Chapter 117: The Standard for the Duel

Ninglu led his team behind Campbell, the lush green wheat fields flashing past them.

Serfs and servitors worked in the fields; feeling the tremors of the ground and hearing the rumble of the Knight Mechs, they would stop their work upon turning to look, bowing according to the local customs of Daxos.

They would also steal glances at the black-armored Warriors, whose movements were uniform and synchronized, as if they were a single entity.

Liren Qiongfeng, the location of the fortress and residence of the Vickstrix Family, was built atop the soaring Taruike Peak.

At the foot of the mountain, the sixteen castles surrounding the peak were the dwellings of the various Knight Houses that served the Vickstrix.

The steep cliffs served as its natural barrier, with numerous interconnected bastions and ramparts hidden in the mountain hollows.

"This is a fortress."

Bukayo Arshavin looked at the mountain peak and said in the Vostonia language, his pitch-black eyes scanning the surroundings, searching vigilantly.

"For a unified regime, such defenses seem somewhat excessive."

The Primarch discovered the reason for this before his progeny; his eyes deep and dark, he spoke to offer a reminder.

"On the stone slabs of the ground, those marks—they were not all left by Knight Mechs; there are other traces."

Upon hearing this, the group of subordinates cast their gazes toward the marble ground.

Over countless years, Knight Mechs, grain transport trucks, servitors, and others had passed over it, leaving marks and destroying previous ones.

The patterns on the marble floor were as chaotic as if scribbled by a mischievous child.

Arsena used his powerful consciousness to analyze, Gabriel started from the patterns, and Bukayo relied on his intuition.

A few seconds later, they provided their respective answers.

"Residuals of Ether Energy." The silver-haired psyker sensed the presence of Warp energy.

"The massive footprints of some kind of creature." The Techmarine reconstructed the giant, oval-shaped footprints from the chaotic marks.

"There seems to be something else as well." The intuition of the "Nightmare" captured some abnormality, but could not be certain.

Ninglu nodded, affirming their conjectures.

"You have each captured and reconstructed a part of it."

【Extraordinary creatures like the Black Dream Cat are massive in size and capable of manipulating psychic attacks.】

While they were talking, Campbell did not ascend the mountain; he strode to the foot of the peak and stood before a golden gate.

Campbell raised his right hand and pressed it against a disc in the center of the gate.

He chanted in the Daxos language: "I, Campbell Vickstrix, Knight King of Daxos, command the gate of the Mech Vault to open."

The runes on the Mechanical Throne flashed with a series of blinding lights, followed by his arm and gauntlet, and finally, the disc runes on the gate lit up.

Amidst a rumbling sound, the gate opened, revealing a wide passage capable of allowing two Knight Mechs to pass through.

As the gate opened, the Lumen Lamps inside the passage were also lit, illuminating the marble corridor.

Dakesuosi Rongyao Hao turned around, came before Ninglu, and spoke.

"The Knight Mech hall of the Vickstrix Family is a place of honor; you may only bring a portion of your men inside."

"Very well."

Ninglu agreed; he took Arsena, Bukayo, and Gabriel to follow Dakesuosi Rongyao Hao downward, and the Knight King only brought four mechs as well.

The team descended all the way, finally arriving at an open platform.

As soon as Gabriel stepped off the stairs, he was captivated; on the circular silver-gray repair racks hung rows of green Knight Mechs.

In the center of the platform, two green mechs were hoisted up by overhead cableways, clearly the subjects for the duel.

The Techmarine performed a professional assessment of these two Machines: 【Preliminary assessment, the degree of damage is moderate for both.

The Knight Mech on the left has damage to its right arm and left leg, while the one on the right has damage to its left arm and right leg; the extent of the damage is similar.】

Just as the Techmarine was observing, Campbell called out loudly.

"Suo'er."

A telescopic mechanical arm delivered a person standing on a repair platform to the group; half of his robe was the green designated for the Vickstrix Family, and the other half was Mars red.

Gabriel looked at the Relic Custodian; he glanced once and could see that Suo'er, with his layers of goggles, had most of his body mechanized.

The Relic Custodian scanned the visitors and could not help but be startled when he saw Ninglu's imposing physique.

Within Suo'er's logic, he could not comprehend how a person could possess such a body.

The Relic Custodian adhered to noble traditions, suppressing his curiosity and refraining from using his bionic eyes to scan the giant.

Subsequently, he shifted his gaze to the Techmarine, cautiously evaluating his opponent.

Campbell opened the cockpit hatch and said to Ninglu.

"On the way here, I pondered how to fairly evaluate this duel of honor."

"We should exclude subjectivity and evaluate from an absolutely objective perspective."

"Suo'er has prepared two Knight Mechs for the honor duel, and their degree of damage is similar."

Ninglu glanced over and took the details of the two Knight Mechs into his mind; both had their weapon systems damaged on their arms, and their power systems damaged in both legs.

He nodded slightly in approval; at least on this point, the other party had upheld the fairness of a Knight.

"I would like to set three evaluation criteria to objectively assess the results of the duel."

"The first is the time taken to repair the Knight Mech; the one who completes the repairs first wins this evaluation metric."

"After the repairs are completed, it will be the continuous operation time of the Knight Mech, as well as the power of the weapon systems; these two tests will be completed by two Knight apprentices at the Qishi Xunlianchang."

As the Knight King spoke, the dozen or so apprentices of the Relic Custodian lowered their operating consoles, listening curiously to everything.

Relying on translators and speculation, the apprentices figured out the assessment criteria.

An apprentice whose right arm had been replaced with a mechanical limb walked over to a high-level apprentice with mechanical tentacles implanted in his back and asked in the local Daxos language.

"Jinuola, the Relic Custodian is going to compete against the outsider; that outsider looks very tall—can Lord Suo'er win?"

"Idiot, this is a competition about repairing Knight Mechs, not a fight."

"Lord Suo'er is sure to win; even if that outsider's technical ability rivals the Relic Custodian's, he is not as familiar with Knight Mechs as Lord Suo'er is—Lord Suo'er has spent his entire life here."

The Primarch had walked the entire way, having already completed a preliminary analysis of the Daxos language; he understood the conversation between the two apprentices.

But he trusted Gabriel, so he nodded slightly: "Very well."

Seeing that Ninglu did not object, Campbell accepted his arrangement, feeling that victory was already beckoning from ahead.

"I have already prepared a banquet for your arrival, please follow me."

"Good."

The group departed, leaving Gabriel and Suo'er behind to begin repairing the Knight Mech.

After the lavish banquet, Ninglu took his leave under the pretext of returning to the ship to handle official business.

Upon returning to the ship, he summoned Tierni before the Command Throne.

From among the Candidates who had failed the Gaizao Shouhu, Ninglu selected two hundred and fifty soldiers with quick reactions, calm minds, and excellent psychological resilience to form a Scout Platoon.

Tierni came from Naliyangmaer Chaodu in the far north of Vostonia; he had passed the first fifteen stages of the Gaizao Shouhu, but was eliminated only after experiencing a severe rejection reaction during the implantation of the sweat gland improvement organ.

A moment later, Tierni, wearing yellow-green military camouflage manufactured by the Vostonia military factory, arrived before the throne.

He knelt on one knee: "My King!"

"Rise," Ninglu tapped his fingers lightly on the back of the chair, "I have a mission for you."

"Your Scout Platoon is to infiltrate Daxos and scout for intelligence."

"Focus your reconnaissance on information regarding attacks launched by large local beasts."

"By your command, my Lord King."

Tierni accepted the order, led the Scout Platoon to board an aircraft, landed on Dakesuosi A'erfa, and began the reconnaissance.

Just as Gabriel was conducting a detailed inspection of the Knight Mech, in the Triken star system southeast of Vostonia on the galactic Star Map.

The Lord of the Seventh Legion, "Hunter" Sanchez, swiped his finger across a Data Slate.

"The Eldar of the savage world should be taking the bait by now."

(End of chapter)