The Innkeeper

Chapter 853 Apex predator

During their march, whenever the battalion faced enemies, it cut through them swiftly using their thoroughly practiced and meticulously planned coordinated attacks. Even the arrangement of each soldier had been specifically assigned to improve their performance cohesively during their march.

This allowed them to save time and, most importantly, energy during their march. While such an approach was extremely successful, this time, they opted to do things differently. Since they had arrived at the main battlefield, there was no need to save energy. Instead, they needed to be as destructive as possible.

The battalion was charging at the Void Dwellers at full speed, yet just as they were on the verge of clashing, they transitioned into their mech formation. The execution was flawless, and extremely deadly.

The mangled corpses of countless Void Dwellers were flung through the air as the mech used a simple backhand to break their defensive line. Crushing some of them by simply stepping on them, the mech plunged itself deep behind enemy lines. This time, Z was not using the mechs most powerful techniques.

He instead opted to kill them using brute force and simple combat techniques. After all, this was just a warm up for the real fight. Of course, to anyone else, even this warm up would have been extremely deadly.

As creatures that lived and thrived in the Void, withheld from the safety and stability of living in proper space, the creatures had developed countless strange affinities and techniques. Moreover, unlike the previous, uncoordinated hordes they fought, these Void Dwellers were specifically being directed by a particularly strong Void Dweller that stood in the very back.

As such, a coordinated assault against the mech ensued. Beams of psychic energy, blobs of substances more corrosive than most acids, weapons made of materials that could cut through almost anything all assaulted the mech, and from every side.

The light of the distant star in the center of this star system was blocked as a blanket of arrows was hot down from the cliff above. Nearly a dozen spatial tears opened all around and more Void Dwellers fell from the air, landing right on the mech.

It was chaos, all meticulously planned and orchestrated to test the limits of the Midnight Battalion. But it was not enough to reach the limits - not nearly enough.

Even without using enough force to make space unstable, the mech turned into an unstoppable force of pure destruction. Z, who had fought the most often back at the Inn, and had watched countless anime for inspiration, had by far the most battle experience of any of the original members of the Inn. Even Lex himself had not fought as many battles as Z.

The end result was the manifestation of every introvert's imagination when they encountered an inconvenient social situation. With an uninterrupted flow, the mech transitioned from one move to another, killing, crushing, stomping and ripping everything in its path. One particularly large Void Dweller proved its body indestructible under the mechs assault, so the mech grabbed it and used its body as a hammer.

The aura around the mech was surging and became nearly visible under the influence of the endless slaughter. It suppressed and deterred any who even dared to look at it, in a sense taking on the features of Dragons Might.

When the rain of charged arrows was close to falling, the mech smashed its makeshift weapon into the cliff side, causing it to quake and even crack. More importantly, it formed an indent large enough in the cliff itself for the mech to cover in, easily avoiding the attack, making the Void Dwellers to suffer in its stead.

Once the first wave of arrows finished, the mech discarded its long dead weapon and stepped out.

Warmed up, the mech held out its hand as Z used one of techniques the battalion had acquired. From the spatial equipment of countless battalion members seemingly random pieces of metal were released, but a moment later, a yellow beam covered them and brought them together into an arrangement that looked like a spear.

A large spear made of metal and yellow energy was formed, taller than even the mech when rested on the ground. The body of the spear seemed to have many cracks, though those were only the places where the various metal pieces were joints. Yet instead of looking broken, the spear looked grand yet dangerous, as yellow light leaked through those cracks.

The tip of the spear looked like an arrowhead, but was not actually sharp. In this instance, it was left dull on purpose, as the mech was meant to overcome its enemies with strength, not precision.

Despite the large size of the spear, the mech only used its right hand to hold it, drawing emphasis instead to its empty left hand. But, for now, Z did not draw out any other weapon or tool. Enemies of this level were not worthy of it.

Ending the brief interlude, the mech dove back into the whittled horde of Void Dwellers and resumed his massacre. Up on the cliff, the watching demons became extremely intimidated as they witnessed what seemed like an apex predator in action, yet their unwavering obedience kept them from escaping. It was fortunate, or else the mech would have had to spend more time hunting them down.

Down below, the ferocious mech continued its slaughter, now much more deadly that it had revealed its weapon. It did not take long before a thousand corpses laid at its feet, then two thousand and then three. At some point, the mech finally came face to face with the Void Dweller that was leading this pack.

Their confrontation was to be an ultimate showdown of basic evolutionary excellence and a trained, honed warrior. But it was not. Z barely noticed the difference between it and every other creature he mercilessly slaughtered.

One by one, the void tears around the mech eventually closed, and the cannon fodder slowly died. Next, it would be the demons turn to face them.