Victory

"Main Battle Tank" Paulus arrived at the battlefield together with "Rainstorm Blade" Longkoni.

Jingbao Kui had casually stopped Longkoni's chip from malfunctioning, but it would still take some time for the chip to cool down and reboot. Before Longkoni regained consciousness, Jingbao Kui had also spent a few seconds injecting a Trojan Gu into the two martial artists' bodies.

For an Inner Power master, this was practically a matter of course.

A port that had already been breached once was as good as undefended to them.

By the time Paulus noticed the sounds of battle and brought Longkoni over, the fight had already been going on for several minutes.

Seeing Xiang Shan evenly matched with Leif, Paulus was utterly shocked—especially when he recognized the style Xiang Shan was using as the Bionic Fist Technique.

Only someone who had experienced it firsthand could understand just how terrifying that seemingly clumsy staff technique was.

This martial artist... had clearly lost everything... was clearly just a failure from some martial arts circle... Why was he like this? Why was he so strong?

What gave him the right to be so strong?

At that moment, a line of information appeared in his field of vision.

[Flank him!]

It was followed by a string of movement diagrams.

When Paulus arrived at the edge of the battlefield, Leif noticed him as well.

Unlike the townspeople, Paulus might have been weak, but he was indeed a martial artist. If he saw Leif collapse in defeat, there was a chance he would give chase. Then the secret that Leif and Jingbao Kui were driving their chips toward self-destruction would be exposed.

No. If they simply fled like this, they might not be able to escape Xiang Shan's pursuit either.

So Leif made his decision in an instant. He squeezed a fraction of his remaining computational resources free and laid out a crude battle plan.

He would force Xiang Shan into a corner, then have Paulus come in and attack from the side.

He offered no explanation. He had to appear composed. In the best-case scenario, Paulus would think this was an initiation offering. Or he would think Leif had merely fallen into a stalemate and needed help breaking it.

This martial artist did not understand Inner Power and would not be able to see anything.

And if Paulus truly attacked, Leif would strike at the very instant he did, completing the pincer attack.

If that attack failed to achieve anything, he would turn and flee, leaving Paulus and Longkoni to hold Xiang Shan back.

Xiang Shan's light prosthetic body did not possess much offensive power. His martial arts might crush those two martial artists from the city, but he might not be able to deliver a fatal blow in an extremely short time.

As long as he could open up some distance... perhaps there would be hope of survival!

Paulus did indeed hesitate briefly. All he saw was Leif and Xiang Shan fighting with Outer-School Martial Arts, and he did not understand the subtleties involved. More importantly, Xiang Shan had indeed lost a prosthetic arm and looked injured.

He was merely hesitating.

—There was still a chance now... still a chance to return to the city... But if he threw a lethal punch at that martial artist...

—If he joined hands with that martial artist now...

The moment that thought arose, the phantom of Leif's long staff appeared in Paulus's mind.

Those staff shadows coming from every direction... it felt like flailing his limbs in the deep sea...

—Impossible. There was no way to defeat that brute.

—And I must learn Inner Power... then wash away today's humiliation!

With that thought, he ran in the predetermined direction.

At the same time, Leif slid both hands to the middle of the long staff. Both ends of the staff simultaneously shook out symmetrical flourishes, surging toward Xiang Shan like a tide.

This was his treasured staff-killing move, Thunder Rolling. The whirling staff flourishes continually shattered the sound barrier, and shockwaves carrying immense kinetic energy pressed outward in every direction. The light prosthetic body's movements were slightly restricted, while cyborgs like Paulus, who still had natural skin on their bodies, even burst blood lines across their flesh.

This move was a killing technique designed to counter a siege by light prosthetic bodies. Its powerful shockwaves would not greatly disrupt heavy prosthetic bodies, but they were an enormous nuisance to light prosthetic bodies. Still, maintaining this move was no easy task. Leif could only wield the ghostly steel staff like this for three seconds. After three seconds, the power units in his arms would shut down from overheating.

This move had originally been designed to deal with encirclement and was somewhat lacking against a lone enemy. But Leif had been driven into a desperate situation and clearly could not afford to care about such things. The roaring staff forms crushed toward Xiang Shan like massive boulders falling from a mountaintop!

Xiang Shan lowered his body, doing his best to reduce the area exposed to the gale. Without knowing the exact staff technique his opponent used, aerodynamic simulation was impossible. The chaotic airflow could not be exploited at all. If he carelessly allowed the wind to throw off his movements, danger would inevitably follow. Having lost an arm, he could not fully display the mysteries of the Bionic Fist Technique either. This set of algorithms still could not fully bear Xiang Shan's vast martial wisdom. Moving on two legs and one arm, Xiang Shan even had to keep his face pressed close to the ground.

Three clouds of dust suddenly burst from the ground, as though small explosives had been buried there beforehand. Midway through his staff technique, Leif forcibly changed moves, sliding both hands to the tail end of the staff and slamming it down with the spear move Phoenix Three Nods.

Xiang Shan could only barely brace himself with one arm and lift his body slightly, evading this exquisite killing move.

And at that moment, Paulus stepped forward and threw a punch.

It was one of the Mecha Steel Fist techniques—See Heaven and Earth!

He had practiced this punch for over ten years. Its angle, force, and timing were all grasped with extreme precision. Even Leif secretly praised it.

Xiang Shan had not known Paulus before, nor did he know that Paulus had been hired by the town mayor. He assumed only that this man was another enemy reinforcement and had already been on guard. His left leg shot out and retracted, tapping the ground as his entire body turned ninety degrees in midair. Then his right leg hooked over the side of the steel fist.

For some reason, this fist style... felt extraordinarily familiar to him, even more familiar than the Bionic Fist Technique, staff techniques, spear techniques, or sword techniques...

—The next move would definitely be...

The left arm that had been shielding his head and face suddenly shot out. Both fists struck in rapid succession.

It was See All Beings!

At the same time, Leif delivered an immensely powerful spear move from the other side, "S31—Curved Spear." The arc shaken out by the steel staff resembled a venomous snake leaping from the ground to bite Xiang Shan.

His life hung by a thread.

Yet Xiang Shan seemed quite accustomed to such situations. His right leg hooked Paulus's fist, while his remaining arm rested against Paulus's left fist. The one-ton fist viciously scraped his arm away. But Xiang Shan used that force to swing slightly through the air, while his recharged left leg kicked out and struck the very bottom of the spear.

Paulus felt his right hand sink, and his entire body began to pitch forward.

Leif's staff veered by a fraction and ultimately grazed past Xiang Shan's chest, tearing away a piece of metal.

Xiang Shan gave his right leg one final twist, changing the hook into a kick. He broke away from Paulus and landed on the ground once more.

Paulus stepped forward with his left foot before he barely managed to steady himself. He knew he had missed, and without a shred of luck in his heart, he launched both fists according to the original sequence.

But the punches struck empty air.

Xiang Shan did not rise as quickly as Paulus expected, nor did he even lie prone. His back rested against the ground, one leg folded at the joint behind him and the other folded at the joint in front of him.

If a natural human performed such a movement, at least one knee would be shattered. But idiotic designs like knee joints, so full of evolutionary flaws, did not exist on cyborgs.

When Xiang Shan had used the force of Leif's staff to press down Paulus's fist, he had already judged that Paulus's center of gravity was too high and too far outward. His torso was very light; either his level of modification was low, or it was natural.

And his next move, both fists pursuing Xiang Shan's figure, would inevitably draw his body forward.

In that instant, Paulus's head and neck, the gap between his fists, and Xiang Shan's legs formed a straight line.

Xiang Shan's legs released force in two different directions at once. The two forces ultimately merged into one, and the sole force along that invisible straight line exploded outward.

Fluid splattered. A metal skull that had already emptied its contents flew into the air.

A drive shaft flew up with the skull. Leif threw away the treasured weapon that had made his name. He did not even have time to withdraw the force from his spear technique. Taking the longest strides possible, he turned and fled the place.

With a hook of his leg, Xiang Shan sprang onto Paulus's shoulder. Leif was running far too fast. Perhaps he...

With a boom, another house collapsed. A heavy truck rammed into the scene.

It was Yulia. She did not think much of Xiang Shan, but she understood that this brute had once shown hostility toward Youji. If he escaped, he might threaten her son's safety.

She had already lost a wheel. Even when she barely got moving, she was unstable. Fortunately, Leif had run in a straight line to get away from Xiang Shan as quickly as possible—he knew Xiang Shan was not equipped with thermal weapons.

Industrial prosthetic bodies were not weaker than martial artists' prosthetic bodies in raw strength. Rather, industrial prosthetic bodies never took flexibility, balance, precision, and such matters into account. In terms of sheer output, industrial prosthetic bodies could even surpass martial artists' prosthetic bodies of the same price range.

As for judging a straight line, that was something she could do purely by instinct.

Yulia lost control the moment she started moving. She careened sideways and knocked Leif down with her truck body. The truck and the martial artist spun wildly, eventually leveling three houses.

Yulia lost consciousness once more. Leif furiously punched the truck off himself. With one grab, he bent the truck body aside. Yulia's Biological Brain was only an arm's reach away from him.

But in the next second, a shadow descended from the sky and drove a foot through his face. Leif still did not die. He jerked his body up and reached out to grab, trying to seize this enemy and perish together. But when he exerted force, Xiang Shan had already slipped to the side of his body and gave him a push along that force.

Leif's balance system automatically steadied his footing.

Then Xiang Shan gave him a second push.

"Aaaaaah!" Leif let out the final scream of his life. His CPU was already close to burning out. At this moment, his hands could no longer care about proper form at all. But in that instant, Xiang Shan suddenly jumped onto his hands, stomped hard, and leaped high into the air.

Leif lost his balance and crashed to the ground. But Xiang Shan did not land where he had been.

Then came another roar.

Jingbao Kui let out a scream.