211: Chapter 131: Within Reach 211: Chapter 131: Within Reach Balbo, in the mont of direct connection with the war chariot, had already completed the mapping between intuitive feelings and the readings of the chariot.
The sensors all over the chariot no longer existed as re data but as intuitions within his consciousness.
“So, first-hand…”
Inch Energy·Fierce Tiger Opens Mountains!
(Note: Here, the ‘Fierce Tiger’ does not refer to a type of large feline mammal existing in the New Era, but to an old-era main battle tank)
Using the engine’s burst of power and abrupt braking, he delivered a short, crisp strike with the external armor.
This was a tactic large war chariots could adopt when disengaged from coordinated infantry-tank operations and forced into close-quarters combat with a Martial Artist wielding armor-breaking weapons.
Experts in the Military Martial Path who specialized in chariots could use inch energy to knock Martial Artists who climbed onto the chariot bodies three to ten ters away, depending on the chariot’s horsepower.
And indeed, he heard a clanging of tal through the sensors on the roof of the chariot.
“Success!
His lower stance isn’t as stable as I imagined!”
Balbo was ecstatic.
The exterior armor of war chariots of this era tended towards smooth curved surfaces, with almost no parts on the outside to grip and climb.
If today’s chariots still continued the classic designs that have been used since the twentieth century, then the cyber Martial Artists, with their greatly enhanced physical and reactive capabilities, could climb them effortlessly.
Even if they encountered relatively smoother smooth curved external armor, Heroes could still opt for tools like electromagnets or vacuum suction cups to climb.
—After all, the “bare hands” of the prosthetic era include any “attachnts that can be mounted on a prosthetic,” which carries a decidedly different aning from the “bare hands” of the flesh era.
Heavy tanks and giants, first trained in inch energy, were exactly for dealing with such attacks and defenses.
But even so, there were Martial Artists who could rely on their extraordinary balance to produce sticky power all over their bodies, cling tightly atop the chariot, dissolve the inch energies of the military martial artists one by one, and effortlessly break through the armor.
Of course, Balbo did not intend to give his opponent such leisure.
Next ca the triple burst of inch energy.
The three loud blasts were quite satisfying to hear.
Yet that damned assassin still hadn’t been thrown off.
“Each inch energy strike isn’t perfectly dissolved, yet he can still stand up on the chariot… not simple.
If my martial arts were a bit weaker, maybe he really could have assassinated .”
At that thought, Balbo shuddered with fear.
Although he had practiced so external strength, he could only match the records of Hiroshi Matsushima from decades ago.
If he faced a humanoid prosthetic and such an assassin—they who could withstand chariot inch energy and still remain standing—it would mostly be terrible.
He attacked viciously with a move “Xiafei One Line,” keeping the chariot’s tracks on either side at different accelerations, manipulating it to trace very small arcs continuously.
“Clang clang” resounded.
But Balbo faced a horrifying reality.
The noise ca not from the side, but from directly above.
Then, the caras were destroyed.
Balbo only had ti to glimpse a figure in a black robe.
Balbo issued a command for the top cannon to fire automatically, but there was no response.
It seed that the other party had hacked off the cannon before entering its range with a backhanded sword strike.
“Luck, huh?
To continue moving forward with the inertia brought by Xiafei One Line…”
Fortunately, the top hatch was locked internally and couldn’t be opened from the outside…
A grating sound echoed above the officer’s head.
—Sonicon Blade…
—That rebel still had a Sonicon Blade in his hand…
Balbo once again propelled himself backward with an inch of energy.
The acceleration coupled with the sudden exertion of inch energy should have thrown the assassin forward directly.
But the assassin, as if anticipating this, had preemptively used his fingers to fix himself on the hatch.
A tallic groan.
The inertia created by one ton of prosthetic weight poured onto the hatch as kinetic energy.
A crack instantaneously ford.
In that mont, Balbo, through a prosthetic eye at the back of his head, made eye contact with the assassin for the first ti.
Then Balbo imdiately ejected that prosthetic eye.
This was to prevent the technique of witnessing.
Balbo no longer hoped to shake off the assassin but instead made a full sprint to the south side.
He was betting he could break out of Iron Dust’s coverage before the Hero succeeded.
Just leaving this coverage area… no, just reaching the periter where Iron Dust’s density was slightly thinner, his nurous subordinates could rely on a barrage of bullets to kill the assassin.
The assassin clearly realized this as well.
So a malicious wind struck from behind Balbo’s head.
But Balbo knew the other party had a Sonicon Blade and understood its lethal effect, so he was well prepared.
As soon as the rear surveillance cara spotted the shadow, he had already turned his head.
However, what shot in from the hatch was not a Sonicon Blade, but a Halberd.
The length of the halberd was longer than the Sonicon Blade ntioned in the intelligence.
Balbo dodged the direct strike, but the side blade of the halberd chopped into the back of his neck.
At that mont, the officer roared like a tiger, his neck bending forcefully, wrestling just enough space to exert force under impossible circumstances.
The halberd blade scraped past Balbo’s neck, leaving only a mark that tore through the external armor on his neck.
The halberd struck down beneath the control panel, pressing directly on the brake.
The war chariot ca to an abrupt halt.
The enemy holding the halberd stumbled forward from the force.
The halberd bent along the inner edge of the hatch, forming a beautiful arc, pinning Balbo firmly in his seat.
This seat had so space to move backward.
The pressure almost pulled his hands from the control interface.
But he still activated the acceleration.
It seed like only a mont had passed.
He had probably burst out of the regint’s core area, the scenery before him suddenly becoming clearer, visibility extending up to thirty ters.
And through the side caras, he also saw quite a few soldiers.
Thus, the officer shouted loudly through the speaker, “Everyone!
Aim at the assassin on the roof!”
The strength of the external armor on a lightweight prosthetic, weighing around one ton, could by no ans be higher than that of a nearly hundred-ton war chariot.
When the gunfire started, Balbo indeed felt a wave of reassurance.
He heard the sound of bullets tearing through the prosthetic, the clashing of parts and external armor, the sound of bursting fluids.
—The assassin was indeed dead.
But at that instant…
No, it should be a few milliseconds earlier.
At the sa ti as the sound of the bullet impacts, another sound of tal crystal being destroyed also rang out.
Right behind Balbo on the floor.
The movent of a Sonicon Blade was originally subtle.
The sound of bullets and parts colliding completely masked it.
The first ti he saw the inside structure of the vehicle, Xiang Shan realized that the war chariots of this era were truly different from the past.
It only needed one person to control, the remaining space could be equipped with electronic command systems, more energy, and ammunition.
It could be controlled by an intelligent system.
At the sa ti, to ensure it could counter an Internal Strength Master, this military vehicle also retained a chanical driving structure to ensure that it could go offline from the hacked command network if necessary.
Xiang Shan hitting the brake was no accident.
And with that strike, he pierced through the cavalry general’s chest with the Halberd, pinning him together with the war chariot.
Then, he draped his black cape over the cavalry general, quickly securing it with a tal wire he carried with him.
During the sudden brake, Xiang Shan had already leveraged his montum to surge forward, landing directly and then sliding underneath the tank, where he secured himself with a suction cup.
By this ti, he had already drawn his Sonicon Blade.
The advantage of the Sonicon Blade was that it did not rely on the kinetic energy of the blade to pierce through external armor but on the chanical vibrations of the crystal structures, transferring energy to disrupt the tallic crystal formation.
Its armor-breaking capability was inherent to the blade.
Thus, it did not need a buildup of force to chop; a gentle tap was enough to damage the armor.
Even in extrely tight spaces where it was impossible to exert force, it could still be effective.
With information provided by Solo Kill King, Xiang Shan roughly knew the chanical structure of the vehicle.
A single glance from the rooftop into the vehicle was enough for him to avoid the engine and the fuel tank, directly cutting open the weakest part of the chassis.
Xiang Shan hooked his hands onto the suction cups, his reverse joints kicking forward harshly.
The chunk of floor that he had cut off, still in place due to friction and inertia, shot out inside the vehicle like a cannonball.
Xiang Shan then spun around, like a bat returning to its roost, hanging upside down as he surged into the vehicle.
Imdiately afterward, the blade flashed.
Balbo knew he had been tricked, he also knew his life was hanging by a thread.
He pulled his right hand from the control interface, eting the Sonicon Blade.
The Sonicon Blade was not invincible.
It just had a particularly strong destructive power against crystals.
But Balbo knew that his prosthetic arm contained a lot of non-crystal parts, including the insulating layer of wires, inner liners of the prosthetic that absorbed vibrations, artificial muscle fibers made of non-crystal materials, and so on.
When the Sonicon Blade struck these materials, it was no different than a blunt knife.
A skilful Blade Guest would only make a quick slice on the external armor and then enhance that with a punch or a kick to damage the vulnerable internal structure.
—If one were to et it head on, there might be a chance…
The Sonicon Blade penetrated Balbo’s right arm.
Balbo’s arm exerted force according to the preset commands.
The next second, Balbo’s arm detached from his torso, hitting the cabin wall above.
The rigid blade shattered into several pieces, remnants flying.
Ultimately, the Sonicon Blade was a weapon invented by Martial Ancestor Xiang Shan after his period of silence.
Although Xiang Shan understood in theory the strategic combinations it could execute, practical operations often lacked tily reactions.
Xiang Shan’s right hand, anwhile, passed through the crystalline shards, pressing a palm on the control interface.
The data port on his wrist connected to the war chariot.
Internal Strength surged out, flowing toward the exposed port of the war chariot.
Balbo had wanted to call his subordinates.
But at that mont, he had already lost access to the loudspeaker.
Balbo swung his severed arm at Xiang Shan.
The explosive force from the artificial muscle fibers almost sent Xiang Shan flying, slamming him against the cabin wall.
But his right wrist remained connected to the war chariot.
His left hand then captured Balbo’s severed arm.
Now, the two were only inches apart!
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