402: Chapter 399 The Giant Mech is Also a Giant.

Seeing this, Lu Jianchuan did not hesitate for a second.

He crossed the bracelets on his wrists and snapped them together—silver-white armor instantly covered his body, and dark red energy conduits lit up at the same time. Explosive Combustion Form, activated!

"Cynthia," he stared at the overwhelming swarm of blue light specks, "get ready for battle. There are quite a few of them this time."

Cynthia didn't speak. She raised her hands, and the tips of her ten fingers split open simultaneously. Over a dozen tender green branches emerged, rapidly hardening into sharp long thorns in the air.

She answered with her actions.

The two of them charged out at the same time.

The thrusters on Lu Jianchuan's back fired, and he slammed into the mosquito swarm like a burning meteor. He threw a punch, and with the boost of high temperatures, three mosquitoes were blown into fragments. He turned, the thrusters fired again, and another one trying to ambush him from the side was kicked by him. The high heat instantly ignited the grease inside its body, burning it into a fireball.

In the distance, some mosquitoes tried to pull away and spray cold air—he opened his thrusters to the max, instantly lunging in front of them and piercing through one with a punch.

Cynthia's fighting style was completely different.

When she closed in, the Wooden Thorns in her hands pierced directly into the mosquitoes' bodies. The moment they entered, the thorns began to grow wildly, absorbing the mosquitoes' body fluids, and within seconds, blood-red flowers bloomed. She plucked a flower, stuffed it into her mouth, chewed a few times, and continued charging toward the next one.

For the mosquitoes further away, she flicked her hand and shot out Wooden Thorns. Those thorns accurately pierced their targets in mid-air and withered quickly after hitting the ground, but the flowers she picked up along the way became the energy source for her next round of combat.

The two of them leaped, dashed, and fought on the mecha's giant fingers, palms, and arms. The flames of the Explosive Combustion Form and the squelching sound of growing Wooden Thorns intertwined, as blue mosquito fragments fell like snow.

But there were too many of them.

No matter how many they killed, more always crawled out from the ice and surged out from the darkness. Those blue light specks circled, gathered, and dived around the mecha like a never-ending blizzard.

Lu Jianchuan smashed one with a punch, turned to kick away two more, and took a breath.

"Isn't this a bit ridiculous?" His voice came from behind the faceplate. "With such high numbers—how much food do they need to survive this long? Why are there so many!"

As he spoke, he charged into the next wave of mosquitoes.

One punch, two punches, three punches. His high-temperature fists slammed into the mosquitoes' bodies, exploding into blooms of fire. The thrusters on his back fired continuously, allowing him to weave, dash, and slaughter through the dense swarm.

The mecha beneath his feet—that massive, dark silver metal body—was being heated by his steadily rising body temperature.

Cynthia noticed it too.

She had just stuffed a blood flower into her mouth when her gaze suddenly swept across the mecha's head.

There, in the originally dim eye area, a faint light flickered.

It was very faint, like the moment before a sleeping creature opens its eyes.

Then, the light brightened.

Boom—!

The entire mecha shook violently. The vibration was so strong that Lu Jianchuan and Cynthia lost their balance at the same time, nearly falling off its hand. Lu Jianchuan's thrusters fired rapidly to steady his body, and he snapped his head around to look at the mecha's head.

Those eyes were now fully lit. A cold, ghostly blue light, like two ancient beacons, ignited in the darkness.

"No way..." Lu Jianchuan froze. "This mecha still has power? It can still stand up?"

Cynthia was also stunned, the Wooden Thorns in her hands suspended in mid-air.

The mecha moved.

It slowly raised its massive left hand, palm facing up, gently supporting the spot where Lu Jianchuan and Cynthia were—right on its own palm. The movement was incredibly gentle, so gentle that it didn't seem like a giant war machine, but more like a child carefully picking up two ants.

Then, its right hand gripped the sword stuck in the ground and began to stand up.

Boom— Boom— Boom—

Every vibration felt like an earthquake. Countless layers of ice cracked, and numerous ice blocks fell from above. But it stood up.

The moment it stood straight, the entire ice cave trembled.

Immediately after—

The mecha's entire weapon System activated simultaneously.

The shoulder armor flipped open, revealing dense rows of muzzles. The armor on the outside of its arms slid open, and laser emitters began to charge. The energy core in its chest glowed blindingly bright.

Hum—

As the first laser swept across, hundreds of mosquitoes evaporated instantly.

Boom, boom, boom—the artillery fired in unison, and the mosquito swarm exploded in large patches.

Those blue light specks were like fireflies swept by a hurricane, scattering in all directions. Those that could escape scrambled into the darkness, while those that couldn't were turned to ash under the mecha's covering fire.

Within seconds, the surroundings were cleared.

The mecha lowered its head, looking at the two tiny figures in its palm.

Its mouth armor vibrated slightly, emitting a sound.

[%#@!&...！#￥%...&#@!]

"Huh?" Lu Jianchuan stood on the mecha's palm, looking up at the massive head. "What? I can't understand you."

The mecha was silent for a second, then spoke again.

[#￥%@...&！@#￥%...&!]

It was another string of completely incomprehensible syllables. The pitch rose and fell sharply, like some ancient language, carrying the resonance of vibrating metal.

Lu Jianchuan and Cynthia glanced at each other, then looked up at the mecha together.

The mecha looked at them too.

Those ghostly blue eyes flickered slightly, as if in thought, or perhaps in helplessness. It seemed to understand—these two little fellows couldn't understand what it was saying.

It didn't try again.

It slowly stood straight, its movements heavy and slow, like a deity that had slept for ten thousand years finally awakening. As it rose, its full appearance was truly revealed to the two—it was indescribably huge; the sword alone was taller than a building. It stood in this bottomless ice cave, its head nearly touching the unknown darkness above.

Then it raised its right hand, clenched it into a fist, and swung it upward with a sudden force.

Boom—!

Above the fist, the ice layer exploded. Tons of ice and rock collapsed, but the power of that single punch pierced through everything, forcibly punching a massive hole overhead. Light filtered in from outside—it was the Arctic sunlight, faint but real.

It lowered its head, raised its left hand, and with Lu Jianchuan and Cynthia on its palm, slowly lifted them toward the opening.

Lu Jianchuan stood on its palm, watching the ice field below get closer and closer, and the opening grow larger and larger. He glanced back at the mecha—

Just then, he saw it.

Below the mecha, in the originally dark abyss, something had opened.

It wasn't ordinary darkness. It was a "hole"—circular, its edges flowing with colorful halos, like a nebula, like an aurora, like an entrance where an entire piece of the Universe had been condensed. It rotated there, dazzlingly bright yet deep enough to make one's heart skip a beat.

The mecha noticed it too.

It lowered its head, and just as those ghostly blue eyes aligned with the entrance—

A tentacle reached out from within.

The tentacle was ridiculously huge, its surface covered in flowing colorful patterns, and its speed was so fast it was impossible to react to. It instantly shot out from that dazzling hole and pierced straight through the mecha's chest!

The mecha's body jolted violently.

It looked down at the massive puncture wound in its chest; there was no blood inside, only shattered metal and flickering sparks. It didn't fall; instead, it raised its right hand, grabbed the tentacle, pulled its giant sword from the ground, and slashed it down hard on the tentacle!

At the same time, it gave a forceful push with its left hand, tossing Lu Jianchuan and Cynthia toward the opening on the ice surface.

The two of them tumbled onto the ice field and looked back—

The mecha was sinking.

The tentacle had entangled it and was dragging it into that dazzling hole. The mecha didn't struggle—or rather, struggling was already pointless. It made one last move—it raised its giant sword and threw it toward the sky with all its might.

The massive sword spun as it flew high into the air, drawing an arc under the Arctic sunlight before falling.

Tip down.

The place where it fell was exactly that still-rotating, dazzling entrance.

The moment the blade plunged into the entrance, the entire hole shuddered violently. The colorful light began to contract and dim, as if the exit had been blocked by something. The mecha's body had been completely dragged into the hole by the tentacle, with only one hand still visible outside, and then that hand also sank.

Under the suppression of the sword, the opening shrank smaller and smaller until it vanished completely.

Peace returned to the ice field.

Only that sword remained, quietly stuck there, half of its blade submerged in the ice, glinting with a dark metallic luster under the sunlight.