Chapter 15

(Gando…)

Team China didn’t realized it normally but they had been drown in a sense of overconfidence. The team was strong with Zheng’s growth and Xuan being able to carry out his plans to their potential with the team’s support.

So the team was accustomed to the norm of no death, or at least not of the veterans. They took cautions in every movie but a lot of times, the pain of death were forgotten. That lasted until Gando’s death.

“I can manipulate a bomb by infusing Demon Energy into it, including detonation and rendering it invisible. This ability is suited for ambushes.” WangXia stood next to Zero.

He held out his hand. A faintly visible pink puff of air emerged on top of his palm. It looked as though he was remote controlling something. WangXia trembled following the appearance of this air. He looked in pain.

(I am pushing my limit for controlling so many bombs with so little energy. And the area affected by the explosion of all these bombs is… If only Gando made it just a bit further, I could have detonated the bombs!)

WangXia placed the bombs inside the corridor. The Bomb Dominator enhancement bestowed him limited control over those bombs. He had recently discovered a new way to use plasma bombs, or more precisely, a way of using his ability as a Bomb Dominator.

The plasma bombs could be turned invisible and stick to any object that moved over it. He could set the time for the explosion using Demon Energy. When Gando first came up from the hole, WangXia regained remote control over the bombs. Yet, his lack of energy made it extremely difficult to control so many bombs. Furthermore, if all these plasma bombs detonated at the same time, Gando would get affected in the explosion. That was why WangXia halted the detonation. Now, there was nothing to hold him back. The only thing in his mind was to destroy all the Decepticons.

Plasma bombs became visible on the Decepticons one after another. Electricity arced among the robots then the dozens of plasma bombs exploded. An area several hundred meters in diameter was filled with electric current. Its concentration and energy was so huge that the current liquefied into plasma. The plasma consumed over a dozen robots instantly and many more exploded the next instant.

“Impressive power. WangXia has basically formed his combat style. He’s suited for battlefields. Arrange the place of battle for him then let him set up explosives and hide those explosives using his Demon Energy. This power will come near to Zheng’s strength in the battlefield. In fact, if the bombs he used is more powerful, not even Zheng could make it out alive.” HongLu twirled his hair with his eyes closed. He seemed rather relaxed, not worried about whether his team in the distance was going to survive or not. He did not have much interaction with Gando. So his death only received a sigh from HongLu.

“… Yet, WangXia has the same issue.” HongLu sighed. “His flaw is as prominent as his strength. He requires powerful bombs, a large enough space to set them up, time, and a way to hide himself. Otherwise, his strength is not worth mentioning without the cooperation of team members. He’s the same as other members, not suited for solo combat. He couldn’t even survive a movie that easily by himself.”

ChengXia laughed. “We are still strong, aren’t we? Everyone has his flaw but together, we can join into exceptional strength. Zero for super long range attacks, Heng for mid range, Kampa for heavy firepower, WangXia for mines and bombs, Xuan for his schemes, Zheng for his combat. Of course, there’s also the handsome and skilled combat doctor. This team…”

HongLu ignored him and turned to Lan. “Are you still not able to scan below the ground?”

Lan shook her head. “No. The scan still can’t penetrate through. So I don’t know how Zheng and Xuan are doing. So many robots have came up already. There are probably even more below. Gando would have known the situation but he’s dead. So…”

HongLu twirled his hair. “Don’t worry too much. I don’t have any evidence but Zheng’s strength rivals a cockroach. I can’t imagine him dying here. And that man, Xuan, he wouldn’t follow Zheng down without enough certainty of his plan. I believe they are still alive, probably slaughtering the remaining robots.”

The fight below was not exactly a slaughter, though Zheng was in a berserk state. Xuan pulled him back to reality with that shout but Zheng remained in the fourth stage for the following fight. He had to rely on the fourth stage to survive the attacks of these hundreds of Decepticons.

(I am reaching my limit. I have gained control over the energy within my body but still have no control over my DNA in the intermediate fourth stage. My body’s going to reach its limit if I continue to get him. DNA break down is going to be much more serious than getting crushed.) Zheng knelt on one knee and breathed heavily. The whole area was beyond recognition. Metal scraps and craters filled the floor. It looked like the area was bombarded by a sea of cannons. There was not a single flat space on the floor.

After Zheng and Xuan each killed a bunch of Decepticons, some went after Gando, and then Zheng killed another wave, only about seventy Decepticons remained. However, these were the most powerful ones. Some possessed phase shift armor, some could transform into shuttles, and there was Megatron. Any part cut off from him would transform into a mini robot which then merged back into his body upon coming close. Zheng had no way of dealing with him at the moment. The firepower from the remaining Decepticons were also strong. The two parties came to a stalemate.

(I don’t have the initiative. Even if I destroy all of them using Destruction, we still couldn’t return before the time’s up. I wonder how is Gando doing. He brought so many robots away. Can he return to the team safely? Can the team fight so many robots? Can we keep possession of the AllSpark?) Zheng jumped up. He flapped his wings and changed his direction, dodging several energy bullets by a hair. He dived at a yellow robot. Before this robot could turn around, he seized its arm and twisted it. The arm snapped with a screeching sound. Tiger’s Soul slashed from above. Its mist shredded the robot to pieces then it exploded.

(I can’t go on for any longer. The refined Qi is also empty. The Heart’s Devil will consume me again if I wield Tiger’s Soul without refined Qi. The eight flags used up too much of the refined Qi. It wouldn’t recovery by itself and needed me to accumulate. Such a troublesome energy… How is Xuan doing? He looked like he completely collapsed at the time. Is the strain from the Lambda Driver so huge?) Zheng jumped again. The spot he was standing on was immediately engulfed in a fire as the energy bullets demolished it. Several bullets still struck him despite him jumping in time. The dark flame that was protecting him wavered in the explosions.

(Blood energy is also reaching the bottom… same for Qi. Although I can still activate Explosion or Destruction for three seconds… but there’s still over half an hour left. I can only rely on this body to fight. Hope it will last until the end… Live! Everyone make it back alive!)

Zheng flapped his wings again. He was flying in a zigzag path to dodge the energy bullets. Then he took a few hits with his wings and dropped down onto a robot. He grabbed the robot’s head with his feet and twisted it off. Tiger’s Soul immediately followed.

While Zheng fought for his life beneath the ground, those above had also fallen into a difficult battle. There were over a hundred robots that broke through the plasma field created from the detonated bombs. Similar to the situation underneath, these hundred robots were the most powerful ones among the Decepticons. Furthermore, that gigantic super robot was slowly climbing itself out from the hole. Its hand swiped the ground and dispersed a large portion of the plasma field. The robot then helped its body up.

“Its too big. This robot is too fucking big. Has anyone ever seen such a gigantic robot? It definitely came from an aircraft carrier!” Kampa cried.

Over eighty percent of his shots went toward the gigantic robot’s head. Yet, these shots were as ineffective as insect bites. Its size was big enough to triggered a qualitative transformation.

The robot was visually slower than the other robots. But it crossed several hundred meters in one step. Its height reached over two thousand meters, taller than a hill. After it stepped forward, its slapped a hand toward the ground.

When the team perceived this seemingly slow attack via Psyche Scan, they realized the hand covered a hundred meter area above them. Kamp, Zero, WangXia and Heng were shocked for a moment. Then WangXia jumped on to the Sky Stick. The other three held onto the basket and they slid out from the hand by a fraction of a second. A loud thump sounded after them. The hand pressed a hole into the ground.

Kampa cried. “Fly! Don’t think and just fly! We only need to survive an hour. Fly as far as you can. We don’t need to fight this robot!”

“What about…” Zero paused for a second. “The AllSpark? What’s the point of running when we don’t have the AllSpark?”

The other three all looked to the ground. They saw YinKong running with the AllSpark on her back. She wasn’t as fast as the Sky Stick but her movement technique allowed her to run on the same speed as the flying robots. The AllSpark didn’t seem big when the Valkyrie carried it but YinKong was too small in comparison. The size of the AllSpark affected the dexterity of her movement. A volley of energy bullets in the front halted her from advancing.

Without uttering a word, Zero climbed from the basket. His eyes defocused as he entered the unlocked mode. He yelled when he came near the Sky Stick. “WangXia, swap position! The Sky Stick is faster than the robots but we don’t have to energy to maintain an hour of flight… Fight! Our only chance to survive is to wipe out these robots!”

A silence came from the other three members before they all nodded. WangXia and Zero were still connected through Soul Link. So as Zero jumped onto the Sky Stick, WangXia jumped down to the basket. Once the two swapped position, Zero controlled the Sky Stick to head down.

For some reason, the first stage unlocked through the prototype T virus was weaker in all aspects than when a person unlocked the constraint by himself. The person’s instincts, concentration, reactions and other attributes were all slightly worse. Heng had better overall physical stats than Zero but his personality might lead to mistakes in critical moments so Zero decided to take over the Sky Stick to save YinKong.

The gigantic robot exposed naval artillery sized cannons after team China boarded the Sky Stick. A hundred of these cannons spread over his body and aimed at the four people flying to save YinKong, which in turn included her in the fire area.

It was terrifying just imagining a hundred artillery pointing at you. There wasn’t even a need for a volley with cannons of that size. A single shot was powerful enough. The team had dragonshard necklaces but it was uncertain whether they could defend these attacks. Kampa and Heng fired at the robot without a second thought. Heng used the silver bow’s skill once again. A rain of energy streams flew toward the robot in a fan shape. Kampa’s RPG fired at maximum power.

The cannons fired at almost the same time team China attacked. Fortunately, the robot was only huge in size and didn’t evolve to the same degree as the remaining Decepticons. These cannons fired physical shells instead of energy bullets. Kampa shot down most of the shells in the air. The energy streams pierced through the remaining shells. The shells exploded a hundred meters away from team China. And so they defended the first attack.

Along with the explosions came a series of shockwaves. This attack had power on par with surface to surface missiles. The cyclone formed from the shockwaves nearly blew the Sky Stick off balance. Zero managed to keep the Sky Stick steady in the shockwaves. They were only thirty meters away from YinKong. WangXia was prepared to pick her up.

“Don’t come down!” YinKong suddenly yelled.

She threw the AllSpark up toward the basket. Then immediately drew her sword to to her back. Dong! The sword blocked an attack from a green robot. This robot clashed Excalibur with a shovel like weapon.

A swarm of robots continue to come out from the radiated dust. The gigantic robot was so shocking that Zero and the other three members forgot about the rest of the robots. These robots were small only in comparison with the gigantic one. The smallest one was still over five meters in height, much bigger than any of team China’s members. Furthermore, all of the robots were able to transform into flying vehicles and possessed powerful firearms. They were not as threatening as the gigantic robot but still, they were not easy to take care of.

YinKong’s words came too late. The instant WangXia caught the AllSpark, several robots jumped through the dust. Zero dodged as soon as he could but one robot managed to grab onto the basket. The Sky Stick stopped for a moment then began to drop. This robot was eight meters tall. Its weight was beyond the capacity of the Sky Stick.

Bang! The two parties fell to the ground. The robot’s reaction was as fast as those in the first stage. It jumped up from the ground almost instantaneously and slammed toward the four people with its body. This slam could wipe them out if it landed. But while it was still in the air, three arrows were flying toward its chest. The shot was ten times more powerful than the two arrow Explosive Shot. These arrows were all enchanted. The first arrow pierced through the robot’s chest. It exploded in the air, only several meters away from the team.

All four members let out a sigh of relief. Then a few energy bullets hit them before they could catch a break. Their barrier wavered under the explosions. Whether the dragonshard necklaces could withstand another round of attacks was a question.

With no time to hesitate, Zero took off on the Sky Stick again. Kampa and Heng fired at two directions with their AOE attacks. WangXia also brought out several plasma grenades. His demon energy formed into little bats. The bats carried the grenades and flew away. The grenades exploded in a blue light once they entered the dust field.

The sequence of events took place in just ten seconds. The Sky Stick had only ascended twenty meters this time. Suddenly, the sky darkened. Everyone looked up and saw the gigantic robot was stomping its foot from above. Zero immediately activated the plasma jet system and rushed out from the stomp. A loud thump occurred from behind, followed by a girl’s groan.

The strong wind blowing them during this speed prevented them from looking back. They had to perceive the situation via Psyche Scan.

YinKong was standing within the area of the stomp. She also activated the Shining but the robots around her halted her for an instant. Her lower body did not escape the stomp and was crushed along with a dozen robots next to her.

“Heng! Take control over the Sky Stick and catch me!” Zero jumped off the Sky Stick with a yell.

His Gauss sniper rifle took aim on the gigantic robot. Even though he was falling, his mind reached a calm state. The world had disappeared in his eyes, leaving behind only the gigantic robot and the lines and points drawn over its body.

The theory behind the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception was unknown much like the theory of the Lambda Driver. Neither could be explained through science. Once Zero realized the power of this ability after he exchanged it, he practiced it extensively in God’s dimension. The healing allowed him to gain expertise on the ability. That was how he managed to save Zheng at the critical moment in the Lord of the Rings. The efforts he had put into his training and his belief were the force behind his successes.
The robot in Zero’s eyes was formed by lines and points. The points were tiny and few. They were like thee stars in the night sky, flashing over the robot’s body and changing their positions. Their brightness swaps between bright and dim. It was difficult for Zero to lock onto the points. Zero had to switch to the lines as he had done the last several times he used this ability.

The lines were also moving along the robot’s body but they did not flash onto another location like the points did. So Zero had the skill to see the lines. He aimed at the path the lines were moving toward. Then bang! He pulled the trigger.

Heng’s eyes went out of focus as soon as he heard Zero’s yell. He put the silver bow on his back. He grabbed the rope tied onto the basket and jumped. There was no one controlling the Sky Stick at this moment. It leaned to the side as soon as Heng pulled the rope. With the jet system still active, the Sky Stick would collide onto the ground in less than three seconds.

Heng took a deep breath as he continued to jump up. His physical stats were pretty high at this point. Personality issues aside, he was actually strong. He also reached a higher unlock level than Zero. Thus, even when the Sky Stick was moving at an extremely high speed and leaned to the side, he still grabbed onto its edge in under a second. He pulled himself and leaped on top of it.

Zero was only twenty meters away from the ground by the time the Gauss sniper rifle roared. Three robots jumped and stretched their arms for him. If these robots grabbed him, there was no way he could live. The robots’ arms were only three meters away and then a lightning struck across. Kampa and WangXia had pulled Zero back into the basket.

A half meter hole was penetrated on the gigantic robot’s shoulder, near a non-critical part of it. Typically a hole of this size was insignificant to a robot that was two thousand meters tall, especially when it was located on a non-critical area. This damage would be a damaged fingernail on a human. Painful but harmless.

However, the gigantic robot halted from the appearance of this hole. Disintegration and break down began near the hole. And quickly, other parts of the robot also began to disintegrate. The whole robot turned into powder without any explosions in a matter of seconds. The powder fell among the radiated dust and completely disappeared.

Zero fell unconscious the moment he was retrieved back into the basket. This shot was different from training in God’s dimension. His body, mind, and soul all came together for this one shot. His concentration was heightened to an extremely high level. There was no energy left to keep him awake afterward.

The Sky Stick glided in a circle under Heng’s control then dived straight down toward where YinKong was lying. Her legs had been crushed. Anyone robot could instantly tear her up if it came close. She was defenseless. Heng was racing with time. He had to save her just like how he saved Zero using the speed of the Sky Stick.

“Wait. Move away from me. Don’t stay in front…” YinKong’s voice appeared in Heng’s mind through Soul Link.

The stomp crushed her legs but also took out all the robots that were behind her. The remaining robots were coming from her front. Strangely, a calm and quiet expression overtook the slight pain on her face. There was no sense of imminent death.

Excalibur danced on her hands. The sword and her hands gradually reached a speed invisible to the bare eyes.

“The Shining Air Wave.. Excalibur!”

Excalibur possessed a similar ability to the silver bow. It could turn energy stones into an attack when the use insert an energy stone into the hilt. YinKong discovered this characteristic by accident after the Lord of the Rings. It required five energy stones for an attack. She could activate this ability with her mind and convert the energy within the stones into light and release it in the form of a beam.

The Shining Air Wave was produced by moving her hands at an extremely high speed. If this technique was used at the same time Excalibur released its beam…

A curtain of light spread out in front of YinKong in 180 degrees. This curtain was expanding further away at a high rate. A dozen robots in the front incinerated into dust at an instant then exploded. The shock waves from the explosions added to the power of the light curtain. The curtain reached hundreds of meters away before it began to fade.

Heng, WangXia and Kampa were stunned from the sight. This attack was overwhelmingly powerful and nearly destroyed all the robots. The ones that survived were not far away from breaking. There were only two robots with Phase Shift armors still looking intact. Though their armors had lost its vibrancy.

WangXia and Kampa looked to each other then they both attacked the two robots. A series of fires struck the robots away from YinKong. They were obviously critically damaged inside the curtain of light. Otherwise, they would have charged through the firepower to kill YinKong. There was no chance for them to run. A winged bomb carrying a plasma grenade flew onto the side of a robot. Blue plasma arced over it and consumed the robot. An arrow pierced through the chest of the other robot, leaving a half meter diameter hole on its body. The robot exploded in the next instant.

“Such a difficult fought battle… We thought this world was a walk in the park. No one expected it to be so scary. We still walked on the brink of hell despite Xuan removing the majority of robots. We lost a member and even the AllSpark…” HongLu crouched on the ground and looked at the shattered AllSpark with pity.

The AllSpark was just under the gigantic robot’s stomp. The movie depicted it as an item containing unlimited energy. This trait represented its value. It would be more useful than any other quest items!

“There are no bonus missions in this movie. No points and ranked rewards for killing the gigantic robot. Nothing from killing all these robots. Nothing from launching the hydrogen bombs. Nothing from obtaining the passwords… Judging by the God’s pattern, reward equates to difficulty, which doesn’t seem logical unless the reward we can obtain in this movie is worth far more than the points and rewards… the AllSpark.” HongLu sighed as he played with the broken pieces. He couldn’t see anything special from these pieces.

The AllSpark did not explode or change after it was stomped to pieces. It broke apart like a regular metallic cube. These pieces were what constructed the AllSpark after all so team China gathered them up. ChengXiao was piercing needles into YinKong’s body with both pain and joy. He then took out his toolbox and sealed the blood vessels on the root of her legs. After he finished, he howled. “Man! It was not easy to have the opportunity to touch those beautiful legs. But… but… who would get excited over a pair of crushed legs? I think it’s going to become dysfunctional if I continue to look at them.”

A wave of air struck toward him from below. ChengXiao quickly ran away and dodged the attack. Though trousers had been cut open and the air cut a minor wound between his legs. The unique location of the wound made him cry with his heart.

YinKong ignored him after the missed attack. She lay on the ground and stared at the sky. A smog covered the sky. The radiated dust continued falling down.

“… That’s the basic situation. The difficulty of this movie surpassed my expectation. This is my fault. Or else I wouldn’t have begun the attack after four hydrogen bombs. Secondly, an increase in difficulty without any mission or killing rewards make me believe that the AllSpark’s effect must be beyond our imagination. That should be a quest item that can raise the whole team’s strength.

“As to the fate of our team, unfortunately we are in a very dangerous situation. The first danger comes from our rating. We did not lose any veterans in the previous movie, we completed a lot of bonus missions and overpowered the other teams. Thus, our rating in Go should be at a very high degree. This rating will continue to increase as long as we don’t lose people. Transformers is only the beginning. Our situation might have perhaps returned to the time when Jie was on the team. Team China will bet put in life threatening movies.

“The second danger is the consequence from having a high rating. We are likely to experience less movies than the other teams. It sounds good but when a team battle comes, we will be facing strong teams such as team Celestial and… team Devil. We are standing on the crater of a volcano. We are a trigger away from breaking apart.”

In the underground. Zheng killed all the robots then removed the seal of the eight flags. He found Xuan nearly at his last breath. There weren’t any injuries but he looked like he was eighty or ninety years old. His hair was all white and his skin wrinkled. He was dying from age.

“Then what should we do?” Zheng lay on the ground and muttered. “And are you alright? Can you make it back alive?”

Xuan calmly said. “There’s no issue lasting until we return. My situation is better than yours… We are backed into a corner. The only out we have is to keep growing stronger. There’s a limit to the difficulty God can create. If you reached the fifth stage, not even a hydrogen bomb can injure you. So keep growing… This is the only way for us to survive.”

“Is that so?” Zheng looked at the body that was breaking down. His body was collapsing at the DNA level. It wouldn’t take long before he became a pool of blood.

“Live on. All of us live on…” As he muttered, darkness overtook him and he entered the half dream half awake state.