Mystical Journey

On the other end, within the waste ruins.

Two pale yellow Mechs were surrounding Anda's standard Blackboard Mech, from the front and the back, in the middle of the main street.

"You never thought this would happen, right? It only took us three days since the Hunting Order was released to find you, but you sure run fast, little punk!" said one yellow Mech, laughing coldly.

"That woman sure is cold, to actually send the two of you to hunt me. I bet she really paid for it, huh?" Sitting inside the Mech, Anda's voice was calm, but nobody could see the sheen of sweat on his forehead now. The two extremely powerful and troublesome Willpowers were suppressing him tightly, making him unable to get away and escape. Because he knew that as soon as he moved, he would be immediately destroyed by their long-range attack!

"You offended the First Young Miss and still managed to get so far away, that makes you unprecedented. Now don't say we didn't give you a chance, since we're from the same family, you can make a move first." A cold woman's voice came from the yellow Mech behind him,

"Windling, if you get involved in a family's power struggle for succession, you won't get off easy even if you are a Level Five Guest, don't you get that?!" Anda said loudly.

"Of course I understand," replied the woman behind him. "But it was your fault for killing the Young Miss's fiance, it can't be helped that the two of us were invited out for that."

"Hehe, if I don't kill him, do I just wait for him to kill me? I have no interest in sitting around and waiting to do," Anda laughed coldly.

"Are you still trying to buy time? Give it up, those teammates of yours can barely protect themselves, do you truly think they'll have the time to rush over and help you?" said Windling calmly. "Even if you are all the prodigious elites from the Blackboard Academy's Inner Courtyard, before your potential becomes power, it is still merely potential."

"Do you still dare to kill them? The elites of the Inner Courtyard are no joke, you know."

"Kill them? Of course that's impossible, we just want them to retreat of their own accord." Before Windling finished her sentence, she abruptly drew two long silver-white pistols, and aimed one of them at Anda. "Alright, let's get this over with, quick."

Pop-pop!

There were two dull noises from the barrel of the pistols, which flew into the air and turned into two huge yellow silk webs that headed straight for Anda, threatening to engulf him.

******************

Garen carefully used something to scratch the liquid off his barrier. The metal that was covered by the acid quickly began to emit wisps of white smoke as they corroded. It was even starting to soften, turning from solid and hard to something as soft as leather.

The opponent's aim was very clear, they just wanted him to leave these ruins. The attack just now clearly used super-effective acid missiles to those ends, they had no intention of actually taking his life.

Glancing at the energy the Mech had left, he saw that there was only 52% remaining. After the long journey here, he had still had 80%, but now there was only 52% left. Evidently, this was the result of the acid missile just now as well as the high radiation levels here.

"Since you want me to leave here, there must be an untold secret here in these ruins. Either that, or... they want us to split up from someone in the team, breaking up our formation so we act separately." Using the answer from before, Garen instantly came up with two ideas. "And the opponent has no killing intent, which must mean they know our team's identity. In that case, the second option would be highly likely."

"Garen, you there?" Suddenly, Linda's voice came from above.

Garen turned around, and saw Linda slowly letting her Mech descend from the sky above him and to the side. "I finally found you guys, Aves has already run here. He was also attacked by an acid missile, they don't want to kill us, it's more like they want to chase us away. After I contacted Aves, his Mech was running really low on energy, so I told him to go back first."

"Do you know who attacked us?" asked Garen in a low voice.

"I don't know, but... I went to Captain Anda's location, but I couldn't find him. I just noticed that there were marks on the ground indicating he was attacked by missiles, evidently the people attacking us did not use acid missiles against the Captain," said Linda, somewhat worriedly.

Garen narrowed his eyes, slightly surprised that Linda could find all three of them within such a short period of time. After all, the interference here was through the roof, the sensors on the Mech were practically disabled, so they could only rely on their own sense of direction.

But everyone had their own secrets, those who dared to accept this quest and come out here would all be above average characters. After all, the radiation belt was not somewhere regular pilots would simply agree to enter.

"What do you suggest?" Garen thought about it, and asked quietly.

"I suspect that they're trying to separate us from the Captain. Their true aim, should be Captain Anda!" said Linda softly. It went without saying that both of them knew that Anda was also an alias.

"What I mean is, since this is Captain Anda's own problem, we should just let him settle it himself. After all, this is his private matter."

"Is that what you think?" Garen's voice was calm.

"Of course."

"Then let's wait outside for now." Garen had no intention of interfering with Anda's personal matters either. And he was not worried about those attackers, he was more concerned with that feeling of discomfort he got from these ruins.

The two Mechs slowly rose into the air, one after the other, and flew towards the outskirts of the ruins.

Barroom!!

Suddenly there was an intense explosion in the distance, and they could vaguely hear Anda's angry howl, like that of an injured beast.

"Looks like Captain's having a hard time..." Linda stopped her Mech slowly, staying suspended in mid-air.

"What do you want to do?" As soon as Garen spoke, he saw Linda dash towards the source of the sound.

He hesitated for a moment in mid-air, but in the end Garen quickly followed her.

*****************

"Endless!"

"!" The Yellow Mech was like a peacock with its tail feathers open, instantly shooting out several dozen or even up to a hundred white laser rays from its back. Each of these lasers was as thick as a finger, and they covered the sky as they turned and pounced at Anda.

On the other end, the Yellow Mech Windling was watching coldly, her arms crossed.

Psst-psst-psst!

Countless laser rays pierced through the surrounding buildings, and rushed out towards Anda from the ground in all directions.

Anda quickly took flight, and as he performed a series of movements to avoid them, he also constantly shot out many high-powered ray gun lasers, to neutralize the many white laser rays. Even so, he was still hit occasionally, and kept groaning out in pain.

"Endless!" He also released an explosion of countless white lasers, but these lasers were nowhere near as bright as his opponent's.

Just now, he had used this same move to fight against the opponent, but unfortunately he had failed. Be it in their Willpower, special techniques, or their skill in their killing moves, or even how well they matched their Mechs, Anda was at the disadvantage.

This time, the many white lasers he released neutralized most of the opponent's similar white lasers, but some of them still hit Anda's Mech's shoulders, sizzling on contact.

With a bang, he crashed into the ground, his back leaning against the buildings on one side of the street.

"Give it up, and hand over the map, we'll make it painless for you," said Windling emotionlessly from the side.

"Hehe, if you want it, come get it yourself," replied Anda with a cold laugh.

"Foolish." Windling straightened up, and shook out her joints. Whoosh!

Four metallic silver thorns appeared from her back suddenly, sparkling in the light like a fan. The Mech's hands reached back and pulled out two silver thorns, then she began to walk towards Anda slowly.

Beside them, the other Mech wisely chose to stop attacking, and instead let the two of them go one-on-one.

In that second, Windling's steps suddenly crossed, and she slid, ending up beside Anda. The thorns in her hands pierced at Anda's waist like an illusion, and her whole Mech body left a series of shadows as the other thorn stabbed towards the head of Anda's Mech.

And by then, the speed of Anda's Mech had been reduced considerably, it seemed to be far slower than it had been.

Just then, Garen and Linda were already nearby. Seeing this scene, Garen's heart was slightly shaken. This Windling was actually also a real-life Level Five powerhouse. To normal people, a Level Five powerhouse was truly a peak-level pilot, and they usually could only barely see one once every few years. To think Garen bumped into a new Level Five powerhouse so soon on his excursion.

And this one was not sent here by the Academy.

He had seen the way she fought, and knew that this Yellow Mech had clearly undergone countless battles. She evidently had an unnatural level of fighting experience, there was no hesitation whatsoever in her movements. They were fast, merciless, precise.

"The two of you, please turn back for now. We're handling personal matters here." Just then, a man's voice came from behind Garen and Linda.

The two of them turned around, and saw that a Yellow Mech had appeared there without them knowing. "We are the subordinates of the Thousand Year Tree, Lord Donnie Largewood, here to settle some private grievances with your captain, Anda. I ask for your kind cooperation."

"Higher-ups from Thousand Year Tree, huh? Donnie Largewood..." Garen knew this person, he had the same status as Britney in Blue Narcissus, and was also a famous peak-level higher-up among the Thousand Year Trees. In a group like the Thousand Year Trees, anyone who could reach a high position surely fought their way up with their true power.

"Anda has an important item needed for our quest, and you were the ones who attacked us first, isn't that a bit too much?" Linda replied loudly.

But by then, Garen had vaguely sensed that more Mechs were beginning to surround the two of them, the other side was just trying to buy time!

He and Linda exchanged a glance through the intercom, and at almost exactly the same time, just as the other side was going to reply, the two of them yelled simultaneously.

"Do it!!"

Psst!!

A small and delicate white dagger instantly flew out of Linda's hand, and abruptly pierced the back of Garen's waist.

Garen was just stepping forward and getting ready to dash, pulling out a long black blade with his right hand at lightning speeds. He slashed straight down at the opponent's head, his speed instantly reaching the limits of this Mech.

But he never thought that Linda, who was behind him, would instantly ambush him!

"You?!??"

"Die!!" Linda's dagger abruptly emitted some blue light, and became even faster, as though she was holding a blinding ball of blue light, that she smashed towards the side of Garen's Mech.

There was a sizzling sound.

Garen turned around, and somehow managed to pull back in the unlikeliest situation. If it was anyone else, they would not be able to pull back under the influence of such explosive momentum, but Garen did it. That was how powerful his Ten Thousand True Technique was as a combat skill, as the final combination of all his martial arts, and added to his true Level Five power that he did not completely unleash yet, he could only reach the surface of Level Four Willpower.

Moving instantly, one of Garen's hands turning into a fierce fist, crashing into Linda's cockpit. He was actually going for the kill in exchange for getting injured himself!