An Unusual Method of Killing

By the time the girls had finished collecting the green and cyan drop orbs scattered across the plaza, Amy was already back on her feet—cheeks flushed with a healthy pink glow, eyes bright with cheerful energy.

"Recovered!" She put her hands on her hips and beamed at Lei Feng. "Well?! Was Miss Amy amazing back there or what?! I took down half the Mechanical Guardians all by myself, you know!"

"Hmph—obviously."

"..."

Lin Xixi and the others recovered shortly after. One by one, they opened their eyes and stood. The white orbs that remained scattered across the plaza held far less appeal for the Gene Warriors watching from the high-rise buildings—not nearly enough to be worth the risk. The ones who had been eyeing the battlefield for an opportunity quietly put those plans away.

Lu Yuan saw that everyone was back on their feet and smiled. "Since we're all good—let's deal with the Chief Grade."

A brief, tense exchange had already played out between Lu Yuan's group and a cluster of Gene Warriors watching from the rooftops above.

Apparently someone had made a dismissive comment.

"Who did you just call worthless?!"

"If you want to die, just say so. I'll send you out of the ruins right now."

Hearing those words, the would-be opportunists went cold—eyes hard with fury—but their feet stayed firmly where they were.

*Not worth it.*

The standoff dissolved.

Privately, some of the lower-ranked warriors sitting on the high-rise buildings reflected on an uncomfortable truth: they weren't even as tough as the Mechanical Hounds Lu Yuan had been casually throwing around the plaza. The notion of picking a fight with him was nothing short of delusional.

The group stopped roughly a hundred meters from the gate.

Five meters of steel and coiled fury stood waiting—the Chief Grade Mechanical Warrior, its massive iron greatsword slung across its back, flanked on either side by four Mechanical Hounds. All of them motionless.

"Amy." Lu Yuan turned to her. "Can you control that Chief Grade Mechanical Warrior?"

Amy studied the Warrior and its four Hounds for a moment, then spoke.

"Its strength is considerable—binding it will take some effort. Lei Feng, I'll need you to stall it for just a moment. One moment is enough."

She tilted her chin up. "But of course I can handle it. Stop underestimating me."

Lu Yuan's eyes lit up. He gave her a thumbs up. "Good. No problem then."

Amy raised her small hand. "I can hold two of the dogs as well."

*Simultaneously controlling a Chief Grade and two Boss Grades.* Lu Yuan glanced at her with a trace of surprise. *That's a remarkable capacity.*

"Should we send anyone below Boss Grade off the field?" Amy asked.

Lu Yuan thought it over and nodded. "Yes—below Boss Grade won't be able to break through that shield anyway. Let them pull back."

Zhu Yu's eyes went very wide. She raised her hand timidly, as though trying to make herself invisible. "Um... c-can I go to the spectators' group?"

Lu Yuan's expression went flat.

*My God. First time he'd encountered a Boss Grade warrior this terrified of combat.*

He looked at her and sighed. "Stay behind me when it starts. Don't get hit—one tap from that Chief Grade and someone your size is done."

Zhu Yu nodded frantically.

Everyone who lacked the firepower to breach the Chief Grade's defense stepped back. Three remained at the front: Lin Xixi with her longbow, Zhu Yu with her sword—Assault Type, though her current posture made that hard to believe—and a brown-haired girl named Mary who wielded elemental abilities.

Lu Yuan glanced at Zhu Yu once more. "Stay *behind* me."

"Simple," he said, turning toward the gate. "Kill the dogs first, then the Chief Grade. Amy—go."

Amy's expression became serious. She opened her hands, and Spirit Power surged.

Dozens of Tianrao Purple Vine tendrils shot forward like lightning bolts—dense, relentless, spreading in every direction—aimed at the Chief Grade Mechanical Warrior, its four Mechanical Hounds, and everything between them.

As the vines swept in, every mechanical enemy's eyes flared red. Internal alarms shrieked from within their frames.

The Chief Grade Mechanical Warrior yanked its iron greatsword from its back with a furious roar. Dark energy blazed along the blade as it swung directly into the oncoming wall of vines.

**Clang!**

The blade couldn't sever them—but the brute force of the swing swept dozens of tendrils violently aside in a wide arc.

Both the Warrior and the Hounds were evading the dense swarm as they charged toward Amy. The sheer volume of vines slowed them to a crawl—one Hound snagged mid-rush and stopped dead—but the rest kept pushing forward.

On the plaza, Lu Yuan had already crossed the distance to the Chief Grade's side.

The Warrior's deep-red mechanical eyes locked onto him. Its electrical currents surged. Dark energy blazed fiercer along its blade as it raised the massive greatsword in both hands and drove it straight down.

Two enormous energy bolts fired at him simultaneously.

He didn't bother dodging. His heavy sword swept out in a single stroke and shattered both bolts mid-flight.

**Clang!!**

Two greatswords met. Two figures—one towering over five meters, the other less than half its height—crashed into each other with the full force behind each blow.

**BOOM!!**

A thunderous shockwave rang across the plaza. Lu Yuan and the Chief Grade Mechanical Warrior each slid back exactly one step.

High on the rooftop buildings, the Gene Warriors watching drew a sharp collective breath.

The size difference was almost absurd. The Warrior stood more than twice Lu Yuan's height, and its greatsword was four meters long. It looked less like a duel and more like a giant attacking an infant.

The result had been dead even.

"They're even?! He really does have Chief Grade combat power!"

Though many had suspected it, suspicion and proof were different things. They had never seen him trade blows with something this powerful before. Now they had. Every last doubt vanished.

*A force that can match a Chief Grade head-on—what else would you call that?*

The Chief Grade Mechanical Warrior's crystal shield was far more formidable than the Mechanical Hounds'. Lu Yuan's most powerful full-force strike—Black Steel Force running at maximum output—barely made it tremble.

He kept hacking at it with an easy, unhurried smile.

*You can glare at me all you like. You're not going anywhere.*

The Warrior was still fighting through the vines, sweeping its sword to clear them, pressing toward Amy—but its advance was slowing.

Down on the plaza, the moment the Warrior's forward push stuttered, the Tianrao Purple Vine—coiled and waiting like a viper in the grass—erupted all at once. Over twenty tendrils burst through the air and wrapped around the crystal shield in a single breath.

In an instant, the entire shield was enveloped. The towering Chief Grade Mechanical Warrior, just like the Mechanical Hounds before it, was bundled completely immobile.

"Got it!"

Amy tilted her chin up with undisguised triumph.

Under the collective gaze of every spectator, the Tianrao Purple Vine trembled and shook as the Warrior fought with everything it had. Not a single tendril gave way. The Chief Grade's red eyes flickered in helpless, furious disbelief.

A long, involuntary hiss ran through the crowd watching from the rooftops.

"That control ability—" someone exhaled. "Completely insane."

A Kaman warrior cried out in astonishment: "Even the Chief Grade couldn't cut through those purple vines?! What Combat Technique *is* that?! It's indestructible!"

"It's not breaking free," another confirmed. "It used a full Combat Technique and still couldn't sever them. Now it can't even swing. There's nothing it can do."

"Though—" a skeptic's voice cut in. "Remember when other groups tried challenging the Chief Grade before? Several Boss Grade warriors couldn't even scratch that defense. The crystal shield is the real issue."

"Look at that bound Mechanical Hound over there," someone else said, pointing. "It's been firing energy bolts at the vines from point-blank range this entire time. Nothing's changed. The vine doesn't even register it. *That's* what's terrifying."

Every eye fixed on the swaying purple vines with a new kind of awe.

*Simultaneously controlling a Chief Grade and two Boss Grades.*

The assembled Gene Warriors stared at Amy with unmistakable unease—particularly the races hostile to humanity. The Gnolls, cold-eyed and wary, watched her from the rooftops with barely concealed alarm.

Three Mechanical Hounds remained.

Lu Yuan became a streak of light across the plaza.

He reached the nearest Hound and drove his sword through its crystal shield. Cracks spiderwebbed across the surface and detonated outward.

**Boom!**

The Mechanical Hound was sent flying and crashed hard to the ground. It struggled to rise—but a white light arrow and an ice spear streaked in from a distance, from Lin Xixi and Mary at range, striking the already-fractured skull. The head froze in an instant, then shattered.

The headless Hound went still.

The remaining three Mechanical Hounds turned their assault on Lu Yuan in concert. His expression didn't change.

Two of them opened their jaws wide. Energy gathered in their throats, then fired—two massive bolts straight at him.

He didn't dodge. His sword swept out and smashed both apart.

**Boom! Boom!**

All three were sent flying at once.

One landed directly into the waiting Tianrao Purple Vine and was immediately bound. The other two skidded several meters across the stone, their frames gouged with deep sword marks.

The last Hound recovered and charged straight at Lu Yuan, claws extended like blades, raking for his throat.

The claws struck his neck—and hit something like solid iron. Sparks burst. The blow stopped cold.

Lu Yuan caught the Hound's mechanical leg with his free hand, pivoted, and *slammed* the machine into the ground.

**Crash.**

Then again.

**Crash. Crash. Crash.**

The spectators above winced with every impact.

*If that were any of us being thrown around like that...*

Internally, a few of the weaker warriors came to a sobering realization: they weren't even as tough as the Mechanical Hounds Lu Yuan was casually dismantling. The Gene Warriors who had previously considered making a grab for his things felt ice run through them. The ones who had been eyeing the plaza for an opening quietly abandoned the thought entirely.

After several brutal impacts, the Mechanical Hound began to malfunction—electrical sparks cascading across its frame—its movements stuttering and slowing.

Then still.

Amy gave a nod and released her next controlled Hound.

The freed machine barely registered its surroundings before a sword flash tore through it—followed immediately by a white arrow and an ice spear—and it was gone.

This one had barely seen the outside world.

The last Hound met the same fate.

*One against three. He counter-struck every single one of them.*

When the final Mechanical Hound fell, only the bound Chief Grade Mechanical Warrior remained.

Every eye—on the plaza, on the rooftops—converged on it.

It strained against the Tianrao Purple Vine with everything it had, red eyes blazing, electrical currents roaring across its frame in furious arcs. The vines held without so much as a tremor. It couldn't move a single limb.

*Everyone watching seemed to already see the end.*

But the real question: could Lu Yuan actually break through that crystal shield?

"Remember, several Boss Grade warriors couldn't dent that defense," the skeptic reminded the crowd.

"I think he can," came the reply. "That exchange was dead even. Force that matches a Chief Grade—what would you call it but Chief Grade?"

"Not necessarily. Though I'll admit—look at that bound Hound. Energy bolts, point-blank, nonstop. The vine ignores them. That terrifies me more than anything else we've seen."

Lu Yuan walked up to the bound Warrior with his heavy sword, smiling pleasantly.

He raised the blade and brought it down on the crystal shield.

The shield trembled—barely.

He brought it down again.

*You just stay right there. Take your time.*

High on the observation platforms, the assembled Gene Warriors watched the scene—the Chief Grade completely bound in purple vines, Lu Yuan standing in place hacking at the crystal shield over and over—and their collective thoughts stalled out completely.

*"...Is this really how they're killing the Chief Grade?"*

Each full-force strike had only produced a faint shiver from the shield. But he kept at it with his easy, cheerful expression, and the damage was accumulating—fractures spiderwebbing across the surface with every successive blow, the cracks deepening and spreading.

The Chief Grade's red eyes flickered. It struggled. It accomplished nothing.

Eventually, Amy's grin spread.

"I'll loosen the vines around its head," she said brightly. "Lei Feng—when it's exposed, go for it."

Very quickly, Amy withdrew the Tianrao Purple Vine from the Warrior's skull. The massive mechanical head came fully into view.

Lu Yuan's smile sharpened.

He walked up to the exposed head, raised his greatsword—

And started hacking.

**Crash! Crash! Crash!!**

The spectators above felt the corners of their mouths twitch involuntarily.

*They're actually killing the Chief Grade like this?!*

Blow after blow drove into the exposed skull. The Chief Grade's red eyes blazed in pure, incandescent fury—its body completely locked, its arms pinned, every system inside screaming—

There was nothing it could do.

After several more strikes, the Warrior's frame began to fail. Electrical arcs cascaded across its body. Its movements ground to a halt.

Then silence.

The plaza settled.

*That's... certainly a special way of killing a Chief Grade.*

The thought moved through every spectator's mind like a single current.

Shortly after the Warrior went still, Amy opened her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed with exertion, a healthy warmth dusted across her face. She bounced up from the ground with her characteristic energy.

"Recovered! Well, Lei Feng?! Was Miss Amy impressive earlier or what?! I took down half the Mechanical Guardians all by myself, you know!"

"Hmph—obviously."

"..."

Lin Xixi and the others recovered soon after. Everyone opened their eyes and stood.

Lu Yuan saw them all back on their feet and gave Amy an earnest, serious nod.

"Amy was the best."

Amy tilted her chin up with towering satisfaction.

The five of them turned and walked toward the gate.

Up on the high-rise buildings, the watching Gene Warriors straightened with a ripple of energy.

"Who is this kid?! Does anyone recognize him?!"

The human Gene Warriors were glancing at each other with barely concealed excitement, whispering among themselves:

"Both human. Both *this* powerful. There's no way they've been completely invisible until now."

"Doesn't matter who they are—burn both faces into your memory. When we get out of the ruins, report to My Lord. Track them down. If there's any chance of getting them to join our side, that has to be the priority."

The Gnolls and other races hostile to humanity watched the departing pair with cold, guarded eyes. Every faction—human or otherwise—had committed both figures to memory by now.

Among the crowd, Beiman stood visibly shaken, his expression one of undisguised shock.

And somewhere in the gathered mass of spectators, a voice gave quiet voice to what everyone was thinking:

*With those two here... how is anyone else supposed to get anything done?*