Chapter 263: An Unfamiliar Face
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The sand blew in the wind as if the world was covered in a thin cloth. As the sands drifted down to the floor, the whole slowly became clear.
In the violent wind, a shadow of a man got up with difficulty, kneeling on the ground.
Tick tock, tick tock....
Blood dripped down from the corner of his lips. The leader covered his face and stood up with difficulty.
At this moment, the atmosphere froze. The entire battle looked over at the leader as if there was a temporary ceasefire.
The leader of the Germinal Organization always wore a black metal mask. Almost no one, even including people from the Germinal Organization, knew his true identity.
To have the ability to lead such a powerful force, the leader should be a man with a well-known background. All the countries had a lot of guesses on the leader’s true identity, and they thought that since the Germinal Organization had been created during the Old Era, the most plausible guess was that he was a legend in the Old Era who had changed his appearance.
Han Xiao also looked over. No players in his previous lives had been able to find out the identity of the leader, so he was as curious as the rest.
The leader put down his hand, and the face that presented in front of everyone’s eyes was a distorted face with multiple scars, as if there were bugs crawling under the skin. The scars looked like it was a deep scratch left by a wild beast.
Most importantly, it was an unfamiliar face.
Even though his looks were appalling, the outline of the face was still recognizable. Han Xiao was confident that he had not seen this face when he looked at the intel on the Dark Net. He looked over at Bennett and the superhumans from the Six Nations, and they were all confused.
No one recognized the leader.
Bennett frowned. He was a legend from the Old Era, and he still remembered numerous legends from back in the day, including those who died in battle or died of old age. Yet, he could not recognize face of the leader. There were only three possibilities.
First, the leader had also worn a mask in the Old Era. Second, he had changed his appearance to hide his identity. Third, he had not been a powerful man during the Old Era and stayed under the radar during that time.
With his appearance revealed, the leader did not show any expression as if he could not care less.
Can no one recognize him? Does that mask only try to hide the terrifying face so as to avoid decreasing the morale of the soldiers? Han Xiao frowned. Babies would cry seeing the leader’s face. If he did not wear a mask, he probably would bring a ‘-20 Military Morale’ debuff.
The battle was not over. Leaving the questions behind, Han Xiao went on the offense, swinging his mechanical battle hammer with only thirty seconds before Viper broke down.
Bang bang bang!
The fist covered with purple energy clashed with the hammer, and the sound of metal clashing never stopped.
The leader’s eyes were spicy and deadly, and he quickly saw the poor condition of the mechanical suit. As long as he can drag it out long enough, the suit would shatter, and that would be the end of any Mechanic.
Defend.
The leader switched to a defensive stance and took all the direct hits from Han Xiao. Under the heavy attacks, the leader did not flinch and was as hard as stone.
The unmovable body and the unbreakable hammer clashed more and more intensely, and the wind created by the impact blew the sands up like a wave.
Clink! Clink!
After thirty seconds, Viper suddenly made a weird sound, and pieces of components and chips shattered like a withered flower.
The mechanical suit was broken.
Han Xiao revealed his real body.
“Yah!” the leader screamed, and he switched back to the offensive in an instant. All the energy saved in his body travelled to his fist and punched right at Han Xiao’s stomach. In addition to armor penetration skill, the impact directly hit the flesh of Han Xiao.
Bang! Hong!
One attacked created two sounds. First was the fist hitting the body, then the impact passed through the body of Han Xiao and created another explosive sound as the energy left Han Xiao’s body from the back. The second explosive sound was almost loud enough to deafen everyone present, leaving a cone shaped dent in the sand behind Han Xiao.
Under such a powerful force, Han Xiao barely even moved. He did not even take a step back and absorbed all the impact.
“How did you!” The leader could not believe his eyes.
How could a Mechanic block a punch with his own body?
Then, a shadow appeared above the leader’s head, and the hammer started to smash again. The leader tried to block the hammer with his arms, yet a sudden pain shock through his arms, and his body sank into the ground until the sand covered his knees, as if he was a nail being hammered into the ground.
The leader’s pupils reflected a man’s shadow with dense energy. It was denser than his own energy as a Pugilist!
“Why...” The leader ground his teeth, then he suddenly realized what had happened. “Did you break that limit?”
The class advancement every twenty levels had always been a bottleneck for NPCs, who did not have an interface. They could not easily break through the limit as they could not finish any missions. Therefore, the only way for them to obtain a class advancement was hard work and luck.
Among the top superhumans in the Planet Aquamarine, there had not been any news where anyone had conquered the bottleneck and reached the next stage. It was nearly impossible for them to obtain the next level.
The dream and thirst for a class advancement that he desired the most happened to the person whom he hated the most at the worst possible moment.
Is this... fate?
The word kept on ringing in his ears like a broke record player.
“Eat my battle stomp!” Han Xiao randomly shouted a skill name and smashed his hammer onto the leader’s head.
Without Viper, Han Xiao lost the bonus buff and damage on to his attacks. Moreover, he had finished using all his ammunition. The only thing that he had left was the mechanical hammer, and on the surface, it seemed that it would still be a tough battle. However, with the new Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance, his status was on other level compared to the LV 60 BOSS-level Pugilist. In addition, the leader was already heavily injured with only thirty-seven percent of his health points left.
Once the health points reached below a certain point, all the debuff would start kicking in and slowly decrease his combat strength. The difference in power between the two men did not change much after the Viper broke down. Han Xiao still could handle the leader and save the world.
Seeing this, the leader was already discouraged. Along with his bad condition, he had no way to fight back. He kept on being smashed by the hammer as blood splattered around.
On the side, the superhuman from the Six Nations could not believe their eyes.
In their mind, the only person who could fight the leader was Bennett, and no one had thought that that this man would be Han Xiao.
Bennett was undoubtedly the strongest man, the only one who could stand toe to toe against the leader. Yet, Han Xiao battered the leader with ease without taking much damage other than a broken suit.
They witnessed the entire process of Han Xiao beating down the leader. It was no ambush nor sneak attack; it was an honorable and straightforward fight with nothing to hide. This also meant that Han Xiao was on other level compared to Bennett.
Who was Bennett? He was the strongest man on the entire planet.
Han Xiao’s performance could get rid of ‘strongest’ from the title.
He was now the strongest superhuman on this entire planet!
The stalemate of the intense battle was broken by Han Xiao as he took over the battlefield.
Diana’s temper was as explosive as her power. She almost threw a fireball at Bennett and asked, “Is he actually that strong? Why did he need our support?”
“This feeling... it can’t be wrong. He just broke through the limit in this battle!” Tang Tang’s eyes flickered.
Shock and jealousy slowly surface on the faces of the crowd.
Seeing that the leader was getting beaten, the morale of the Germinal Organization dropped, and soon, the enemies panicked.
Bang!
Another hammer landed on top of the chest. The leader spat out more blood on Han Xiao. The leader suddenly roared with blood in his mouth.
The violet energy became dense again and was alive like burning flames.
Han Xiao thought that the leader was going to use his ultimate skill. He held the hammer in front of him and prepared for an attack.
But the next second, the leader turned around and ran as fast as he could. He used his energy as a booster and ran like a missile being launched. After running for two hundred meters, he headed into a base, and his energy died down. His whole body was out of strength and collapsed on the sand with blooding flowing out of his nose and mouth.
With those heavy injuries, he could not take any more of Han Xiao’s attacks. No matter how angry the leader was, he had to escape.
“He ran away! He admitted defeat!”
Han Xiao quickly checked the battle information.
The leader had only fourteen percent of his HP left and was in weakened status.
Taking sixty percent of his HP had been achieved.