Held aloft in the air, too helpless to move, I could only slump against the whips that raised me high up as blood spilled from my mouth. My impaled limbs twitched, but they otherwise remained restrained.

Creak…

Even though the whips had already coiled around me and held me fast to the verge of defeat, they continued to writhe like serpents, possessing a semblance of life.

"Mo Hou Acid."

Watching me in amus.e.m.e.nt, Sha Chen announced the name of his poison proudly. He regarded me with scorn, his lips curling into a distasteful sneer. The point of his whips recoiled, almost as if to poke at me curiously. The Dark Sage"s venomous qi was imbuing it with unnatural life and sinister, cruel sentience, but he didn"t seem to care.

"That"s the name of the poison laced upon this iron whip."

His expression triumphant and his eyes wide with glee, Sha Chen continued arrogantly, clearly thinking that he had won.

"This poison will destroy you, and then destroy your muscles by causing your tendons to rot. Just like your old master."

What an idiot. Master had learned Heaven and Earth Formula like me. He was immune to all poisons. Clearly this delusional freak was unaware of that, and somehow believed that Master had been handicapped for the rest of his life.

The guy shouldn"t have locked himself up in isolation and read more about the news. Master was running around on both legs and annihilating entire orthodox sects on his own even at his advanced age. If the Martial Arts Alliance hadn"t gotten their act together, united and faced Master and Heaven and Earth Sect seriously, they would have been utterly destroyed.

"But before that…allow me to give you a taste of despair." Sha Chen paused for a moment, bathing in s.a.d.i.s.tic glee. "Hmm, cutting off an arm or leg wouldn"t do. I want you to feel the despair of losing mobility in your limbs. I want you to realize the horror of being unable to move as the muscles in your arms and legs slowly rot away, weakening to the point of paralysis. I should take something less obvious."

His iron whip slowly rose and stopped as if the barbed tip was staring at my gla.s.ses.

"Ah…you rely on visual aids to see, don"t you? Perhaps…you treasure your sight?" Sha Chen chuckled cruelly. "I wonder…how would you feel if I deprive you of your vision? Yes…maybe taking your eyes would serve as a best moment for this battle."

"That"s quite the extreme measure to take against someone who didn"t see eye to eye with you," I retorted defiantly, blood still dripping unceasingly from my mouth.

"Heh…still so sprightly, huh?" Sha Chen"s eyes were wide in madness as he continued to toy with the idea of torturing me. "I wonder how you"ll react after I take your eyes."

"You don"t want to do it," I warned. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If you take my eye, you had best prepare to lose your own in return."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ah!" Sha Chen burst out laughing. "I would like to see you try and take my eye!"

Then his whip surged forward. I jerked my head to the side, having read the flow of his qi, and the barbed tip grazed my face, leaving a thick line of blood across my cheek. It stung excruciatingly, but at least I hadn"t been blinded.

"Tch. Still struggling like a rat."

Clicking his tongue, the Heavenly Venom King withdrew his iron whips to repeat the maneuver. However, before he could, superheated plasma blasted through his back, burning a hole through his body and causing him to stagger forward.

"Kuh?!"

Almost toppling over, Sha Chen spun around. A pair of Castellax battle-automata with Darkfire cannons were marching forward, their shoulder-mounted gun turret swiveling to aim at him. They unleashed a second blast of azure plasma, the crackling energy slamming into Sha Chen and exploding violently.

"Ugh!!!"

With a holler, the immolated Sha Chen burst out of the inferno, desperately slapping at himself.

"You"re not going to extinguish the flames like that," I told him. Sha Chen turned toward me, his eyes wide, and qi beams from the mobile turrets that had separated from my damaged Snow Aegis lanced through him.

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

Screaming, Sha Chen unwittingly released me. I flopped down onto the ground helplessly, almost blacking out as I hit the dirt. I was way too injured to rise up for now, and could only bury my face in the soil and sprawl across the ground motionlessly.

That was fine. I had someone to fight for me.

Another two Castellax battle-automata emerged from my storage device, their Mauler bolt cannons spitting ma.s.s-reactive rounds that pierced Sha Chen"s defensive aura and detonating inside his protective field. Blood sprayed the dried mud as Sha Chen staggered backward, unable to withstand the violent onslaught. Behind him, the first two Castellax battle-automata released another blast of plasma that engulfed him in an incendiary cloud.

"f.u.c.k!"

Sha Chen shrieked and ripped apart the cloud of superheated plasma with his iron whips. Huffing as horrendous burns patched all over his skin, he sent his iron whips at the battle-automata. The automatons didn"t even flinch as the barbed whips sc.r.a.ped across their metallic plating, leaving not a single scratch.

"Battle puppets? And high quality ones at that?!"

Sha Chen was gaping at the sight of the ancient battle-automata that were produced in legions during the Dark Age of Technology. He desperately struck at them again, but their armored plating proved impervious to his weapons. Even if by chance he managed to penetrate their protection, he would find that these cybernetica constructs were completely unaffected by his poison. After all, they were beings of iron and electricity, not flesh and blood.

"What the h.e.l.l are these?!" even though he had literally just acknowledged them as battle puppets a mere few seconds ago, Sha Chen was raging impotently and asking stupid questions. To be fair, his question wasn"t meant to be literal. He probably was expressing his frustrated surprise at the lack of effect his poison was having on the machines.

"The flesh is weak. Strength can only be found in the purity of the machine." I closed my eyes as I muttered the mantra of the priesthood of the Adeptus Mechanicus. My Cybernetica maniple responded to my psychic commands, their crystal-lattice psionic minds linked to mine through arcane technology. "All shall fall before the wrath of the Omnissiah."

"What the f.u.c.k are you babbling about?!" Sha Chen roared at me. What a stupid move. While he was screaming at me, my Castellax battle-automata closed in, pumping sh.e.l.l after sh.e.l.l, plasma blast after plasma blast into his wrecked body. Sha Chen jerked and shrieked in agony as he was struck from all directions.

"Annoying b.u.g.g.e.rs!" he shouted as he whipped his whips out, trying to scythe the Castellax battle-automata down, but they didn"t even flinch from the strikes. The huge robots continued to lumber forward, puring more of their destructive hail of attacks into him.

Credit to the Dark Sage, he really was durable. My Castellax battle-automata cohort had unleashed enough ammunition to take out an entire infantry platoon, yet Sha Chen was still alive. His injuries seemed grievous, but he was stll standing somehow, as if he hadn"t taken a single fatal wound. He actually seemed more annoyed than hurt.

"Get away from me!"

With a shout, he lashed out his whips, knocking the Castellax battle-automata with brute force. They finally stumbled backward, but didn"t falter. Their atomantic shielding shimmered, transparent fields of defensive energy absorbing and deflecting the power of Sha Chen"s attacks in a mysterious manner. The Dark Sage turned on them, but my mobile turrets hovered upward and unleashed a withering barrage on him, their qi beams punching through his body and causing him to topple over.

"Annoying flies!"

Throwing a hand back, Sha Chen tried to swat my flying mobile turrets out of the sky, but they reacted quickly, zooming away to avoid his wrath. As his whips slashed futilely in the air, the mobile turrets then countered with another concerted volley of qi beams that crashed painfully into him, causing him to sprawl on the ground.

Sha Chen then rolled away in an undignified manner as my robots closed in and stomped on his position, attempting to crush him under several tons of machinery.

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l…what is it with these battle puppets? I"ve never seen anything like them before! A new design!?"

Sha Chen swept out with his whips, which coiled around the Castellax battle-automata"s arms, only to be deflected by shimmering refractive fields. The turret atop their shoulder tracked him and blasted him at near pointblank range. The Heavenly Venom King staggered as a series of ma.s.s reactive rounds detonated across his chest.

"Ugh!"

Twisting around, he barely parried the fist of another Castellax battle-automata. Crackling in a blue power field of destructive energy, the power fist of the Castellax battle-automat packed enough armor penetrating power to tear through his defensive aura and smash right into his old body, sending him flying.

"Kuh!"

Sha Chen flipped about in midair and landed on his feet.

"These are really troublesome opponents." He sighed and shook his head. "I know poison has no effect on battle puppets, but that doesn"t make them any less of a pain to deal with." Gritting his teeth, his spread his legs and readied his unfurling whips, which were getting ready to strike out like a serpent again.

Then he suddenly frowned.

"Wait, why am I using my whips and poison against such enemies in the first place? Plot-induced stupidity?"

Shaking his head, he sighed in an exaggerated manner. Dodging another plasma blast from the Darkfire cannons and weaving through the slow and clumsy punches from the robots" power fists, Sha Chen then conjured a fireball of qi in his hands. Spinning around, he slammed the fireball into the armored chest of the closest Castellax battle-automata, causing it to stagger.

The fireball exploded furiously across the armor plating welded across its chest, scorching the two-heaed Aquila emblazoned upon it. The atomantic shielding sparkled, the robot"s generators whining in protest as they struggled to cope with the abrupt strain they were placed under. They held for now, but a blackened plating showed signs of damage.

Its servos grinding, the Castellax battle-automata swung its devastating power fist at the ducking Sha Chen, the power field wreathing its mechanical arm singing his white hair and leaving soot on his wrinkled face. Sha Chen coiled his iron whips around his arms as if to create pseudo gauntlets and punched the slow and c.u.mbersome battle-automata in the chest again, causing sparks to fly from the abused plating.

The Castellax battle-automata looked as if it was about to fall.

However, before the Dark Sage could finish the job, its brethren stepped in. the second Castellax battle-automata swung its fist toward Sha Chen"s back, forcing him to abort his attack and retreat. Despite his advanced age, Sha Chen continued to move with a speed and fluidity that surpa.s.sed even my schoolmates who were several times younger than him. He threw a palm that was wrapped in his whips up, striking what served as the head of the Castellax battle-automata, only for the weapon to grind uselessly against the atomantic shielding.

The Castellax battle-automata retaliated with a punch from its other power fist, and Sha Chen had to parry this time, crossing his whip-wrapped arms in front of him. Even though the iron whips absorbed most of the damage, he was still thrown back several meters, his legs kicking restlessly as they sought to dig into the ground.

"Hah!"

Sha Chen threw an arm out, and his whip snaked out once again, lashing at the shoulder joint of the second Castellax battle-automata. Its protector protocols kicked in and it swatted the whip away, only for the flexible weapon to wrap around its mechanical arm and held on tightly in an effort to entangle its movements.

The Dark Sage"s triumph didn"t last long. Before he could yank and bring the Castellax battle-automata down, another Castellax battle-automata fired into him from behind, its explosive bolts from its Mauler bolt cannon pounding into his body and sending him tumbling forward. Sha Chen"s grip on the second Castellax battle-automata loosened and it pulled its arm free. The Heavenly Venom King raised his head to glare at the third offending robot, but the second one took revenge by bathing him in superheated plasma from its shoulder-mounted Darkfire cannon.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Immolated, Sha Chen hit the ground and rolled about in an attempt to extinguish the flames. The first Castellax battle-automata stepped forward and kicked him, sending his curled body hurting through the air. A trail of blood seemed to hang suspended for a moment before splashing downward onto the ground.

Sss…

I watched weakly in horror as Sha Chen"s corrosive blood began eating away at the soil like acid. What was he, some sort of parasitic alien or something?

Nonetheless, that sort of cheap tricks wasn"t enough to take down an opponent of Sha Chen"s caliber. Sensing his strong, steady life-signs unabating, the four battle-automata closed in to finish him off, firing relentlessly with their shoulder-mounted guns. Even the boltguns and flamers in their arms began unleashing a hail of rounds or a torrent of flames, washing over Sha Chen"s p.r.o.ne body and concealing him from my sight.

Suddenly, I frowned, realizing that something was amiss.

Wasn"t Sha Chen an expert formerly from the Incendiary Ifrit Sect or some similar sect that practiced fire techniques? If that was the case, shouldn"t he haave a lot more resistant to fire attacks or something? Plasma was one thing, since it was superheated to the degree that it would still do significant amount of damage to someone with resistant to fire techniques. But the weaker flames from the battle-automata"s flamers shouldn"t do much to someone of Sha Chen"s strength.

"Stop annoying me!"

With a roar, Sha Chen exploded…not literally, but by releasing his own flames. An Incendiary Blast or something to that effect. The eruption of flames was enough to knock my robots back, sending them reeling.

The old monster was slowly rising to his feet, his whips blazing with unnatural, demonic flames. With a howl, he lashed out at the four battle-automata, knocking them off their feet. The first one seemed to have lost its arm electricity crackling from its severed joint. A second one had its inner calbings exposed when Sha Chen"s attack penetrated and melted through its thick adamantium armor. A third was bowled off its feet, and was slowly rising back to its feet.

"Do you really think you can beat me with such toys?" Sha Chen snarled.

Barely conscious as I was right now, I couldn"t answer him. I was watching the battle through my battle-automata"s sensors, and while I was directing them, it wasn"t as if I was doing it consciously.

I should probably explain that better. When I said control, I didn"t mean I was literally controlling them, as a puppeteer would pull the strings of his puppet and direct its each and every movement. No, my robots had a semblance of intelligence of their own, crude artificial intelligence that mechanically calculated the best tactics and optimum vectors of attacks and obtusely carrying them out in the most efficient manner possible.

In a way, they were like soldiers. I gave them a simple command – for example, earlier, I had instructed them to "defeat" Sha Chen. That was all. Once I had input the command, my Castellax battle-automata would act on their own initiative on how best to achieve their goals. The goals set by me, of course, but I didn"t micromanage them. I didn"t plot and control their each and every move to the slightest detail.

They could act on their own initiative, following my orders and fighting using whatever means they deemed most efficient and had the highest probability of success.

Therefore I was only vaguely aware of what was happening at best. My mind was stil befuddled, beset by unconsciousness and pain. I so wanted to sink into the darkness, and let all the pain disappear for now…

Swoosh!

Sha Chen"s flying whips streaked through the air vengefully, smacking my Castellax robots aside and incinerating them. Despite the horrendous injuries they sustained, the battle-automata continued fighting on emotionlessly and coldly, not registering the immense damage inflicted upon them. Or perhaps they merely recognized them as drastic reductions in their combat inefficiency, but merely formulated new battle tactics to cope with the sudden loss of firepower. Their shoulder-mounted turret guns continued to spew hot death, but Sha Chen flicked both bolt and plasma away with his iron whips, which now formed an impregnable barrier that was supplemented by fire.

The battle-automata couldn"t feel pain. They couldn"t feel fear. They would continue to fight until they were destroyed, driven by the single directive I had input into their programming. They were the ultimate loyal soldiers, having no qualms to give up their lives to protect me or achieve my objective.

But they were not invincible.

"Get destroyed already!"

Snarling, Sha Chen lashed out and cracked open the armor plating of yet another Castellax battle-automata, sending it staggering. The barbed tip of his whip stabbed into the head of a fourth Castellax battle-automata, cracking the dome-shaped metal and trying to force its way into the precious circuits within.

Above, my hovering mobile turrets fired another lance of qi beams, which sliced through the whip and caused it to pull out of the battle-automata"s head in reflex. The robot cooly raised its remaining arm and unleashed a hail of lower caliber bolt rounds from its arm-mounted boltgun. Its shoulder-mounted turret spun about and locked onto the struggling Sha Chen, and began to hammer him with larger, high-caliber rounds.

The Dark Sage spun away, his whips erecting a wall of fire as he sought to protect himself. Throwing out his palm, he launched a Ma.s.s Incendiary Blast that sent all four Castellax battle-automata flying in different directions, their armor plating scorched.

Even so, they unfeelingly clambered back to their feet once more, their weapons revolving and tracking their target. They were going to fight to the death, and as long as I don"t stop them, they would halt at nothing to achieve their objective.

Unfortunately, at this rate they were going to be destroyed before they could get close to accomplishing the mission I had subconsciously a.s.signed them.

"..."

Quite some distance away from the ferocious skirmish, I continued to lie face-down in the dirt, my eyes rolled up in their sockets. My body was totally unmoving, having suffered far too much damage for any human to move after being stabbed in so many places.

"Oi."

Trapped deep within my unconsciousness, I heard a familiar voice. Even though a thread of nervousness stirred inside my heart, I was far too enmeshed within the comfort of darkness to try and wake up.

"Fei Wu!"

The voice was sharp, cutting through the hazy fog of unconsciousness that clouded my mind. Again, something pushed to the distant back of my mind perked up at the familiar voice, but it was still unable to jolt the majority of my consciousness back into action.

"What are you doing?"

The voice was clearer now, louder. Almost as if whoever was speaking was directly in front of me, delivering a sharp rebuke to my downed figure.

"I"m talking to you, Wu!"

My eyes rolled up and I blinked. In the overwhelming darkness, I could see a slight flicker of light. No, not a light.
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Flames.

Ghostly flames that was dancing about. The more I looked, the closer I inspected it, the more eerie they became. Mentally I was raising my head, though I knew outwardly, physically, my head was buried in the dirt.

The flames coalesced and took the shape of a familiar figure. The silhouette and features of someone I knew well…not very well, as we hadn"t really met for long. A few minutes when I saved him from the truck, a few minutes in the hospital, and then about a week during my stint in the underworld. Obviously I would be lying if I claimed to have known him very well after such brief periods of contact with him throughout my life.

It was the ghostly face of my master. And he was looking very furious. A vengeful spirit. Heh. Wasn"t that the topic I used to study back during my undergraduate days as a major in j.a.panese literature and history…?

"Get up right now!" the ghostly visage of Master bellowed in rage.

The light began to return to my eyes, and I was starting to become physically aware of the muddy soil around me. My hand flinched, my fingers flexing ever so slightly as my synapses struggled to reestablish the connections between my brain and my limbs.

And then I began to awake from my slumber.