The air in the Fallen Forest was thick with the acrid stench of scorched flesh and burning fuel. What was once a sacred woodland now resembled a ruin trampled by iron hooves.
"Regroup! Do not break formation!"
A surviving enforcement priest screamed in terror, his staff trembling violently. Around him, the once-arrogant knightly order had been decimated. Two consecutive waves of suicide drone strikes had utterly shattered their pride as "Warriors of God."
Vrrr—
A low, subtle mechanical hum resonated from the deep mist.
The dozen remaining knights stood back-to-back, their golden 『Holy Link』 formation flickering wildly under the aftershocks of the explosions. Suddenly, a black blur tore through the fog, moving at a speed that defied the limits of the human eye.
"On the left!" a knight roared, swinging his blade. But his sword froze mid-air.
Su Zhe appeared before him like a specter, the hydraulic pistons of the Black Panther exoskeleton gleaming with a ghostly blue light beneath carbon-fiber plates. Su Zhe didn't use a gun. Instead, he balled his fist and delivered a plain, straightforward punch.
BANG!
Under the extreme burst of the Black Panther-V2's hydraulic assist, this single punch erupted with nearly a ton of impact force. The knight's steel breastplate buckled instantly. He was sent flying like he'd been hit by a high-speed train, crashing through two massive trees behind him before his internal organs gave way. He died instantly.
[System Sarcasm: Host, that was a bit overkill. I suggest saving 15% of your hydraulic thrust next time. After all, your goal is to kill them, not turn them into two-dimensional paper cutouts.]
"Shut up. I'm still getting a feel for the handling," Su Zhe replied coldly. He flicked his wrist, and the High-Frequency Vibrating Wrist-Blade snapped out. The air around the edge distorted into visible ripples from the sheer intensity of the vibrations.
"Die, heretic!" Three knights launched a simultaneous 『Holy Thrust』.
Su Zhe's retina display locked on instantly: [Ballistic analysis complete. Initiating evasive compensation.]
To the knights, Su Zhe's figure blurred for a fraction of a second and vanished. In the next moment, he had already cut into their defensive gap. The vibrating blade swept across in a horizontal arc. The silver armor, reputed to withstand powerful magic, was as fragile as parchment before the blade. Three heads soared into the air, the severed necks as smooth as glass.
"A demon... he's a demon clad in iron!" The survivors finally broke.
"ENOUGH!"
A thunderous roar shook the forest as a beam of blinding holy light pierced the clouds. A middle-aged man in dark red robes, his eyes covered by a black blindfold, descended from the sky—Inquisitor-General Morian of the Inquisition.
"A mere mortal body, daring to pilfer forbidden alchemical armaments," Morian raised his ruby-encrusted staff. "Under the Light of Judgment, turn to ash!"
Vast amounts of light elements converged into a ten-meter-long golden blade—the Fifth-Tier High Divine Art: 『Sword of Judgment』. It swung down toward Su Zhe with crushing force!
Su Zhe looked up, his exoskeleton's hydraulics let out a high-load roar. With a wave of his hand, his points were instantly deducted.
Brilliant blue plasma erupted from his left arm, solidifying into a translucent honeycomb energy shield.
[Exchange Item: 『APS-4 Composite Ionic Defense Shield (Man-Portable)』. Consumed: 800 Points.]
- Property: Uses strong magnetic fields to trap high-density ionized gas. It forcibly disrupts the frequency of "pure energy strikes," causing them to undergo thermodynamic collapse upon contact.
Simultaneously, four magazines with dark red spiral patterns popped out from his tactical rig.
[Exchange Item: 『Mk-12 Tungsten-Alloy High-Explosive Incendiary Armor-Piercing (HEIAP) Rounds』 x40. Consumed: 400 Points.]
- Performance: Features an RDX explosive core and zirconium incendiary agent. Upon penetration, it triggers a secondary explosion and a molten metal jet.
[System Sarcasm: Ionic shield active. Friendly reminder: if your angle of entry is off by even 0.5 degrees, that giant sword will slice through you and your shield like a hot knife through butter. I hope you didn't fail your math classes.]
Su Zhe looked at the ballistic prediction on his HUD, accurate to three decimal places. A cruel smile touched his lips.
"Angle locked. Full power!"
BOOM—!
Blue flames erupted from the ankle thrusters. Su Zhe turned into a streak of black lightning, soaring upward with his translucent blue ionic shield held high, colliding head-on with the ten-meter golden Sword of Judgment!
The resulting flash of light instantly swallowed the entire forest.