Rui Bing sat on Han Jia’s shoulder as Han Jia flew close to the ground. While it was highly effective in avoiding detection, Ye Chong still flew around buildings for cover. Just in front of them, dozens of mechs were desperately flying away to escape. They never imagined that someone would be tailing them.
After flying for nearly half an hour, these mechs finally slowed down.
This was once a prosperous commercial area with many tall buildings. Now, it was filled with dead silence, littered with dismembered corpses. The once elegant buildings were now completely destroyed, leaving behind unrecoverable wreckage. The mechs quickly divided into numerous smaller squads and entered the jungle of skyscrapers.
Ye Chong could only lock on to one of the squads, formed by only two mechs. They took many turns along the way before finally entering a warehouse.
Could this be their headquarters? Ye Chong hesitated. Entering the warehouse required some form of identification. Forcing their way in was possible, but not without alarming the others inside.
Han Jia circled around to another side of the warehouse. It looked around, and found no one was watching.
The mech took out its dagger and drew a square on the wall. Han Jia’s other hand carefully supported this square. Inside Han Jia’s pilot cabin, Ye Chong was all focused, his hands moving as fast as he could. Han Jia’s delicate movements were difficult to maneuver, as evident from Ye Chong’s intense focus.
Han Jia carefully slid the square out of the wall. Ye Chong was surprised to find that, instead of a single layer of strong compound material, the wall was made up of three layers - a center layer of ultra-strong alloy board sandwiched between two layers of strong compound material.
The place was suspicious alright. If not for Han Jia’s sharp daggers, it would be near impossible to cut through the wall with normal laser swords.
Han Jia bent over and crawled into the warehouse.
The inside was full of stacks of boxed goods. Ye Chong quickly found the two mechs he was following. They had their backs turned to him, and were heading down an underground tunnel. Ye Chong inhaled in relief. If they had been facing him, he would have been discovered there and then.
The underground tunnel was simple, without requiring any identification.
Rui Bing asked softly, "Entrance to an underground sewer?" She sounded surprised. Ye Chong and Rui Bing had set a specific channel for communication, allowing them to reach each other easily.
"So it’s an underground sewer entrance," Ye Chong realized then. He would never have known about it. After all, Rui Bing had been living in this society for much longer, and was more familiar with these common things.
The entrance to the underground sewer was shut tight.
10 seconds later, when Ye Chong believed that the two mechs were far enough from them, he finally approached the entrance. The lid was opened, and Ye Chong carried Rui Bing down into the sewers.
The sewer was wider than they expected. It was about a hundred meters from top to bottom. A mech could easily fly inside. Both sides of the wall were fitted with air sterilizers every five meters, so the air was not too polluted.
The city’s sewerage system was very advanced. The drainage water flowing inside was turbid, but otherwise clear of other waste materials. A ledge separated the drainage water at the center into two streams. The ledge was interrupted by a huge support pillar every ten meters, and this pattern stretched on without end.
Ye Chong maneuvered Han Jia carefully. The two mechs in front of him were no longer in sight. However, they had only directions to choose from, so the choice was not too complicated.
"Which direction?" Ye Chong asked. Since Rui Bing was now his comrade, it was reasonable for him to ask for her opinion.
Rui Bing closed her eyes as she sat on H
an Jia’s shoulder. She opened up her arms to feel the vibrations in the air. After five seconds, Rui Bing opened her eyes and pointed forward, "They’re somewhere in front."
Han Jia accelerated without hesitation. Rui Bing sat steadily on Han Jia’s shoulder, unaffected by the sudden motion.
Han Jia’s engine was silent but powerful. It flew like a ghost, slowly closing in on the two mechs in front.
Gradually, Ye Chong began to sense that something was amiss.
"Strange, there’s none of those mutants here," Rui Bing wondered. Her expertise in spiritual training allowed her to be more sensitive than Ye Chong.
Ye Chong realized what was wrong then. The sewer was dark, but clean. When the entire planet was overcome by mutants, the sewer seemed untouched. It was strange indeed.
As they followed the two mechs from afar, the size of the sewage tunnels astounded Ye Chong. They had been flying for quite a while, and still had not reached the end. There were branches of tunnels along the way. It was practically a huge underground maze.
It was dark and quiet in here. The air was moist, and there were patches of moss here and there. Some of the stone pillars were already yellowing from age. The occasional sound of water droplets falling from above seemed to create ripples in their hearts.
Ye Chong adjusted his holographic scanning system quickly. The two mechs had reached a multi-branched junction ahead, where many stone pillars blocked his view.
A red beam flashed in the darkness ahead.
Ye Chong’s eyes widened. He saw it clearly. The leading mech’s pilot cabin was shot through by the red beam. Ye Chong was sure that the mech pilot inside would not survive the attack.
Han Jia came to an emergency stop and hid behind a stone pillar!
Someone was ambushing here!
The second mech pilot obviously panicked, freezing as he did. This temporary panic was equivalent to suicide. As expected, another red beam flashed in the darkness and hit right on the mech.
"Amazing shooting skills!" Ye Chong thought to himself in surprise. He could see that the red beams did not come from the same place. In such a short time, the ambusher had switched positions. More terrifying was the fact that the red beam could shoot through the mech’s pilot cabin. After all, for a mech of any model, the pilot cabin was the most heavily protected part, and would have the thickest armor reinforcements. The red beam could so easily shoot through the thick armor around the pilot cabin made Ye Chong wonder if Han Jia could block the attack.
Just who was this ambusher?
Out of the darkness, two mechs appeared.
One was in black and white, in ancient heavyweight armor, with shoulder guards that curled up at the ends. The mech was covered in a dizzying pattern of black and white, and its bionic eyes seemed half closed. It had a strange looking weapon on its back. It looked like a lance, but with two crescent shaped blades around its tip. It must be a kind of ancient weapon, but Ye Chong did not recognize it.
This was surely a mech that Ye Chong had never seen before, but for some reason, it did look familiar.
The other mech was a gray-brown mech, with a pair of creepy, blood red bionic eyes. This mech was much more slender compared to the other sturdier looking mech. Its upper half body was shaped like an inverted triangle. Ye Chong could find at least 12 concealed shooting chambers on it. The mech held a dark red shooting weapon. One could tell from the long gun chamber that it was a quality weapon.
Han Jia and Guardian’s anti-detection properties were something that Ye Chong was always confident of. No scanning system had been able to detect both mechs yet.
Until today.
The two mechs abruptly turned over, and a red beam shot towards Han Jia’s location. Fortunately, it was blocked by the stone pillar it was hiding behind, or Ye Chong would have suffered greatly from the hit. Ye Chong reacted quickly, stepping back swiftly while shielding both Han Jia and Rui Bing behind its large wings.
Pow! A soft sound was heard. A red beam shot through the stone pillar and hit Han Jia’s wings, leaving a small burn mark. Ye Chong heaved a sigh of relief. Han Jia’s wings defended well against energy type weapons, as expected.
They were now right at a multi-branched junction in the sewer. The territory was irregular and complicated, and the stone pillars covered them well.
The two mechs separated and approached them from both sides.
"One each?" Ye Chong asked.
"Yes," Rui Bing answered succinctly, launching herself forward before she finished her single reply.
Ye Chong faced the black and white mech. The enemy seemed to know he was facing a dangerous opponent. The weapon on its back was now held in its hands. Han Jia also took out its daggers, holding them in its hands. The wings were folded back in. In this complicated territory, the wings would be a hindrance to motion.
Ye Chong found it surprising that they could detect them. However, from the looks of it, battle was inevitable. If they run away now, they would most likely be shot. After all, the enemy seemed to be an extraordinary sniper mech pilot.
If that was the case, then they will fight.
Ye Chong met his opponent bravely. The opponent was obviously a close range mech. In this kind of territory, Ye Chong would not be worried even if his opponent was a long range mech, much less a close range one!
Close range combat was Ye Chong’s expertise and favorite way of battle.
"An expert it is," Ye Chong thought to himself, studying his opponent’s calm and steady flight. The pilot of this black and white mech must be a very experienced veteran. Han Jia’s speed was also kept below its maximum.
Both mechs were 500 meters apart. They charged towards each other at the same time.