Chapter 314: Rapport
Chapter 314: Rapport
Translator:ryuxenji
Editor:H2dH2mr
"Leader, no precious power source dropped. Looks like that thing has been transferred to them." One of the mecha had not waited for his leader's instruction to fly over to the remains of that opponent's mecha to do a swift check, and he then reported his findings in disappointment.
In Mecha World, as long as a mecha and its operator were directly destroyed, all of the precious items, materials, weapons, equipment and so on belonging to Mecha World would definitely drop. Thus, just a quick check would be enough to tell whether or not the item they wanted had still been on the operator when he died.
At this news, the team leader became livid. He instantly pointed a beam gun at Luo Lang's team of three and sneered, "Punk, hand over that thing quickly. Or else we won't be polite anymore."
Without even glancing at the item in his hands, Luo Lang threw it into his mecha's bag and sneered back in return, "Since it has come into our hands, it won't be leaving them. I would really like to see how you all plan to be rude to us." Since he knew Boss planned to teach the other a lesson anyway, Luo Lang naturally would not show the opponent any face.
"You're really asking for it." The rage in the team leader's chest burned hotter — once, twice, these three or four puny kittens actually dared to bare their teeth against his threats. Even as he felt immensely frustrated, he also felt that this was a great loss of face. He decided that he would definitely torment these three arrogant punks before him to death and let them realise that they were not qualified enough to be arrogant just yet!
Before he could say 'kill them', the mecha responsible for sentry duty suddenly yelled out once again, "Leader, two more squads of mecha have appeared. There are six more in total ..."
"F*ck!" The team leader could not help but curse internally. Still somewhat rational, he knew his team could not finish off nine mecha in one go without suffering any losses, so he instructed, "Warn those squads that we are fighting here. Tell them to circle around."
This was a type of established convention within Mecha World. When two parties were in conflict and did not want any other parties to disturb them, they would arrange for sentry members to go alert uninvolved mecha teams passing by so they would go around them and avoid the area where they were fighting.
After giving his instructions to the sentry member, the team leader then ordered all the other team members present, "Attack at full force!"
The reason why the team leader would call his team members to attack without worry was that, in his mind, he had already assumed that these six mecha that had just appeared would definitely circle around them. Generally, an uninvolved party would never willingly stick their nose into trouble. However, he could never have expected that these six newcomer mecha were not uninvolved members at all ...
He had barely given the command when, in that instant where his men had yet to pull the triggers in their hands, a long prepared Luo Lang moved one step before they could. He slammed two heavy fists into the ground and followed it up with a strong and powerful sweeping kick. The sand and rocks on the ground were instantly jolted into the air and then sent smashing down like a waterfall on the heads of those 13 mecha. For a moment, the two sides completely lost sight of each other.
Seeing the wall of sand and dirt flying at them, the opponents' first reflex was to dodge and wait for their vision to clear before attacking. However, they could never have imagined that Luo Lang's team of three who were clearly the underdogs, being outnumbered, would not choose to escape at this time, instead following up with another attack.
The sand and gravel had yet to fully settle when the team leader heard three chilling cries ring out in his party's comms, which were then swiftly followed by the sounds of mecha crashing heavily into the ground.
These terrifying cries caused a tendril of fear to rise up within the team members' hearts. Instead of pushing the attack, they chose instinctively to defend. Their first thought was to first protect themselves well.
Finally, the cascading waterfall of sand and dirt settled completely and everyone could see clearly again. Only at this time did they discover that three of their teammates were already on the ground. Eye-catching crimson fluid was trickling out from the cockpits of those fallen mecha, staining the white sand beneath the mecha red ...
Beside them stood those three newcomer mecha. In each of their hands was a standard high-alloy long sword that came equipped with every mecha. Blood still remained on their blades, slowly sliding along the edge of their swords to drip to the ground. Everyone knew what this meant — those three teammates of theirs were definitely dead.
Still off-balanced and frightened, they abruptly heard theother side's leader1sneer and say, "With just this much strength, actually daring to threaten to be impolite to us?" Luo Lang had initially thought that these people must be rather capable for them to dare waylay others to rob them in broad daylight — who knew they were actually so worthless? One attack had been enough to throw them into a state of disarray.
At these words, the team leader almost bit through his tongue. Right then, he knew that these three were definitely incomparable to that 5-man team they had pushed around earlier. He had likely stumbled upon a tough team this time. If he had only known earlier, he would have told the sentry to stop them and asked them to circle around.
However, he knew that it was already too late now. He and the other side were already at the point of no return — one side had to die for the conflict to end. Setting aside the matter of the precious power source he craved in the other's hands, the three members who had been sacrificed in front of him needed him to stand up for them and avenge them.
But before he could give any orders, six beams of light suddenly shot down from above, instantly striking six mecha whose operators did not have any time at all to react. Needless to say, these six mecha exploded simultaneously to become heaps of debris. In just a few seconds' time, the team leader's side was down by nine mecha. His initial grand team of thirteen mecha had been reduced to only four mecha in an instant — he had all but lost the upper hand.
The team leader stared off despairingly into the distance, and he soon saw those six mecha he had assumed to have circled around descending like gods from the heavens to land before him.
"Why did you all choose to get involved with this mess?" asked the team leader bitterly. He knew what his fate would be, but he just could not figure out why this would happen. Thus, he wanted to ask to find out, otherwise he would not be able to rest in peace.
"It's not that we wanted to intentionally get involved in this messy situation ... we just could not be uninvolved, because you've intercepted some of our team members," responded Ling Lan calmly. She had initially thought that the other side would give them some trouble, but things turned out unexpectedly easy. It looked like there was no further hope of training up her troops.
"So that's how it is ..." The team leader finally understood the resulting despair ofbeing overconfident2. His luck was truly too terrible, actually stepping on the tail of an extremely strong team.
Just as everyone thought the team leader would just give up and surrender, unexpectedly, as his voice trailed off, the remaining four mecha who were still able to fight sprang into motion and began attacking ferociously. It looked like they knew their lives were forfeit, and so decided they might as well push forward without worrying about the consequences and take some of the enemies down with them.
The ones they chose to attack were Ling Lan and [No Mecha Unrepaired] because among the nine mecha, the only two intermediate mecha were theirs. In the opponents' eyes, trying to kill advanced mecha warriors with just the four of them was rather difficult, but killing two intermediate mecha warriors which were lower level than them was still doable.
However, they were doomed to be disappointed, because of the two mecha operators they thought were the easiest to handle, one just happened to be Boss Lan. She was the one Qi Long and the others recognised as the strongest — she was the horrifying boss who could crush them effortlessly even if she was controlling an intermediate mecha.
Meanwhile, though the other person was also an intermediate mecha, the pilot was a genius mecha mechanic. The control skills of a mecha mechanic might not be too remarkable, but the mecha he piloted would definitely never be as simple as it appeared on the surface ...
Ling Lan gracefully flashed from side to side, drawing a swift streak of shadow through the air as she easily dodged these attacks. Meanwhile, [No Mecha Unrepaired] did not even move. He simply raised his mecha's right arm, and the thick and heavy armour at his elbow suddenly opened up like an umbrella, instantly forming a large round shield. The surface of the shield was even emitting an indistinct sheen of light.
The cold beams shooting at him were all blocked by the shield, not causing him any bit of trouble. Rather, after receiving these cold beams, that faint sheen on the shield actually intensified, becoming gradually more opaque and visible.
Seeing this, Ling Lan's eyebrows lifted slightly, barely able to conceal her surprise. This shield of [No Mecha Unrepaired]'s was not as simple as it seemed — as a genius mechanic, [No Mecha Unrepaired] did not waste that talent of his.
Ling Lan and [No Mecha Unrepaired] had just dodged these beam attacks on their end when, on the other side, the team leader's party no longer had a second opportunity to attack. Four mecha were not at all enough to split among the other members of Ling Lan's team. Almost simultaneously, Qi Long, Luo Lang, Xie Yi, and Li Lanfeng moved ahead of the others and used their respective cold weapons to slash down the remaining four mecha efficiently. Even the strongest on the opponent's side, the team leader, only lasted one round under Qi Long's swift and powerful attack.
It could only be said that this party which loved to rob others favoured ambushes and group attacks too much; they were extremely weak when it came to individual combat. This made the combat-loving Qi Long feel extremely unsatisfied, and he could not help but grunt peevishly, "F*ck, what trash. It's really no fun fighting them."
"They are rather weak!" Ling Lan agreed with Qi Long's sentiments, but her eyes were sparkling as she looked in Li Lanfeng's direction. Their final attack earlier had undoubtedly pleased Ling Lan greatly. "However, we have still achieved one of our objectives. All of your attacks earlier were well-coordinated. Attacking all at once without actually overlapping in target. It's clear that you all have rather good rapport."
A clan was most afraid of lacking rapport, especially after the addition of new members. Ling Lan was not surprised by the fact that Qi Long, Luo Lang, and Xie Yi worked together well, but Ling Lan was extremely pleased and satisfied that the leopard had been able to determine who the others were attacking instantly and choose the remaining target. The leopard truly had not let her down.
"Not bad, [Self-Defined Destiny]! Next time, let us work together again!" said Qi Long with a large grin. He too had not expected [Self-Defined Destiny] who had just joined to actually work so well with them. This made Qi Long's impression of [Self-Defined Destiny] rise significantly.
Luo Lang nodded in agreement with what Qi Long had said. Meanwhile, Xie Yi, who had initially been in the role of newcomer himself, had already been sympathetic towards [Self-Defined Destiny] to begin with, not as aloof as Qi Long or Luo Lang towards him. Hearing this, Xie Yi could not help but smile, feeling happy for [Self-Defined Destiny].
"This was just a lucky coincidence. I just hope that we can have such great rapport next time," replied [Self-Defined Destiny] with a smile. Even though he said it was a lucky coincidence, that was not actually true. The reason he had managed to work so well with the other three was because he had already deduced the accurate choice to make before he had attacked.
------------------------
1. other side's leader - This is referring to Luo Lang as the head of the 3-man team.
2. being overconfident - 终日打雁被雁啄: The original phrase used here is a shortened form of 终日打雁被雁啄瞎了眼, which is literally 'shoot at geese all day only to finally end up being pecked blind by geese'.