The Great Victory at Hughenden

As more and more Great Spikes flung themselves forward, the motion and momentum of the dead iron chain began to slow. If it were finally brought to a halt, the difficulty of swinging it up again would be immense. General Bochen felt a fleeting flash of chagrin. Then—*boom!* He had no choice but to unleash another burst of peak power. The dead iron chain surged in his hands, its speed returning. Yet more than ten Great Spikes still clung stubbornly to the chain, braced by their column swords. Because they were pressed tight against the iron links, none of them had died. And along the path, even more Great Spikes leaped madly onto it... This was not the worst of it. At least the momentum of the chain and giant hammer was still there, still under General Bochen's control. The worst part was that vast numbers of Great Spikes across the battlefield were now charging recklessly at General Bochen himself from every direction. Most were held back by the soldiers. Yet a small handful broke free from the soldiers' entanglement and encirclement, charging toward Bochen with reckless abandon. At the same time—"Damn it!" On the flank of the battlefield, Aleksei felt a sudden lurch of panic. He whipped his head around and roared, "Watch out! General Bochen!" Just at that moment, the Red Shoulder under siege by three Xiongzhanli Front super combat powers severed its own arm and broke from combat... Once free, it charged straight toward General Bochen at blinding speed. Covered in blood, General Bochen was in a precarious state after his sudden second outburst. In other words, because he had poured his full power into the dead iron chain and the giant hammer, his personal defenses were fragile. He could endure black-armored or blue-sheened Spikes, but a Red Shoulder... Hearing the warning, Bochen turned and saw it coming. Helpless, he released his footing. *Clatter, crash...* The chain uncoiled through the air, trailing the colossal hammer as it flew into the distance. With the chain wound about him, General Bochen was hoisted into the air, hurled away at tremendous speed by the hammer and chain, swept into the distance amid the shrieking wind. *Boom!* The giant hammer finally crashed into the earth. It bounced, fell again, and continued skidding across the ground. *Bang!* General Bochen was also shaken loose by the chain, slamming hard onto the ground, where he slid rapidly in the wake of the hammer... The one-armed Red Shoulder was in pursuit. Scores of black-armored and blue-sheened Great Spikes were chasing him. The Xiongzhanli super combat powers and Azure soldiers gave chase as well. "General!" someone shouted in anguish. No matter how hard they pushed, they could not catch the frenzied Red Shoulder. As if under an absolute kill order, it lunged toward Bochen with lethal intent. The gap shrank steadily. General Bochen had not even managed to get to his feet. "...*Boom!*" A sudden, massive crash. Most soldiers did not even see how the collision happened. After a direct frontal impact, the Red Shoulder was hurled violently backward. Opposite it, a suit of iron armor, a long spear, and a standard Azure combat saber were knocked back just as violently. People. Now they saw them clearly. Pink, red, red. "Stream Vanguard!" *** Rusty Sister, Wu Xu, and Theodore combined their strength to halt the one-armed Red Shoulder. Then both sides lunged at once, launching into a desperate, lethal melee. The Xiongzhanli super combat powers closed in to surround it... General Bochen also rose to his feet. He glanced first at the fight intercepting the Red Shoulder, relieved, then tipped his head back to gaze into the sky... Up there, the Great Spike crafts that had just scattered had indeed returned. At the same time, all around him, the blue-sheened and black-armored Great Spikes that had not been stopped in time continued their charge toward him. They were not as dangerous as a Red Shoulder, but under the present circumstances, they could not be entirely ignored either. "Cough, cough." General Bochen lowered his head and coughed twice, spitting up a mouthful of blood, and reached to draw his blade. He had to finish these Great Spikes quickly; otherwise, the swarm in the air would only multiply... And then they would plunge madly toward him. They would crash madly all across the battlefield. *Bang!* A black-armored Great Spike collapsed abruptly about fifty meters in front of Bochen. *Bang!* Another fell. *Bang, bang!* After two rapid cracks, a blue-sheened Great Spike crashed down. Bochen blinked in confusion and turned his head. Hundreds of meters away on a small earthen knoll, Wen Jifei and Milla rested their long rifles against their shoulders, raised a hand in salute, lowered them, and—*bang, bang*—the barrels roared once more. The Great Spikes charging General Bochen across the battlefield dropped one after another in mid-stride, falling in order from closest to farthest. At the same time, the Great Spikes that had clung to the chain were just getting to their feet, only to crumple to the ground one by one, picked off as if being counted down. One drew near. One went down. One stood up. One collapsed. "..." General Bochen let out a silent chuckle, raised his hand, and returned the military salute. Then he simply stood there, ignoring the Great Spikes closing in from every side, unhurriedly steadying his breathing and swapping out his device's source energy block. "Don't come over!" Bochen called out to stop the reinforcing soldiers from drawing near. Stream Vanguard's long-range fire was the best support he could ask for. Then he leaned down and pulled up the dead iron chain. He even casually lit a cigarette. Taking a drag, he straightened as he exhaled, looking up once more at the swarm of Great Spikes gathering in the sky. With the second puff, General Bochen tossed the cigarette aside. *Clatter, clang, clank...* Both hands gripped the dead iron chain with tremendous force. He pulled it in, closer, closer... *Boom!* Another peak burst of source energy. Then—*whoosh!* *Bang!* In the sight of everyone near and far, the sky-shattering hammer blasted once more toward the heavens. *** "Charge!" Only now did Lao Jian and his comrades reach the edge of the battlefield. In truth, Wen Jifei and Milla had been carried over by Wu Xu and Rusty Sister. "Captain Lao! Captain Lao, don't go in!" Behind them, Han Qingyu suddenly called out to stop Lao Jian and the rest of the Azure squad. Stream Vanguard's top-tier combat powers, however, were not included in the halt; led by Little Prince and He Tangtang, they continued charging onto the field. Mid-charge, Captain Lao pulled up and turned around, bewildered. He was so worked up! *If General Bochen were to salute us on the battlefield too...* "Come back. They don't need you over there." Han Qingyu's iron armor stood beside a cluster of bushes, looking as though it were ready to duck into hiding at any second. Raising a finger to point at himself, he said, "Your job is to protect me." As he spoke, seven other suits of iron armor of varying designs stood beside him. Lao Jian: "..." "Hurry up, all of you come back. Don't forget how fragile I am right now," the suit of iron armor continued in a muffled voice. "...Right," Lao Jian said gloomily. *Damn it,* he thought, *are you overpowered right now, or are you fragile?* "Who's that, Captain Lao?" Zhao Erzhu, who had not been told the identity of the iron armor, asked blankly. "Where did this weakling come from?" Lao Jian turned to look at him. "Stream Vanguard." "Stream Vanguard! Stream Vanguard has weaklings like that?!" "...Yeah." In the end, none of the three Azure squads entered the battlefield, because they truly were not needed there. They stood before the suits of iron armor, continuing to watch the staggering spectacle in the sky. Barely three to five minutes later. "They're fleeing!" "Look, the alien crafts are fleeing!" "Yeah, they're terrified." In the sky, the remnants of the Great Spike craft suddenly pulled up in unison and sped away into the distance. At the same time, the large swarm of shuttle craft that had just appeared on the distant horizon circled briefly before turning tail and flying off. They had given up. For the first time on a large-scale battlefield, humanity had thoroughly intimidated and driven off the Great Spikes' aerial reinforcements, leaving them too terrified to land, too terrified even to draw near. For they had met, for the first time, that sky-cleaving warhammer. ...The swarm of Great Spikes in the air vanished completely. The howling hammer finally crashed to earth. *Boom!* General Bochen stood tall. He slowly turned his head to survey the battlefield, and, satisfied, gradually sat down. Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he retrieved the half-smoked cigarette from the ground and lit it again. Then, perhaps a dozen minutes later— *Roar!* Only when the entire battlefield erupted in sudden cheers did the soldiers finally realize: it was over. Everything was dead. For the first time on a massive battlefield, humanity had achieved the total annihilation—the absolute purge—of the Great Spikes. And for the first time since the Zenith invasion began, Azure soldiers stood peacefully upon the field after a colossal battle, cheering and celebrating toward the vast, clear sky above. Meanwhile, At least five thousand Great Spikes, including three Red Shoulders, lay scattered across the battlefield. October 16, 1994. Oceania. The fifth day of the Zenith War: The Great Victory at Hughenden.