Chapter 609.1: Battle Between The Strongest

Gaen felt like his skull had just been rammed by the Heart of Steel, so much so that he didn’t even hear what the man before him said at the end.

The blast of compressed solid nitrogen slammed into his crown, airflow powerful enough to rip through steel armor not only shattered his skull but drove the pulverized scraps down into his shoulders and chest.

No matter how strong the regenerative cells beneath his keratin armor were, there was no way to piece back together a head smashed like a watermelon...

The whole deck fell deathly silent.

Aside from the sporadic crackle of flames, the only sound was the whistling wind.

It was as if someone had hit the pause button on reality.

Players all around stared in stupefaction.

Seeing their faction boss in danger, they had been ready to rush in for some brownie points and maybe prevent a server reset, yet in the blink of an eye, the fight was over.

Staring blankly at the headless boss who hadn’t toppled, Quit Smoking’s eyes glazed over. After a long moment, he swallowed hard. “... He’s definitely cheating, right?”

Gale was dumbstruck too. “... One-shot?”

A mutant that even 20mm autocannons couldn’t kill had just been obliterated by one swing of the administrator’s hammer.

He couldn’t tell if it was the hammer that was that busted, or the man wielding it.

Ample Time’s eyes were equally wide.

The last time the administrator had fought beside him was in the Alpha testing days. He had nearly forgotten the guy was a monster himself.

Only one question burned in his mind.

Just what level is our boss?!

Only Old White wasn’t stunned.

To be precise, he had no time to be stunned.

The winged Mutant Humans hadn’t broken and fled at their leader’s death. On the contrary, they grew even fiercer.

Shouldering his 20mm cannon, Old White swept burst after burst at the onrushing swarm and barked at the frozen players, “Damn you guys! Don’t just stand there, start clearing them out!”

While the players scrambled back into the fight, the hastily arriving Guard Corps froze at the sight of the monster corpse lying before Chu Guang.

When they saw the administrator step onto the deck, Lu Bei’s soul had nearly fled his body. Watching those winged beasts dive at their men had made his heart leap into his throat.

Yet in the end it had been a false alarm.

The winged brute had roared, diving at their administrator with lethal momentum, and missed entirely, plowing face-first into the deck.

Then their administrator smashed its skull with one hammer blow, killing it before it could even scream.

A guard next to Lu Bei swallowed hard and whispered, “... What just happened?”

Farther off, a deckhand’s face lit with religious fervor, lips trembling. “By the Great Stag God...”

Surely their administrator was chosen by the divine!

How else to explain that inevitable strike somehow veering off by a mere step at the last instant?!

It had to be divine protection!

In truth, Chu Guang was no chosen one. Gaen’s missed strike had nothing to do with any Great Stag God.

That god was snacking and burping in Shelter 79, not trekking 1,000 kilometers to save anyone in Brocade Lake Municipality.

In the research ship, Yang Kai gasped at the holoscreen, nose nearly pressed to the transparent panel. A look of disbelief sat on his face.

“Directional shield?! That was their directional shield?!”

Of course he knew the Heart of Steel carried one. But after seeing what the Torch Church’s bioengineered Mutant Humans looked like, he had written it off.

The thing couldn’t stop everything. It barely handled slow guided weapons, let alone rampaging monsters.

Yet Chu Guang’s maneuver had completely upended his understanding of its role on the battlefield.

Who knew it could be used like that?!

Over 100 kilometers away, Arzu too was dumbstruck, staring blankly north into the dark, speechless for a long time.

Gaen...

He’s dead?

That was the strongest of the Qi Tribe.

His Biotic Armor had been designed specifically to counter powered suits, strength to tear steel, defense on par with alloy armor, and the self-repair no mechanical suit could match.

Arzu had considered the remotest chance: Gaen’s swarm underperforming, beaten back after boarding the airship.

Mutant minds weren’t exactly stable.

But even then, he’d assumed a berserk Gaen and the frenzied winged Mutant Humans would at least wreak havoc on the New Alliance command, buying precious time for the Kingdom of Heaven to advance from Stage Three to Four.

At least, that was his plan.

So when he saw Chu Guang, his heart had leapt, urging Gaen forward to end him quickly.

If Chu Guang died, not just the Brocade Lake Municipality, but the entire New Alliance would descend into chaos.

The whole region would fall beneath the Torch Church’s radiant light.

But just as he glimpsed at the light of victory, it was snuffed out mercilessly.

Their vaunted strength, the years-long trap woven in Brocade Lake Municipality to fend off the Army, Academy, and Enterprise alike...

It was all erased in one stroke.

The cold night wind brushed his wrinkled face. His throat bobbed, despair creeping over him. “No...”

The chill night dissolved his broken cry. They had played their last card.

The war still raged, but here, it was over.

...

On the Heart of Steel.

Chu Guang stood over the headless corpse, blood pooling at his feet, tracer fire streaking through the night. He lowered his hammer with no expression on his face.

Beasts were beasts. To brute force a takeover of an airship?

Did they think the difference in mass was a joke?

“I meant to rip off your wings and toss you off the deck just to see the crater you would make... Dying like this is merciful.”

That really had been his plan.

He didn’t know exactly how high-ranked the Mutant Human was, but given Mutant Humans’ society’s reverence for strength, anyone commanding 10,000 creatures was no nobody. At least he had to be a commander with hands stained with the blood of countless lives.

However, a thought soon struck him. What if its wings regrew mid-fall, or some stray Mutant Human caught it and brought it away? That would be a waste.

It would be best to finish the job. History proved showing off without finishing blows ended poorly.

Besides, he had already promised Hyrja some samples.

He also wanted to know exactly what the creature was.

At that moment, a squad from the Guard Corps clad in exoskeletons jogged over.

At their head was Lu Bei, rifle in hand, bloodied short blade at his belt, chestplate smeared with gore.

He yanked off his helmet, eyes wide with worry as he rushed over to Chu Guang. “Sir, are you hurt?”

Looking at the anxious young man, Chu Guang smiled gently. “Do I look hurt to you?”

He had meant to reassure him, but Lu Bei froze, shame flashing across his face.

He bowed his head and guilt welled up his chest.

As captain of the Guard Corps, he should have been Chu Guang’s shield. Instead, he let the administrator face danger.

Reading his thoughts, Chu Guang thought a moment before speaking. “Raise your head. It was my order that you fight alongside the crew. It was my judgment that put you here with New Alliance soldiers. You’ve fulfilled your duty loyally. Be proud, not ashamed.”

He slung the hammer on his back and clapped Lu Bei’s shoulder. “You’ve done well.”

His gaze shifted northward.

The tracers rose like sparks, but they were thinning by the minute.

The leaderless winged Mutant Humans, shrieked in madness, hurling themselves into suicide dives at the deck.

Their assaults were fiercer but chaotic, hastening their own ruin.

More and more fell from the sky. Few survived, and it was plain to all they were spent.

Soon, two lights flared in the distance.

A pair of Orca transport planes flew in, shifting from fixed-wing to vertical take off mode, blue plasma trails streaming as they hovered down on the north side of the deck.

Hundreds of soldiers and mechanized units deployed swiftly.

But by the time they finished, the battle on deck was already done. The last Mutant Human lay slain.