Nikola's death had killed Alice.
It had killed Ne.
And now, it looked like it was soon going to kill Han Qingyu as well.
When the dark-gold Gunie walked over and came to a stop not far from Silver Yeke, flanking him from two angles, Han Qingyu detonated backward in retreat immediately, opening a distance of over a kilometer.
Logically speaking, the necessity and probability of two complete Puta'ers joining forces to pincer him were neither particularly great. Even so, Han Qingyu prudently took defensive precautions based on his understanding of combat positioning.
What if?
Han Qingyu's mindset now was completely different from before. Moments ago, he had possessed zero capability to resist—whatever he did made no difference—so to protect the human fleet, he had straightforwardly unleashed that "final" slash head-on. But now, he possessed some ability to maneuver and stall. Even if that ability was far from enough in front of two Puta'ers, he would still patiently maneuver, fight tooth and nail to hold out, and then see if there might be the slightest opportunity.
That was how he had always done things in the past.
Being unable to defeat even one Puta'er didn't mean there was no possibility of struggling when facing two. Now that the integration of the skeletal remains was complete, Han Qingyu assessed himself: his combat strength had definitely reached the entry level of Star level. Although he couldn't compare to the two fully matured entities opposite him, he could roughly be considered an adult now.
While meticulously preparing for battle, Han Qingyu barked a halt over the comm frequency to all the super-combatants and source energy airships preparing to rush over in support.
"There's no point in you coming over. It will only make me die faster."
This was by no means entirely untrue.
"You seem to genuinely believe you can fight the two of us?" Opposite him, the golden Gunie suddenly spoke—in human language, no less.
Han Qingyu wasn't particularly startled, however. Years ago, a Great Spike Daie had demonstrated an exceptional gift for language, and this dark-gold Puta'er wearing an elephant mask clearly looked like one of the more cultured among the Great Spikes.
He nodded calmly.
The dark-gold Gunie leaned back slightly, making a laughing gesture. It seemed to have learned this from Nikola.
Han Qingyu was eager for it to keep talking.
If it didn't, Han Qingyu could take the initiative to ask some questions—like "How do you Great Spikes give birth?" or "Why are the two of you different colors? Are you male and female?"—in short, as long as they could avoid fighting and waste time, Han Qingyu was more than happy to indulge in any other subject.
The Commander had mentioned earlier that there was still some distance. Stall first, fight desperately after, and maybe—just maybe—they would hold out until his arrival.
Yes, maybe...
Yet Han Qingyu had not anticipated that before he could even open his mouth, the dark-gold Gunie had already struck. The instant it completed its backward lean and pivoted forward, it burst into a sprint.
Two steps—just two steps—and it closed to within four hundred meters. The black-gold column sword, carrying a blazing solid pillar of source energy light, cleaved down straight at his head.
*Boom!*
Han Qingyu held his blade with both hands and pushed upward, taking the blow head-on. Under the crushing pressure, his blood churned violently.
Yet what he caught was not the physical column sword. The moment the dark-gold Gunie's strike connected, it immediately converted the chop into a thrust, driving the physical column sword straight toward Han Qingyu's chest.
In the next instant—*whoosh!*—Han Qingyu vanished.
At the spot where he reappeared a second later, a small blue-light column sword that he had dropped in the earlier fight was suspended in midair. Han Qingyu had brought it up from the lunar surface just moments ago, only nobody had noticed it at the time.
After fully integrating the skeletal remains, the mutual traction between Han Qingyu and the column sword had become even faster and more efficient—so fast that in the eyes of ordinary people, it was practically teleportation.
At the same time, as the dark-gold Gunie turned sideways to pursue him, another small blue column sword silently thrust toward the back of its heart.
This one belonged to Nikola. When Nikola died just now and the column sword fell, Han Qingyu had "pulled" it back and left it suspended there, waiting all along.
*Clang!* The unexpected strike landed squarely. The dark-gold Gunie staggered, stopped, and turned to look at Han Qingyu.
It hadn't suffered much injury. Using traction to propel a column sword to kill a complete Puta'er was fundamentally impossible anyway; Han Qingyu had only used it to stall and simultaneously test his opponent's toughness.
The test was complete: it hadn't even breached the armor.
Therefore, to truly kill it, he could only wield a blade himself to hack and stab, with no telling how many blows it would take.
"I believe you deserve a solemn death." It was a polite sentence, but the dark-gold Gunie was visibly growing furious. It glanced back at Silver Yeke.
Immediately, both Puta'ers sprang into motion simultaneously, pouncing directly toward Han Qingyu.
So the likelihood of them teaming up was actually this high? Han Qingyu had no time to think. Once caught in a pincer attack, his chances of survival would be minuscule.
He could only run.
Fortunately, his specialty allowed him to move via mutual traction with the column swords, which undoubtedly bolstered his escape capability immensely.
While retreating rapidly, Han Qingyu kicked the column sword beside him toward an open space on the right... preparing for a subsequent traction teleport.
But—"Huh?"
*Damn it!*
The column sword did not shoot into the distance as expected. The moment it was kicked airborne, it was frozen in midair by a burst of specialty power. It seemed this was the specialty ability of one of the Puta'ers, perfectly countering his?
Han Qingyu had no time to ponder. He immediately abandoned the column sword and looked up. Because of that wasted move, the two Puta'ers had already closed in, attacking from the left and right in a flanking pincer.
In this situation, turning around to run was out of the question. Running away with your back turned to enemies stronger than yourself who possessed massive attack ranges was a surefire death sentence unless you held an absolute advantage in speed.
He had to fight with his life on the line. Make a desperate bid to break through on Silver Yeke's side...
*Slash!* A sudden sound rang out.
It was as though a god had cracked a whip in the distant heavens. With its sharp crack, its fierce aura, and its colossal energy, the whip's tip announced to everyone across the battlefield that it would lash down right in front of Han Qingyu... If the two Puta'ers dared to keep lunging forward, they would be struck by this whip.
And very soon, everyone realized:
That was no whip. It was a blade.
Someone in the distant heavens had delivered a brisk slash. The blade radiance tore through a hundred li of empty space, like a white rainbow, slashing down before Han Qingyu, condensed as solid as a real heaven-sundering giant blade.
Because of this slash, the two super Puta'ers both halted their bodies by force, pulling back their attacks and retreating violently before turning their terrified gazes into the distance.
There, a human source energy airship, momentarily as slender as a pine needle, was flying straight toward them.
At this moment, everyone understood.
"Azure Huaxia Front, Sole Witness Legion, respectfully welcomes the Commander!"
On the battlefield, some high-tier airship—no one knew which—engaged enemy craft while being the first to breach military discipline by switching on all-battlefield broadcast comms.
And then...
"Azure Xiongzhanli Front, Flame of the Zenith Legion, respectfully welcomes Commander Chen!"
"Azure Mitli Front, All Three Legions, respectfully welcomes Commander Chen!"
"Azure Headquarters Directly Subordinate First, Second, and Third Legions, respectfully welcome Commander Chen!"
"The entire City of Sin respectfully welcomes the World's Invincible!"
"All of Stream Blades respectfully welcomes the Commander! The Lunar Battlefield respectfully welcomes the World's Invincible!"
As the supreme commander of this battle, Wen Jifei switched on all-battlefield broadcast comms from the command ship, declaring battlefield comms discipline void.
The man who would lay down his cards to decide life and death had arrived. The time had come.
Nor did Wen Jifei hide the command ship's existence any longer.
Chapter 989