The Legendary Mechanic

Outside the Psionic Seal Ring, Han Xiao and Viru floated in the cosmic space. A spaceship was looking there from not very far away.

The spaceship carried Clotti and the other Beyond Grade As, as well as Ames, Aesop, and the rest who had arrived later.

"It's been a long time, Aesop," that Ancient Ones member greeted with a fake smile.

"Ravenlaude, you're still alive," Aesop replied.

"Ever since you were kicked out of the Ancient Ones, I have yet to hear from you. So, it turns out you went to the most rural area, the Shattered Star Ring. Why, you couldn't make a living in any other Star Fields?" Ravenlaude said with a mocking tone.

"You've lived so long that your memories are failing you. Why do I remember that I left the Ancient Ones?" Aesop gave him a faint glance.

Among the Ancient Ones, Aesop did not have a good relationship with this person.

Back when Aesop left the Ancient Ones, other than because he did not want this title to prevent him from looking for trouble, it was also because he did not have a good relationship with some of the other members. As a powerful Oracle, he did not like to use his ability for unrelated people. When the times he rejected them started to pile up, it became the source of their conflict.

Ames did not know anyone, so she stood at the side and watched alone.

This was a chance to observe Black Star's strength. Other than Clotti, who was not very interested, everyone else was focused and looked forward to the two of them to start the fight.

They knew how strong Viru was; his combat capability had been tested countless times through battle. Therefore, the only question was—how long could Black Star hold on?

They had heard that Black Star had the 'Indestructible Body' nickname and that the toughness of his physical body seemed to be on par with the Tyrant's. They wondered if he would be able to stop Viru's sky splitting blade.

Han Xiao activated his mechanical suit. The helmet covered his face and hid his expression. Then, he opened the secondary dimension gate. The mechanical army swarmed out and filled the battlefield instantly.

Quite a lot, but in front of me, these are all minions. Viru snorted in his mind. His muscle violently expanded, and a light blue flame burned on the surface of his body.

A surging flame concentrated on his palm and kept extending, forming a hundreds-of-meters-long blue energy sword so dense that it almost looked like it had a physical form.

Pugilists had different branches. The War Soldier Branch focused on fighting with blades, but it was different from being a Mechanical Pugilist. Mechanical Pugilists completely relied on weapons to fight and used Mechanical Force to enhance their weapons, while Pugilists only used weapons to better their own skills. Their damage source was still their own Pugilist flame.

With a deep breath, the flames gushed into the hundreds of meters long blade. Viru slashed multiple times consecutively. Blue blades of light shot out and created empty areas within the formation of the mechanical army. The power of those blades of light dropped as they destroyed mechanical soldiers, from completely shattering the first ones to only heavily damaging the ones after.

Han Xiao immediately activated various bonus abilities and controlled his mechanical army to join him in the battle.

Viru was surrounded by tons of mechanical soldiers. His sword danced so quickly that it formed a sphere. Blades of light continuously shot out from it and destroyed the formation of the mechanical soldiers, causing tremendous damage. It was as if a tornado had appeared in the cosmic space.

As the combat information kept refreshing, Han Xiao tutted in his mind. This guy's damage is indeed high. Maybe even Heber is weaker in this respect.

Compared to Heber's heavy and firm offense, Viru mainly focused on swiftness and sharpness. His area attacks were not bad, and his individual target damage was even more horrifying. Earlier, when colossal defense-focused Giant Soldier turned its shield to full capacity in an attempt to stop Viru's attack, Viru still easily slashed it in two without stopping.

Nonetheless, Han Xiao did not randomly pick this opponent. Viru's attack damage was indeed high, but he was inferior compared to Heber in one aspect… his tankiness!

Although this guy was also a Pugilist and had a ton of damage reduction talents, he did not have a very essential core tanky talent… he was not immune to True Damage!

Viru had a fifty-percent True Damage reduction talent, which was way weaker than True Damage Immunity. True Damage was still much more terrifying than normal damage even when halved!

When comparing Heber and Viru, Han Xiao could only fight head-on with the former, but for the latter, he just so happened to be the type of enemy Han Xiao indirectly countered!

The blades of light shot out in all directions. The mechanical army formation took quite a lot of damage, so the mechanical army dealt with it by spreading and attacking from further distances.

Under the focus fire of psionic cannons, Viru's blade formed a complete sphere. He used a certain ability, turning the blades of light around him into a special kind of shield, blocking most of the psionic attacks. The explosions were blocked by the sphere of light.

However, the mechanical army was too large, and their attacks were too concentrated. Viru's defense could not stop all of them. Occasionally, psionic attacks would pass through the blade shield and land on his body, shaking his protective energy flames.

Feeling the obliteration of the cells in his body, the look in Viru's eyes changed.

So powerful… prolonged battles are not suitable for me. I need to attack his physical body.

Having realized that, Viru's energy flame vibrated. The shield around his body expanded and turned into an impact wave, blowing away the mechanical soldiers around him.

Then, he held his sword backhand. His entire body turned into a blue phantom and charged toward Han Xiao, leaving countless afterimages behind. When he reached the frontline of the mechanical army, he turned from holding his sword backhand to front hand, striking forward. It was like all the afterimages were concentrated on this attack.

Star Slasher Style Technique—Blade Shadow!

Thousands of blades of light erupted at the same time and spread outward in all directions, instantly shattering the formation of the mechanical army in one direction and penetrating many layers of defenses. The shattered mechanical parts splashed everywhere.

Han Xiao immediately clenched his fist. Blue-gold Mechanical Force shot out from the Void Dimension, grabbing all the parts like a lightning net and connecting them together.

[Waste Modification]!

[Advanced Machinery Construction]!

The shattered parts became mechanical soldiers again.

However, in just this short instant, Viru disappeared. As if he had teleported, he passed through the layers of defenses and appeared right in front of Han Xiao. The sword in his hand returned to normal size from hundreds of meters long. With the more concentrated Pugilist energy sword in his hand, he slashed right down!

"It's not my first time fighting a Mechanic," Viru said with an expressionless face. It was not a secret that Mechanics had the Waste Modification ability. Being very experienced, he knew that a Mechanic would definitely use it. Using that opportunity, he used a special mobility ability and instantly got close to Han Xiao. He was a Pugilist focused on speed, so he had more ways of closing the distance than Heber.

Swoosh!

The blade slashed right through Han Xiao's body without any resistance, as if it had cut him in half. However, Viru did not feel like he had slashed through anything. His expression changed instantly.

The halved 'Han Xiao' suddenly disappeared. His real body was little more than ten meters away.

Earlier, Han Xiao had used some kind of illusion device and misguided Viru's senses. Deceiving a Beyond Grade A Pugilist who could lock the target with his energy was very difficult, but this special illusion device was one of the high-level machines that Han Xiao had built that could be used in Beyond Grade A battles. It could create an illusion that perfectly simulated even his own energy presence, and it had a quite long cooldown.

Having missed one attack, Viru's movement did not stop. He turned and attacked another time, quicker and swifter. His blade extended and slashed onto Han Xiao's chest like a whip.

Star Slasher Style Technique—Whip Slash!

This attack was initially targeted at Han Xiao's chest, but Viru changed its direction and targeted Han Xiao's head.

However, Han Xiao's response shocked him—he did not dodge at all and went toward it directly.

The blade cut Han Xiao's mechanical suit right open, slashing across his forehead. Blood gushed down from his head.

Viru was shocked. Before he could withdraw his blade, he saw Han Xiao grab onto his arm like he was completely unharmed and punched right onto his chest.

Boom!

The vibration echoed in Viru's body. Tons of cells were destroyed and quickly born through Viru's energy. As the process repeated, he felt a strong pain in his body.

[Machinery Apostilization] and [Mechanical Force—Emperor's Power] gave Han Xiao a lot of attributes, so his attacks were much stronger.

Then, Han Xiao's bloody wound recovered right under Viru's nose. The nanoparticles of the mechanical suit fixed the broken part as well.

This recovery speed… Viru's pupils constricted.

This time, the mechanical army behind Viru turned their barrels and fired at the two of them.

Just as Viru was about to back away, two enhanced Oathkeepers appeared beside Han Xiao and held him back.

With a swing of his blade, he slashed an Oathkeeper's body but met a tremendous force of resistance. He could not cut it in half with one slash. The blue-gold Mechanical Force flashed inside the wounds of these two Oathkeepers.

These two Oathkeepers were elite mechanical soldiers that had received bonuses from the [Emperor's Gift]. Even Beyond Grade As would not be able to destroy them in just one attack.

Unable to break the Oathkeepers into pieces in one slash, Viru reacted quickly and hastily blew them away with an energy impact wave. However, he was attacked by the Oathkeepers at the same time. Psionic cannon shots landed on his chest, and his movement paused for an instant again.

The psionic cannon fired from behind him. Chains of shots landed on his back. Viru was not willing to give up on the opportunity of being able to attack Han Xiao at such a close distance, so he released a defensive shield behind him that barely blocked the focus fire for an instant before attacking Han Xiao violently.

The battlefield left its original area and kept shifting.

The two of them fought at close range. Viru's blade slashed through Han Xiao's body time after time, cutting away parts of his mechanical suit and his flesh again and again. However, he recovered at a visible speed, and his wounds healed in seconds.

The longer Viru fought, the more shocked he was. He had heard about Han Xiao's 'Indestructible Body' nickname, but he had never expected it to be so powerful.

Since some time ago, Clotti, who was watching from afar, had stopped being uninterested. He was now focusing on their battle with a serious look on his face.

Han Xiao's recovery speed shocked even him.

He had never seen any Mechanic with a physique so strong that it could match up to even a Pugilist.

"A newbie who has just advanced shouldn't have such combat capability," one of them said with shock. He voiced the thought that was in everyone's mind.

Han Xiao used [Repel - Thorns] and [Void Dimension Jump] consecutively to guard against his opponent's attacks. The two of them fought at close range for a short period of time before the enormous mechanical army finally held Viru back again. Han Xiao finally got out of the close-range battle.

After taking Viru's chain of powerful attacks, Han Xiao was close to unharmed. At least the others could not see what damage he had taken on the surface.

Han Xiao patted his chest and opened his arms.

Before Viru could respond, the mechanical army's attacks became stronger. With the help of all kinds of traps, Viru temporarily became passive.

At this time, many enormous mechanical barrels appeared behind Han Xiao. Psionic energy started to concentrate and gave off a powerful energy reaction.

Planetary Obliteration Cannon!

The expression on Viru's face changed drastically.

Come on, using this kind of war level weapon has exceeded the context of sparring!

Suddenly, from the mechanical army around Viru, hundreds of electromagnetic chains dashed out and tied onto Viru from all directions.

Viru tried to escape, but to his shock, he realized that he could not escape from it in an instant. It was as if these chains were tentacles. They could direct his strength away.

Extreme Electromagnetic Locked Catcher, single target control type mechanical trap. This was equipment that Han Xiao had built with the Cutting-Edge Knowledge [Activation Theory]. It could temporarily control even Beyond Grade As and was considered as a high-level machine. It hid within the mechanical army and activated at a crucial moment, capturing Viru right away.

The next moment, the teams of mechanical soldiers fired on Viru, and psionic attacks rained like a thunderstorm!

The light illuminated Viru's drastically changed expression. Flames all over his body immediately erupted, turning into blades of flames, and quickly spun around his body, forming a layer of shield-like defenses.

Blade Control—Energy Barrier!

The sphere of light expanded. Han Xiao fired the Secondary Sky Planetary Obliteration Cannons that had completed their energy charge. Enormous dark-blue beams of light gushed out and headed right to Viru.

When the beams were only halfway through, clusters of dark energy suddenly appeared on the attack route and clashed with the psionic energy beams. The two forms of energy caused chains of explosions, continuously expanding in the cosmic space.

On the other side, dozens of dark energy barriers stopped the focus fire of the army and gave Viru time to breathe.

Viru hastily escaped from the trap, activated some kind of mobility ability, turned into a stream of blue light, and escaped the battlefield. He hovered at the side with a pale face, looking like he was more than slightly injured.

If it were Heber, these attacks would just have been tickles. However, Viru's health had been reduced quite a lot by the True Damage attacks.

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and made the mechanical army stop attacking before looking at the spaceship.

Clotti was standing behind the porthole and had one hand raised. He was the one who had controlled the dark energy and interfered with their battle earlier.

"The spar has ended," Clotti said in the communication channel. "This shall be… considered a draw."

Draw?

The others had different looks on their faces.

They knew exactly that this was just a way of saying it so Viru would not be humiliated. Just from the situation earlier, Han Xiao had won undoubtedly. Han Xiao had showcased his combat strength.

With his powerful recovery ability and enormous mechanical army, as well as his oddly powerful attacks, a Mechanic like him had close to no weaknesses. They were shocked, and they put away the slight underestimation they had for Han Xiao because of him being a newcomer and his Shattered Star Ring origin.

Han Xiao had earned their respect with his strength.

Viru's expression was not looking good. As the one that had been challenged, he had initially been completely confident. However, he had instead become the target for the newcomer to showcase his strength. He felt very embarrassed and displeased.

However, the opponent had gained the upper hand with valid ways, so he had nothing to say and could only feel unhappy inside.

Hearing what Clotti said, Han Xiao did not deny it and withdrew his mechanical army.

The result did not matter. As long as the goal of showcasing his strength was achieved, it was enough for him.

Furthermore, if Viru had gone all out, his explosive power would only have been higher than Heber's. It would not be easy for Han Xiao to deal with even with his powerful recovery speed.

One reason he had gotten the upper hand in the spar was because of the combat style counter; another was the nature of the battle. It looked like he had completely overwhelmed Viru, but if it had been a real battle, Viru might not have made the same mistakes.

I have to become stronger.

Among Beyond Grade As, he was very strong in long-duration battles, but his raw strength was not high enough.

He had accumulated a large sum of EXP. When the EXP penalty was over, he would be able to level up again.

He estimated that only then would he be able to obtain a higher position among the Beyond Grade As.

He returned to the spaceship and walked into the cabin. The others approached him.

Han Xiao noticed that there was no longer inspection in their eyes, and now there was some respect. Han Xiao nodded in his mind.

Through this spar, his strength had been recognized. Now, he had officially been accepted into this circle.

Viru walked in after Han Xiao. With a long face, he turned around and said with a deep voice, "If there's a chance in the future, we have to spar again."

"Then I guess there won't be any chances." Han Xiao raised his brows. With no benefits, why would I fight you? It's not like I'm a battle maniac.

Speaking of which, it seemed like most Pugilists were battle maniacs…