179: Chapter 179 Joint Techniques! The Slowing Giant!

"Ding." A hexagonal screw fell onto the distant arena floor, the crisp sound completely drowned out by the roar of the battlefield.

The sound was too faint. So faint that no one noticed it except Lin Qi.

The Titan's massive body remained unaffected. Its built-in System quickly assessed the threat posed by the human in its arms, retracted its iron fist, and its scarlet electronic eyes locked onto Lin Qi once again.

"Threat target confirmed. Executing, elimination order."

"Thud." The massive body turned once again, driving a whistling gale with its fist as it continued to pursue Lin Qi.

"What on earth is he doing?"

"Abandoning his weapon and scrambling around this big guy? Isn't that just asking for death?"

"I don't get it, I don't get it at all. He reached out and touched it, and then what? That's it?"

In the spectator stands, everyone was bewildered.

They only saw Lin Qi abandon his imposing heavy sword and jump around the Titan's massive body and legs.

Every now and then, he would reach out, touch here and there on the heavy armor, and then quickly dart away.

To everyone watching, these movements were meaningless, limp, and didn't even count as scraping.

"What is he playing at? Is he trying to tickle the Titan?"

In the VIP box, Li Pojun sneered disdainfully. He felt that Lin Qi had completely lost his mind and was making a final, futile struggle.

The commentator was also full of confusion, speaking dryly into the microphone: "Uh... we can see that contestant Lin Qi has adopted a very... unconventional tactic. He has abandoned frontal attacks and chosen to skirmish, but his attacks... don't seem to have caused any damage to the Titan. This looks more like a form of... stalling harassment?"

Harassment? Only Lin Qi on the arena floor knew that everything he did had the most definite purpose.

Just as the Titan's giant fist swept over with a wind force that tore through the air, Lin Qi ducked low, dodging the blow.

In the moment he dodged, his body brushed past the Titan's massive waist.

His fingers, covered in a pale golden film of Qi, tapped lightly onto the casing of a drive shaft on the Titan's waist, unleashing Spiral Force.

"Hum."

A high-frequency burst of Spiral Force passed through the heavy alloy shell and was precisely transmitted to the interior.

That force bypassed all the sturdy structures and acted only on a single, minute point.

"Snap." A belt responsible for transmitting core power snapped on cue.

Everything happened in an instant; no one noticed.

Having succeeded with one strike, Lin Qi tapped his toes on the ground and circled behind the Titan.

At this moment, the Titan's AI was still executing its attack command, and its massive body had a slight stiffness from swinging that punch into empty air.

Now.

Lin Qi pointed a finger, striking exactly onto a large radiator grille on the Titan's back.

Inch Power.

"Bang."

A dull, explosive sound of force detonated inside the grille.

The outer grille remained intact, but a coolant circulation pipe inside developed a crack due to the shockwave.

"Got it."

A cold arc curled onto the corners of Lin Qi's mouth.

Every one of his strikes was refined to the extreme.

He didn't even bother touching that outrageously thick anti-shock alloy armor; he attacked only those most fragile, most core connecting parts, drive Systems, and energy pipelines hidden inside the steel fortress.

This was the most profound and unreasonable technique in ancient martial arts: The Butcher's Art of Dissection.

Following the gaps in the bones to cut, ignoring the toughness of the muscles, it naturally overcomes everything.

For a mechanical creation, those connecting parts, drive shafts, and energy lines were its bone gaps.

Just then, the Titan's attacks began to experience issues.

It attempted to turn and throw a punch again, but its movements showed a visible stiffness.

The waist rotation, which should have been fluid, became sluggish, emitting a grinding clack-clack sound.

"Hm? What's going on?"

"Look, has that big guy's movement slowed down?"

Finally, some sharp-eyed spectators noticed something was wrong.

The Titan seemed unaware of its own abnormality, or rather, the concept of sluggishness did not exist in its combat logic.

It lifted its left leg, intending to stomp on Lin Qi.

"Click. Click-click."

Its left knee joint emitted a series of harsh, abnormal noises as it lifted, and the entire movement experienced a half-second stutter.

At the same time, its back radiator began to spew large amounts of abnormal white steam, caused by the coolant leaking and instantly evaporating from the core's high heat.

Data streams flashed wildly in the Titan's scarlet electronic eyes.

Lines of red warnings flooded its internal System.

"Warning. Left knee joint power module disconnected."

"Warning. Waist drive System efficiency dropped by 30%."

"Warning. Waist drive System efficiency dropped by 50%."

"Warning. Core temperature abnormally high. Risk of overload."

"Its movements... its movements have really slowed down!" The commentator's voice rose sharply, filled with incredulous excitement. "My god. Those previous attacks by Lin Qi worked. He wasn't just scraping; he was destroying the Titan's internal structure."

At these words, the whole arena was in an uproar.

In the VIP box, the smile on Li Qingcang's face vanished completely. He stood up abruptly, staring fixedly at the arena.

Li Pojun's laughter also stopped suddenly, his face full of shock.

In the Mechanical Cult's lounge, a researcher in a white lab coat pointed at the screen and screamed: "Impossible! Its drive shaft and cooling pipes are inside three layers of armor. How did he attack them? Penetrating Force? No. That stuff is useless against machines."

No one could answer him.

On the arena floor.

The Titan's AI seemed to have determined that melee combat was a failure. Its remaining intact right arm raised abruptly, and the cannon muzzle on the arm began to gather energy.

However, Lin Qi no longer intended to give it a chance.

"My turn."

Lin Qi snorted coldly, looking at the sluggish hunk of iron before him, and took the initiative to attack.

Facing the Titan's giant fist, which had swung over again, now several times slower.

This time, Lin Qi did not dodge.

He didn't retreat but advanced into the gale of the fist. The moment the giant fist crashed down, his body twisted at an incredible angle, narrowly passing through the gap between the fist and the arm.

"What is he trying to do?"

Everyone's heart was in their throat.

They saw Lin Qi's figure pressing against the Titan's massive right arm, quickly climbing upward, and in a few steps, he scaled its shoulder.

Just as the Titan swung its giant fist again, wanting to swat the bug on its shoulder to death.

Its entire massive metal arm suddenly stalled.

Then, under the horrified gaze of tens of thousands of people in the arena.

"Crack—Boom."

Accompanied by a series of electric sparks and the screech of tearing metal, that massive metal arm snapped off completely at the shoulder joint.

The entire arm crashed heavily onto the alloy arena floor, emitting a deafening sound.

The entire arena was dead silent.