Chapter 385: Immortal Bird Ling Xiao!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
Even though Little Four was in low spirits, he still sent their coordinates and the word 'HELP' over to Ling Xiao. Then, he notified Ling Lan before he fell silent.
Little Four was self-reflecting — ever since he had experienced so-called human emotions, he had no longer acted like before under his initial settings and procedures, where he served the host he was contracted to according to the rules set by the learning space. Many times, even though he was meant to obtain his host's agreement before acting, he had still chosen to decide things on his own.
In the past, it was fortunate that there had been no great problems, but this most recent mistake — just because he skipped asking his boss first, he ended up doing a stupid thing, delaying any rescue they could receive — could have ended up killing his boss ... Little Four was truly racked with guilt. He decided that from now on, he would check in with his boss more often; he could not continue acting recklessly anymore.
As Ling Lan wrapped up her conversation with Little Four, the imperial operator, having seen his attack interrupted by Ling Lan's giant sword, was instantly in a horrible mood.
"Damn, actually daring to fight back? Die!" Enraged, the imperial operator once again raised the gun in his hands, but this time, he was aiming at Ling Lan. Compared to Qiao Ting, he now hated this person who had ruined his attack even more. He felt as if his pride as an imperial operator had been violated — he needed to kill the other to let everyone know that the pride of an imperial operator should never be violated.
"Attack together!" Ling Lan naturally would not just wait around to be killed; she chose to defend by attacking. Among everyone on the field, only she and Qiao Ting could perhaps offer some resistance; sending anyone else would be a death sentence. Thus, this cry of hers was directed at Qiao Ting.
When he was up against a terrifying imperial operator on his own, Qiao Ting was perhaps at a loss due to the power gap, becoming a sitting duck due to overwhelming fear and despair. But now, with an allied peer beside him to fight alongside him, the proud Qiao Ting would never allow himself to lose against the other.
After calling out to Qiao Ting, Ling Lan instantly charged over. Her speed was very fast — she was almost by the imperial mecha's side in the blink of an eye. Even though her giant sword was gone, she still had a beam saber, which she swung viciously at the other.
On the other side, Qiao Ting leapt up at almost the same time, revving his engines to shoot up into the sky. The two beam guns on his back suddenly appeared in his mecha's hands, and Qiao Ting pulled on the triggers in a frenzy. Countless beams poured out of the two guns in an instant, raining down like a meteor shower at the imperial operator.
Facing the foolish resistance of the two, the imperial operator started laughing at the apex of his rage. "Petty tricks! You're just asking for death!" The initially hovering mecha suddenly disappeared only to appear again 30 metres away in the next second, easily resolving Ling Lan's and Qiao Ting's combined attack.
Not only that, his disappearance caused all of Qiao Ting's beam attacks to fly towards Ling Lan. Seeing his own attacks about to hit a companion by mistake, in his great horror, Qiao Ting cried out hoarsely, "Dodge!"
"What a dumb pig of a teammate!" Li Lanfeng, who was seated beside Ling Lan, could not help but grouch. Firing long-range attacks against an imperial operator specialising in long-range attacks; Qiao Ting's brain must definitely have become scrambled from being shot at.
Ling Lan said nothing; seeing the rain of beams heading for them, she did not panic. Calmly, she operated her mecha into some quick evasion manoeuvres, at the same time turning the power on her mecha's beam shield up to its maximum setting. As long as the same weak spot was not hit again, being at the same level, her ace mecha's beam shield would still be able to block these beam attacks.
Of course, Ling Lan did not plan on getting hit if she could help it. If she were hit, even if her mecha would be fine, its power would be greatly drained. And because Ling Lan had been continuously battling, her ace mecha's power was already running low. Therefore, she had no choice but to be careful and use the remaining power sparingly.
Ling Lan's mecha actually left a trail of shadow in the air from moving so quickly — the beams hurtling at her passed through the afterimages to fall to the ground, blasting dust and dirt into the air.
Just as Ling Lan evaded the shots, Qiao Ting did not even have the time to breathe a sigh of relief before the imperial operator's attacks had come swiftly and silently.
It turned out that after the imperial operator had shifted 30 metres away, both Ling Lan and Qiao Ting was now within his shooting range. Seeing those two small fishes occupied with each other, the imperial operator slyly raised the beam gun in his hands and pulled the trigger twice in quick succession.
He wanted to finish off these two small fishes in one go — he, who was an expert in long-range attacks to begin with, was a master at changing the direction of his shots without having to pause.
Ling Lan and Qiao Ting suddenly felt a deep chill penetrate their very bones — this was a danger alarm that only ace operators possessed. The both of them knew that the most dangerous moment was upon them ...
Ling Lan quickly located where the danger was coming from — perhaps spurred by the life-or-death situation, the speed of Ling Lan's fingers once again exploded forth, becoming so quick that her fingers were no longer visible. Li Lanfeng felt as if even his eyes could no longer keep up ...
Ling Lan's mecha began to spin — due to the extreme speed, many layers of afterimages of the mecha appeared. This scene flabbergasted the twelve Leiting mecha, because they knew this was the most advanced of ace mecha evasion techniques —— Shadow Slip! Even Qiao Ting could not pull off this technique perfectly, unable to execute it with such precision and accuracy.
Meanwhile, Qiao Ting swiftly moved his mecha back, raising the two guns in his hands to shoot frenziedly at that beam heading straight for him. Here, Qiao Ting's long-range accuracy was on full display. Even though his mecha was retreating at high speed, every shot from both his left and right hand struck true. When the beam was only 10 metres or so from him, it was finally completely neutralised by the beam attacks of his two guns ...
Ling Lan's evasion was effective as well. The beam heading for her brushed through one of the afterimages of her mecha to hit the ground, instantly blasting a 10-metre wide ditch into the ground. It was clear to see how powerful the beam had been — even an ace mecha would not have had fared well against it.
Looking at the responses of the two, although Ling Lan's method seemed to be more dangerous, in truth, Qiao Ting had had a harder time of it than Ling Lan. Because in that instant, to ensure that every single shot of his guns would strike the enemy's beam, Qiao Ting's mental and physical focus had been raised to their limits. Thus, as soon as he cancelled out the enemy's beam attack with the power of his own attacks, his entire body was already drenched with sweat, and he could feel that his two arms were stiff and numb.
Seeing how both his attacks had been successfully evaded by these two insignificant small fries before him, the imperial operator was almost dizzy with anger. He felt that this was a disgrace! Thus, he drew another gun from behind him. This gun's muzzle was wider than his first gun, and its rear end where the energy block should be inserted was also two to three times thicker.
When Ling Lan and Qiao Ting saw this gun, their faces changed drastically. They knew what it was — it was the most powerful long-range weapon with the largest attack scope imperial mecha possessed. When it was fired, its beams would present in the shape of a fan. Against this weapon, neither Ling Lan's evasion technique, Shadow Slip, nor Qiao Ting's power neutralization approach would work. That was because those two methods were ineffective against this type of area-of-effect weapons.
What worried Ling Lan even more was that no one knew exactly where the beams fired by this gun would go. The unknown and uncertain quality of this weapon not only put Ling Lan and Qiao Ting in great danger, it also drew the spectating members of their two teams into danger as well.
After the imperial operator brought out this weapon, a cruel smile bloomed on his lips. Right now, he no longer had any mind to play around — he only wanted to annihilate all of these cadets; only then would his bellyful of rage be appeased.
"Go to hell!" The imperial operator pulled on his trigger forcefully, firing not just once but many times. Due to the high speed, those beams actually merged into a semicircle, which charged relentlessly towards Ling Lan and Qiao Ting, as well as the other team members below them.
"Dodge!" Ling Lan and Qiao Ting shouted almost simultaneously. Compared to Qiao Ting, Ling Lan was even more anxious. After all, Qi Long and the others of her team were only piloting advanced mecha — even if they were merely brushed by these power beams, they would certainly lose their lives in the destruction of their mecha. The power behind this imperial mecha's weapon was just too strong — even an ace mecha, using all of the power at its disposal, would probably only be able to withstand one of its beam attacks, not to mention advanced mecha which were considerably weaker than ace mecha.
Everyone was evading as best as they could, but the level gap of the mecha still put quite a number of the boys into a desperate situation. Ling Lan flew with all her might towards the advanced mecha closest to her — she could not save everyone, so she could only focus on saving the member closest to her.
It could not be denied that Ling Lan's heart was tinged with regret right now. If she had known that the enemy this time was so formidable, perhaps she should have just made everyone hide within the air raid shelter ...
There was a loud 'boom' as a pale blue beam abruptly intervened, striking those scattered beams and causing them to dissipate instantly. Not only that, the power behind the pale blue beam was not whittled much by the exchange, continuing to fly through the air to hit the ground, where it then carved out a ditch of about 50 metres. Several team members close to that spot — whether it was from Ling Lan's team or the Leiting Mecha Clan — were sent tumbling by the violent tremors caused by the beam striking the ground. Those whose control skills were a little weaker were even sent flying by the aftershock.
Seeing his sure-kill attack being ruined by a measly little beam, the imperial operator's face changed. He turned to seek the source of the attack and saw a ripple appear in an initially empty bit of space in the air, and then, a large and simplistic mecha was revealed.
Behind its back, twelve majestic wings were spread out gloriously, beautiful and dazzling. A fiery red phoenix was dancing in flames on its chest, marking the operator's identity, and the golden five-star emblem on its right arm declared which nation he hailed from ...
This unbelievably familiar mecha caused the imperial operator's heart to turn cold. All top-class operators had a dossier with detailed information on all of the god-class operators of every nation. The outer appearance of this mecha and the totem on its chest ... he would never mistake it. From the country designated as the Huaxia Federation, the presumed strongest god-class operator for the next 100 years —— the Immortal Bird Ling Xiao!
The imperial operator was petrified, and other than Ling Lan, everyone else in Ling Lan's team and all of Qiao Ting's group were similarly stunned.