Perfect World VR (15) - Command and Conquer

King immediately felt a grave sense of danger. As the red beam streaked through the air and approached him at a blistering pace, he could not help but feel his heart palpitate. He inadvertently gulped down saliva and prepared himself for impact.

Within a second, the distance between himself and the Humpback cannon was covered with green light and he felt a powerful force slam into his tower.

***Boom***

It was an explosive sound even though there wasn't an explosion. King gritted his teeth and poured his everything into defending against the blast. Though his life was not at risk, he still felt the need to do so.

Cracks began to form around the walls of the tower. The cracks would slowly mend before new ones would branch out, each crack resembling a spider web as it connected.

Everyone watching could not help but stare in awe at the amount of power behind the cannon fire. This was way more destructive firepower than the Scorpion units could produce, it was somewhat terrifying to watch.

Some could not help but feel bad that King had to tank such an attack. "Heh, you were saying?" Reyes remarked with a smirk as he took a jab at Indra. The latter remained silent as he kept his eyes trained on what was happening below.

Elena felt satisfied with what she saw. Placing her trust in Nathan was a profitable venture. She had no more misgivings about doing so. "That is enough."

The cannon fire slowly reduced after which it completely stopped, and a cooling sound emitted from the cannon as the energy was retracted.

King gasped as he released [Heavenly tower]. He had ended up using more energy than he had anticipated. "This unit is quite terrifying."

"I'm glad you acknowledge its capabilities."

***

"Don't think I'll go easy on you, Holt. Your machine is just a hunk of metal after all." Jeremiah remarked as he stepped into the valley to carry out the third test, the defense test.

"You should focus, Jeremy. The capabilities of Nathan's design work well to our benefit." Elena reminded subtly. "Yeah sure. I'm just trying to remind a certain someone that his design is not as perfect as everyone is making it out to be."

"Uh-huh. The third test will now begin." Jeremiah took an offensive position, pointing the shaft of his spear at the Humpback. "Hope you are ready to watch your precious design get wrecked."

"Just stop talking and attack already." Reyes had just about had it with Jeremiah's attempts to upend Nathan. It was becoming a chore to watch. "Hmmph… Lightning Spear – Thor's might."

His spear seemed to come alive as its blade began to glow blue, channeling tachyon through it to the extent that electric sparks seemed to occur around the weapon.

He took in a deep breath and he charged forward. Once he had gotten close enough, he held the body of his spear with both hands and thrust at the Humpback.

***Kwadudu***

Thunder clapped and lightning struck. The collision caused a massive explosion that sent Jeremiah back a few steps. Dust clouds obscured the state of the Humpback.

Most expected it to be destroyed after receiving such a full-powered blow from Jeremiah's spear. After all, Lightning Spear was an A-ranked martial style that was known to have explosive power.

He held a satisfied look on his face as he already anticipated the outcome. The dust cloud slowly cleared and once it was out of the way, almost everyone was left stunned.

The Humpback had retracted its tires as well as its cannons. At this moment, it was just its shell that was visible. The shell had gone through much damage, with several areas dented due to the force it had been subjected to.

But on a general note, it seemed to be fine. "Im…impossible. How is this thing still fine?" Jeremiah stuttered as he could not have imagined that this would be the outcome.

"This is unexpected." Elena was also pleasantly surprised. She was well aware of how strong the martial style that Jeremiah practiced, was. It would be a joke to look down on it.

Yet, somehow, Nathan had managed to build a machine unit with a strong enough armor to withstand most of the destructive firepower that Jeremiah's attack had packed.

Just then, "What do you guys think?" Nathan's voice floated through the intercom. "Question, how is it possible that the Humpback is still standing?... It's not even a Heavy-duty unit and its armor is that tough?" Chelsea asked out of curiosity.

"That's simple to explain. The Humpback design is modeled after an amphibian that once walked the earth, the tortoise. Now, this animal would protect itself from predators and danger in general by hiding inside its tough shell…"

"Can it with the animal history class and tell me how the hell that thing is still intact." Jeremiah cut him off. He was still unable to accept the fact that his attack was incapable of destroying the Humpback as he had hoped.

Of course, he hadn't made use of his strongest attack but he had put quite some effort into the attack. The fact that the Humpback was still standing meant two things.

Either his attack was too weak or the Humpback's armor was just that well made. He was unwilling to accept any.

"If you would just allow me to finish… Hah, I used the same concept while designing the Humpback. Its shell is the toughest part of its general structure.

"Now all I had to do was calibrate the cannon and locomotion apparatus to return into the shell in case of a threatening attack. Before you ask, the Humpback is fitted with an alarm system that helps to measure the threat level of incoming danger.

"So many words," Reyes remarked with a drag. "Shush." Celeste pressed her finger against his lips. "Continue."

"Ahem, well the shell is built in a manner that allows all attacks to be distributed evenly across the entire surface. If Jeremy's attack had been fixated on a particular point, the Humpback would have been ripped apart.

"But since the force of his attack was spread across the entire surface area, it had little effect, especially considering that his attack was of the piercing category. If it were Elena's or Indra's swordsmanship, it would have been more difficult to guard against."

"That is surprisingly thorough. You considered a lot while designing this, Nate." Victor commented, completely impressed by the amount of thought Nathan had put into the Humpback's design.

He wasn't alone though as most shared a similar viewpoint. Nathan was a prodigy when it came to the tech stuff.

"So, is this enough to prove how competent the Humpback would be in battle?" Nathan asked, already privy to the answer. "Of course. I have a feeling that our next battle might just be a walk in the park." Elena replied smilingly.

"How long would it take to build more units?" "Depends on how much energy can be harvested from the node before tomorrow."

"Alright then. I'll leave it to you and Leah. You guys build the units and I will inform you of all of our strategies to take the second energy node tomorrow. Everyone dismissed."

***

"Your Humpback unit is really impressive," Leah remarked as she stood beside Nathan. They were currently in the Crawler control room. Nathan was overseeing the harvest from the energy node.

"Thanks. I'm kind of shocked that it is so effective. It was definitely what I was expecting." "You are just being modest."

"Believe me or not, I'm telling the truth." Nathan shrugged in response. "It would be nice to help out as well."

"You were quite helpful during our charge to take this Crawler." "I guess. Nate…"

"Yeah?" "I have an idea on how to supplement the Humpback unit but I don't know if it's a plausible route to follow."

Leah had her head down as she made her request known with Nathan looking her over. He could not help but notice how adorable she was at that moment. "What do you have in mind?"

***

/Day three of Command and Conquer/

Everyone was once again gathered in the meeting room of the Mammoth. The planning stage for the takeover of the second energy node in the East was about to go underway.

"This time around, we will be going with a more direct approach. Nathan's Humpback units will take the fight to the enemy Crawler and we will be tasked with destroying the mother ship in that window.

"Some will be left behind to keep watch over the Mammoth as it continues to extract the energy from the node."

Indra put up a hand. "Yeah?" "Do you think it wise to leave only a few of our members to stay behind and guard the Mammoth?... Based on the information from the Game AI, the enemy knows about our existence.

"I'm willing to bet that they might just take advantage of our absence to storm the Mammoth and destroy it. We all know what that would mean for us."

"I understand your concern, but I believe that there won't be a need to worry about such a scenario taking place." Nathan objected with a calm look on his face.