The Almighty Ring

While everyone was getting ready for the fight of their life, Jiang Fei heard footsteps coming from afar. The sound was getting louder to the point where he could even feel their thumps on the ground.

“They are here,” Jiang Fei whispered. Everyone’s hearts sank for a brief moment then as they gripped their weapons harder. It was the main Mutant army that had strong Level 4 and Level 3 fighters. When their footsteps got loud enough, everyone peeked just to have a look. What they saw sent shivers down their snipe. The numbers were just too much for them to handle even though they had the terrain advantage.

There were at least 5,000 Mutants then. Even though more than half, approximately more than 3,000 Level 3 Mutants, at least 2,000 of them were Level 4. Who knows how many of them were at the Pinnacle stage?

The atmosphere grew tense by the second when everyone tried their best to keep their breathing down to the absolute minimum. Scenarios were running in their minds. The best one, as everyone was hoping for, was to jump out at the last second and deliver swift death to all of them, taking out as many Mutants as they can before the fight begins. That way, the weaker ones could be easy to deal with. They would win the battle and return to China in one piece.

If the ambush failed, they would have to fight an army with at least 10 times the size. Despite having the advantage, the outcome might not be too pretty.

They had over 400 fighters left. In the beginning, they had over 600 but the Scarlet Hunters had managed to kill over a hundred weaker disciples. Adding the Androids into their ranks, the total number of fighters on the martial artists’ side would come close to 600. That was a bit over 10% of what the enemy had!

“Come on… Come closer to me… Come on baby…” Jiang Fei nervously muttered to himself.

…

“Hold!” Desir cried out.

“What’s wrong?” Lincoln asked, coming from behind.

“Vice President, the route is getting smaller and the trees are getting thicker. If I were the enemy, I would set up an ambush here!” Desir explained.

“Not probable. The others had already been through here and if there was an ambush, don’t you think they would have noticed it? Moreover, the reports said that the enemy main group is further ahead. Their numbers match what we know. Move on. There’s no time for us to delay any longer. We need to help them,” said Lincoln, dismissing the notion where the enemy could be in front of them, which they were, not that they knew it.

Information could be fictitious but not intentional. The first group that went ahead of the main group might have looked past a few martial artists since they only cared to chase after the larger fish. Even if they were ambushed, they would only be buying time to let the main group escape. That was what Lincoln had in mind and that is why Lincoln had no fear about the terrain ahead. All he cared was to chase after the main group.

“Yes, sir.”

Desir nodded at the suggestion and decided to go along with Lincoln’s order. Although Desir could not deny that an ambush ahead would be advantageous for the enemy and bad for his, he did not care much since Lincoln himself believed the report sent in by the group ahead. Even he thought the same as Lincoln did. If there were any enemy waiting to ambush them, they would be of smaller numbers and the ambush would not work for they had the sheer number. At most, they will be delayed by a few minutes.

“Move on!” Lincoln shouted when Desir had nothing to add.

“Come on closer! Closer to papa!” Jiang Fei snickered to himself when he could actually see them trotting closer to where he was. The closer they got, the more excited he became.

“It’s now or never!” Jiang Fei whispered to Z8-001.

“Affirmative. All hands, attack!” said Z8-001 via wireless command. All the Androids were in position and they lifted their weapons in hand. A faint electronic whirl could be heard as the weapons started to charge up.

“Ambush! Get down!” Desir roared as he immediately noticed the sudden movement and the weapons charging sound. Even so, they were already too late. They were all bottlenecked in the middle of a ravine, in a straight line. It was impossible for them to escape in time.

BSHHH!

All the weapons were fired, blasting powerful energy beam that piece through the ravine and even a mountain wall that was nearby. More than hundreds of Mutants that were in the path of the beam were vaporized instantly.

That attack was equivalent to a Level 4 Advanced stage full-powered attack. The Androids were not able to perform as strong as they should, not because their attacks were weak but the Mutants’ reaction was too quick. Even though they were shooting near lightspeed projectiles at them, the Mutants could dodge before the shot was fired. Right now, the enemies were all lined up neatly in a straight line. The thick forest masked the entire canyon, tricking the Mutants to think that the route was just getting smaller. When all their targets were grouped together, so conveniently, the Android had only needed to pull the trigger.

The attack was on point as many were hit. Level 3 Mutants could not even see it coming while Level 4 Beginning stage could only see but do nothing about the attacks.

It did not stop with just one blast. The Androids were basically emptying their weapon’s clip.

“Ambush! Enemy ambush!” it was already too late when Lincoln roared out. Even so, many of those that were still alive fanned out to decrease their hitbox. However, due to the structure of the terrain, the Mutants were limited to where they can run. Alas, the Androids had only needed to shift their aim either a little to the right or left to hit them.

“Rush to them! Force them to a melee fight!” Desir took over the command. That was not the first time they were attacked by Androids and he knew exactly how to defeat them. They might have powerful ranged attacks but their movements were only as good as regular humans. If they were forced to melee, their energy attacks would be rendered useless which allowed the Mutants to confront them easier.

“Protect the Androids!” Jiang Fei cried as he jumped to his feet.

“All men! It is time for bloodshed!” cried Zhu Tianfei, running first into the enemies. Everyone else, buffed by the man’s warcry, followed in with vigor.

The martial artists were tasked to stop the Mutants from coming up the mountain. They had to keep them down to let the Androids have enough range to attack.

“What?! Why are they here?!” Lincoln gasped.

When they were attacked by energy beams, Lincoln was taken aback, only slightly. He understood that the Androids might be left behind to help the martial artists to escape. He could destroy these Androids first and collect their remains to be reverse-engineered back in America. At least they could get something back in return. However, when Jiang Fei leaped out, followed by several more martial artists, he was thrown. According to information from the group up front, they were supposed to be running away. How was it that they could be in two places at the same time? Could they have shadow clone techniques or even teleportation ability?

Lincoln was fine with the Androids since he knew how to defeat them and could even collect their remains as a reward. However, the bane of Mutants, the martial artists were there to fight them! The Androids might be trashed if the Mutants were able to get close enough but the Mutants would be trashed if the martial artists get close enough!