Chapter 1005 Trounce
As a new Beyond Grade A and the new Vice Army Commander, Hila had been receiving a lot of attention recently. The more famous she was, the more it would benefit the army. Therefore, Han Xiao was not going to damage her reputation.
Hence, the spar between the two of them was completely private, and Han Xiao did not need to improve his reputation by beating Hila anyway.
The two of them quietly left the Black Star Army headquarters and found a desolate planet. Han Xiao then used some anti-detection devices to draw out a battlefield.
“Here will do.”
The two of them landed on the lead gray surface. Han Xiao raised his hand and opened the secondary dimensional army box. Groups of mechanical soldiers swarmed out and machines spread like a tide.
With him there, he could use all his troops, which was an enormous amount. Even though he did not summon his whole army, it still quickly filled up the ground and the sky.
Psionic Prime and some of the Apostle Weapons who had returned from the Flickering World stood in a row at the front of the army.
Han Xiao then summoned a Lord’s Avatar and shifted his consciousness within before sending his original body away from the battlefield.
Sparring was one thing, but he had no plan to cut his lifespan. Going there himself was to express his seriousness, and changing into an avatar was being cautious.
Hila squinted, not saying anything as she approved with silence.
Although she hoped that Black Star could use all of his strength to fight her, she knew that there was something strange about her ability, and she did not want to cause any unknown damage to Han Xiao. Furthermore, Black Star’s avatar was difficult enough to deal with, as well as those Apostle Weapons on the side.
After stepping into the Beyond Grade A realm, despite the fact that Hila was very confident, she knew that the chance of her beating Han Xiao was extremely low. She mainly wanted to see how vast the difference between her and Han Xiao was.
Hila took a deep breath. Her eyes suddenly glowed like rubies as masses of blood-red death energy flew out from her body and up into the sky continuously, painting the sky scarlet. The red energy continued to expand and seethe violently like a roaring sea, matching the size and impact of the mechanical army.
“Are you ready? I’m coming.”
Hila entered combat mode, and her expression became calm and indifferent.
Han Xiao closed the secondary dimensional army box, stretched the neck of his avatar and released his Mechanical Force to enhance the entire army. He then looked down at the ground he was stepping on and shook his head with resignation. “Another planet gone to waste.”
As soon as his sentence ended, Hila pushed both her hands forward and attacked without saying a word!
Boom!
The death energy condensed in the air slammed down violently like the sky falling, including all the machinery at the front in its attack range!
The exterior armor of all the mechanical soldiers reflected the bloody red tide. Psionic Prime looked up, slightly raised the Psionic Prime Spear, and tapped the ground softly.
Pa!
With him as the center, a light blue psionic barrier expanded out extremely quickly and instantly shrouded the mechanical army.
The tsunami-like death energy slammed onto the psionic barrier, creating a wave of earth trembling impact!
With a blinding flash, an energy wave mixed in both red and blood swept out!
Rumble!
The earth split open, ashes shot up like fountains, rifts were created, tectonic plates slammed into each other, and mountains appeared out of nowhere. The terrain within hundreds of miles changed extremely quickly!
Hila’s expression changed—she did not expect Psionic Prime to be able to fight her head on.
She thought that Han Xiao would be using strategies, tactics, and the quantity of the army to win, but she never expected Han Xiao’s Apostle Weapons to have already become this strong.
Hila’s eyes concentrated as she flew up the sky. She then pressed her hands down. The power of the death energy that was eroding and impacting the psionic barrier increased once again. Large cracks immediately appeared on the psionic barrier that was only barely holding on in the first place.
Suddenly, with a deafening blast, the barrier shattered into pieces of light!
After all, Hila was nothing like Kohler or Beyoni; the Apostle Weapons were still not strong enough for her.
The mechanical army suddenly split up and activated their own psionic shields, preparing to defend the impact of the death energy while raising their barrels to counterattack.
Countless energy cannons focus fired on Hila. The scorching light seemed to have slashed open space, leaving only light trails behind. Not many Beyond Grade As would be willing to take on such a powerful bombardment head on, and Hila was no exception.
Her body moved extremely quickly in midair to dodge the attacks as seemingly infinite death energy flew out from her body, forming layers of protective shields that shrouded her. Attacks from energy cannons landed on her shield occasionally, blasting open cracks after cracks.
Her death energy could be used to attack and defend—there were hardly any Beyond Grade As who had no methods to create shields.
Using the power of the [Power of the Dead] to fight a mechanical army actually placed her at a disadvantage, as most mechanical soldiers were objects and Hila’s ‘life steal’ attribute could not be triggered, which cut off one of her crucial methods to regenerate health.
Furthermore, the psychological damage of the death energy had no use on the mechanical army, which meant that she lost another advantage.
Her Esper Ability could only live to its fullest potential when facing opponents with life.
Defense was not Hila’s strong suit. After being enhanced so many times, the power of the mechanical army’s attack was already completely different from the past. As soon as the army was fully utilized in the battle, Hila felt an immense sense of pressure. Han Xiao’s attacks kept penetrating her shield and landing on her body. Her health bar lowered continuously, and her injuries started to build up.
However, Hila’s regeneration ability was strong. Although it could not be compared with Aurora, it was still quite impressive. When her level was extremely low, she already had the [High Speed Regeneration] talent, which used the Power of the Dead to nourish her flesh. In terms of stats, it increased her usual regeneration speed by five hundred percent and her regeneration speed by one to two thousand percent when using energy.
Upon entering the Beyond Grade A realm, she had received even more regeneration type abilities. Even though her ‘life steal’ attribute could not be used, her regeneration speed was still extremely fast. She was one of those who looked very paper but was actually very tanky—in this respect, she was quite similar to Han Xiao.
For the time being, she could still stand the focus fire of the mechanical army.
“Not bad. Looks like she won’t lose very quickly.” Han Xiao smiled with satisfaction while continuing to farm his distance travelled.
As soon as the battle started, he had made his avatar activate [Charge—Endless Potential] and started to keep moving around to farm the distance moved.
As the ability would only activate on his next melee ranged attack and the distance travelled would be reset to zero once he stopped moving, he could still use his army to attack while easily farming his distance travelled all the time.
As his level was above Hila’s, the combat information on the interface showed all of Hila’s attributes, which Han Xiao browsed through while keeping himself at a distance from the battle between his army and Hila.
After looking for a while, even Han Xiao was jealous of how amazing these attributes were.
Compared to a ‘fake genius’ like him who kept obtaining talents from here and there, Hila was truly one with extraordinary talent. She had a ton of talents, and most of them were exclusive personal abilities.
After becoming stronger in the future and her basic attributes got higher, the effects of these talents would become even more overpowered. Now, however, she was far from the peak she reached in Han Xiao’s previous life. Even if she finally became a Beyond Grade A, she was still no match for Han Xiao.
As Han Xiao expected, Hila’s Beyond Grade A Talents were [Supreme Power], which largely increased her Esper Ability strength, and [Cell Reaction Furnace], which largely increased her energy value.
Although Han Xiao had to go easy on Hila to protect her confidence, he did not want to go too easy on her and did not want to drag this out.
Despite the focus fire of the army being powerful, Hila was not threatened by it for the time being. What really gave her danger was the group of Apostle Weapons led by Psionic Prime.
Each and every one of the Apostle Weapons was very strong individually; they were much stronger than when Han Xiao fought Ames. They were ganging up on Hila and forced her to make a lot of mistakes.
Boom!
Numerous waves of death energy beams were shattered half-way. Scarlet Flame, whose body was an artillery cannon, fired nonstop, shooting out countless dark energy beams and stopping more than half of Hila’s ranged attacks directed at the Apostle Weapons.
Heaven-Suppressing Banner charged forward, swapping his weapons continuously and slashing open the occasional death energy beams that got to him, none of which were able to stop him for even a second. His body was equipped with countless high technology melee weapons. He was a weapon master, and he also took the position of the head drill sergeant of the combat tactics in the machinery civilization.
As he successfully entered melee range, he immediately rolled and jumped up, swapping smoothly between all kinds of weapons and using a set of combos like a Mechanical Pugilist. His mechanical body was extremely mobile and swift; his attacks looked so appealing to the eye that it was as if he was dancing.
Hila had no choice but to concentrate death energy on her own body and turn her body into a weapon to deal with the pressure from Heaven-Suppressing Banner. Sadly, her melee combat ability was no match for a weapon master who was proficient with countless weapon styles. It was not long before she could no longer match up to the skills of Heaven-Suppressing Banner and was only getting beat up.
Clank!
Hila’s hand blocked the alloy vibrating war axe, leaving a shallow red mark. She suddenly raised her leg high and kicked the axe down. She shot a highly condensed beam of death energy from her hand and blasted Heaven-Suppressing Banner far away.
Before she could take a break, the space before her rippled, and Mad Sky Hunter appeared using teleport. He opened his mouth full of metal sharp teeth and pounced at Hila’s neck.
“Go away!”
Hila reacted quickly. She lowered her head and raised her hand before turning around and elbowing behind herself.
As the tip of her elbow landed on Mad Sky Hunter’s chin, death energy exploded, creating an impact wave and blew this mechanical beast away.
At that moment, a purple shadow arrived from above, covered in a special twisted force field and dragging a lightning-like energy trail. It slammed into Hila and pushed her toward the ground.
This was a muscular purple mechanical soldier filled with nano-biological muscles, covered in lightning-like energy. It was indeed Purple Sky Spirit in overclocking mode.
Hila spun like a gyroscope. She tried to stabilize her body while spraying death energy to force the Apostle Weapons back, hoping to catch her breath.
However, at this time, a little dot penetrated the red curtain and glowed before Hila’s eyes.
Swoosh!
Hila hastily turned her head. This dot slashed past her cheek, leaving a shallow bloody mark.
This dot came from the tip of a spear, and the one holding the spear was Psionic Prime.
Among the Apostle Weapons, Psionic Prime was the strongest, and Hila did not have an easy time dealing with him. Furthermore, with the other Apostle Weapons also taking part in the battle, she became more and more passive.
The two sides fought intensely for a very long time. The surface of the planet had a completely new look, like an egg with a cracked shell. Lava flew within rifts, and countless plates clashed toward each other, causing violent earthquakes.
“Hu... hu...”
Blood dripped from the sky. Hila was covered in blood and looked exhausted. Her specially made battle suit had holes everywhere, showing large portions of white. Melee weapons were plugged on her shoulder, abdomen, and leg. The intensity of the battle could be seen just from the state she was in.
“How unflinching.” Han Xiao tutted internally.
Hila was used to going all out when fighting. Even if it was just a spar with Han Xiao, she still fought with her life.
Han Xiao had gone a little easy and told his mechanical troops to hold back, so as to give Hila a chance to go all out. She would only be satisfied if he still beat her in an overwhelming manner in this kind of situation.
This time, Hila pulled out the weapons stuck in her body. The open wounds slowly closed up and recovered. She looked around at the group of Apostle Weapons and suddenly took a deep breath before snapping her finger.
After such a long fight, all the Apostle Weapons including Psionic Prime had fifteen layers of [Death’s Erosion], and they all exploded simultaneously!
Boom!
Red light exploded from the Apostle Weapons, and they were all heavily injured.
Detonating the energy had nothing to do with life force, since at its core, [Death’s Erosion] was about the highly erosive death energy. Therefore, unlike her ‘life steal’ attribute, this ability was effective on any target, including machines.
The death of mechanical lives meant that their tinder was extinguished, which the erosion of death energy could definitely do. However, Hila did not lose her senses during the battle, so she would not kill Han Xiao’s important combatants. Hence, she did not trigger the possible death effect, only the basic effect, which wiped out a ton of health from these Apostle Weapons.
Being heavily injured, Psionic Prime and the various Apostle Weapons showed flaws. Hila took the opportunity and immediately escaped, heading directly toward the Lord’s Avatar like a red meteor, blowing away all the mechanical soldiers in her path.
“This is the last attack, I see.”
Han Xiao could see the combat information. He knew that Hila’s health was close to zero.
Knowing that Hila could weaken regeneration, Han Xiao did not let his avatar take any of the attacks and heavily injured Hila with just his Apostle Weapons and the mechanical army. Now, however, he controlled his avatar to turn around and charge right toward Hila.
Above the demolished earth, a black and a red meteor crashed into each other!
Han Xiao did not hold back at all. [Charge—Endless Potential]’s power fused entirely into his fist and slammed onto Hila’s chest.
Bang!
It was as if the sky cracked open!
A powerful impact wave exploded and blew away all the dust around.
An enormous hole appeared on Hila’s chest, penetrating right through. Her organs were shattered into pieces, and all the blood had splashed out together with pieces of her flash.
Hila’s eyes lost focus. She fell straight down and landed on the ground, creating a huge crater.
“Target no longer has any signs of life.” Psionic Prime looked over and was a little shocked. “Lord, y-you killed her? Wasn’t it just a spar‽”
Han Xiao glanced at him and deactivated Lord’s Descent. His original body slowly landed beside Hila.
“D-did we go overboard?” The various Apostle Weapons quickly followed and exchanged looks. They all looked down with guilt like kids who had done something wrong.
Han Xiao did not say anything. At this time, waves of gray energy suddenly gathered from all directions and fused into Hila’s ‘corpse’. Her eyes immediately regained life, but the dark red glow became gray.
The next moment, her broken body recovered at a visible speed. Flash grew out, organs reappeared, and wounds healed.
Her pale face slowly became red. Hila sat up and gasped for air. The glow in her eyes suddenly disappeared, and she started coughing severely.
“Cough cough cough...”
Han Xiao had expected this. With a smile on his face, he patted softly on her back. “Does it hurt? Take deep breaths, slowly.”
Hila had the [Ignore Sudden Death] talent, which he had witnessed long ago and was also clearly shown on the interface. He knew that Hila would not completely die after dying once, and she would be fine no matter how heavily injured she was. That was why he decided not to hold back and used [Charge—Endless Potential] to beat her into the state of close death.
He knew all about Hila’s personality, and beating her up with full force would actually make her satisfied. She had quite the potential of having the masochism trait.
After resting for a while, Hila finally stopped coughing and had a speechless look on her face.
“You really didn’t hold back at all. I was even killed.”
Han Xiao raised his brows and shrugged. “Isn’t this what you wanted. Don’t you like it?”
Hila snorted and did not object.
Having almost been beaten to death once, Hila was not unhappy at all. Since she had gone all out, this kind of battle was exactly what she wanted. She was very satisfied with the fact that Han Xiao did not hold back.
Furthermore, through this spar, Hila had a clearer understanding of Han Xiao’s strength among Beyond Grade As, and she was secretly impressed.
She did not expect to still be completely overwhelmed even after becoming a Beyond Grade A. The difference was still so huge.
Hila did not become disappointed or despondent because of this. Instead, it motivated her.
Hoping to catch up to someone like him... it isn’t that easy to succeed. No matter, it’s only fun when it’s challenging. Hila encouraged herself in her mind.
She had always respected the strong, and she could not help but admire Han Xiao even more.
“I’ve lost, but it was an amazing fight. It was worth it.” Hila smiled from the bottom of her heart. She did not have many hobbies; fighting was one of the few.
“Tsk, what a fighting maniac.” Han Xiao shook his head and laughed. He rubbed her head and said, “Can you still walk?”
“Don’t touch my head. Let’s go back.”
Hila tilted her head and avoided Han Xiao’s hand. Then she tried to stand up. However, having just recovered from close death, she was not in a good state, and her stamina was completely drained. Seeing this, Han Xiao wrapped his arm around Hila’s shoulder and helped her up.
Hila glanced at him and did not reject it, letting him help her into the spaceship. She even actively nudged into Han Xiao’s arms a little.
...
After this fight, the two of them became even closer.
In the past, although they were close, they were on completely different levels. Now that both of them were in the same realm, they had much more common language. The relationship between the two of them quickly improved, and the awkwardness and distance from not seeing each other for twenty years disappeared immediately.
Hila enjoyed this a lot.
In the past, I could only look at your back. Now... I can say that I’m standing beside you, right?
Information about the private spar did not leak, so it did not stir up any storm.
One phenomenon that attracted the most attention in the Shattered Star Ring was that more and more Beyond Grade As were arriving without any signs of trying to hide themselves, leading their fleets and heading toward the Black Star Army’s headquarters.
The local galactic residents of the Shattered Star Ring all focused their attention on these Beyond Grade As and the Black Star Army. They could all smell a gigantic piece of breaking news coming.