Asura in Arknights

Chapter Twenty-Five: Avalanche

As the dark clouds dispersed, the blizzard temporarily subsided.

Along with it, the omnipresent interference also disappeared, and now Li Ang can finally track down the monsters.

A rough count revealed that, including those killed by Li Ang earlier, there were about forty or fifty monsters here, which was quite a number.

These monsters combined are enough to conquer some small, mobile cities with weak defenses. Ursus... is it really such a dangerous place?

After so much time, Li Ang had a pretty good idea of ​​the monsters' identities.

The monsters appearing on the far north ice plains could only be 'mutants', but these mutants in front of him were quite different from those that Li Ang had seen in the Originium Will, which is why he couldn't recognize their identities at first glance.

Well... compared to the alien species I remember, these alien species seem too thin and weak, as if they are underdeveloped.

And there's something strange going on: they're still some distance from the border of civilization. According to the intelligence Li Ang has, aliens shouldn't be in this location. Could it be... that something's wrong with the Ursus people's defenses?

Allowing the alien species to penetrate this area is a terrible thing, as the villages along the way, apart from the military outposts, have no ability to resist them.

However, now is not the time to worry about the Ursus people; their current troubles are far from over.

Seeing Magellan standing there dumbfounded, Li Ang shouted angrily, "If you don't want to die, hurry up and help!"

What kind of time is this to be standing around in a daze on the battlefield? They really aren't afraid of death... Even the weakest mutant is still a mutant, let alone the fact that they have to face forty or fifty of them at once.

"Huh? Ah... what do you need to do?" Magellan finally realized what was happening and asked blankly.

"Use whatever other means you have! I need to buy you some time!"

At this moment, the alien species had already staggered out of the ruins. Li Ang had only managed to get himself out of trouble earlier, and had not been able to inflict enough damage on the alien species. After the alien species recovered, the situation became precarious again.

Li Ang only temporarily dispelled the blizzard; once the dark clouds re-shrouded the area, he would lose sight of all the alien species again.

Therefore, the longer the situation drags on, the more unfavorable it will be for them. Li Ang needs some time to prepare a decisive move.

“Delaying time… I’ll handle that!” Magellan replied.

Magellan had already witnessed Li Ang's strength, so she decided to trust him this once. If it was just about stalling for time, that would be much easier for Magellan than killing these monsters.

Magellan retrieved the four Dragon Drones without hesitation.

When faced with life and death, people can unleash unimaginable power. Magellan's hands moved so fast that they left afterimages. She disassembled the weapon module at the fastest speed she had ever seen and replaced the drone with a new module.

Almost at the same time that the drones took to the skies again, the aliens also regained their mobility.

Under Magellan's control, the drone flew in four different directions, surrounding Leon and Adele in the middle. A white gas was ejected from the tail of the drone, covering a large area of ​​land below.

As soon as the alien species entered the area of ​​the white mist, their movements slowed down at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Do what you want to do quickly! The energy in the drone won't last long!"

Magellan just switched to the module she often used to buy time when she was escaping. By catalyzing the Originium ice crystals she had previously collected, the drone can release a large amount of cold air.

Ursus has only just entered winter, and with the help of blizzards, the outside temperature has reached minus thirty degrees Celsius. The cold air released by the catalytic Originium ice crystals has already exceeded the minus one hundred degree Celsius threshold.

This kind of cold air is deadly to mortals, but alien species are clearly not in this category.

Magellan's drone bought Li Ang precious time. He knelt on one knee and plunged his short sword into the ground.

Using the ground beneath his feet as a medium, Li Ang's Originium energy spread throughout the entire research station in an instant. Ripples spread outward like water waves on the ground, and the air above the ripples trembled. Even Magellan's vision seemed to become somewhat blurred.

There were a total of forty-three alien species present, and at this moment, all of them were marked by Li Ang and brought under the scope of his magic.

"Roar--!!"

The least injured of the mutants broke free from the effects of the cold, roared, and pounced on Li Ang.

Li Ang, kneeling on the ground, remained unmoved, as if he hadn't seen the alien creature at all, and continued preparing his spell.

A fireball flew out from behind Li Ang and struck the alien creature with a crack, instantly burning off half of its body. The creature crashed to the ground, convulsing uncontrollably.

At this point, the time Magellan had bought them had reached its limit. The drone made a few strange hissing sounds, and then no more cold air came out from below.

"Are you ready?" Magellan shouted anxiously.

There was no time for her to retrieve the drones and replace them with new Originium Ice Crystals. As the aliens were about to regain their mobility, her heart leaped into her throat.

"That's enough, thank you very much."

As he spoke, Li Ang turned the short sword stuck in the ground.

This action was as if an invisible switch had been pressed; the ripples on the ground stopped spreading outwards and instead changed direction, constantly converging towards the center where Li Ang was located.

At this moment, all the alien species lost control of their bodies and were uncontrollably dragged towards Li Ang by those ripples.

"Adele! And that... Magellan! Get the car moving! We need to get out of here quickly!" Leon urged loudly.

Adele immediately ran towards where they had parked yesterday, and also grabbed Magellan, who seemed a little confused.

After the two girls had run a little further away, Li Ang turned his attention back to these alien species.

At this moment, these alien creatures had been dragged to within a foot of him, making it seem as if Li Ang was walking into a trap, but

"Chong-"

A crisp sword cry echoed across the ruins.

The short sword burst from the ground, drawing a graceful arc in mid-air. It seemed as if even the midday sun had been cleaved in two by this sword. A dazzling rainbow of light pierced through the bodies of those alien creatures and flew towards the mountainside not far away.

In the blink of an eye, it had completely disappeared into the mountain.

Li Ang picked up his short sword, not even glancing at the alien creatures that had been cut in two, and ran off in the direction Adele had gone without looking back.

A short while later, a series of cracking sounds came from the mountain behind him, and the ice cap that had never melted for years was now covered with terrifying black cracks.

Finally, amidst a deafening roar...

The mountain collapsed.

Chapter Twenty-Six: He's Slipped Away

With Li Ang temporarily holding off the monsters, Adele, as Li Ang had instructed, pulled Magellan, who was still standing there in a daze, and they climbed into the car, which hadn't been damaged much.

As the engine started, the car jolted slightly. Magellan then realized what was happening and asked in astonishment, "What do you want to do?"

“Get out of here.” Adele stepped on the gas and then answered calmly.

"But...aren't your companions still behind us? Is it alright to ignore them?"

“No problem, Li Ang can handle it, I trust him.”

Magellan was about to say something more when the ground suddenly shook violently, throwing her off her seat and causing her head to slam against the roof of the car with a thud.

At that moment, a dark figure caught up from behind, darted into the carriage, and sat down next to Magellan.

"We can't stay here any longer, let's get out of here!" Li Ang shouted.

Upon hearing this, Adele immediately floored the accelerator, pushing the snowmobile to its limit and speeding away from this hellish place.

Rubbing her head, Magellan turned to look back. When she saw the research station gradually being buried by the snow on the mountain, she couldn't help but cover her eyes, unable to bear the sight of the devastation before her. She cried out in anguish, "My research station!!!"

It's all over, all over! This is the result of her years of hard work! It's been destroyed so easily. Magellan felt her heart bleeding.

However... even if the entire valley were buried by an avalanche, there should still be quite a lot left. After all, when the research station was built, such extreme situations were taken into consideration. In fact, the damage caused by the battle would be more severe.

If we rush back now, we should be able to salvage a lot of things from the ruins and reduce the losses caused by this accident.

Magellan thought this way and did this; without a second thought, she opened the car door, intending to jump out.

Li Ang, who was standing nearby, reacted quickly and pulled Magellan back to his senses, asking, "Are you crazy?"

"Let me go! I need to retrieve the data that hasn't been destroyed yet!" Magellan said, struggling.

"You barely escaped, and now you want to go back and die? Are you out of your mind?"

"Huh?" Magellan was taken aback. "Those monsters... weren't they all killed already?"

Magellan had clearly seen this terrifying man use some unknown magic to gather all the monsters together, and then cleave them all in two with a single sword strike.

Even the avalanche just now was caused by the aftershocks of that sword strike.

"Kill them?" Li Ang shook his head slightly. "You're underestimating the aliens. I only temporarily defeated them. They'll recover soon. Going back now is just suicide."

If mutants were so easy to eliminate, these monstrous creatures would have been wiped off the world by Ursus long ago, and no country would allow such creatures to run rampant on its land.

While a single alien species may be very strong, even comparable to some knights with independent titles, they pale in comparison to an organized army.

No matter how strong a flesh and blood body is, it cannot withstand continuous bombardment. If Li Ang were locked onto by an Ursus artillery battalion, he would have to think twice about whether he should pack up his bucket and run away.

The reality is that the alien species have been entrenched on the ice plains north of Ursus, and every year they need to sacrifice countless lives to temporarily fill this bottomless pit.

The reason is that these alien species have extremely strong vitality. If their flesh and blood are not completely destroyed, even if only a small piece of flesh the size of a fingernail is left, it can regenerate after a period of time.

In that situation, Li Ang didn't have the luxury of burning all the alien creatures one by one; doing so would be too much of a chore. It was better to just run away, since they hadn't lost much anyway.

"How could this happen..." Magellan clenched his fists helplessly.

Magellan knew very well that she could only handle two or three of those monsters by herself, not to mention that her drone supplies were running low. She had used up four Originium Ice Crystals and more than twenty missile chambers, and what was left was definitely not enough to deal with those monsters.

If it weren't for the limited space inside the vehicle, Magellan would have wanted to kneel on the ground in a "ORZ" pose.

Seeing that Magellan had given up the idea of ​​going back to her death, Li Ang decided not to bother with her anymore and let her calm down by herself.

At this point, they hadn't gone too far from the research station and couldn't be completely at ease, so Li Ang said to Adele, "I'll go to the roof of the vehicle and keep an eye on the situation behind us."

"So where should I drive next?"

"It doesn't matter, we can adjust the route later. For now, just keep driving forward and get as far away from here as possible."

After saying that, Li Ang opened the car door, climbed onto the roof, and could easily attack any aliens that tried to catch up from this position.

Now only Magellan and Adele remained inside the car.

After a long time, Magellan finally recovered from the shock. The thought of the research station, now a ruin, made her heart ache. This unexpected disaster was devastating. The destruction of the research station not only disrupted Magellan's plans but could also affect her schedule for the next few years.

Rebuilding a research station is no easy task.

Fortunately, she escaped death in the end, and Magellan can only use this reason to comfort himself now.

Just then, she suddenly heard Adele in the front row say, "Um... Miss Magellan, excuse me, what are your plans for the future?"

plan?

Magellan's original plan was to return to Colombia after the blizzard subsided, concluding his year-long scientific expedition.

Magellan hasn't had time to prepare many things yet, and she's somewhat unsure of what to do next.

“If you don’t have any plans for the future, why don’t you come with us for now?” Adele suggested.

"...That's all we can do," Magellan replied somewhat dejectedly.

She couldn't return to the research station, and the few things she had hastily brought with her weren't enough to reach even the nearest village. It seemed she had no better choice than to accept Adele's suggestion.

What bad luck...

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Abandoned Fortress

After crouching on the roof of the car and monitoring for a while, Li Ang did not find any signs of anything chasing after them from behind, so it seemed that his previous worries were unnecessary.

So Li Ang climbed back into the car and said to the other two, "Luckily, those aliens didn't catch up. They must have been buried alive by the avalanche."

This was truly a relief, because Li Ang wasn't initially sure whether this method would be effective against the alien species.

If that doesn't work, they'll likely face a very difficult chase.

Fortunately, Li Ang's plan worked, allowing them to successfully escape a crisis.

"You know those monsters?" Magellan suddenly asked abruptly. "I remember... you seemed to call them 'mutants'?"

After accepting reality, Magellan had the energy to think about what had just happened. What she found most incomprehensible was... those emaciated monsters that looked like stick figures.

Not long ago, this person actually accurately said the name of that monster, so Magellan naturally wanted to ask him more questions.

"You've been here for quite a while now, haven't you? Haven't you ever seen any alien species?" Li Ang asked in return.

Magellan shook his head. "This is the first time I've seen such a monster. There weren't so many strange and unusual things here before."

The research station was located in a very remote area. Magellan was lucky to see one or two living creatures a year, let alone experience something as exciting as this.

“Okay…” Li Ang nodded, not too surprised. “Actually, I don’t know much either.”

"Simply put, this is an unknown creature that lives north of the ice plains, outside the borders of human civilization. Its reproduction method is unknown, its numbers are huge, and its vitality is extremely tenacious. Ursus has been suffering from the invasion of this monster."

Li Ang briefly explained the information he knew, and the two people in the car listened very attentively, after all, those alien creatures had left a very deep impression on them.

Putting everything else aside, the ghostly knocking sound alone terrified them both.

Of course, Li Ang didn't tell them that the aliens weren't native to Terra. Telling them this secret wouldn't have been very meaningful; it would only have made Li Ang spend more effort explaining.