Chapter 319: Secret Weapon!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
The next second, Lin Zhong-qing's mecha also crashed into the air cushion, and he reacted just as quickly as Li Shiyu to shift his mecha to one side because there were still 7 companions waiting to enter behind him.
As one mecha after another slid into the military vessel, with even [No Mecha Unrepaired] sliding in easily with Qi Long's assistance, Ling Lan's worry eased. As long as the military vessel flew for another few minutes, they would escape the danger zone Little Four had calculated.
Seeing that her mecha's power was almost running dry, Ling Lan said to the final person by her side, [Self-Defined Destiny], "Leopard, you go first." Perhaps out of trust in the leopard's ability, Ling Lan had left [Self-Defined Destiny] for last.
[Self-Defined Destiny] answered, "Okay." But before he could control his mecha to descend into the port, that special-class operator which had tailed them all this way suddenly accelerated wildly to overtake them and shoot into the launch port.
"That special-class operator is too godd*mn shameless." Seeing this, Li Lanfeng could not help but curse. Leaving alone the matter of following them here, the other should still have known to be courteous and stay in line. How could he be so shameless as to cut their line?
Ling Lan frowned at this. That special-class operator had unexpectedly snatched the perfect time to cut in — that was truly a perfect 10-second cut. What a shame, it looked like the leopard would have to wait a while now. Each mecha needed to take a 10-second delay from the previous one before sliding in, otherwise it would be too easy for a collision to occur. If unlucky, the operators involved could be heavily injured and may even die. Although Ling Lan too was extremely annoyed that the other mecha had done such a thing, she could not let the leopard do anything rash.
So, Ling Lan said, "Leopard, wait another 10 seconds."
The two of them continued flying at high speeds to keep up with the mainship, patiently waiting for the 10 seconds to pass. Seeing that the timing was almost right, Ling Lan was about to speak up to let [Self-Defined Destiny] slide into the port when Little Four suddenly cried out in the mindspace, "Boss, not good! The magnetic storm is about to blow!"
"What?! Didn't you say it was 18 minutes? There's still several seconds on the clock!" Ling Lan's expression changed drastically at these words. She had never considered the possibility that Little Four's estimations would be off by a few seconds.
Before Little Four could respond, a cacophony of the crackling sounds of magnetic disturbance could be heard within the cockpit. Sure enough, the magnetic storm had broken out, otherwise they would not have felt such a strong disturbance so far away from the centre of the magnetic storm.
Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng turned their heads together to look, and they saw the deep purple ring-shaped haze in the distance bloom like fireworks. It exploded powerfully, spreading out into its surroundings like a purple sea of flowers, so lovely that it dazzled the eyes. It was hard to believe that such a beautiful scene existed in outer space.
However, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng could not appreciate any of its beauty, filled instead with fear. They could see the places where the purple sea engulfed had become barren — it was spreading at a rapid pace and had already begun consuming the transport ship which had fallen behind the most. The ship was turned into dust particles in the starry skies, leaving no other trace of its existence.
"Rabbit, you go first." Ling Lan had yet to ask the leopard to go first when Li Lanfeng beat her to the punch. He shoved Ling Lan beside him with all his might towards the launch port of the starship.
The power levels of their mecha were already at a critical red level — whether it was the magnetic tsunami coming from behind them or the power levels of their mecha themselves, neither allowed them to continue flying in space.
Li Lanfeng believed that with the rabbit's control skills, even if the other was unprepared, the other would still be able to safely slide into the launch port. Li Lanfeng only had one thought in his mind at that moment. Even if he met his end here today, he could not let all the rabbit's previous efforts go to waste.
Unprepared, Ling Lan had been sent hurtling towards the launch port of the mainship by Li Lanfeng's shove, but how agile were Ling Lan's reflexes? As she descended, she abruptly stretched out a hand and grabbed Li Lanfeng. Then, flipping through the air, she flew to the space above Li Lanfeng and lifted both legs to stomp forcefully on Li Lanfeng's mecha ...
This was the rabbit's ultimate move Li Lanfeng was most familiar with, the stomp technique, which was a refined version of Rabbit Sky Leap. Due to this stomp, Li Lanfeng's mecha flew like a cannonball towards the launch port. He looked at the rabbit using the remaining thread of power he had to fly after his mecha, and his eyes could not help but become damp.
Once again he had troubled the rabbit; once again, he was experiencing the pain of being weak.
There was a type of despair in Li Lanfeng's heart. All these years, he had pushed himself desperately, tormenting himself to become stronger — although a part of it was because he wanted to overturn his fate, he knew that the true reason he wanted to become strong was so that he could one day stand confidently by the rabbit's side and become the rabbit's best partner. But now, from the looks of it, this was all just a joke. He was still all too weak — he still did not have the right to fight alongside the rabbit. The rabbit would probably disdain to even use him as a shield to deflect arrows ...
Li Lanfeng hated how useless he was. He could only stare with wide eyes as the rabbit, who was getting further and further away from him, was chased by the purple wave, which kept getting closer and closer. It seemed as if the rabbit would be completely consumed in the very next second ...
Right then, Li Lanfeng's initially wide teary eyes abruptly grew as large as dinner plates, his entire expression screaming disbelief.
That intermediate mecha of the rabbit had suddenly changed into a beautiful and eye-catching mecha in an instant. Even the mesmerising purple sea of flowers behind it could not conceal the radiance of this mecha.
Li Lanfeng was all too familiar with this mecha. It was precisely that imperial mecha that had been giving the rabbit an instructional fight back when he had first recognised the rabbit again. It was the only redeemable imperial mecha among the six models available in Mecha World —— !
After switching her mecha, Ling Lan instantly activated all engines on her new mecha. For an intermediate mecha, the distance between her and Li Lanfeng would need 5 to 6 seconds to cover, but for the imperial mecha, just 1 second was enough to bring Ling Lan to Li Lanfeng's side.
Ling Lan grabbed hold of Li Lanfeng's mecha and said exasperatedly, "Bastard leopard, you've bloody gotten worse than before. Are you trying to commit suicide?" She had only kicked the leopard ahead of her because she had the secret weapon her dad had passed to her to rely on, but this fellow actually did not understand the pains she had taken to save them both. That self-sacrificing behaviour of his almost infuriated her to death.
Smiling, Li Lanfeng was just about to return a quip when he saw the purple flower tide looming above Ling Lan. He quickly shouted out, "Rabbit, be careful!"
Ling Lan abruptly turned around and plugged in that precious power source they had obtained on planet X192 at the same time. The fingers on both hands flew across her mecha controls. Under this type of emergency situation, Ling Lan's hand speed once again broke through her initial speed limits.
It should be said that due to controlling lower mecha, Ling Lan's hand speed had always maintained its original standards. Despite knowing herself that she had improved over these past few years, due to the constraints of the situation, Ling Lan had not known precisely how much she had improved. And now, on this imperial mecha, Ling Lan's restrained hand speed was finally fully unleashed.
"Pulsing King Shield." Ling Lan chose to use an equipped ability exclusive to imperial mecha even as she shouted, "Leopard, hold on to me tightly!"
Ever since Ling Lan had obtained , she had studied some of the special equipment of imperial mecha. Of course, her father Ling Xiao had also given her all of 's information. Combined with supplementary information from Little Four, it could be said that Ling Lan's understanding of was no less than those imperial mecha operators piloting .
Pulsing King Shield was a powerful defensive equipment. Although it was incomparable to the god-class IN mecha's Divine Shield series, it was still a top-class shield among all of the defensive equipment of the Federation. It was a great deal stronger than the typical protective multi-particle beam shields most military vessels were equipped with. Furthermore, the Pulsing King Shield was a defensive shield whose range could be freely modified under a mecha master's 1 control.
Ling Lan not only wanted to protect herself and the leopard, she also wanted to protect her companions who were already within the hold of the mainship. In reality, if this military vessel was consumed by this magnetic tsunami, even if Ling Lan possessed an imperial mecha, she would have no way of holding out till she arrived at the Swift Dragon base camp. This was the limitation of mecha — unable to fly for long distances.
In front of the imperial mecha, a beam of white light rose into the sky, instantly forming a large barrier with a radius of several kilometres. Even though the Pulsing King Shield seemed extremely large, it could still only cover the tail end of the mainship. This was already the extent of Ling Lan's control; the scale of the Pulsing King Shield depended primarily on the operator's level. Ling Lan's true control skill level was not yet at imperial level; she was currently pushing herself to execute cross-level control. Therefore, some of the special functions of the imperial mecha were beyond her, unable to be performed — some elements of the Pulsing King Shield fell into this category.
Honestly, for Ling Lan to be able to bring out a Pulsing King Shield with such a range was already extremely remarkable. Her control panel was already spattered with droplets of blood. Cross-level operation was not without its consequences. Ling Lan registered none of the tearing pain from her fingers — there was only one thought in her mind ... and that was that no one in their team could die here under this magnetic tsunami.
A loud 'boom' rang out as the Pulsing King Shield and the purple wave collided heavily. With a jerk, Ling Lan could not stop herself from spewing out a mouthful of blood, and the initially radiant Pulsing King Shield dimmed.
Ling Lan bit down on her lips, using the intense pain to keep herself from fainting. She knew that every additional second she kept the Pulsing King Shield up for meant an additional guarantee for the lives of her companions.
At the moment Ling Lan had brought out the Pulsing King Shield, Li Lanfeng had obeyed Ling Lan's instruction to hold on tightly to Ling Lan's mecha. When the Pulsing King Shield and the magnetic tsunami collided forcefully, their two mecha had been swept back by the fearsome power of the magnetic tsunami to hurtle towards the tail end of the mainship.
At that moment, Li Lanfeng was extremely calm. He only continued to keep a steady hold on his rabbit. Even if he would die like this with his rabbit in this magnetic tsunami, he still would not let go of his rabbit. Yes, he had already let go once on the friendship between him and the rabbit, so this time he would absolutely never let go again ...
"Bang bang bang ..." Their mecha crashed right into the tail end of the mainship. As the primary point of the crash, Li Lanfeng spewed out a mouthful of blood right after the first collision. The violent crash had caused him to be severely injured, but still he clung tightly to the rabbit before him, tenaciously using his mecha as the rabbit's 'meat cushion'.
The magnetic tsunami still came into contact with the tail end of the command mainship in the end, and the tail of the mainship began to emit violent sounds of explosion. Under the horrific power of the magnetic tsunami, even though Ling Lan had used all her strength in the Pulsing King Shield to counteract the force of the magnetic tsunami, it had still not been enough to prevent the ultimate fate of the mainship. The tail of the mainship was unable to escape wholly unscathed; over one-fourth of the ship was torn to pieces by the magnetic tsunami ...