Despite the barrage of artillery fire from C130 Artillery Planes and Mechataur’s shoulders, the final blow that brought the Mechanical Castle Arm down did not come from them. Perhaps not unexpectedly the killing blow actually came from the almighty Stalingrad.
Moloch had long noticed that his old pal Mechataur was having a difficult time to finish the last Mechanical Arm. He did ask for their immediate deployment, and it was no surprise the current situation was more than they could handle. The all out attacks by Mechataur had somehow managed to uncover the existence of the second Mechanical Castle Arm, and after it appeared, it only spelt further trouble.
As much as he wished to believe that Mechataur was able to destroy the last Mechanical Castle Arm, he was in charge of this operation and was not willing to leave it to luck.
The victory he obtained from the Demon War might have been attributed to some sort of lucky fluke, but it was also because he and Qiu Yue made it happen. The number of preparations he slogged through many nights to get it done was countless and that had allowed them to win that meaningless war. (Well, not so meaningless for the System since it got an unexpected reward from Baal’s crown.)
Moloch had commanded the Stalingrad to sail further south and requested the System to prepare a shot analysis that would disable the Mechanical Castle Arm instantly.
“Amazing. I never knew that you could shoot that far.” Captain Focalor praised Wolte as he saw the shot imbued with some magic for visualisation being flown far into the endless skies.
“The System said we are taking into account the gravity and the world’s curvature into account. Not sure what that means but it’s science stuff like this modern cannon. If not for the imagery designs, I too would not have been able to create this ship.” Wolte admitted that his ship was not his intellectual copyrighted property though he did make some changes to it to suit his uses. (and tastes!)
The armour-piercing shell was also used instead of the explosive shell to avoid Mechataur becoming a part of the collateral damage due to its proximity. When it came close enough, Niu Lang took over the Mechataur body to hold the Mechanical Castle Arm high enough to shield himself from the hit.
“Whew~! The battery pack lasted just long enough. I thought I was a goner if not for that surprise shot from Stalingrad.” Niu Lang breathed out a sigh of relief as he saw the cockpit’s light turn red and change into emergency battery mode.
The backup battery could power the Mechataur for another five minutes but if Niu Lang did that, he would not be able to open the cockpit at all and lose 24 hours of power on the oxygen converter. That would be dangerous for space though considering they had the System’s ability to teleport, Niu Lang sometimes thought that was a little overkill.
All he could see from the monitor was that the Mechanical Castle Arm had been broken and now had a massive gaping hole in the middle of it. The remainders of the AP shell were right behind the Mechataur, grinding into the ground creating smoke by-products until it stopped moving.
“That was a close shave. Where did that thing even come from?” Mechataur asked in his robotic head form again.
“Moloch orchestrated it from Wolte. You’ve missed it, but he is currently a ship. Or to be more precise, he now has a ship form on top of just being a slug.” Niu Lang let down the arm and requested for teleportation. Meanwhile, he could see that the Demon Soldiers from Dungeon World started to advance towards the castle again.
“Moloch, I guess you do not want to leave any rats to be left alive? Haha. I will be returning now and repairing Mechataur. Sorry that I can’t be more of assistance.” Niu Lang reported as he started to turn and walked forward into a large portal prepared for him.
“No worries about it, you already did more than expected. Besides, we are just trying to capture the rats like Jin asked us to. But more importantly, I want the castle!” Moloch answered which nearly made Niu Lang slip his controls.
“You WHAT?!” Niu Lang and Weslie who was right beside Moloch exclaimed.
“Hmm? Why are you so surprised? Isn’t it normal for the winner to collect some spoils of war? This might be a broken mess right now, but with enough resources, we can repair it, enhance it and use it against them down the line. An eye for an eye. Well, a castle attack for another castle attack. Same thing.”
“Hmmm… You are right. I can’t wait to see what nonsense they had replaced to make it move.” Weslie quickly changed her tone and even sounded excited.
“If you are bringing it in, I would like to take a look at what those bastards North and South had done to the place. Hope you did not trash the place too much.” Gold interjected in the System Channel.
“Oh, my dear. I fear you might be disappointed if you have that kind of mindset.” Weslie replied with a chuckle.
“Don’t worry. With my Empire Building Sub System, there is no castle I cannot refurnish. Besides, who doesn’t want a floating fortress? That sounds like a great dungeon instance idea for Jin too.” Qiu Yue joined their conversation amidst huffing and puffing after killing the last few rats who were putting up a resistance.
The rest of the Demon Rats were already attempting to run away but had forgotten that there were militias carrying rifles that could target far and wide. Granted, they might not be able to hit with every shot, but at least they suppressed the rats, which made it easy for the Savants who went from defending mode to hunting mode.
Once an adventurer, always an adventurer.
These Savants had their instincts awaken when the System posted a special little reward for those who were able to kill the last few Demon Rats. The Warlock Savant alone had already created some floating balls of sentience with tentacles that were able to track the Demon Rats while the Archer Savant sniped each and every one of those who were in his sights.
“Speaking of Jin, where is he? How come I can’t connect with him? Kraft? Yun?” Lynn concerningly asked for Jin via the main System Channel.
“Ah. We cleared the counter-attack operation already. Boy, there’s lots to share, but right now, Jin overworked himself and fainted. Once you are done on your end, feel free to check in on him. I have Pei looking after him.” Kraft said through the System Channel.
“What? No? You never said anything to me.” Pei entered the System Channel upon her name being pinged by the System as it replayed the last line of the conversation to her.
“What do you mean? You just heard it from me, didn’t you?” Kraft grinned, and Pei rolled her eyes. She stopped typing her notes on the Demon Metropolis’s Health System and saved it.
“Jin, I told you not to work so hard when I am not there!” Pei grumbled, but the System had teleported to the Luxury Recovery instance to pick up some necessary supplies to aid in Jin’s recovery.
