21: Chapter 21 A Symphony of Steam and Fire, A Dimensional Reduction Attack!

Bang! Bang!

From a distance of three hundred meters, two deep, grating cannon blasts shattered the silence of the Pale Shoals.

Two massive orange-red fireballs erupted from the tops of the Snow Shard Gang vehicles, and two 75mm smoothbore shells, accompanied by shrill whistles, hurtled straight toward the rapidly advancing Polaris!

"It's here!"

Lu Chen sat in the driver's seat, not a shred of panic in his eyes. His steady hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, and the moment those two shells left their barrels, he jerked it half a turn to the left.

With the support of its Track Anti-Cold Lubrication System, the massive body of the Polaris executed a silky-smooth evasive maneuver.

Boom!

The first shell grazed the right track of the Polaris and slammed fiercely into the ice behind it. The terrifying explosion kicked up a fountain of ice and snow over a dozen meters high, and countless shards of ice, mixed with shrapnel, pelted the vehicle's body like a rainstorm.

But the second shell was unavoidable; it struck the Polaris's front, icebreaker-like, inverted V-shaped ram armor dead center!

Blinding flames instantly engulfed the front of the Polaris!

The violent explosion caused Lin Wan inside the cabin to let out a desperate scream. She squeezed her eyes shut, believing that in the next second, she would be shredded to pieces by flying steel.

However, disaster did not strike.

Clang! Hum!

A piercing metallic wail echoed from the center of the explosion, deafeningly loud.

As the smoke cleared.

The Polaris's majestic black steel form was still charging forward at a wild speed!

The moment that terrifyingly large-caliber armor-piercing shell struck the riveted scrap steel armor plating, it encountered an incredibly unreasonable physical phenomenon.

The ricochet effect of sloped armor!

That ten-centimeter-thick composite scrap steel, combined with that nearly extreme inverted V-shaped slope, had forcibly dissipated seventy percent of the shell's armor-piercing kinetic energy!

The remaining explosive force could only leave a basin-sized shallow dent and a patch of char on the armor plate; it didn't even penetrate, and not a single rivet had been blown off!

"That's impossible! What kind of hellish armor is that?! How could a micro-car withstand a direct hit from a 75mm shell?!"

From the communicator on the other side came the ghost-seeing roar of Black Wolf. The firepower he was so proud of was completely useless against this hunk of metal!

"Ignorant bumpkin," Lu Chen sneered coldly.

By now, the distance between the two sides had closed to one hundred and fifty meters! This was his ultimate killing zone!

Lu Chen suddenly released the steering wheel, his body springing up as he dashed to the firing port on the side of the cabin. His hands gripped tightly onto the already fully-charged Black Powder Steam Repeating Crossbow.

"Daring to play at suppressive fire in front of me with antiques that don't even have rifling in their barrels? Let me show you what precision strikes are all about!"

Hiss! Boom! Hiss! Boom!

Accompanied by the shrill whistle of high-pressure steam and the continuous combustion of black powder, thick, solid steel crossbow bolts poured out at an extremely high frequency!

Lu Chen's freakish accuracy was displayed to the fullest at this moment.

The crosshairs swept past the opponent's heavy front armor and locked firmly onto the gap in the track drive wheel of the Snow Shard Gang vehicle on the left!

That was the most fatal weakness of all tracked vehicles!

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

Four consecutive solid steel crossbow bolts, carrying terrifying kinetic energy, struck perfectly through the same tiny gap in the armor, slamming into the transmission gear assembly of the enemy vehicle on the left!

Crackle! Bang!

A sound of metal snapping rang out!

The right track of the enemy vehicle on the left was instantly jammed and snapped!

The vehicle, which had been traveling at high speed, immediately began to spin violently in place as one track lost power.

The medium-sized vehicle, weighing tens of tons, spun out of control on the ice and slammed headlong into a nearby ice hill. With a thunderous crash, it was completely paralyzed!

"Number Two! Damn it! Ram him for me! Crush this bastard!"

Black Wolf, in the vehicle on the right, had blood-red eyes and was acting like a madman.

He gave up on firing the cannon and stomped the accelerator to the floor, attempting to use the weight advantage of his medium-sized vehicle to grind the Polaris into pulp!

The two steel behemoths roared as they charged toward each other across the snowfield!

Fifty meters! Ten meters! Five meters!

Just at the moment before impact, Lu Chen neither dodged nor retreated; he grabbed the red brass switch on the dashboard and shoved it all the way to the top!

"Want to get up close? As you wish."

Hiss!

Four terrifying columns of white, high-heat steam erupted wildly from the four corners of the Polaris!

The two-hundred-degree boiling water formed an airtight curtain of water, directly enveloping Black Wolf's vehicle completely!

"Ahhh! My eyes! It's so hot!"

Because Black Wolf's vehicle had only semi-closed armor plating on the cockpit for visibility, the scalding high-pressure steam found every opening, pouring violently into his cockpit through the gaps.

Piercing screams cut through the wind and snow.

The people inside the cockpit were severely scalded, and their vision was completely stolen by the white mist.

In extreme pain, Black Wolf instinctively jerked the steering wheel. The vehicle lost control, sliding past the side armor of the Polaris and scraping a scrap steel skirt plate, sending sparks flying.

"Now."

This was the opportunity Lu Chen had been waiting for!

His movements were precise and swift; he turned and leaped up, gripping the brass crank hanging from the roof of the cabin with both hands.

The crosshairs of the periscope sight locked steadily onto the side-rear of Black Wolf's vehicle, which was currently out of control as it passed him.

That was where the enemy vehicle's boiler engine was located! Its armor thickness was far inferior to the front!

"Checkmate."

He slammed his thumb down on the red firing button.

Bang!

The heavy Armor-Piercing Explosive Harpoon Gun on the roof of the Polaris let out a deafening roar!

That harpoon, though deformed, still weighed several dozen catties. At a critical distance of less than ten meters, relying on its brutal mass and steam propulsion, it savagely pierced through the side armor of Black Wolf's vehicle!

That old-era steel plate was no match for such violence at point-blank range and was instantly penetrated!

The remains of the harpoon, along with shattered armor fragments, drove deep into the interior of the enemy vehicle, slamming hard into the high-pressure boiler that was running wildly.

Lu Chen silently counted the seconds until the boiler's overpressure collapse.

Three, two, one.

Bang!

The penetration of tens of catties of solid steel punched straight through the furnace wall of the high-pressure boiler, and the superheated steam instantly found an exit, triggering a total, catastrophic secondary explosion!

A brilliant, ultra-small orange-red mushroom cloud rose up over the snowy plains of the Pale Shoals!

That once arrogant medium-sized vehicle of the Snow Shard Gang was blown into countless pieces of burning scrap iron from the inside. Its massive body was thrown into the air by the explosion, then slammed heavily onto the ice, turning into a sea of fire.

The battle was over.

Annihilation.

The Polaris idled and hummed amidst the enemy's flames.

Its rugged scrap steel armor was covered in bullet marks and scratches, yet it remained impregnable.

This lopsided battle had ultimately turned into a cruel dimensional reduction strike!