"Cough, cough, cough!" Tang Yu's comment made the principal erupt into a sudden burst of coughing. The principal could not help but think silently whether Ling Xiao had secretly given his son a private lesson? Thinking about it, it was very likely. The principal decided that he must help cover up for his close friend, and so he said vaguely, "Don't underestimate the Lingtian Mecha Clan. Many of the members come from military families or elite families. They probably knew about these things long ago."
The principal's words made a lot of sense to Tang Yu. He had seen Wu Jiong's and some of the others' data before, and they were indeed from military families or elite families. As such, it was not impossible for Lingtian to have learned of this battle case from them. And so, Tang Yu set aside the doubts in his heart and continued to watch the fight closely.
********
Meanwhile, Ling Lan was hurrying towards a target. This time, not only had the mainframe cast Qiao Ting far, far away from the others, it had also cast Ling Lan far, far away from the others as well. Although Ling Lan's mecha had been able to deceive everyone's eyes, it had not been able to fool the mainframe which had control over all the data. In order to ensure fairness, the mainframe had treated Ling Lan like it had Qiao Ting, throwing the both of them to the outermost reaches of the map, far away from the centre of battle.
This action of the mainframe's had thrown all of Ling Lan's original plans out the window. This time, in order to handle Qiao Ting, Ling Lan had designed two tactics. The first tactic was for her to keep Qiao Ting busy while her team members boldly spread out to wipe out the rest of the Leiting battle team. After that, they would regroup with her and they would lay siege to Qiao Ting to finish him off together.Of course, Ling Lan also knew that things might not go as smoothly as she imagined. So, she had created another supplementary tactic. This was their second tactic — if she was unable to meet Qiao Ting within the shortest amount of time, then, those members closest to Qiao Ting should move up to gang up against Qiao Ting if none of the other Leiting members were around. As the power difference between the other Lingtian members and Qiao Ting was very large, Ling Lan instructed her members to self-destruct if they had no other option, using this method to cause some damage to the other.
The reason for this arrangement was out of sheer helplessness on Ling Lan's part. Frankly, the moment they encountered Qiao Ting, due to the power gap caused by their mecha levels and strength difference, her members would not be able to escape even if they tried to run. As such, they might as well take a gamble and fight — perhaps then they might stand a chance. Of course, there was another advantage to this decision. That was, her team members would have an opportunity to fight with an ace operator. The experience of trading even just one move with a powerful opponent was much more effective than arduous training — Ling Lan did not want her team members to miss this chance.
You say that Ling Lan is also an ace, so wouldn't fighting with her also give the team members the same benefits? Well, that would make sense, but the fact was that this was not the case. Perhaps in the team members' hearts, Boss Lan was just too strong. Her oppressive force of presence crushed any bit of competitive spirit they might have when they were up against her. Therefore, fighting with Ling Lan not only brought no benefits to the members, it may even be detrimental to the members' morale, which made the potential gains not worth the loss.
This was also why they had come up with these two tactics. Regardless of which they chose, the team members would have the chance to trade blows with Qiao Ting. The only difference was that one would let them go up against him earlier, while the other would let them go up against him later. It had to be said that in order to let her companions develop faster, Ling Lan had put a lot of thought into creating these tactics. She had even asked Little Four to dig out that battle case sealed away by the military academy so that she could watch and analyse it together with her team members for one full day.
When one learned that the power gap between themselves and an ace operator was not insurmountable, and then come to understand that no matter how strong an opponent was, they were not unbeatable ... these insights would allow her companions to truly become strong. And this was the true intention of the two tactics Ling Lan had crafted.
Ling Lan knew that the distance between her and Qiao Ting was too far, so the first tactic was completely impossible. Thus, she decisively highlighted Qiao Ting's coordinates to all her members. When the team members saw Qiao Ting's coordinates, they knew immediately that they were going with the second tactic. This was also why Zhao Jun, Luo Lang, and Li Yingjie had appeared at Qiao Ting's location, and it was also why Li Lanfeng had managed to rush over in time.
Ling Lan allowed her team members to grapple with Qiao Ting as they liked; in the meantime, she was also rushing swiftly towards the centre of the map. Of course, her mission and that of her members had now been exchanged. The task of her members to eliminate the members of Leiting in the first tactic now fell to her. In order to let her team members concentrate on Qiao Ting, Ling Lan would be seeking out all the scattered members of Leiting on the map and eliminating them one by one.If at the end, Qiao Ting still managed to survive despite the Lingtian members' suicide campaign, then she, Ling Lan, would wrap things up and put an end to the so-called indomitable legend of Qiao Ting.
Of course, Ling Lan was hopeful that her team members would be able to hold out till the end and wait for her to join them after she had wiped out all the small fry of Leiting.
At this moment, Ling Lan's cold gaze was already locked onto a random Leiting member 3 kilometres away, who was still completely oblivious that he had been targeted.
"Good control skills. An experienced veteran. Unfortunately a little careless." Zooming in on his image, Ling Lan judged the other's abilities. At the same time, Little Four rapidly mapped out the route the other was taking.
Ling Lan did not choose to attack from the front. This would startle the other and may cause him to run, lengthening her hunt time. Thus, Ling Lan chose to ambush the opponent by rushing before the other to lie in wait along the path he would take.
Watching as the opponent sprinted over cluelessly, Ling Lan calmly operated her mecha. A vortex force appeared under her mecha's feet, creating a deep hole in the desert sand below. Her mecha then sunk into the hole silently, descending into the white sands until it was completely hidden from view. When the desert once again resumed its original appearance, even the energy reaction of the mecha vanished completely, not a trace of it to be found ...
Although a majority of the spectating students' attention had been drawn to the fighting on Qiao Ting's end, there were still quite a number of people watching the team leader of Lingtian closely. Witnessing this scene, they were somewhat puzzled, unsure why the Lingtian team leader would choose to hide himself there.
And according to the mainframe's elaboration, they knew that Ling Lan had already turned off the mecha's engines. It would be impossible for another mecha to discover the mecha hidden below the desert sands by relying on radar searching.
Just as everyone was boggled by this inexplicable development, on the screen, a Leiting mecha suddenly appeared in the area where Ling Lan was hiding. The audience exclaimed in shock — at this moment, they finally understood why the Lingtian team leader had chosen to hide here. Without question, his target was this Leiting mecha.
As the Leiting mecha drew closer and closer to the ambush point, the audience could not help but feel their hearts creeping up their throats. Some of the students even cried out uncontrollably, "Don't go there!"
Unfortunately, their warnings would never be transmitted into the battlefield. That Leiting mecha continued to run obliviously towards the ambush point ...
"Swoosh!" A blinding ray of light suddenly shot out from the desert floor!
The Leiting mecha's feet had barely stepped onto the ambush point when this ray of light had shot out to pierce straight through the Leiting mecha's cockpit.
This attack had come too suddenly — the Leiting mecha had no chance at all to react. That ray of light pierced into the cockpit without meeting any resistance, and in the next second, the white sands below had suddenly surged up like a wave to crash towards the Leiting mecha.
A loud 'boom' rang out — the Leiting mecha was thrown to the ground by the overwhelming wave of white sand. Everyone was shocked awake — only now did they realize that the mecha of the Lingtian team leader which had been hiding beneath the desert had long vanished.
They quickly started to search but soon found that the Lingtian team leader's mecha was already 1 kilometre away. After succeeding in one strike, he had not dithered, moving right away to leave the scene.
"Clean and efficient, not draggy at all." The encounter on Ling Lan's end had also been displayed by the mainframe onto the large screen used by the VIPs. Right then, the screen was split into two sections — one was displaying the fight on Qiao Ting's end, while the other was focused on Ling Lan.
"It looks like this team leader of Lingtian is very careful, afraid that the opponent might choose to self-destruct before death. So he chose to leave immediately after his attack succeeded," the principal could not help but nod and smile at the sight.
"Yes. This also means that he has the utmost confidence in his own attacks, knowing that the opponent would have no chance of surviving." Tang Yu was very admiring of Ling Lan's calmness, decisiveness, and efficiency. This was how an excellent mecha operator should behave, never leaving an opponent any shred of a chance. In this regard, Ling Lan did much better than Qiao Ting.
"It looks like the task distribution in the Lingtian battle team is very clear. The strongest team leader handles the Leiting members while the other Lingtian members use self-destruct methods to drag Qiao Ting down. The outcome of this challenge is probably hard to predict now." The principal's words caused the expressions of the administrators beside him to turn ugly. They were intelligent people — of course they could tell that this tactic had wiped away all of Leiting's advantage, even drawing the ace operator Qiao Ting into danger.
"Principal, you speak truly. However, Leiting's situation is not that bad. As long as Qiao Ting calms down, even though his mecha is now missing half a leg, special-class mecha would still be no match for him due to the disparity in mecha levels." Tang Yu stated matter-of-factly. Qiao Ting appeared to be in an awkward situation, mecha damaged and all, but he had not actually sustained any major injury. As long as he could avoid being caught in further self-destructs by the Lingtian members, it was not impossible for him to win.
"Let's continue to observe. This fight is very interesting. It's really true that, on the battlefield, anything is possible." The principal's words left everyone silent. Some began reflecting on themselves — had they really taken things too much for granted?
********
Qiao Ting swiftly examined his mecha and found that there were not any huge problems with it. Only then did he relax and begin properly engaging in long-range attacks with Li Lanfeng. Because the damage on his mecha had affected his mobility and balance, at first, Qiao Ting was being overpowered by Li Lanfeng in their fight. However, Qiao Ting was still an ace operator after all — his adaptability was very strong. It did not take too long for him to recalibrate himself. Having grasped the new parameters of his mecha, Qiao Ting once again took the initiative on the field. The two combatants weaved and dodged, dashing and fluttering swiftly through the air.
Very soon, Li Lanfeng was being suppressed by Qiao Ting and was falling into a disadvantaged position. With the passage of time, he was finding it harder and harder to fight back. In the end, Li Lanfeng had no choice but to defend as he evaded the other's attacks, only able to counterattack once or twice with great difficulty.
Qiao Ting once again claimed an overwhelming advantage in the fight; the administrators of the academy could finally breathe easier. However, they did not dare to fully relax — a special-class operator was not like an advanced mecha warrior who could only wait to be killed when facing an ace operator. The defence of a special-class operator's beam shield, as well as its power reserves, were formidable. Even an ace mecha in perfect condition would still need to expend quite a bit of effort to wipe out a special-class mecha.
