The fusion process was slower than Yu Xiao had imagined.
He felt as if his consciousness were lying in an endless void, while some mysterious force was "grafting" things that had never belonged to him onto his body.
The bodies of Demon Scorpion and Cobra were now completely covered in black fluid. Flickering arcs of electricity danced around all three bodies.
The whole process was like a spider devouring its prey. The black fluid seemed like venom secreted by Xingtian, slowly digesting the two steel bodies and drawing them into itself.
"Look out!"
Lava's roar pulled Mary's gaze away from Xingtian.
The instant she turned around, a dense horde of beasts attacked from three directions at once!
"Open fire!"
Boom, boom, boom!
The heavy mechs on both sides of the formation raised their arms. Four enormous Vulcan machine guns, each fifteen meters long, erupted in deafening roars!
Countless bullets poured from the spinning barrels, spraying like rain toward the charging horde!
The blazing rounds burrowed into the monsters' chests, twisting their hideous flesh into spirals before punching through their backs!
Metal casings cascaded to the ground like waterfalls, rolling to a stop at the steel giants' feet.
From above, the dense barrage would have looked like a curtain of rain!
"Die, you beasts!"
Lava had gone berserk. Green blood spurted before him like fountains as the monsters' roars mingled with the sounds of flesh being torn apart.
[Warning: Barrel overheating. Cooling protocol initiated. Estimated time required: 40 seconds.]
"Rotate!"
At Lava's command, all the mechs at the front neatly lowered their barrels and retreated three steps.
The heavy mechs in the second row immediately moved through the gaps in the formation and took their places at the front.
"Open fire!"
The dense hail of bullets crisscrossed, forming another defensive net with no gaps.
Meanwhile, the White Angels protected at the very back of the formation immediately began repairing the mechs that had just rotated out!
With the White Angels' cooling spray guns, the forty-second wait was cut down to twenty seconds.
In the distance, Thunderbolt watched the scene intently with his golden eyes. He did not advance, but stood motionless like a commander.
After only four rotations, the beasts' corpses had piled into a small hill across the 120-degree fan-shaped area in front of the squad.
"Roar!"
Just as Lava gave the order for the fifth rotation, Thunderbolt threw back his head and roared once more!
A hint of unease crept over Lava.
At Thunderbolt's roar, the seemingly endless horde charged again!
"Keep firing!"
Lava could not guess what Thunderbolt was planning, but that did not stop him from continuing the tactic that had already proved effective!
But the next second, he spotted the problem.
Some of the beasts had changed their attack from charging to leaping!
The next wave bounded off the mound of their fallen companions, trying to break through the dense barrage from above!
At the same time, the rest of the beasts continued their assault from the ground!
"Activate the missile array!" It was the only solution Lava could think of. "Hold formation and retreat at a steady pace for one hundred meters!"
The five heavy mechs in the second row immediately activated the missile launchers mounted on their shoulders and fired a volley at the beasts swooping down from above!
Boom!
Flames billowed and burst in the sky like fireworks. The blood rain had not even hit the ground before the heat of the explosions vaporized it!
Lifeless corpses flew out of the flames. Some had been blasted into charred chunks of meat that came hurtling toward Lava and the others like meteors!
"Rotate!!"
Lava warned them in a voice louder than anything he had ever shouted before. But the massive chunks of flesh still slammed into the heavy mechs, throwing them off balance.
The steel torrent of bullets immediately developed gaps!
"We've got this!"
At the critical moment, the three White Angels unhesitatingly rushed to the very front!
Their arms rapidly transformed. The magnetic needles originally used for electrical repairs split down the middle, becoming three stabilizers around each energy emitter!
Crackle!
Three arcs of electricity, each more than five meters across, shot from the White Angels' energy emitters at once.
In an instant, wild currents surged through the horde. Every beast at the front dropped to the ground!
"Fall back!"
At Lava's command, all the heavy mechs immediately adjusted their formation. The White Angels retreated to the very back once more, and the entire formation began to fall back at the planned pace!
Sure enough, once they had opened up the distance again, the beasts lost the ramp formed by their companions' corpses and could no longer leap over the defense line!
But Lava knew the situation was about to get worse.
After all three White Angels had unleashed their electric shock, the power output of their reactors would temporarily drop, leaving them unable to use energy tools—including their cooling spray guns—for a while.
That meant the heavy mechs would have to endure the full forty seconds of the cooling protocol.
But with the Vulcan machine guns firing at full power, they could only shoot continuously for thirty seconds!
Everyone would face a full ten seconds without fire support!
Lava's brow twisted into a knot as his mind raced, searching for any way to get them through those ten seconds without covering fire!
He already knew the answer. Still, he stubbornly refused to consider it.
But he was out of time.
As the last casing hit the ground, all the Vulcan machine guns fell silent at once!
The blazing barrels, the still-spinning mechanisms, and the wisps of white smoke drifting from the muzzles.
"First missile volley, fire!"
At Lava's command, the mechs that had lowered their machine guns fired the first volley of missiles!
"Second missile volley, fire!"
Lava knew full well that missiles could not hold back the endless horde for long.
Bang, bang, bang!
The second volley launched from the shoulders of the mechs that had moved to the front, blasting the beasts that had advanced dozens of meters into pieces!
The next second, dozens of beasts burst through the crimson flames, ignoring their burned bodies as they lunged straight at the mechs!
Whirr!
Two heavy mechs raised the chainsaws on their arms. Their spinning chains were lined with sharp teeth!
That was the solution Lava had come up with. But the others had thought of it too.
They would use their lives to get through those ten seconds without fire support.
"William! Robin!" Lava screamed their names from inside the cockpit.
The two mechs already charging toward the horde turned back in perfect unison, taking one last look at the formation still retreating behind them.
It was their silent farewell.
Before you continue