Chapter 55: How Fragile is the Empire's Steel

Chapter 55: How Fragile Is the Steel of the Empire

A bloated, colossal figure beyond description came into everyone’s sight.

It was a giant over three meters tall.

His body had completely lost all human form, becoming a writhing mountain of flesh built from rotting meat, tumors, and pustules.

His skin bore a corpse-like gray-green hue, covered in nameless, slimy moss and fungi.

Countless fat, white maggots crawled in and out of the sores on his body, emitting a hair-raising rustling sound.

His left arm was replaced by a thick, rusted mining drill, its surface still stained with dark red blood and shredded flesh.

In his right hand, he dragged a massive battle-axe cobbled together from discarded mechanical parts.

What was most nauseating was his abdomen.

There, a huge wound like a volcanic crater gaped, its edges lined with rotting granulation tissue.

Through the wound, one could even see the squirming, infected internal organs and fist-sized flies nesting within.

Step by step, he emerged from the mine shaft.

Each step left a stinking footprint on the ground, mixed with pus, slime, and maggots.

He lifted his head, revealing a face equally bloated and decayed.

His eyes were nothing but two dark, hollow sockets, yet everyone could feel a gaze filled with venom, madness, and… joy, scrutinizing them.

“Heh… heh…”

He opened his mouth, and a hoarse laugh like a broken bellows rasped from his throat.

“Fresh… flesh… fresh… souls…”

His voice carried a thick, unsettling viscosity.

“The Emperor’s… little dogs… why… do you come to disturb… our so beautiful… rebirth?”

“Boom!”

Before the words faded, Kro’s massive body moved.

His speed was utterly at odds with his bloated frame.

Like a cannonball shot from a barrel, he crossed dozens of meters in an instant, appearing before Chu Lan, who was closest.

That enormous battle-axe of scrap metal descended upon Chu Lan with a terrifying force, as if it would split the very earth.

“Clang—!”

A deafening metallic explosion rang through the entire mine.

At the last possible moment, Chu Lan raised her glaive horizontally, barely parrying Kro’s thunderous strike.

The monstrous force surged through the axe handle, madly flooding into her arms.

“Crack!”

The ground beneath her feet instantly fractured, and she, along with her power armor, was crushed half a meter shorter by the immense pressure.

The joints of her power armor groaned with a teeth-grinding, overburdened creak.

“Vitality index… 14.5…”

Chu Lan’s voice came through the comm channel, carrying a hint of incredulous gravity, “His strength far exceeds the data estimate!”

Kro grinned his rotting mouth, his hollow eye sockets “staring” at Chu Lan, pinned and helpless under his might.

“Little one… with a blade… good… very good…”

He laughed hoarsely, his arm suddenly exerting force.

“Bang!”

Chu Lan could no longer hold on; she and her glaive were hurled away by an irresistible force, crashing violently.

Her power armor tumbled over a dozen meters across the ground, stopping only when it slammed into a massive rock. The chest armor now bore a clear dent.

One blow—just one blow—and Chu Lan, the class’s acknowledged second-strongest, was utterly routed!

“Chu Lan!”

“Damn it!”

The nearest Shi Potian and two other students roared, flanking from the side.

“Seeking death!”

Kro’s massive frame turned with eerie agility. The mining drill on his left arm emitted a piercing, high-frequency whir, striking toward Shi Potian like a venomous snake.

Shi Potian’s pupils contracted. His long blade precisely met the spinning drill.

“Clang!”

Sparks flew.

A tremendous recoil numbed Shi Potian’s tiger’s mouth instantly, nearly wrenching the blade from his hand.

The drill only paused briefly before surging forward even faster.

Shi Potian barely managed to roll aside in a clumsy dodge, just as the drill was about to pierce his chest armor.

At the same time, the attacks of the other two students landed on Kro’s bloated back.

“Thud! Thud!”

A war sword and a long blade simultaneously sank into his rotting flesh.

Yet the expected spray of blood did not appear.

Their weapons felt as if they had struck a massive, tough hide, embedding only a few inches before getting stuck.

A slippery, icy sensation crept up from the blades, as if countless tiny insects were crawling along the weapons toward their arms.

“The Garden’s… gift… how could your… mortal steel… ever harm it?”

Kro growled, his obese body suddenly shuddering.

“Boom!”

A powerful force erupted from his back.

The two students grunted, struck as if by a giant hammer, blood spurting from their mouths as they flew backward, crashing heavily to the ground. The alarms on their power armor instantly wailed shrilly.

In an instant, three students: two severely wounded, one battered.

This monster’s strength had completely exceeded their ability to handle.

“I’ll hold him off!”

Qian Duoduo roared, charging again with his massive shield raised.

“All of you, attack from the flanks! Focus fire on his head and limbs!”

“Thud!”

Qian Duoduo’s tower shield slammed solidly into Kro.

This time, Kelo's massive frame merely swayed slightly before steadying itself.

He lowered his head, his dark, hollow eye sockets fixed on the short, stout man before him, who looked like an iron can.

"A shield... ha... just like me in the old days..."

He reached out with his enormous, fan-like palm and seized the edge of the tower shield.

"Crack... crunch!"

Under the horrified gaze of everyone, the giant tower shield—forged from high-strength alloy and reinforced with an energy field—was torn, crumpled, and deformed in his hands as if it were paper!

"No... impossible!"

Qian Duoduo was terrified beyond belief.

"Nothing... is impossible..."

Kelo's voice suddenly became clearer, no longer so hoarse and viscous.

"When you're stuffed into a freezing mining mech, day after day, year after year, digging these damned stones that never run out... you'll know just how fragile the Empire's steel really is..."

"Boom!"

He threw a punch, sending the deformed shield and Qian Duoduo behind it flying.

Qian Duoduo's body arced through the air, fragments of his power armor scattering in all directions.

"Qian Duoduo!"

Qin Feng and Shi Potian cried out in alarm simultaneously.

(End of chapter)