The effect of mastery spells varied wildly, and not all the mastery spells were area-of-effect spells. Only high-level mastery casters such as Michaux could master such powerful spells.

On this planet, other than Wang Tong, the only other person who was capable of expanding one’s elemental attribute was the young master of the Divine Mastery Sect.

It was impossible for any METAL warrior to get close to the Zerg lord due to his guards, but Michaux was not a METAL warrior.

Michaux’s fingers knotted into a mastery sign that held the power of his spell, managing to lock onto the target using his soul energy without being noticed. Lie Jian continued to bombard the Zergs at the cost of huge consumption of his soul energy. Only the most aggressive attacks could attract the Zergs’ attention. Luckily, the Zergs wanted to capture Lie Jian alive; therefore, he hadn’t met with any life-threatening attacks so far.

“Uncle Shan, please give me a hand!” A glowing blue ice ball had already formed in Michaux’s hands. Lie Shan nodded, picked up the former, and launched him into the air with his massive arms. Michaux immediately started the airborne mastery spell and flew toward the Zerg lord like a cannonball.

Jiezhe was engrossed in watching the fight with Lie Jian. When he finally registered danger, the young master was only a few dozen meters away from him. He paused, startled, then gathered himself and smiled. He felt grateful for his careful preparation while lamenting over the cunning strategies of the humans.

The Zerg race had always been the loser when it came down to one on one combat between soldiers of similar level. There were only a few breeds in the dark ones that boasted more powerful combat skill than humans. However, Jiezhe was not one of them, and neither did he want to be. Zergs’ advantage was in numbers, and he preferred to stick with the old way.
Michaux was already slowing down, and in a second or so, Jiezhe’s guards would surround him. However, in a split second before the guards took action, Jiezhe was totally defenseless. Michaux smiled and then unleashed in the spell.

Ice Lotus’ Anguish!

The spell contained the power of the Divine Master, a level twenty-three mastery caster. Only a high-level caster such as Michaux was able to contain the power of the spell until the last moment.

The spell summoned a large ice lotus from under the ground. Everything was frozen solid within ten meters around Jiezhe.

The dark ones threw themselves at the assassin; after having exhausted his energy in the last spell, Michaux was defenseless. Right before the attack was about to land on Michaux, Lie Jian appeared above them with his fire attack, diving down toward the swarm of Zergs with abandon.

In an instant, all Zergs within Lie Jian’s reach were cut down. He hovered over the body of Michaux and sheltered him from the attacks, then grasped the latter by the cloth and launched himself into the air. After two seconds, Michaux had also gathered himself. His heart still thumped in his chest; he had thought he was done for.

He didn’t have time to reflect on what had happened as he started the mastery spells anew. Thousands of ice shards flew toward the pursuing Zergs. Although they were not powerful enough to kill any of the dark ones, the ice shards were effective in slowing them down.

KOM!

Lie Jian and Michaux both flew into a large building, filled with a satisfying adrenaline rush. The soldiers quickly waged a counterattack as they pushed the pursuing Zergs back. Meanwhile, the mastery casters rained death upon the Zergs that were attacking their defense.

The Zergs had lost their commander, and therefore, they were forced to halt their attack. This had given the human soldiers a precious moment to take a rest.

Michaux and Lie Jian smiled at each other knowingly. That was a close call, but it felt so damn awesome! Lie Jian was able to finish an EB unit just in time to save Michaux.

However, it wasn’t long before the Zergs had chosen another dark one as their leader and started another round of attacks.

The golden dark ones guarding the Zerg lord were the most powerful dark ones of the city. Michaux’s area spell was able to kill all of them in one strike.

The dark ones fought very differently from humans. They didn’t need the powerful leaders to organize attacks on the spot, since they had a different method of communication. Therefore, the powerful dark ones could simply stand on the side and command the movement of their soldiers from afar. However, distance has failed to protect them from harm because their enemy was the mighty Divine Master.

The new Zerg lord was much inferior to Jiezhe in terms of mind and ability. Therefore, the Zergs’ attacks were much less organized than before. Michaux and Lie Jian both realized that their best shot at escaping the encirclement had arrived. However, not everyone could make it out; some soldiers might have to pay the ultimate sacrifice so that the rest would make it out alive.

However, Lie Jian knew that Michaux would never agree to this action while knowing it would jeopardize the lives of his soldiers; therefore, he let his plan unspoken.

Lie Jian slashed his blade and killed another half a dozen Zergs. His patience was wearing thin; if Wang Tong truly had possessed those highly mobile mounts as the rumors claimed, he should be here by now.

After a while, Lie Jian retreated back to the building to rest. Seeing him return to the building, the new leader, a level C Zerg, heaved a sigh of relief. As a low-level dark one, he could barely pass the intelligence check, much less measure up to the standards of a commander. He conceded that the only thing he could do was keep these humans inside until the purple guards arrived.

As for attack formations, timing, and the logistics, the new leader knew none of that. His method was simple: block the exit of the building with as many Zergs as possible and wait.

The lack of assault meant that the soldiers could finally rest in peace. Some soldiers were eating dinner quietly, and most mastery casters were already fallen asleep. The METAL warrior could endure physical exhaustion, but if the mastery casters left their soul energy depletion unchecked, they would be killing themselves slowly from the inside.

Some more powerful warriors, such as the three chief medics, were cultivating and trying to replenish their sea of consciousness. Their beautiful faces were haunted by fatigue. They had devoted their lives to the Sect and to the Divine Master, and dying on the battlefield while defending the Divine Master would be their honor.

“Are you sure Wang Tong will make it? It has been twenty hours, and I wager that the Zergs’ reinforcements should already be on their way.” Lie Shan put in. As an old veteran of House Lie, he never believed in Wang Tong. In his eyes, Lie Jian’s power and ability were as good as the younger generation could get.

“Yes, I am sure!” Lie Jian announced firmly. He had turned the problem over in his mind a hundred times, and each time, he reached the same conclusion: Wang Tong would arrive in time.

If they could join forces with Wang Tong, not only could they get out of here alive, but they could also deliver a death blow to the head of this operation: Moye.

Once Moye had been dealt with, the humans could wage massive counterattacks and eliminate the Zergs from Mars once and for all.

The mass production of the GN gun had lent Lie Jian confidence in humanity’s ability to defeat the Zergs in the end.

‘Thank the gods that Wang Tong had found Wang Tung. Are those two real brothers?’ The thought amused Lie Jian as laughter escaped his lips.
Although Lie Jian was surprised by his own laughter—it seemed out of place in these reduced circumstances— it had lent confidence to his soldiers.

Nothing was more comforting than the sight of a relaxed and confident leader during the time of war.

Wang Tung sneezed; afterward, he cursed at the person whose thought of him and disturbed his work. Martians believed that the thought of somebody would make that person sneeze violently.

Wang Tung had moved his bed into the lab as his research was approaching the final stages. The first mass-produced GN gun was named after him, and the theory he proposed was named the Wang Tung Law.
By then, Wang Tung and his team had completed the research on the automatic GN crystal machine gun, and were already halfway through the design stage of the GN crystal cannon. Wang Tung’s lab was not the only one that worked on it. Since the research results were all in the public domain, many other labs had joined efforts, further refining the technology. The newest subject in the field was the fusion weapon: a weapon that combined the conventional heat clip weapons with GN crystal energy guns. Wang Tong had never thought that one single breakthrough would cause so many changes in the field of science and engineering.

Thus it was, the eighth technology revolution had drawn back its curtain during the most desperate times in human history.

As the day was about to break, Lie Jian wagered that Wang Tong should be here anytime now, if he were to come at all.

A few more hours passed, and Wang Tong was still nowhere to be seen. Lie Jian wondered if he were wrong about Wang Tong. Maybe he never designed to come and save him. The sun rose slowly above the tall buildings, and the Zergs were ready to attack again.