Fierce Battle!

Neither massive Jaeger made a rash move. They watched each other like snakes, trying to find an opening.

But the stalemate could not last forever. The larger Shandong chose to attack first.

The Shatterdome was not tall enough for it to swing Soul Extinguisher widely. So it changed from a sweep to a thrust, swinging the giant spiked mace straight ahead like a sword—but against a Jaeger head with limited armor protection, the result would be the same.

Like an out-of-control rocket, the giant spiked mace slammed viciously toward Kunlun's head. With its overwhelming kinetic force and the barbed hooks on its surface, even a glancing blow could tear flesh from bone off a kaiju—or separate a Jaeger's head from its body.

At that moment—Kunlun moved.

Its massive body dipped slightly, instantly evading the mace's thrust!

Soul Extinguisher swept past Kunlun's ear and smashed hard into the wall behind it, blasting a huge hole through the wall and filling the air with dust.

Kunlun then braced its left hand against Shandong's chest and its right against Shandong's lower abdomen before activating the rocket thrusters on its back!

Boom—

Two pale-blue jets of flame erupted behind Kunlun—it actually sent the eight-thousand-ton Shandong flying!

After flying nearly three hundred meters through the air, the two giants crashed heavily onto the passage leading from Hangar Six to the sea gate, denting the floor and smashing several nearby forklifts to pieces.

Kunlun's attack had been highly effective. Soul Extinguisher was still embedded in the wall of Hangar Six, leaving Shandong disarmed. Moreover, Kunlun rose far faster than Shandong. The Achilles shock absorbers installed at its ankles played a decisive role at that moment.

Shandong had only just risen when Kunlun was already in position, stance set, and its heavy fist came hurtling in!

Kunlun's left fist feinted successfully, drawing Shandong's attention. When Lin Yin realized she had been fooled, Kunlun's right fist had already smashed into Shandong's left cheek, sending sparks flying!

Feeling the burning pain in her left cheek, Lin Yin was stunned.

Though Kunlun's attack could not inflict much damage on Shandong, it deeply provoked Lin Yin's pride as an 8th Generation Jaeger pilot.

She had defeated too many kaiju. Most of their attacks had been driven by instinct, with no technique or pattern to them. But Kunlun was no kaiju. It had more than enough skill to make Shandong stumble in the gutter.

"Rosen, you've got guts!"

Lin Yin staggered back a few steps, shook her head, and assumed her stance again. She and Rosen had studied under the same master, and she knew full well that Rosen, like herself, was deeply versed in Raleigh's Street Fighting Technique. She would not let Rosen succeed again. Taking a deep breath, Lin Yin held her arms level before her and adopted the same forward defensive stance as Kunlun.

But then Kunlun changed its movements again—it hunched its back and drew its hands close to its chest, using its vastly superior agility to dart left and right as it launched a lightning-fast assault!

"Mike Kane?"

Lin Yin immediately thought of the person who used that style of attack.

But she had no time to think further. Kunlun evaded her attack and closed in before Shandong's chest, driving its left elbow toward Shandong's face. Lin Yin hurriedly raised a hand to block it, but as Shandong's massive steel palm stopped Kunlun's strike, it also instantly filled the holographic HUD before her. Only then did Lin Yin realize the purpose of the move—it was meant to block her vision.

Sure enough, the next second, Lin Yin felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen. Shandong's abdomen had been struck by Kunlun's right hand, and sparks flew throughout the cockpit.

If Rosen activated the Cloud-Mist High-Pressure Magnetic Storm Ring, Shandong might already have lost.

Lin Yin could not help thinking that as she fell backward.

The chain of fierce clashes before him was far beyond Jiang Tianzheng's expectations. He had originally thought the 8th Generation Jaeger Shandong would easily win through its vastly superior physical capabilities, but now he felt he needed to change his way of thinking.

Even an old car made in 1960 could ram a Lamborghini to pieces.

Kunlun's relentless assault had left Shandong struggling to cope. In barely a minute, two dents had appeared in Shandong's front chest armor, while several breaches had opened in its facial armor. Jiang Tianzheng could practically picture Lin Yin's cheeks, swollen from congestion.

Jiang Tianzheng once again looked incredulously at the Command Center display—Kunlun was still at a 50% Sync Rate, in stark contrast to Shandong's 96% Sync Rate beside it.

Kunlun's advantage did not last long. Shandong seemed to have been enraged and began a furious counterattack.

Relying on its own weight, Shandong forcibly withstood Kunlun's assault and shoved Kunlun away. Then its left hand flicked, and a thick chain extended from beneath its palm, lashing straight toward Kunlun!

Kunlun hurriedly ducked, but Shandong's left hand dropped at the same time. The chain twisted in midair and immediately hooked around Kunlun's right hand!

"Now you can't run!"

Lin Yin's furious voice came through the Command Center communicator.

Shandong gripped the chain with both hands and gave it a savage pull—the difference in their performance was displayed in full at that moment. The super torque of an 8th Generation Jaeger was simply beyond anything a Seventh Generation Jaeger could match. Kunlun was powerless to resist. Though it struggled with all its strength, gouging two trenches beneath its feet, it was useless. In the end, Kunlun was firmly seized by Shandong's hands, all movement restrained.

Kunlun had intended to activate its rocket thrusters again, but Shandong would not fall in the same place twice. It shoved Kunlun forward at high speed, smashing through several hangar doors before finally pinning Kunlun onto the moving platform at the end of the passage.

"Activate the orbital transporter now!"

Lin Yin's anxious voice came through the communicator again. Jiang Tianzheng immediately opened the passage from Hangar Six to the Pacific Ocean. He pressed the activation button, and the moving platform began operating at once, speeding along its rails toward the sea gate. It had originally been a transport device for carrying Jaegers into the Pacific Ocean, but now it had become the stage for a battle between two Jaegers.

Shandong's left hand pinned Kunlun down tightly while its right hand rose. An incomparably brilliant beam emerged from its palm—it was the Convergent Laser Welder, capable of cutting through anything currently known on Earth with temperatures exceeding ten thousand degrees.

"Die!"

Shandong drove the blade of light toward Kunlun's head. Realizing the terror contained in that glow, Kunlun instantly activated the Cloud-Mist High-Pressure Magnetic Storm Ring on its right hand, and the powerful magnetic field forced Shandong's body away!

Kunlun then desperately held back Shandong's right hand. At that moment, the beam was less than ten meters from Kunlun's head!

At that moment, the scene inside Kunlun's cockpit was far worse than Lin Yin and Jiang Tianzheng imagined.

The cockpit's formerly soft yellow-white light had completely vanished. Flashing danger warnings painted Rosen and Mike's faces crimson.

"Torque damaged. Twenty-three percent of the transmission system has failed. Power output is continuously declining."

Shandong's repeated attacks had severely damaged Kunlun. Several circuits inside the cockpit had shorted out, and more than half the indicator lights representing the auxiliary systems on the console had gone dark.

Rosen's face was flushed as he pressed both hands forward with all his strength—he was controlling Kunlun as it held back Shandong's right hand.

Ahead of him, the view in the holographic HUD was rapidly receding. Only at the center of the screen was there an aurora radiating blinding light—it seemed to be getting closer and closer. Once it filled the entire screen, he would be finished.

Rosen thought so.