Chapter 20: Super-Class Battle
The engine flickering on his chest hummed softly. Countless mechanical structures, too minute for the naked eye to perceive, flowed through the blood vessels within his body. Joshua stood atop the corpse of a spindle-shaped giant magical beast, its total length reaching one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three meters, surveying the entire starry sky.
What met his gaze was a terrifying horde of magical beasts, numbering two million in total, blotting out the stars and light, exceeding the capacity of his field of vision.
"Master... isn't this number a bit too much..."
In the mental sea, Ying's soul shared the warrior's vision. She blinked uneasily and muttered softly, "This should be more than all the magical beasts we've killed before combined..."
"Not necessarily, right? The last time we killed the most was over by the Father of Nature, and we only slaughtered over a hundred thousand stone demons with his divine power." Lin recalled calmly, though even from his voice alone, one could tell he was equally tense. "The jump in scale is a bit drastic..."
Not long ago, the three fleets of the Courtyard colony had ambushed the jump coordinates, successfully annihilating nearly a hundred thousand void magical beasts. Then, relying on volleys of light spears and the performance of cosmic fighters, they killed around a hundred and fifty thousand more, successfully breaking the enemy's formation. But that was the extent of their achievements. Many magical beasts that had only been splashed by residual waves and temporarily unable to fight due to missing body parts had already regenerated and rejoined the battle, meaning the vast, surging horde hadn't actually been reduced by much.
"If that's the case, then let's multiply our battle results several times over today."
Sensing his own dwindling energy, Joshua smiled nonchalantly at his weapons' minor complaints. He flexed his four arms, causing the golden-red outer shell to rapidly cool, transforming into a silvery-white steel hue. The warrior said calmly, "You know, the thing that's jumping in scale even more is my strength."
Having performed dozens of long-distance jumps in a short time, he had expended a massive amount of energy, nearly draining the furnace within his body. But for Joshua, currently in his psionic ascension state, as long as the Courtyard people weren't extinct, as long as the light of psionic energy on the Courtyard homeworld hadn't completely dissipated, his recovery speed was ten or even dozens or hundreds of times faster than normal. Given just a little time, he could restore himself to full condition.
But the battlefield didn't have that little extra time.
At that moment, all the void magical beasts scattered by the energy shockwave from the warrior's earlier charge had come to their senses. They rapidly gathered, instinctively forming ranks within seconds, and then began a silent, resolute charge toward the sudden new target.
Instantly, thousands of deep-green energy streams shot out across the dark void. Over thirty thousand magical beasts, accelerated to two-thousandths the speed of light, surged forward in a mighty wave toward Joshua. Most of the beasts couldn't withstand such speed; their internal structures disintegrated under the extreme load, but even corpses were qualified weapons.
"All are reconnaissance-class, dozens of meters long and the most agile? The bigger ones are still adjusting their positions."
The magical beasts' speed reached six hundred kilometers per second, enough to circle the Earth in a minute. Given the distance between the warrior and the horde, even accounting for acceleration time, they would collide within two seconds of the charge's start. But Joshua showed no tension. He still stood in place, two arms crossed over his chest, while his other two arms reached into the void, grasping the two divine mechanisms that had been assimilated into his body, transforming them into giant energy weapons in his hands.
Perfect for warming up.
And then, every member of the Third Fleet on the other side of the battlefield witnessed a scene they would never forget.
Alzera stared at the cosmic space on the light screen, the steel giant locked in by the psionic lens. He stood atop the massive magical beast corpse, like a boatman on a small skiff, while the endless dark void and the surging void magical beasts were the roaring sea and towering tsunami. But even as the sea churned and the heavens and earth overturned, that figure remained utterly still. A silvery-white greatsword and a black-golden giant axe were held in two of his hands, gleaming with brilliant light.
Tens of thousands of void magical beasts charged in. The psionic fluctuations even caused ripples in spacetime. But the steel giant merely swung his sword and axe casually. Several hundred beasts at the forefront were suddenly split apart and then violently exploded. In an instant, with the steel giant at the center, a circular space with a radius of three hundred kilometers became a forbidden zone. The void magical beasts, attacking from all three hundred sixty degrees without blind spots, couldn't breach it at all. Before crossing that distance, they were all shattered by energy blades sharp enough to cut through space.
The trajectory of the steel giant's sword and axe swings lacked any aesthetic beauty, yet they killed every single magical beast without exception. Relying on observation and reaction at the microscopic level, he simply killed them one by one in order of proximity. But precisely because of this, the moves had no beauty but carried a bone-deep killing intent.
Further away, sensing that a simple charge couldn't threaten this powerful foe, many 'main-class' void magical beasts, each over three hundred meters in total length, stopped in unison and began gathering energy. The next instant, as the first wave of thirty thousand charging beasts and their ultra-fast corpses were mostly turned into cosmic fireworks by the steel giant, countless spiral spherical, deep-green orbs appeared in their mouths. These attacks, imitating the Courtyard warships' psionic light spears, lacked the extreme temperature and piercing power but possessed a rotational force capable of twisting nearly anything. Most of these psionic orbs, over twenty meters in radius, spun at over eight thousand seven hundred revolutions per second. Now, these orbs, enough to snap a cosmic warship in half, were spat out by the void magical beasts, forming a dense cluster of light points, all volleyed toward the steel giant.
Facing these orbs, which moved at twice the speed of the earlier charge, the giant still didn't dodge. His massive body, over four hundred meters tall, merely shifted his stance slightly, bringing the two arms holding the greatsword and giant axe together. With a burst of red light so intense that even the Third Cosmic Fleet found it dazzling, the sword and axe vanished simultaneously. In their place appeared the dragon-hunting sword lance, its tip crackling with golden-red lightning. The steel giant swung the sword lance, leaving countless light trails. In less than a hundredth of a second, these trails formed a nearly circular shield. Countless orbs struck several hundred meters before the shield and could advance no further, because the moment an orb flew in, a piercing spear tip would flash, puncturing and detonating the orb filled with immense psionic energy.
Designated: Silent Exterminator ability activated. Extermination target locked.
Locked race: Plague Minions.
— Attack commencing.
For some reason, Alzera seemed to hear a strange voice whispering some peculiar knowledge to him, but since he was focused on the light screen, he paid it no mind.
In the distance, the chain detonation of the orbs was silent in the void but created spiraling deep-green energy ripples. With the explosion of thousands of orbs, thousands of deep-green vortexes appeared around the steel giant. This scene was both dangerous and beautiful, strange and eerie, firmly etched into everyone's minds.
"Wait, something's wrong!"
Although the steel giant's responses so far had been flawless—neither the suicide charge of the reconnaissance-class void magical beasts nor the orb spit of the main-class beasts had harmed him in the slightest—Alzera and the other Third Fleet members watching keenly noticed a concerning detail: When the steel giant first appeared, he had a brilliant golden vortex glow on his chest. But now, after the fierce battle, that golden vortex had turned a dangerous dark red, flickering with an uncertain light. And just after the first wave of orb impacts ended, the giant even outright dismissed the massive sword lance in his hands, continuing to stand empty-handed on the magical beast corpse, most of which had been destroyed by the residual blasts.
"Recovery speed can't keep up with consumption speed."
Joshua stood in place, frowning. He hadn't been standing motionless on the giant void magical beast corpse just to look cool; he genuinely needed to conserve every bit of energy. According to calculations, maneuvering in three-dimensional space on a cosmic scale consumed far more energy than staying put and defensively countering enemy attacks. The former required attacking, while the latter only needed to deflect force. But even so, the first wave of attacks had already drained his meager energy reserves.
Without giving Joshua any time to catch his breath, a second wave of nearly a hundred thousand reconnaissance-class ultra-fast suicide charges arrived. These small magical beasts, making up two-thirds of the void magical beast horde, had the simplest body structures: just a main body housing an energy core and a rear half serving as a propulsion engine. This time, because the warrior was positioned right at the center of the magical beast formation, they attacked from all directions—above, below, left, right, front, and back—even denser than before. In response, the warrior, who had re-formed his sword and axe, swung them more slowly.
But strangely, although Joshua's weapon swings were noticeably slower, none of the void magical beasts could cross the three-hundred-kilometer forbidden zone, just like before. In fact, several hundred beasts were pushed back by the explosive energy of their own kind before even reaching the zone, colliding with others. The powerful impact triggered a chain reaction, causing thousands of void magical beasts to self-destruct under their own speed.
This wasn't because Joshua had been holding back and was now going all out. In reality, it was a simple application of physics: the smoke clouds from the previous wave's explosions hadn't dissipated yet when the next wave arrived. Under the warrior's deliberate guidance, the strong resistance and friction in the smoke zone at two to three-thousandths the speed of light caused the leading batch of beasts to collectively self-destruct. Joshua at most saw through this, using his sword light and axe blade to kill a few beasts in key positions, triggering the self-destruction chain reaction.
But this trick could only be used once. With the continuous explosions, powerful energy currents dispersed the smoke clouds and magical beast corpses that Joshua had deliberately guided to his side. The second half of the second wave surged in again. Joshua tightened his grip on his sword and axe. The red light flickering on his chest had begun to dim. This dire situation made him think he might have to pull out some real skills. But clearly, the warrior, used to fighting alone, had forgotten one fact.
He actually had teammates.
An intensely powerful energy reaction came from behind, making Joshua instinctively turn his head slightly. The next instant, nearly a thousand psionic light spears flew simultaneously from the direction of the Courtyard fleet, plunging into the terrifying magical beast horde that was constantly stirring, trying to surround Joshua. Numerous light spears, millions of degrees hot, plunged into the high-speed flying beast swarm, causing silent yet violent explosions. In the blink of an eye, the magical beasts around the warrior were almost completely cleared, giving him precious breathing room.
"Not bad."
Joshua was genuinely surprised. He had thought this battered fleet would follow their companions, making a short jump to the Sea God Star defense line. He hadn't expected them to risk staying to support him. When the Mother Tree had discussed support strategies with him, Joshua had already prepared to cover the fleet's retreat alone. If things got too bad, he could always escape. But the result was that both he and the Mother Tree had underestimated the Courtyard people's desire to fight.
The next moment, in a star region thousands of kilometers from Joshua, concentric blue rings of light appeared—undoubtedly, Nostradamus's jump channel. The two had originally been heading to the Flower Court Star on nearly the same trajectory, but the immense distance and the errors from dozens of jumps had caused significant differences in their arrival times and locations. But now, it wasn't too late. In this short time, Joshua had already recovered a considerable portion of his energy reserves.
Sensing another powerful enemy about to arrive, the magical beast horde collectively entered full combat mode. Immediately, the approximately two million beasts split into two groups. A small half flew toward the star region where the blue spacetime gate was located, while the majority madly rushed at Joshua, who had the Third Fleet's long-range support. They planned to take out the one in poor condition before the second super lifeform arrived.
Instantly, the sea called the universe stirred again. The small boat anchored in the deep sea's center remained unmoved. The magical beast swarm surrounding Joshua grew denser and denser. Orbs rained down like a deluge. They even ignored their own reconnaissance-class companions accelerating in their charges, all to kill the warrior. But having gained breathing room and recovered much energy, Joshua switched to a new defense—or rather, attack method.
"Alright, I've gathered enough practical data on void magical beasts."
The steel giant's eyes blazed with fiery light. Joshua opened his mouth, making a breathing motion. Although there was no air in space, a faint stream of light could be seen converging from all directions in the cosmos, then entering the warrior's mouth. Immediately, the dark red vortex on his chest began spinning rapidly, its light turning from red to gold.
"Now, it's time for a purge."
The warrior stood in the dark void, his left hand resting on his axe, while his right hand raised the giant sword high. A brilliant silver light shimmered along the blade's edge, even lighting up the ash left from burning magical beast corpses into silver stars. The Steel Force was fully activated, like a whale drinking in the material particles of space, rapidly adding terrifying mass to the silver greatsword. Faintly, one could already see a slight, almost imperceptible curvature in the space and light around the silver sword's edge. The next second, the warrior swung his arm.
In an instant, the sea that had been raging with towering waves and overturning heavens became calm.
Because a greater storm was rolling back!
Mass Weapon: Steel Sword!
The silver greatsword aimed at the beast swarm rushing in at two-thousandths the speed of light, then casually slashed from left to right through empty space, like someone who couldn't draw scribbling on a canvas. And then, in that area, the sky full of void magical beasts was simply annihilated.
Boom boom boom boom—
In the void, everything was silent, but the spherical explosion of firelight rose continuously from left to right, following the trajectory of the giant sword's slash, forming a massive deep-green psionic explosion belt. With a single strike, over ten thousand void magical beasts were killed.
Joshua didn't pause. He immediately swung another sword. A massive gravitational field, centered on the silver-white greatsword, transformed into scattered silver light, surging back toward the charging magical beast swarm. Joshua activated a new use of the Steel Force, one he had recently comprehended and sublimated from the White Dwarf Hand Strike technique. Within the field's range, the extreme and abnormal gravitational shifts immediately caused numerous ultra-fast-charging void magical beasts to collide with each other, self-destructing in droves. In severe areas, the beasts were simply crushed and flattened by the super-gravity, becoming cosmic debris.
Joshua swung his sword rhythmically, wasting not a shred of energy. He hurled massive, abnormal gravitational fields like battle qi blades—the most primitive and common attack method—crushing and exploding his enemies. In his psionic ascension state, he didn't waste this hard-won boost; instead, he used this enhanced power to explore future possibilities for himself. Soon, the vast gravitational field domain vanished, replaced by pitch-black cracks tearing through space. As Joshua switched to swinging his axe with his left hand, spacetime torn by the powerful gravitational field turned into blades, slicing into the still-countless magical beast horde. Huge spatial fissures, several kilometers long, easily tore apart the main-class beasts in the distance that had been spitting orbs, splitting them in two.
With the magical beasts' strong vitality, mere cutting wasn't enough to kill them. But the gravitational field that followed immediately compressed their wounds, squeezing their internal organs and energy cores out of their bodies. The alternating attack methods killed tens of thousands of magical beasts, stunning everyone on the distant Third Fleet beyond words. Although it was partly due to the enemy's density, this was nearly comparable to a fleet's firepower!
But this harvest didn't last long. Sensing their excessive losses, the magical beast horde stirred. Then, like the Red Sea parting before Moses, the front ranks of beasts split open. Several massive figures, hidden behind the beast swarm, appeared in the void. Accompanied by a strange 'buzzing' sound audible even in the vacuum, they rapidly flew into the space between Joshua and the void magical beasts. Deep-green hemispherical barrier shields rose, firmly blocking the warrior's gravity and spatial attacks.
Over five kilometers in total length, with a disc-like appearance, their bodies covered in countless dark green pustules, tumors, and all sorts of bizarre tentacles and appendages—these super-giant void magical beasts abruptly appeared before everyone. Never before seen by the Courtyard people, their emergence caused great commotion. Countless people widened their eyes and gasped, and at the same time, a question inevitably arose in their hearts:
Can we really fight these void creatures?
And Joshua, through his actions, gave them a definitive answer.
Of course we can.