The End of the Contract

Fang Heng bent down and was the first to deploy his Walker. After its chassis was replaced, the Sword Plover appeared much lighter and more aesthetically pleasing, its metal blade-like legs glinting coldly in the flickering firelight.

He straightened up again, lowered his head to adjust the tightness of his control gloves, and then looked up.

With a wave of her hand, the young woman opposite summoned a Flexible Construct, a black regular octahedron, which slowly rose from the crowd behind her and flew to her side.

It hovered in mid-air from beginning to end, spinning at a constant rate. However, unlike a Clockwork Sprite, it didn't rely on wing-flapping to fly; instead, it was powered by a Guy Crystal.

This was the Annihilator QV700, a rare type of magic-oriented Flexible Construct.

It wasn't 'flexible' at all, with a speed of only 7, less than half that of a normal adult male, and its evasion was practically nonexistent. However, its clumsy mobility was compensated by the diversity of its combat methods.

Magic-oriented Flexible Constructs fought similarly to magic casters, leaning towards ranged and spell-based output, achieving different attack effects by equipping various subsystems.

Common ones included Flame Ray, Shining Field, Gravity Trap, and Magic Spear, which offered both offense and defense.

But the real mind-game was that the Annihilator QV700's four subsystems were not fixed; they could be adjusted entirely according to its owner's combat style. If Fang Heng approached it with conventional tactics, he could easily suffer a significant loss.

However, he didn't hesitate.

The referee blew his whistle. Fang Heng pulled down his goggles and sent his Walker into the arena at high speed. The main arena was well-designed, no longer a flat expanse. It was about ten meters square, with an artificial obstacle zone to the north and a gentle terrain with grasslands and low trees to the south.

The grass, trees, and walls were magically constructed and were nearly as real as actual objects before the Aetheric Mana dissipated.

The Walker slid behind a stone wall like a silver shadow. A blinding beam of light shot from afar, hitting the stone wall and leaving a golden-red, high-temperature scorch mark.

"Flame Ray," Fang Heng noted, confirming one of its attack methods upon seeing this.

He mentally recorded the data: Flame Ray had a cooldown of 1.5 seconds and a heat increase of 4 degrees. He noted the opponent's high-temperature data and, after counting for one second, had the Walker leap from one wall to the next.

The opponent did not attack.

Fang Heng mentally noted another point: no plugins were installed to reduce the cooldown time.

The Walker slid out like a phantom. Another golden-red beam shot from afar, but Fang Heng seemed to have anticipated it, causing the Walker to retract. After the ray passed, it only left a dazzling scorch mark at its original position.

The next moment, the Walker immediately entered its running state, darting behind the next stone wall.

Not far away, the Annihilator was on the right side of the arena, hovering about a meter above the grass. Apart from the previous shot, it remained spinning and motionless.

Hong Ye, seeing this, also slowed down her control of the construct, a slight chill running through her. After two consecutive misses, she hadn't even managed to probe the opponent's evasion habits. Not only had she never encountered such a situation in a match, but she hadn't even experienced it during practice with the instructors.

She felt a hint of surprise but wasn't sure if it was just a coincidence. Wasn't the opponent a contestant from the preliminary rounds?

After two consecutive exchanges, both slow probing attempts, the audience below grew impatient, letting out a few scattered boos. Only Wu Di, seeing Fang Heng's Walker, let out a soft "Oh?"

"What's wrong?" Liu Li Yue asked him, turning his head.

"Can your Walker be that smooth?"

"I can be much faster than him."

"Not faster, smoother—"

Liu Li Yue frowned, unconcerned, but too lazy to look.

Not far away, Blood Night Demon Moon had already activated her recording device. While adjusting the focus, she tapped her communication device with one hand and typed on the open communication page:

"I'll send it to you—"

'You'd better record it and send it to me later. Real-time transmission is expensive.'

An ID popped up on the screen. The speaker used an abbreviated ID—R.

"Are you short on money?" Blood Night Demon Moon rolled her eyes.

R: Very poor.

Meanwhile, on the arena, gasps suddenly erupted.

The Walker finally emerged from behind the wall, but not of Fang Heng's volition. It was less that it walked out and more that it was blown out by the airflow. Hong Ye, having lost her patience, had directly blasted open the stone wall with a Magic Spear.

The scattered airflow sent the Walker stumbling, causing slight damage to its structure and vitality. Fang Heng couldn't help but click his tongue, thinking, "What a violent girl!" The tactical essence of a magic-oriented Flexible Construct lay in resource allocation and combination; he had never seen such an aggressive playstyle before.

This slightly disrupted his plan.

Of course, he also noted down the second attack method, Magic Spear—cooldown of 5 seconds, heat increase of 12 degrees. Two more to go, Fang Heng mused.

He pressed his palm down, causing the Walker to spread its six legs and sink its entire body.

Hong Ye was indeed gradually losing patience. The instructors often told her that her strong offensive drive was her strength, but also her weakness. The weakness lay in her lack of patience. Hong Ye knew this herself but had no intention of correcting it, believing it to be her style.

Her gaze swept across the smoke-filled arena, judging the opponent's location. A red light flashed.

But the beam passed precisely over the lowered Walker, missing it by a hair's breadth.

On the other side of the arena, the audience who had just witnessed this let out a low murmur of admiration. They hadn't understood why Fang Heng had made his Walker lower its center of gravity, but they hadn't expected him to anticipate the enemy's actions.

Although Hong Ye couldn't see what was happening behind the smoke, she realized something was wrong upon hearing the exclamation.

She had a vague feeling that the young man always seemed to know what she was going to do—

Fang Heng actually wanted to tell her that magic-oriented Flexible Constructs were inherently rigid. True masters made their attack methods flexible and varied, but ultimately, there were still patterns.

These were the words of Rubick, the inventor of the Overload Flow tactic and a master tactician. The latter had retired many years ago, but many of his classic tactics were still actively used by Combat Artificers.

Furthermore, Fang Heng knew that Overload Flow was born precisely to compensate for this very flaw.

Of course, he wasn't as optimistic as Hong Ye imagined—the gap in levels was objective. Even with a fully upgraded Walker, it was still several tiers below the Annihilator QV700.

Fang Heng silently reviewed his trump cards: the modified Walker, the Magic Furnace, two Clockwork Sprites, the newly installed Strength Enhancement plugin, and the Visual Link Crystal.

These things gave him a small measure of peace. The only thing he was confident about was that he knew where the key to this match's victory or defeat lay.

The Walker leaped up, no longer concealing its intent, and charged directly toward the south side of the arena. Two red lights pierced through the mist ahead. The Walker nimbly dodged left and right, only allowing the red lights to pass through its afterimages, causing minor evasion damage.

Seeing this, Fang Heng knew the opponent had activated 'Overload'.

The Overload state for a Flexible Construct was a very special condition. By maximizing the magic output of the Core Crystal and draining its lifespan, the Flexible Construct entered a burst phase.

For a physically oriented Flexible Construct, the Overload state provided a comprehensive boost to speed, strength, and controllability. Simultaneously, the Overload state would immediately reset the cooldown of ability plugins.

For a magic-oriented Flexible Construct, in addition to resetting plugin cooldowns, the Overload state would alter the attack methods of its subsystems.

The skill of the Flame Ray subsystem in Overload state was named 'Light Rain'.

As the name suggested, it was like a rain of golden flames falling from the sky. Seven red beams of light arrived one after another from within the mist.

Unable to see the situation within the mist, Fang Heng activated the Visual Link. After remodeling the Walker, it had finally been equipped with these necessary subsystem plugins.

He lowered his right hand. The 'Sword Plover' shifted slightly to the left, dodging the first beam. The second beam shot from the left. With a thought, Fang Heng executed three Magic Buoys, seventeen standard movements, and two shifts in center of gravity in quick succession.

The Walker pressed down with its three left bladed legs, steadily allowing the red beam to graze its outer shell.

To achieve maximum coverage, 'Light Rain' had a fixed sequence. It had three scanning modes: left to right, and front to back, each with numerous classic battle examples. But this knowledge, so familiar to those top Combat Artificers, was equally ingrained in Fang Heng's mind.

The Sword Plover weaved left and right, stopped and moved, narrowly dodging the seven beams in a fluid, seamless motion. The Walker, like a streak of silver light, shot out from the mist, leaving behind only hushed exclamations of regret or admiration.

The seven light spots dimmed one after another on the ground.

Fang Heng checked his status panel. His evasion value had only decreased by less than sixty percent, and the loss in balance was well within acceptable limits.

Hong Ye's mind reeled at the sight, cold sweat breaking out.

Countless images overlapped in her vision – videos she had watched of those top Combat Artificers, their combat techniques and practical experience.

Those incredible maneuvers seemed to transcend the limitations of two worlds, merging with this small Walker before her. The Walker now seemed alive, no longer just an inanimate object.

The details and tendencies of those maneuvers—

They were definitely not the operational habits of a First World Combat Artificer.

"Is it a student of the Gray King or the Dusk Executioner?"

"Neither seems quite right. That spatial judgment… could it be that person?" Hong Ye's fingertips grew cold. Fortunately, her rigorous training had instilled a conditioned reflex. Although her mind was momentarily stunned, her hands still instinctively deactivated Overload.

This subtle operational response was visible on the black octahedron, and Fang Heng saw it via the Visual Link. He immediately understood that the opponent had used an Overload tactic.

Overload and Overload Tactic were two completely different concepts. All Combat Artificers used Overload; he was no exception. But whether it was an Overload Tactic depended on how the Combat Artificer used Overload.

For most Combat Artificers, the Overload state was a burst state: full output, all skills unleashed, ending the Overload state before the Core Crystal's temperature exploded.

But Overload Flow was a special school of thought.

Its core idea was to achieve more varied attack combinations for magic-oriented Flexible Constructs by constantly switching between Overload and normal states. Furthermore, since Overload reset skill cooldowns, it also made the opponent's attack intervals more unpredictable.

As mentioned earlier, the birth of this school of thought was precisely to compensate for the rigidity and predictability of magic-oriented Flexible Constructs.

Seeing this, Fang Heng understood that the true challenge of this battle had arrived.

To the onlookers, the Walker suddenly became sluggish.

Gravity Trap.

Even Fang Heng was somewhat surprised. The opponent had used the most traditional combination. He wasn't sure if this could be considered counter-intuitive. Because the Shining Field could not be replaced, and the other three attack methods had already appeared.

Fang Heng reacted quickly, immediately activating the Swift Burst plugin and Overload.

With Swift Burst activated and in Overload state, the Walker leaped forward, intending to break free from the Gravity Trap's restraint. But as soon as it left the ground, Fang Heng felt a sense of foreboding.

It wasn't that it jumped too low, but too high.

The opponent had switched to Overload state temporarily, and the Gravity Trap's effect had become anti-gravity.

The Sword Plover struggled, floating in mid-air.

It was only then that Hong Ye truly relaxed, a triumphant smile gracing her face. She glanced at Fang Heng not far away, raised her right hand, which was wearing a control glove, and clenched her fist.

The Annihilator suddenly stopped spinning. The four metal plates on its front slid open to the side, revealing the Core Crystal behind them. A bright cyan magic circle formed in front of the Core Crystal, rotating slowly.

This was the sign of a Magic Spear being released.

As the aether was compressed to a single point, a bright cyan beam of light burst forth, piercing through the mist and aiming at the Walker in mid-air.

Everyone exclaimed in unison. The Walker was a ground-based construct; it had no maneuverability in mid-air. Everyone knew in their hearts that the youth from the qualifiers—

Had lost.

People couldn't help but feel a bit of pity. This was the first time they had seen a qualifier contestant fight so fiercely against a main tournament participant. If the youth's level were a little higher, and he could use an improved Walker, it wouldn't have been so passive in the Gravity Trap.

But it was at this very moment.

The sounds of sighing were suddenly replaced by even more intense and unbelievable gasps.

People saw a Clockwork Sprite appear on the field at some unknown time. It shot through the mist like a golden streak of light and, with a 'clang', slammed directly into the Walker's outer shell in mid-air.

Just moments before the cyan beam arrived.

Pushing it aside.

The next moment, the beam of light pierced through the Clockwork Sprite, while the Walker was pushed out of the Gravity Trap area and landed steadily on the ground.

Silence fell over the arena.

Fang Heng also looked up and smiled at Hong Ye, who was not far away.

Round one, concluded--

I had originally planned to update the character stats and the full stats of all the constructs that appeared earlier today, but after thinking about it, the battle isn't finished yet, so I'll post them in the "Related Works" section tomorrow.

Continuing to ask for votes and collections.