Close Combat

Red Coral Ruins.

It used to be a bustling town, bearing the responsibility of accommodating tens of thousands of tourists daily during the heyday of Rakfania's tourism industry. At its peak, the number of visitors exceeded one million. Although it was just a small town, due to advanced technology and abundant resources, its scale was no less than that of a medium-sized city in the 20th century.

However, with the decline of the tourism industry and the withdrawal of the Coral Group, this small town gradually became desolate and dilapidated.

Today, it still exists on the island, but it is nothing more than a desolate ruin, with abandoned buildings everywhere. Although it has experienced a hundred years of time, the advanced composite materials have withstood the erosion of time, allowing the buildings to still stand strong. The once airborne structures fell to the ground due to the loss of energy, but they did not collapse. They resembled a series of Rubik's cubes, haphazardly stacked on the island, like a mischievous child knocking over a set of neatly arranged building blocks.

Although the main structures of the buildings still exist, they cannot conceal the desolation and decay brought by the years.

Ivy covers the walls, dyeing the dilapidated ruins green. Some non-critical parts made of common materials are covered with the frost of time. Exposed steel bars, discarded flying cars, and some old bomb craters bring an apocalyptic atmosphere to this ruin.

At five o'clock in the morning, when the sky was still dim, Reno and Antonia arrived at the ruins of Red Coral Town.

Stopping at the entrance of the town, Reno didn't go in but waved to signal Antonia to stop.

He took out the message receiver, opened it, and said, "There are six of them, three on the west side, two in the town, and one in the south, all of them sleeping."

"Why are there so many people? Could it be that they also approached the merchant like you?" Antonia already knew how Reno obtained this information on the way here.

"It could be just a coincidence," Reno replied.

You don't necessarily have to know the main battlefield to come here. When you need rest at night, anyone could find what seems to be a safe place. Ruins still have many places to hide.

"So what do we do now?" Antonia asked.

Reno thought for a moment, pointed to the map, and said, "Approach stealthily, deal with the one in the south first, then the ones in the town. As for the three on the west side, they are on the outskirts of the town and won't affect our plan, so we won't bother with them."

Antonia agreed, and the two of them headed south together.

They stopped near a pile of vines, and Reno made a gesture, indicating that the target was in the vines ahead. The disguise was good. If it weren't for the locator showing the position, it would be difficult to discern with the naked eye.

Reno pointed to the left front, and Antonia understood, circling around from the other side.

"Don't use guns, use energy swords."

"Got it," Antonia replied, retracting her dual pistols and extending an energy sword.

Reno also lifted his energy sword and walked cautiously toward the target. He was being very careful, even opening the energy shield—he hadn't forgotten how he dealt with those who tried to ambush him on the first night.

Since he hadn't unlocked the airborne radar, if the other party also used similar means, the only thing he could do was to resist.

Fortunately, the target didn't set up spider mines. Reno walked all the way to the vicinity of the vines without encountering any traps, which relieved him. As he looked at the target, he slowly raised his energy sword. Just as he was about to strike, he saw a sudden flash of light on the target mech.

Reno was taken aback, realizing it was bad. He was about to jump up when he saw the mech suddenly shoot out a beam of light, hitting Reno directly.

The Silver Wing Angel rolled and fell out, but fortunately, his energy shield was activated due to the fear of spider mines. However, the tremendous impact still temporarily deprived him of control over the mech.

The mech stood up immediately, and a huge energy battle axe lit up in its hand, rushing towards Reno with a loud roar, "Kid, you've picked the wrong opponent!"

Reno knew it was bad. He was too late to resist, so he could only increase energy output and maximize shield strength.

Although melee attacks couldn't decisively win from a distance like ranged weapons, one advantage was that energy blades could make high-frequency swings when hitting the target, similar to a ripper. The difference was that rippers were better at this, but even a mech not good at this aspect could often make multiple high-frequency swings with one energy blade attack, sometimes even more than ten times. This made the melee combat power of mechs actually stronger than ranged ones. However, their weakness was that single attacks were weak, so the best way to deal with such attacks was to increase defense strength.

Boom!

The battle axe fiercely chopped Reno's mech again, sending him flying. The opponent landed a hit, and in the meantime, leaped up for another follow-up attack against Reno.

"Single hit 8.2 SP, fifteen swings. Damn, he's a melee expert!" Reno cursed and exerted all his strength to roll sideways.

The damage of the battle axe in its energy form was higher than that of

 the energy sword, but its swing frequency was lower, with damage usually around five SP per hit and about ten swings per hit.

This guy's battle axe attack, whether in frequency or single-hit intensity, exceeded the average, proving that this mech was definitely prioritized for melee combat. Reno increased the shield strength to the maximum, resisting a strength of five SP, but after taking this blow, he still suffered 48 SP damage, which was ferocious. It should be noted that the attack strength of missiles and positron cannons was only about twelve and fifteen SP respectively. However, what made the positron cannon powerful was not only its attack strength but also its penetration, which could end the opponent even when their energy shield was not depleted, paralyzing the mech's functions, equivalent to real damage, something conventional ammunition weapons couldn't achieve.

Fortunately, after more than ten hours of rest and the harvest from the Storm Mech, Reno's mech had been restored to full energy. The Silver Wing Angel was a balanced type of mech, and its peak strength with a full energy shield was 3800 SP, so although this blow was strong, it ultimately only caused a loss of 1.2% energy, which was far from the situation two days ago when a few missiles could kill a mech.

At this moment, the opponent landed a hit and continued to pursue relentlessly, swinging the energy battle axe, casting shadows of light.

Although Reno's mech's energy shield was strong, he didn't intend to waste it like this. He rolled several times in a row, barely avoiding the attacks, and then swung his energy sword, blocking the opponent. The two energy blades clashed, sparking in the collision.

The opponent lowered his shoulder and rammed into Reno's embrace: "Quite sturdy, then taste this!"

Reno was pushed back by him, and the opponent's energy battle axe suddenly transformed into a spear, stabbing towards the chest of the Silver Wing Angel.

The spear form was the highest damage form of the energy blade. When it reached its highest intensity, the damage it caused was enough to destroy an energy module in an instant. Therefore, the spear was known as a piercing killer. The drawback was that it consumed a lot of energy and physical strength, making it unsuitable for long-term use, so it was best used for a finishing move.

So both Reno's Ascending Dragon and the opponent's final blow at this moment were made using the spear form.

Just as the spear was about to pierce through the Silver Wing Angel, a sharp whistle suddenly sounded in the air.

A fiery red energy spear pierced the opponent's mech from the diagonally rear, erupting with high-energy impact, instantly destroying an energy module, causing a small area of energy loss, and the spear penetrated the mech's body along the gap.

"No!!!" The opponent screamed in horror and despair.

Ground mechs were not like space mechs. In order to reduce the load as much as possible, the strength of the body parts of the mech was limited. If the energy shield's defense strength could reach several thousand at its peak, then the body strength of a general mech could not even reach a hundred.

After the spear penetrated the mech's body, it did not retract but directly transformed into a sword.

The opponent still wanted to push the spear out before it completed its transformation, but Reno had already rushed forward, grabbing the opponent.

"Bastard, let me go!" He shouted desperately, trying to push Reno away with all his might.

Although his strength was great, Reno held onto him tightly and didn't let go.

The spear had transformed into a sword, and the fiery red sword, like rolling magma, was pulled horizontally, slowly cutting, with large sparks rising. When the sword cut out from the waist of the mech, half of the mech's body was already cut open.

This mech had not completely lost its ability to resist, and the opponent futilely waved his arms, shouting, "Coward, shameless, if you have the guts, face me one on one!"

Boom!

Reno punched the cockpit, and the huge shock made the opponent faint.