Chapter Twelve: City in Crisis

Thud!

The fist slammed directly into the ground, violently cracking the earth within a five-meter radius as fissures spread outward like a spiderweb. As the black-haired youth stood up, the ground began to cave in, sinking a full half-meter before finally coming to a halt.

Opposite him, Mela wore a ferocious expression. Had she not retreated instantly just a moment ago, her head surely would have been blown to pieces by that golden-armored fist. The thought only fanned the flames of her fury. Her black pupils began to turn green, and she stared with murderous intent at the black-haired youth, who kept his head lowered.

Five meters away, Qingxue also opened her lovely eyes. She had no idea what had happened just then; she had merely felt herself shoved backward by a surge of force, landing squarely in Yi An's embrace.

"... Xiayue!" he spoke again, his voice laden with a gnashing, bone-deep fury.

Hearing her human identity addressed by name for the second time, Mela's deep green cat-like pupils flickered. As the black-haired youth slowly raised his head to reveal that handsome, wheat-complexioned face, her murderous intent vanished entirely, giving way to an astonished, beaming smile.

"Little Chenchen, it hasn't even been a month, and you've already forgotten Sister Yue?" she said, her nimble tongue licking her lips as if savoring the lingering taste of blood from before.

"Na... Nangong Yuchen!"

Meanwhile, Mu Ling, Yi An, Qingxue, and the other three felt their hearts quake violently. They stared in disbelief at the straight-backed youth standing amidst the collapsed ground, their faces frozen in utter blankness.

He had broken through to the First Tier overnight?

Just then, Angel and Nangong Kexin arrived, closely followed by over a dozen speed-type mecha warriors.

"Yi An, Qingxue, are you alright?" Nangong Yuchen turned his head to look at the injured group, asking with concern.

"No..." Numb all over, Yi An couldn't even process what Nangong Yuchen was saying. He looked from Nangong Yuchen to Angel and the other girl, finally letting out a long breath as he said in shock, "You... Angel! Nangong Kexin, you... you've all broken through to the First Tier?"

"Mm!" Nangong Yuchen nodded, then shifted his gaze back to Mela not far away with renewed anger. "Leave her to me! Hurry inside and rescue the residents!"

With that, he propelled himself upward. In mid-air, his body arched like a drawn bow, his fist cocked back as he descended upon Mela with terrifying, brute force.

"Nangong Yuchen... watch out! She's a Second-Tier beast!" Mu Ling cried out, clutching her chest as she issued a frantic warning.

Seeing Nangong Yuchen entangled in close combat with the catwoman, Angel and Nangong Kexin reached for their mechas to join the rescue, but he immediately cut them off. "Don't come over! Get inside right now!"

"Nangong Yuchen, he..."

Though deeply worried, seeing that he was not losing the upper hand and that the cat beast seemed strangely familiar with him, the group grit their teeth with a roar and charged into Tianwan Street alongside the dozen speed-type mecha warriors who had just arrived.

"Little Chenchen! How about you come away with Sister Yue? I'll cherish you for the rest of my life!" Mela clapped her claws together, intercepting Nangong Yuchen's violently hammering fist as she smiled seductively.

Naturally, Nangong Yuchen had no intention of listening to her sweet-talking lies. Moreover, beasts were currently slaughtering his fellow humans; he resented her enough as it was—how could he possibly follow a beastly catwoman?

"Bang!" With his left hand, Nangong Yuchen retrieved a triangular shield, wielding it like a massive hammer to strike at Mela's head.

Mela showed no anger at Nangong Yuchen's lethal intent. With a nimble twist, she flipped backward and landed atop a three-meter-tall ruined wall. Seeing Nangong Yuchen charge at her, she flexed her legs and dodged once more.

"Have you considered it, Little Chenchen? Sister Yue will treat you just like her own man!" Mela continued her persuasion. She wasn't actually lying; from the moment she laid eyes on Nangong Yuchen earlier, she had been plotting how to take him away with her.

"Humph!" Frustrated at repeatedly failing to pin down her movements, Nangong Yuchen put away his golden-armored fist, switching to a cannon-type sniper rifle. He used his next attack to answer Mela's question.

"Screech, screech!" A yellow energy shell blasted forth, screaming toward Mela just as she touched down on the ground.

"Since you refuse, I'll just have to use brute force to drag you away!" Abandoning her purely evasive stance as the shell roared toward her, Mela lashed out with both blue-clawed hands, tearing ten one-meter-long claw-blades through the air that collided directly with the incoming yellow projectile.

The previously infallible cannon-type sniper rifle lost its potency at that moment. Those razor-sharp claws not only sliced the shell cleanly apart, causing it to detonate harmlessly in mid-air, but also pierced through the yellow radiance and lunged straight at Nangong Yuchen.

"Oscillation!" Nangong Yuchen raised his left shield to guard his chest, launching a counter-thrust before the claws could connect, rather than simply defending.

Seizing the opportunity, Mela leaped forward. Exposing the full extent of her Second-Tier strength, her speed was blinding. Before Nangong Yuchen could even scatter the claw blades, she had already circled behind him, pressing flush against his back.

Curtain of Lightning Blades! Boots of the Gale!

As Nangong Yuchen put away the sniper rifle, purple-and-cyan crystalline blocks surged from his right hand and the soles of his feet, condensing into a purple longsword and cyan boots respectively.

Yet that brief window of time was more than enough for Mela. With a gentle wave of her right hand's claws, she left a shallow bloody scratch across Nangong Yuchen's left cheek, then leaned forward to press her entire body against his spine, her nimble tongue flicking across his face.

"Such delicious blood! Little Chenchen, Sister Yue loves you more and more!"

Furious, Nangong Yuchen thrust the Curtain of Lightning Blades backward in a counter-attack. It was on the verge of piercing her chest, but Mela's blinding speed allowed her to retreat and evade just in time.

With that, Nangong Yuchen brandished his sword and pressed the attack. Bolstered by the speed-boosting boots, he barely managed to match Mela's pace, and the two clashed once more in a fierce brawl.

"Clang, clang, clang!"

In the blink of an eye, several minutes passed, while a bloody war raged deep within Tianwan Street.

Although the arrival of Angel and the band of mecha warriors had considerably alleviated the massacre of the civilians—allowing the survivors to begin retreating—the sheer number of beasts inside was overwhelming. There were nearly twenty First-Tier creatures alone, including one-eyed wolf beasts and black giant spiders, which, coupled with dozens of ordinary beasts, left the score of mecha warriors in perilous danger as casualties began to mount.

"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!"

At some point, Angel had put away her bow. Due to the overwhelming density of beasts before her, she switched directly to a heavy machine gun and began mowing them down.

Nangong Kexin, fighting in close quarters, was not only drenched in the blood of beasts, but her purple spear had also been dyed crimson.

Meanwhile, Mu Ling, Yi An, and the others had been under Angel's protection due to their injuries. Had Angel not been fiercely capable, they likely would have fallen into the gaping, bloodied maws of the beasts long ago.

Just then, another speed-type mecha warrior, while shielding evacuating residents, was trapped in a beastly encirclement and torn apart on the spot!

In the span of a mere moment, five mecha warriors had already perished!

His death instantly compounded the pressure on the remaining mecha warriors. A nearby warrior soon followed him down the same tragic path...

Civilians and fighters fell one after another. Against the bloody twilight of the setting sun, matching the rivulets of blood flowing across the earth, the entire world seemed plunged into a crimson catastrophe.

And the slaughter continued unabated!

"Thud, thud, thud!"

Just as the fiercely indominable Angel was reaching her limit in protecting Yi An and the others, Ye Chen finally arrived with over thirty mecha warriors!

The moment they charged into Tianwan Street, it felt as though they had stepped into a crimson purgatory. Gazing at the ground littered with corpses and severed limbs, hearing the shrieks of fleeing survivors, and seeing Angel and the dozen remaining mecha warriors, a blinding rage overtook them. Bellowing in fury, they drew their mechas, vaulted from the ground, and charged into the fray with a unified roar.

Simultaneously, the chop of helicopter blades echoed from the horizon. Seconds later, a dozen choppers appeared. At the forefront, Yang Long stood by the doorway, hoisting a massive greatsword. Before the helicopter had even fully touched down, he took the lead and leaped from the cabin.

Instantly, the nearly three-meter-wide, thick greatsword expanded mid-air to a length of ten meters and a width of three meters. Gripping the hilt with both hands, Yang Long brought it down in a cleaving arc. It felt as though he were splitting the heavens and earth; in a single stroke, he obliterated over a dozen First-Tier beasts. The street itself was cleaved in two, instantly cleaning up a vast swathe of the battlefield.

"Chop this pack of animals to pieces!"

With that command, wave after wave of mecha warriors leaped from the helicopters. Countless multicolored crystalline blocks filled the air like streams of cascading code, condensing into mechas of diverse and formidable shapes.

Outside the street, Heid had just torn the final mecha warrior before him into two halves before sprinting wildly toward Nangong Yuchen and Mela.

"Mela, their reinforcements have arrived. We're leaving!" Throwing a single glance at Nangong Yuchen, Heid vanished into the mouth of a neighboring alley.

Mela felt a lingering reluctance. She had originally expected to finish off Nangong Yuchen and carry him away within two minutes, only to discover once they actually fought that Nangong Yuchen, cycling through his six mecha forms, could genuinely hold his own against her! Moreover, other mecha warriors were already rushing toward their position from not far away; if she didn't leave now, she might genuinely end up trapped.

Struggling internally, she ultimately abandoned her plan to take Nangong Yuchen away for the time being. Striking him back with a sweep of her twin claws, she turned and fled in the direction Heid had taken.

Before disappearing, however, she lingered atop the ruined wall to call back to him: "Little Chenchen, this city is about to be overrun by the beast horde! I hope you'll seriously consider my words before then!"

With that, she unleashed her full speed and vanished into the distant skyline of towering buildings.

"Xiashi City... how is that possible?" Nangong Yuchen, who had been on the verge of pursuing her, froze when he heard those words. There was not a hint of jest in her tone, causing his heart to sink as though crushed beneath the weight of a towering mountain...