67: The BOSS battle begins! King Gundam VS. Pangu!

“Hahahaha! Welcome to my coronation ceremony!”

A cold, manic laughter mixed with electrical static emanated from that terrifying fifty-meter-tall mecha, constructed from the entire Palace Hall, making the entire space hum and vibrate.

Sorin Ironbeard's crazed face was projected onto the mecha's main head screen, looking down like a deity over the mortal realm.

“Witness it! Guests from another world! Witness the perfect Fusion of flesh and steel! Witness... the birth of a new god!”

He spread his massive arms, composed of towers and colonnades, his voice filled with a madness that threatened to subvert everything.

“I am the city, and the city is me!”

“Madman! This guy is a total lunatic!” Wang Wei (Luban No. 7) shrieked with a mix of fear and excitement. “He turned the entire palace... into a damn Gundam!!!”

Standing on the second-floor corridor, the assault team looked as small as dust before this mountain-like 'king gundam'.

The massive pressure even made the air feel thick and viscous.

“Bullshit!”

Li Qiang (Also a Ruthless Person) was the first to snap out of his shock. He spat, raised the power hammer in his hand, and pointed it at the giant mecha's head from afar, letting out a roar worthy of a player.

“You're just a shorty in an iron shell! Brothers, don't just stand there! Get him!”

Before his voice could fade, Li Qiang had already charged out like a cannonball.

He slid down the broken stair railing, used a floating platform for leverage, and leaped high into the air. With his power hammer carrying immense weight, he smashed it fiercely toward the mecha's massive ankle.

“Clang—!!!”

Sparks flew in all directions.

A crisp metal-on-metal sound rang out, almost comical in its clarity.

Li Qiang felt as if he had struck the Earth itself with a hammer. An unmatched counter-shock traveled up the handle, and he was sent flying back, tumbling several times in the air before landing awkwardly.

“-0”

A bright red, mockingly low damage number slowly floated up from king gundam's seemingly endless health bar.

“That's not even a scratch...” Li Qiang shook his numbed arm, his expression becoming extremely grim.

“The struggles of an ant are truly pleasant to hear.”

Solin's voice carried a mocking tone. He didn't even bother using a weapon, simply lifting a giant foot made of countless metal and rock, intending to crush Li Qiang like an insect!

Shadows instantly enveloped everything!

“Brother Qiang! Get out of the way!” Lin Xiaowan screamed in terror.

“It's too late!”

The speed of the falling foot was beyond imagination, and the wind it stirred up made it hard for the players to even stand.

Despair.

Before an absolute gap in size and power, any skill seemed pale and powerless.

Just as Li Qiang prepared to take the hit head-on to see how much health he'd lose...

The communicator in his pocket suddenly began to hiss frantically!

It was Wang Wei!

No!

It was Retired Soldier King, who was outside acting as the commander-in-chief!

“Brother Qiang! Everyone, pay attention! Wang Wei has finished the remote connection! Our biggest 'illegal construction'... is about to enter the field!”

Almost at the same moment Retired Soldier King's voice rang out...

“Boom—Rumble—!!!”

A heart-wrenching roar, a hundred times louder than the palace's transformation earlier, came from above everyone's heads!

The entire Palace Hall shook violently, and the dome was ripped open like paper by an unstoppable force of violence!

Countless rubble and metal rained down like a storm!

A hideous, massive steel dragon claw, full of steampunk's violent aesthetics, tore through the dome. With the force of ten thousand thunderbolts, it precisely blocked king gundam's descending foot!

“Thud—!!!”

The giant foot and the dragon claw collided with a crash!

A visible shockwave expanded outward, blowing everything in the vicinity away!

The assault team members were knocked askew. Li Qiang grabbed a broken rebar to steady himself. He looked up at the steel dragon claw that had blocked the fatal blow for him, a wild, joyful smile appearing on his face.

“Nice job, Old Wang!”

More walls were smashed through.

The pangu vessel's massive mechanical dragon head, a Fusion of magic and technology, forced its way through the shattered dome! Its two red eyes, like searchlights, instantly locked onto the king gundam!

[Mechanical Stitched Dragon · pangu vessel] VS [Dark Iron Emperor · Solin Vessel]!

“What... what kind of monster is this?!”

For the first time, a look of shock appeared on Solin's crazed face.

He couldn't understand.

How could these lowly, insect-like creatures have also built such a massive war machine?!

“Monster?”

From an external loudspeaker on the pangu vessel's head came Li Qiang's arrogant laughter.

“Old man! You're calling us players monsters?”

“Today, I'll show you what the damn fourth calamity is all about!”

“Roar—!!!”

As if responding to Li Qiang's declaration, the pangu vessel opened its massive maw filled with gun barrels. The [Focused Thermal-Melt Light Beam Cannon], already fully charged and fusing dragon breath with magi-tech, let out a deafening roar!

A beam of brilliant white light, over three meters in diameter and capable of instantly melting steel, blasted into the king gundam's chest at point-blank range!

“Boom—!”

Solin reacted incredibly fast, crossing his arms to protect his chest. The thick armor on the mecha's arms was instantly heated to a glowing red by the beam, making a tooth-grinding 'sizzling' sound.

“Damned insects!”

Having his home broken into and nearly being disemboweled, Solin was completely enraged.

On the king gundam's shoulders and back, hundreds of launch ports opened simultaneously!

“Swish-swish-swish-swish—!”

Dense Steam Missiles, trailing exhaust flames, whistled out like a swarm of bees, instantly covering the pangu vessel's upper body!

Intense explosions occurred in succession, the firelight illuminating the entire Palace Hall like broad daylight.

Inside the pangu vessel's cockpit (which was actually the temporary command room where Wang Wei was), alarms were blaring everywhere!

“Warning! Left wing armor damaged by 15%!”

“Hydraulic System number two overloaded!”

“mana crystal consumption rate increasing!”

Wang Wei's eyes were bloodshot. His mechanical arm was already connected to the pangu vessel's main console, and a massive flow of data was flooding into his brain.

“Hold steady! Energy shields at full power! Use the claws! Tear its launchers apart!”

Receiving the command, the pangu vessel ignored the explosions on its body. From its two massive forelimb claws, alloy blades shimmering with cold light popped out. Like two giant scalpels, they lunged fiercely toward the king gundam's shoulders!

“Creeeeak—!”

A piercing sound of metal grinding against metal rang out!

Two giant war machines representing the 'violent aesthetics' of different civilizations engaged in the most primitive and savage brawl in the heart of the Dwarf Kingdom!

You give me a punch, I'll give you a cannon blast!

You tear my armor, I'll dismantle your parts!

The entire Palace Hall continued to collapse beneath their feet. Luxurious decorations and thousand-year-old sculptures were turned to dust in this clash of titans.

The assault team caught in the middle experienced what it truly meant to be collateral damage when giants fight.

“Holy crap! The beam! The roof beam is falling!”

“Find cover, quick! Don't get stepped on!”

Li Qiang led the team members in a frantic scramble beneath the feet of the two giant gods, dodging falling rubble and flying parts.

“We can't just watch! We have to get in there too!” Retired Soldier King commanded calmly. “Their attention is on each other! Go for its ankle joints! That's the weight-bearing core!”

“Roger!”

The players once again displayed the spirit of ants taking down an elephant. Using grappling guns and flying boards, they wove between the legs of the two mechas, unleashing all their explosives and high-burst skills onto the king gundam's knees and ankles.

Although the damage was still just a scratch, it was better than nothing!

The battle entered a fever pitch!

The pangu vessel slapped away the king gundam's shoulder cannon with a claw, while the king gundam landed an overloaded iron punch, leaving a massive dent in the pangu vessel's chest!

The two mechas finally grappled together, both losing their balance and falling heavily toward the giant device in the center of the hall that imprisoned the Young Dragon!

“Boom—!!!”

The earth wailed!

The containment device was severely deformed by the massive impact, and countless cables erupted with blinding sparks!

And that semi-mechanical Young Dragon, which had been in a state of coma and pain, saw its body tremble violently at this moment!

It felt it.

An aura that was both familiar and strange.

An aura belonging to a 'Dragon'!

Although the pangu vessel was just a cold stitched entity of steel and bone, its core still retained a sliver of the Origin Dragon Soul belonging to a giant dragon!

It was this tiny wisp of Dragon Soul that, like a spark, instantly ignited the Young Dragon's pride and fury as a ruler of the skies—emotions that had been suppressed to the limit!

“Roar...?”

A faint, questioning low growl rang out for the first time, not from a loudspeaker, but directly within everyone's Souls.

The Young Dragon's eyes, which had been tightly shut and covered by a metal visor, snapped open!

On one side was a pure golden vertical pupil belonging to dragonkind!

On the other was a crimson prosthetic eye representing cold machinery, flashing with countless data streams!

Its heart, half flesh and half core furnace, began to beat frantically at an unprecedented speed!

“Thump!”

“Thump!”

“Thump!”

Massive amounts of life energy and arcane energy completely lost control and went berserk at this moment!

Hum————

A visible ring of energy pulse, a mix of life-green and data-blue, centered on the Young Dragon and suddenly rippled outward toward the entire Palace Hall like a stone dropped in water!

Silent and invisible, yet it contained the power to annihilate all rules!

The energy pulse swept over the king gundam.

Its massive body jolted violently. All the lights and screens on it, including Solin's arrogant face, flickered for an instant and then... completely went out.

The energy pulse swept over the pangu vessel.

This steel behemoth also stiffened. Its two giant red searchlight eyes flickered uncertainly before finally turning into a dead, silent darkness.

Every lighting device in the palace burst in an instant, and the entire hall was plunged into a pitch-black, silent darkness where one couldn't even see their own hand.

King