Chapter 27: The Battle of Space City (II)
The physical structure of the Ice Butterfly had already become different from that of ordinary and advanced Ice Butterflies… it was even more unlike a human.
Shooting through its body and heart wouldn’t guarantee a quick kill.
When Rong Mi had just fired, he was half-hoping that it might succeed, and also testing the Ice Butterfly’s personality and strength.
He was far from the Ice Butterfly, so it would definitely notice the flash of energy before the energy flow reached it.
He deliberately controlled his spiritual power to explode at the last moment, just to make the Ice Butterfly lower its guard, abandon evasion and defense, and simply reach out to block.
One strike didn’t kill the Ice Butterfly, but he had a general understanding of its temperament and attack speed.
Rong Mi showed no sign of frustration on his face, and with his left hand, which wasn’t holding the gun, he pressed the communicator.
“How is it, General? Didn’t I tell you there’s no problem?” Rong Mi said. “Just let me get the mech out…”
The energy grooves around the starship lit up, and the defense shield was activated, attaching itself to the surface of the starship.
The recent shot, and the fact that the starship didn’t engage in any defense when the Ice Butterfly launched an attack, leaving Rong Mi to face it alone, were all requests made by the young man.
“Was that shot accurate?…”
“Is my spiritual power strong enough?…”
“Pull your spiritual power back and focus on organizing the battle. I’ll hold it off and stop it from causing any more destruction in Space City… Don’t worry! I’m holding your A-class standard mech, not some garbage C-class mech from a competition. I can’t kill it… but stalling for a while is no problem… This Ice Butterfly has probably just leveled up, it’s still young.”
Inside the starship, all the mech engineers waiting in the prep cabin for orders said nothing. They had never heard anyone describe an Ice Butterfly as “young.”
The upgrading process for an Ice Butterfly took an incredibly long time. From an ordinary Level 1 Ice Butterfly to an Ice Butterfly, it took at least a century.
It wasn’t young at all!
However, this description wasn’t the most baffling part of Rong Mi’s words.
Above Space City, a highly dangerous humanoid Ice Butterfly appeared.
Team One had only a small number of people, not suitable for a swarm tactic.
And Ice Butterflies weren’t the kind of species that could be taken down with a swarm tactic.
They hadn’t exited the cabin immediately because they had to follow Lu Yi’s instructions, cooperating with the starship’s attack, without rushing in one by one and recklessly breaking formation. Otherwise, it would be one after another falling.
But what did Rong Mi just say?
To hold off the Ice Butterfly alone?
The key was… he didn’t seem to be speaking nonsense!
Because when the alarm sounded inside the starship, Rong Mi immediately grabbed the heavy machine gun from the weapon wall in the prep cabin, aimed at the distant Ice Butterfly, and requested that the hatch be opened to allow for a sniper shot.
That distance.
And the Ice Butterfly’s remarkable defense.
All the mech engineers thought he was joking.
When Lu Yi ordered the hatch to be opened, they didn’t understand why the general made that decision.
But soon after, Rong Mi showed them with his actions that he never spoke in vain.
He took responsibility for every word he said.
The main ship of Team One continued to ascend, and the warning lights around the starship flashed rapidly, sending a warning to Space City below.
Inside Space City, chaos erupted as residents hurriedly hid in underground defense layers.
During the one-minute standard evacuation time, the starship couldn’t fire recklessly.
Lu Yi walked out of the command room above the cockpit and entered the main cannon weapons room, gesturing for the original operator to move to the auxiliary cannon weapons room. He then removed the helmet connected to the main cannon.
The general’s gaze fell on the distant advanced Ice Butterfly, no larger than a needlepoint.
A faint glow surrounded him, and his ice-blue eyes, as they intensely used his ability, turned into a mysterious silver.
After the previous clash, the spiritual energy and ice snow in Space City had almost completely vanished.
But after Rong Mi collided with the Ice Butterfly, the silver spiritual energy expanded again, forming ice crystals that surrounded the advanced Ice Butterfly.
The wings of the Ice Butterfly emitted a faint red glow.
The surface of the ice crystals slowly melted under the light but continuously reformed.
Rong Mi: “One minute of evacuation time, I’m fine. Lu Yi…”
“Go.” Lu Yi uttered one word.
Rong Mi: “Okay!”
The young man tossed aside the machine gun, grabbed the metal chain of the mech space button from his collar.
In the sky, Rong Mi leaped out of the starship.
The black military-standard mech appeared in midair, and the cockpit opened, enveloping the young man.
The mech’s engine roared violently, and Rong Mi swiftly donned the helmet, with the immense retro-thrust halting the descending mech.
The next second, the black mech suddenly accelerated, its arm platform ignited, spiritual energy grooves burning, and the long-range particle gun in his hand shone brightly.
The ice crystals around the Ice Butterfly dissolved from top to bottom in the wind, creating a path for Rong Mi’s attack. The silver spiritual energy expanded again, forming a floating light belt in the city, separating the residents who were still hurriedly evacuating from the battle above.
Behind Rong Mi, the hatch of the starship was closing. Just before it fully closed, a silver phantom flashed through the gap, following the mech out of the ship.
The silver wolf’s fur was blown backward by the wind.
Its movements were precise and agile. At high speed, it accurately landed on the mech’s shoulder.
The wolf’s claws dug into the gap on the mech’s shoulder, steadying itself.
Its ice-blue eyes locked on the distant enemy hovering in the air.
Rong Mi: “…Ah Yin?!”
Lu Yi: “Ah Yin is a battle pet.”
He didn’t order the wolf to join the fight; the wolf had followed Rong Mi on its own.
Lu Yi: “Let it go.”
“Ah Yin’s spiritual power can be used… but be careful, don’t overload it! Plus, it hasn’t even fully recovered in size yet…” Rong Mi shouted, “Want to fight? Let’s go! You’re so irresponsible letting the wolf roam free like this! How about you let me take care of it from now on…”
While speaking, the mech didn’t slow down, but instead rapidly charged toward the Ice Butterfly.
Because when he exited the starship, the battle had already begun.
“Ah Yin, lie down!” Rong Mi called out. “The wind is strong outside…”
The mech was traveling at absolute speed. The silver wolf crouched, wedging itself into a gap in the mech’s shoulder, avoiding the harsh wind.
The retinal image still held the distant silhouette of the Ice Butterfly, which was dodging the strike of the particle gun.
In the spiritual domain’s view, the shape of the Ice Butterfly blurred, no longer in its original position.
It was coming fast.
Rong Mi vaguely heard the buzzing sound of butterfly wings vibrating in the air.
The mech’s right arm guard flared open, and the particle gun was instantly retracted under the guard.
At the same time, Rong Mi’s left hand drew a long knife from his back.
The high-hardness long knife was engulfed in purple spiritual fire and slashed downward…
Clang!
A loud metallic clash.
Human eyes finally caught the Ice Butterfly’s movement.
It appeared in front of Rong Mi, one arm raised to block the attack. The other arm reached forward, grabbing the knife’s blade.
The Ice Butterfly’s clothes had been shredded in the earlier battle. The human-like arms it simulated were pale, but its skin was covered in a thin metallic-like membrane, reflecting the light of the long knife.
The long knife left no mark on its arm.
But the flames from the knife spread outward, burning fiercely on its arm.
“It hurts,” the Ice Butterfly said, “Your spiritual power is so strong. Ordinary humans can’t have this much attack power.”
It stared at Rong Mi, its tone sinister: “…Who are you?”
Of course, Rong Mi wasn’t foolish enough to chat with the Ice Butterfly.
He looked ahead and muttered to himself, “The energy intensity of this Ice Butterfly is lower than I expected. Probably because it just leveled up?”
Even so, fighting the Ice Butterfly with just a mech wasn’t going to be easy.
Rong Mi saw that both of the Ice Butterfly’s arms were melting, but as its skin on both sides of its torso shifted, new arms suddenly broke through from below.
Then came the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth…
Its wings’ red veins seemed like tattoos, converging toward its waist and abdomen, producing the ninth and tenth arms that Rong Mi had just melted.
These were the insect limbs of the Ice Butterfly.
Its palms pressed together, and red poison glands extended from its fingertips, wrapping toward the mech.
Rong Mi’s long knife slashed in an arc, whistling through the high-speed air, severing the poison glands and striking at the Ice Butterfly’s arm.
The Ice Butterfly’s arms split open, evading the purple flames, leaning forward to close the distance between itself and the mech, pulling out of the range of the long knife’s attack.
It reached out with ten arms toward the mech’s abdomen, where the cockpit was located.
Its pale fingers touched the mech’s metal surface, and with several sharp sounds, the armor plates were punctured…
At that moment, the silver wolf leapt into action.
Still in its juvenile form, the wolf was small, but its leap was impressive relative to its size. However, in terms of the maximum distance achievable by either the mech or the Ice Butterfly in one second, it wasn’t far at all.
But the distance between the Ice Butterfly and the mech was so close.
Both sides were moving at high speeds, and the opportunity was fleeting. The silver wolf dug its claws into the Ice Butterfly’s back. The force came suddenly from its back!
The wolf managed to hold it steady for only half a second, but it was enough.
Its wings folded inward, separating its body from the flames and emitting a glaring red light, blocking Rong Mi’s blade and twisting it into two segments at the center.
The mech advanced instead of retreating, with the gun barrels on both arms popping out simultaneously, firing at full power before the butterfly wings had fully closed.
The young man controlled the mech, twisting direction at high frequency in the design, as the poison glands extending outward from the butterfly’s wings flared up. He yelled, “Ah Yin, come back!”
The silver wolf leaped from the shattered head of the Ice Butterfly, soaring through the last narrow gap before the butterfly wings completed their encirclement, and landed on the mech’s outstretched arm.
Rong Mi quickly shoved the silver wolf into the mech’s embrace, abandoning his attack the moment the butterfly wings closed. He pushed the mech’s defensive energy to its maximum, pouring his spiritual power into the mech’s defense system.
“Boom!…”
The butterfly wings wrapped around the shape of the sub-butterfly, forming a glaring red sphere. Thousands of red beams shot out from the sphere, attacking Rong Mi’s mech and causing the mech’s defense shield and Rong Mi’s spiritual barrier to vanish in an instant.
In the briefest moment, the mech’s cockpit alarm blared with a deadly warning of shell damage.
Rong Mi gritted his teeth and quickly rebuilt his spiritual barrier. The impact of the sub-butterfly’s spiritual power had drained it, but he quickly restored it.
It was during this moment of energy explosion that Rong Mi’s mech, propelled by high-speed energy, distanced itself from the sub-butterfly.
But in the intervals of repeatedly rebuilding his spiritual shield, the outer shell of Rong Mi’s mech was being eroded and melted by the Ice Butterfly’s spiritual power.
The alarms inside the cockpit were practically maddening, and Rong Mi simply turned off all the alert systems. Sweat trickled down his forehead as his palm pressed against the mech’s control panel, murmuring, “Fortunately, it’s a Class 3 mech…”
He hovered in the void, silver wolf peeking out from the defensive zone formed by the crossed arms of the mech.
The wolf: “Awooo…!”
A faint silver moon appeared in the sky. The falling light bathed the red sphere, trying to encase it in ice. However, the ice shell formed for only an instant before being shattered by the spread butterfly wings.
In the shifting red light, the incomplete body of the sub-butterfly emerged, half of its face shattered and still being scorched by purple flames.
“Vroom!” The Ice Butterfly let out an angry roar. The already bright red light on its wings became even more dazzling, nearly impossible to look at directly, accompanied by a terrifying surge of energy, charging straight at Rong Mi!
The mech did not retreat.
Rong Mi quickly glanced at the remaining energy in the mech and opened the chest panel.
The main cannon, already fully charged, extended outward.
“Ah Yin, good job.” The young man stared ahead, closing the defensive energy valve and funneling all the remaining energy into the main cannon.
“This is exactly what I needed, for it to open its wings in anger and launch a desperate attack…”
…So that the main ship’s high-power artillery can unleash its maximum power!
Rong Mi poured all his remaining spiritual power into the mech.
A purple mist floated on the black armor of the mech. The flowing mist gathered toward the main cannon’s barrel, and as the energy flowed from the cannon, it merged into it…
The Ice Butterfly’s crimson was like an ominous, false sun.
The bright purple was the sharp arrow of the shooting sun.
In the moment of collision above Space City, the entire city, suspended in space, trembled violently.
The two attacks dispersed in the air.
After the blast, the intense red on the sub-butterfly’s wings dimmed slightly.
Behind Rong Mi, an incredibly dazzling silver light flickered.
The one-minute evacuation time ended, and Space City was evacuated.
The main cannon of Team One’s medium-sized flagship finished charging, and the firepower was fully opened.
Lu Yi personally operated the main cannon. He withdrew all his spiritual power, originally used to shield Space City, and injected it into the cannon.
The icy, snow-like spiritual energy could burn into flames, turning into flowing light.
The moonlight stacked infinitely, becoming even more dazzling than daylight.
Below Space City, the buildings and the ground began to melt under the attack from the main cannon, strengthened by hundreds of times the spiritual energy. The air vaporized, distorting the scenery with unreal water-like ripples. The entire Space City was illuminated by silver light.
The light rose from behind Rong Mi.
At the same time, the bright color on the mech’s shell completely extinguished.
“Beep… Mech energy remaining less than 0.1%… Main engine shutdown… First auxiliary engine shutdown… Second auxiliary engine shutdown…”
The black mech plummeted to the ground. Rong Mi had exhausted all his spiritual power and couldn’t perform any operations, letting the mech fall.
But his face showed little panic, only Lu Yi’s sense of relief, knowing he had seized the opportunity.
No wonder he was promoted to General!
The battle situation changed too quickly. Though Rong Mi wanted to deplete the sub-butterfly’s energy, in the previous high-speed battle, he hadn’t had the chance to notify Lu Yi in advance to coordinate with his strategy.
But Lu Yi understood.
Rong Mi was no longer worried about the mech’s crash.
Because he heard the rumbling of the starship approaching.
And the voice of the General from the communicator.
“The emergency docking track above the starship has risen. The orbit has been captured.” Lu Yi’s voice was calm but hoarse, clearly bearing a heavy burden after operating the starship’s main cannon, “Rong Mi, initiate reverse thrust.”
All the military mechs used the last bit of their energy for this emergency docking.
The steel plates on the mech’s shoulder retracted inward, exposing a groove that connected with the starship’s docking apparatus above.
The already-dead engines at the mech’s feet started spinning, generating reverse thrust to slow the mech down.
The docking track released a restraining cable to bring the mech to a full stop.
Meanwhile, the mech battalion on the side spread outward.
Rong Mi’s breath quickened as he heard Lu Yi’s voice on the communicator.
“Well done.”
“We’ll take over the battle.”
The General paused for a moment before continuing, “After you exit the mech, go to the medical room for a routine spiritual domain check.”
Rong Mi replied, “Don’t worry about me. You take care of your own spiritual domain.”
He knew that as the commander and leader of the team, Lu Yi couldn’t stop the fight.
The young man took a deep breath, pushing away the rising worry in his mind, and relaxed his body and mood to recover his spiritual power as quickly as possible.
The docking track above the docking area retracted, closing the passage. However, Rong Mi suddenly felt something was wrong.
“…Where’s Ah Yin?” The young man jumped out of the mech’s cockpit, looking around.
The fluffy wolf, which had been coordinating the battle with him, was nowhere to be seen.
A sense of unease stirred within Rong Mi as he quickly looked up. He saw a small bundle of silver wolf fur gazing downward from the closing passage, its fur flying in the wind.
When the mech entered the starship along the docking track, the wolf had left the mech’s body and landed on the starship’s exterior, not following Rong Mi inside.
The wolf’s ice-blue eyes met Rong Mi’s for a brief moment.
It confirmed that Rong Mi had safely entered the starship and wasn’t injured. It then turned away from the starship, lifted its head, and gazed toward the distant enemy, a glow appearing by its side.
Rong Mi: “…”
If it were the larger silver wolf, the scene would have been incredibly cool.
Actually, the young wolf looked cool too.
But right now, Rong Mi just wanted to grab the fluffy creature and give it a good scolding.
…The wolf had just used its claws to tear through the Ice Butterfly’s body, its front paws stained a deep crimson, with both the Ice Butterfly’s blood and the wolf’s own.
Its claws had been corroded by the Ice Butterfly’s blood, badly injured.
Not to mention, the spiritual energy it used to freeze the sub-butterfly had already exceeded the limit of what it could recover from.
…But the wolf didn’t care about that at all, its mind focused solely on fighting.
Rong Mi: “…”
Rong Mi couldn’t climb the retractable track to pry open the passage and drag the wolf back down.
Nor could he stop the wolf from using its spiritual power without catching it.
The battle outside was at a standstill, and without being by the wolf’s side, restricting its abilities would put it in danger.
So, he could only curse inwardly as he hurried toward the starship’s medical room.
Rong Mi: Drink a few bottles of spiritual power supplements! He could still fight that garbage sub-butterfly for eight hundred more rounds!