning, evade! Warning, evade ...!" Shocked, Leiting No.9 looked at the indication on his mecha's screen. His mecha had actually been locked onto by the opponent's long-range weapon. The fine hairs on his body stood up as his fingers danced madly in an attempt to evade this great crisis.
1. 当局者迷: Exactly as translated. What's left unsaid here though is this phrase's counterpart '旁观者清', which states that those on the side-lines can see the entire situation clearly. This subtext is important to understand the next part of this paragraph.
2. Recap: first mention of this was when it was used by Grandpa Chamberlain Ling during the ambush on the way to the CSA. Erratic Flicker is new.
Chapter 409 - Disciple!
Being locked onto meant that Leiting No.9's mecha had already been fixed as a target for Lingtian No.7's long-range weapon. If he could not break free of the opponent's target-lock before the other fired, Leiting No.9's mecha was sure to be hit. And with the 17% power he had left, even if Leiting No.9 activated his mecha's beam shield, it would not be enough to withstand one long-range attack from a mecha of the same level.
Right then, Leiting No.9 realised that he had been set up by the opponent from the start. Even his desperate retreat had been calculated — it was not that the opponent could not chase after him; the opponent had long decided how he would deal with him next.
"Boom!" Lingtian No.7 calmly pulled the trigger. The beam gun in his hand released a powerful beam of energy in Leiting No.9's direction.
Leiting No.9's eyes bulged, perhaps out of anger, and there was actually a trace of redness in them. He yelled, "Dodge, d*mmit!"
The battle had just begun — he did not want to be the first person to fail and leave the scene. Furthermore, he could not accept leaving after being completely dominated by the opponent. When he had first seen Lingtian No.7, he had thought that he would be able to finish the other off easily. The opponent's reckless manner in charging at him drew his contempt, leading him to believe that this operator who was an advanced mecha warrior like him was just an impulsive boor. How could this kind of simple-minded mecha operator be his opponent?
Yes, from the beginning, he had underestimated his opponent. He had loosened his guard, and so had not taken time to seriously plan and strategize during the fight, only blindly attacking from long-range. Even when his first shot had struck air, he had just assumed that the opponent had gotten lucky, and he had not chosen to pull away as soon as he could. This was his greatest failing, and his subsequent attacks had been an even greater display of idiocy. His foolishness had given the opponent the opportunity to draw in close ... all the advantage he had at the start was lost in one go, and he was thrust into a dire situation in the blink of an eye.
Leiting No.9 was filled with regrets — if he could do it all again, he definitely would not let the opponent draw so close, because he was a long-range attacker ...
A loud "Kaboom!" rang out. Lingtian No.7's beam shot unerringly struck Leiting No.9. Despite his desperate struggles, Leiting No.9 had not been able to salvage the situation. His entire mecha exploded instantly, becoming countless flaming parts in the air, scattering in different directions.
At the moment his mecha exploded, Leiting No.9 was declared dead by the mainframe and chased out of Mecha World. He needed to wait for the penalty for death to pass before he could log into Mecha World again and choose a new mecha and start over.
"F*ck, from discovery to the end of the fight, it only took a little more than a minute? Isn't that way too fast?" The spectating cadets were all gobsmacked. For context, it should be known that a fight between mecha of the same level was unlikely to be ended without at least 10 minutes to half an hour. After all, both sides were of about roughly equal strength, it was very difficult for either side to defeat the other.
Of course, if the winner of this fight had been Leiting No.9, the cadets might still have been able to justify it. Lingtian No.7 was a junior after all, without much battle experience. If he had panicked, it would have been no surprise for him to be killed in a split second. However, it was precisely the newly established Lingtian Mecha Clan which had won this first encounter ... the cadets really could not find any reason which could help them make sense of this reality.
Just as the cadets were mired in confusion, seated in the VIP viewing room, Tang Yu's eyes held a trace of a smile. He could see things very clearly — Lingtian No.7 had been able to finish this match so swiftly because he had utilised the opponent's psychology well. It should be said that, from the very moment the two sides had met, Lingtian No.7 had already been laying his trap.
"This fight was well done." The experienced principal naturally could see the intricacy of this fight as well. A gratified smile appeared on his face — he was extremely pleased that such an outstanding student with both brains and brawn had emerged from the academy.
"Yes. Almost taking all of the opponent's possible reactions into consideration ... Leiting No.9 underestimated his opponent from the very start. Of course, this effect was partly encouraged by Lingtian No.7 on purpose. Lingtian No.7 ... truly a mecha operator with a tactical mind," said Tang Yu, smiling as well.
At this time, he had already decided that regardless of whether Lingtian No.7 could transfer to the Mecha Piloting specialization in the end, he would still train this talented youth. The other's combat style was really very similar to his; for the first time, the notion of taking in a disciple stirred in Tang Yu's heart. Yes, the present Tang Yu not only wanted to take Lin Zhong-qing in as a student, but even wanted to make the other his true disciple so he could eventually inherit his mantle.
"You've really been tempted." Tang Yu's expression caused the principal to chuckle knowingly. Ever since Tang Yu had transferred to the First Men's Military Academy to be an instructor, even though he had taken countless gifted students under his tutelage, he had never ever considered taking in a true disciple. And now, the other had obviously been tempted. This made the principal extremely happy. It should be known that it was extremely difficult to find a true disciple that one found suitable. Not only did the candidate have to be talented, they had to catch the instructor's fancy, and there was also an element of serendipity to it all.
Even if Tang Yu had felt that Qiao Ting, Ling Lan, Qi Long, and the rest were all abnormally gifted prodigy mecha operators, because he had not felt a sense of affinity with any of them, he had not been moved to take them in as true disciples. Only Lin Zhong-qing had caught Tang Yu's eyes, prompting him to start thinking about taking the other in under his sect for focused cultivation.
"Hn. I think, if I have such a disciple, my master will also be happy for me." The principal's words made Tang Yu's expression even warmer. Since he had been moved, then he should immediately take action. Otherwise, this disciple he had decided on might be snatched away by someone else if he delayed. Tang Yu had noticed that Lingtian No.7's exceptional performance had already drawn out admiring gazes from quite a number of the instructors around him ...
"Haha, then I should congratulate you." Seeing that Tang Yu was about to obtain a satisfactory disciple, the principal was also very happy for this disciple of his old friend. Frankly, for a period of time, the principal had been very worried for Tang Yu. He was afraid that the knowledge and techniques of Tang Yu's sect would be lost due to Tang Yu's high standards. Mind you, someone as exceptional as Qiao Ting had still been unable to move Tang Yu. The principal had even believed at one point that there would never be a child who would move Tang Yu in this world. Unexpectedly, several years after that, this person had still finally appeared, and his appearance was so sudden but also so matter of fact.
Lingtian No.7 finished off Leiting No.9 so simply, and then, amidst the audience's exclamations, he continued to pilot his mecha to head towards his original intended destination. Very soon, he met up with two other members of Lingtian. Unlike Lin Zhong-qing's misfortune, the other two Lingtian Mecha Clan members had come here unhindered, without encountering anyone from Leiting. After the three of them met up, they seemed to have a brief discussion, and after another minute of rest, the three mecha arranged themselves in a triangular formation, chose a direction, and departed swiftly.
This purposeful assembly of Lingtian was occurring at the other places as well. Due to the actions of Lingtian, there was now a higher chance of them encountering Leiting mecha on this large composite map of desert area and oasis land. In the next ten minutes or so, several clashes between Lingtian and Leiting broke out all across the map.
Both teams incurred losses in these clashes, but overall, Leiting's losses were a little greater. In these fights, they lost five members while Lingtian only lost three.
"I didn't expect the fighting to be so intense right from the start." The spectating cadets felt their blood begin to boil with excitement. Originally, a majority of students had favoured the Leiting Mecha Clan, but now they also began taking a shine to the Lingtian Mecha Clan. There were even many people who changed their minds and began hoping that the ultimate victors of this match would be the Lingtian Mecha Clan.
Of course, they knew that this was just wishful thinking. With the ace operator Qiao Ting in their ranks, Leiting would be able to turn things around even if Qiao Ting was the only one left on their side in the end. There was still no one in Lingtian capable of contending with Qiao Ting's strength — even their three special-class operators would not be able to change this outcome.
Despite knowing that Leiting was certain to win, what could have changed the minds of the spectating cadets so drastically within these ten minutes? This was because in the fights within these ten minutes, the Lingtian Mecha Clan's members performed much better than the members of Leiting. The three members of Lingtian who had been defeated and forced to leave had thoroughly convinced the spectating cadets with their indomitable spirit.
These three members who had been 'sacrificed' could not actually be said to be defeated. Two of the three had taken down their opponent with them under disadvantaged conditions, so Leiting had not gained anything from their defeat. What was even more surprising was that, though the participants were all advanced mecha warriors, anyone who paid attention could tell that this third member of Lingtian was clearly the weakest of the 24 people on the field. And his luck was even worse — the Leiting member he encountered was very experienced; among the 12 members of Leiting on the field, his strength ranked in the top 5. With such a large gap between the two, everyone thought that the Leiting mecha would defeat this member easily.
However, under this sort of obvious disadvantage, the Lingtian member had actually fought till the opponent's mecha had been half-damaged. Although he was still defeated in the end and had been unable to take the Leiting member down with him, all the spectators knew that the opponent was no longer able to continue fighting. A half-damaged mecha would be easily eradicated by any single member of Lingtian on the field. In other words, although Leiting officially only lost five members on the scoreboard, in reality, they had lost six members. That one lucky survivor was actually just a participant in name now, unable to contribute anything for his team, and he may even become a burden on his team.
"The members of Lingtian are too savage." The spectating cadets were thrilled by Lingtian's methods and tenacity in taking their opponents down with them even if they perished, but at the same time, they also viewed it with trepidation. On the battlefield, this kind of opponent was the worst kind to encounter — even if one's strength was a hair better than the opponent, there was no guarantee of winning unscathed.
In the meantime, the moment he had entered the map, Leiting's team leader Qiao Ting had done exactly as Ling Lan had, carefully observing the terrain around him. When he found that it was an endless desert plain interspersed with grassland, he felt a thrill of joy pass through his heart. He was well aware how advantageous this map was to them seniors. It could be said that they had used this map many times before and basically knew which areas had traps, which spots would prompt accidental situations, and which areas made good hiding places ... this made him even more confident of victory.
However, his good mood was quickly interrupted. One minute later, he was notified by the mainframe that the Leiting Mecha Clan had already lost one member, dropping their member count from 12 to 11.
Chapter 410 - Discovery!
Qiao Ting's heart clenched, and his first reaction was to check on the Lingtian Mecha Clan's numbers. The other side still had 12 people. His brow furrowed as he wondered whether his team members were just unlucky enough to bump into one of the three special-class operators of Lingtian.
Qiao Ting was not particularly frustrated or regretful that one of his members had fallen — on the battlefield, anything could happen; luck was also a major factor. Still, for one of his members to be done in by the opponent in just one minute, Qiao Ting was rather disgruntled. He felt that even if his team member was only an advanced mecha warrior, they should still be able to hold out for at least two to three minutes. Being finished off in less than a minute was like a slap in the face for him.
Right then, Qiao Ting still did not know that his team member had only encountered an advanced mecha warrior of Lingtian's. He had only been defeated so swiftly because he had underestimated his opponent and fallen for the other's trap. On the other hand, it was fortunate that he did not know this, otherwise he would have definitely blown his top.
Qiao Ting knew the importance of morale; he could not allow the morale of Lingtian's battle team to blaze higher from this. Thus, he decided to take action and begin searching for opponents. He wanted to eliminate a few members of Lingtian to push down the other side's numbers and suppress their morale.
However, this map was too vast — Qiao Ting could only choose a random direction and skim across the land rapidly as he used the radar of his ace mecha to scan his surroundings.
The radar on an ace mecha was two ranks higher than that of an advanced mecha's. It could pick up conditions within 5 kilometres. Qiao Ting believed that as soon as they were discovered by his radar, Lingtian's members would never be able to escape his grasp. In terms of speed, advanced mecha were utter trash before ace mecha.
Just as Qiao Ting was conducting his search, the situation shifted drastically. The numbers on both sides began to change constantly — for almost every two or three minutes that passed, Qiao Ting would receive another notification that a Leiting member had been defeated and eliminated from the field. Ten minutes later, Leiting was actually down 5 members, his team's overall member count dropping to 7, almost half of their initial number.
Luckily, Lingtian had also suffered some losses in these ten minutes, losing three of their own. Still, Qiao Ting's mood had already been significantly soured. It was very obvious that in the frontal clashes between the two teams thus far, Leiting was now at a disadvantage.
"Bloody Lingtian." At this point, Qiao Ting could no longer maintain his composure. He could not help but curse.
Right then, a warning rang out from the A.I. of Qiao Ting's mecha. "Beep! Caution, three unidentified flying objects discovered ahead!"
This alert made Qiao Ting's spirits rally. Perhaps because the map was too large, and Qiao Ting's luck also did not seem very good, within these ten minutes, Qiao Ting had not encountered a single Lingtian mecha, nor had he come across any of his teammates. Qiao Ting was rather disappointed by this. Even though he really wanted to hack and slash at the opponent to suppress the other side's morale, he was truly helpless against the empty vastness of this map.
Qiao Ting's first decision was to close the distance between him and the three unidentified objects. Clearly displayed on his mecha's screen, from about 5 kilometres away, three mecha were approaching him in a triangular formation. The three mecha's bodies were exuding the red light marking an enemy faction, and Qiao Ting was extremely familiar with one of the mecha. From its appearance alone, Qiao Ting could tell that it was an old rival of his, that boorish special-class mecha operator Zhao Jun. There were two other advanced mecha behind him; it looked like the three mecha had formed a battle column.
Seeing this, Qiao Ting vaguely understood how his team members had been eliminated within such a short amount of time. They were very likely to have been surrounded and beaten to death by the opponent's greater numbers. Rage surged in Qiao Ting's heart. The mainframe was obviously biased towards the Lingtian Mecha Clan for this scenario to happen. It was likely that some of the Lingtian members may have already been grouped together when they first spawned on the map.
"Hmph, how despicable! Thinking to use this kind of method to prevent me, Qiao Ting, from becoming the king of the military academy? No way!" Rage blazed in Qiao Ting's eyes. He felt that this was an obstacle the academy had intentionally set in his path. He had no idea that the side that had truly been favoured by the mainframe was his Leiting. However, no one could have foreseen that Ling Lan would have the heaven-defying cheating device Little Four, forcibly turning Lingtian's disadvantage into an advantage, causing the scales to tip in favour of Lingtian.
Furious, a trace of coldness emerged in Qiao Ting's eyes. Since everyone was against him, then he would have to pull off an even more impressive performance. He would use true strength to tell everyone that no one would be able to stop him, Qiao Ting, from becoming the king of the military academy.
Qiao Ting's killing intent-filled eyes fell upon that black special-class mecha in the lead on his screen. As long as he eliminated Zhao Jun, the only one in Lingtian capable of withstanding ten to twenty moves under him, this match's final outcome would basically be determined.
Qiao Ting's aberrant control talent had indeed been the main reason he had been able to become the first student of the military academy to advance to ace operator at his age. However, his ability to control his emotions was also a large factor. Regardless of the fury in his heart, after Qiao Ting became determined to eliminate Zhao Jun, his entire being became unbelievably cool and collected. This was a point that Tang Yu greatly admired in Qiao Ting. To develop into a strong person capable of holding one's ground, though talent was extremely important, rationality, mental fortitude, and accurate battle judgment were even more important than raw talent. Without those other qualities, even the most aberrant prodigy would be shot down on the battlefield due to sheer blind recklessness.
Qiao Ting did not choose to rush forwards immediately. Instead, he sneakily closed in on Zhao Jun, carefully maintaining a 4-kilometre distance between them to travel in sync with the other. The search limit of a special-class operator's radar was 4 kilometres — as long as he kept a distance of 4 kilometres between himself and Zhao Jun, the other would never be able to discover him.
Qiao Ting was so careful because he wanted to confirm that there were no other Lingtian members around. Qiao Ting still remembered a case study Instructor Tang Yu had told him once. He did not want to fall into a trap of Lingtian's out of impulsiveness; it had to be said that Qiao Ting was extremely careful.
It turned out that in the history of mecha combat, there had been such an example — an ace mecha of some nation had once encountered a team full of advanced mecha warriors from an enemy nation. Based on common sense, even though the side with the advanced mecha warriors had greater numbers, due to the natural suppression of mecha levels, as long as the ace operator handled things properly, he could definitely break the other side's battle formation apart and obtain victory in the encounter.
However, the outcome was the complete opposite. Perhaps that ace mecha too believed that victory was assured, for he underestimated the battle fervour of these advanced mecha warriors, accidentally falling into the other side's ploy and ending up heavily surrounded. The ace operator thought that even if he could not kill all of the advanced mecha warriors around him, it should still be extremely easy for him to run away in his mecha. But unexpectedly, some of the advanced mecha warriors had chosen a horrific method to prevent his escape — self-destruction!
Yes, those advanced mecha warriors had not cared about their so-called lives, each of them throwing themselves forward one after another. They did not even choose to attack, nor did they dodge — they did not use any beam gun or beam saber, simply using their mecha's two arms to grab hold of the ace mecha desperately. Right after that, they would self-destruct — even if they were hacked to death while holding onto the ace mecha, they would make sure to press their self-destruct button in time. Whether or not it was of any use, they wanted to leave some bit of damage on the opponent.
This was how this group of advanced mecha warriors used the combined power of their self-destructs to exhaust the power of the ace mecha's powerful beam shield. In the end, the final outcome was that the ace mecha was forcibly kept in place by those advanced mecha warriors using that brute self-destruct method. At the end of it all, just like those advanced mecha warriors who had self-exploded, he became a speck of dust in the starry skies.
The example of this fight struck fear into the hearts of all ace operators. Fortunately, not all advanced mecha warriors could view death like coming home, so such an occurrence of trading their own lives for the life of an enemy was not commonplace. Unless death was truly inevitable, only then would most advanced mecha warriors choose to do such a thing. However, also due to this case study, all ace operators became exceedingly cautious. When battling advanced mecha warriors, they would be wary of letting themselves be surrounded, afraid they would also fall victim to that self-destruction method.
Qiao Ting had learned of this case study right after he had advanced to ace operator level. Tang Yu had made him watch the recording of said battle in order to let him understand that, on the battlefield, ace operators were not the only ones who could contend with ace operators.
Only the Huaxia Federation had a recording of that battle, because that group of fearless self-sacrificing advanced mecha warriors was one of the platoons of the Huaxia Federation. Meanwhile, that unfortunate ace operator was from the Caesar Empire. Out of this platoon comprising of 30 advanced mecha, only 7 survived. In order to take down that one ace mecha, the Federation paid the price of the lives of 23 advanced mecha warriors, clinching the victory of that battle. And the recording of the battle was captured back then by these 7 survivors.
This battle was the pride of the Huaxia Federation, but was also the sorrow of the Huaxia Federation. This was because at that time, the Huaxia Federation had considerably fewer ace operators than the Caesar Empire. It couldn't be helped — in order to obtain the final victory, The Huaxia Federation could only resort to this type of methods to plug the gap. However, this also caused the Federation to sacrifice countless advanced mecha warriors. At one point, even the mid-range forces were rather thin, and had required a whole 20 years for the deficit in manpower to be compensated.
This was also why the Federation took it so seriously whenever they discovered any promising sprouts who showed possibility of advancing to ace. After that historic battle, the Federation had no longer wanted to revisit the grief of using numbers to bridge the gap of power ever again.
Qiao Ting was also afraid that Lingtian would choose to use such methods against him. After all, in Mecha World, death was not true death. If the Lingtian battle team really wanted to obtain the final victory in this challenge fight, Qiao Ting believed that this was the only avenue they had.
Thus, although Qiao Ting really wanted to finish off Zhao Jun, he still had to be on guard against the other in case he used such a method against him. If he accidentally fell into the opponent's trap, became surrounded, and was then finished off by the opponent under such despicable methods, he, Qiao Ting, would never be able to live it down.
Qiao Ting followed Zhao Jun's group of three for approximately a minute, and finding no other Lingtian people around, his heart settled. He could basically confirm that the other had set no traps for him now. But just as he was about to make a move, Zhao Jun's group suddenly changed directions. Taking a sharp right angle, they rapidly pulled a distance away from him. Their abrupt actions made Qiao Ting's heart skip a beat — had he been exposed?
Chapter 411 - Inscrutable!
Qiao Ting immediately refuted his own speculation. As he had been tracking the data produced by his mecha's A.I. all this way, he was sure the distance between his mecha and Zhao Jun's had not ever fallen below the 4-kilometre limit keeping him out of the range of detection of Zhao Jun's mecha. In real life, perhaps due to various reasons, the data collected by mecha fluctuated erratically, so there was the possibility of an error leading to exposure. But in Mecha World, the data was set to be dead-accurate. As long as one did not go against the data given, there should be absolutely no chance of being discovered.
Qiao Ting made a decision instantly. He quickly sped up to follow them, wanting to see what exactly had made Zhao Jun change directions so abruptly. At the same time, he had already made up his mind to eliminate Zhao Jun — he did not plan to wait any longer.
Even though Zhao Jun's group of three had pushed their mecha's engines to their respective limits, the two advanced mecha had still dragged down Zhao Jun's speed. Qiao Ting quickly caught up to them in his ace mecha. If not for the fact that Qiao Ting wanted to find out what Zhao Jun was doing and so was still keeping 4 kilometres away for now, at this time, Zhao Jun's group might have already been facing Qiao Ting's mecha.
Not too long after, Qiao Ting discovered the reason why Zhao Jun had suddenly changed directions. Ahead of Zhao Jun, that is, within the 5-kilometre range of detection of Qiao Ting's mecha, the A.I. once again sounded an alert, notifying him that there was an unidentified flying object there.
Qiao Ting immediately zoomed in and saw that this mecha which had just appeared was actually from Leiting's battle team. It looked like Zhao Jun had discovered the other's presence and so had changed course in preparation to attack this mecha.
Qiao Ting was just thinking to speed up and rescue his team member when an idea flashed through his mind. He gave up on accelerating, choosing to maintain his speed instead as he moved forwards. He continued to maintain 4 kilometres between himself and the three mecha of Zhao Jun's group, trailing them as they sprinted towards that team member of his. Because he knew who the other was, Qiao Ting did not hesitate to send a heads up to that team member.
That member of Leiting had actually noticed Zhao Jun and the others coming for him as well by this time. When he saw that the one in the lead was a special-class operator, he knew that he was no match for the group and had quickly turned tail to run. This was also why Zhao Jun's group was pushing their engines so far in pursuit. Since they had found prey, they naturally could not let their prey escape from right under their noses.
As he was running, the Leiting member suddenly received an alert from his mecha's A.I., conveying a message from a teammate. His heart leapt in joy, and even as he continued running at top speed, he rapidly skimmed the message. When he saw its contents, his heart settled and he abruptly stopped running to turn around, calmly waiting for the three mecha of Zhao Jun's group to catch up to him.
As Leiting's member had stopped running, Zhao Jun's group managed to catch up to the other a few seconds later.
"D*mn, you run fast!" Zhao Jun's group surrounded the Leiting member immediately. At the same time, Zhao Jun's loud voice rang out from his mecha's loudspeakers, his tone mocking as he said, "Why don't you continue running? You really think I can't overtake you?" If not out of consideration for the two fellows behind him, he would have long caught up to the other.
"I'm too unlucky today, actually bumping into you. However, Zhao Jun, aren't you stooping too low? Actually joining a tiny, insignificant freshmen mecha clan. Isn't this a waste of your talent? If you just don't have a good place to go, as long as you quit this battle, I can recommend for our regiment commander to take you in as a member of Leiting. How's that?" The Leiting member was not flustered, actually speaking up to negotiate with Zhao Jun.
"Don't. This lord 1 is very happy throwing my weight around in this freshmen clan. I'm provided with good food and drink and treated well. Since I can be a lord, why should I make myself suffer by submitting myself to become Qiao Ting's underling?" Even though Zhao Jun's expression was not visible, the smugness in his tone caused the other two Lingtian members with him to sweatdrop endlessly.
"Luo Lang, has this person always been this arrogant?" Throwing his weight around? Hells, what did he take the Lingtian Mecha Clan for? Li Yingjie was very dissatisfied with the other's words 1 .
Luo Lang pursed his lips in thought, silent for a moment before replying, "Leave it. This person is especially stupid. He speaks without the words going through his mind. If you take him seriously, you're just torturing yourself." The connotation being that Li Yingjie should just let the words pass and not take it to heart.
Zhao Jun was a member of the Lingtian Battle Clan, a comrade of Luo Lang's, so Luo Lang could not sell him out and tell Li Yingjie the truth. In fact, in the team, before Boss Lan, Zhao Jun was as obedient as a harmless cat ... how could he be arrogant?
Leiting's member still seemed to have more to say, but Zhao Jun had no interest in blathering on with him any further. With a cold huff, he said, "Stop your chattering. Young Brother Li, Young Brother Luo, why aren't you all attacking? Do you still want such a master as myself to take action for this kind of minor character?"
Zhao Jun's apparent tone of ordering underlings around made Li Yingjie's chest feel stuffed up with annoyance. Luo Lang too was extremely speechless. Could it be that, out of Boss Lan's sphere of influence, this Zhao Jun was finally exposing his true nature?
"You ..." Li Yingjie only submitted to Ling Lan. Even though he knew Zhao Jun was a special-class operator, this fact could not make him lower his head to the other. He could not suppress a sound of indignation, but he was stopped by Luo Lang before he could say anything more. "Li Yingjie, leave it. Let's go!" After saying that, Luo Lang drew the beam saber from his back and operated his mecha to leap at the opponent.
Li Yingjie saw that Luo Lang had already begun to move — in order to work together with Luo Lang, he suppressed the rage in his heart, merely throwing a fierce glare at Zhao Jun before pulling the beam saber from behind him and charging out as well.
This advanced mecha warrior of Leiting seemed to be very strong; Li Yingjie and Luo Lang actually were not able to gain the upper hand with their joint attack. Instead, there were even times when the two of them fell out of sync and disrupted the other's attack, leading to several occasions where they ended up attacking each other, giving the opponent a chance to turn around and beat them back. For a while, both sides were actually evenly matched in a tough battle.
"F*ck, how stupid, Little Li, what are you hacking at? Are you trying to cut the enemy or your ally? Little Luo, can't you see where your teammate is? Actually blocking your own teammate's attack, are you a spy sent by the enemy?" Watching the terrible rapport between his two comrades, Zhao Jun's anger was stoked and he began muttering out loud, pointing out their mistakes.
The cadets who witnessed this scene could not help but break out into an uproar. The Lingtian battle team had undoubtedly performed extremely well in the past ten minutes — whether it was the members who had died or those who had won, their skills in mecha control had been vividly displayed, almost indistinguishable from that of old veterans. Those members' excellent performances had increased the anticipation of the spectating cadets towards the other members of the Lingtian battle team. But now, the terrible performance of these two members greatly disappointed the audience.
"So not all of the Lingtian Mecha Clan members are good. Some are just here to make up the numbers." The disappointed cadets began to criticize the Lingtian Mecha Clan harshly. It could not be helped — when expectations soared too high and were crushed, the sudden drop from that height would always seek an outlet to regain psychological equilibrium.
"That's strange. Why are Lingtian No.4 and Lingtian No.5 performing so badly?" Likewise, the school administrators and instructors were also shaking their heads, finding both these participants' performance lacklustre. In contrast, Instructor Tang Yu frowned, puzzled. After some thought, he searched for information on the two, and when he saw their details, he was even more bewildered.
Lingtian No.4; Name: Li Yingjie. Status: Elite family descendant. Age: 17. Physical skills: intermediate level Qi-Jin stage. Mecha Piloting Level: Advanced; Intermediate to Advanced advancement results, excellent!"
Lingtian No.5; Name: Luo Lang. Status: Military family descendant. Age: 17. Physical skills: intermediate level Qi-Jin stage. Mecha Piloting Level: Advanced; Intermediate to Advanced advancement results, excellent!"
These two boys had not performed like this last year! Tang Yu had a very deep impression of these two, especially Luo Lang. That ruthlessness that he had turned on himself had sent chills into Tang Yu's heart — how could this kind of person allow himself to perform so badly ...?
Tang Yu's gaze turned to several hundred metres behind Zhao Jun. An idea flashed across his mind, and his expression could not help but shift slightly.
The change in Tang Yu's complexion was noticed by the principal beside him, who then asked curiously, "Tang Yu, what have you discovered?"
"I'm wondering whether those boys are plotting something!" Tang Yu pointed with a wry smile at the mecha only they could see, which was hiding about 100 metres behind Zhao Jun. It was Qiao Ting who was quickly slinking forward.
"These boys look like trash at a glance. What could they possibly be plotting? Qiao Ting's performance this time can pretty much be called perfect — while the attention of the Lingtian members is all on this other Leiting member, he fired some radar interference missiles and has silently snuck up to lurk behind Lingtian. I think that these three members of Lingtian will soon become battle points for Qiao Ting. It can be predicted that the upper hand Lingtian has established since the beginning will all be gone after this encounter." One of the administrators to one side had overheard the conversation between Tang Yu and the principal, and was extremely dismissive of the idea. Qiao Ting's current performance pleased them greatly — the candidate they had chosen for their God-building project was truly exceptional.
After saying all this, the administrator smiled ingratiatingly and said, "A renowned teacher produces accomplished students! The student Qiao Ting whom Instructor Tang Yu has raised is indeed impressive!" At the end of his speech, he did not forget to give a big thumbs up, and then turned to flatter the principal, saying, "Principal, this is all the result of your sagacious guidance."
While the principal only nodded and smiled, making it hard to tell his true thoughts, Tang Yu was obviously less experienced in dealing with this type of situation. At the administrator's words, his brows knitted together and he rebutted immediately, "Qiao Ting is still very young and inexperienced. Faculty Head Lin, you think too highly of him."
As intelligent as Tang Yu was, he already had a vague sense of what the administrators were aiming to do. With regards to that, he did not approve. Knowing Qiao Ting well, he truly believed he had to take responsibility for Qiao Ting's future; he needed to let the confident and somewhat domineering Qiao Ting experience more setbacks for his sake.
Trying to show favour but receiving a cold reception in return, this Faculty Head Lin was rather upset. His smile faded and he harrumphed softly before turning away to speak with the other administrators instead. Even half a phrase is too much when two people don't see eye to eye 1 — this Faculty Head Lin no longer had any interest in talking with Tang Yu.
"You don't think Qiao Ting will do well in this encounter?" asked the principal with a kindly smile.
"I have full confidence in Qiao Ting's capabilities, and also think that Zhao Jun, Lingtian No.4, and Lingtian No.5 cannot handle him on their own. However, I do not believe that Lingtian No.4 and Lingtian No.5's strength is as terrible as they are portraying right now ... If Qiao Ting truly underestimates these two because of this, I think that Qiao Ting may not get what he wants. It's hard for me to foresee clearly." Tang Yu frowned. Just as he said, he really could not figure out what the three members of Lingtian were trying to do.
"Since you can't foresee it, then just continue watching ..." Unlike Tang Yu, whose attention was all on Qiao Ting, the principal's gaze drifted towards the opposite direction of Qiao Ting's position, his lips slightly turned up in a knowing smile.
1. Yes, Zhao Jun is referring to himself in third-person here, and calling himself 'lord'.
2. T/C: Lol! Of all people on the team, Li Yingjie would be the one most likely to take offence.
3. 话不投机半句多: The more literal version would be 'when the conversation doesn't click, half a sentence is too much'.
Chapter 412 - Tricked!
Qiao Ting stared at Zhao Jun's group of three surrounding his team member with cold eyes. Lingtian No.4 and Lingtian No.5's control skills could only be described as passable — Qiao Ting reckoned they were not from the same team before this and so had nothing much in terms of rapport. This was also why his team member had not been put at a disadvantage even though he was up against two opponents. Meanwhile, Zhao Jun was also trying to instruct them. Even though his tone was terrible, he was not taking any action, and everything he said was targeting his two teammates' mistakes.
Seeing that Zhao Jun's attention was fully engaged on the three fighting mecha, Qiao Ting knew that his opportunity had come!
Qiao Ting was confident that he could defeat Zhao Jun easily even in a frontal attack and obtain victory. However, he would need to spend more time to do so. Qiao Ting did not want to waste any time, so he chose a method which could kill the enemy in one move — while Zhao Jun was distracted and unprepared, he would launch a sneak attack and kill him instantly.
Caught off-guard, a special-class mecha would be completely unable to withstand even one attack from an ace mecha, and this was precisely the ultra-effective attack Qiao Ting was aiming for.
On the battlefield, Zhao Jun's group of three were currently completely oblivious to the incoming danger, but the spectating cadets could see very clearly that Qiao Ting had already silently drawn his beam saber and was coiled like a hunting cheetah preparing to strike.
That special-class mecha of Lingtian's was in danger! This conclusion surfaced in everyone's minds. Against an ace operator's sneak attack, they just could not see how a completely unprepared special-class mecha could survive.
It could be said that the key moment determining the ultimate outcome of this fight was about to come ...
Right at this moment, Qiao Ting's eyes lit up. Having long been prepared to attack, he suddenly burst forth from his hiding place like a hunting cheetah, the beam saber in his hands slashing right at Zhao Jun's back, aiming for the most defensively weak cockpit area.
"Ah!" Even though the spectating cadets had known this was coming, Qiao Ting's sudden action still made them cry out involuntarily. Zhao Jun had his back to Qiao Ting, and Qiao Ting's speed was already at the limits of what an ace mecha could achieve. He could truly be described to be moving as fast as thunder, as quick as lightning. It could be seen that Qiao Ting had no intentions of giving Zhao Jun any little chance of surviving. Was Zhao Jun really about to be finished off by Qiao Ting in one move?
The supporters of Lingtian could not bear to watch; they could not help but close their eyes. If Zhao Jun was kicked out of the match like this, there would be absolutely no chance for Lingtian to obtain victory after this. Everyone knew very well that Zhao Jun was the strongest one in Lingtian.
"Zng!" This was not the sound of a mecha being pierced but the sound of two energies of equal strength clashing. Those who had closed their eyes opened their eyes again in surprise, only to see incandescent sparks blooming between the two mecha, so blinding that white spots appeared in the vision of the spectating cadets. The whole scene was a bright sheet of white.
Luckily, the adaptive ability of the cadets' eyes was very strong. One to two seconds later, they had all regained their vision. Only then could they see the scene clearly.
As expected, Zhao Jun had not been killed by Qiao Ting in one blow. He still had his back to Qiao Ting, but his mecha was lowered in a half-kneel, shrinking his body height down by half. Furthermore, this action also allowed the half-drawn beam saber on Zhao Jun's back to perfectly intercept the attack Qiao Ting had launched at his cockpit.
The feedback from his mecha made Qiao Ting pause for only a moment. He knew that his attack had not succeeded as he had hoped — though he had no idea why Zhao Jun could block his strike so coincidentally, he also knew that he still had the upper hand. The opportunity could not be missed — without any hesitation, he raised his beam saber and swung it forwards viciously once more.
This attack came hard and fast — Zhao Jun, who still had not fully drawn his beam saber and had his back to Qiao Ting, had no time at all to try blocking Qiao Ting's attack with his beam saber again. Everyone thought that even if Zhao Jun did not die this time, he would certainly be heavily injured. The beam shield of a special-class mecha could not completely offset the power behind an ace mecha's beam saber. At that time, not only would Zhao Jun's mecha be damaged, but, at the same time, the intense shockwaves brought by the beam saber would also injure the operator's body.
Just as Qiao Ting's attack was about to succeed, he suddenly sensed danger. Without conscious thought, the beam saber in his hands suddenly changed directions, giving up on his attack on Zhao Jun to sweep out at his right flank ...
"Zng!" His beam saber clashed with another beam saber, once again sending out countless electrical sparks into the air. Meanwhile, Zhao Jun took this opportunity to operate his mecha to flip backwards, and after bracing his mecha with one arm on the ground, he successfully rolled out to land securely. With that, Zhao Jun was now facing Qiao Ting directly. Qiao Ting's plan to kill him in one move had failed completely.
Qiao Ting's face was stormy — he had not expected his sure-kill sneak attack to fail. This made him very unhappy. If he had known this was how things would turn out, he might as well have attacked the other directly from the front from the very start. Even if that would have required more time, he still would not be as annoyed as he was now.
Qiao Ting's frustration passed quickly. His gaze then turned swiftly to his right — it was this person's perfectly-timed attack which had allowed Zhao Jun to get away. However, after glancing over, he was taken aback. The one who had attacked him turned out to be that unimpressive Lingtian No.5. Qiao Ting had not thought much of the other two mecha with Zhao Jun, but it was precisely this inconspicuous mecha operator who had successfully taken him by surprise. The other's timing had been impeccable, giving him no choice but to give up on attacking Zhao Jun to save himself.
It should be known that even for ace mecha, the beam shield protecting the cockpit was still the weakest. As long as it was hit directly, the energy shockwaves would still leave him injured. Lingtian No.5 had been aiming straight for his cockpit in his sneak attack, which was why Qiao Ting had had no choice but to save himself.
This outstanding attack from Lingtian No.5 gave Qiao Ting the inkling that something was not right. He immediately looked towards his team member and found that the other was in a terrible situation. Against Lingtian No.4's attacks alone, his team member was reduced to pure defence with no room for counterattacking.
Right now, Lingtian No.4 was showing none of the previous clumsiness he was showing earlier. With just one glance, Qiao Ting could tell that this Lingtian No.4's strength was greater than his team member's. Qiao Ting's thoughts stirred and he instantly realised that he had been tricked.
Qiao Ting was furious that he had been set up. Tone icy, he asked Zhao Jun, "I would like to know. How did you know I was here?" They could only have set this up if they had discovered his presence.
Zhao Jun waved the beam saber in his hands, smiled, and said, "Actually, from the very moment you began following us, we already knew."
Qiao Ting's eyes turned cold. Zhao Jun's answer was clearly just humouring him; it looked like the other would not be telling him the truth. "Since you don't want to tell, then leave it. Just with the three of you, even if you've set a trap to lure me out, so what? The outcome will not change. You will all die here." Qiao Ting coolly announced his verdict for the three members of Lingtian. He had barely finished speaking when he had moved to come right up to Zhao Jun. Even though Qiao Ting was proficient in long-range offence, as Instructor Tang Yu's student, his close-combat abilities were not that weak either.
"Bring it!" Facing Qiao Ting's frontal attack, Zhao Jun hollered, raising the beam saber in his hands and moving forwards to meet the other. Zhao Jun was a close-combat mecha operator to begin with, so he had the utmost faith in his own close-combat ability. Even up against an ace operator one level higher than him, as long as his own mecha had enough power, he was not afraid.
"Zng, zng, zng ..." The two beam sabers met several times in succession, sending sparks flying everywhere. The intense bursts of light when they clashed left the eyes of many of the students watching the fight aching. Still, even so, they could not bear to turn their eyes away, because they could not know whether the fight would end in the very next second. Because anyone with eyes could see that after exchanging several blows, Qiao Ting had gained the upper hand. The power differential in mecha levels and control ability had still pushed Zhao Jun into a disadvantaged position. As the power levels of Zhao Jun's mecha drained rapidly, this disadvantage grew bigger and bigger. It was entirely possible that he would be defeated by Qiao Ting and eliminated in the very next second ...
"Beep!" The thus far silent mainframe suddenly emitted an alert once more. Qiao Ting glanced at his system notifications reflexively, and found that the section marking his battle team's numbers had gone down by one again. At present, the number of active members left on his team had become 6.
Qiao Ting's heart clenched. He quickly turned to look at where his team member had been fighting earlier. This one glance made Qiao Ting's expression change drastically.
His team member was already down on the ground, a beam saber slowly being pulled out from the team member's cockpit. The one holding the beam saber was not Lingtian No.4 but Lingtian No.5, the one who had attacked him earlier. It looked like while he had been trading blows with Zhao Jun, Lingtian No.5 had chosen to go back and combine forces with Lingtian No.4 ...
The rage in Qiao Ting's heart surged — the Lingtian battle team's persistent face-smacking fuelled abnormal hate in Qiao Ting. The powerful killing intent he felt pushed his finger-speed to rise once more, truly reaching the speed an ace operator should have. Perhaps Qiao Ting had felt that victory was at hand and had still somewhat underestimated his opponents, for he had not truly shown the standards an ace operator should have up till now. This was another reason why Zhao Jun had been able to hold out for so long.
With the increase in his control finger-speed, the beam saber in Qiao Ting's mecha's hands also began to move a level faster. It swung at Zhao Jun like a thunderstorm — this kind of wild and frenzied attacks placed several times more pressure on Zhao Jun. He could only parry desperately, hoping that he would be able to endure and survive these intense attacks.
The spectating students could only see a sea of sword-light at this point. Zhao Jun's black mecha was completely obscured by the light of the beam sabers. The students did not know what would happen; they could only open their eyes wide and wait for the light to fade to witness the final outcome.
Only several keen-eyed instructors and several powerful administrators were able to see what was happening through the light. Right then, the light representing the power behind Zhao Jun's beam saber was already extremely dim, and the beam shield on his mecha was only glowing very faintly. This meant that the power supply of Zhao Jun's mecha was about to be completely exhausted by Qiao Ting's frenzied attacks. In perhaps another two or three attacks, Zhao Jun's mecha's power would be finished — at that time, the inevitable outcome awaiting Zhao Jun was a merciless killing, defeat, and elimination.
"As expected, a special-class operator has no way of resisting against an ace operator." Some of the administrators relaxed at this point, unable to stop themselves from laughing. When they had first realised that Qiao Ting had been tricked, they had been afraid that Qiao Ting would drop the ball at this critical moment. But now, from the looks of it, their worries were unfounded. How could an ace operator be defeated by these measly small fry?
Chapter 413 - Self-Destruct!
Just as Zhao Jun's life was hanging in the balance, Lingtian No.4 and Lingtian No.5, who had already successfully killed off the other Leiting member, suddenly attacked at the same time. Coming in from the top and bottom at very tricky angles, their beam sabers stabbed viciously at Qiao Ting.
In the face of their sudden attack, a sneer appeared on Qiao Ting's lips. Compared to the start, he was already extremely vigilant against these two Lingtian members. As such, how could he be unprepared for their sudden attack?
Qiao Ting's mecha suddenly twisted in a bizarre fashion, and the two attacking beam sabers grazed by the sides of his mecha without damaging him at all. At the same time, his beam saber turned away from attacking Zhao Jun to pierce towards one of the other two mecha at an unimaginable angle extremely quickly ...
Qiao Ting's attack was too abrupt — his beam saber broke through the protective beam shield of the mecha to sink directly into the opponent's cockpit ...
The severe pain of his body being stabbed almost made Luo Lang unconscious. Luo Lang gritted his teeth and with a full-body jolt, his initially watery and bright eyes had turned cold and ruthless. Right then, he almost seemed to not feel the agonizing pain his body was in.
"Hmph, actually pushing me out to suffer on your behalf at this critical moment. Primary identity, you are just too irresponsible." As Luo Lang muttered to himself, he decisively pressed the self-destruct button on his mecha. Then, he reached out with both hands to grip the beam saber piercing him firmly. The energy radiated by the beam saber instantly seared Luo Lang's hands, but Luo Lang did not seem to feel it, just as if this body was not his.
Meanwhile, at this time, Qiao Ting was trying to pull out his beam saber from Lingtian No.5's cockpit. However, when he tugged, he actually did not succeed. Could it be that the beam saber was stuck?
"Luo Lang ..." Seeing Luo Lang pierced by the beam saber, Li Yingjie screamed in horror.
"Run!" Luo Lang's icy voice came through his mecha's commlink. Suddenly realising something, Li Yingjie's face paled and he began retreating swiftly.
"Damm*t, you little punk Luo, wait for me!" Zhao Jun had also heard Luo Lang's voice. What else was there to figure out? It looked like Luo Lang was prepared to carry out Ling Lan's second battle tactic now — who asked them to be the first to encounter Qiao Ting?
Even a little junior four years younger than him was unafraid; how could he shrink back? Zhao Jun clenched his teeth — taking advantage of the time Qiao Ting was struggling to pull out his beam saber and was unable to attack, he decisively threw aside his beam saber that was almost completely drained of energy and dove forwards fiercely to wrap his mecha around Qiao Ting's mecha.
Qiao Ting saw the two of them unwilling to back off no matter what, and in his shock and consternation, a notion suddenly crossed his mind. His expression changed drastically — decisively casting aside the beam saber in his hands, he pushed his mecha to maximum power, trying to escape Zhao Jun's entanglement. At the same time, he dialled his ace mecha's beam shield to its maximum setting ...
Quicker than words could say, before Qiao Ting could wrest free of Zhao Jun's grip, two loud explosions rang out in quick succession. Luo Lang's mecha and Zhao Jun's mecha had exploded, and the massive energy produced threw the white sand below them into the air. Within the range of 100 metres, the entire area was shrouded by white sand, so the spectators could not see what was happening inside.
"Bang, bang, bang!" In this kind of uncertainty, the sounds of violent collisions rang out once more from inside the sphere of swirling sand. Then, a mecha suddenly flew out from the sands. Its body was emitting trails of dense smoke, and the initially gleaming mecha was not rather dull. There were also many scars now on the initially smooth outer shell. It was Qiao Ting's ace mecha. Having lost the original weapon he had been attacking with, the beam saber, Qiao Ting substituted it with a beam gun. He pointed it at the swirling sands and pulled the trigger, sending a beam of energy bursting out from the muzzle.
Immediately after, another mecha also flew out from the sandy sphere. Up against the shot coming at his face, the other mecha did not choose to dodge but faced it head-on. This mecha was the third Lingtian mecha, the only surviving Lingtian No.4.
"This fellow is asking for trouble!" Seeing this idiotic behaviour of Lingtian No.4, the spectating students could not help but grumble angrily. They were not looking down on Lingtian No.4 — it was just that the fierce performance of the other Lingtian members had drawn the spectating students involuntarily over to Lingtian's side, so they did not want to see Lingtian No.4 be sacrificed for nothing.
The beam shot struck Lingtian No.4 as expected, and his mecha's beam shield became dim instantly. Everyone knew that if he was hit one more time, Lingtian No.4's mecha would not be able to take it; at that time, the operator would perish along with the mecha.
"Dodge quickly, you bastard!" The spectating cadets yelled as they clenched their fists, hoping that Lingtian No.4 would not be impulsive and protect himself well before thinking of some other way to attack Qiao Ting ...
Unfortunately, the spectating students' wish did not come true. Lingtian No.4 seemed to have lost his reason after his two teammates had self-destructed; berserk, he was like a moth to a flame, charging fearlessly at Qiao Ting ...
Qiao Ting's face revealed his contempt for this kind of brainless behaviour. He operated his mecha to retreat even as he calmly pulled the trigger in his hands. Just one more shot, and this Lingtian No.4 would end up exactly like the other two, killed by him and ejected from the field.
The beam gun once again released a bright beam of white light which hurtled towards Lingtian No.4. Just as everyone thought that Lingtian No.4 was sure to die, suddenly, from the skies above the two fighters, a beam of light came down and intercepted the beam about to strike Lingtian No.4. The two beams offset each other and finally dissipated into the air.
Of course, as the two beams were dissipating, there was still some leakage of energy. If Lingtian No.4 had waited a bit for the energy to fade completely, he would be fine, but Lingtian No.4 did not consider this at all. Instead, he sped up to leap at Qiao Ting — as his mecha passed through the area where the beams met, the ambient energy once again brought harm to the mecha. The initially already very dim beam shield became completely dark due to Lingtian No.4's actions, leaving his entire mecha a sheet of grey ...
"Even if I, Li Yingjie, am defeated and have to leave the field, I will still rip a piece of flesh from my opponent first!" Li Yingjie saw that a teammate had arrived and began laughing arrogantly. He decisively activated all the engines of his mecha, pushing them to their limits.
The mecha was thrown into overdrive, drawing a trail of shadow through the air as it leapt onto Qiao Ting's mecha. Due to overdrive, the already extremely battered body of Li Yingjie's mecha could not take any more and began to disintegrate. Some of the outer armour actually fell off the mecha's body, dropping down from the sky. Even without receiving any external attack, Li Yingjie's mecha would not hold out for more than a few seconds before completely disintegrating ...
As soon as Qiao Ting saw what Li Yingjie was doing, how could he not know what the other was thinking? He was just about to push his mecha to maximum speed in preparation to dodge Li Yingjie's suicidal attack when, at this moment, from the skies above him, a string of beam shots rained down on his head. Facing these overwhelming wave of beam attacks, Qiao Ting had almost no chance of avoiding them. He could only choose to return fire to try and counteract these attacks, but this decision made it completely impossible for him to also escape Li Yingjie.
In the next second, Li Yingjie had wrapped himself securely around his mecha's right leg. Qiao Ting's face changed and he quickly turned his gun to aim at Li Yingjie who was hugging his thigh. Even if his mecha would be hit by a shot coming from above, he still needed to first get rid of this Lingtian No.4 which was threatening his mecha.
"No.11, the rest is up to you!" Even as he shouted, Li Yingjie pressed the self-destruct button on his mecha. And though that Lingtian mecha that had just appeared did not respond verbally to his cry, the beams pouring forth in a torrent from his gun was a clear response to Li Yingjie's words.
As Qiao Ting's beam shot struck Li Yingjie, a tremendous 'boom' rang out at the same time. Li Yingjie's dilapidated mecha was instantly reduced to a fireball; the incredible force of its explosion distorted the air.
At this time, all the spectating students were silent. They did not know whether the explosion was a result of Li Yingjie's successful self-destruct or a result of Qiao Ting's attack. Still, whichever it was, they were now filled with admiration for Lingtian, this newly established mecha clan. Who could have guessed that the Lingtian battle team which no one thought had any chance of winning could fight back to this extent? One special-class mecha and two advanced mecha actually managed to push Qiao Ting into such an awkward and dishevelled state. This was something that had never occurred ever since Qiao Ting had become an ace operator.
"Ah, look, Thunder King's mecha!" Qiao Ting's mecha finally flew out from the cloud of smoke and fire. His mecha's appearance at this time shocked the spectating students to their core. The lower half of Qiao Ting's mecha's right leg had been completely blown off and was no longer there.
"Lingtian No.4, he managed to self-destruct in time!" The supporters of Lingtian cheered. Lingtian No.4 had really managed to do as he had said before he left the field. He had indeed ripped off a chunk of Qiao Ting, bringing the lower half of the other's right leg with him in a glorious withdrawal.
"Warning, warning! Mecha has already been destroyed up to 15%. Defensive power decreased by 15%. Flight speed decreased by 12%. Please adjust mecha's balance parameters immediately ..." The A.I. of Qiao Ting's mecha blared several urgent warnings. Face dark, Qiao Ting swiftly operated his mecha to perform balancing and repair procedures. At the same time, he also needed to dodge that Lingtian No.11 who was still attacking him. The other was another old rival of his, the original head strategist of the Wuji Mecha Clan, the fifth-year Li Lanfeng.
"Unexpectedly, the Lingtian battle team members also know about that battle case!" At this moment, in the audience, Tang Yu's expression was complicated. He looked at the dishevelled Qiao Ting on the screen and sighed softly. Compared to Leiting, the Lingtian battle team had prepared much better for this battle. All their members knew very clearly what they had to do ...
"It looks like Lingtian is planning to use this tactic to handle Qiao Ting." A satisfied smile appeared on the principal's face. It should be said that this tactic of Lingtian's was pretty good — it was the only tactic that could let them defeat Qiao Ting at present.
"Heaven knows how they learned of this tactic," commented Tang Yu with a bitter smile. Mind you, this battle case had always been kept sealed away by the Federation; only ace operators and above had the clearance the view it ...