The Undying Mecha Emperor

Chapter 257

With James charging in like an undying hungry wolf god starved of food for a thousand years, what else could we do?

We charged in along with him.

Swinging my spear with just my right hand and holding my shield horizontally like a massive, wide blade, I destroyed the mechas in front of me with ruthless abandon.

For a few tense (read: enjoyable) minutes, we really did as James had shouted.

We dug in.

It is only in times of the greatest emergencies that we can see who are the heroes, who are the cowards, who are the fighters, who are the possums and who are those that were willing to throw their buddies into the fire just to escape.

And that particular massacre caused all sorts of diamonds and filth to be uncovered in the hearts of our victims.

"Ahhhhh mommy!!!"

"Get the hell out of my way!!"

"KYAAAAA!!!"

"Get behind me! I will stall them!!"

"DIE YOU INCORRIGIBLE FIRST GRADERS!"

"STAND YOUR GROUND! THEY ARE JUST FIVE PEOPLE!"

"F*CK YOU! YOU BOZO! YOU STAND YOUR F*CKING GROUNDD!!"

"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

"FIGHT! DON'T BE COWARDS!!"

"GO SUCK ON YOUR MOMMA'S TITTIIEEEEESSSS!!"

It spoke volumes on just how much my "momma titties" curses had pervaded the entire academy in an incredibly short time when in times of emergencies such as the one they were in, they reflexively used it to curse at their allies.

The initial minutes were utter chaos, but all the heroes that stood their ground truly did strike a whole lot of respect and reverence in our hearts. They were budding leaders of the Federation, and their future were definitely very bright.

But for the moment, they were the first to fall.

And after their initial defense disintegrated, killing the rest was beyond easy.

Any veteran soldier will tell you that killing soldiers that were trying to escape during a rout is the easiest thing in the world, especially if they are not completely cornered.

True, the rear section was pushing forward trying to escape the unerringly accurate rifle fire from atop the cliff, but it was a "soft" wall.

They were able to physically run across the kill zone if they couldn't escape to the front.

And so without a hard corner forcing them to fight to the bitter end, their hearts were free to explode in all of the glory of sheer, unadulterated panic powered by a deep and intense motivation to escape to the area just ahead which they could already see with their own eyes.

With the combination of ferocious rifle fire and our viciously effective melee attacks, we quickly thinned them to less than five hundred mechas.

And by then, they were in full panic mode, and they finally broke and ran in every single direction. All they wanted to do was to get the hell out of the kill zone!

We did what we could and killed all that were within range. Several hundred managed to escape with their lives. But very few would make it back to the battlefield that day.

All too soon, the massacre ended, and I flicked my spear to kill the final mecha that had fallen helplessly on his knees.

Bam.

"HURRAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

The mechas atop the cliff roared out a massive shout of victory! After being chased all over the mountain range for half a day, being able to wipe out the pesky heavies was a huge load off their shoulders.

"LONG LIVE OLIVIAAA!!"

"FIRST GRADE VICTORRRRSS!!"

"SUCK ON YOUR MISERABLE LOSS! HA!!"

"LOSERS! LOSERS! YOU SUCK! BIG TIME!!"

The emotional first graders screamed out their heartfelt messages to their seniors before we finally moved off to continue in our final battle of the day.

It was the deciding battle between the final survivors.

By that time, Sheera Lin's final supreme strategy was already well underway.

Sun Zhi once said, supreme excellence is breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

It was exactly what Sheera Lin did that day.

She had massacred a full eleven thousand mechas that day and lost seven hundred fifty of her own.

There were about twelve thousand "dead" mechas that were available for her to use.

Being someone who never failed to engage in psychological battle, Sheera would never miss the chance to deal damage to the enemy's morale.

She ordered her soldiers to grab the dead mechas and pile them up into small hills all over the battleground, with an especially large one above the plateau.

When she was done, her surviving mechas stood neatly behind piles upon piles of dead mecha, brimming with the confidence that could only come from outperforming even their wildest dreams.

The incoming coalition army of five thousand of the best fighters in the academy had to make their way across winding paths of the dead mechas to reach them.

It was a master stroke, one that was aimed to drive the sharp stakes of fear into the hearts of the students.

The message was clear.

I have already killed twelve thousand of your school mates. I will kill you too.

Even the hearts of veteran soldiers would tremble at such a brutal sight.

What do you think happened to the five thousand kids marching slowly towards Sheera Lin?

Deep within their hearts, they were all entertaining a series of very similar thoughts.

"Holy shit, they killed so many already! What's their secret? Where are the traps?"

"Are they invincible? They must be invincible!"

"Are they using real mechas? That's cheating!!"

"A teacher must be giving them guidance! Damn it! It isn't fair!"

And the most pervasive one...

"We are screwed. We are SO screwed!"

"We will die here. Damn! Fight to the death!"

It was a classic example of yet another Sun Zhi military wisdom.

Victorious warriors win the battle in their minds first then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first then seek to win.

But their leaders were no blind fools who did not know what the piles of dead mechas were doing to the minds of their soldiers.

So a particularly smart one started to comment and laugh at the piles of dead mechas.

"They sure have a lot of time to do all this nonsense! If we are as childish as them, we could probably do the exact same thing to the mechas we slaughtered earlier too!" He shouted with a laugh.

"That's right! We won a victory that is no less impressive as the one these damned first graders did. Over ten thousand mechas died in the battle earlier this morning too! Eleven thousand dead! And we survived!"

"Yeah!! Bunch of show off first graders! They don't know who they are facing against!"

His underlings rallied behind his words and probably made the soldiers feel slightly better.

Slightly.

Because well, they were seniors and they were no fools.

They knew that the battle they just won was almost like a Free For All. It was different from the one the first graders won where they did it against a wholly hostile enemy.

It would be a fearsome fight for them all, and no amount of fake bravado comments could convince them otherwise.

The piles of dead mechas made a silent but much more convincing argument than their leaders.

After making their way across the winding paths of dead mechas, the five thousand coalition mechas finally came face to face with Sheera Lin and her remaining warriors.

"See? We have them outnumbered! They are screwed!" One of the leaders shouted with extreme relief in his voice.

"Yes! There are barely two thousand enemy mechas left! We will crush them and gain the final victory!"

"Two thousand? There should be more than that." Emma said with a frown. But she wasn't sure, so she did not raise the issue.

"Get in formation! Prepare to charge the enemy!" The commander in chief shouted. "Fliers! Take to the skies and test their defenses!"

"Reporting! There are a hundred first graders making their way towards us from the rear!"

"Battalion one! Get over there and destroy them! The rest of you, focus! We will destroy them all in one fell swoop!!"

It was a cocky plan befitting the dumbest commander to take the stage that day.

Five hundred mechas of the first battalion immediately moved towards me, while the remaining four thousand five hundred started to move slowly forward.

I remember casting my resonance outwards that day, and shook my head in complete marvel at the ideas that Sheera Lin had.

I could clearly sense five hundred mechas moving towards me, moving neatly in formation across a sea of one thousand five hundred live mechas.

That's right.

A sea of mechas.

Sheera Lin had stationed almost half her forces within the piles of dead mechas!

"Amazing." I couldn't help but sigh.

"Yeah. It's amazing how quickly the commander was able to pile those dead mechas." James remarked, completely missing the real meaning of my comment. "All you first graders must view whoever is leading you all as a god of some sort."

"Yeah. Sheera Lin. She is a genius." I said.

"Pffft. A Lin. Just how good can a Lin be?" James asked dismissively.