The hatch opened, and a powerful vacuum suddenly created a strong gust of wind, trying to pull him out of the spaceship.
Han Xiao stimulated the compressed ball with Mechanical Force, and nanoparticles flowed out, like black sand swimming all over his body, quickly transforming into an enhanced version of the Mountain Ape Mech.
He stretched his limbs, jumped out of the spaceship, and the thrusters spewed out blue flames, transforming him into a shooting star that sped straight behind him.
The expeditionary force was attacked from both sides, and at the same time engaged in combat with reinforcements from the War Realm and enemy ambush forces, splitting into two battle lines.
The deputy took over the commander's duties, ordering the rear guard to resist the ambush forces while the vanguard continued to attack the stargate. Destroying the stargate remained the key to winning this battle.
Han Xiao's goal was to deal with the high-level combat power of the ambush force. His repeated failed assassination attempts had proven his tenacity. If the enemy didn't have a reliable tactic, they wouldn't attempt to assassinate him. He was also curious to see what new assassination plan the enemy had prepared for him this time, and he was somewhat looking forward to it.
The interstellar battlefield was filled with crisscrossing light cannons. Han Xiao dodged and weaved at high speed, easily avoiding the beams of ion cannons. Before long, he arrived at the edge of the ambush force. A streak of light flew from the enemy ranks, which was none other than Hadavy, who had been clamoring for a challenge.
Hadavy was an old rival who didn't like to talk back and didn't want to give Han Xiao time to unleash his mechanical legion. As soon as he saw him, he didn't mince words and charged forward without hesitation, delivering a powerful headbutt like a miniature meteorite.
Undeterred by the sudden attack, Han Xiao transformed his hands into cannon barrels, unleashing a barrage of dark blue Psionic Energy cannons that trailed trails of light as they hurtled towards Hadavy.
Hadavy didn't dodge, letting the Psionic Energy cannon explode into clusters of blue light on his body, remaining completely unharmed.
Having clashed many times, Han Xiao was well aware of Hadavy's abilities and had no intention of injuring him, only of slowing down Hadavy's charge. Taking advantage of the short time, he remotely activated the barracks crates, causing ripples in the space around him as barracks crates sprang to him one after another. The crate doors banged open, and countless compressed spheres rapidly expanded into a mechanical torrent, almost instantly filling the small area.
The densely packed mechanical army has reached a staggering three million in size!
Over the past three years, the Black Star Army has made a fortune. Han Xiao has ample funds and has repeatedly strengthened and expanded the mechanical legion. Now, even the most ordinary cannon fodder-level mechanical soldier uses advanced alloy materials, and its armor value and defense have been greatly improved compared to three years ago. The increased base number makes the effects of various bonus abilities even more considerable.
Through numerous war missions, Han Xiao accumulated a large amount of contribution points to the Amethyst Civilization, which he then exchanged for more cutting-edge knowledge, one of which was the [Controlled Annihilation Weapons] from the Armament branch.
Annihilation weapons are conventional weapons that are a level above energy weapons. Because they are technologically innovative, their power far exceeds that of ordinary energy weapons. Moreover, they require advanced knowledge of [Exotic Energy] as a prerequisite, and basically only Psionic Energy or antimatter energy can be used to create annihilation weapons.
With these two cutting-edge skills, Han Xiao has replaced most of the mechanical soldiers' weapons with annihilation weapons. Combined with his [Legendary Combat Technique] and other specialties, his attack power has been significantly increased.
For three years, Han Xiao has not yet completed the job change quest. If he were to choose another profession, his strength would not improve much. However, the advantage of the Mechanic Class is that as long as you have money to burn, even if your strength reaches a bottleneck, you can still steadily improve your combat power!
For the past three years, Han Xiao has never stopped building his mechanical legion. He discovered that in addition to having money, he had another huge advantage: he had far more time than the players.
The Mechanic Class, on the other hand, is a profession that requires time to craft various equipment.
With enough money and a strong will, improving one's strength is as easy as drinking water. Among the Five Superpower Systems, only the Mage Class can rival the Mechanic Class in this respect.
With Han Xiao's current strength, he can basically kill any ordinary Calamity Grade assassin who comes. The repeated assassination attempts that resulted in losses for both the assassination attempt and the assassination attempt have led to a consensus among various forces in the Shattered Star Ring. Those organizations that secretly plan assassinations will no longer easily send high-level combatants to their deaths.
Therefore, at this moment, Han Xiao's only enemy was Hadavy. This guy was a Beyond Grade A Seed, which did not belong to the category of "ordinary Calamity Grade", and his ability was exactly the type that gave Han Xiao a headache.
Hadavy is a superhuman with the ability "Physical Hardening," a common and ubiquitous superpower. However, he is exceptionally gifted and has developed this ability to an absurd degree, possessing astonishing defensive capabilities and a full range of template-specific skills, making him a BOSS -Grade SS character.
First, Hadavy possesses the template feat of "Low-Intensity Attack Immunity." He is a tank, and as long as the attack does not exceed a certain standard value, the attack will deal zero damage. This standard value depends on his own defense, and his ability is the "Hardening" ability, which greatly increases defense. Therefore, focused fire tactics are almost ineffective against him.
The second thing that bothered Han Xiao was that Hadavy also possessed a template feat of "True Damage Immunity." Beyond Grade A Seed are all exceptionally talented individuals, heroes among BOSSes. It's not surprising that a super tank like Hadavy would possess such a feat, which makes [Legendary Combat Technique] ineffective against him.
With poor focus fire and ineffective true damage, Han Xiao's two trump cards posed no threat to Hadavy, leaving him with only the option of slowly whittling down Hardaway's health.
Every fight with Hadavy was a process of two big lumps of flesh rubbing against each other, neither able to gain the upper hand.
Each time Han Xiao defeated Hadavy, he didn't kill him. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but he simply couldn't kill the guy before Hadavy escaped. On the contrary, Hadavy seemed to enjoy being beaten and kept challenging him.
A year ago, Hadavy suddenly came to challenge him to a duel. Han Xiao had no grudge against him and felt that this must be the result of hostile forces stirring things up behind the scenes. He had learned to fight fire with fire.
--Aren't you meat? I'll find someone even meatier to disgust you!
What goes around comes around. It used to be that everyone in the War Realm wanted to vomit every time they saw him, but now it's Han Xiao who wants to vomit every time he sees Hadavy.
With no other hostile Calamity Grade intervening, he had only one opponent and no other constraints. A portion of the mechanical legion engaged Hadavy in a pre-programmed battle, and these little guys were enough to hold him off. Han Xiao was only responsible for providing Mechanical Force boosts—he had absolutely no desire to engage Hadavy in hand-to-hand combat; it would be a complete waste of energy.
At the same time, Han Xiao turned to control another part of the mechanical legion, attacking the enemy fleets around them. Dense, deep blue annihilation rays pierced through the protective shields of the ships, leaving eerie, energy-corrosion-colored patches around the holes in the shields. One by one, the warships lost their protection, their outer armor was disintegrated and torn apart, and countless metal fragments floated in the air.
The raging fire snakes spewed out from the holes in the spaceship, rushing into the vacuum with the airflow, transforming into writhing fire dragons. They lasted for a moment before running out of oxygen and then went out.
The energy reactor lost its balance, the warship expanded from the inside, and dazzling flames tore through the hull, causing violent explosions. Ship after ship turned into fireworks in space, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
With the current combat power of the mechanical legion, participating in interstellar warfare is not a problem, and they have gradually helped their own fleet stabilize the situation.
After fighting for a long time, the enemy's forces were already showing signs of weakness, and the reinforcements from the War Realm could only barely survive. It was only a matter of time before the stargate was destroyed.
Hadavy also seemed to be considering retreating, and began to shake off the mechanical legion's entanglement and begin to withdraw. However, he did not flee towards the ambush force, but instead charged directly into Han Xiao's fleet formation, trying to break through and escape through the stargate before Han Xiao's fleet completely destroyed the War Realm's defenses.
"They're running away already?" Han Xiao raised an eyebrow in surprise from inside his mecha helmet.
He had thought this assassination attempt would involve something new, but it turned out to be just a bluff, starting strong but ending weakly. Even the previous assassination attempts were much more elaborate than this one.
"It's definitely not that simple. I wonder what they're up to." Han Xiao narrowed his eyes, thought for a moment, and then turned to chase after Hadavy.
With his fleet in Hadavy's path, Han Xiao wouldn't stand idly by and watch him charge into his fleet. If Hadavy wanted to do something, no one else could stop him.
The two chased and fled, Han Xiao gradually closed the distance between them. Behind him followed millions of mechanical soldiers, like millions of shooting stars, in a vast and mighty procession.
Arriving at the front line, at the edge of the battlefield where the fleet and reinforcements from the War Realm were engaged, Han Xiao caught up with Hadavy. Seeing that Hadavy had already passed through his fleet, he stopped and did not intend to continue the pursuit.
At this moment, Hadavy stopped running and suddenly turned around, charging towards Han Xiao, braving the fierce concentrated fire to try and get close.
"Something's not right." Han Xiao became alert and was about to dodge when the mech's radar suddenly sounded an alarm, displaying thirty high-energy sources!
Suddenly, thirty Grade A experts appeared from the surrounding War Realm's reinforcement fleet and rushed towards Han Xiao. Han Xiao even saw Fosters and eight other Vanguard Officers. They had followed the reinforcement fleet through the stargate and had not yet made a move against the Black Star Army's few Calamity Grade, patiently waiting for this opportunity!
Thirty Calamity Grade attacks came from all directions, bringing immense pressure. Han Xiao hurriedly controlled his mechanical legion to defend, but Hadavy found an opening. This stubborn kid smashed through a line of mechanical soldiers and collided head-on with Han Xiao.
Han Xiao felt a sudden tightness around his waist as he realized that Hadavy's arms were wrapped tightly around his body, making it impossible for him to break free. Hadavy carried him as they rushed towards the star gate.
Despite being entangled by the mechanical legion, the thirty Calamity Grade warriors disregarded their own safety and unleashed a barrage of attacks on Hadavy, frantically accelerating him.
The surrounding War Realm fleets abandoned all offensive efforts, desperately resisting Han Xiao's fleet's attack and fighting to protect the stargate.
Upon seeing this, Han Xiao's mind raced, and he immediately understood the other party's entire plan.
"This was a trap set by Hadavy to ambush me, force me into battle, and then feign a retreat to lure me near the stargate. Meanwhile, the other dozens of Calamity Grade quietly returned to the Seoul Star Cluster from the three border systems to await orders with the reinforcements. The War Realm knew I would attack the last logistics transit point, so this was a deliberate exposure to create a trap. Their aim was to get these Calamity Grade to follow the reinforcements through the stargate to this battlefield. Their goal wasn't to kill me, but to intervene at this moment, helping Hadavy control me and send me through the stargate!"
The other end of the stargate is the Seoul Star Cluster, the headquarters of the Krent Empire and the War Realm!
"Ha, I get it. You want to lure me into your territory so I'll be isolated and helpless, and you can slowly torment me. Even if you can't kill me, you can easily capture me alive."
Han Xiao felt a headache coming on. These little rascals really have imaginations; are they trying to elope with me?!
Hadavy's physique could easily withstand the repeated bombardments, and his flight speed increased. War Realm along the way made way for him, and the blue vortex in the center of the stargate rapidly expanded in Han Xiao's vision, getting closer and closer.
Seeing that the tactic was about to succeed, Hadavy couldn't help but send a voice message to Han Xiao, who was very close by.
"Once we get to the Seoul Star Cluster, we'll have a proper fight. By the way, should I have them bring your mechanical legions along? That way, we can really have a good fight," Hadavy said sincerely.
Han Xiao's lips twitched. "You're actually quite sincere, aren't you? You really like fighting with me? If you've got the guts, let me go. As long as you don't run away, I'll fight you to my heart's content."
"No, fighting is one thing, but I don't want to die."
Hadavy shook his head, tightened his grip on Han Xiao's waist, and stubbornly carried him in Han Xiao.
"You really think highly of me..."
Han Xiao was speechless.
To be honest, he didn't have any real grudge against Hadavy. Hadavy had no interest in the Secret War; he just wanted to fight him. As the saying goes, no fight, no friendship. After so many clashes, both being Beyond Grade A Seed, they even had a bit of mutual respect. Sometimes they could even chat while fighting...
However, this past relationship did not affect Han Xiao's determination to get rid of this troublemaker.