Chapter 109: Chapter 108, blow it up for Laozi!
“Bombard them fiercely! I’ll take full responsibility! What the hell are you afraid of, friendly fire? Can you morons really fuck up so bad you’d accidentally hit the Governor with that massive wall of wind and that big whatever-the-hell that looks like a bear just sitting there? Can’t you get your aim right? Bomb! Bomb the shit out of them for me!”
Just as Gu Hang had thought, Perbov was indeed hopping mad and cursing nonstop.
The reason he was hopping was that a chunk of building debris the size of a fist had just smashed into his shin. It wasn’t broken, but it had lost its strength.
But he was still angry and irritable.
Being unable to help, being weak, that was what irritated him the most.
Since the ambush in the alien woods, Perbov had always seen it as a disgrace that the Governor had to personally go into battle, to face the enemy firsthand.
The Governor came from beyond the stars, bringing steel, machinery, and weapons. And they, as warriors and soldiers, should be the ones to eliminate any threats for the Governor, not expect him to be both father and mother to all.
To handle development, to lead battles, was one thing. But if the Governor had to fight on the front lines, then what the hell were we there for?
At this moment, he was determined to do something.
He was furious, he was fierce, and perhaps even a bit reckless. But he also had the cunning and cleverness unique to the wastelanders. Even if his decisions were rash, in action, he wasn’t so reckless as to disregard everything.
Perbov couldn’t understand spiritual energy, dark magic, sacrifice rituals.
But he had one thought – there was nothing in this world that couldn’t be destroyed with explosives. If it didn’t blow up, then the caliber just wasn’t big enough yet.
In the past, the camp only had 60mm mortars, but now they had 155mm howitzers. Regardless of effectiveness, bombard the hell out of them first!
That was the source of the artillery roar Gu Hang had heard.
Perbov’s heavy artillery actually totaled just five cannons, supplemented by some mortars to make up the numbers.
But they had indeed produced remarkable effects!
The star warriors’ bomb rifles boasted specialty diamond-tipped bullets, secondary acceleration, and close explosion functions, with off-the-charts firepower. Still, caliber is caliber.
What’s a 155mm howitzer? Just the shell is 0.8 meters tall standing upright, weighing nearly 50 kilograms. Being near the explosion of such a beast was definitely a shockingly visceral experience.
Two artillery shells burst high above the enraged owl transformation.
The monster that had just swatted away a star warrior and was preparing to further maul the Phoenix had two massive holes blown into it. Essentially made of concentrated spiritual energy, half its form dispersed instantly.
Though a lot of energy was reassembling, reconstructing its body, it significantly affected its strength.
And three more shells fell on the 360-degree Storm Shield.
The shield, already reeling from Gu Hang’s breach and the Gravity Scepter and Holy Golden Halberd’s stabs, couldn’t withstand such an assault and shattered instantly.
The blast radius of a 155mm howitzer shell could be several dozen meters. If it hit the ground, it could create a crater five meters in diameter.
And without a doubt, Gu Hang and his companions were all within this lethal range. From this perspective, Perbov’s claim of not worrying about friendly fire was complete bullshit.
Actually, Gu Hang, the other two Phoenixes, and the seven surviving Battle Nuns might be somewhat better off, as they were a little further away. Matins, Rizzo, and Georgette were right up against the wall, using more powerful close-combat weapons – they were even closer to the heart of the bombardment.
But in that moment, the disintegrating Storm Shield actually provided them with protection.
The destroyed shield absorbed the majority of the blast wave’s force, and many of the flying shrapnel pieces were significantly weakened. The three in close proximity, all clad in powered armor, remained uninjured. Lying flat on the ground, similar to a plank hold, helped them avoid much of the shrapnel and blast wave.
At least, after the explosion, all three were able to stand up without being too badly affected.
If they were mostly unharmed, then Cui Kao inside would be fine as well. As a spiritual energy user of his strength, the Storm Shield swirling around him wouldn’t be weaker than the powered armors until the spiritual energy faded.
Still, he wasn’t free from looking dirtied and disheveled.
The real fatal issue for him was the broken shield.
Clearly, though the Storm Shield was Cui Kao’s handiwork, it definitely took him a long time to prepare, borrowing much external power not his own. Otherwise, however strong a spiritual energy user he might be, a defense purely built from his own power could never withstand such a long, terrible onslaught.
This also meant that once the Storm Shield was destroyed, even if he wanted to put up another one immediately, it would be impossible without half a month’s time to construct slowly.
And now, with no obstacles left, the Phoenixes and Battle Nuns could seek revenge.
Cui Kao was still struggling.
He shot a bolt of lightning towards the swiftly approaching Matins.
But this time, the battle-hardened and prepared commander wouldn’t be easily hit like the previous nun. Amid the smoke and blurred vision, he still judged Cui Kao’s intention accurately, avoiding the lightning spell a moment before it was cast.
The lightning missed its target, and Matins reached close quarters, slashing his chainsaw sword hard against the Storm Shield.
The Storm Shield wasn’t immediately shattered, but the terrifying feature of the chainsaw sword lay in the fact that, apart from the initial slash, as long as the star warrior wielding it continued to exert force downward, the rotating chainsaw would keep on cutting fiercely.
It was a force capable of severing heavy-duty armor!
Within just a second, the Storm Shield on his body was already flickering wildly as it showed signs of fracturing.
In his urgency, Cui Kao launched another bolt of lightning.
He knew that it was meaningless to purely reinforce the shield with Spiritual Energy to resist the attack. As long as Matins remained alive, he had no chance of surviving at such a close range.
However, this lightning spell, though it hit its target, did not interrupt Matins’s actions in the slightest.
Matins had already anticipated and judged the High Priest’s intention in advance. He couldn’t dodge, but he could make slight adjustments to his body so that the lightning bolt shot out would hit his massive shoulder armor precisely.
In a star warrior’s armor, the strongest part is definitely the shoulder armor. In their combat techniques, using shoulder armor to absorb excess damage is an option. Often, they treat the shoulders as shields.
The lightning that could pierce and slay battle nuns could not penetrate Matins’s heavy shoulder armor.
And at that time, Rizzo arrived.
The Priest’s scepter swung down with full force, and the Storm Shield, which was already on the verge of destruction, shattered instantly. The scepter, now with the gravity generator activated, continued its relentless descent upon Cui Kao’s body.
The physical strength of a Spiritual Energy user is far from comparable. Under the effect of the gravity generator, Cui Kao’s body was almost completely crushed.
Then Georgette, who arrived shortly after, thrust her holy gold halberd through the old man’s head.
From her many years of experience battling such enemies, destroying the body was not always enough to kill a Spiritual Energy user. Some individuals’ brains were the core. Some could even transcend their physical forms and exist in an energy state, just like that lightning person before.
As the holy gold halberd pierced the skull, a holy fire ignited simultaneously, completely incinerating Cui Kao’s vile face.
Georgette sniffed, the powerful Spiritual Energy user was indeed dead.
However, the matter was far from resolved.
Gu Hang first sent a message to Perbov behind him:
“No need for a second round of bombing, you almost killed me.”
Upon hearing this, Perbov’s expression stiffened instantly.
However, Gu Hang’s next words relaxed him again, “But well done.”
A smile returned to Perbov’s face.
I always said we needed to be more decisive in our action! Ah? Wait, could Governor-General’s words be sarcastic? Could they mean, ‘You almost killed me, well done indeed.’?
But Gu Hang no longer had the energy to concern himself with Perbov’s state of mind at that moment.
He looked up at the slowly reassembling Storm Fury avatar and the relentless storm.
This confirmed his previous guess: killing Cui Kao was not the key.
Or rather, they were too late in killing him.
By the time they had arrived at the scene, the entire ritual had already entered its final stage. Even, in a sense, Cui Kao didn’t take his own life and death seriously afterward. For such a fanatical believer, he had accomplished his mission, and what he did afterward was merely a flurry before death, seizing whatever he could.
However, the big mess he left behind was what troubled Gu Hang the most.
The storm could no longer continue.
A long-lasting typhoon, exaggerated rainfall, frequent lightning strikes…this would destroy Revival City.
Even the current intensity of the storm was already a catastrophe. Not to mention, the wind and rain were growing stronger, and the lightning strikes more frequent. In just a short while, Gu Hang had observed several trees nearby being struck by lightning.
It was unthinkable what the condition of the city would be like.
He didn’t know to what extent the storm would continue to intens