Silence, no one.
The entire Xian Xia City seemed like a dead city.
In the devastated northern district, the raging fires were still continuing.
The once brightly lit and technologically advanced eastern district had also become dim and lusterless.
When the crowded suspension vehicle streams and the myriad of holographic advertisements vanished, and the prosperity receded, Xian Xia City revealed its true appearance.
Gray-black reinforced concrete buildings sat quietly within the city, their towering glass walls reflecting the sky and clouds of the future.
The wind blew through the high-rise buildings, stirring scattered scraps of paper. A dirty plush bear toy lay quietly by the roadside.
Amidst this tranquility, within these towering buildings, were pairs of vigilant eyes.
The ground troops defending the city were all hidden within the sturdy buildings, quietly awaiting the enemy's arrival.
On the major streets of the city, rows of guardian mechs were parked, all in hot standby mode. Faint flames occasionally sprayed from their rear exhaust ports. As soon as the enemy appeared, all mechs would erupt in flames and ascend to combat.
This quiet yet deadly atmosphere weighed on everyone's hearts.
At this moment, Gu Ya was sitting in the cockpit of the "Krieg," his eyes fixed on the display screen.
Reconnaissance mechs located on rooftops transmitted real-time images from various directions of Xian Xia City.
Time ticked by, and this quiet and oppressive atmosphere made Gu Ya feel suffocated. This defensive battle was truly not in line with Gu Ya's personality; he genuinely wished he could rush out now and fight the enemy to the death.
As the clock struck nine in the morning, a faint roar suddenly came from the sky.
Everyone looked up, gazing at the patch of sky visible between the dense buildings.
The roaring gradually intensified, becoming more numerous, echoing between the buildings. In just a few minutes, it seemed as if the enemy had assaulted the city from beyond the heavens.
Just then, in the center of Krieg's screen, beneath the white clouds above Xian Xia City, a black dot suddenly appeared.
Following this, more and more black dots emerged from the clouds, swooping down rapidly.
"They're here! Enemy squadrons have appeared in the sky over the North District, numbering three hundred, and still increasing!"
"Enemy squadrons have appeared in the sky over the East District, numbering one thousand!"
"The South District also has enemy aircraft! They're moving fast, at an altitude of three thousand meters!"
"Ground troops, attack!!!"
As soon as the words finished in the communicator, the sound of sustained firepower erupted from all directions of the city.
The sounds of "Boom—Bang—Boom!" exploded, the echoes growing louder. The silent Xian Xia City was suddenly filled with deafening noise.
"This is Bai Ling, leading the team to ascend and engage." In the communicator, the female mech pilot ranked seventh calmly called out.
From Gu Ya's direct south, the sound of mech engines starting could be heard, followed by the ferocious roar of mechs ascending. Streaks of white afterimages rapidly cut through the gaps between buildings, flying towards the sky.
The sky immediately erupted in explosions!
The building directly in front of Gu Ya was blown in half, countless fragments of debris splashing onto the ground.
"Shu Feizhang leading the team to ascend and engage." The male mech pilot ranked second stated firmly.
Gu Ya closed the public channel communication and continued to gaze at the display screen in front of him.
In the narrow gaps between buildings, ground troops' weapons streaked rapidly upwards.
Missiles flew overhead, trailing white smoke, tracing arcs around the buildings and disappearing behind them.
The giant cannons and defensive barrages of the ground attack mechs unleashed their firepower.
More than a dozen self-propelled giant cannon mechs rushed out from in front of Gu Ya, their thick legs taking large strides, quickly disappearing around the corner.
Just then, a notification suddenly came through Gu Ya's communicator: "You may ascend to engage."
"Received."
"All mechs, activate and engage freely." Gu Ya said calmly.
The four exhaust ports on Krieg's back erupted with brown flames. The mech's legs moved quickly, taking a couple of steps before launching into the sky in an exponential arc.
As soon as he flew past the buildings, Gu Ya saw the surrounding combat situation.
In the sky over the East District, countless enemy aircraft emerged from the clouds, descending rapidly.
And above the North District, a vast number of enemy aircraft were already engaged in combat with the defending forces.
Ground weapons fired from between the buildings, soaring towards the enemy formations.
As soon as they reached the city's airspace, the enemy formations spotted Krieg and the hundreds of defending mechs behind him. In the sky, some of the dense black dots turned their bodies and swooped down towards the direction of Gu Ya's team. Hundreds, even thousands, of long-range weapons were fired from the enemy formations, raining down upon them.
Dozens of heavy defensive mechs behind them quickly surged forward, arranging themselves into defensive formations, deploying beam energy shields to form a shield wall in front of their allies.
Missiles exploded against the energy shields, the flashes of explosions and swirling black smoke appearing continuously. The earth-shattering sounds of explosions bombarded the eardrums.
Missiles that were not intercepted weaved through the air, bypassing the wide shield walls, and attacked from the sides and above.
The heavy defensive mechs continuously changed their formations, attempting to block the missile attacks.
Gu Ya knew that directly receiving missiles was not a long-term solution. "All long-range attack mechs, disperse! Heavy defensive mechs, maintain formation two and three for continuous output. Don't worry about me!"
"Don't worry about me either," Qiao Weiwei said calmly.
As the only remaining teammate of the current Ao Ying Team Three, Qiao Weiwei's strength was still considerable.
"Unfettered Red" was the first to charge out of the defensive shield wall formation, ascending into the sky, with dozens of missiles trailing behind it.
Krieg caught up, its outer arm armor opening, firing interceptor missiles to clear the pursuing missiles for it.
A series of explosions sounded above Krieg.
"Unfettered Red" broke through the smoke of the missile explosions and continued to ascend, its body starting to glow red.
The surrounding temperature suddenly rose, indicating its preparation to unleash its ultimate technique.
The defending mechs behind them, following Gu Ya's tactics, dispersed in groups of two or three in all directions, with heavy defensive mechs guarding the front and firepower mechs unleashing their full arsenal, fiercely counterattacking the enemy formations swooping down from the sky.
Thousands of missiles ascended from all around Krieg, and the defending forces launched their first round of defensive counterattacks.
Gu Ya, unwilling to be outdone, chased after the missile clusters.
Krieg's terrifying power was not limited to long-range attacks; its greatest offensive capability was its sustained close-range output, which made it more effective when positioned within the enemy ranks.
This was Gu Ya's combat style: always at the forefront, deep within enemy territory, fighting a desperate counterattack.
Just as the mech squadron led by Gu Ya began its counterattack, Bai Ling's squadron in the northern battle zone of Xian Xia City was being surrounded by an even larger number of enemy aircraft.
She was the first mech squadron to ascend and engage, and they were already entangled with the enemy aircraft.
As the seventh-ranked Xian Xia War God, she was also playing her part.
The "Hundred Spirits Greeting the Phoenix" mech belonged to the heavy defensive category, with a colossal body of nearly ninety meters and an armor thickness of three meters made of high-purity pseudo-material. This allowed it to withstand the damage from most offensive weapons.
Its most glorious achievement was the Pandorasis National Military Rebellion War a few years ago. The "Hundred Spirits Greeting the Phoenix" mech survived a direct hit from a super-class pseudo-material bomb equivalent to ten million tons of TNT and single-handedly held back an attack from thousands of enemy aircraft.
At present, the "Hundred Spirits Greeting the Phoenix" was deep within the enemy formation, surrounded by thousands of enemy aircraft in three layers, both inside and out.
Bai Ling, despite her seemingly delicate and petite stature, possessed superhuman perseverance and unwavering will. She showed no fear facing thousands of enemy aircraft.
Of course, the secret of this mech was not just its ability to take damage; it also possessed more powerful offensive capabilities.
"Ultimate technique, Ten Thousand Birds Greeting the Sun!" Bai Ling roared.
The mech's entire armor instantly sprang open, its mechanical joints twisting, revealing wide gaps in the center.
From the wide gaps of the mechanical joints, super-miniature drones, two meters in length, shot out rapidly.
In less than half a minute, tens of thousands of drones poured out from the gaps of the "Hundred Spirits Greeting the Phoenix" mech, heading in all directions, their numbers far exceeding the enemy aircraft.
Each drone's belly carried a heavy pseudo-material energy bomb with a yield of several hundred kilotons. Even if not directly hit, the shockwave alone was enough to repel enemy aircraft.
After rapidly deploying the drones, the "Hundred Spirits Greeting the Phoenix's" mechanical joints suddenly merged together, giving the mech a more compact structure, as if it had shrunk by two or three sizes.
Just as the "Hundred Spirits Greeting the Phoenix" embraced itself tightly with its limbs,
tens of thousands of drones simultaneously exploded in the sky around it, amidst the enemy aircraft.
Within one second, a massive, brightly glowing sphere with a diameter of eight thousand meters was formed!
A powerful shockwave instantly formed, and within tens of kilometers, everything was within the shockwave's impact range.
Following this, with a deafening roar, the sound could be heard in all corners of Xian Xia.
A violent gale instantly swept through the entire northern district, further devastating the already dilapidated area.
Countless enemy aircraft were destroyed in the explosion. The surviving enemy aircraft were thrown several kilometers away by the unstoppable shockwave. Enemy aircraft on the periphery of the explosion were tossed about like gourds hanging in the wind.
As the smoke and dust dissipated, the "Hundred Spirits Greeting the Phoenix" mech stood at the center of the explosion, and a no-mech zone with a diameter of five kilometers had formed around it, not even the wreckage of enemy aircraft remained.
It was a walking nuclear bomb!
It was conceivable what would happen if it were allowed to unleash its ultimate technique again.
Just then, a medium-sized close-combat black enemy aircraft suddenly swooped down from the sky.
With the appearance of this "Black Star" enemy aircraft, all the surrounding enemy aircraft retreated to the sides, leaving the central battlefield to the two of them.
Undoubtedly, this was a high-threat enemy aircraft.
And the reason it dared to attack the "Hundred Spirits Greeting the Phoenix" was certainly due to its considerable strength.
A fierce battle was about to unfold between the two mechs.