Chapter 912: Captives

Everything in the Radiant Fort’s puppet base was automatized, but that place was the best masterpiece of a Heaven Rank powerhouse. The power needed to run the base was stolen from the Abyss via the Radiant Fort’s array.

The Grey Beastmen’s fort didn’t have anything that outstanding. There wouldn’t be enough power in the long term if they used mana crystals, so they could only use hydraulic power or some other type of mechanical power. But hydraulic power would need very heavy water consumption.

The fort was now sealed, so how could they still dare to use water without restraint?

After surrounding the Grey Beastmen’s fort, Lin Yun discovered that their fort was built on top of a huge piece of granite. That way, they wouldn’t be attacked from underground, and with the anti-air towers and the city walls, they simply didn’t need to worry about defense.

But that also made them lose their access to groundwater. How could they continue to use water like that?

Lin Yun looked at the confluence of the rivers while thinking of something. He then personally went to the river to start searching. The Magic Array was continuously studying the flow of the river, and in an instant, a huge amount of data crazily flowed into his brain.

Soon, Lin Yun found an anomaly in an ordinary spot. When the river flowed through there, a part would be missing, as if a part of the river was flowing somewhere else.

Lin Yun discovered an array specially used for concealment inside the river. That array’s defensive abilities were very poor. It was just like an ordinary rock covering a passage at the bottom of the river.

As he kept exploring the river, he quickly discovered thirteen such passages, presumably all leading to the Grey Beastmen’s fort.

‘No wonder these guys have such an unyielding attitude. It turns out they aren’t afraid of running out.’

Lin Yun thought for a while and then casually smashed two passages before sending a bunch of puppets to guard them, and another team to examine the bottom of the river.

This was all naturally detected by the Grey Beastmen. Two of their water sources had suddenly stopped working, and seeing the puppets on the river bank, they immediately became worried.

If all the water sources were destroyed, they would end up dying while trapped in their fort. Let alone developing, if they didn’t do anything, they would have issues just staying hydrated within half a month.

The next day, Lin Yun had the puppets destroy another passage. This time, the Grey Beastmen could no longer remain still.

At night, several hundred monster puppets quietly left from a side gate, followed by a few dozen strange puppets.

These human-shaped puppets were over six meters tall and had a huge, transparent light barrier covering their chests. A Grey Beastman could be seen sitting in the chest compartment of each one, controlling these mechas as if they were machines. But the mechas’ movements were clearly more flexible than those of puppets, and they could display even more power.

Lin Yun was calmly waiting on the side, not even lighting a bonfire as he looked at the Grey Beastmen and puppets who were taking advantage of the darkness.

Lin Yun smiled.

“Go, tear all that cannon fodder apart, but don’t kill the Grey Beastmen. Anyone controlling a mecha should be an Alchemist, and these are talented ones. Hmm… Just capture a few and let a few of them run away.”

The mage army and the puppet army were calmly waiting. When one of the puppets guarding the river was torn apart, the two armies immediately rushed to the river bank as if they had just discovered what happened.

The monster puppets weren’t worth mentioning. After being charged at by the sword puppets twice, they turned into a pile of components.

But those few dozen mechas driven by the Grey Beastmen showed shocking power.

Those mechas didn’t possess an automatic control system. They were fully controlled by the Grey Beastmen piloting them, and they were obviously Level 30 puppets. There were a few dozen mechas, yet, under the pressure of a few hundred sword puppets, they were only pushed back, and that was just due to being at a numerical disadvantage.

These mechas had the flexibility that ordinary puppets didn’t have, and just like seasoned fighters, they could cripple some sword puppets even while retreating.

But the circumstances changed once the mage army joined in.

The mechas themselves were close-range battle puppets, but the Grey Beastmen within could use a system to cast spells in close range. The power displayed by a Level 30 mecha and a Level 30 Grey Beastman together could be comparable to a powerhouse between Level 33 and Level 35.

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Lin Yun recalled some notes about mechas as he saw this.

In the future, puppets would be too inflexible, and the weak point of being unable to compare with mages of the same rank would be repeatedly brought up. The mechas, which had already appeared, naturally became a source of attention.

It removed the puppets’ need for automated procedures and allowed mages to operate them from within so that they could not only fight in melee, but also cast spells.

The idea was good but difficult to implement. It might be better to let the puppet fight by itself instead of making a mage fight like a swordsman, but it would be better if a mage was controlling both the puppet and his spells from a distance at the same time.

Later on, a Draconic Beastman had appeared. Because of his natural magic patterns, he didn’t need to chant like mages to condense runes, and he was also a formidable fighter.

The Draconic Beastman himself was very powerful, and very few people within the same rank could be his opponent. Along with his powerful physique and warrior talent, he could also instant-cast spells.

And that Draconic Beastman was only a 5th Rank Heaven powerhouse. No one knew how, but he offended an 8th Rank Heaven Mage and ended up being chased through a dozen planes, almost dying a few times.

A few years later, the Draconic Beastman was still a 5th Rank Heaven powerhouse, but he was controlling a Heaven-Grade Mecha.

That battle made everyone experience the power of mechas.

The 5th Rank Heaven Draconic Beastman was controlling a 6th Rank Heaven Mecha. The battle barely started when the 8th Rank Heaven Mage was already being pressured.

After all, the gap between every rank at the Heaven realm was huge, involving the power of Laws. A slight discrepancy could be the difference between life and death. That Draconic Beastman was very powerful to be able to withstand an 8th Rank Heaven Mage as a 5th Rank Heaven Sword Saint, but he was still chased around like a stray dog. If not for the fact that he ran so quickly, he would have died many times over.

But because of a 6th Rank Heaven Mecha, the situation reversed, and he was the one chasing that 8th Rank Heaven Mage through a dozen planes, up until a first-rate powerhouse of a major force appeared and made that Draconic Beastman give up.

From that point on, the previously unpopular mechas started being studied.

The conclusion was that this kind of thing was only suitable for fighter races like the Draconic Beastmen. But the fighting power of races that could also use magic patterns would exceed their own limits.

Although it was still awkward for the Grey Beastmen to control those mechas and they couldn’t show the full potential of the mechas in close-combat, they could display power exceeding their levels.

Lin Yun turned and glanced at Xiuban, feeling that it was a pity that the magic patterns on Xiuban’s body had completely disappeared after bathing in Ancient God Blood. Otherwise, if Xiuban was given a mecha, his strength would have definitely increased.

But he didn’t need a mecha thanks to his abnormal body. His terrifying strength, combined with his outstanding physique, already exceeded a mecha’s.

With the mage army and the puppet army attacking them together, quite a few of the Grey Beastmen’s mechas were soon dismantled. After losing the protection of their mechas, it didn’t take long before these Grey Beastmen were captured by the fearless sword puppets.

After thirty Grey Beastmen were captured, the mage army and the puppet army relented somewhat. They chased the remaining Grey Beastmen towards the fort, up until the puppets on top of the forts started casting.

Those glaring flames were especially conspicuous in the darkness of the night.

The mage army decisively withdrew, and the puppet army followed suit. It appeared as if Lin Yun’s group still didn’t want to go all-out against the Grey Beastmen, and they even released a few of them. The released Grey Beastmen weren’t even injured in the slightest.

The Grey Beastmen absolutely didn’t think that Lin Yun had deliberately made the mage army and the puppet army give up on the attack.

Ever since the Grey Beastmen had appeared, Lin Yun, Reina, Enderfa, and the patched puppet hadn’t made any moves. Although Xiuban was powerful, he had no casting abilities, and under such circumstances, he wouldn’t be able to break through alone.

After capturing those Grey Beastmen, Lin Yun temporarily sealed their casting abilities and gave them to William, making him deliver them to Shawn in the Radiant Fort.

After easily capturing a bit over thirty Beastmen, Lin Yun couldn’t help smiling.

After all, Grey Beastmen had very delicate physiques. The mecha drivers should have been involved in the production of the mechas so that they would have a thorough understanding of them to improve their control.

After all, the Grey Beastman race didn’t produce any melee classes.

Thus, those thirty captured Grey Beastmen had at least reached the Alchemist rank.

After checking, he confirmed that they were genuinely Alchemists, and there was even one Great Alchemist among them.

Even though most of them were ordinary Alchemists, LIn Yun was still very pleased. The Grey Beastmen’s Alchemists were well-known for one important reason. It wasn’t that they had a lot of alchemists, or that they had high-rank alchemists, but rather that they had excellent cooperation!

Ordinary alchemists could only work well on their own when completing something. At most, they would let others process the ingredients to help, but they would take care of the manufacturing process on their own.