Chapter 114: The Encroaching Black Tide

Xino, dragging Zhou Ye, sped toward Bai Sha's position, spotting Yu Yan and Cen Yuehuai perched atop a rubble pile from afar.

Xino raised an eyebrow, shouting, "What're you guys staring at?"

Yu Yan and Cen Yuehuai's mechs snapped toward him. Weapons in hand, they looked like they had no one to fight.

Cen Yuehuai: "Why're you here?"

"Zhou Ye's mech glitched, and my blade's stuck in his grip," Xino said, summing it up. Clang—he dumped Zhou Ye's mech on the ground.

The silver mech lay curled, limbs bent, one hand clutching Xino's blade tightly.

Cen Yuehuai inspected it. Though battered, Zhou Ye's mech had its limbs and core parts intact—it should still function. The only explanation was a system lockup. Zhou Ye seemed unconscious.

"Easy fix," Cen Yuehuai said, brandishing her crescent axes, aiming the sharp edge at the mech's arm. "Just cut it off."

"But it's not fully shut down," Xino said, exasperated. "Scan it closely."

Cen Yuehuai paused, then gasped, "What's going on? Why's his mental energy bouncing around like that?"

Imperial and Federal mech designs diverged slightly.

Both required mental links, but Imperials leaned on manual control, while Federals favored sensory-driven systems—Federal mechs incorporated smart processing to streamline operations. The trade-off: higher synchronization demands.

This sync was fine-tuned for peak performance. Higher-grade mechs were stricter.

Current Federal sensory tech used devices or drugs to amplify pilots' mental sensitivity, maximizing sync rates—including pain feedback. Mech damage translated to pain, hitting the brain directly.

Normally, mechs had sensory filters to dull pain to tolerable levels.

But that was for "standard" mechs.

Zhou Ye's state was "hypersense"—his filter failed due to excessive resonance with his mech. With the mech still powered, severing an arm would feel like losing his own.

Given his sensory chaos, another pain spike could be disastrous.

"On a battlefield, I wouldn't hesitate, but he's Her Highness's friend," Xino said over comms. "I don't want to cripple him in a match."

Cen Yuehuai quietly stowed her weapon.

With two of the Feds' five mechs down, the Empire was set to win anyway.

"Where's Her Highness? She'd know how to handle this," Xino said. "She knows Federal mech structures best—how to safely shut it down."

Shutting it down would end Zhou Ye's "hypersense," letting Xino reclaim his blade.

Cen Yuehuai pointed beyond the slope. "There—dueling Yan Jingyi."

Xino peeked over.

Below was a deep crater, its surface cracked and pocked with bullet holes.

Inside, two mechs clashed, engines roaring like thunder, their dizzying moves a blur!

Xino was hooked after one glance. He'd never seen such a visceral mech brawl!

Yan Jingyi's mech was sleek and tall, its shell a thin, bright sheen, like moonlight piercing clouds. Its metal frame pulsed with uncanny vitality and explosiveness, every move laced with the finesse of a real fighter—short slides to close gaps, rapid feints in close quarters, a fake downward stab morphing into a wrist-flicked neck strike, all fluid in two seconds!

From past spars, Yan Jingyi knew Bai Sha struggled in close combat.

She pressed relentlessly, her sword a cage, aiming to smother Bai Sha's counters with sheer speed.

The old Bai Sha would've been overwhelmed. But honed by her uncle and Uriel, she'd learned the value of multi-weapon mastery.

Bai Sha wielded her spear, parrying each strike. Their weapons clashed, sparking zzt, zzt with bright arcs.

Yan Jingyi ground her right foot, shifting her weight forward mid-spin, her sword grazing Bai Sha's shoulder, aiming for her head.

Bai Sha raised her spear, deflecting the blow, forcing Jingyi's lightsword outward.

The mechs collided briefly, parting in a blur of afterimages. In that split second, Bai Sha palmed her spear, right hand twisting it behind her. As they clashed again, the spear whipped out, grazing Jingyi's ear!

Jingyi's pale mech dodged, barely avoiding a headshot.

Simultaneously, Bai Sha's freed left hand morphed, firing laser rounds at Jingyi's feet.

Jingyi leaped to evade, but Bai Sha gave no respite, unloading a relentless barrage.

Still shooting, Bai Sha charged, landing a silver-glinting thrust precisely where Jingyi stood to dodge.

Boom!

A shockwave surged.

Xino squinted—Bai Sha's quivering spear tip halted midair, blocked by something.

A force field!

Hexagonal blue barriers shimmered around Jingyi—her defensive shield.

Zzt, zzt—

Bai Sha's spear tip blazed.

Recharging!

Gripping the shaft, she thrust downward.

The shield shattered!

In the next instant, Jingyi's mech flipped, narrowly dodging, then lunged back at Bai Sha.

They clashed again, fighting with a reckless, life-or-death ferocity.

The ground beneath Xino trembled.

Xino: "…"

He'd thought they'd pause to catch up. Not this brutal!

After rounds, both bore scars, but Bai Sha's were fewer, her vigor growing.

Suddenly, Zhou Ye's mech twitched, blue sparks crackling across it.

Xino wanted their fight to continue, but Zhou Ye was fading fast.

Cen Yuehuai hesitated. "Should we interrupt?"

Xino: "By team match logic, we should gang up on Yan Jingyi to knock her out."

Cen Yuehuai: "You think we didn't try?"

She and Yu Yan fired shells at Jingyi. Next second, Bai Sha and Jingyi swatted them away.

"At their level, a few long-range shells won't shift the fight," Cen Yuehuai said, shrugging. "Fire a heavier beam cannon and risk hitting Her Highness?"

Xino was speechless.

Decisively, he hoisted Zhou Ye's mech, yelling at Jingyi, "Yan Jingyi, I've got a hostage! Surrender, or I tear the ticket!"

Jingyi's pale mech glanced up, her cold voice ringing: "Go ahead and tear it."

Xino: "…"

Did Federals have no camaraderie? She told him to do it?

Bai Sha, glancing at Xino, quickly clocked Zhou Ye's condition.

She hesitated, frowning, then slammed her spear, snapping Jingyi's scarred lightsword.

"Enough," Bai Sha said, pinning her, spear tip hovering coldly at the pale mech's chest. "You can't win today."

"We fight on," Jingyi's voice echoed through her mech. "We don't stop."

Bai Sha fell silent.

She didn't think Jingyi was much weaker. But Bai Sha Roning's mech, a legacy-grade marvel of Imperial engineering, outclassed Jingyi's student-grade Federal model. No amount of skill could close that gap.

It felt like cheating.

"How's Federal Central Military Academy?" Bai Sha asked abruptly.

"About what we imagined," Jingyi replied. "Except it's missing you."

"See you outside."

"Deal. Later."

Bai Sha's weapon, Thunderflow, pierced Jingyi's mech's energy core with a swift, almost gentle strike.

Jingyi went still.

She entered "corpse mode"—unlike Janice's death-throes, most pilots lay still after defeat, waiting for the match's end.

Bai Sha turned, climbing the crater's edge.

"Your Highness!" Cen Yuehuai rushed up. "You won!"

"Yeah, won," Bai Sha said, eyeing her scarred mech with a sigh, pulling out her toolbox. "Bring Zhou Ye over."

She paused, surprised. "Why're you all here? Where's Ji Ya?"

Xino: "Ji Ya's trapped in those shifting ruins."

"I'll need a bit," Bai Sha said. "Yu Yan, Yuehuai, check it out. No holding back—blast the whole ruin if you have to."

Their ammo would be nearly spent, but with Zhou Ye, Jingyi, and Janice half-eliminated, Zhou Ying and Ya Ning posed no threat. No need to conserve.

"Got it." Cen Yuehuai nodded, leaping off the rubble with Yu Yan.

Then Bai Sha gave the audience another masterclass in mech dismantling.

This time, she worked with precision and care. Parts were laid out neatly, pleasing even OCD viewers—but the audience couldn't see.

The broadcast screens slapped mosaics on the mech and parts again!

"Imperials, enough already!" a furious Federal spectator roared. "Addicted to dismantling? Can't you just finish it?!"

Federal Fan #2: "This is insane… mosaic everywhere, a gutted mech—looks like a crime scene…"

Imperial Fan: "Only now do I remember our commander's an engineer. But her dismantling's got style—go, Your Highness! You're the wildest!"

Imperial Fan #2: "I regret bringing my kid to this."

It took Bai Sha seven or eight minutes to locate Zhou Ye's mech core, yanking it out.

Buzz…

The mech fell silent.

Bai Sha pried Zhou Ye from the cockpit, setting him gently on the ground. She hopped out, slapping his face. "Hey, wake up!"

Zhou Ye's face reddened after two slaps, his closed eyes and refined features giving him a fragile, jade-like beauty.

Fan: "I'm sobbing—she's so gentle, jumping out to slap his face! We misjudged her; she's saving him!"

Another: "What else? Slap him with her mech? That's murder."

Fan: "I don't care! I ship this CP! They're perfect together!"

Another: "…"

Fan: "Why's the rescue team not here? He needs a checkup!"

Maybe the Imperial commander saving a Federal cadet was heartwarming, softening the audience's mood.

The Feds were doomed anyway.

Might as well treat it like a blockbuster movie.

…

Meanwhile, on the arena's other side…

Zhou Ying piloted his mech, hiding in the shifting ruins, while Janice, for some reason, began sweating again.

"You okay?" Zhou Ying asked warily. "Another bug?"

"No, something's wrong," Janice said, eyes snapping open. Her holographic display flickered, red tendrils seeping from its base, spreading like vines. "Something's in this ruin. Its growth defies computational logic…"

Crack.

A faint sound—stones crumbling in a corner.

A round, inky black tentacle slithered from the shadows, silently lunging at Zhou Ying's feet.

Zhou Ying leaped back, firing at the source. Pfft, pfft—bullets pierced the tentacle, like punching through flesh. It briefly dispersed, but after a pause, swallowed the bullets, creeping outward.

"What is this?" Zhou Ying frowned, keeping distance, rifle steady. "Arena trap or—"

"Move!" Janice warned.

The ground shook. Zhou Ying spun his mech, sprinting. He vaulted obstacles, slipping between broken walls, glancing back.

The wall behind him oozed more black matter. In seconds, it crumbled into falling bricks.

It was seeping from the walls!

Zhou Ying caught on, halting and turning, shouting into comms, "Something weird's in this ruin, Ya Ning—get out!"

Static crackled, then Ya Ning's voice: "What'd you say?"—followed by a deafening explosion.

He and Ji Ya were deep in combat.

Janice: "Calculating the fastest exit route… done." Her silver eyes flashed. "I've sent it to Ya Ning's mech system."

Zhou Ying nodded.

He silently piloted into a chamber. As he landed, the concrete room spun, light sliding across walls.

Unfazed, Zhou Ying leaped, drawing a dagger from his waist, stabbing it into the concrete. He climbed to a window, kicked through the metal frame, and jumped out.

He kept the dagger, saying, "Not all walls have that stuff."

"They will soon," Janice said gravely. "It spreads fast."

What was it?

With time, they'd test weapons—bullets failed, but fire or ice? Sonic or air blasts? But the substance spread too quickly, aggressively, likely ensnaring them before experiments began. Zhou Ying could only flee.

"It eats bullets—that says something," Zhou Ying said, maxing his mental sensing range, tracking surroundings, whispering to Janice. "Can your system analyze its composition?"

Janice: "Left turn ahead—I'm not that smart."

Zhou Ying laughed. "So you're just a human GPS?"

A rotating gate blocked his path. Igniting thrusters, he timed it, sliding through the gap like a circus acrobat.

Janice shot back, icy: "Didn't know an engineer had such circus skills."

"Shut it. A half-cyborg who keeps glitching dares mock me?"

Zhou Ying paused mid-run.

He remembered Ji Ya, lured into this ruin trap.

If their plan got her killed here…

Zhou Ying sighed, opening comms, but Ya Ning's signal was gone.

A bad feeling hit.

What was happening?!

Simultaneously…

The arena's overhead holographic screens went black.

The crowd erupted:

"What's going on?!"

"Again? Mosaics were bad enough—now we can't even watch?"

The control room was chaos.

Uniformed staff scurried, frantically contacting logistics for signal repairs.

"This gear's brand-new… this shouldn't happen!"

"Logistics isn't responding!"

"What about the broadcast?"

"…Cut off three minutes ago, but the system gave no warning! Someone's hacked our signal—"

The broadcast crew was frantic, practically blistering with stress.

"Chief!" An operator at the console grabbed his sleeve, voice taut, suppressing a shriek. "Look at this!"

The screen showed the arena's internal scan.

A blinking red dot appeared at the center, rapidly spreading, staining the buildings blood-red.

The chief muttered, "What is this?"