Chapter 216: It's a Tyrant
Translator: Ash Editor: Millman97
This monster didn't bear resemblance to its former counterpart from any angle, its trunk was divided into cephalothorax and abdomen. From its round and bulging cephalothorax, one could find traces of its former appearance, but instead of being supported by four strong mechanical limbs, four slender legs were equally distributed on each side of the body.
Eight legs, while every leg was composed of six joints; allowing it to rotate 360 degrees at its position. It was rather agile as compared to the Mystic Wolf with four limbs.
Although the slender legs were lacking in strength, with twice the number, the pressure could be well distributed.
The end of each leg had a folded sharp blade, which could pop out when necessary and kill or injure an enemy in close combat. Furthermore, the legs seemed to have a "hair" like structure on them, resembling setae of insects.
Only when everyone observed closely did they discover that the legs were covered with sharp nails.
Furthermore, the two forelimbs, as well as the fangs and claws of the Mystic Wolf, had been transformed into a sawtooth-like structure to create a pair of chelae, like a mantis' sickle and fangs of a scorpion. With one glance, everyone knew that they were the most ruthless of close-combat weapons.
This monster didn't seem to have an obvious head. The entire anterior of the cephalothorax was encased in a hard, curved armor. This armor wasn't a standard component of the Mystic Wolf. Only when everyone had wracked their brains for a long while did they suddenly came to realize that it was a part of the crafting furnace!
"I'm not wrong, yeah? He actually dismantled the crafting furnace and used it as an armor?"
The crafting furnace was designed to withstand high temperature and pressure. Its outer covering was extremely hard. Naturally, if it was used as armor, the defense of the warbeast would be greatly improved.
However, the iron shell armor wasn't completely intact. It was an amalgamation of four parts, and between the four pieces of armor, there were two crisscrossed slits in the form of "十".
At the intersection of the two slits was a shining crystal eye which could freely rotate, time to time, the crystal eye would slide along the two slits.
"This crisscross crystal eye orbiting system has enhanced the scanning range of the crystal eye. Just one eye covering the front vision is not much worse than the two crystal eyes of the Mystic Wolf!"
"There is another crystal eye? Where?"
As everyone scanned along the armor of the monster, they came to notice a 360-degree rotating turret mounted at the back of the monster. The two crystal railguns which originally had been installed on either side of the Mystic Wolf had been modified into a dual-mount crystal railgun, whereas the other crystal eye was mounted on the turret, monitoring around from above!
"Wow! He actually designed it like this!"
"Unbelievable!"
The Mystic Wolf was most criticized for the two crystal railguns on either side, because it was too close to the body, leading to a smaller range of attack. In addition, apart from the front, it was unable to attack in another direction at the same time.
For instance, if the demon beast was attacking from the right side, the Mystic Wolf had to slightly tilt its body to the right so that the right-side crystal railgun could attack. Whereas the left-side crystal railgun was rendered useless, until and unless the body tilted in the opposite direction completely.
As the matter stood, its firepower was greatly reduced. If during the reconnaissance mission, the Mystic Wolf had to storm the enemy position, the Mystic Wolf was somewhat powerless.
It was not like the refiners of the Wolves Valley had not considered this issue.
A 360-degree rotating turret was the best solution.
However, if the crystal railgun was installed on the back of the Mystic Wolf, the center of gravity would be too high, which would result in the loss of speed and flexibility. Even the slightest mistake during a high-speed maneuver would make the Mystic Wolf fall.
Which, for a lightweight warbeast such as the Mystic Wolf, was undoubtedly fatal.
Because of this, the two crystal railguns had been retained on either side despite having gone through countless upgrades over three decades.
However, this crazy Li Yao, with the support of eight legs had lowered the center of gravity quite lower. Not to mention, dual-mount crystal railgun, even a heavy caliber triple-mount, or even two triple-mount, one above and one below, could be installed. It could withstand a total of six crystal railguns and quite steadily at that; greatly enhancing its firepower and attack range!
Along with cephalothorax that was armed to the teeth, there was a round and fat abdomen, which, much to everyone's surprise, was modified from the cooling tank of the crafting furnace. What was weird about it, no one knew.
The entire body of the monster had dense glyphs engraved which were glittering with dark-red brilliance.
In particular, at the anterior of the cephalothorax, on both side of the crisscross crystal eye structure had hundreds of glyphs engraved.
At first glance, it seemed like a red compound eye of an insect which was emanating an extremely dangerous aura.
That's right, an insect, but to be precise, it was a spider!
The warbeast repaired by Li Yao could no longer be called the Mystic Wolf, it the most fearsome spider among all the spiders, the Tarantula!
"Whoosh!"
The eight legs of the Tarantula bent slightly, lowering its center of gravity, before taking a light leap. The Tarantula very nimbly landed upon the giant disc.
Meanwhile, Li Yao followed it in a neither too fast not too slow manner.
The moment the Tarantula landed upon the giant disc, all the Mystic Wolves trembled for a bit, while their heads emitted weak creaking sounds.
Apparently, they had perceived the arrival of a stronger existence, while the alert telepathic thoughts within the crystal processor were automatically triggered as the crystal processor judged the enemy and themselves.
Whereas the Wolf King's crystal eyes of Jiang Shaoyang, even more so, became lustrous and brilliant. Every glyph across its body started to glitter. Its four claws lightly rubbed against the enormous disc, becoming restless.
The crystal eyes of Li Yao's Tarantula quickly scanned everyone, while its double-mount crystal railgun rotated slightly before finally pointing at Jiang Shaoyang's Wolf King.
The Tarantula vs the Wolf King!
The two warbeast simultaneously became aware that they were facing a strong opponent. In the blink of an eye, the enemy identifying array glyphs also judged the opponent as friendly.
"Swisssh..."
From the interior of the two warbeast came the sound of converging their spiritual energy as though it was heaving a long and deep sigh. Meanwhile, the crystal railguns aimed at each other were lowered, followed by the dimming of the shining array glyphs.
The Tarantula moved its eight legs as it crawled beside the Wolf King.
"These two warbeasts..."
Everyone felt cold as an unspeakable feeling gushed out from their heart.
Jiang Shaoyang's Wolf King was light, elegant, filled with the dignity of a king. One could not notice even the slightest marking that it was repaired, it seemed as though it was crafted by nature itself. It was impeccable.
Whereas Li Yao's Tarantula was just the opposite.
Since it was frantically modified within a span of ten hours, a large number of non-standard components were used.
Therefore, its outer shell was incomparably coarse. Many places still had the traces of manual grinding, its joints were large and scary, and when it moved, they made deafening noises.
With its aggressive appearance, hideous and arrogant style, the wildness of grassroots refiners was most vividly displayed. It was a sharp contrast to the Jiang Shaoyang's Mystic Wolf.
If one said that the Mystic Wolf of Jiang Shaoyang was from a royal family, then Li Yao's Tarantula was an absolute tyrant!
"What do you think, which of the two warbeasts is better?"
"It's quite hard to say, in terms of speed and stealth, Jiang Shaoyang's Wolf King definitely wins. But in terms of stability, defense, and offense, I am more optimistic about Li Yao's Tarantula."
"In a fight, only god knows who would win!"
While everyone burst into a discussion, Li Yao walked next to Jiang Shaoyang and observed the Wolf King with a look of admiration.
Both were experts. For sure, Li Yao could see that Jiang Shaoyang's wolf had reached perfection.
But there was one point Li Yao could not understand.
"Did you have the Purple-Gold Titanium?"
It was hard to believe that Jiang Shaoyang could not see through the two traps.
And since he had repaired the Wolf King, then he had the Purple-Gold Titanium for sure.
Jiang Shaoyang's gaze was transfixed at the Tarantula. After having carefully observed for a long while did he reluctantly withdrew his line of sight and said with a frown, "I got the Purple-Gold Titanium from the invigilators. Why, you didn't get it?"
Li Yao was astounded for a moment before he asked with surprise, "Isn't this a practical test? In combat, how could there be invigilators who would provide us with Purple-Gold Titanium?"
This sentence struck Jiang Shaoyang like a lightning. He was stunned for a long time and even forgot to breathe.
Immediately, from the depths of eyes, blazing flames gushed out.
At this point, three specks of light flew over from the caves above.
They were the three examiners.
According to the normal procedure, they did not have to appear before the examinees as long as they could monitor the examinees' situation through the holograms.
However, Li Yao's unexpected and crazed performance, as well as the incomparably ferocious tyrant modified by Li Yao had forced the three to come out.
The three walked to the middle of Li Yao and Jiang Shaoyang. First, they observed the tarantula before turning their gazes at the Wolf King a moment later.
Following which, the three withdrew their gazes at the same time and said, with a deadpan look while suppressing the astonishment in their heart, "Next, we will be going to the weapon test site. Everyone, please adjust the alert state of your Mystic Wolf!"
The enormous disc gradually started to rise, bringing everyone back to the ground.
After which, they were escorted to a huge weapon test site by a team of armed soldiers.
It was the largest weapon test site at the military base. It had all kinds of facilities, and a hundred warbeasts could simultaneously be tested.
And speed, power, offense, defense, mobility, and other performance parameters could be converted into precise values.
"First round of testing, starts!"
Followed by the order of the invigilator, a hundred Mystic Wolves sped through gunfire and corrosive attacks, towards a target one kilometer away - like arrows shot from a bow.
"Crack! Crack!"
Amid the high-speed running, deafening noises rang from the lumbar region of many Mystic Wolves. Their bodies twisted in a strange manner as they fell limply to the ground.
"How could this be?"
Many examinees' facial features distorted, sweat broke out all over their body like a rain, it seemed as though it was their spine that broke at the lumbar region.
After the completion of the test, all the performance parameters of Mystic Wolves had been transformed into a data, through which the overall battle force would be calculated after being analyzed by a testing crystal processor.
"No. 1 Mystic Wolf, battle force restored to 91%!"
"Awesome!"
An examinee flushed red to the ear and started jumping; apparently, he was extremely excited.
"No. 2 Mystic Wolf, battle force restored to 88%!"
"So close! So close! Dammit!"
The second examinee wanted to cry but had no tears. Clenching his teeth, he smashed his fist.
"No. 3 Mystic Wolf..."
"No. 4 Mystic Wolf..."
One after another, as the battle force of each Mystic Wolf, was announced, some were happy and some were sad. Cries of excitement along with sighs of grief rang throughout the weapon test site.
"Second round of testing, starts!"
"Third round of testing, starts!"
"Look, Jiang Shaoyang's Wolf King is about to be tested!"