CHAPTER 1078: CHAPTER 87: LEGIONARY

In most people’s eyes, it was the outer wall of Chaldea that suddenly exploded. Then, in a white streak of light, what seemed invincible just moments ago—the Protector of the Six Dragons Sect—was suddenly turned into a heap of space debris.

Li Like stared blankly into the distance. That was the source of the "earthquake". A lance-like object was embedded into the external armor of Chaldea. This spear was over ten meters long, extremely thick and wide; it didn’t look like a cold weapon, but rather like a rocket that could just fit a Prosthetic Body. Several empty containers had fallen off from the sides of the spear due to the impact. The spear was not solid; inside it was filled with fuel barrels. However, the fuel barrels were already empty.

"This is... this is..."

Only Xiang Shan saw everything clearly. He was the only one who reacted.

The blue-white flame was the thrust flame. However, this time, it appeared not behind the aircraft but in front of it—to be used for deceleration. The direction of the tail flame was naturally different from normal.

That kid started slowing down several light seconds away. At the climax of Stone Protector’s struggle with Chaldea’s Guardians, he had already decelerated to several hundred times the standard speed of sound.

Then, from approximately seven kilometers away, he threw that kinetic weapon, the extremely massive spear. The spear carried away most of the kinetic energy from his body, allowing him to further decelerate.

The spear grazed past Stone Protector, taking one of Stone Protector’s legs. The speed of the spear was so fast that it promptly severed it.

Then, from two kilometers away, he adjusted his stance and accurately swept past Stone Protector from behind.

Yes, merely swept past. Around 0.5 light seconds away, Xiang Shan more or less noticed this guy’s trajectory was a wide curve. He would closely sweep past Chaldea but wouldn’t crash into it.

With mankind’s current material science level, a direct collision would mean death to whoever was hit—but he himself wouldn’t survive it, either.

It was merely a sweep.

From three thousand meters away, he had already completed the final stance adjustment.

Even though the neural signal transmission speed of a Benchmark Man far exceeds that of Homo sapiens, this series of operations approached the limit of human reaction speed.

This was equivalent to Stone Protector standing beneath a rocket launch outlet... no, even more exaggerated.

Equivalent to him rushing towards a rocket launch outlet at a speed of several kilometers per second, then being thrown high into the air by the storm.

This was enough to put Stone Protector in a near-death state.

And that guy did nothing.

A Guardian trembled as he approached that mass weapon which had shattered a wall of Chaldea and thoroughly destroyed several districts. He saw a twisted symbol due to the weapon’s deformation, resembling an abstract meteor.

"Swift Army..." His transmission contained fear.

Swift Army...

Swift Army...

Chaldea’s warriors fell silent.

It was a legend, a myth. The King of Godspeed seldom took action, and there were true and false rumors about him online. Many of his feats were not considered real. However, everyone believed he was the strongest External Martial Artist alive.

Everyone thought that the legendary feats attributed to him were indeed achievable by him.

Tumor Xiang Shan felt complicated.

Li Like was lost in despair: "How can he be so strong... We’re doomed... We’re doomed..."

Tumor Xiang Shan tapped his back: "He is indeed strong, but the attack just now isn’t something easily repeatable. Calm down."

"This is..."

"Think carefully. The fuel inside him is simply not enough to support himself accelerating then decelerating." Tumor Xiang Shan mentally calculated for a moment: "He set off from Godspeed Court, using Jupiter’s Gravity Well for his first deceleration, then rushed into the Asteroid Belt. Upon approaching a region of dense matter, he immediately activated the thruster. The vast flames and shockwaves would clear some of the minor obstacles for him. His fuel should now be insufficient to accelerate again."

"If I guessed correctly, he would at most reach the edge of the Asteroid Belt, possibly being picked up by Protectors from Mars. And this time his mission wasn’t to destroy Chaldea, otherwise he would throw the weapon when moving at a faster pace, not just plow through the external armor but dive straight into the interior."

"He was well-prepared, catching them off guard. He was too fast for the Protector of the Six Dragons Sect to react in an instant. He couldn’t get a few light seconds of preparatory distance, nor could he obtain the speed from Godspeed Court’s blessing. Oh, right, he came so strangely that I suspect someone inside the city gave him the signal."

Li Like slightly calmed down and thanked Xiang Shan.

Yet Xiang Shan remained serious.

Even though this Swift Army soldier lacked the terrifying external strength, he was still undoubtedly stronger than everyone present.

The opponent’s tolerance to G-force was terrifying. Without need for further explanation, if Tumor Xiang Shan switched places, his crippled brain would surely be impaired by the deceleration-induced G-force, unable to maintain consciousness. Likewise, Jeanne was still too young. Tumor Xiang Shan’s reaction speed couldn’t keep up. He couldn’t perform those extreme maneuvers at thousandths of lightspeed like that Swift Army soldier.

These words, Xiang Shan did not say out loud.

Meanwhile, "someone inside the city" indeed posed a problem.

Accounting for Jupiter’s orbit and Godspeed Court’s velocity, this Swift Army soldier must have set off when Jeanne and Asgard were contacting Chaldea’s high-ranking officials under the guise of "Six Dragons Sect Hunters"... Considering Little Sandrel of City Ur was also involved, the "someone" might possibly be from City of Ur.

After a lengthy deceleration, he arrived here.

However, judging from that Swift Army soldier’s actions, he seemed to have foreseen Stone Protector’s location in Chaldea, even predicting Stone Protector’s intent to purge Chaldea’s protective artillery positions.

At his speed, his Prosthetic Body was extremely fragile. Ordinary artillery positions still posed a threat.

Moreover, that Swift Army soldier was familiar with the "terrain" here, knowing where obstacles resistant to thrust impact waves were distributed... looking at this point, his sprint this time was sheer madness. There were only a few relatively narrow paths around Chaldea for him to move at such a high speed, yet he pierced through.

The Swift Army soldier drew several graceful curves from afar, finally reducing his speed. Another ten seconds passed, he returned to the battlefield, approaching Stone Protector’s side.

This time, no one dared to make a move against him.

The Swift Army soldier walked up to Stone Protector, unscrewed his head, and opened a container from behind, inside was some kind of non-Newtonian fluid. He placed the head in it.