"Thinking to contend with Qiao Ting, looks like this brat won't be doing well." If his speed couldn't keep up with Qiao Ting's, even having all the strength in the world would be useless. The principal's face revealed some regret — it was so hard to finally find someone who chose close combat, but he turned out to be such an extreme person.
Tang Yu's gaze, however, was on Li Lanfeng, who was calmly observing all this from the side-lines. Compared to this Lingtian No.2 who had just appeared, Tang Yu felt Lingtian No.11 deserved more attention — as long as this person was around, Tang Yu could not be certain that Lingtian No.2 would be unable to threaten Qiao Ting like the principal had said. The cool-headed ruthlessness Lingtian No.11 had displayed previously in battle made Tang Yu concerned despite himself.
The principal had also noticed the focus of Tang Yu's attention. He cuffed his own head in a slight reprimand and said with a wry smile, "Ok, fine, I actually forgot about this person. Looks like I spoke too early. As long as that monster brat has this teammate around, it's hard to say for sure that that brat won't be any threat to Qiao Ting."
Qiao Ting patiently exchanged two or three blows with Qi Long and felt that he had thoroughly figured Qi Long out. The other's close combat skills were very strong, but he was disadvantaged by the speed of his mecha. If this fellow before him had been operating a special-class mecha, perhaps the danger to him would be far greater, but for now ... Qiao Ting did not think that this Lingtian No.2 would have any chance to get close to him and successfully self-destruct like the other members of Lingtian had.
Having come to a decision, Qiao Ting did not hesitate any longer. Facing yet another of Qi Long's naively fearless attacks, a faint sneer emerged on Qiao Ting's lips. He abruptly raised his finger-speed — on his control panel, his fingers were no longer visible on his hands, replaced by layers of blurred shadows. That's right, Qiao Ting was planning to directly kill off this newly arrived Lingtian No.2. For this purpose, he had brought out his highest finger-speed, sending the high-frequency blades in his hands spinning into a wild dance ...Right then, even the spectators could not see clearly where Qiao Ting's attacks would really land. Just when everyone believed Lingtian No.2 was done for, in a swathe of shadows, the clanging of collisions could be heard ...
Qi Long, who seemed to be moving in slow motion, actually managed to block all of Qiao Ting's attacks. All the spectators just could not comprehend what they had seen — how the hell had this Lingtian No.2 known for certain where Qiao Ting was going to attack?
No one knew that Qi Long's innate talent was Animal Instinct; his beast-like intuition could help him determine where the true danger was coming from even if his eyes could not. Already used to relying on this instinct of his, Qi Long did not hesitate to swing his sword towards the spots his intuition dictated.
"D*mmit!" Qiao Ting saw all his attacks being blocked miraculously by Lingtian No.2. Foiled once more, Qiao Ting could no longer suppress the rage in his heart. This rage made his hand speed jump once more, and the already stacked afterimages of his fingers actually turned into nothingness.
Qi Long suddenly felt a frisson of danger flash through his heart. Without conscious thought, he instantly piloted his mecha to dodge. At this time, the weakness of the speed of his mecha was officially exposed — although Qi Long's reaction time was swift, he was still unable to completely evade Qiao Ting's unexpected attack due to the drag of his mecha's speed.
There was a massive "boom", and the remaining right leg on Qiao Ting's mecha kicked out savagely at Qi Long's waist. The powerful force behind the kick sent Qi Long's mecha flying — Qiao Ting was just about to chase his advantage and follow up when a sense of danger crept over his heart once more. His leaping mecha jerked to a sudden stop. Not just that, Qiao Ting's entire mecha tilted backwards, the two high-frequency blades in his hands raised high in a cross.
"Thunk!" A muffled sound rang out in the air. The spectating cadets could even see the range of the energy shockwaves the mainframe had specially simulated for this collision. Four high-frequency blades clashed fiercely, causing the entire space around them to be distorted ...It turned out that Li Lanfeng, who had merely been watching all this while, had finally made his move. While Qiao Ting had been concentrating on dealing with Qi Long, Li Lanfeng's attack came silently out of nowhere. If Qiao Ting had not been an ace operator, without the unique danger senses ace operators had, perhaps Li Lanfeng's sneak attack would have worked.
Li Lanfeng's attack was seen through by Qiao Ting and failed. However, due to his interference, Qi Long escaped with his life. Anyone with eyes could see that if Li Lanfeng had not acted then, Qi Long, who had already lost his balance, would definitely have died under Qiao Ting's purposeful pursuit.
"This Lingtian No.11 ... his judgment is impeccable," Tang Yu could not help but praise. Even though he was still quite a distance away from Qiao Ting in terms of strength, perhaps even incomparable to those other senior cadets in the academy who had long advanced to special-class operator status, this precise judgment of his had made him the one and only member who had managed to wrangle with Qiao Ting for so long on the field. It could even be said that those Lingtian members from before were able to harm Qiao Ting with their self-destructs largely because he had successfully interfered with Qiao Ting's judgment.
"An assassin-type mecha master, no, he should also be a strategist-type mecha master. With such a person in a battle clan, the clan's survival rates on the battlefield will be significantly increased." The principal's expression was solemn, but his eyes could not hide his delight. He was very happy for the son of his old friend for obtaining such an outstanding member.
It should be known that, other than a powerful leader with great leadership, a perfect battle clan also needed various other roles to be filled. A strategist-type mecha master was in fact the second most important character for a battle clan to have — even more important than the typically most valued primary fighter mecha. Unfortunately, many battle clans these days tended to overlook this, blindly looking for powerful mecha masters to fill their ranks. They did not understand that a truly strong battle clan was not powerful just because of its combat power, but because each of the positions and roles within the battle clan were filled well and could work together seamlessly.
While Tang Yu and the principal were astonished at Li Lanfeng's brilliant performance, the other spectators were not thinking so deeply. Although they too were amazed at how accurately Li Lanfeng had timed his attack, they only felt that Li Lanfeng must have noticed the danger Qi Long was in and had acted at this moment to save him. Perhaps even they would have been able to do that if they had been the one on the field.
It had to be said that the students' vision was so much weaker compared to that of the principal and Instructor Tang Yu. The students could not see at all that it really was not as simple a thing as they believed to grasp the timing of an attack so accurately. Moreover, Li Lanfeng's attack had contained a certain degree of stealth — it was clear to see that Li Lanfeng had prepared well for this attack; he had not acted hurriedly just because Qi Long was in danger.
However, Qiao Ting was after all Qiao Ting. An ace operator was indeed very formidable — he had still managed to break Li Lanfeng's near perfect attack.
After Li Lanfeng had failed in his attack, everyone thought that he would retreat quickly to maintain his distance from Qiao Ting like he had before.
However, they were mistaken once again. This time, Li Lanfeng did not choose to withdraw — from both sides of his mecha's rib area, two chains suddenly shot out at Qiao Ting's two thighs.
"There it is!" Chang Xinyuan, who had been watching the fight from the audience seats all this while, saw this scene unfold, and his face flushed with joy. He could not help but clench his fists briefly. Even though he had not been able to go on the field to fight against Leiting personally due to his level being too low, Chang Xinyuan had not sat idly by while the others fought against this Thunder King Qiao Ting who had oppressed him for four years and had almost forced him to drop out against his will.
When Li Lanfeng had come to him the night before the challenge fight and had asked him to design something for him, Chang Xinyuan had been completely unable to refuse. The two of them had spent the whole night researching and had finally designed these two chains coming from the mecha's rib area. These two chains were not offensive weapons — they were only capture devices, like how a lasso had been created in order to capture wild horses. These two chains designed by Chang Xinyuan and Li Lanfeng were created precisely for the purpose of capturing Qiao Ting's mecha.
The second tactic that Ling Lan had created received Chang Xinyuan's full acknowledgement. He too felt that only this tactic would give them a chance to win this challenge if they were going to rely on their advanced mecha warriors. However, to deal the greatest amount of damage to Qiao Ting's mecha, they would need to stick as close to the other as possible when they self-destructed. But Qiao Ting just so happened to be an ace operator — he would never give the Lingtian members the chance to get close. Perhaps out of his disdain for them at the start, they might be able to take advantage of that and succeed, but after Qiao Ting suffered some losses at their hands, it would become absolutely impossible to once again get close to him.
In order to solve this problem, Chang Xinyuan and Li Lanfeng had come up with this idea. In order to catch Qiao Ting by surprise, this design had only been implemented on Li Lanfeng's mecha. After all, Li Lanfeng's mecha was a special-class mecha — if he managed to stick close to Qiao Ting and self-destruct, the damage dealt to Qiao Ting's mecha would also be the highest value possible.
And now, this modification which had taken the two of them a whole night to create had finally appeared on the battlefield. Chang Xinyuan's emotions were running high, but he also had mixed feelings at this moment. If Boss Lan had not invited him to join the Lingtian Battle Clan, he would never have had the chance to use his own designs, his own modifications, to successfully take revenge on Qiao Ting. Once, Chang Xinyuan had believed that it was almost impossible for him to seek revenge on Qiao Ting.
The two chains from Li Lanfeng's mecha had truly appeared rather suddenly and bizarrely — after all, standard mecha could never have something like this. Qiao Ting had neglected this possibility — by the time he noticed them, the chains had already wrapped themselves around both legs of his mecha. Besides that, both chains actually ended in curved hooks. After wrapping themselves around Qiao Ting's legs, they automatically hooked themselves on his thighs with a snapping sound, securely fastened.
Seeing this, what doubts could the spectators have? "Lingtian No.11 is about to self-destruct!" In near unison, the spectators cried out. The Lingtian Mecha Clan's self-destruct tactic was displayed in all its glory now.
"D*mn, you actually still had this trick hidden away." Qi Long had finally regained control of his mecha at this time. When he saw this unexpected attack from Li Lanfeng's mecha, he instantly understood what this was. Extremely pleased and surprised, he threw away the giant sword in his hands and lunged.
This was such a great opportunity! If he did not rush over to self-destruct now, then it would truly be a disgrace to the hellish training his boss had given him all these years. Qi Long was well aware that the opportune window to self-destruct was fleeting — there was no time at all for him to hesitate.
Trapped securely by Li Lanfeng, unable to break free immediately, Qiao Ting saw Qi Long charge right up to him to hug him close, and Qiao Ting was livid, shouting, "Let me go!"
This was the first time Qiao Ting had felt so humiliated. The rage and frustration of knowing that he actually had the strength and skills to finish off all the enemies before him, but could only wait for this tragedy to happen because he had been trapped by the opponent due to his own carelessness, was almost enough to make him faint.
