Book 4 - Chapter 15.4 - Treading on Ice

Chapter 15.4 - Treading on Ice

When she saw that the enemy was finally retreating, Li released a breath of relief, fatigue only now sweeping through her body like a tide. She didn’t have the luxury of rest, using this short intermittence to issue a series of orders in succession: “Take inventory on casualties and ammunition, deliver the wounded behind the defensive position. Everyone else, carry out reorganization on the spot and prepare to pursue the enemy!”

The soldiers that felt like they had a second chance at life after this great battle couldn’t believe their ears. Pursue the enemy? They almost couldn’t withstand the enemy’s first assault, with close to fifty dead and injured soldiers! Even though the enemy temporarily retreated, they were clearly planning and preparing for a greater assault.

Li didn’t explain herself, instead having Li Gaolei help her hurriedly deal with the injury on her back. On the battlefield, what she needed was obedience, not soldiers who doubted her commands. Only the three subordinates knew that all they had to do was force back the enemy’s attacks once, as this was the fastest method in unifying an army. Once they forced back the first wave of assault, the battle was actually already finished.

It was because Su was the main force of this battle.

Steel Gate’s soldiers retreated to their set off position like a tide. Under the cover of the mobile armors, they could still support a few lightly injured comrades back. The commander with the heavy alloy shield walked at the very back, slowly coming back. Resting on his face was still a sinister and terrifying smile, not taking this loss to seriously. From his perspective, the other party had a few troublesome fellas, for example, that woman who was a natural born soldier, as well as the terrifying artillery gunner. However, if they wanted to stop Steel Gate’s army with just their strength, they were delusional! It was unknown why the leader of Judgment Knights’ luck was so bad, unexpectedly dying under their hands. The reports said that these foreigners had a seventh level ability user, but they didn’t see anyone like this at all! General Schneider had seven levels of ability himself, and together with three individuals under him who each had sixth level abilities, as well as their superior quality weapons, he believed that they could flatten this small high ground with their next attack.

Just when he was trying to think of a way to capture that woman alive, the innate vigilance hardened from many years on the battlefield suddenly made his skin become tight! He seemed to have instinctively turned around towards his left side, as well as quickly move the heavy alloy shield towards the direction of danger.

As a result, he saw a fiery streak of light fly over from the distance with incomparable speed, landing at the edge of the heavy shield. Then, he felt as if he was smashed head on by a main battle tank. The heavy shield left his hand, the tremendous force completely destroying the engines on both of his arms, as well as breaking his arm’s bones that were tough like steel into several tens of pieces! A fiery pain spread from his waist, and when he did everything he could to look downwards, he discovered with horror that half a meter of flesh was missing!

A great rumbling sound rang through the air. His now powerless body couldn’t support the weight of the mobile armor any longer, falling onto the ground with a loud noise. Before he fell, he could vaguely make out a somewhat frail figure who was carrying an enormous and strange rifle, walking over casually as if he was just taking a stroll. He couldn’t recognize what kind of rifle that was, nor could he figure out how that kind of rifle could produce such shocking power. However, his thought process was becoming slower, so the search for an answer became more and more difficult. The good thing was, however, that the pain was quickly leaving him.

If one didn’t consider the biological issue, then one would discover that Su’s movements were extremely graceful. The distance every step covered was exactly the same, graceful and full of indescribable power. An over two meter long electromagnetic rifle was carried in his arms, yet this didn’t give off any feeling of disharmony.

Alloy bullets fired out from the electromagnetic rifle again and again, and in the blink of an eye, the four first generation armors that wanted to return were turned into blazing torches. The sharp whistling noises the alloy bullets released tore through this entire battlefield, making everyone’s hearts tremble back and forth.

"What is that? Could it be an energy weapon?" Schneider’s pupils rapidly shrunk. As soon as he this thought emerged in his mind, he saw Su abandon those soldiers that were fleeing in disarray, instead turning and walking towards him. When there was still three kilometers before them, the rifle was already aimed at Schneider!

“Firing from that kind of distance? How could that be possible?” His experience gave him a powerful sense of doubt, but his battle instincts caused Schneider to quickly move to the side, avoiding Su’s firing trajectory. Even though the mobile armor was heavy, under the support of seven levels of ability, he was as agile as a lightly armed special forces soldier.

A light vibration sound rang through the air. A streak of fiery light fired from several kilometers away, shooting at Schneider. However, with full mental preparation and half a second to respond, it was already enough for Schneider to move ten meters out. However, even though he could dodge, the first generation mobile armors behind and to his side couldn’t. The blazing alloy bullets’ tremendous force easily tore through the armor covering them, and after penetrating it, the bullet itself changed, dispersing into a terrifyingly hot spray of metal, turning everything it made contact with into blazing flames.

Before Schneider even had the time to stand firm, the second electromagnetic bullet arrived. Without the chance to even process what had just happened, he immediately operated the mobile armor to roll with exceptional nimbleness, once again avoiding the fatal blast. He, who had already witnessed the might of the electromagnetic rifle, obviously wouldn’t do something as foolish as try to use the shield on his arm to block the electromagnetic bullet.

Schneider didn’t even have the time to reveal anger. As soon as he stood up, he saw that the third electromagnetic bullet was already less than a hundred meters from himself! This short amount of distance left him with no other choice, forcing him to immediately lay flat on the ground. The electromagnetic bullet passed through the ammunition storage on the back of the mobile suit before hitting another first generation mobile armor. This time, the weakened electromagnetic bullet couldn’t break through the armor, but it still left behind a hole, as well as an inextinguishable flame on that lucky mobile armor.

The ammunition storage exploded ferociously, practically blowing apart the entire rear portion of the mobile armor! Flames completely devoured Schneider’s body. Then, a world shaking roar sounded from the raging flames. The mobile armor ferociously exploded, the shrapnel flying in all directions. Schneider unexpectedly managed to use his powerful body to force apart the mobile armor before leaping out from the raging flames. His bare body was covered with wriggling muscles, his dark skin making him look like a war god cast from steel. There was no sign of the effects of time on his body.

However, from the large patches of burns and trembling body, it was clear that the explosions caused by the ammunitions storage still left him with serious injuries.