132 Sky Ring Assault

The mechanized troops advanced slowly like a swaying forest, their Mobile Armor baring its fangs and claws like raging fire. They marched with the storm, and natural disasters were right beside them, yet they could not dampen their high-spirited and fervent fighting spirit in the slightest.

In the past, they slaughtered indiscriminately, achieved great feats, invaded countless countries, and forced small nations to submit and kneel. Now, faced with the Red Arrow People' disruption of a sacred ceremony, they naturally would not let it go.

Li Aoz will be defeated in the most gruesome way, his spine shattered, chained, dragged back to the country, put on a trial broadcast live globally, and then executed. Only in this way can the stability of the people's emotions be guaranteed, and only in this way can the authority of the Sky Ring be maintained.

Walking alongside a natural disaster is such a crazy and shocking scene: look at the lightning and thunder converging in the sky, like millions of raging dragons dancing and crisscrossing, the vast dust and smoke gathering into a terrifying storm in the 680 km/h gale, carrying tens of millions of tons of soil, sand, snow and water vapor, forming a destructive behemoth stretching for thousands of kilometers, uprooting mountains and flattening hills, tearing and grinding everything in sight into fine ice sand, and in some places, due to the friction so fast, you can even see electric currents and flashes of fire.

The reason why a natural disaster is a natural disaster is precisely because people do not have the ability to resist or face it. The warriors of the Sky Ring acted very cautiously, maintaining a tight formation. Every driver gripped the steering wheel tightly, resisting the onslaught of the gale. Even the Mobile Armor weighing tens of tons was nothing more than a few pieces of iron snacks that were a little harder in front of the natural disaster.

The regimental commander Kano Asaichi, was on high alert. As a veteran who had fought in the invasion of Frostplate, he knew that even a lion needs to go all out to catch a rabbit.

More than a decade ago on the battlefield, the Sky Ring Army advanced triumphantly, taking down 12 Forward City in just two weeks. The exhausted Medvi government was busy suppressing the Rose Army and was never enthusiastic about resisting the invasion of Frostplate by Sky Ring.

Even at this point, the seemingly dejected Frostplate soldiers were able to unleash a firm determination, fighting to the bitter end and holding off the Heavenly Ring Warrior in front of the strategic fortress for a full 72 days.

The Heavenly Ring Warrior seized the living room, while the Frostplate Soldiers held off the enemy in the kitchen. When the enemy entered the bedroom, the Frostplate Citizen defended the balcony to the death.

The long 72 days wore down the will of those on the front lines and at the highest levels. War-weariness rose among the domestic population, and the soldiers on the front lines became numb, beginning to question the possibility of victory.

After that period, the Red Arrow Empire had also quelled the domestic rebellions. The Empire wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the Frostplate issue, but it knew that if the Frostplate were to fall, the resulting three-way power struggle would plunge the Empire into endless conflict. Therefore, it subtly indicated:

"Although the Empire is currently facing some difficulties and its economy is unstable, we have a sufficient supply of nuclear weapons."

Sky Ring is also a nuclear superpower, but the difference is that Sky Ring's nuclear weapons are relics of the Old Era. Although they are numerous, they do not have the production capacity to wage a protracted nuclear war. On the other hand, Red Arrow's empire is three times the size of Sky Ring's and possesses uranium and helium resources on the seabed. In every aspect, Hongjian has more capital to sustain a war than Sky Ring.

The Heavenly Ring People aren't truly passionate about war; they're only passionate about invasion when it benefits them. The Red Arrow People went mad because they were driven by revenge and a desire to perish together. The Heavenly Ring People, however, don't. They fight to gain benefits and enjoy life. Only a fool would go mad with them.

Kano Asaichi a man who has experienced '72 Hell 72 Days '. Unlike today's hot-blooded youths, he has personally witnessed how the Frostplate Soldiers, who have always been known for fleeing and surrendering, launched counterattacks against the Samurai's bombardment, braving poison gas and flames. Time and again, they used the city streets to deliberately shut down the Artificial Sun, taking advantage of the darkness and cold wind to constantly harass and raid them, completely ruining the Heavenly Ring People' strategy of a quick victory.

Quan Xiaojiang felt relaxed about the battle because Li Aoz alone.

On a modern battlefield, he alone could destroy a scattered Military Department like Frostplate, but he couldn't inflict damage on a fully integrated Heavenly Ring Warrior.

However, Kano Asaichi was very cautious about this battle because Li Aoz alone!

What makes Li Aoz truly terrifying is that he used only one person to cause the kind of destruction that only an elite legion could achieve. It's not that no Gamma-rank can demolish a city, but the time and effort required for a single Gamma-rank to do it is almost the same as that required for a legion built at the same cost.

But Li Aoz different. His abilities are very special. Fire and gravity are powerful area-of-effect damage. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him a humanoid natural disaster.

Even though Li Aoz was alone, he never dared to be careless. Before the battle, he actively met with the SCIA intelligence officers and obtained and read a large amount of information about Li Aoz from them, down to every battle, and even details about Li Aoz's favorite dish, shredded chicken and mashed potatoes.

According to his assessment, Li Aoz possesses powerful area-of-effect damage, but his combat strength is somewhat insufficient when facing individual strong opponents. On the contrary, the more people gang up on him, the more vigorous he becomes.

Meanwhile, Li Aoz possessed strong intelligence gathering capabilities. The Hydrogen Bomb hidden underground by the Hojo Conglomerate were concealed in the Abandoned Mist, but Li Aoz took the Hydrogen Bomb from the Beitiao Building in less than 10 minutes.

Evidence suggests that Li Aoz possessed strong intelligence control over small countries like Gurant, and that the attack on the Surut Palace resulted in very few deaths among the Rebel Army fighters.

According to Kano Asaichi, Li Aoz was born for war. The official description of Li Aoz is: 'A stunningly beautiful woman, arrogant because she can have everything; not particularly intelligent, but cunning and charismatic.'

Some people might breathe a sigh of relief upon seeing that Leo's intelligence isn't particularly high, but they overlook Li Aoz's greatest strength—her powerful charisma.

Thirty percent of the world's population has an intelligence level above average, but not all highly intelligent people can become high-income earners.

But charismatic people are almost never poor. Those who are less charismatic are often prostitutes or socialites, but with a little education, they can become organizers, leaders, and advocates.

Why aren't leaders the ones with high IQs? Because people with high IQs know to stay out of trouble and never take on the risks of being in charge.

A leader's primary ability is not intelligence, but charisma, the ability to unite people, and decisiveness. At the very least, it must be force, and human force is often related to the number of people that can be organized and mobilized. In other words, as long as you possess charisma, highly intelligent people will willingly serve you.

So, Li Aoz such a powerful charm and beautiful appearance, doesn't he have any support at all?

Kano Asaichi doesn't see it that way. On the contrary, he believes that Li Aoz must have a huge group of people supporting him.

If Li Aoz were acting alone, he wouldn't have been able to make the Grant Duchy independent. Behind this was the combined efforts of Red Arrow, Zhengxu, and Sky Ring, who were working to dismantle the Colonies and weaken Frostplate.

Kano Asaichi studied it carefully and quickly discovered that Li Aoz was very good at mediating between the Four Nations and using their strength against them. He had Green Card from Red Arrow but no entry record. He was born in Frostplate and frequently interacted with Outland People. He bought Zhengxu weapons and made money from Heavenly Ring People. This guy had too wide a social circle. As long as Li Aoz wanted to, he could take sides with any side except Frostplate at any time.

This powerful social skill was extremely frightening; Kano Asaichi even suspected that Li Aoz had already prepared troops and were poised to attack them.

His concerns were not unfounded. Li Aoz had made several remarks about "the Outland." If Li Aoz was very famous in the Outland, it was not impossible that he could raise an Outland army, and given his relationship with Red Arrow and Zhengxu, arm it and prepare for an ambush.

Therefore, Kano Asaichi sent out the Ninja unit, allowing these lightly armed scouts to search and probe for ambushes.

Air Force personnel in the sky are also patrolling everywhere, with drone formations activating optical stealth and using thermal imaging to scan the ground, leaving no stone unturned.

Many people think that Kano Asaichi is making a fuss over nothing. Why be so serious when dealing with a person, especially one who was defeated and fled by Yuhelai?

Making things too tense will only waste resources, wear down morale, and be a thankless task. Soldiers won't listen to you then.

But soon, the soldiers will realize how right Kano's decision was.

"Ninja squad sends signal! Thermal reaction detected at 10 o'clock."

In the temporary command post of the transport helicopter, the adjutant said solemnly, "Lord Kano, according to intelligence analysis, that is likely a convoy, Fully Armed convoy."

"Just as I expected, Li Aoz's intelligence-gathering ability is as good as ever. Our whereabouts have probably been exposed long ago."

Kano Asaichi nodded; he hadn't guessed wrong.

"But we were following the path of the natural disaster, how did that guy manage to do that..."

"Who knows? Maybe the headquarters didn't keep a close watch on things."

Kano Asaichi immediately sneered and muttered, "I hope it's not really the enemy at headquarters. I don't want to get involved in this messy infighting. Sakata Company, change your attack formation, call our fighters, take a slightly longer route, and cut off their retreat once we're engaged in battle."

"Um, Colonel, something's not right." The adjutant glanced at the map, his face turning grim. "This area seems to be Sunny Garden. The signal source for the suspected convoy is underground in Sunny Garden —there's actually a subway line here..."

"You mean the Greening Base?"

"Yes, shouldn't we avoid conflict with these bio-engineers right now? If we use the same tactics as before... we'll inevitably end up bombing their headquarters."

Given the fanaticism of those greening fanatics, if they dared to burn down a single tree, they would definitely launch a vicious attack on their own group.

However, there are differences even among madmen.

Kano Asaichi hesitated slightly, but then decided to speak:

"Don't worry about them. They're just a bunch of Old Era, clinging to their dreams of beautifying the world! They'll be eliminated by His Majesty the Ring King sooner or later anyway."

"Then what do we want to do?"

"Continue to execute combat orders. Also, have the Skyhawk Fighter drop Bunker Buster to force Li Aoz and his men out!"

Kano Asaichi deep breath, his eyes suddenly changing. "Link the tactical platform, everyone, the chance to avenge our defeat has arrived. Long live His Majesty the Ring King!"