173: Chapter 173 Mandarin Duck Flower Pollen

Beside Mo Yufei, light and shadow flickered slightly as Benboba folded his wings and hurried to his side.

His gilded bird eyes stared fixedly at the battlefield on the plains at the edge of the Secret Realm displayed on the virtual screen. His tone was full of impatience and confusion as he raised his voice.

"Boss, are we not going in yet? Letting these Secret Realm minions fight the extraterrestrial mechs—isn't that just helping outsiders farm experience? That bunch of tin cans on the other side doesn't look easy to deal with! We have the BOSS template; we can't just let them get fat for nothing! Let's go!"

Benboba's wings tensed involuntarily, and his beak clicked with a soft sound. Ever since he injected the genes of the Berserk Demon Ape and evolved into his humanoid bird form, his Heart-Nature for slaughter had grown increasingly intense.

He had never liked watching passively, and he couldn't stand the sight of extraterrestrial invaders harvesting the combat power of the exotic beasts and accumulating combat experience.

Mo Yufei raised his eyes and gave a faint, sidelong glance at the noisy Benboba beside him. His expression remained calm and ripple-free as he rubbed the cold metal casing of his bracelet with his fingertips and spoke slowly.

"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. Don't be in such a rush. Let the exotic beast clusters stationed at the border attack first. We'll test the depth of their mech formation, their weapon weaknesses, and their resistance to Supernatural Abilities. Once we've figured out their trump cards, we'll strike and wipe them all out at once."

Benboba resentfully retracted his wings, clicked his beak, and obediently retreated to the side, though he still stared intently at the border battlefield, waiting for the mechs to show a flaw. In his heart, he thought, 'The Boss is still too cowardly!'

The view shifted instantly to the edge of the Zengyuan Plains in the Taoyuan Secret Realm.

The mech squad landed in a standard triangular assault formation. A total of ten standard mechs were arranged in a staggered pattern, with three silver-gray low-altitude hovercraft circling in mid-air to provide cover from the rear.

The mechs were forged entirely from alloy, their surfaces engraved with extraterrestrial energy patterns that pulsed with a stable blue light. Shoulder cannons, wrist blades, and onboard firearms were all preheating, glowing with a cold white light.

The entire team stood steadily, moving with precision. They were a regular extraterrestrial combat squad that had cooperated and trained together for years, possessing exceptional individual proficiency and tactical formation skills.

The squad's lead mech was a silver-blue painted medium command mech. Inside the cockpit, the young alien leader stared at the wave of exotic beasts closing in from all directions.

The mech squad captain said in the private communication channel: "All units, take your positions. Execute Plan B. Light mechs, maneuver and clear the trash; medium mechs, target and destroy the enemies; heavy mechs, hold the central axis; hovercraft, control the airspace by zone. Stabilize the formation; do not spread out!"

"Received, Peregrine One light mech in position."

"Bulwark heavy mech in position, shield energy at full capacity."

"Two hovercraft in the airspace, patrolling by zone. The number of aerial beasts in the airspace exceeds the limit!"

The team communications rang out one after another, orderly, yet the atmosphere was already tense.

The exotic beasts were not charging in batches; rather, the exotic beasts stationed at the Secret Realm border were surrounding them simultaneously from all areas.

On the ground, underground, in the ravines, and in the air, hundreds of exotic beasts attacked at once, surrounding and flanking them from all sides, completely locking off all evasion and retreat paths for the mech squad. The thick roars of the beasts made the air in the wilderness tremble, and the pressure of the encirclement rushed toward them.

Underground, hundreds of gregarious Sharp-Toothed Ground Rats exerted force in unison. The ground within a hundred-meter radius bulged simultaneously, and swathes of granite spikes broke through the soil.

They pierced from the mech chassis, the soles of the feet, and the flanks from all directions, densely sealing off any landing spots on the ground, specifically targeting the mech chassis wiring and armor.

Two front-line light reconnaissance mechs slid sideways in unison, their tracks making micro-adjustments to steer, their movements flowing like clouds and water as they evaded the frontal ground spikes.

Their shoulders simultaneously sprayed high-temperature flame-retardant air currents to scorch the ground rat clusters, while their wrist-mounted vibrating blades swept and sliced.

However, the ground spikes grew endlessly. Spikes constantly scraped against the anti-slip armor on the mech chassis from the left and right, leaving swathes of white marks and continuously interfering with the mechs' maneuvering.

The pilot of Peregrine One breathed rapidly and said in the team channel: "The encirclement density is too high; the speed of clearing the trash cannot keep up with the speed of the exotic beasts' attacks."

In the ground layer, two four-meter-long Scaled Rock Lizards and three bucket-thick Miasma Poison-Patterned Pythons surrounded the mechs on the central axis simultaneously.

The rock lizards swung their thousand-catty tail whips, flanking the medium mechs from both sides. The mountain-collapsing tail strikes landed one after another. The hydraulic rods on the sides of the mechs were under constant pressure, the pale blue shield light flickered continuously, and depressions were pressed into the armor surface one after another.

The poison-patterned pythons coiled in low areas, raising their heads to simultaneously spit out dark green corrosive miasma. A large area enveloped the three medium mechs, the extraterrestrial anti-corrosion coating melting at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the luster of the mech shells fading rapidly.

In the mid-air layer, dozens of Green-Feathered Wind Falcons with three-meter wingspans dove in layers, surrounding the three hovercraft at different heights. Their wings condensed into cutting gales, attacking from above and below to slice at the wings and fuselages.

The hovercraft could only continuously climb and dive, moving in cross-patterns to avoid the encirclement, their onboard machine guns strafing to scatter a wave of wind falcons.

Immediately, new wind falcons filled the gaps. The wind-resistant coating on the wings was covered in scratches, the hovercraft's energy consumption was forced to accelerate, and they could no longer calmly provide support to the ground.

In the shadows on the periphery of the battlefield, packs of Soul-Eater Ghost Wolves crouched in wait, simultaneously activating their Supernatural Ability: Mental Devour. Countless invisible mental ripples stacked and converged, delivering a collective impact on the minds of all the pilots.

In an instant, multiple pilots in the team felt severe pain between their brows, their temples throbbing, and their control gestures became sluggish one after another.

The mechs' positioning frequently deviated. Two light mechs couldn't dodge in time, scraping against each other's armor, and a gap appeared directly in the formation.

The leader immediately ordered in a deep voice: "Activate the full-area mental shielding device at high setting. Consume 12% energy at once to isolate the mental interference!"

A dense blue light enveloped all cockpits, finally blocking the stacked mental attacks, but in a short moment, the entire team's rhythm had already been disrupted.

The extraterrestrial mech squad's individual strength and formation coordination remained top-tier, and their offensive, defensive, and movement maneuvers remained seasoned, but the exotic beasts were endless, surrounding them simultaneously from all directions.

Earth-type piercing, poison-type corrosion, wind-type cutting, and mental interference—four types of Supernatural Abilities applied pressure simultaneously, leaving the mechs unable to attend to everything at once.

The light mechs couldn't clear the underground ground rats, the medium mechs couldn't block the two-way beast attacks, the heavy mechs' shields continued to sustain multiple damages, and the hovercraft were exhausted from dealing with the aerial encirclement.

The team's energy consumption rate far exceeded predictions. In just ten minutes, the entire team's endurance had dropped directly to 62%. The mechs had multiple surface armor depressions and damaged coatings, and they had already fallen into a passive stalemate.

The alien leader looked at the constantly rising damage data on the screen and the dense red dots of exotic beasts. He tapped his fingertips heavily on the console and spoke in a grave tone.

"There are too many of these exotic beasts, and their four-sided encirclement is perfectly coordinated. Relying on the Spiritual Qi of the Secret Realm, they have infinite endurance. Our conventional firepower can't suppress them for the time being. Everyone on alert: release the B-class hazardous material, Mandarin Duck Pollen."

In the team communication, another medium mech pilot was stunned upon hearing this, then their tone turned ecstatic, and they couldn't help but exclaim in praise.

"Captain, you really are a Genius! This is the exclusive specialty pollen of the Hehuan Realm! I remember the Hehuan Realm was the site of the ancient Hehuan Sect. After the great ancient world shattered, it broke into an independent extraterrestrial Secret Realm. It was only after the coalition forces broke through and occupied it a hundred years ago that Mandarin Duck Pollen was mass-produced. This item can amplify the lust of exotic beasts and disintegrate the aggressiveness of beasts. It's perfect for dealing with these Secret Realm exotic beasts that have no high-level intelligence and only know how to attack!"

The leader said in a deep voice: "Deploy the full-area atomized version. Cover the entire battlefield plain to slow down the exotic beasts' offensive. We will take the opportunity to reorganize our formation and rest our energy."

As the order was given, the shoulder storage compartments of every mech opened simultaneously. A soft pink mist drifted out along the wind vents, spreading with the wind across the entire border battlefield, and the sweet, gentle floral fragrance quickly permeated the wilderness.

Any Secret Realm exotic beast that came into contact with the pink mist suddenly slowed down. Their violent, murderous wildness quickly dissipated, and the ferocity in their eyes faded away.

The offensive that had been surrounding them in unison instantly collapsed, and they all lowered their heads, restlessly rubbing against each other, losing all intention to attack.