Chapter 14

The target of Tiger’s Soul was the most unique robot among all. One with an armor shifting between a rainbow of colors, Megatron. The colors were bright and vibrant and more eye catching than any of the phase shift armors. The mist of Tiger’s Soul enveloped the whole of Megatron. A screeching sound followed. It was as though one was scratching a piece of steel with a knife. Tiger’s Soul sliced through, carrying along a few pieces of scraps. Megatron was barely touched. Though the colors on its armor dimmed a little.

Megatron was the nearest object to the AllSpark. A stream of lightning roughly one meter in diameter rose from the ground and entered its body after the attack. Its armor recovered its brightness. The scraps on the floor melted into a liquid like mercury. The liquid formed into a mini Megatron, about the size of a man’s palm. However, this mini Megatron fired mini bullets and missiles.

“Eh?” Zheng was surprised. He retrieved Tiger’s Soul then summoned a dark flame that swept over to the mini Megatron. The flame was a condensed form of the Red Flame. After he regained control over his consciousness, Zheng added refined Qi into this flame. He didn’t even know how powerful the flame had become.

Sizzz. The flame melted the floor along with the mini Megatron. It was as though he burned through a piece of wax. There was no explosions or anything.

Megatron roared. The colors on its armor rippled. It was the same attack Zheng witnessed from Starscream. He rushed over to Megatron without a second thought. A kick struck Megatron’s abdomen before the attack came out. The force created a dent on the vibrant armor and carried both Zheng and Megatron forward nearly fifty meters.

The Valkyrie had just landed on where Megatron was standing. Gando nearly vomited from the force Zheng exerted on him. He recognized this wasn’t the time for it as there were robots all around. In under two seconds, he controlled the Valkyrie to push itself up from the floor then tumbled toward the AllSpark.

(This lightning pillar looks like it’s going to roast the Valkyrie and me into a piece of charcoal…) Gando hesitated the moment he approached the AllSpark. The power of the lightning seemed terrifying. But then several energy bullets exploded behind him and brought his mind back from the hesitation. He sprinted toward the AllSpark without turning around to take a look.

Xuan was standing behind Gando. His glasses disappeared or perhaps they were destroyed during combat. However, the sharpness on his eyes was still there. Spots in his hair had turned white. He didn’t appeared to be in a good condition.

There was seemingly an invisible wall in front of Xuan. The endless stream of bullets and explosions caused ripples on this invisible wall. But the wall was extremely sturdy and felt intact after all these explosions. There were still over a thousand Decepticons remaining after Zheng and Xuan’s massacre. Their firepower nearly covered this whole wall.

(I can block it… but there are too many…) A wavering thought rose in Xuan’s mind. His rational mind verified the number of robots while blocking their attacks. The combined firepower of these robots were simply too powerful. A crack finally appeared in Xuan’s mind after nearly four minutes of hypnosis. He began to realize there were too many robots.

A sizzling sound came from the invisible wall. A dozen tiny cracks surfaced on the wall. It looked as if it was about to break apart. Xuan’s hair continued to turn white in a visible rate. It would probably take a minute at most before all his hair turned white.

While Xuan blocked the fires, Gando did not waste any time. The sight from his peripheral vision scared him enough already. He knew if it wasn’t for Xuan, he would have died. He activated the plasma jet system and charged into the lightning pillar. Thunderous crackling sound struck his ears. But there was neither the pain nor explosion he expected. The lightning seeped into the Valkyrie. And then he seized the AllSpark in the Valkyrie’s arms.

At the same time, Zheng and Megatron got up from the floor. Zheng was strong but he could not destroy Megatron in a short period of time. The light blade could not slice through Megatron’s vibrant armor. Fist-gun in instant Destruction could not pierce it. The dark flame and refined Qi couldn’t burn through it either. Megatron would periodically use the rippling attack, which wasn’t able to damage Zheng but it would knock him away. At this rate, this fight would take over an hour to see an outcome.

Megatron and most of the Decepticons gone insane the moment Gando carried the AllSpark away from the lightning pillar. Part of the robots transformed into various kinds of flying vehicles and charged at the invisible wall, without regard for their lives upon impact. Megatron knocked Zheng away with a shockwave then transformed into a shuttle with a pointed head and charged at Gando.

Both team China and the Decepticons knew the situation had come to the most critical moment. Team China only needed to survive an hour after the AllSpark was destroyed, while the Decepticons had no future if they lost the AllSpark. So both parties had put their lives on the table.

Zheng gripped his hands. His blood energy and Qi rushed toward his heart.

(My body has become so strong. I can almost reach Explosion level without using any energy. If I activate Destruction, I can reach thirty seconds or more with the energy from the mithril rings!) Zheng shouted as he entered Destruction.

Time seemingly slowed down. Megatron and the phase shift armor possessing robots were the fastest objects on the field. They had transformed into rocket like shuttles. Zheng also saw Xuan on the far side. His hair had nearly turned all white. Cracks were filling the invisible wall. It looked as though it would break apart soon. Zheng reached for the eight little flags from his pocket. He channeled the refined Qi into the flags then threw them over to Xuan.

The flags grew as they traveled just like how they were when Luo YingLong used them. Eight flags surrounded Xuan the moment the wall shattered. Energy bullets blasted the flags but they did not budge an inch. Xuan collapsed inside.

On the other hand, Gando flew up carrying the AllSpark in his arms. The Decepticons didn’t attack him due to the AllSpark. As soon as he reached mid air, he turned toward the corridor with the plasma jet system on full speed. Yet, something grabbed the Valkyrie’s leg after he had only flew a hundred meters.

“Fly!” Zheng used Soru twice and reached the robot that grabbed the Valkyrie. It was one of the robots with phase shift armor. The robot was smashing the Valkyrie to the floor. Zheng snatched its arm then ripped it off along with a screeching sound. His strength in Destruction was powerful enough to tear apart phase shift armor using his bare hands. He then stabbed Tiger’s Soul into the Spark within the robot’s chest using one hand. His other hand held the Valkyrie and threw it toward the corridor.

“Don’t let go of it even at the cost of your life! The rest of the team will protect you! Go! For the lives of everyone…”

With a loud whistle, the Valkyrie flew across several hundred meters under the huge force from Destruction and went straight into the corridor.

The pain Gando was experiencing was unspeakable. Not because of Zheng and Xuan falling in the swarm of Decepticons but the momentum created from the throw. This force was so enormous that his whole body was pushed against the wall of the cockpit. The Valkyrie then smashed onto a corner of the corridor. Fortunately, he landed with his back against the wall, otherwise, the AllSpark would be destroyed.

The concussion took two seconds to go away. Gando was finally able to see the scene behind. The sea of Decepticons did not attack Zheng just as he expected. They were transforming into flying vehicles and rushing to him. Furthermore, Decepticons were also coming from the other side of the corridor. He was being sandwiched.

“Run!” Zheng shouted.

It was as though this shout woke Gando up. He entered the unlocked mode, activated the plasma jet system and charged ahead. Despite there being only less than a third of the energy reserve left, Gando had no time to be concerned about energy consumption. He tightly bit his teeth then charged out, right into a Decepticon trying to block him with its arms open.

“Ah!” Gando’s eyes were bloodshot. Any stopping here meant death. He could only live by charging out of the corridor. Gando completely disregarded the Decepticons chasing behind and focused to his front. The Valkyrie transformed into GERWALK mode and continued toward the Decepticon. Right before the two collided, Gando controlled the Valkyrie to move slightly to the side. The Valkyrie’s saber pierced into the Decepticon using the force of this charge. The blade went all the way in up to the hilt. The Valkyrie then stepped onto its shoulder and leaped, then transformed into fighter jet mode. A meter long stream of electricity blasted out from its tail and pushed the jet forward.

Zheng was about to rush to the corridor and destroy the entrance as soon as Gando entered it. However, three shuttles collided onto his back and wings, sending him flying. All the robots around him lost their minds. They ceased use of any weapons and charged at Zheng with their bodies. A series of thumps followed. Over ten Decepticons swarmed on top of him.

While the Decepticons delayed Zheng, a hundred or more had entered the corridor. All of them were high level enough to transform. There were even several with phase shift armor.

Zheng roared under the Decepticons seeing the sight. He pushed the robots away with huge force. More immediately leaped at him but slashes from Tiger’s Soul along with its mist shredded these robots. Zheng took out the Spear of Osiris at once. Qi, blood energy and refined Qi channeled into the spear at full speed. The refined Qi showed dominating effect on the spear. A hideous monster surfaced and spiraled over the golden spear. It breathed refined Qi from its mouth like it was alive. Its existence was obviously tied to the refined Qi.

This wasn’t the time for Zheng to ponder further. He threw the Spear of Osiris. A golden light radiated and it was as though the spear into the monster. The monster penetrated through numerous robots on its way, until it impacted onto the top of the entrance. A loud explosion followed. Fallen rocks buried the entrance. The Spear of Osiris expended all its energy and stayed still on a piece of metal. It returned to its plain appearance, a normal golden stick.

Zheng saw that the corridor was blocked off for at least an hour or two before the Decepticons could clear a way. The collapse also buried hundreds of robots. There were close to six hundred Decepticons remaining in this area and shouldn’t be that many chasing after Gando.

“Whew… Come! Let me see the limit of this body! The genes from ancient demons…” Zheng turned around.

Hundreds of Decepticons stood quietly behind. Along them were Megatron and several robots with phase shift armor. They seemed to have realized the hope of leaving this place was no more. The Decepticons transformed back to their humanoid forms and wielded their weapons. They fixed their eyes on Zheng with caution. As the first robot pulled the trigger, Zheng could only be seen as a shadow that rushed toward the Decepticons.

On the other side, thanks to the spacious width of the corridor and the concentration brought forth by the unlocked mode, Gando managed to fly at full speed. Lacking any of the two would have led to him smashing onto the wall from a turn. A few hundred meters later, he felt the intense trembling of the whole corridor followed by the sound of explosion and collapse. He expected it, that Zheng would break the entrance to cut off the chases. Only that collapse came later than he thought. But the situation left him with no time to think. He didn’t know how many Decepticons were chasing behind him. The only thing he could do at this point was run, run, and run. Run with his life until he could fly up to the sky!

(The energy is reaching the bottom! Only ten percent left. I can’t take any energy bullets anymore. A few hits could drain the remaining energy…) Gando’s eyes seemed out of focus as he glanced at the energy reserve bar.

Two robots appear on the screen. They seemed to be of a lower level than the ones that had been chasing him. Their reaction and armor were a step behind the other Decepticons. Still, these robots had energy weapons. Several energy bullets fired at Gando the moment the two parties saw each other.

(Can’t block them! The dragonshard can’t take them! Or there won’t be enough energy to fly out!) Gando’s concentration heightened to its highest level at this instant where he stood on the line of life and death. Then he felt as though something inside him shattered. His concentration state rose exponentially again. He knew he broke through to the second stage of the unlock mode.

Gando threw the AllSpark through in between the energy bullets. The Valkyrie transformed into GERWALK mode and slipped through the first two bullets. Then it continued to transform into fighter jet mode and flew past the third bullet as it scraped against the ceiling. The Valkyrie transformed back into humanoid mode and caught the AllSpark before it fell to the floor. The Valkyrie rushed pass the two robots while its sword sliced through them. Two explosions followed one after another from his back. Gando then transformed the Valkyrie back into fighter jet mode and flew ahead.

The moment Gando flew out from the corridor, Soul Link connected to his mind. Lan asked anxiously. “What’s the situation? What’s happening inside? My scan couldn’t penetrate. Hurry, tell us!”

Gando’s concentration was all focused on the Valkyrie. He didn’t have the energy to reply as he watched the energy bar deplete. The Valkyrie pushed itself up at its full speed and crossed a thousand meters. Gando climbed out from the hole that was created from the hydrogen bomb. He then flew straight toward Zero.

“Zero! Protect me! I have no energy left!” Gando shouted. Then the Valkyrie dropped straight down from the sky and so was the AllSpark. The Valkyrie and the AllSpark slid along the ground over fifty meters. Yet, they were still a thousand meters away from where the rest of team China were. In just this short period of time, several shuttles flew out from the hole. The first of them possessed a vibrant armor, signaling its level within the Decepticons. It scanned the ground then charged right toward the AllSpark.

Pah! A Gauss bullet struck the Decepticon’s armor and brought up sparks on the point of impact. Not even the phase shift armor could completely negate the force of the Gauss bullet. With a clank, the bullet pierced through from the center of the shuttle and came out its back. The Decepticon hadn’t exploded but it fell from the sky. It couldn’t fight for a while.

“Gando… I can see you. Don’t worry. They are within the aim of my rifle!”

Kampa, Heng, WangXia and YinKong were standing beside Zero. HongLu realized Xuan’s plan once the final hydrogen bomb landed. He became depressed at the time but his discipline as a strategist kept him up. He ordered Kampa and YinKong to be prepared for combat. As soon as the temperature decreased, they would advance toward the center of explosion, where a grand battle awaited!

“It’s the first time I feel helpless against someone…” HongLu said to the others as he sat on the floor and played with his hair.

Lan found it a little funny. She looked at him and said. “This isn’t the first time you met him. Didn’t you feel the same when you lost to Xuan in Resident Evil?”

HongLu replied with a serious tone. “That’s different. I lost to an enemy at the time. Losses are inevitable in a war. A loss is a loss even though humans only have one life. But he’s now one of us!”

Lan smiled and rubbed his hair. She then turned her worried gaze to the distance. “We are the non combat members so we retreated. ChengXiao’s an exception. But are the rest of them safe?”

HongLu fixed his hair with slight annoyance then laughed. “You underestimated them. We are team China. Team Devil aside, we even defeated team Celestial. We don’t notice our growth because it’s gradual but we are strong! Watch closely… Believe in them. Believe in our comrades!”

Zero watched the robots flew out from the hole. He knew very well the characteristics of the Gauss sniper rifle. This was a weapon with strong advantages and an equally huge disadvantage. The major advantage was its power and range. The rifle could reach satellites in the upper region of the Earth’s atmosphere. As long as it hit its target, even if it was just a finger, the powerful force carried by the bullet would take out the whole arm.

At the same time, the Gauss sniper rifle possessed a critical weakness, its speed. Aim, fire, reload, aim and fire would take over ten seconds for all actions. This process wouldn’t be considered slow for a normal sniper. But not in the case of the players!

Zero held onto the sniper rifle quietly. The radiation filled dust reduced his visibility a lot. However, Psyche Scan and Soul Link enabled him to see the Decepticons coming out. There were three to four hundred of them in various forms of flying vehicles. The first robot was struck down by the Gauss sniper rifle. Yet, that didn’t stop the rest of the Decepticons for even a moment. They had no fear as they charged toward the Valkyrie, or more precisely, the AllSpark.

Heng breathed out then took an energy stone out from his pocket. He placed the energy stone on the silver bow. By the time the stone dissolved, the bow was drew to a full moon. The elven bloodline didn’t enable him to see through the dust but there were hundreds of robots in front of him. He locked onto the robots with the assist of Soul Link and released the string. Several hundred streams of silver lights flew into the dim radiated dust.

This AOE attack was the special ability of the silver bow. The attack was fatal to living organisms in large numbers. There was almost no way of dodging all the streams of light. Of course, Transformers weren’t living organisms… They were much stronger. Plus their form of life was different. A shot through a living organism might not be fatal but it would at least disable its movement for some time. However, this wouldn’t be the case for robots as long as the shot missed the important parts of their body or their energy system. The powerful scene brought forth by the ability only destroyed several Decepticons.

Zero fired a second shot. A robot exploded in the air. But that was the extend of the attack. Hundreds of robots were less than three hundred meters away from Gando. At the speed of their flight, that was merely three seconds. As the robots were going to swarm the Valkyrie, it climbed up from the ground with its shaking body. The Valkyrie grabbed the AllSpark then began to run toward the team in determined steps.

“Is this… the desire to survive transcended reality? Can robots run without energy?” Heng smiled bitterly as he saw the Valkyrie running toward them. He hesitated on whether to use another energy shot.

At the same time, Kampa roared and fired with the rapid fire RPG at the distance. A series of explosions followed. The explosions were limited to the area behind the Valkyrie with the assist of Psyche Scan and Soul Link, blocking the flying vehicles.

Unfortunately, these Decepticons weren’t newly sparked robots. They had been under the power of the AllSpark for some time and thus were able to transform into flying vehicles. Several even possessed phase shift armor. The rockets only halted their movement for a moment. The Decepticons flew through the wall of explosions. Two in front began to transform while they dropped toward the Valkyrie.

Bang! One of the robots exploded midway during its transformation. The other completed and turned into a robot ten meters tall. It grabbed the Valkyrie in its hand and seized the AllSpark from with the other hand the moment it landed on the ground.

The Valkyrie was completely depleted of energy. Being able to run was already a miracle. There was nothing Gando could do no matter how talented he was. At most, he could move the Valkyrie’s arms and legs as a sign of struggle. Zero had just fired another round. He wouldn’t make it in time to save Gando.

(… Save me. Please. Someone come save me. Aren’t we comrades? Heng, shoot the robot’s arm off! WangXia, your bombs are so powerful! Or anyone else. Please. Come save me!) Despair filled Gando’s heart.

He desperately controlled the Valkyrie in hope of struggling out from the Decepticon’s grip. Yet, it couldn’t change the fact that the Valkyrie had no energy.

At the final moment of despair, Gando saw a sword sliced toward the robot’s arm on the screen. The robot used its other armor to block the sword. The arm holding the AllSpark broke off but Gando remained in the robot’s grip.

(YinKong… Why! Why didn’t you save me? Why did you only cut off the arm with the AllSpark? Why! Why? Aren’t we comrades? TELL ME! WHY!)

Gando opened his mouth wide. Due to limited field of vision, he only saw YinKong slicing the robot’s other arm. And then the robot tightened its grip before Gando could turn around. The screen went black. The cockpit crushed inward. The robot wanted to crush both the Valkyrie and him.

(No! I don’t want to die! I want to live! Aren’t we comrades? Why! Why… I can’t accept this! Team China… I can’t accept this…)

A loud blast followed as the Valkyrie exploded. The robot tightened its grip several times and the Valkyrie finally failed to defend itself. It exploded in the robot’s hand.

Everyone stared at the battlefield in shock. Flares were still burning in the robot’s hand. It took the whole team a while to recover from the shock. Someone died. Ever since Xuan revived, ever since Zheng grew, death became so far away from the veterans. They had almost forgotten… that they were in God’s realm, a place where people would die!

“Ah!” Heng shouted. He snatched three arrows and aimed at the robot. But before he fired, the Gauss sniper rifle sounded. A bullet pierced through the robot’s chest in a loud bang. At the same time, Excalibur sliced through the robot from the center!

While rage overtook the team, HongLu shouted. “Careful! Something abnormal from the hole came up on the scan… Fuck! The robot’s enormous!”

A hand reached out from the hole. Its size was beyond believable. The hand itself was over a hundred meters big.

“If any mechanical object can be converted into a robot…” HongLu’s voice sounded in their minds again. “Then the largest vehicles humans have created, battleships, destroyers, and even… aircraft carriers could become robots.”