She loved seeing the other person looking so helpless and powerless.
Hearing Raven's faintly seductive voice and feeling the warmth of her orchid-scented breath on his face, Shi Hen finally lost his patience. He stared straight into the woman's wine-red eyes and said slowly, "Does Sister Natasha even need to scheme?"
Thump, thump~
Under the youth's deep gaze, Raven felt as though she were prey being watched by a hunter. Her heart began pounding uncontrollably.
Their eyes met, but in the end, the mercenary was the first to look away.
"Ahem~" Raven cleared her throat and subconsciously moved a few steps away. Then she felt that she could not show weakness, so she quietly stepped half a pace back. "Even so, you can't let your guard down. Some of their methods are beyond anything you could imagine."
"Mm-hm."
Faced with the Mercenary Queen's earnest lecture, Shi Hen naturally nodded in agreement, though his gaze quietly drifted toward the blush on Raven's cheeks.
Heh, what an overconfident woman.
Today's contest had once again ended in Queen Raven's defeat.
"Come to think of it, this is your first time riding a Hover Battleship, isn't it?"
Raven tried to change the subject.
As long as she turned the page on the conversation, the embarrassment would naturally pass as well.
"Mm. It really does feel different from flying on a plane."
Shi Hen nodded lightly.
A Hover Battleship was far larger than an airplane, so naturally its interior facilities could be much better.
In terms of comfort alone, the Hover Battleship even surpassed the luxury cruise ship he and Raven had taken before.
Wait, if the inside was so much nicer, why had he come out onto the deck to freeze in the wind?
Thinking of Jackal drinking coffee, lounging on a sofa, reading magazines, and enjoying the air conditioning in the lounge, Shi Hen suddenly felt that he had done something rather foolish.
"Haha, of course." Hearing the youth's words, Raven could not help laughing. "When we get the chance next time, I'll take you flying in a fighter jet. A supersonic one. Now that's fun."
"Sister Natasha can fly fighter jets too?"
Shi Hen was genuinely surprised.
Fighter jets were not the same as ordinary airplanes.
But on second thought, considering World Serpent's scale, if they even had Hover Battleships, fighter jets were nothing worth being surprised about.
So the question was, just how many skills did Raven possess?
"I can even pilot this."
Raven tapped the transport ship below with her foot.
"...Actually, I can pilot this too."
Shi Hen did not feel the slightest bit ashamed.
With the assistance of the shipboard AI, he could easily take a Hover Battleship on a trip around the world.
"Automatic driving mode?"
Raven glanced sideways at the youth.
"Sister Natasha means manual control?"
Shi Hen asked naturally, without the slightest embarrassment at having his bragging exposed.
As long as you did not feel embarrassed, then the embarrassed one was someone else.
"What else did you think I meant?"
Raven looked down at him.
"Did you learn that in Hawaii too?"
Shi Hen asked curiously.
Raven: "???"
When did I ever mention Hawaii?
"I have a friend whose father taught him many things in Hawaii, so I'm curious what can't be learned in Hawaii."
Shi Hen spoke with a perfectly serious expression.
"Uh... You sure have a lot of friends."
Unable to find a suitable place to vent her sarcasm, Raven could only mutter resentfully.
"They're not too bad."
Shi Hen waved a hand, wearing an expression that said it was not worth mentioning.
Though he did not have many friends, he knew the secret technique: Making Friends Out of Nothing.
Raven: "..."
Praise him twice and he gets full of himself, huh?
"By the way, is Sister Natasha commanding this operation?"
Shi Hen suddenly asked as if he had just remembered.
Theoretically, Raven was a professional combatant, so it was only reasonable for her to command the battle.
But... Jackal seemed to rank higher than Raven among the executives.
And Jackal's idol was Mobius!
"It's Jackal."
Raven answered lightly, thoroughly shattering the youth's hopes.
Shi Hen: "..."
He felt like he was about to lose his Revival Armor again.
Valkyrie Battlefield
Boom—
Bang, bang, bang!
Amid a barrage of artillery fire sweeping the ground, Leona led the core members of the Far East Branch's Third Squad in a leap from a thousand meters in the air. They smashed down onto the ruins with several heavy thuds.
The ground, battered by artillery fire, still radiated scorching heat, while the air carried the choking stench of gunpowder.
What an unpleasant feeling.
Thinking this, Leona took cover behind a low wall nearby and swept her gaze around... No, there was no need to search anymore.
Ganesha, an elephant-shaped Honkai Beast more than four meters tall and nearly ten meters long, stood in the middle of a dilapidated street. Its terrifying red eyes were fixed firmly on the direction where the Valkyries had landed, while its abyss-like maw slowly opened.
In an instant, Leona felt as though something had tightly gripped her heart. The instincts honed through countless brushes with death warned her that something terrible was about to happen.
"Ganesha at seven o'clock! Evade to both sides immediately!"
After issuing the command through the communications channel, Leona kicked off the ground without hesitation and left her original position.
The next second, a beam of light surged past behind the Valkyries.
Bzz—
It sounded like the faint vibration of some object.
When Leona turned back, her breathing caught, and her heart filled with relief at having survived.
Behind her, a brand-new passage six or seven meters wide and nearly a hundred meters long had appeared.
As for whatever had originally stood within that passage... Leona could not even see a single fragment.
Was this the destructive power of an Emperor-class Honkai Beast?
She swallowed instinctively, unable to stop the deep fear rising in her heart.
She had only seen it in the database before, but now that she had finally witnessed a living Emperor-class Honkai Beast, Leona felt that the records had been far too conservative.
Even the main cannon of a Hover Battleship could only achieve something like this.
Yet this was merely an Emperor-class Honkai Beast saying hello.
She glanced at the white giant elephant standing in the distance like a small mountain. Though there was no expression on its face, Leona still seemed to see mockery and contempt in those eyes.
Mere humans, creatures as insignificant as ants, dared challenge an emperor's majesty?
Taking a deep breath, Leona looked at her equally stunned companions and suddenly shouted, "Third Squad, Combat Plan A! Move out immediately!"
Precisely because Emperor-class Honkai Beasts were so powerful, they had to stop it here.
If Ganesha completely destroyed this city and absorbed a massive amount of Honkai Energy, it would only grow even more terrifying.
Roused by Leona's shout, the Valkyries of the Third Squad snapped out of their daze. The confusion on their faces instantly turned to determination.
They were Valkyries, warriors who fought to protect the world. How could they shrink back simply because the enemy was powerful?
With a movement of her feet, Shima shot forward, crossing dozens of meters almost instantly to arrive before Ganesha. The red spear in her hand stabbed straight at the Honkai Beast's eye.
Clang!
The white giant elephant raised its head, and its tusk blocked the spear with a thunderous metallic crash.
The terrifying strength of an Emperor-class Honkai Beast erupted, knocking the Valkyrie's spear aside in an instant. The blade-like tusk did not slow as it swept rapidly upward toward her body.
In the flash of lightning and sparks, Shima lightly tapped Ganesha's tusk with her spear. Her body, still suspended in midair, rapidly shifted aside, narrowly avoiding the heavy upward thrust.
Feeling the gale whipped up by the passing tusk, Shima's heart trembled.
If that strike had landed cleanly, she would probably have been split in two on the spot.
Even Valkyrie armor had decent defensive power, but it was still barely sufficient against an Emperor-class Honkai Beast.
Though thoughts raced through her mind, Shima's body did not slow in the slightest. With a flick of her spear, she continued thrusting toward Ganesha's eye.
The experience Valkyries had honed through countless battles was not something a Honkai Beast born less than a month ago could compare to.
This time, the red spear finally struck the target its wielder wanted.
Sizzle—
But Ganesha merely covered its eye with a layer of Honkai Energy. The spear, powerful enough to pierce mech armor plating, could advance no further and could only scrape across the surface of that Honkai Energy, scattering a stream of purple energy particles.
At close range, four eyes... no, six eyes met. After all, Ganesha alone had four eyes.
As their six eyes met, Shima clearly saw a trace of contempt in those violent red eyes.
"Our Third Squad will definitely kill you, monster!"
Shima spoke in a low voice. Her spear spun in her hand, its tip tracing an arc through the air before coming around from behind her and stabbing toward the Honkai Beast's neck.
Unlike the white carapace covering its back, which looked incredibly tough, Ganesha's underside was covered entirely in purple-black skin, an obvious weak point.
And at that moment, the Honkai Beast had raised its head, exposing a large opening.
Naturally, the Valkyrie would not miss such a weakness.
A glimmer of red light lit up at the spear tip. The already swift spear accelerated again, leaving a red afterimage in the air.
Splat—
The spear swept past, bringing up a spray of purple fluid. The Valkyrie's attack had finally left a mark on Ganesha.
"Shima!"
A shout came from behind her. Shima immediately dodged to the side without hesitation.
A striking figure flashed past. It was a sword-wielding Valkyrie charging in at high speed.
Using her companion's body as cover, the sword-wielding Valkyrie appeared before Ganesha like a phantom, her blade stabbing straight toward the wound Shima had left behind.
"Roar!"
The two attacks struck the same spot, and more blood flowed from the wound. Only then did Ganesha roar in pain.
It raised itself upright on its hind legs, and a distinct ring of red light emerged from the Honkai Beast's body, gathering around its feet.
Amid the swirling red light, Ganesha's massive feet came crashing down.
Before you continue