Chapter 421: Tactical Genius!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
“Qiao Ting is done for!”
Seeing Qiao Ting being surrounded by the two mecha, all the spectating students thought the same. Those supporting the Leiting Mecha Clan felt overwhelmed with despair. Up against a pincer-style self-destruct attack from an advanced mecha and special-class mecha, even an ace mecha probably could not withstand the horrific force produced. Not to mention, Qiao Ting’s mecha had already received damage many times prior to this from the repeated tactical self-destructs of the Lingtian members …
Quicker than words could say, two intense explosions rang out on the battlefield.
The three entangled mecha were instantly turned into a humongous fireball due to this massive explosive force. After that, this giant fireball smashed into the ground, sending up a spray of sand as well as quite a significant number of broken mecha parts and armour fragments.
Only after the yellow sand had settled did the spectating students see that a deep pit of about 10-metres deep and 100-metres wide had appeared in this desert land. And right in the centre of the pit, there was a lump of still burning wreckage …
“Qiao Ting is not dead!” Heaven knows who yelled out. All the spectators pinned their stares on the burning wreckage, their hearts beginning to race and they could not help but hold their breath, waiting for the mainframe to announce the final verdict.
The mainframe indicated that Leiting still had one member left active; this proved that Qiao Ting currently still had not died and been kicked out of the battlefield. Everyone began to guess at Qiao Ting’s current condition — was he already so severely injured that he was merely holding onto his last breath, or had he been lucky enough to survive with some strength to continue fighting?
“Lingtian and Leiting … now it’s finally one on one.” The spectators noticed how many people Leiting had left, but they also noted Lingtian’s information. They discovered that there was also only one person remaining in the Lingtian Mecha Clan, and that was that regiment commander of Lingtian’s who had been eliminating all the other Leiting members elsewhere, who had never faced Qiao Ting thus far in this fight.
The spectating cadets began to murmur in discussion. Li Lanfeng’s and Qi Long’s successful self-destructs must have dealt heavy damage to Qiao Ting. Furthermore, Qiao Ting had already been damaged from the successive self-destructs of the other Lingtian members before … after all that, would the present Qiao Ting be able to match up against Lingtian’s regiment commander who was still in peak condition?
“Say, do you all think Qiao Ting will lose to Lingtian?” Right then, most students were not optimistic about Qiao Ting’s and Leiting’s chances. This was completely opposite to what they had all believed at the start.
This question spread across the entire venue, making the entire stadium noisy. Many people even predicted that Qiao Ting was truly doomed this time, because they believed that no matter how strong a mecha was, it was impossible for it to be unscathed after suffering the self-destructs of a special-class operator and an advanced mecha warrior at the same time. Perhaps, Qiao Ting was already supremely fortunate for keeping his life — it was very likely that Qiao Ting’s ace mecha had already lost all combat capability.
Of course, many of the senior cadets were still very supportive of Qiao Ting and the Leiting Mecha Clan — they still believed that the ace mecha operator Qiao Ting would not be taken down by this kind of barbaric self-destruct tactic of Lingtian’s. Qiao Ting would definitely counterattack from these desperate depths and wrest victory back from the jaws of defeat.
Unconsciously, for the first time, phrases to do with ‘defeat’ or ‘desperation’ were used on the unbeatable myth of Qiao Ting. This showed that the seniors were actually uncertain too. They did not want to see the juniors successfully overcoming the seniors; they wanted to retain the suppression of seniors on the juniors. However, the reality was brutal — Qiao Ting had not projected his usual aggressive and domineering manner. Instead, he was being suppressed by the junior students. Now up to this point, the situation was extremely unfavourable — this caused the seniors who were supporting Leiting to be unable to keep calm.
Just when everyone was deep in discussion, that hunk of steel in the crater shuddered and then sprang into the sky. This action dislodged the flaming debris surrounding its core, and as the debris was shed to fall back into the crater below …
Finally, the core revealed itself — it was Qiao Ting’s ace mecha. However, at this time, this originally majestic ace mecha was incredibly dilapidated. Strictly speaking, it could not even be described as humanoid anymore.
Its entire right arm had been blasted off completely, revealing sparking wires of all sorts, and its head had also been half ruined by the explosion, leaving only half a face behind. Lower down, both legs were completely gone, and on its chest area, an extremely thick steel plate had been shattered. Several pieces had chipped off to expose the countless intricate wiring and parts behind it.
The only thing worth being thankful about is that the waist area where the cockpit was located was surprisingly not much damaged. This was also why Qiao Ting had been able to survive and why his mecha was still able to move around freely. After all, the cockpit was the true lifeblood of a mecha — as long as the cockpit was fine, even the most broken down mecha would still have some fight left in it.
“It’s Qiao Ting! As expected of an ace mecha. Actually able to endure even after suffering all those self-destructs.” The spectating students could not help but be envious. The sheer strength of an ace made their eyes burn with want. And many students who had already achieved advanced mecha warrior level and above secretly vowed to themselves that they would definitely advance to ace operator level. Ace mecha were clearly divine protective artefacts!
At this time, the administrators still did not know that their original god-creation plan to motivate the students to grow stronger and become more passionate in their mecha studies had come to fruition, albeit not in the way they had intended. Under the frenzied self-destructs of Lingtian, Qiao Ting had persevered, inspiring the students.
This display reminiscent of an undying cockroach gave students a much deeper understanding of ace mecha. They clearly realised now that, on the battlefield, only ace mecha could guarantee one’s survival. For the sake of their own safety, the students were eager to obtain their own ace mecha before entering an army division. This would push them to begin training their mecha control skills fervently, setting off a tenacious mecha training craze in the military academy.
This craze would not die down in the following few years. This made the First Men’s Military Academy have a constant string of Qiao Ting’s record being broken in those years — every year, there would be one to two students who succeeded in advancing to become ace operators.
The most horrifying would be Ling Lan’s year — there were actually as many as five people who managed to advance to become ace operators. The moment this number emerged, the entire Huaxia Federation was astounded. This also reaffirmed the First Men’s Military Academy’s spot as the number one military school in the Federation.
Qiao Ting piloted his mecha to fly in the air. He swiftly checked on the condition of his mecha, and as he scanned down the A.I.’s report, a trace of bitterness could be seen on his face. His mecha’s condition was really as bad as he imagined it to be; its overall damage rate was already up to 48%. The mecha’s initially abundant energy had also been drained significantly in order to protect the mecha’s main core — there was only 30% left. Meanwhile, in terms of weapons, aside from that single high-frequency blade in his left hand, he had nothing else.
Qiao Ting looked at the high-frequency blade in his hand and found that it was already very beat up due to the explosions and probably could not be used as a weapon anymore. He rapidly scanned his surroundings and soon discovered a beam saber which had belonged to god knows who lying about 300 metres away. Qiao Ting’s heart was seized by joy. He operated his mecha over and with a quick swoop, at the same time he let go of his high-frequency blade, he picked up the beam saber from the ground.
Beam saber in hand, he checked its remaining power and found that it was still quite sufficient. Qiao Ting’s heart settled — even if Lingtian’s regiment commander Ling Lan appeared now, with this beam saber, he had the confidence to fight the other.
“Even with a half-destroyed mecha, I will let everyone in the academy know that defeating me, Qiao Ting, is impossible.” Qiao Ting gripped the beam saber in his hands tightly, swearing determinedly in his heart. After fighting for so hard and so long, now there was only one enemy left, Qiao Ting would not allow himself to lose this challenge fight at this last moment and become someone else’s stepping stone.
Honour could only belong to him, Qiao Ting! Qiao Ting’s eyes carried a touch of cold as he thought about the yet to appear Lingtian regiment commander, Ling Lan. He could not hide the ill feeling he had towards the other — for destroying the glorious image he had painstakingly cultivated, he would never let the other go.
Qiao Ting forced down the killing intent in his heart and swiftly conducted some minor adjustments and repairs on his mecha. He was very thankful that this was Mecha World where he could use some emergency means to improve his mecha’s condition.
Focused on his mecha, Qiao Ting did not notice right then that several hundred metres behind him, a black mecha had already silently appeared in mid-air and appeared to be looking at him with an indifferent expression.
“Ah, he’s here!” The spectators noticed and exclaimed in unison.
In contrast to the sorry state of Qiao Ting’s mecha, the mecha of the Lingtian regiment commander seemed so bright and perfect, as if he had never been fighting at all.
“I just went back to review Lingtian No.1’s battles. Holy sh*t, they were all one-hit kills! That final fight, against three Leiting mecha, wow … it was still a one-hit kill?! How can this be? How did he do it?” The students who had been following Qiao Ting’s fight all this time only thought of looking up the Lingtian regiment commander’s fights now. When they viewed that final fight, they saw how the other had eliminated three Leiting members simultaneously with one move. This godly battle record was unbelievable. Even Qiao Ting had been unable to accomplish that when he had been up against three Lingtian members on his end who were operating advanced mecha just like the Leiting members.
“Watch closely. He did not face them from the front. This Lingtian regiment commander is very sneaky. Every fight was an ambush, where he hid from the opponent and assassinated them with a sneak attack …” Those students who had studied Ling Lan’s fights carefully could not help but speak up to remind those exclaiming students.
Chided, those students began reviewing the fights again from start to finish and found that it was indeed as those people had said. The Lingtian regiment commander was just too sly, often hiding in places no one would have considered. In particular, in that last fight, he had actually boldly impersonated a destroyed mecha and faked thick columns of smoke coming out from his mecha’s body. This had drawn the three Leiting members over to investigate, clueless and unsuspecting, where they were then killed off by the Lingtian regiment commander.
“He is a tactical genius!” Observing Ling Lan’s combat style, Tang Yu and the principal thought long and hard, and this was the only answer they could come up with.