112: Chapter 112 Mech Assault Under the Falling Moonlight, Zone Clearance in Progress

As the 500-meter-tall white emperor mecha took its first step, the earth groaned under the unbearable weight.

The massive alloy foot, weighing millions of tons, crushed the surface rock layer, sending a circular shockwave that caused the creep within a hundred-meter radius to fold and ripple.

The Brilliance Transmitter propulsion system on the mecha's back spewed azure ion glow, and its six vector nozzles granted this steel giant agility that belied its massive size.

The moment the mecha stepped outside the base's shield, the entire world seemed to change color.

Outside lay a domain covered by Zerg creep.

It was a living, breathing, and pulsing organic surface, ranging in thickness from several centimeters to several meters, its surface covered in dark green slime and constantly opening and closing respiratory pores.

Upon the creep, creep tumors bulged like tumors, each the size of a house. Within their translucent skin flowed fluorescent green bio-energy, contracting and expanding in a slow rhythm, like the heartbeat of the earth.

On the biological map shared by Li Yuan, this area was marked with dense scarlet dots, so numerous that they almost dyed the map's background red.

Yet to the naked eye, apart from the creep and the creep tumors, the field of vision was empty.

"There's a large number of Zerg ahead, likely underground," Li Yuan's voice rang out on the tactical channel. "Take out the creep tumors first. The creep provides energy to the bugs; without it, they won't last long. They'll definitely emerge to attack us to protect the creep."

Three seconds after he finished speaking, his prediction came true.

Thousands of spikes tore through the creep, shooting up from the ground toward the sky.

It was an attack from Stalkers. This spider-like Zerg unit could fire bone spikes from tens of meters underground with a range exceeding two kilometers, enough to penetrate light armor.

Following the spikes, the Zerg Tide surged out.

The creep ruptured at countless points simultaneously, and the brown figures of Zerglings surged out like a flood from a broken dam. Behind them were the heavily armored Roaches, and further back were the Hydralisks, raising their bone-sickle forelimbs.

From the moment the first unit appeared on the surface to the formation of a dark, swarming sea of insects, the entire process took no more than five seconds.

They had no formations, no tactics, only a pure, overwhelming numerical advantage that threatened to drown everything.

Chu Xinghe and Luo Lan were well-prepared.

The moment the Stalkers fired their spikes, the light wings on the backs of the white emperor mechas suddenly flared ten times brighter.

Six sets of thrusters fired in overload mode, propelling the mechas fifty meters off the ground in just 0.3 seconds.

Those bone spikes, capable of piercing tank armor, grazed the undersides of the mechas, leaving sharp hissing sounds in the air.

The next second, the counterattack began.

The "Vulcan" multi-barrel rapid-fire cannons on the heads of the two white emperor mechas deployed simultaneously.

Small-caliber high-explosive ion cannons fired, unleashing a rate of fire of 12,000 rounds per minute.

At the moment of firing, there was not even a muzzle flash, only a continuous, straight-line trajectory of fire.

Two lines of fire plowed into the Zerg Swarm, carving a path of fire and blood.

Before the hypersonic high-explosive ion shells, the speed and carapaces of the Zerglings were as thin as paper; the shells would penetrate the first target and explode.

Wherever the trajectories passed, the Zerg Swarm was cleaved as if by an invisible giant blade, with flesh and carapace fragments splattering in a fan shape.

The Roaches' defense was slightly stronger, but they only lasted a few tenths of a second longer—continuous plasma hits on the same spot would melt their carapaces until the internal biological tissues were shattered.

Simultaneously, the particle cannons on the mechas' shoulders and the beam cannons on their chests began sustained fire.

The particle cannons fired high-temperature plasma streams in pale blue beams; upon contact with targets, they instantly vaporized tissues, burning charred trenches through the Zerg Swarm.

The beam cannons were even more direct; high-energy laser beams struck at the speed of light, burning the bugs to ash.

Yet the Zerg surging from underground continued to increase.

Countless units died every second, but every second, even more units filled the gaps.

The firepower of the white emperor mechas was enough to tear apart any Zerg Swarm vanguard that dared to approach, yet it could not halt the advance of the entire tide.

After suffering thousands of casualties, the sea of insects was now less than a hundred meters from the clearance legion.

What was more troublesome were the Roaches.

These heavily armored units began to actively assemble. They didn't charge, but instead used their bodies to form a moving wall of flesh, pushing forward while enduring the bombardment of the particle cannons.

The white emperor mechas' beam cannons could not extend more than a hundred meters into the Zerg Swarm before being blocked by the Roach formation—the energy of the beams was exhausted after penetrating several layers of carapace.

However, in the rear, the siege tanks and self-propelled artillery also deployed their fire modes.

The tanks' main guns let out a dull roar as large-caliber, high-explosive focused plasma shells exploded deep within the Zerg Swarm; the dissipating lightning caused effective damage to all units within a three-hundred-meter radius.

The plasma shells from the self-propelled artillery traced arcs through the air, exploding into blue plasma spheres upon impact, instantly carbonizing any Zerg within the blast radius.

But the problem remained: the targets were too small.

Zerglings had an average body length of three meters, Roaches five meters, and Hydralisks eight meters.

For heavy artillery that relied primarily on high-energy lasers, plasma jets, and plasma shells.

Limited by ballistics, most of the direct fire was wasted on empty space, leaving charred pits one after another across the ground.

As the battle entered its tenth minute, the Zerg Tide's advance line was only suppressed at three hundred meters from the mechas, while the Stalkers in the rear continued to fire spikes from a safe distance.

The situation reached a brief stalemate.

Then, Elia made her move.

Strictly speaking, this was her first time facing a battlefield of this scale.

Initially, the young girl was indeed shaken by the endless sea of insects, subconsciously assisting the Light Guardians in stabilizing the defensive line.

But when she saw the full picture of the battlefield, she realized that the Light Guardians' defenses were impregnable; it was only she who had panicked. Her true battlefield lay behind the enemy lines.

"Moonfall."

Her clear shout was not loud, yet it pierced through the roar of all the artillery fire.

She raised her right hand and pointed her index finger at an area of creep ahead that had just fired bone spikes.

There was no chanting, no charging—only a point of cold light gathering at her fingertip.

The light in the sky suddenly dimmed for a moment, as if a patch of clouds had obscured the already faint starlight.

Then, a beam of moonlight pierced through the atmosphere, shining precisely onto that patch of creep.

Within the beam of light, an ice sword rapidly took form.

The sword was about three meters long, its entire body as transparent as the purest crystal, with star-like silver veins flowing within the blade.

It hovered in the air, tip pointing downward, emitting an almost inaudible hum.

Elia pointed her finger downward.

The ice sword fell.

It was like a meteor striking the earth, yet it was silent; the solid ground posed no obstacle to the ice sword.

The moment the sword tip pierced into the creep, there was no explosion, only a slight, crisp sound like glass shattering.

Immediately afterward, a ring of frost ripples spread outward from the point of impact; wherever the ripples passed, the creep froze, cracked, and lost its vitality.

A sharp hiss came from underground.

It was the death wail of a Stalker whose vital point had been pierced.

Dark purple blood, mixed with ice shards, gushed from the wound, spreading into a grotesque pattern across the surface of the frozen creep.

One ice sword had successfully killed one Stalker.

But Elia did not stop.

She raised her left hand.

This time, she used both hands, her ten fingers moving through the air as if playing a piano.

With every point, a beam of moonlight pierced the clouds, an ice sword condensed in the air, and an area of creep was marked as a death coordinate.

The second ice sword pierced the creep on the left flank, the third struck an ambush point behind the hill on the right, and the fourth blocked a path for the Zerg Swarm attempting to flank them... She was like a chess player standing at the board, using ice swords as pieces to execute every killing move with precision.

The trajectory of every ice sword was completely different.

Some fell vertically, some shot obliquely into the ground, and some even curved through the air before landing, bypassing obstacles to strike the most deeply hidden Stalkers.

Gradually, her movements became faster and faster.

From condensing them one by one at first, she moved to rapidly tapping with both hands, causing ice swords to fall like rain.

The moonbeams in the sky merged into a single sheet, as if an invisible deity were casting spears of judgment from the clouds.

Each sword's descent was accompanied by hissing from underground, and every patch of creep struck would gush out ice shards mixed with blood.

What was even more terrifying was the effect after the ice swords shattered.

When a Stalker was killed, the ice sword would disintegrate on its own, turning into a localized ice storm.

Countless ice crystal fragments splashed outward at supersonic speeds, covering a two-hundred-meter radius.

Any Zerg within that range—whether Zerglings, Roaches, or Hydralisks—would be instantly frozen, then shattered into ice powder across the ground by the force of momentum.

One ice sword cleared an entire area.

As the Stalkers were sniped one by one, the spike offensive from the rear rapidly weakened.

And the empty areas cleared by the ice swords exposed the creep tumors that had been hidden under the protection of the Zerg Swarm.

The Luan Bird fighters in the sky seized the opportunity.

These fighters, piloted by Light Mages, had long been circling above the battlefield, waiting. They had not participated in the ground fire suppression, but instead, like patient falcons, had been waiting for key targets to appear.

When the creep tumors were exposed, three fighters dove simultaneously.

The "Piercer" laser cannons under their bellies fired continuously.

Three high-energy laser beams accurately struck the weak points of the creep tumors' skin, burning through them and penetrating deep into their interiors.

A second wave of fire followed immediately; this time, they fired high-explosive shells. The plasma energy exploded inside the creep tumors, and the electrical energy carried by the plasma simultaneously disrupted the Zerg's energy metabolism.

The creep tumors began to swell and tremble, and the fluorescent green light beneath their skin became chaotic.

Three seconds later, they exploded.