172: Chapter 172 Railgun? That's it?

Lin Mo's gaze sank slightly.

This was the current state of Ironwall City.

It looked like it was still holding on, but in reality, every attack felt like another hammer blow to a piece of iron plate that was about to shatter.

Yan Yue stood on the high platform of the city gate, his expression grim, his palm already pressed tightly against the combat blade at his waist.

He had no time to argue with Lin Mo and the others anymore.

Because the enemy had already arrived.

On the distant wasteland, dark, oppressive shadows began to emerge.

That was the vanguard of the West Federation.

Squads of armored combat vehicles rolled across the wasteland, their tracks crushing the scorched earth and emitting a dull, ear-piercing roar.

In the sky, a formation of over a dozen drones rapidly deployed, circling the front line like a flock of bloodthirsty metal birds.

Behind those vehicles, dozens of figures clad in silver-gray powered exoskeletons were rapidly approaching, their steps so uniform they were almost mechanical.

Their helmets reflected a cold light, and the energy cores on their chests flickered on and off; the entire troop looked like a legion that had walked out of a graveyard of steel.

"The West Federation vanguard..."

Han Xiao sat in his wheelchair, looking up at the torrent of steel advancing in the distance, his teeth clenched slightly.

"These lunatics, they really won't give us a moment to catch our breath!"

Lu Chenzhou stood beside Lin Mo, his face also turning slightly pale.

Ye Huangyi looked up, staring at the approaching tide of metal, the Spirit fire in her palm igniting unconsciously.

She could feel it.

The ones coming this time were not just ordinary soldiers.

In that vanguard, there were several figures with extremely strong energy signatures; it was clearly a mixed unit of Awakener.

"There are Tier 6 experts in their vanguard."

Shen Yi suddenly spoke in a low voice.

Her gaze swept over the silver-gray exoskeleton soldiers in the distance, her expression more solemn than anyone else's.

"And there isn't just one."

Lin Mo turned his head to glance at her.

Shen Yi continued:

"The West Federation's exoskeleton armor can forcibly boost the combat power of Tier 2 or 3 Awakener to near Tier 5, and elite models can even unleash Tier 6 combat power for a short time."

"This kind of unit doesn't excel at one-on-one duels; they excel at coordination, suppressing fire, and cluster advances."

Hearing this, Yan Yue's expression became even uglier; he clearly hadn't expected that the young woman Lin Mo brought would have such a deep understanding of West Federation equipment.

But he still did not change his judgment because of this.

In his view, no matter how much they knew, it didn't change the fact that these young people were too green.

"You few."

Yan Yue turned his head, his gaze falling back on Lin Mo and the others, and spoke coldly.

"If you don't want to die, retreat to the back."

"This is not a place where you can interfere."

Upon hearing this, Ji Wuchen immediately frowned.

Gu Yunting's hand also pressed onto the hilt of his sword.

Lu Chenzhou was so angry he laughed.

"We traveled thousands of miles to the front line, not to stand around and watch a show."

Yan Yue didn't even look at him, only saying in a deep voice:

"I don't need you to act tough."

"What I need are living people, not a bunch of hot-headed dead people."

These words were blunt.

And precisely because they were blunt, they felt more like the true attitude of a front-line veteran toward young people from the rear.

Here, the word "prodigy" isn't worth much.

Surviving is what's valuable.

Lu Chenzhou laughed in anger, his hand already on the hilt of his blade. Ji Wuchen frowned deeply, and Gu Yunting's knuckles turned white from gripping his sword. Shen Yi stood by Lin Mo's side, her gaze slightly lowered, but she did not speak.

Lin Mo did not speak either.

He simply took a step forward, his boot landing on the scorched earth, not even kicking up much dust.

But the moment his toe touched the ground—

An invisible sense of oppression suddenly spread.

In front of the city gate, everyone froze at the same time.

Yan Yue's words were stuck in his throat, and the second half of his sentence could no longer come out.

Han Xiao, sitting in his wheelchair, saw his pupils constrict sharply, his hands instinctively gripping the armrests.

The garrison commanders behind them—some subconsciously took half a step back, some had their hands on their hilts but forgot to draw their blades, and some even had their legs go weak, their knees almost hitting the ground.

That sense of oppression wasn't aimed at the physical body. It penetrated skin, bones, and meridians, driving straight into the depths of everyone's Spirit, as if being looked down upon by an ancient beast from above. Their bodies were instinctively screaming "run," but their brains couldn't even issue the command to "run."

No one spoke.

No one could move.

The entire city gate was deathly silent.

The next second, Lin Mo retracted that thread of overflowing Spirit pressure, like a receding tide, silent and traceless.

He remained standing where he was, his expression calm, his tone as indifferent as before: "We are not retreating. There is no need for you to try to persuade us further."

Yan Yue came back to his senses, his Adam's apple bobbing, and the look in his eyes as he gazed at Lin Mo was completely different.

Shock, disbelief, and a trace of dread that was being forcibly suppressed.

The city lord, who had been garrisoned in Ironwall City for many years, opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found he didn't know what to say.

Lin Mo did not wait for him to speak, simply walking past him toward the gap in the city wall.

Shen Yi followed behind him, the corners of her mouth curling slightly, whispering in a voice only she could hear: "This is only the first day."

A row of blinding white light suddenly lit up in the sky.

"Orbital strike!"

The lookout on the city wall screamed these four words, his voice filled with a crushed terror, and in that instant, the entire Ironwall City felt as if its throat had been gripped by an invisible hand.

Everyone looked up and saw a blinding beam of light plummeting vertically from above the clouds, trailing a shriek that tore through the air, smashing straight toward the weakest point of the city defense barrier.

That was a death ray fired from an orbital weapon platform.

Before this, it had already torn open more than one hole in this city's defenses.

The barrier couldn't block it, the crystal cannons were too slow to intercept, and the garrison on the city wall had even begun to close their eyes instinctively.

Then, a golden, dragon-shaped blade light soared into the sky from the city wall.

The moment Lin Mo leaped into mid-air, his Dragonborn Form was already activated.

Golden-red vertical pupils carved two scorching marks into the morning mist, dragon scale patterns spread from his neck to his arms, lightning and dragon intent intertwined on his long blade, and the blade edge slashed upward against the beam.

He did not dodge.

He met that death ray falling from the sky, colliding with it head-on.

Boom—!!!

The blade light and the beam collided in mid-air, exploding into a visible shockwave that shredded all the clouds within hundreds of feet.

A rain of light scattered across the sky, like a shattered meteor shower.

That orbital strike, which the Ironwall City garrison regarded as a nightmare, was forcibly cleaved into fireworks across the sky by one person with one blade.

On the city wall, there was dead silence.

A centurion guarding the cannon emplacement dropped his blade to the ground with a "clang." He looked down at his own hand, then looked up at the figure standing in mid-air, his lips trembling for a long time before he squeezed out a few words:

"He... did he just cleave the orbital strike into an explosion with one slash?"