Reborn as a Mechanist with a God-Tier System-Chapter 317: Escalation [2]

Leon saw flashes of neon green, and then...

BZZZZT!

Leon felt like a bomb just exploded in his head.

He felt nauseous and weak, he felt like his mind was fragmenting under the influence of a violently crushing force that overwhelmed him like the crushing and obliterating power of a hive mind.

At the same time, he felt that it was just a normal migraine headache, right?

It was that usual headache that came when his worst fears came true and he was scared. Afterall, the ChronoSystem just broke the news to him that it was all a lie and that it never had any means of helping him recover his memories.

To that sudden revelation from the ChronoSystem, Leon’s reaction was extreme as he felt like he was going crazy.

Afterall, this was everything that he’d been working towards since the first day that he woke up in this world.

All of his existence and motivation in this world was tied to that.

’Dammit!’

’I can’t recover my memories?’

But then Leon felt that something was wrong, at the back of his mind he felt something screaming at him to shake it off.

He froze. ’Wait... since when...?’

His eyes widened. ’This is an illusion!’

’A hallucination born of my own mind, a reflection of my worst fear!’

’I’m being attacked!’

The moment Leon realized the truth that his mind was compromised, he closed his eyes and actively resisted the foreign influence in his mind.

CRKSH!

Out of sheer willpower due to his Class as a Mechanist and due to his high WIL, Leon forcefully pulled himself out of the illusion that Colonel Alphonse pulled him into with his ability.

Leon’s consciousness woke up to a world of pain.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

He woke up to Colonel Alphonse raining blows on his body!

He felt himself slam into the ground as a few of his back bones snapped with an audible crack, flooding his mind with a sharp and acute pain.

In his daze, he thought. ’F*ck... how long was I out...?’

Then the ChronoSystem lit up with a new notification.

DING!

~----~

[Your Racial Trait has instinctively triggered, Undying Cockroach...!]

[Calculating LUCK... please wait...]

[Calculation complete!]

[You have gained +180% END and +75% HP Regeneration!]

~----~

Instantly, the pain started fading from Leon’s mind as his brain regained lucidity, and instantly with Drone Control Matrix, he gave a mental command to all 7 sword drones in the sky as they descended with speed.

Instantly, sensing the danger, Colonel Alphonse stopped attacking him and jumped into the psionic network again.

Leon controlled all the sword drones to stop at the last moment before stabbing into his body, then he jumped back up to his feet immediately.

His cracked back bones already healed!

Back on his feet, the first thing he realized was that the Terra Nova 71 Rifle was no longer in his grasp, he already lost it at some point.

He looked at his body and noticed that his combat attire was wrinkled and battered in multiple places with his blood leaking out of his body.

The wounds on his body were already rapidly healing though, but still...

Leon’s eyes narrowed. ’I think it’s just been 1 or 2 seconds, but it was enough for him to deal so much damage to me’.

’High-ranking NetRunners are really insidious and dangerous’.

’Being forced into an illusion mid-battle is literally suicide’. His eyes narrowed, turning slightly grim. ’Without Undying Cockroach, this much damage alone would have compromised my combat ability’.

He finally raised his head and saw Colonel Alphonse who was standing at a safe distance away from him, with the tides now turned as it was the Colonel who now had the Terra Nova 71 Rifle pointed at him.

Click!

He adjusted the slot back to the first slot, familiarizing himself with the Rifle then he stared at Leon’s eyes and smirked. "You’re injured," he said calmly. "You want to continue?"

Leon patted his body slightly to flick the blood off his skin, then he straightened and looked ahead at the Colonel.

"Of course," he replied, then he grinned. "We’re just starting!"

BZZZZZZZ!

Leon’s grayish white ADE erupted like a tsunami with him as the center as up in the sky, the Zerphyr-7’s compartment opened again as 8 more Doom Rover v0.2s directly fell out- 5 Tank Class and 3 Skirmisher Class.

Thud... thud... thud...

Immediately after they fell around him, Leon’s highly dense grayish white ADE wrapped around them like a veil.

Enhance!

He directly enhanced the Doom Rover v0.2s!

Seeing the war machines falling around the Mechanist’s body in a protective formation and seeing his ADE wrap around them, rapidly increasing their lethality, Colonel Alphonse’s eyes narrowed.

Time seemed to freeze for a brief moment, and then all hell broke loose.

BZZZZT!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The 5 Tank Class Doom Rover v0.2s entrenched themselves around Leon in a protective formation, their massive frames towering like Giants as they opened fire on the Colonel.

The sound of Railgun fire echoed like thunder.

Missiles detonated, flooding the combat arena in a sea of flames even as the Flamethrower compartment of the Tank Class Doom Rovers spat out even more flames, terraforming the arena completely into a scene similar to Hell.

Colonel Alphonse dodged by jumping into the psionic network, and when he materialized a moment later, he aimed at Leon.

BAM!

He pulled the trigger of the Terra Nova 71 Rifle as a red beam shot towards him only for it to be blocked by the energy shield of one of the Tank Class Rovers.

Instantly, the Colonel was forced to go on the defensive again as the firepower of so many Tank Class Doom Rovers overwhelmed his own firepower even as the Skirmisher Class Doom Rovers tried to hunt him down.

He stayed elusive for now, but by spreading the mechanical soldiers out and with the flames slowly covering most of the arena, Leon was slowly tightening the noose around the Colonel to box him in.

Colonel Alphonse also realized what was happening, and this was why instead of simply continuing to dodge normally which would only lead him into a trap, he decided to f*ck it all and go on the offensive again.

Overclock Mind!

Unlike an E Rank NetRunner that only lasts 10 seconds, a D Rank NetRunner’s Overclock Mind could last as long as a minute.

And for that minute, his mental processing ability would be doubled.

Time seemed to slow down in the perception of the D Rank NetRunner as he observed the deluge of attacks coming his way, then he dipped his right hand into a hidden pocket in his clothes and flung his hand out.

The Colonel threw out dozens of tiny smartphones and neural devices!

At first, this may seem illogical but on deeper thought, this was strategic as every single one of them had a neural node and an active neural connection.

They flew into the sky like discs, opening a dozen more avenue for Colonel Alphonse to use Neural Projection, and then he locked in.

Neural Projection!

Neural Projection!

Neural Projection!

Neural Projection!

Neural Projection!

Feedback Burst!

Neural Hack!

BZZZ!

With access to more neural networks to move through effectively, Colonel Alphonse became nearly untouchable as he moved across the neural nodes like a moving neon green storm, turning the tides again with unrestricted mobility.

In response, Leon finally started unleashing his grenades as he threw multiple smoke grenades, saturating large swathes of the arena with smoke.

This way, his exact position was obscured from the Colonel to avoid sniping him with the Terra Nova 71 Rifle but this didn’t stop the Colonel from attacking.

Data Lash!

Neural Burn!

Mind Distortion!

This time, Leon didn’t fall for it and was not pulled into an illusion, but he was suffering mental damage steadily as the Colonel turned the tides once again.

Afterall, mental damage was mostly AOE once in range.

’This can’t continue...’ he realized.

’Well, it was fun while he lasted,’ he thought, then he called on it.

The Zerphyr 7 opened up again and from inside came a war machine that was bigger than all the others... the Bulwark MK.II Titan Frame!

...

[Special Appreciation to Shadesworn and Asdodsa for the Golden Tickets. Thanks for the support, I truly appreciate all of it.]

[Also, in case there are any mistakes in recent Chapters, please bear with me. I’m feeling a bit feverish for a while now, I’ll try and get medication for myself today.]

[Also, it’s been a while since I saw any activity from D4rkV1II14n, hope you’re good man.]