by <unknown>
Long Yangjun sniffed, not bothering to talk to Yue Wushuang anymore. Cracking noises echoed from her elbows, and two bone blades extended out of the gaps of her crystal suit. The same bone blades also stabbed out of her toes and the back of her heels. She seemed to become an incarnation of the God of Death made of blades, and nothing could possibly stop her at all. All the Imperial Guards and devil huntresses standing in her way fell like the wheat that was being blown by the wind!
Without any hesitation, Yue Wushuang ran to where the crowd was densest in the Great Iron Plants.
In the obscure smoke, she was like a moon blocked by the clouds, hiding herself exactly like Long Yangjun did just now, and not even caring about the lives of her subordinates.
She seemed to be cruel and heartless and running shamefully, but Long Yangjun felt that her heart was heavier and heavier.
Yue Wushuang truly deserved to be one of the best special agents of the Imperium of True Human Beings. She would not make any lowly mistake or give Long Yangjun any chance.
She had realized that the greatest disadvantage of Long Yangjun and Li Jialing was that they were outnumbered. As long as she was not decapitated by them, it was absolutely impossible for the two of them to kill all of the Imperial Guards and the devil huntresses.
Long Yangjun's level was not overwhelmingly higher than Yue Wushuang's. It was one thing to defeat Yue Wushuang, but it was a whole other thing to kill her. The latter was ten times more difficult than the former!
Therefore, while she seemed to be slaughtering the Imperial Guards and the devil huntresses without any trouble, the cost was that her spiritual energy and ammunitions were being consumed quickly. Also, incessant enemies were coming at her. When one of them was down, two more would take his place.
The Imperial Guards and the devil huntresses had all been trained by Blackstar the Great. Their loyalty and determination were far better than that of common Immortal Cultivators.
With the precious moment of rest, Yue Wushuang would be able to summon her Colossus.
She had failed to kill Yue Wushuang in round one. If the enemy successfully summoned her Colossus, it would be major trouble!
Ice cones were almost erupting out of Long Yangjun's eyes as she stared at Yue Wushuang's back that was about to disappear and pursued it.
Whoever dared to stand in her way would immediately be chopped into halves together with their armor.
Such a way of fighting had a high demand for spiritual energy. She soon sensed that she was breathing heavily, and the crystal processor was beeping in alarms too.
She did not give Yue Wushuang an opportunity to retrieve the Colossus at the cost of such great consumptions, and she was about to catch the target at the risk of being bombarded by crossfire when Yue Wushuang suddenly seized something that was moving vigorously from the darkness and tossed it at her!
It was a human!
Long Yangjun meant to do the same and cut the guy into halves.
The person who was tossed over by Yue Wushuang, however, was unexpectedly agile. He screamed but dodged her fatal attack, apparently much more capable than the Imperial Guards and the devil huntresses!
He was Li Minghui, the proprietor of the Great Iron Plants and an expert in the Nascent Soul Stage!
It was truly a bad day for Li Minghui. Having witnessed Long Yangjun's toughness half a month ago when he was almost killed by her, Li Minghui did not intend to stand in Long Yangjun's way at all this time. He simply held himself back and pretended that he was commanding the soldiers and maintaining the order.
But as it turned out, Yue Wushuang sensed where he was and blinked to him, using him as a human shield.
The expert in the Nascent Soul Stage, who was unparalleled in the Great Iron Plants, was naturally nothing in front of the aggressive Long Yangjun. It was already his best to have avoided the first attack, and he could not stop Long Yangjun from tearing apart his breastplate and his bones and crumbling his heart with brute force!
The CEO of the Black Iron Group died just like that, like a dog that could not bark anymore.
However, during the moment when Long Yangjun was blocked by Li Minghui, Yue Wushuang's Cosmos Ring was finally able to spurt out the dazzling brilliance, and the Colossus "Moon Devil" crawled out from the ripples of the void!
Chapter 2413: Heavenly Crystal Against Moon Devil! |
"Damn it!"
What flooded out of the Cosmos Ring together with the components of the Colossus were more than twenty balls made of strengthened porcelains. Under the boost of Yue Wushuang's spiritual energy, they exploded and unleashed an overwhelming blast that was turned into a visible twisting barrier, blocking Long Yangjun's attack.
Seizing the opportunity, Yue Wushuang crawled into the spiritual residence of the Colossus and integrated with the "Moon Devil"!
The deep blue eyes of Moon Devil immediately glittered, and creepy laughter echoed from its throat that was as narrow as a snake.
The Moon Devil was a rarely-seen Colossus in the shape of a beast. It looked like a gigantic lizard, with two short forelegs and a thick, strong, long tail that had the shape of a shocking sawtooth. The tail could even be folded and curled all the way to the head, turning the entire Colossus into an enormous metal wheel.
Now that the enemy had retrieved the Colossus, Long Yangjun would surely fail if she were to fight on like this. She had no choice except to blink into the crowd of the Imperial Guards and the devil huntresses who were in a mess. Jumping quickly and unleashing the dazzling brilliance, she swallowed the lives of dozens of Immortal Cultivators like an ocean, before she summoned the "Heavenly Crystal", her own Colossus, under the cover of the broken limbs and the stinky storm!
Almost at the same moment when she crawled into the spiritual residence of the Heavenly Crystal, Yue Wushuang's Moon Devil had already crouched into a sharp wheel and crashed at her destructively.
BOOM!
The whole Great Iron Plants was shaking because of the collision of the two Colossus. The deafening explosions ripped apart the eardrums of everybody around. The overwhelming blast even blew away quite a few crystal tanks, which did not collapse heavily and explode into giant fireballs until they rolled dozens of rounds in the midair.
Long Yangjun's Cultivation and the level of her Colossus were higher than the enemy's after all. Even though Yue Wushuang had attacked vehemently and she only defended herself in a hurry, she was still not hurt.
However, her Colossus was at least five floors high now that it had assumed the complete form. No matter how she covered it and dodged, it still became the center of everyone's attention.
After all, the underground space where the Great Iron Plants was at was limited, however vast it might be. Also, complicated factories, high heaps of components, and dilapidated buildings were everywhere. It really wasn't the best place for a Colossus' performance.
It was true that Colossi normally boasted advanced technologies in interference. But since the distance was too short, the enemy did not need the assistance of any ancillary magical equipment and could aim at her only with their naked eye.
Under the instructions of the gloating Yue Wushuang, all the Imperial Guards and devil huntresses aimed at Long Yangjun's Colossi. Explosive bullets, mini flying swords, crystal cannons, heal cannons, machine guns, destructive cannons, fiery ballistae… Thousands of fiery lines were raised from them and rained upon the Heavenly Crystal overwhelmingly, riddling the spiritual shield of the Colossus with holes. Ripples were spreading out nonstop, and it looked like a pond in a storm.
Although most of the Immortal Cultivators were much lower than Long Yangjun in terms of level, and the gap between common crystal suits and a Colossus was even greater, the changes in quantity could still lead to a change in quality when there were enough of them.
One attack from a crystal suit to a Colossus was like stinging someone with a needle softly.
But if ten thousand needles were stabbing someone brutally at the same time,
nobody would be able to take it.
It was exactly the reason why Long Yangjun did not summon the Colossus sooner. The object was too huge, and there was no place to hide at all. She could only grit her teeth through the stormy attacks.
Getting to the bottom of it, no magical equipment was "invincible", and they all had their most suitable environment. The Colossus was an ultimate weapon developed for universal battles. In space that was boundless and frictionless, a Colossus could easily be made into a behemoth dozens of meters tall as long as the soul and spiritual energy of the user could bear it.
In a space battle, the units lower than ten meters tall, dozens of meters tall, and hundreds of meters tall did not have much difference in terms of the odds of being hit by the enemy. Taking factors such as ammunition load, fighting duration, and momentary combat ability output into consideration, the Colossi ranging between fifteen and fifty meters tall had the highest survival abilities on the battlefield.
Even though they were occasionally caught in starships that had limited room, they could fight a bloody way out unstoppably with their destructive power. It was often the case that the Colossus was not damaged at all when the starship it snuck in had exploded.
Fighting below the ground, on the other hand, was completely different.
The enormous body size of the Colossus became a fatal disadvantage.
The Heavenly Crystal and the Moon Devil were like two rhinos, with eyes bloodshot in fury, that had been locked in a narrow cage, without any room to retreat to.
The problem was that the rhino that was "Moon Devil" also had the help of countless agile rats that had sharp teeth. How could she fight the battle?
With everything coming to the point, Long Yangjun had no choice except to carry out the decapitation strategy to the end.
Yue Wushuang, on the other hand, couldn't have been more "cowardly". She obviously had the ability to fight a head-on battle with Long Yangjun now, but she never did it again after the first attack when she rolled at the enemy like a wheel. Instead, she simply moved on the wall outside of the Great Iron Plants. The enormous Colossus moved quickly like a gyro that had grown legs, dodging most of Long Yangjun's attacks swiftly.
Her Colossus was apparently very suitable in the cubic battle environment here. Clinging to the rocks with four legs, the Colossus could still attack with the tail that was dozens of meters long, which made it more like a hybrid of a lizard and a scorpion. The features of the Colossus must have been one of the reasons why Blackstar the Great had sent her for the underground hunting.
Harassed by the Imperial Guards and the devil huntresses, Long Yangjun could not aim and lock onto the enemy effectively at all. Although she had always been calm in battles, she was still more or less anxious when faced with the nibbling of the "rats".
But whenever she planned to turn around and take care of the "rats" first, Yue Wushuang would jump down from the wall and lunge from her vulnerable flank, disrupting her attacks that had just taken shape.
After five minutes of predicament, Long Yangjun only managed to kill and wound a hundred Imperial Guards and devil huntresses. She was unable to deal any fatal damage to Yue Wushuang's Colossus. In fact, it was her own Colossus that had been added with a few new, shocking damage. At the same time, the fuel and the ammunition stock fell below the emergent line, and earsplitting alarms were ringing nonstop.
Her Colossus had been heavily damaged in the battle against Blackstar the Great, and it should've been sent for major maintenance.
But her base deep below the ground did not have the ability to maintain a Colossus comprehensively. So, she could only bring it to battle again after simple maintenance.
That was why she was heavily wounded in the battle against the three experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage last time.
After the battle, she had been fleeing in a hurry while setting up decoys without a single second of rest. She did not even have the time or conditions for simple maintenance again before she returned to the Great Iron Plants.
Beneath the seemingly brilliant arm, there were actually dense cracks, and noises were echoing in every slightly violent activity.
The alarms of the mainframe crystal processor had long been turned off by Long Yangjun; otherwise, the shrieks would not stop at all. This Colossus had really reached the limits of fatigue and could not fight anymore!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The enemy's fire was still pouring on her mercilessly. The colorful fireballs covered her entire body like abnormal tumors, eclipsing the previous brilliance of the Colossus.
Chi!
A noise echoed from the right knee of the Heavenly Crystal. The Colossus slipped rightward and staggered backward, as if the axis that supported the leg had serious problems, and she had to retreat right now.
The Moon Devil obviously hesitated, as if Yue Wushuang was considering whether Long Yangjun was running for real or it was just a trap. A moment later, she still could not resist the temptations of capturing Long Yangjun alive. The Moon Devil turned from a fleeing gecko into a ferocious, venomous lizard and pounced at the enemy from high above!
Crack!
The right knee of the Heavenly Crystal echoed again. The entire support and turning unit completely exploded, and the right calf was entirely gone. The Colossus was immediately much shorter!
Even though Yue Wushuang had foreseen that it might be a trap, she still did not expect that Long Yangjun could bear the loss of a calf just for an opportunity of attack.
Her attack was higher than it should've been now.
Pu!
The tail that stabbed at the Heavenly Crystal's chest pierced into the Heavenly Crystal's shoulder in the end.
If it had pierced into the chest, there would've been a chance to penetrate through the "spiritual residence" and mince the user inside.
But if it only stabbed through the shoulder, the best it could achieve was to make the enemy lose an arm.
What was even more critical was that Long Yangjun took the opportunity to shorten the distance between them. Intentionally giving away the arm, she focused her right hand into a sharp blade and stabbed into the abdomen of the Moon Devil!
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
The Heavenly Crystal's hand was immediately heated to thousands of degrees, pressing forward unstoppably in the Moon Devil's abdomen.
Yue Wushuang was greatly shocked, not expecting Long Yangjun's combat ability to be as tough.
She intended to withdraw the tail and get away from Long Yangjun, but Long Yangjun simply held on to her without letting her go. The two Colossus clung to each other and rolled on the ground, like two skyscrapers collapsing at the same time.
"Die now!"
Long Yangjun's eyes that were filled with ice almost exploded. Not bothering the fact that her right arm was about to be cut off by the enemy's tail, she shouted hoarsely.
Crap!
The cold sweat on Yue Wushuang's forehead was frozen, and desperation spread out of her previously calm eyes.
Right at the most critical moment, a sword aura that was as fast as a flash of lightning but did not have any sound darted close and pierced through the Heavenly Crystal's left leg, which had been still intact. Long Yangjun's well-prepared attack was deviated from the course.
Two shadows that were as magnificent as gods appeared at the edge of the battlefield at the same time.
The other two experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage, "Devilish Abyss" Li Jianyi and "Star Breaker" Song Huanzhen, had finally come back to the Great Iron Plants for reinforcement with their Colossi!
Chapter 2414: The Last Hope! |
Long Yangjun's attack could've directly cut apart the crystalized spine of the Moon Devil, broke the wires and tubes that connected the upper and lower half bodies, depriving the Colossus of at least 70% of its combat ability.
However, the unexpected attack from the back made her only able to wave the sharp dagger sideways and leave shocking da
mage on the plate armor of the Moon Devil.
The damage seemed long and brutal, but it was immediately blocked by the sticky liquid metals secreted from the body. After meeting the air, the liquid metals quickly consolidated into a gray shell. The enemy did not suffer any fatal damage at all!
Before Long Yangjun realized what was going on, a cold and gloomy mental attack had crawled into her brain, displaying erratic, terrifying illusions. It was exactly performed by "Devilish Abyss" Li Jianyi, a top expert of the Meditation Healers!
Through the enhancement of the Colossus, Li Jianyi had boosted his brainwaves to the maximum and slapped them at the Heavenly Crystal like a ship!
It was a critical attack supported by his hundred years of Cultivation. If it had a regular expert in the Nascent Soul Stage, the victims could've been directly whipped into a retard.
Despite the toughness of Long Yangjun's soul, she was still more or less slowed down. During the half second of delay, "Star Breaker" Song Huanzhen's second wave of swords had already come. Long Yangjun was forced to cope with the attacks with the Heavenly Crystal, which only had one leg and one arm functioning right now.
After resisting Song Huanzhen's stormy, continual attacks for almost ten thousand years, she failed to dodge Yue Wushuang's ambush from the back. In an earsplitting noise, the heavy, powerful tail ripped apart the air and slapped the most vulnerable waist of the Heavenly Crystal in a streak of dazzling brilliance, blowing the Heavenly Crystal away into an iron forest. It could barely stand on its feet again.
"A*shole!"
Long Yangjun was in such excruciating pain that the ice spurting out of her eyes almost turned blood red. She felt that her body seemed to be minced apart, and her left arm and legs had been swallowed by numbness.
The sensors of the Colossus and the nervous system of the user were highly integrated. While the keenness of the Colossus could be improved, all the external wounds it suffered would be fed back to the user without any buffer. In the worst-case scenario, even the nerves and brain cells of the user would be burnt.
