Chapter 471: Fissure Strangle
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Hahah …"
"Haha … Oh my God … It's too much … Ohh … No no no … My stomach hurts … Hahaha …"
The entire audience in the mech combat test arena was roaring with laughter. The young people on the stage laughed even more tickled, doubling over with laughter. Even Brahm could not help but smiled.
It was truly a very amusing spectacle. The examiner circled around the strange looking mech while attacking, but the metal stump could always avoid the attacks with all kinds of weird movements. It was not just weird to watch, for the mech itself looked like an oddball, so the end result was comedic instead.
The odd mech suddenly put its left hand and feet to the ground, attempting to do a side flip and avoid the examiner's attack. The thickset metal limbs of the metal stump flipped unceremoniously to the side, and crashed into the ground during its unsteady maneuver. The huge fellow crashed down loudly like a building, kicking up dust that covered the examiner's mech in a layer of dirt.
This invited even more laughter from the floor.The youngsters who were bending over themselves, catching a breath, now laughed again, but their faces showed the pain they were now experiencing in their abdomen.
Inside the pilot cabin, Ye Chong felt helpless. He had wanted to enter a command to do a horizontal step, but the mech had done a horizontal flip instead. Surprised by the mistake, Ye Chong keyed in another erroneous command, and the mech went off balance and crashed into the ground.
Ye Chong was already used to making a series of mistake in a row by now. There was nothing he could do about it. The controls were placed differently than he was used to, and that was a very fatal weakness in combat.
The only reason he had not lost yet was his ability to read his opponent's intentions and react accordingly. Of course, there was also a bit of luck involved. Else, he would have lost a long time ago.
Even so, he was now playing a completely passive role.
The examiner was also puzzled and annoyed. No matter how he looked at it, he had the advantage, while the d*mned Number 231 could not even afford to attack him. However, the clumsy metal stump was incredibly lucky, avoiding all his attacks in ridiculously humiliating ways every single time. This annoyed him to no end.
However, he had decided to end this fight with a killer move!
"Humph, let's see if you'll avoid this!" The examiner thought to himself, his eyes glaring inside the pilot cabin. He was now positively furious.
The examiner's hands flew across his controls, entering the necessary commands. His mech retreated unexpectedly, widening the distance between him and Ye Chong.
Inside the pilot cabin, Ye Chong's face remain expressionless, but the deep calm in his eyes was tinged with worry.
"So? How's the test going?" A casual voice asked from behind Brahm.
Brahm turned over to see a middle-aged man, his upper half body naked, walking towards him. He slung a towel over his shoulder, and his muscles glistened with undried sweat.
Brahm considered for a moment and replied, "It's getting interesting."
The middle-aged man sat down heavily beside Brahm, looking surprised. "If even you think it's interesting, it must be very much indeed."
"Well, see for yourself." Brahm nodded towards the test arena below.
"Hehe, I will," the other man said without meaning it as he dried himself with his towel.
Brahm turned his attention from the fight to the man sitting beside him, and spoke earnestly, "Tong, thank you for this." The man called Tong was the examiner who piloted the mech with the shield and sword. He was sent here on a mission, and since Brahm received orders to help with the instructor's hiring process, he had volunteered for to be a guest examiner.
Tong waved off his words. "It's no big deal, don't worry about it. I haven't had a chance to fight since coming back from the front line. It was enjoyable to say the least."
"How's the situation at the front line? You know that the news we get here is mixed in with gossip and rumors, it's hard to figure out what's really going on." Brahm sat up straight and looked at Tong.
Tong shook his head. "We're not doing so well. So far, we're in a stalemate. People die at the front line everyday. We know too little about those creature." He paused, looked around them for eavesdroppers, then leaned closer to Brahm and said in a low voice, "Not long ago, Arwa's scouts found a very strong red-tailed beast nearby, right at the edge of the asteroid zone. Only three out of 30 in the scouting squad came back alive."
"What?" Brahm turned pale, but quickly composed himself. He looked around to see if anyone noticed, then leaned towards Tong and spoke shakily, "What you're saying is …"
The two of them exchange a long lok. Tong nodded solemnly and said, "Yes. The higher-ups are wondering if there are other red-tailed beasts that have already infiltrated Gray Valley."
Brahm's face was drained of blood. He was a non-combatant still, having never been on the battlefield, and he was shocked by the news. Tong patted Brahm lightly by the shoulder to soothe him, and said, "Don't worry too much about it. Even if they're here, the soldiers will fight them first." He added, "Don't tell anyone about this. It's classified military information, hehe." However, from the way he told it, it did look like he cared much for so-called classified information.
Suddenly, the spectators in the arena roared in excitement, attracting their attention.
Two light yellow trails dissolved like crystals into the air.
At the beginning of these two trails were the examiner's shining laser katars [1] that he held in his hands.
The examiner sat in his pilot cabin, his eyes full of disbelief.
He … He missed!
How was that possible? That was his first thought.
He had used a very difficult technique just now, but also a very aggressive one. This was a move that he had practised for a long time, but until now, he could rarely execute the move successfully, so he never used it in actual combat. Now, since his opponent was not dangerous at all, and the fight was dragging on, he decided on impulse to try the technique.
This time, he miraculously executed the entire move, and that made him so very happy.
He knew that, with this difficult move executed, his opponent would surely fall, either injured or dead. That was out of his control.
However … He missed!
What happened? His excitement from executing the attack move completely was immediately doused with cold water. He had anticipated victory, but missed at the very last moment. It drove him mad! It all happened too quickly that he could not figure out what went wrong.
Ye Chong panted heavily. That was a very dangerous moment that strained him to the extreme. However, he keyed in the commands on the controls quickly, without delay.
From the moment his opponent stepped back, Ye Chong knew what trouble he was about to face.
Fissure Strangle!
This technique was quite famous, though Ye Chong though it was impractical. However, he must admit that once the move was executed, it would be very damaging to the enemy.
If he had Han Jia, this Fissure Strangle would be child's play to counter. Before his opponent could finish the preparatory moves, Ye Chong would have ample time to thoroughly conceal his mech.
However, he did not have Han Jia, but an experimental mech! Ye Chong quickly gave up on attacking, and decided to block and avoid instead. Ye Chong's quick assessment saved him. He had immediately identified the three locations that his opponent would hit. This gave him 1.5 seconds to act on it.
However, it was in this 1.5 seconds that Ye Chong keyed in the commands on his triangular controls panel that he was unfamiliar with. During the process, Ye Chong even made a mistake, but this was quickly corrected with his extraordinary hand speed. By the time he corrected his mistake, the laser katars were already before him.
Ye Chong's mech bent its left leg and lunged its right leg backwards for support. Its body arched slightly. The left arm held up its V-shaped shield to the front, and the right arm reached down to the ground for support. The mech went into this strange stance.
Wham!
The first to be destroyed was the V-shaped shield. It was smashed to pieces by direct impact from the attack. However, the opponent's movement was halted, and that was Ye Chong was waiting for.
With the right arm and both legs against the ground, Ye Chong's mech pushed forward! The mech's engines were all installed at the limbs to increase their power. Hence, the combined power of all three engines boosted the mech's speed and power tremendously!
Ye Chong's mech was like a spring compressed to its limit, then released.
Bang!
A deep buzzing sound of metal against metal hurt the ears of the audience.
Ye Chong's mech had crashed straight into the examiner's mech. Since the attack was upwards, the examiner's mech flew back in the opposite direction at an even higher speed.
Everyone who watched this could not help but think of an ancient sport - billiards! Weren't these two mechs just like two billiard balls colliding?
The entire arena was shocked into silence for a good 10 seconds. Then, a thunderous roar of applause came from the stage. Everyone was won over by the battle.
The two mechs faced each other once again. The examiner's mech still looked untouched, but Number 231's mech had only half of its shield on its left arm. Everyone knew that Number 231 could no longer rely on the shield for cover. It would lose, sooner or later.
Even so, the audience cheered loudly for for the wonderful performance by the unwieldy looking mech just now.