An Outsider

Enemy attack

Working with the soldiers to push the last section of the truncated arbor into the charred brush along the roadside, Lucio caught his breath and rubbed his arm. The mask showed his body stats were still normal, and the 3D scan of his body prompted his not to overuse his left arm, lest the wound expand.

The party had begun to assemble and prepare for departure. Probably because he had just been through a big battle, Lucio Mengdi was suddenly a little anxious internally as he suddenly relaxed again. He looked around and found that the soldiers were all assembling towards the road and no one was heading for the jungle, so he trotted into the jungle, intending to find a hiding place to solve his physical problems. There was no way to preach this march out there, all soldiers solved their problems that way.

Adrenaline rushed through his and all he felt was light as a feather, even his injured ankle and arm, painless. He had never run so fast in his life, winding up and almost running out of stigmata. The fear that had surfaced from the shock just somehow disappeared, his body was boiling with heat and power, and all he could think about at the moment was how to kill this monster.

Alfredo Mclaughlin and Nola Franks simultaneously drew their second mechblades and dug them into the Berserker's body, then moved opposite each other, blades meeting as if they were eels, and thus cut the Berserker in half lengthwise along its long body. Turquoise blood flowed all over the ground, and the Berserker Earth Dragon's corpse squirmed on the ground for more than five minutes before it finally died.

"Fuc!” Lucio exploded fiercely, then reached straight to his back and quickly removed his gun.

"Cut the crap and do as I say!" Lucio's tone was unprecedentedly strong, and he was a far cry from the somewhat gay and stereotypical woman he had been before, a change so obvious that even he hadn't noticed it himself. If anyone could see his face through his helmet visor, they would see his face was full of excitement and his eyes were red, as if he was a cunning and hungry cheetah, ready to prey on an unsuspecting antelope, ready to kill.

"Leigh! How's it going, are you okay?"

Nola Franks, still holding on to the head of the Berserker, roared and pinned its head in time to avoid the other end of the tumble. In the process, the Berserker's body flung wildly, and Lucio held onto the spike for dear life, his body almost thrown in mid-air, tethered to the Berserker's body by the strong arm strength and grip of his right hand alone. It was hard to get his body on solid ground, and his right arm was numb. But he didn't care at all, instead he got more excited and shouted at Nola Franks

Lucio's body shivered involuntarily, frozen in place for a moment by the intense shock. The huge black spike slowly lifted up and left the car, leaving a horrifyingly large pinnacle on the roof of the car, where the hazy sky overhead could be seen.

With that he heard Lucio's soft laugh coming from his headphones.

Lucio briefly tended to his injuries, his left arm was torn but fine and rebandaged with no problem. His right arm was slightly dislocated, and he braced himself on his knee and reattached it with a "crunch". The soft tissue contusion on the right ankle was also promptly treated with a cryo-agent. Because of the powered exoskeleton, these injuries didn't cause much trouble and he was still able to move around. The person who bandaged his was a nurse whose face was still distraught and whose hands were shaking as he did so.

"Oh, it's fine, I'm fine."

"Lieutenant! Tie the other end of it!"

"I'm fine, you focus on it and I'll figure out how to help you!"

Nola Franks did as he was told, and with one stomp of the mech's foot, the mech's blade went down hard, pinning one end of the Raging Earth Dragon to the ground.

Nola Franks was subconsciously deferred to Lucio's judgement by his strong tone, and with his arms outstretched, he strangled half of the Raptor's body, briefly keeping it under control and preventing his from moving. In the process, he had already removed his spikes from his cargo pouch, raised them high, and with a roar, he aimed them at the Raptor's link and stabbed it hard. The sharp spike pierced the wound where the Berserker Earth Dragon had been blown out by the armored vehicle, where the armor had been blown away, and the turquoise thick blood just flowed out down the groove of the spike.

Near Lucio's armored car were three mechs, one belonging to Lieutenant Alfredo Mclaughlin and one to Ensign Nola Franks, both Ares 2s, and one Ares 1, piloted by a Mech Sergeant. But unfortunately, Lieutenant Alfredo Mclaughlin's mech was stopped on the far side by a collapsed gnarled arbor and couldn't make it for a while; the other mech was stopped on the outside by the exploded armored vehicle, and only Nola Franks' mech was on the right side of the monster, and it was towards Nola Franks' mech that Lucio ran.

One appeared in the middle of the group and was destroyed by the three officers on the left flank; the other two, one at the head, were killed by Trevino, the "Fire Gun" himself; and one appeared in the right flank surrounded by troops and was blown to a crisp by the officers and soldiers. Lucio's battle was the last to end, and the alarm was lifted when he killed the Raging Earth Dragon. That's why Nola Franks was able to bracket away from the mech and come to Lucio's side in a more relaxed stance.

Could it be marching soldiers? No way, this was the road to Athena's City in Classified District 1, who would camp here? And seeing as the campfire was just extinguished, it was clear that they had sensed the great battle and left in a hurry to extinguish the campfire. If a soldier was camped here, when he met friendly troops fighting, even if he didn't help, he would at least go up to check on them, which was not in line with the style of a soldier. Besides, Lucio's radar didn't indicate that there were friendly troops around.

Just that, Lucio was unaware of that for now. He just thought how the mecha fighting was so stiff and clumsy, not as swift as if he just went into battle himself.

"Enemy attack! All troops immediately enter a level one combat situation!"

"Go! That's an order!"

The battle lasted for a total of more than three minutes from the outbreak to the end, a short encounter of sorts. But the encounter was also extremely tragic because it came rather suddenly. The entire Third Squadron suffered another considerable number of casualties, with the team losing nearly ten armored vehicles, sacrificing about ten officers and men, and more than thirty officers and men suffering from various degrees of injuries. The road to the main city-state in Confidential District 1 was also left in a mess as a result.

Lucio bit himself hard on the tip of the snake, bleeding directly from the bite. The excruciating pain caused his to finally pendulum to stiffen and warp, and the next second he fought to get up from his seat and lunge headlong straight for the car door.

With both heads under control, the Raging Earth Dragon tried to struggle frantically, but was temporarily immobilized. The electromagnetic mech blade carried a strong high voltage current, and it had an abundance of fluid in its body, an excellent medium for conducting electricity, so for a moment it was paralyzed by the current and stiffened around it. By this time Lucio had pulled a huge gash vertically across its frantically trembling body, and the nasty green liquid had stained his, but fortunately the material of his uniform was insulated against being electrocuted by the mechblade's current. But the creature was so large that it was still too difficult for Lucio to dissect it with his military spikes based on his own body strength alone. He simply drew his spikes and jumped off the creature, giving Alfredo Mclaughlin and Nola Franks a message.

His calculations were very accurate, and with this leap, he peeled right on top of the arm of the Nola Franks mech, then with a flick, he flipped up onto the mech's right arm and crouched on it.

"Leigh, are you okay?" He asked cautiously as he ran closer to Lucio.

"Cut it open lengthwise!"

"Take the knife and stick it in the ground!"

In fact, the best way is incineration, because the blood of the Earth Pulse insects has a certain infection fear for humans. However, fire is not used in the forest as much as possible, otherwise burning up a forest fire would have unthinkable consequences. A forest fire would destroy the nests of the many insects and predators hiding in the forest, offending them and thus triggering a terrible insect wave. There was a time in history when such an event directly caused the outer district of Ares in the City of Athena to be attacked by a devastating wave of insects, killing thousands of people and turning the outer district of Ares into an empty city of death for a time.

After the battle, the soldiers were not allowed to rest, and with their minds in shock, they silently cleaned up the battlefield. The movement could not be slow, jungle warfare tended to attract extra fighting, and after they cleaned the battlefield, they had to leave the spot quickly.

"Shit, damn it! It's a Berserk Earth Dragon!"

The calm commanding voice of Lieutenant Alfredo Mclaughlin is coming over the headset.

Nola Franks had piloted the mech, carrying his mechblade to completely confront the creature. I don't know if it was because his fighting skills were limited, but he was always at a disadvantage during the fight with the monster, his movements were a bit stiff and sluggish, and his slashes were not getting the job done, and his damage to the monster was extremely limited. It was probably because Lucio's own fighting skills were too strong, so when he saw the mecha dealing with the monster so clumsily, he was anxious, when would this fight end?

As Lucio's thoughts drifted away, an ear-splitting siren suddenly sounded over the intercom headset, startling his and causing the armored car to brake sharply, sending Lucio crashing into the back of the driver's seat due to inertia. Immediately afterwards, Trevino's stern but calm voice rang out over the headset.

At the same time, Lucio linked up again with Lieutenant Alfredo Mclaughlin, who was rapidly approaching from a distance, and exclaimed.

The piercing whine from the monster continued to ring out, and while it ferociously destroyed the armored vehicle Lucio was in, the explosion of the armored vehicle took its toll as well. It threw the armored car to the ground in anger, and the huge armored car came crashing down from mid-air with sparks, smashing towards another armored car in the rear. Luckily, most of the soldiers reacted in time and had largely bracketed away from the armored vehicle by this point. By the time that armored car smashed down on the other armored car, there was no one left inside, and a huge explosion lit up a sea of fire.

"All combat forces near the Nola Franks mech are reinforced immediately, Nola Franks, hold it off as long as you can! I'll be there in twenty seconds!" As he said this, Alfredo Mclaughlin was already piloting his mech in the direction of the fallen tree roots. The lower part of his mech was already upright and in combat mode. As a massive arbor had smashed right into an armored vehicle, it had caused the tree to form a pinch with the ground. The angle was not too big or too small, and the thick pole of the tree, which was ten people strong, happened to stop near the mech's waist and belly. Due to the mech's limited jumping and climbing ability, it was impossible to get over from above, and it was too big to drill through from below, so it had to take a long detour to cross over from a lower place, which was very delaying. But if they didn't do that, they would have to cut down trees, which would be even more time consuming.

And at this moment Lucio was running while surrounded by blazing fire, while tilting his head sideways to observe the monster. Lucio also raised his submachine gun as he ran, and fired a barrage of bullets at the monster, but the sparks flew around with little success, not even attracting the monster's attention. It didn't even get the creature's attention. He spat, not intending to continue wasting bullets, and put away his gun.

"What do you want the rod for, Ensign?" Rogue's hard, throaty voice asked.

Lucio didn't answer him, but gave the deadly order, and with that he turned his head and continued running forward, faster and faster, only to feel his speed reach unprecedented heights with the aid of his powered exoskeleton. He had never felt anything like this before, that feeling of being in 100% control of his body. This body was just too wonderful, whether it was the explosive power of his muscles, or the endurance and staying power, or the balance and agility, all the sensations were like nothing he had ever experienced before. This was the body of an evolved new human? Legend said that even the physical quality of an ordinary person who hadn't undergone any exercise could be comparable to that of the former Olympic all-around champion, let alone a soldier who had undergone severe training?

After a brief moment of shock, Lucio quickly forced himself to calm down as his mind raced and began to think of tactics. At the same time, he made his first judgment. Sharply removing his own gun from the slot on his back, he then took a step with it in hand and quickly circled to the right of the creature in front of his.

"Ensign!" Meanwhile Rogue's voice rang out, sounding a little breathless and up for air. lucio glanced at the mini-map and noticed that Rogue had caught up and was running behind his. He looked back and noticed that he was struggling with his pace, and said.

The first battle he came into the world for, and he somehow got through it. Fighting, it was something he had been used to since he was a child, and the only thing he had been good at since he was a child. Whether it was his adoptive father, or the instructors in the army afterwards, they taught his only one thing, how to see past the enemy's weaknesses and overcome them. Having finished the first battle, his heart sort of settled a little, and through this battle he learned that he still had the skills to save his life in this world. At this moment, his professional soldier's soul had finally fully awakened. It was still this kind of battlefield that made people's blood boil that suited his the most, a comfortable life would only wear down his fighting spirit and skills.

A bloodied Lucio, carrying his own military spikes, stood quietly beside the corpse of the rampaging Earth Dragon, his rapid breathing settling as he felt for a moment that his body was empty and his mind was blank of all thoughts. It was a full ten seconds before he realized that he had just commanded two mechs and killed an incredibly dangerous giant bug. And at this moment, the stunned Nola Franks had already exited the pod from the mechs and was coming towards Lucio. Looking at Lucio, whose body was stained with the blood of the Earth Dragon, his heart trembled a little, and he only felt that at this moment, this man was like a god of war who was born in blood.

"Rog! You get the logistics truck to replace the oxygen tanks!"

Lucio scanned through the monster profile with a single glance, and had a rough idea of what to expect inwardly. Meanwhile, as he ran, he took note of the terrain. The road in this vicinity was narrow, sandwiched on both sides by huge trees that towered into the sky, with extremely narrow spacing between trees, making it more difficult for either armored vehicles or mechs to move. Plus, the aftermath of the artillery fire would ripple through the nearby trees and herbs, and the vicinity of the engagement had turned into a sea of fire, with a succession of trees collapsing, some overwhelming towards this side of the road, and soldiers dodging from side to side, causing the entire group to be cut into sections, blocking the path of reinforcements, making the situation extremely unfavorable.

Berserkers tend to move in groups, but not in large numbers, usually three or four. Lucio therefore feared that this Berserker was not the only one. With a Geodragon, just like with a real earthworm, since it was a link-like animal, it could never be stopped in its tracks, or it would quickly split into two and not die. The only way to actually kill it is to damage it vertically. The Berserker Earth Dragon was even more troublesome, as it had extremely hard armor on its body, making hurting it an extremely difficult task, and normal cannon fire and bullet attacks would be really difficult to do damage to it. Even if it was blown off its body, it would quickly split. Only if the mech got close enough to slash it at close range with a sharp electromagnetic mech blade could it be killed quickly and swiftly.

"Yes!" Nola Franks voice was grim while he exhibited his mechblade, trying to get closer to the frenzied Berserker Earth Dragon while opening the conversation channel with Lucio and anxiously asking.

The sound of dense gunfire exploded like firecrackers close to the ear, and the harsh whine made Lucio's sweat stand up, yet just as he heard Logue push open the door and jump out of the car while shouting at the top of his voice

He deliberately ran deeper into the jungle and found a hidden bush to solve his physical problems. When he was just about to leave, he inadvertently noticed that not far away, under a large tree, there was a relatively open area, and right there, a small extinguished campfire that was smouldering. Puzzled, he went up to check it out and found that it was indeed a man-made campfire pile, with signs of a tent camped nearby.

The firefight had caused some fire, but fortunately it was extinguished in time. In fact, the jungle war, the more respected way of combat is cold weapon combat, so each mech is equipped with two electromagnetic mech knives, this is the main weapon of the mech, compared to the artillery fire can be more efficient and low risk to eliminate the enemy, to avoid drawing war or expanding the scope of the battle. As a result, there is also an extremely high level of combat skill required of each mech pilot, and controlling the mechs to kill these monsters with their knives is actually quite difficult. Like Nola Franks, mech combat has always been his weak point, and he wouldn't have risen to the rank of Ensign if he hadn't been so good at leading tactics. This one battle exposed his shortcomings. Even so, his mech finish is considered high among mech warriors.

Nola Franks only felt the mech's arm drop, startled, and hurriedly said.

What? Enemy attack!

However, it was too late, only to hear an incomparable loud sound, a huge black spike pierced directly through the roof of the car, straight education on Lucio's back, fortunately Lucio dodged in time, only the back armor of his back was cut, just where the oxygen tank was located, precious oxygen immediately leaked out. And the serrated teeth on the side of that huge spike, less than three centimeters away from Lucio's nose, almost, was going to saw Lucio's head in half.

The data stream mask in front of Lucio's eyes was scanning the monster in all directions, and the monster's information was automatically displayed on the screen. This monster was called the "Berserker Earth Dragon", and belonged to the earth race of the Earth Vein Insects, specializing in burrowing in the soil and often completing sudden attacks on humans. The more it fought, the more furious it became, and the more destructive it became, hence the name "Berserker Earth Dragon". It was the evolved form of the Earth Dragon, and although it looked extremely like a centipede, it was actually a giant earthworm covered in armor and spikes, otherwise it wouldn't be called the "Earth Dragon".

Speaking of the Absolute Neutral camp, it was necessary to mention Whitney Frisman, before Lucio checked his profile and found out that the female Major was actually from the Absolute Neutral camp, which made his feel a bit incredible. He seemed so strong that he should have an extremely distinctive fearful personality and self-assertion, but it was just the opposite. People who were absolutely neutral had no claims of their own, or rather their claims were just neutral. When experiencing something, they often choose to be clear-headed. Could it be that this female Major is, in fact, so timid and fearful? Or is it that he actually has an absolutely calm attitude towards world affairs, unbiased, without his own emotional tendencies, cold to the point of indifference?

Lucio was taken aback, and then saw the green dots on the visor mini-map start to scatter quickly, and a red dot just burst into the group, and right near Lucio's own blue arrow.

"You build a bridge and send me to the Berserk Earth Dragon."

He dropped to his knees with a big gasp and looked up to see the sight before his, then drew in a breath of air.

Alfredo Mclaughlin moved much more swiftly and sharply than Nola Franks, and immediately understood Lucio's meaning at the sound of his words. Holding the other end of the Berserker Earth Dragon that had finally warped out of the ground, he fought to pull it straight, drew his mechblade, and with a vicious blow, rooted the other end into the ground as well.

"Ensign! RUN!!!"

"Ensign! Get out of the car!" At the same time, Logue's anxious voice rang in Lucio's ears, and without waiting for Lucio to respond, Logue was already rushing towards the car door, ready to open it and get out.

The earth roared and Lucio clearly felt the armored vehicle he was riding in vibrate. The panicked and angry curses of the driver of the armored vehicle ahead came through his headset.

"Leigh, what are you doing?"

Nola Franks was furious: "You're not going to die!"

He was running right underneath the Berserker Earth Dragon and Nola Franks mech at the moment, the spikes on the side of the Berserker Earth Dragon and Nola Franks mechblade meeting just above his head with a loud metallic clash. And with the huge tree that had collapsed just ahead of his, he Mang leapt up the pole with a single leap, directly onto it. Then ran a few steps up the pole to higher ground, fighting a leap as he did so, directly towards Nola Franks' mech.

Nola Franks shivered inexplicably.

After taking care of his injuries, he helped the soldiers clean up the battlefield, everyone was too busy to even chat about the battle that had just taken place. lucio helped saw off the fallen giant logs and carry them to the side of the road to clear the way. Meanwhile, the engineers were taking their engineer shovels and quickly filling in the craters in the ground caused by the berserk gargoyles. Some other soldiers were taking care of the bodies of the berserk gargoyles, mainly by dismembering and then burying them.

Lucio fell hard to the ground and rolled three times before finally releasing the force of his impulse, the unhealed wound on his left arm tearing again, and he seemed to hear his ankle "click" and go numb.

A huge and hideously ugly black centipede was standing upright against their armored vehicle, the exposed portion of it alone was over ten meters, and it still had most of its body buried beneath the ground. The sharp claws on both sides of its body were densely packed with red and black markings, and its hard carapace was so cold and creepy that it gave Lucio goose bumps.

A soldier, practicing the art of killing, doing what it takes to defend, all for the sake of justice in his heart, he recalled his creed.

Lucio was racing towards Nola Franks' mech and immediately replied at the sound of his voice.

Just moments after he fell out of the armored vehicle, the entire vehicle was penetrated from the bottom up behind his and toppled ten meters directly into the air, the battery panel was penetrated and sparks shot out, and the vehicle exploded in mid-air.