Mystical Journey

Garen nodded hard, and ordered the slightly panicked Big Wild Wolves to pick up the pace and run as though their lives depended on it.

“What on earth are they doing to determine your location!?” he roared without looking back.

“Willpower, we Divine Wind Generals are connected to the Black Flood Holy Pillar by our Willpower, it will give us a larger boost in power, but it will also be able to track our general location.” Sixth’s expression remained impassive as he looked up at the red shooting stars in the distant sky. Right then, the three of them turned to the left and spun rapidly, slowly leaving the direction that the shooting star was coming from.

Only then did Garen and Sinno heave a sigh of relief.

The two of them realized that their hearts were pounding extremely quickly. In that moment just now, Garen even felt as though he might have to use the trump card that he had been saving to keep himself alive. All this time, in order to increase his chances of survival, he had created a single trump card according to the standards of the Energy Machinists. But this thing was single-use only, once he used it, it would be gone. He had modified it based on the Instantaneous Paper Box that he had used up back then, although its function was gone, its shell and materials remained. These were all precious materials, so Garen used the Energy Machinist’s internal network to find a small tool that could accumulate Willpower. He inserted the Willpower that he had accumulated for a long time inside it, it was probably ten times as concentrated as his current Willpower by now. If it weren’t for the resilience of the Instantaneous Paper Box’s materials, such a small tool would have been destroyed a long time ago.

But precisely because of that, Garen could barely just make a small item with great single-use explosive power. If he could ignite that Willpower once, it would form a short-term Impact Storm. Its power would probably be considerable, but he really could not be sure against an Inherited Level.

He just had to pray that the Cold Radiation coming off from him would be enough to hide their scents, and could influence the Inherited Level’s sense of direction to a certain extent.

If the opponent really caught up to them, their imminent doom was almost certain.

Although they would very likely die if he caught up to them, the Sixth Divine Wind General had saved Garen before, so he did not give up or abandon him in his time of need, and the results were very clear.

The Divine Wind General knew that as well, that was why he kept asking Garen to leave him and save himself.

“If you have any tricks you can use to save yourself, better get them ready now,” said Garen without looking back. He did not believe that the Sixth Divine Wind General would have nothing of the sort.

“I’ve already used it,” replied the Sixth Divine Wind General calmly. “Look above you.”

Garen and Sinno instantly looked up, and saw a slightly black semicircular defense shield covering the tops of their heads. This shield was translucent and barely there, vaguely hanging above them, and moving as they moved.

“This Willpower Barrier should be able to block off our scents to a certain degree, but I can’t hold it for long,” said Sixth softly.

He seemed to treat everything with indifference, no matter how serious the matter, he still used this calm and cool tone.

Be it losing the most precious thing to a pilot, his personalized Mech; his own grave injuries, to the point of paralysis; or the fact that he was running for his life, and could die at any moment. He did not seem to have many variations in his emotions, as though he was forever this calm and collected.

“How long can you hold it?” Garen asked in a low voice.

“Twenty minutes, I need to rest for half an hour in between.”

“That’s enough!” Garen calculated the rough distance, and found that it should be fine.

He looked up, and saw the red shooting star crash into the ground hard from the distance. Even the plains were shaking slightly, making a loud wailing sound.

Garen turned around, and looked at the Sixth Divine Wind General.

“I have one last plan, I can rapidly heal your injuries, but without Mechs, the chances of us surviving aren’t high. The only way is to go Berserk, but there’s a high chance that you’ll become something like us, and your mind will be under my control. If there’s no choice…”

He let the Big Wild Wolf approach Sixth, and stuffed a handful of something blue at his left chest.

“If you really have no choice, then release the automatic Willpower protection over your heart. But when that happens, there will be no more turning back. You must remember, unless you’re desperate, don’t use it,” Garen kept reminding him.

Sixth looked down at the thing in front of his chest, it looked just like a plump blue ball of flesh, fist-sized, completely blue, and covered with tiny blue tentacles that twitched slightly. Strangely, as soon as it touched his chest, it immediately attached itself to him, as though it had a mind of its own.

“It’s very odd, but also a very fascinating power.” For the first time, there was surprise in his eyes. Even with his level of Willpower, he still could not analyze what this thing was made of! And this was coming from an Energy Machinist who could not even reach Resonance Skills.

This kid…

For the first time, he began to have a bit of faith in his young friend, Garen. At first, he thought that with the ambush and betrayal to him, as well as the murder of Third Brother, the Black Flood Party and Blackboard were more or less done with. He thought it was over, and there was nothing left but inevitable death, but he never thought there might still very well be a chance here.

He was just lucky, to be saved by the young one he had saved once before. Just like that, he escaped the misfortune of being caught by the enemy at the first chance, and now he might actually have a hope of escaping this completely.

An Energy Machinist with merely Level Three Willpower…

He looked at Garen in front of him again, a ray of hope finally rising in his eyes.

Suddenly there was a flash of red, and a group of Predators appeared from underground abruptly, pouncing straight at the three of them, who were still running.

Roar!

Garen flicked his fingers several times in succession, and with a few soft whooshes, his powerful physicality meant that the sharp stones he had shot out as secret weapons nailed themselves into the Predators’ heads, wiping most of them as soon as they were in sight.

“They’re just Level One Predators! Don’t delay!” he roared, and drew a long sword that had been hanging beside the Big Wild Wolf. Bending over and slashing once, he cut fiercely at a Predator right in front of him following the Big Wild Wolf’s assault.

Sinno also learned from him, and blocked one of the Predator’s pounce attacks with her sword.

The three of them hastened up and quickly left the few remaining Predators behind, rushing forth without even looking back.

Although Garen’s current Living Secret Technique, the Hellfrost Peacock Technique, was not the type for head-on attacks, he still had his foundations from his original fighting techniques, as well as his own Ten Thousand True Technique, a summary of everything. If he just relied on his foundations in secret techniques and was not hit face-on by Willpower impact, even a Level Five pilot would die if Garen ambushed them. But if it was a direct confrontation of Willpowers, he would only be able to take a Level Three pilot’s impact at the most.

The head-on fighting power of the seventh grade Hellfrost Peacock Technique was really not that strong. After all, he mostly created forces such as his squads, in the world where secret techniques were everywhere, practitioners of the Hellfrost Peacock Technique were mostly targets to be protected…

Kekkekkekke…

A piercing laugh came from ahead, and a pale grey shadow quickly pounced at Garen, who was at the very front. It was very fast, much faster than most Level One Predators, so it had to be at least Level Two.

This Predator had waited for the other Predators to rush out as scouts before it made a move itself, so it evidently had the makings of sentience.

It wore grey rags on its body, and they could tell that this was probably once a woman with a decent body. But now its nails were sharp, just like knives, and it somersaulted in mid-air as it clawed at Garen. If these claws landed, even the external armor of a Level Two Mech would crack.

Naturally, Garen’s body was nowhere near as hard as Mech Materials, but his speed was not something Level Two pilots could match.

He watched the claws come at him, this was his first time fighting a Predator above Level One himself, without relying on the Big Wild Wolf, and just purely using his own fighting power and the quality of his Living Secret Techniques.

“Eagle Stream!” Garen barked, and used the move he was most familiar with from the Crouched Eagle Talon, his arm accurately diverting the claws from the side, and then both arms blocking the Predator’s two claws tightly.

Die!

He suddenly used his explosive force, and actually jumped up from the Wild Wolf’s back, charging into the Predator’s waist and hitting it with his knee.

His knee just happened to smash upwards from the Predator’s knee, ker-chak!

Amidst the intense noise, the Predator opened its mouth in silent agony, its waist almost broken in two. It crashed hard into the ground beside them, and was motionless.

Garen floated lightly back onto the wolf’s back, his knee bleeding slightly. Although he has used the hardest part of his body, his knee, to hit the softest part of the enemy’s waist, the hardness of a Level Two Predator’s body was still beyond his expectations, so he still hurt his right knee.

But he had also objectively tested his current fighting power, using his own abilities and quickly finishing off the opponent in the instant before the Level Two Predator could use the Void Mind Force to attack. If the opponent used that power, however, he might be in trouble. And as for Level Three Predators, unless his body was strengthened up another notch, and he could also get the first advantage, there was no other way for him to break past the surface of a Level Three Predator’s defensive skin.

Thankfully, the Hellfrost Peacock Technique was the best at recovering from injuries, and add that to the help from the potential points, it meant that as long as Garen was not dead, he would be able to heal from even the severest wounds on his own. However, when it came to injuries in Willpower, the secret techniques and potential points would be powerless to help, this seemed to be a completely different thing.

“Nice technique!” praised the Sixth Divine Wind General from behind him. “Your fighting skills look like that of an expert, not a bit more and not a bit less, precise and accurate.”

“You flatter me. No matter how strong my fighting skills are, if my Willpower can’t even break past others’ force fields, it’s all pointless,” replied Garen with a laugh.

“I hear that there are powerhouses among the Energy Machinists who strengthen their own bodies, they absorb martial arts powerhouses, and if they can withstand the strengthening, their future potential would be boundless,” said the Sixth Divine Wind General, shaking his head. “Of course, you’re also an Energy Machinist, so naturally you would also know that.”

“Yes, I do know a bit about that, but that form of strengthening can only be done by oneself to themselves, if you modify someone else, that’s illegal.” Garen nodded. Of course, he was not worried about his modifications of Sinno, because radiation people had no rights… and were not protected by the law. By that he meant normal people, those without radiation.

“Illegal? Stuff like the law depends on who decided it. Haven’t you heard of a rule called special treatment? The law changes according to special situations as well,” said Sixth meaningfully.

“Are you saying that according to the law, certain people can be modified by other Energy Machinists?” Garen asked. “True, this stuff happens all the time, it’s no surprise.”

“But there must be a high standard of selection for fighting skills like that, right?” Beside them, Sinno spoke softly for the first time in a while.

“It’s a very cruel selection, I hear only one out a thousand gets chosen. The thousand of them must be free from any previous genetic strengthening, and they’d all be thrown into a ring to kill each other. Only the final survivor can receive the special treatment and be modified,” said Sixth calmly.

“What if the last two kill each other?” asked Sinno.

“Then they wait for the next round.”

For a moment, all three were silent. Even Sinno never thought that there would be a group of people even more tragic than the radiation people. Only one survives out a thousand, such cruelty evidently could not be on the right side of the law.

The rest of the journey was relatively safe, after the three of them avoided a large group of Predators and the Search Mech team occasionally scattered around the sky, they quickly realized that the many Search Mechs were starting to retreat, while the number of Predators just kept increasing. Sixth decided it was because the Flying Predators would be here soon, and once they appear, the advantage the Mechs had in the sky would be instantly reduced to nothing. In order to avoid too many casualties, the Mechs had to retreat quickly.

And they just happened to use that short period of calm to finally reach the Secret Region of the Energy Machinists on Garen’s map. And when they saw this region, none of them could have guessed that this place actually looked like this.