Chapter 572: Tanking the Main Cannon‽ (1)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The mothership’s main ray cannon!
Only then did Han Xiao begin to panic. The lethality of the main cannon far outstripped that of the laser cannons attached to the side of the ship. Based on the size of this DarkStar mothership, one shot toward the planet could create a new trench. Using it just to deal with him was like using a cannon to kill a mosquito!
Was I too vicious to Degulish earlier? Han Xiao could not help but reflect.
If he had known about this, he would have exercised more restraint earlier, screaming out in misery and pretending that he had been severely wounded. At the very least, that was showing respect to their hard work! For him to sneer at them, he had trampled on their pride!
The other party was a Calamity Grade—how could they not be shown some face?
Han Xiao had no idea how much a blast of the main cannon would damage him. While he had proven the tenacity of his flesh through proper battle, it was another question to take the blast from a mothership’s main cannon head-on!
The nemesis of having fast recovery was an explosive burst attack. For example, if Ames unreasonably took the whole of Floating Dragon and threw it as an attack, the damage inflicted would far outstrip the rate of recovery; he would certainly die!
The main cannon of the mothership belonged to that of the high damage category. While it was far from being able to compare to a planetary destroyer, its killing power was able to disintegrate a Calamity Grade if they merely used their fleshly body to withstand it. If they were lucky, they might still have a few charred pieces of flesh remaining.
As such, only a fool would stay and accept the cannon blast!
Han Xiao did not say a single word, immediately donning his still persevering Void Dragon Mechanical suit and flying toward the sky.
The BlackLight Stealth dived down, ready to take Han Xiao in.
“Stay here!” Ember turned his attention away from the players, and with a wave of his hand, the black current soared out to capture Han Xiao.
However, the speed of the black current was far from comparable to the maximum speed of the Void Dragon mechanical suit.
At this point, Degulish’s head popped out multiple veins as he bent his legs, stomping and destroying the ground in a hundred-meter radius around him. In an instant, he appeared above Han Xiao’s head, and a swirling vortex gathered around his fist. A piercing light could be seen dazzling from within; that was a Pugilist skill that Han Xiao had suffered from more than once previously.
Han Xiao only had the time to raise his arms, and the glowing fist hit the direct center of his crossed arms.
Bang!
It was as though the sky had exploded into a purple sun!
A forceful shock rushed toward Han Xiao, and being in midair, he had no way to transfer the impact. His vision blurred, and he only saw the BlackLight Stealth rapidly moving away from himself, followed by a heavy impact coming from his back. His entire body was slammed into the ground, and rubble covered him. Only a tiny pinprick of the sky was left in his vision.
This explosive fist had knocked Han Xiao straight from the sky into the ground.
His arms were weak and full of pain, with the interface showing the [Fractured] state on his panel. Han Xiao secretly lamented about how the fist strength of a Calamity Grade Pugilist was indeed extraordinary, even while he urged his energy to increase cell proliferation, swiftly healing his wounds.
The fractured bones were held in place through the contractions of his muscles, and with the increased proliferation of cells, the bones were connected in the blink of an eye.
Cell proliferation could repair damage inflicted to any part of the body. So long as it was repaired consciously, the negative conditions such as fractures or handicaps would also be recovered while recovering HP. This was a side bonus that Han Xiao had discovered when he was being beaten up, or else all his bones would have broken by now.
Dong! Dong!
Before he could even take a breath, the rubble above his head was blasted open as Degulish directly smashed through the ground. With his fists continuously hitting the ground, he resembled a human bulldozer.
Han Xiao did not wish to be buried alive, so he knocked away the falling rubble and flew out. However, Ember’s black current shot forward at this point, blocking him for a moment.
“I’ve got you!”
Degulish rushed up with big steps, grabbing Han Xiao’s waist in a bear hug. He quickly changed his position to move behind Han Xiao, his hands forming a lock as he wanted to use his strength to suppress Han Xiao’s movements.
Comparing by Strength, Han Xiao was definitely not a match for the Calamity Grade Pugilist, and thus did not wish to tango with him at all.
Swoosh!
At that moment, Terry also took the chance. Several metal pieces elongation, piercing toward Han Xiao’s eyes, throat, heart, and other vital areas.
Clank!
The two Oathkeepers shielded Han Xiao from the deluge of metal. Each time he used [Waste Modification], the quality of the machinery would be reduced by a level. Thus, the Oathkeepers did not manage to block off much of the metal projectiles before they were pierced into beehives. However, they managed to buy Han Xiao some precious time.
Han Xiao fully activated his mechanical suit propulsion module, bringing Degulish with him as he rushed toward the sky to avoid the assault from Terry.
Even after struggling twice, Han Xiao was still unable to disengage himself from Degulish’s lock. Thus, he changed his method. The legs of the mechanical suit suddenly split open, and Han Xiao slid out from his suit, easily escaping. At the same time, he utilized the Mechanical Force to disintegrate the Void Dragon Mechanical suit, allowing it to form up around him once again.
Degulish was left hugging the air and immediately fell back to the ground.
The threat of the mothership main cannon gripped his heart, and with every additional second of delay, Han Xiao felt the danger increase another notch. However, with Degulish and Terry eyeing him, any attempt made to fly toward the sky would be blocked.
The BlackLight Stealth could only hover above his head and did not dare get too close to the Calamity Grade Supers because it would be torn apart if it did.
The time taken for the battle had already past five minutes, and the cooldown for his [Void Travel] was over. Han Xiao wanted to use the skill to rush toward his spaceship, but once he entered the void travel state, he would phase through all matter, unable to affect any matter. Even his mechanical suit would be useless, and he would only be able to float using his mechanical force. The duration afforded by [Void Travel] was insufficient for him to fly manually into the spaceship.
Things are not looking so good...
Han Xiao felt a sense of helplessness in his heart and turned to rush toward the tens of thousands of players.
So long as those ‘foot soldiers’ could buy some time by delaying the three Calamity Grade Supers, he would be able to escape the battlefield. The saying was true, ‘one trains soldiers for thousands of days just to use them during an opportune moment’.
Ember snapped his fingers a few times.
Pa pa pa...
The tens of thousands of players saw their HP get reduced to 0, and they turned into white motes as they were sent to revive.
Ember’s ability was just that overpowered. If one did not have the ability to resist true damage, so long as they were weaker than him, they were not qualified to fight against him. Numbers did not mean a thing to him, which was why he was regarded as a killing machine by DarkStar. He could effortlessly slaughter millions in the blink of an eye.
...
The tens of thousands of players simultaneously revived in the square, stunned in place.
“F*ck, I died just like that!”
“Carbon dissociation? True Damage‽ This Boss is broken!”
“I’m out of here. It’s obvious that Black Star’s battlefield is not something that we can affect.”
“That was part of the storyline killing us.”
The storyline killing quickly spread, and the majority of players present believed in it, not going over to join the activities. In the game, they could only die ten times every six days, so the players did not wish to spend their limited death entries on such a pointless storyline action. Thus, they simply chose to crane their necks and watch Han Xiao’s fight.
This was also not the first time that they had watched a storyline plot. The period in Version 1.0 when the Six Nations warred against the Germinal Organization, as well as the resolving of the Mutation Source earlier, had already prepared the players for it... Come to think of it, it seemed like Planet Aquamarine had quite a number of storylines. Wow.
Everyone felt that this time was also a personal storyline of Black Star and was curious as to the development of the plot.
In the eyes of the players, to have Planet Aquamarine meet with such a crisis, it signified the transition that they were about to leave the novice planet, which should be part of the plot.
As the leader of the Guiding Faction, Black Star would be their head for a long period of time. Therefore, many of the players hypothesized that Black Star would likely shine in this event, leaving an even deeper impression. However, they were unable to predict what would truly happen.
...
Seeing the tens of thousands of players brushing their butts and sauntering off, Han Xiao could not stop the corners of his mouth twitching.
Tut, looks like I can’t rely on this group of players. The gap between them and the Calamity Grade Supers is too great.
Degulish and the other two encircled Han Xiao in a triangular formation but did not proceed to close in on him, maintaining some distance.
The three of them did not wish to allow Han Xiao to escape, but they also did not wish to take the cannon blast together with him. The cannon blast was not going to differentiate between friend or foe.
“Risda, is there any way to stop the firing of the mothership cannon?” Han Xiao asked softly into his communicator.
“I have no way to go about it. I infiltrated another mothership and can only help you to check the situation... Oh no, the charging of the main cannon is complete, and the target has already been locked on. You have roughly 8.6 seconds left.”
“Seems like I can’t avoid the blast. Ok, let’s go. I can tank this...”
Han Xiao could only attempt to motivate himself. He threw out a few compressed orbs, which expanded into layers of alloy covers. This was a portable tactical defense fortress that could be used for protection. It had no other effect than that being extremely durable.
This was closely followed by the mechanical soldiers throwing themselves on Han Xiao, on top of the portable defense fortress, using their bodies as shields. They also activated their own shields and faced the sky.
Degulish and the others did not wish to enter the blasting radius of the cannon and would turn a blind eye as long as Black Star did not escape. Thus, they turned around and attacked the mechanical army around them. While only a small portion passed through the three of them to reach the defense fortress, the defense line constantly got thicker.
The remaining shuttles and mechanical hands also flew up into the sky and activated their shields.
Han Xiao had released almost all his machinery for defense, and he did not know how much they could offset. Thus, he recovered his HP back to the maximum and concentrated his energy, readying himself to use Aurora’s Character Summon Card.
At that moment, Degulish, who was blocking the mechanical army, received a notification from the mothership. The three of them stopped their actions immediately, retreating far away.
“The deed is done. Black Star cannot avoid this!”
Degulish revealed a satisfied smile. They had chased after him and blocked Han Xiao from escaping, all in order to allow the main cannon to lock onto and hit Black Star. This was the method with the highest possibility of killing him.
At that moment, within the defensive fortress, Han Xiao raised his alertness to the highest, as well as activating the skill [Repel—Thorns], which he had obtained for the Germinal Organization Leader. The skill would offset thirty percent of the damage received from the next attack.
“It’s coming!”