A large and a small figure, one blue and one green, flew rapidly toward the distant horizon of the sea. The wind pressure cut the water surface, carving a shallow trench.
The Titan flew backward in front, its particle gun continuously firing at the Fourth Herrscher. She easily dodged, and her return wind blades were also deftly evaded by Lin's maneuvering.
The speed had already reached Mach 2 and was still increasing. Lin's body was gradually feeling the pressure. He controlled the Titan to raise its other hand and smash the water surface. The successive curtains of water blocked the Fourth Herrscher's sight.
"Zzz—"
A subtle cyclone shot out in front of the Fourth Herrscher, shattering the water curtain. The seemingly lightweight vortex instantly transformed into a towering waterspout upon contact with the water, sucking everything in sight into it.
She maintained high-speed flight, skimming past the waterspout, a cold smile appearing on her face.
The Fourth Herrscher's cold smile vanished in less than a second, because that irritating bird-like sound appeared behind her. This time, before she could turn to look, a particle beam hit her back.
"Boom!"
Lin's fingers meticulously operated the various small buttons on the control sticks. That was a simple application of the Cobra maneuver. He had maneuvered behind the Fourth Herrscher. In terms of aerial combat, pursuit has a much greater advantage than being pursued.
The emerald humanoid tore through the smoke from the impact and shot straight up, gaining altitude. From the footage transmitted by the monitors, she appeared unharmed. It seemed she also had an energy application similar to the Third Herrscher's shield.
This one was harder to deal with than the Third Herrscher. She wasn't simply using her authority for destruction. This kind of high-speed movement couldn't be used often by the Third Herrscher, but the Fourth Herrscher could maintain super-high speed by leveraging her authority's ability. This made Lin feel like he wasn't fighting a Herrscher, but a fighter jet—a fighter jet whose single bullet could destroy half a city.
Just as Lin was about to follow suit, the Fourth Herrscher suddenly waved one hand downward. The sea in front of Lin instantly surged with terrifyingly high waves, crashing toward him.
Trying to create distance?
A cold glint flashed in Lin's eyes. He didn't slow down but directly controlled the Titan to crash into it. Two floating cannons flew out from his back, slicing the waves in a cross shape, and the Titan shot out from the middle.
Closely tailing the Fourth Herrscher, every one of her attacks had unimaginable power. In contrast, Lin's attacks were completely ineffective. However, thanks to the neural link, Lin could make the machine perform agile movements similar to his own, causing all her attacks to miss.
She was stalling.
This standoff seemed equal, but Lin would inevitably make a mistake or the machine's energy would deplete, leading to him being hit. Her attacks, which could kill Lin with a single blow but weren't overly powerful, were also to prevent a situation like the Third Herrscher's full-power attack that negated her defenses. As long as she maintained the surrounding shield, Lin was helpless against her.
"Swoosh—"
The Titan flew "lying down" on the sea surface, the muzzles of its guns continuously spraying particle beams. The particle cannons struck points on the Fourth Herrscher's shield in groups of two.
The Third Herrscher only exhibited a personality similar to instinct, but had the Fourth Herrscher already been given a "personality" and a more logical mind?
The emerald wings fluttered, and she suddenly closed in on the Titan, raising her seemingly delicate small hand, clenching her fist with a cruel expression, and then smashing it down!
"Bang!"
The display screen was instantly filled with the dark blue of the seawater. The error reports for machine damage in the helmet instantly flooded Lin's ears. He pushed the control sticks to increase damping and shot out of the water.
Against the backdrop of the flashing electrical sparks on the frontal damaged area, wind blades larger than the Titan were already right in its face. Lin's pupils contracted. At this moment, his reaction was maximized. The Titan's monocular eye blazed with light. Azure particles enveloped the machine, which flew backward, narrowly avoiding the fatal wind blades.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Each casual strike was comparable to a standard missile. The Titan, like a flexible snake, flew and dodged over the sea. The spray from each wind blade reached dozens of meters high. Catching a momentary gap in the attack, the float pack went full throttle, transforming into a blue shooting star and flying in a straight line to the right.
That last blow damaged the machine's mobility. The Titan was now like a paraplegic, unable to control its lower limbs. Fortunately, legs were rarely needed in aerial combat.
The Fourth Herrscher relentlessly pursued the Titan from behind. Offense and defense switched again. Countless tornados and wind blades struck once more. These simple yet effective attacks were pushing Lin to the brink.
"Boom!"
However, what the Fourth Herrscher hadn't expected was that Lin had hidden two floating cannons beneath the sea after crashing into the water. Taking advantage of her distraction, these two floating cannons fired compressed particle cannons at her head during her attack's empty moment.
The Fourth Herrscher paused for a moment. Even the slightest delay could not escape the neural-linked Lin's eyes.
The attack was effective.
This sneak attack replaced the Fourth Herrscher's cold smile with a look of angry indignation. She flicked a finger, and the two floating cannons were neatly sliced in half and vanished after exploding.
Her face completely clouded over. The Fourth Herrscher clenched her hand. The front, sides, and sky above the Titan were instantly surrounded by rapidly rotating wind pressure, closing in like a birdcage.
This level of authority usage was different from the previous skirmish, indicating that she was serious and ready to kill this troublesome mechanical monster.
Lin calmly watched the approaching deadly vortex inside the Titan. He tried to cut an opening with the floating cannons, but the particle beams were immediately eroded by the high-speed rotating fluid.
The tornados she created in the city and then abandoned were incomparable to these. They were infused with Honkai energy, a direct use of her authority.
Behind him, the Fourth Herrscher leisurely floated to the back of the motionless Titan, effortlessly watching the attacks, which even alloys couldn't withstand, about to slowly tear the Titan into pieces.
The Hunter. That's how she defined herself.
Of the words created by humans, "Hunter" was her favorite. Slowly cornering the prey, hunting those humans who were originally the hunters.
This cruel nature, mixed with her instinct to destroy humanity, created the Fourth Herrscher, the "Hunter."
Hunting one person and hunting a city of people made little difference to her. The despair of seeing her prey slowly step into the trap and realize their impending doom was her pursuit.
It was just that the first hunt had a little hiccup. This mechanical monster created by humans actually broke into her hunting ground and twice trespassed on her territory.
No matter. After dealing with this fellow, she would go and kill everyone in the city, and then slowly kill all the humans she encountered along the way.
After all, she hated humans the most. What humans did to her... did... what did they do... never mind, it wasn't important. What was important was that she could finally return her hatred and anger to humanity.
Next...
The Fourth Herrscher's expression froze.
In the brief moment of her distraction, the Titan vanished from her encirclement.