The Endgame

Fang Heng bent down and set down his walker first. After receiving a new chassis, Sword Plover looked far lighter and sleeker, its bladed metal feet glinting coldly in the wavering firelight around them.

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

The girl opposite him raised a hand, and a black regular-octahedron Flexible Construct slowly rose from the crowd behind her and floated to her side.

It had remained suspended in midair from beginning to end, spinning at a steady rate. Unlike a Clockwork Sprite, however, it did not fly by flapping its wings, but relied on Guy Crystal.

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

It was not actually very "flexible" at all. Its speed was only 7, less than half that of a normal adult man, and its evasion value was practically nonexistent. But in exchange for its clumsy mobility, it possessed a diverse range of combat options.

Magic-oriented Flexible Constructs fought much like mages, leaning toward ranged attacks and spell-based damage. Different attack effects could be achieved by equipping different subsystems.

The more common ones were Flame Ray, Shining Field, Gravity Trap, and Magic Spear, offering both offense and defense.

But the real trap lay in the fact that the Annihilator QV700's four subsystems were not fixed. It could be adjusted entirely according to its owner's combat style. If Fang Heng dealt with it using conventional thinking, one careless mistake could cost him dearly.

But he did not hesitate.

The referee blew the whistle. Fang Heng pulled down his goggles and sent his walker speeding into the arena. The main tournament arena had clearly been designed with care. It was no longer a flat expanse, but roughly ten meters square. An artificial obstacle zone occupied the north side, while the south side was gentler terrain, scattered with grass and low shrubs.

The grass, shrubs, and stone walls were all magically constructed. Until their aetheric energy dissipated, they were nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.

Like a silver shadow, the walker slipped behind a stone wall. A blinding beam shot in from afar and struck the wall, leaving a gold-red patch of intense heat upon it.

"Flame Ray." Fang Heng confirmed one of her attack methods upon seeing it.

He silently recorded the data. Flame Ray had a cooldown of one and a half seconds and raised the temperature by four degrees. After noting the opponent's heat data, he counted for one second before sending his walker leaping from one wall toward the next.

His opponent did not attack.

Fang Heng silently noted another point—she had not installed a cooldown-reduction plugin.

The walker slid out like a ghost. Another gold-red beam shot from afar, but Fang Heng seemed to have expected it. He pulled the walker back, and after the ray passed, only a dazzling light spot remained where it had been.

The next instant, the walker immediately shifted into a sprint and shot behind the next stone wall.

Not far away, the Annihilator hovered more than a meter above the grass on the right side of the arena. Apart from its earlier attack, it remained still as it spun.

Seeing this, Hong Ye slowed her control of the construct as well, a faint chill rising in her heart. Two consecutive misses, and she had not even managed to probe her opponent's evasive habits. Not only had she never encountered something like this in a match, she had not encountered it even when sparring with instructors.

She was quietly surprised, but she could not yet be sure it was not a coincidence. Wasn't her opponent a contestant from the preliminary rounds?

After two exchanges, both had merely been probing at a slow pace. The spectators below were beginning to grow impatient, and scattered boos rang out. Only Wu Di, watching Fang Heng's walker, let out a soft sound of surprise.

"What is it?" Liuli Yue turned back to ask him.

"Can your walker move that smoothly?"

"I can be much faster than him."

"It's not about speed. It's smoothness—"

Liuli Yue frowned. He did not think much of it, nor could he be bothered to look.

Not far away, Blood Night Demon Moon had already activated her tracking recorder. While adjusting the focus, she pressed her communications device and typed one-handed into the open chat window:

"I'll send it to you—"

Why not record it first and send it to me afterward? Real-time transmission is expensive.

An ID popped up in the window. The speaker used an abbreviated ID—R.

"Are you really short on that little bit of money?" Blood Night Demon Moon rolled her eyes.

R: Very poor.

Then, a wave of startled cries suddenly erupted from the arena.

The walker had finally emerged from behind the wall, though not of Fang Heng's own accord. Rather than walking out, it had been blown out by the gust of air. After losing patience, Hong Ye had directly blasted apart the stone wall with a Magic Spear.

The scattered airflow sent the walker reeling, and its structure and durability took minor damage as well. Fang Heng could not help clicking his tongue. What a violent girl! The tactical essence of magic-oriented Flexible Constructs lay in resource allocation and combinations. He had never seen such an aggressive style of play.

It disrupted his plan a little.

Of course, he also noted the second attack method. Magic Spear—five-second cooldown, twelve-degree temperature increase. Two remained, Fang Heng thought.

He pressed his palm downward, making the walker spread its six legs and lower its entire body.

Hong Ye was indeed gradually losing patience. Her instructors often said that she had a strong desire to attack. That was her strength, but also her weakness. Her weakness was a lack of patience. Hong Ye knew it herself, but had no intention of changing, because she believed that was her style.

Her gaze swept across the smoke-filled arena, judging her opponent's location. A flash of red light streaked out.

But the beam passed directly over the lowered walker, missing by the narrowest margin.

On the other side of the arena, the spectators who happened to see this could not help letting out a low murmur of admiration. They had not understood why Fang Heng had lowered the walker's center of gravity, but it turned out he had anticipated his opponent's move.

Although Hong Ye could not see through the smoke, hearing that exclamation made her realize something was wrong.

She had a vague feeling that the boy always seemed to know what she wanted to do—

Fang Heng actually wanted to tell her that magic-oriented Flexible Constructs were inherently rigid. True experts could make their attack methods varied and unpredictable, but in the end, there were still patterns to follow.

Those were the original words of Rubick, the tactical master who invented the Overload Flow strategy. He had retired many years ago, yet many of the classic tactics he left behind were still widely used among Combat Artificers.

And Fang Heng also knew that Overload Flow had been created precisely to compensate for this weakness.

Of course, he was not as optimistic as Hong Ye imagined. The gap in level was an objective fact. Even after being upgraded to its complete form, his walker was still several ranks below the Annihilator QV700.

Fang Heng silently reviewed his trump cards: the modified walker, the Magic Furnace, two Clockwork Sprites, the newly installed power-enhancement plugin, and the Visual Link Crystal.

These gave him a little peace of mind. The one thing he was confident about was that he at least knew where the deciding factor of this match lay.

The walker had already leapt up. No longer concealing its intentions, it charged straight toward the south side of the arena. Two red beams pierced through the mist ahead, and the walker nimbly dodged left and right, allowing the beams to pass through its afterimage and deal only minor evasion damage.

The moment Fang Heng saw this, he knew his opponent had activated "Overload."

The Overload state of a Flexible Construct was a very special condition. By maximizing the magical output of its Core Crystal and overdrawing its lifespan, it allowed the construct to enter a burst phase.

For physical-type Flexible Constructs, Overload comprehensively increased speed, strength, and controllability. At the same time, it immediately reset the cooldowns of ability plugins.

For magic-oriented Flexible Constructs, in addition to resetting plugin cooldowns, Overload also changed the attack methods of their subsystems.

The Flame Ray subsystem's skill during Overload was called "Light Rain."

As the name implied, it was like a rain of golden fire descending from the sky. Seven red beams arrived one after another through the mist.

Unable to see through the mist, Fang Heng had already activated Visual Link. After rebuilding the walker, he had finally installed these subsystems and plugins it ought to have had.

His right hand dipped. Sword Plover shifted one small step left, dodging the first ray. The second beam came from the left. Fang Heng's thoughts moved, and three Magic Buoys, seventeen standard actions, and two left-right center-of-gravity adjustments flowed together in one breath.

The walker pressed down with its three left bladed feet, steadily allowing the red beam to scrape past its shell.

For Light Rain to achieve maximum coverage, it had fixed patterns. It had three scanning modes, from left to right and from front to back, each with many classic battle examples. But the knowledge that those top Combat Artificers knew inside out was equally familiar to Fang Heng.

Sword Plover moved left and right, stopped and advanced, weaving past the seven beams by hairsbreadths. The entire process flowed as naturally as drifting clouds and running water. The walker was like a streak of silver radiance, tearing out of the smoke and leaving only low cries behind it, whether of regret or awe.

Seven light spots dimmed on the ground one after another.

Fang Heng checked the panel. Less than sixty percent of his evasion value had been lost, while the loss of balance remained within acceptable limits.

When Hong Ye saw this, her mind buzzed and cold sweat broke out.

Countless images overlapped before her eyes—control videos she had watched of those top Combat Artificers, their combat techniques and practical experience.

Those unbelievable operations seemed to cross the boundaries between two worlds and merge with the tiny walker before her. Her opponent's walker seemed to have come alive at that moment. It was no longer a lifeless object.

Those operational details and tendencies—

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

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

"Neither seems likely. That spatial judgment... could it be that person?" Hong Ye's fingertips turned cold. Fortunately, her rigorous training had ingrained reflexes into her. Though her mind was momentarily muddled, her hands instinctively shut off Overload.

This subtle response was reflected in the black octahedron. Fang Heng saw it through Visual Link and immediately understood that she had used the Overload strategy.

Overload and the Overload strategy were two entirely different concepts. Every Combat Artificer used Overload, Fang Heng included. Whether it was the Overload strategy depended on how the Combat Artificer used Overload.

For most Combat Artificers, Overload was a burst state. They went all out, unleashed every skill, then ended Overload before the Core Crystal's temperature rose high enough to explode.

But Overload Flow was a special school.

Its central idea was to continuously switch between Overload and normal states, allowing magic-oriented Flexible Constructs to gain more varied attack combinations. Since Overload reset skill cooldowns, it also made the intervals between attacks much harder for opponents to predict.

As mentioned earlier, this school had been created to compensate for the rigidity and predictability of magic-oriented Flexible Constructs.

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

But to everyone else, the walker had suddenly become sluggish.

Gravity Trap.

Even Fang Heng was somewhat surprised. His opponent had actually used the most traditional combination. It was hard to say whether that counted as taking an unconventional approach, because Shining Field could not be replaced, and the other three attack methods had all appeared already.

Fang Heng reacted quickly. He immediately activated the Swift Burst plugin—Overload.

With Swift Burst and Overload activated, the walker leapt forward, intending to break free from Gravity Trap's restraints. But the moment it left the ground, Fang Heng sensed that something was wrong.

It had not jumped too low.

It had jumped too high.

His opponent had switched into Overload at the last moment, changing Gravity Trap's effect into anti-gravity.

Sword Plover struggled as it floated in midair.

Only then did Hong Ye finally let out a true sigh of relief, a victorious smile appearing on her face. She looked at Fang Heng in the distance, raised her gloved right hand, and clenched it into a fist.

The Annihilator suddenly stopped spinning. The four metal plates on its front slid aside, revealing the Core Crystal behind them. A bright cyan magic array formed before the Core Crystal and rotated slowly.

It was the sign that Magic Spear was about to be unleashed.

As the aether compressed into a single point, a bright cyan beam suddenly bloomed forth, piercing through the mist and targeting the walker in midair.

Everyone cried out in alarm. The walker was a ground construct. It had no mobility in midair. Everyone understood that the boy from the preliminary rounds—

Had already lost.

The crowd could not help feeling a little regretful. It was their first time seeing a preliminary-round contestant fight a main-tournament contestant so fiercely. If that boy had been a little higher in level and able to use an improved walker, he would not have been so helpless inside Gravity Trap.

But at that very moment.

The sounds of regret were suddenly replaced by even fiercer, more incredulous cries.

A Clockwork Sprite had appeared in the arena at some point. Like a streak of golden brilliance, it pierced through the mist and, with a clang, crashed directly into the shell of the walker suspended in midair.

Just before the cyan beam arrived.

It pushed the walker away.

The next instant, the beam pierced through the Clockwork Sprite, while the walker was shoved out of the Gravity Trap's area and landed steadily on the ground.

For a moment, the arena was utterly silent.

Fang Heng raised his head as well and smiled at Hong Ye in the distance.

The first round was over—

I originally planned to update the character attributes and the full attributes of every construct that has appeared so far today, but after thinking it over, the battle is not finished yet. I'll post them in the related works section tomorrow instead.

Please continue to vote and add this to your collection.