He frowned and looked at the fleet. As he was about to speak, he received a message on his mechanical suit.
“We finally meet again, Black Star!”
This voice, it’s a little bit familiar!
Han Xiao looked over.
His vision passed through the universe and locked onto a person from the fleet. After clearly seeing this person’s appearance, Han Xiao was shocked and surprised.
This person was his old enemy that had been missing for many years—the DarkStar leader!
How did he appear there?
Chapter 702 - Lord of Fallen Ark
Ever since Godora’s pursuit for the DarkStar leader ended with no results, Han Xiao had not seen the DarkStar leader. No one knew where he was hiding. But now he had suddenly appeared, even bringing a fleet. It seemed he had risen from the ashes.
Han Xiao frowned. The DarkStar leader definitely knew his whereabouts and had an exceptional intelligence channel. He should be working with a very strong organization.
DarkStar will only have a chance to target Godora if I’m eliminated. As for the organization working with DarkStar, it’s probably an organization that has attempted to assassinate me before. Their goal is the same, so they easily came to an agreement…
Han Xiao thought quickly. From this, he deduced that the DarkStar leader only appeared to attack him because he was absolutely confident of succeeding. With so many failed assassination attempts, they would definitely be very cautious.
This small fleet around him was basically no threat to him. After all, his mechanical army was not for decoration. However, Han Xiao did not let his guard down even a bit; rather, he was very wary. He felt that the DarkStar leader definitely had an unknown trump card.
Han Xiao had no intention of chatting. The Army Boxes opened one after another, and an enormous mechanical army expanded like the tide, overwhelming the DarkStar leader’s fleet with its size.
Without hesitation, Han Xiao struck. Countless cannon fire lights seemed to have illuminated the universe. His storm of counter attacks tore dozens of battleships into pieces in an instant!
With his mechanical army that had millions of machines, as well as his various talents and Mechanical Force bonuses, Han Xiao was a one-man galactic army. He could destroy an entire fleet alone.
Countless mechanical guards surrounded Han Xiao, forming layers and layers of shields. The fleet’s attack could not penetrate the shield at all.
Harrofal was protected inside too. He looked around at the mechanical army that filled his vision and could not help but think, How rich!
Within a short while, these hundreds of battleships were almost wiped out, but Han Xiao was frowning.
The battle being this easy made him even more alert. He did not believe that the DarkStar leader would attack him without any preparation.
How could such a small fleet eliminate him, someone that even gave a Star Cluster civilization headaches?
At this time, the DarkStar leader suddenly gestured at Han Xiao from far away in the midst of dodging attacks from the mechanical army. A few strange magic waves landed on Han Xiao in an instant.
You have been attacked by the DarkStar Leader’s (Chain of Pain-Secret). Judging MYS… failed. Your MYS is lower than the opponent. This spell is effective!
(Chain of Pain-Secret): When the opponent takes damage, your health will decrease as well. For every 1% health the opponent loses, you will lose 0.55% – 0.7% health.
You have been attacked by the DarkStar Leader’s (Life Absorption-Transfer). Judging MYS… failed. Your MYS is lower than the opponent. This spell is effective!
(Life Absorption-Transfer): When you recover health, the recovery effect decreases by 30%. The opponent will gain the 30% recovery you have lost. When you should recover 1,000 health points, you will only recover 700 health points, and the opponent will recover 300 health points.
You have been attacked by the DarkStar Leader’s (Heart Malediction—Collapse). Judging MYS… failed. Your MYS is lower than the opponent. This spell is effective. You have entered the (Mental Collapse] state!
[Mental Collapse]: -40% Psychological Resistance. You have lost control of your body and are unable to move. Duration: 6.2 seconds.
The Mechanical Force all over Han Xiao’s body suddenly became still. He could not move his entire body. Han Xiao suddenly recalled that he still had the DarkStar leader’s Character Summon Card, and its effect was also this [Heart Malediction-Collapse).
As he could not move at all, the mechanical army lost the Mechanical Force bonuses temporarily. The pressure on the DarkStar leader was immediately reduced. He quickly escaped the encirclement. In the process, his magic shield was focus fired and shattered time after time. He lost some health, so through (Chain of Pain-Secret], Han Xiao’s health decreased as well.
Han Xiao looked at the combat information and quickly calculated in his mind.
Chain of Pain reduces health by percentage. The amount of health I lose is about 60% of the DarkStar leader’s on average. However, my total health is more than double his, and the health recovery of Life Absorption relies on health points. For every 700 health points I lose, he recovers 300 health points, but our recovery speed is about the same in terms of percentage…
Thus, as long as he recovered health, the health of both sides would reduce at about the same speed with his health reducing at a slightly slower speed at most.
It did not seem difficult to break this cycle—he just had to not recover any health.
This time, the DarkStar leader raised his hand. A warm light shone on his body. His wounds healed, and his health went up slowly.
Han Xiao frowned. If the enemy healed himself, he would not share that healing. This way, in order to kill the DarkStar leader, he would have to take some risks…
Of course, it would be much easier to just capture him.
The DarkStar leader’s style was clearly a Mage focused on Curse-type spells. No matter what, he was one of the boss characters in Version 2.0. This ability of his was more difficult to deal with than Ember’s. It was more suitable for duels, too.
Capture him first, think later.
Han Xiao decided not to act recklessly.
No matter how strong this cycle was, the DarkStar leader did not have infinite energy. Both Chain of Pain and Life Absorption required energy to sustain. The millions of mechanical soldiers would be able to make him run out of energy easily.
The effect of Heart Malediction quickly disappeared, and Han Xiao regained control of his body. He controlled the mechanical army to surround and intercept the DarkStar leader. The DarkStar leader began struggling once again.
Due to Chain of Pain, Han Xiao did not plan on killing him but was reducing the DarkStar leader’s mana, which was the reason that the DarkStar leader could barely hang on. Otherwise, he would have been obliterated by the rounds of True Damage.
Han Xiao did not plan on using the DarkStar leader’s Character Summon Card. The DarkStar leader’s main attribute was Mystery, so his Mystery was way much higher than Han Xiao’s. The judgment would definitely fail.
Did he feel that he’s become stronger and felt confident in killing me alone? Is he that reckless?
Although the DarkStar leader’s abilities shocked him, it was not very threatening. Looking at the DarkStar leader, who was being heavily surrounded, Han Xiao could not stop guessing what his trump card was.
Suddenly, a sense of alarm appeared in his heart. The DarkStar leader took out a black bead from his wrist. Its texture was like a crystal. The bead was filled with dense black fog, and in the center was a red dot of light.
The next moment, the DarkStar leader crushed the bead. A lump of black fog splashed out together with the red dot of light, quickly turning into a completely black, human-shaped creature. Black smoke was oozing from all over its body. It had no face, and the middle of where its face was supposed to be was a blinking red dot.
A creepy and strong aura swept out. Han Xia
o felt all his hair stand on end as if he was targeted by some evil being.
This was a pressure generated from the difference in the hierarchy of life!
“What is that!” Harrofal had been watching and doing nothing, but he was so shocked that he could not help but exclaim in the communication channel. Subconsciously, he entered his rusty battle posture.
Han Xiao did not answer him, but his face became extremely grave.
With his strength right now, only one type of being could give him this kind of pressure…
Beyond Grade A!
The mechanical army fired another round of attacks at the DarkStar leader and the human shaped black fog beside him. The black fog silhouette moved. It grabbed onto the DarkStar leader’s shoulder, and with a flash of red light, the two of them suddenly teleported and appeared at another location, dodging the attacks.
“This bead is indeed useful!” The DarkStar leader immediately felt relieved.
This black fog silhouette was an Esper doppelganger of the Lord of Fallen Ark. In order to fuse the Esper abilities on the Super High Risk Esper Ability Restriction Treaty, he absorbed countless Esper abilities that all became his.
The DarkStar leader had witnessed the Lord of Fallen Ark in combat before. He was basically almighty. He only had one word to describe everything he saw…
God!
The Lord of Fallen Ark’s doppelganger was his biggest trump card!
The organization that planned this assassination was the organization that had always been behind DarkStar—the Klent Kingdom!
Helping the DarkStar leader fight the Godoran Civilization was one of the projects in Klent’s plan to mess up the security of the Colton Star Cluster. DarkStar was just one of the chess pieces used to weaken the various Star System civilizations of Colton. For a very long time, the Klent Kingdom had been secretly causing trouble to their friendly neighbor’, the Purple Crystal Civilization.
After DarkStar was destroyed by Han Xiao, it was Klent that found the way to send the DarkStar leader away and to the Fallen Ark.
Klent secretly had a close relationship with the Fallen Ark. They did not bet everything on the Tyrant. Due to the Fallen Ark’s reputation, there was no way that they would expose this secret partner of theirs.
After the DarkStar leader returned with his fleet, he had always been hiding in Klent’s territory and tracking Han Xiao’s whereabouts through Klent’s intelligence channels. The Bloodshed Land did not know about this.
Han Xiao was the common enemy of the DarkStar leader and Klent. The two of them observed Han Xiao’s actions like patient hunters and had noticed that Han Xiao had periodically been going to the Taralam Star Cluster’s Wormhole Zone to visit Harrofal in recent years.
Therefore, Klent thought of a plan-Black Star had already proved that it was extremely difficult to kill him, so why not banish him?
Some time earlier, the Bloodshed Land’s strategy to drag Han Xiao to the Seoul Star Cluster happened to agree with Klent’s idea.
In order to complete this plan, Klent had secretly made a deal with the Lord of Fallen Ark and obtained one of his Esper doppelgangers. Since they could not command the Tyrant, they found another Beyond Grade A that they secretly worked with to help.
Although the Lord of Fallen Ark’s doppelganger had the strength of a Beyond Grade A, it had limited energy. Unless he personally came, Black Star would not be killed by just one of his doppelgangers.
Klent’s plan was to use this doppelganger to suppress Black Star and send him into a wormhole, banishing him from the Shattered Star Ring. The Wormhole Zone not only connected to the explored universe but also the desolate unexplored universe!
Under these circumstances, the DarkStar leader had accepted Klent’s assignment. He had taken the Lord of Fallen Ark’s doppelganger, followed Han Xiao to the Wormhole Zone, and attacked!
He was willing to do things for Klent because it would only be possible to build a new home for the hybrids if he had help from a Star Cluster civilization.
Initially, he thought that Klent would let him build a home for the hybrid Godorans in Klent, but the reward that Klent promised to give this time made him unable to reject it.
If Black Star was successfully banished, Klent would build the hybrid Godorans a civilization of their own in the future Flickering World!
The DarkStar looked at Han Xiao, who was on full alert, and then looked at the black fog silhouette beside him that was giving off a terrifying vibe. He smiled faintly.
The end was decided!
Chapter 703 - Surprise, I’m Back
The mechanical army surrounded the entire region and countless cannons were pointed toward the black fog silhouette and the DarkStar leader. The cannons were charged up without being fired, and Han Xiao sized up the silhouette of the Beyond Grade A individual, which gave him immense pressure. Frowning, Han Xiao rapidly looked through his memory of Beyond Grade A experts.
A Beyond Grade A Super was far rarer than Calamity Grade Supers, and every one of them was a top expert in the galaxy. Han Xiao could clearly remember the details of every expert.
Black fog silhouette, red light spots…
A figure then flashed in Han Xiao’s mind.
Could it be that this fellow is (EsGod]? The ‘God of Espers’ and infamous Beyond Grade A Super?
This black fog silhouette was extremely similar to the EsGod doppelganger in his memories. After searching through his memories once, Han Xiao realized that it was extremely likely that his guess was correct.
If that was the case, it could barely be considered good news. Han Xiao’s eyes narrowed.
EsGod was one of the final bosses in the neutral-evil faction. His name was a secret, and people only knew him by his title of ‘EsGod’ or ‘Lord of Fallen Ark’. He had a few other nicknames, such as the Guide of the Crazy Believer, Tide of Extinction, and Butcher of Life.
Among the Beyond Grade A Supers, the combat capability of EsGod was ranked at the very top. His battle record was stunning, and he had not suffered a single loss before. His worst battle record was a draw, and he even had the record of killing another Beyond Grade A Super!
Even the three Universal Civilizations were extremely wary of him.
If the main body of EsGod descended, Han Xiao was certain that no one in the entire Shattered Star Ring would be his opponent. Even the Tyrant, Magus, and Dragon Emperor would not be a match for him.
But if it was only a doppelganger, even if he could give off the pressure of a Beyond Grade A Super, his actual combat ability was definitely weaker than his main body.
Furthermore, the battlefield was advantageous to Han Xiao! Han Xiao looked at the wormholes all around and came to a conclusion.
I can give it a shot!
All these thoughts flashed past in an instant, and Han Xiao already had a grasp of the situation. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and increase his concentration.
This was his first time fighting a Beyond Grade A Super head on, and Han Xiao would give it his all. Suddenly, he seemed to have thought about something and began talking to Harrofal in their communication channel.
“Professor, both of us are in danger right now, and this isn’t the time for you to hide anything. Tell me what kind of machines you have. I need to gather all of our strength.”
Harrofal only hesitated for a second before whispering to Han Xiao through the communication channel. After listening to what Harrofal said, Han Xiao’s eyes sparkled, and he immediately came up with a plan. He then gave Harrofal a series of instructions, and Harrofal handed something over to him.
Right at this moment, the doppelganger of EsGod made a move. His figure disappeared in an instant and arrived within the formation of the mechanical army.
Before the mechanical army around him could open fire, he disappeared again, and his figure flashed around the mechanical army rapidly before appearing in front of Han Xiao. He had managed to break through the defensive line of Han Xiao’s mechanical arm
y in an instant.
The moment the doppelganger of EsGod made his move, Han Xiao reacted. He first got Harrofal to leave the battlefield before he retreated swiftly. At the same time, he released a large number of compressed orbs and nanoparticles, which transformed into a hundred six-sided alloy plates. The exterior of the alloy plates looked like solar panels with an intricate mechanical design on the plates that was much more complicated. These metal plates were used to stabilize spatial coordinates.
These alloy plates were dispersed and formed a loose sphere structure. The space within the interior of the sphere was stabilized, and the undulations of space were flattened.
This was a product of the Cutting-Edge Knowledge (Advanced Space Application), a product to stabilize space.
When the doppelganger of EsGod appeared in front of Han Xiao, he also fell into the region within the sphere, and his instant movement skill was restricted. However, EsGod did not pause and charged forward at an unbelievable speed instead
Just when the thought of retreating surfaced in Han Xiao’s mind, his vision suddenly darkened, and EsGod’s figure was already right before him. The speed displayed was almost no different from instant movement, and his Dexterity was at least three thousand points!
Esper ability, Divine Speed!
“Dammit, isn’t he too damn fast?” Han Xiao was startled and gritted his teeth to activate his Mechanical Force.
The psionic furnace of his Mountain Ape suit immediately revved up, and bluish lightning bolts flashed over the surface. Psionic energy exploded from his mechanical suit and formed a bluish energy blast at EsGod’s doppelganger.
However, the psionic energy blast passed through EsGod’s doppelganger as though he were a holographic projection. The energy blast only had a miniscule effect.
Esper ability, Dimension Crack!
The Legendary Mechanic c1-1385 Page 442