The ships along the way slid to the side to make way for the Black Star fleet.
Under the excited, expectant, and restless gazes of countless people, the Black Star Fleet slowly flew over the Tyrant Black Star. The black steel hatches opened with a whoosh, and countless mechanical warriors of all kinds swarmed out, converging into long dragons. They quickly formed dense and orderly military formations in the air, occupying the Long Sky, their armored shells reflecting the same starry river.
Pairs of indifferent mechanical eyes looked down at the brownish-brown planet below, focusing on the lone Tyrant.
Heber stood with his hands behind his back, unmoved, coldly gazing up at the densely packed mechanical legion in the sky. Suddenly, he snorted, and a booming sound wave erupted from his powerful lungs.
Buzz!
The echo was like muffled thunder. Immediately afterwards, every cell in Heber's body pumped out energy frantically, causing the radar of every spaceship to Detection a high-energy reaction. Martial arts energy roared and surged within his body, condensing in his legs. His body seemed to have become countless times heavier. Even when he stood still, cracks appeared in the ground beneath his feet, spreading continuously.
Both sides adopted a fighting stance, eager to fight. The tense and deadly atmosphere was like an invisible net, instantly enveloping the entire field.
The atmosphere instantly tensed up, and everyone present held their breath in anticipation.
At this moment, the Dominion's avatar stepped out from the crowd and arrived at the forefront of the mechanical legion. His body was shining with blue-gold lightning of Mechanical Force, and his eyes were bursting with dazzling light, carrying Han Xiao's will.
"I'm here," Han Xiao said in the wide-area channel.
"Snort."
Heber snorted coldly.
This time, the empire did not intervene. Both men knew that the battle would only end when one of them fell.
Suddenly, Heber bent his knees and pushed off with both legs, and the shockwave spread outwards from him.
Boom!
With a single stomp, he cleaved the earth into a chasm, Heber shot into the sky like a rocket, his eyes flashing with fierce battle intent, carrying a dazzling crimson-gold martial aura like the sun, and roared towards the mechanical legion in the sky like a golden meteor!
In the sky, a surge of Berserk Mechanical Force erupted from the Dominion's clone, instantly linking all the mechanical legions together. In that instant, Han Xiao activated numerous skills, habitually casting a [Luck Curse] on Heber.
The next moment, the vanguard troops responsible for the assault and holding the line suddenly swooped down and charged towards Heber.
There's no point in saying more in this situation. There's no foreplay; the two sides went straight to the point as soon as they met, and started hitting each other with full force!
The golden meteor collided with the vanguard mechanical forces, and countless melted armor and shattered parts exploded like bombs, shooting in all directions!
Bang bang bang--
One after another, heavy mechanical warriors shattered and fell, the golden meteor carving its way into the depths of the formation before gradually slowing down as it became entangled by countless machines.
The ranged units behind them suddenly scattered, like a metal tornado swirling around Heber, firing Psionic Energy cannons and dark energy annihilation cannons. Countless beams of light shot at Heber from all directions without any blind spots.
A dark, dense mechanical army surrounded Heber, a scene resembling a flock of crows dancing wildly around the sun. From time to time, crimson-gold martial arts fluctuations shot out from the center, piercing through the crows' formation like a burst of solar flare.
A dazzling crimson-gold beam of light shot out, and dozens of mechanical soldiers deployed Psionic Energy shield in unison. The beam of light exploded on the dark blue shield, creating a burst of expanding energy. The immense explosive force blasted the mechanical soldiers away in disarray, but they were not destroyed in one blow. After flying a distance, they regained control of their bodies and turned back to continue the battle.
Han Xiao's mechanical legion has been strengthened many times, and it is not so vulnerable even when facing Beyond Grade A. Although this batch of old machines has not yet been upgraded to become creations of the Divine Throne Mechanic, with the current Mechanical Force enhancement, they are no longer mechanical soldiers that Heber can easily destroy.
In this battle, Heber faced a different situation than before.
In the last challenge, Heber's goal was to establish his authority and eliminate Han Xiao's main body quickly.
Now that Black Star has risen to prominence, Heber no longer needs a quick victory. He knows very well that with Han Xiao's main body absent, the only way to win this battle is to eliminate all the mechanical legions present.
Destroy all the troops brought by Black Star's clone, and you'll win!
Therefore, Heber's mindset became calm and he was not in a hurry at all. He had already prepared for a protracted battle. He focused on killing the mechanical soldiers and charged fiercely between the ranks without any intention of breaking through.
The protective aura emanating from his entire body transformed into a golden sphere of light, enveloping him within it. Occasionally, Psionic Energy cannons would bombard Heber's body, but most of the damage was mitigated by his protective aura and various resistance-reducing feats.
However, the remaining damage still put Heber under even more pressure than before. Every hit from the Psionic Energy cannons, every strike through his protective aura, caused him pain.
Heber was secretly alarmed by Han Xiao's rapid growth. He gritted his teeth and secretly made a plan:
"Although we can only wage a protracted war, the longer it drags on, the more disadvantageous it will be for me. We must increase the efficiency of our attacks."
With that in mind, he couldn't help but increase the frequency and intensity of his attacks.
Meanwhile, Han Xiao controlled his Dominion clone to observe the battle situation, frowning as he examined the combat information on the panel.
"What a tough and massive tank."
When they last challenged each other, Heber's battle information panel still had many question marks. Now that his level was higher than Heber's, the information he had obtained was complete.
Heber's level is 296, some of which are secondary profession levels. Han Xiao is an exception, and the level difference between him and her is not very meaningful.
Although her overall rank is not much different from Han Xiao's, Heber's rank is still S, without the "+" - this is the difference brought about by various bonuses.
Heber has around 8 million HP and over 12,000 stamina. He has a ton of burst skills that boost strength, agility, and stamina, not to mention the skills from various martial arts styles, which are so numerous that you can't see them all at a glance.
He possesses numerous resistance specializations, including True Damage Immunity, Low Damage Immunity, fixed damage reduction, and super resilience. These are all specializations that Han Xiao witnessed in the last duel, making his defensive capabilities terrifyingly high.
The last duel ended hastily with the retreat of the Tyrant due to the intervention of the Empire. The two did not determine a winner, and Han Xiao achieved a draw. In fact, he did not cause serious damage to Heber at that time.
To deal with Heber, you can only slowly whittle down his health. Fortunately, his own Mechanical Force bonus and the fact that the mechanical legion itself has been strengthened many times have significantly increased his damage output, allowing him to whittle down Herber's health much faster.
Therefore, Han Xiao did not use the [Perfect Mechanical Sense] character card this time, nor did he need to.
Under normal circumstances, even the Tyrant is no match for him!
After the battle began, an Grade S mission popped up on the panel, named "Tyrant" Heber, which was exactly the same as the mission triggered in the last challenge. This kind of BOSS mission is randomly generated depending on the different scenarios of challenging Beyond Grade A, and this one was triggered as well.
"This clone of mine only carries a portion of my attributes and abilities, but it's enough to fight Heber head-on and slow down his rate of destruction against the mechanical legion."
With a thought, Han Xiao's Dominion clone suddenly attacked, breaking through layers of defenses and heading straight for Heber in the center. The metal Iron Fist, shrouded in Mechanical Force and Psionic Energy, slammed out fiercely.
With a cold snort, Heber's muscles bulged, as if coiled pythons were hidden beneath his skin, writhing and stretching, their tendons and muscles twisting together, unleashing a powerful elasticity. Terrifying force gathered from his entire body into his arm, and he turned to deliver a punch, meeting the Dominion's clone head-on.
The crimson-gold fist collided violently with the dark blue metallic Iron Fist, unleashing a powerful shockwave that quickly spread outwards!
Thump!
The violent impact and the aftershocks of the book pushed the surrounding mechanical soldiers a considerable distance away, leaving them swaying and staggering. A blank space was also cleared in the atmosphere above the Tyrant Black Star.
With the bonuses from growth-oriented feats such as [Mighty Wrist] and [Void Divine Power], Han Xiao's strength has now reached over 6000 points, making his melee attack power quite considerable.
The two combatants circled the Tyrant Black Star, their movements closely followed by the interstellar citizens watching from afar.
On one of the ships, Reconnaissance from the Federation of Light were recording the battle.
Both the Glory and the Arcane took this battle very seriously and sent out scouts to gather intelligence.
Black Star's current combat strength will affect their plans after the Evolution Cube, so they cannot afford to ignore it.
At this very moment, standing in a corner of the cabin was Manison's remote projection, watching the battle through the viewing window, and he spoke calmly:
The odds of the Tyrant winning are very slim.
"Really? I think that although the Tyrant is surrounded, his body is very resilient and he should be able to hold out until the mechanical legion is wiped out," the captain next to him cautiously offered his opinion.
Manison shook his head. "I can sense that Black Star is stronger than before. Heber won't last that long; his condition will only worsen... Moreover, Black Star still has many trump cards he hasn't used yet, like the void ability he used on Lighthouse Star."
Upon hearing this, the captain nodded in agreement.
"I just don't know..." Manison paused, lost in thought, "Just how much has Black Star grown? Has he reached my level? It can't be that fast..."
Just then, a space in the distance suddenly rippled, and a magnificent Palace of Hidden Spells leaped towards them.
"Oh, they've already started fighting. Looks like I'm late."
At the top of the Palace of Hidden Spells, Austin sat cross-legged in mid-air, watching the two battles raging on and off, a look of great interest on his small face.
At this moment, most people's attention was focused on the battle between Han Xiao and the Tyrant. Although they noticed Austin's arrival, they only glanced at him briefly before eagerly turning their attention back to the battlefield.
Han Xiao also noticed Austin and couldn't help but twitch his lips.
Why do you always act as the referee whenever we get into a fight?
Are you Captain Dragonfly?
However, Han Xiao had no time to deal with the old man at the moment. He withdrew his attention and continued to control the Dominion's clone to confront Heber head-on.
Boom boom boom--
The surface of Tyrant Black Star quickly became riddled with holes, as the aftershocks of the battle and the missed Psionic Energy cannon shots would occasionally fall to the ground, blasting open countless giant craters.
As the battle progressed, the land of Tyrant Black Star shattered, becoming pitted and uneven, as if it had turned into an onion. The crust was peeled away layer by layer, and the shape of the entire planet changed. The battle between Han Xiao and Tyrant was like a carving knife, sculpting the planet with bold and sweeping strokes.
Facing overwhelming odds alone, and with the mechanical legion's damage exceeding all expectations, Heber quickly fell into a disadvantageous position and became extremely passive. Everyone in the War Realm held their breath.
Against a single squad, Your Tyrant is playing so passively, and you've already fallen into a disadvantageous position so early in the battle... Could it be that the gap between the two is even greater than we imagined?!
In the last duel, Tyrant clearly dominated Black Star, but only a few years later, the positions have reversed. Fortune's wheel keeps turning...
Looking at the rather disheveled Tyrant in the arena, Fosters clenched his fists tightly, his expression shifting between anger and uncertainty.
Bang bang bang!
A barrage of psionic cannon fire pounded into Herber's back, the force penetrating his body. A metallic taste rose in Herber's throat, and his body momentarily froze. Just as he revealed an opening, Han Xiao's Overlord clone seized the opportunity, unleashing a barrage of Ora Ora Ora punches into his chest and abdomen. Then, his hands merged into a giant cannon, unleashing a dazzling blue beam that blasted Herber away.
He had only flown halfway when, just as Heber was about to regain his footing, the Psionic Energy cannons unleashed a barrage of fire, sending him tumbling through the air.
Suddenly, a tremendous Charge struck his back as a horde of melee mechanical soldiers, wielding various ferocious weapons, crashed into his back, once again altering his erratic flight path.
After enduring such a Rainstorm barrage of attacks, even with Heber's resilient physique, he was starting to feel the strain. He felt like a punching bag being relentlessly beaten, his entire body aching, his chances of retaliating were dwindling, and he was increasingly overwhelmed.
Bang!
After being repeatedly beaten, Heber fell straight to the ground, creating a human-shaped crater!
"Cough... Star Shattering Fist!"
Despite the excruciating pain, Heber hastily mustered his strength and unleashed a powerful, golden martial arts wave at the pursuing mechanical legion from the sky. The wave exploded into a massive chain reaction sphere of light, which engulfed a large number of mechanical soldiers.
However, after the energy dissipated, it was discovered that most of the mechanical soldiers had withstood the damage with their Psionic Energy shields. Although the damage was severe, they were still able to continue fighting, and they couldn't even be forced to use [Scrap Modification] once.
"How could the gap be so huge?!"
Heber was both shocked and furious. He had been quite confident when he accepted the challenge, believing that he had a good chance of defeating one of Black Star's squads.
But after fighting for so long, he had exhausted all his methods, only to find that he might not even be able to defeat a single squad of Black Star!
How so!
At first, Heber was able to withstand the mechanical legion's siege when he was at his peak, but as his injuries worsened and his strength was depleted, his condition inevitably declined.
Han Xiao, on the other hand, is the type who gets stronger the longer the battle goes on. His blood and mana circulation alone can ensure that his strength remains high. In addition, he has specialties such as [Advanced Tenacious Life], [Battlefield Rationality], and [Ten Thousand Cannot Break Through], which increase his attributes with each battle. The longer the battle goes on, the higher his combat power becomes. With this shift in power, Heber is becoming more and more miserable and has almost become a punching bag.
If this continues, I'm doomed to lose!
Thinking of this, Heber's eyes suddenly turned bloodshot. He disliked any form of defeat, especially losing in such a humiliating way to the late Black Star, which was the hardest for him to accept.
Boom!
The next moment, Heber's aura intensified, and the high-energy reaction he emitted surged abnormally. The burst of martial arts fluctuations tore all the approaching mechanical soldiers into pieces of shattered metal.
"Oh, what skill did he use?"
Han Xiao's heart skipped a beat. He glanced at the panel and noticed a new status bar for Heber: [Extreme Path Style - Cellular Super-Limitation].
He was familiar with this move; it was a martial arts skill that players had learned in his previous life. Its effect was to forcibly activate cellular potential, maximizing the overclocking of all attributes such as physical strength and power, and temporarily granting the combat power for the next advancement within a few hours to a few days.
However, the side effects are severe. Once this skill is used, the cost of upgrading your character and skills will permanently increase by 7%! Each use adds to this effect, with no upper limit!
It's like squeezing out future potential in exchange for temporary bursts of energy!
Generally speaking, no one would use this tactic unless absolutely necessary.
Han Xiao was somewhat taken aback. "Is it really that bad? Is losing to me so hard to accept? You've even resorted to such self-destructive tactics..."
But the next moment, upon seeing Heber's gaze, Han Xiao understood.
Those bloodshot eyes were filled with the stubbornness and pride of a strong person.
Although the Tyrant's usual behavior was pretentious and affected, which drew criticism, Han Xiao had to admit at this moment that he was a qualified warrior.
"As expected, those who can become Beyond Grade A are all guys who don't give up easily." Han Xiao pursed his lips.
The sudden burst of energy from Heber was detected by everyone's radar, and they all perked up and started discussing it on the wide-area channel.
"Wow, the Tyrant's high-energy reaction is still escalating!"
"What's going on? Is Heber going to use his trump card?"
"I thought he was done for, but it seems there's still a chance!"
Is the Tyrant about to turn the tide?!
Heber's aura surged, directly surpassing the 52,000 energy level limit and rising to S+ rank. His wounds were healing rapidly.
He stared intently at Han Xiao, his anger blazing. He clenched his fists, and a blinding golden light shone from his palms, growing brighter and brighter. His posture looked like he was performing Kamehameha, as if he was preparing a powerful attack.
Just then, Han Xiao's Dominion clone suddenly stopped in mid-air, looking down at Heber, whose aura was rising wildly on the ground.
"Since you're so serious, I can't keep toying with you."
As soon as he finished speaking, a web-like Mechanical Force suddenly spread out, connecting with every individual mechanical soldier.
The next moment, all the mechanical soldiers, like birds returning to their nests, shot towards the Dominion's clone, assembling and bonding together, and a huge mechanical construct gradually took shape.
The Mechanical Force chains connecting each individual are like the nerves, blood vessels, and tendons of a giant living organism!
Sizzle sizzle--
One by one, the mechanical warriors seemed to become parts, and all the scattered mechanical warriors quickly merged into one.
"This... this is..."
Amidst the astonished gazes of countless people, a colossal mechanical assembly, reaching to the heavens and earth, appeared in the sky above the Tyrant Black Star, its size being truly astonishing.
A profound and weighty aura emanated from this massive mechanical assembly, giving everyone the intuition that this was not simply a collection of machines put together; this assembly... was a new, independent entity!
Heber's eyes widened in shock, and the martial arts energy he was generating flickered like a faulty light bulb.
At the same time, Manison, who was watching the battle from the Federation of Light ship, seemed to have his calm demeanor shattered by a giant hammer. His eyes widened suddenly, and a look of shock flashed in them:
"This is... Mechanical Deity?!"