A Core Ship From The Start

The first thing they needed to do was to reclaim the city hall. According to Kado’s intelligence, though most of their armies had been crushed, many civilians and soldiers were still imprisoned in city hall, used by the Ratmen and Evil God Cultists for their blasphemous rituals. Therefore, the first thing Kado needed to do was to rescue those people. On one hand, it allowed for an increase in military strength and on the other hand was aimed at sabotaging the evil plan of the Ratmen.

After Kado explained his plan, Duanmu Huai received a task hint from “Rescue”, the more people he saved, the better… Well, it wasn’t a difficult nor easy task.

Because the previous Ratmen’s attack was disastrous, Kado could only manage to get the manpower of a small team. Duanmu Huai didn’t mind as he had his own plan.

When the night fell, Duanmu Huai, leading the soldiers, arrived on the streets near the city hall. And there, he saw a masked, long-eared Elf draped in a cloak, a longbow in her hands.

Well, she looked exactly like those from fantasy games.

“So, you are the giant? You are indeed very tall.”

Looking at Duanmu Huai, the Elf was startled, though she quickly regained her composure and began to brief him.

“I’ve figured out the situation with the Ratmen. After being defeated by you, they’ve been cowering inside the city hall, along with the Evil God Cultists. As for the captives, they’ve been kept in the basement by the Ratmen. My plan is to sneak in through the nearby underground sewer……”

“You handle that.”

Duanmu Huai simply waved his hand, interrupting the Elf’s words.

“Whatever plan you have, go ahead and implement it.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s answer, the Elf’s tone became icy.

“Listen, I know you are very capable, but……”

“So, what do you think, Miss Elf?”

Duanmu Huai turned around and looked at the Elf.

“Do you think I can sneak around?”

“Ah…………”

Facing Duanmu Huai’s giant figure and the apparently heavy black armor, the Elf scout was speechless.

Indeed, with this size, only a blind person wouldn’t be able to see him if he tried to sneak around.

“I’ll be responsible for the frontal assault, drawing attention from the Ratmen and Evil God Cultists. You, then, can take the soldiers, sneak in through the route you’ve planned, locate the captives and save them.”

Duanmu Huai directly gave his reply and then looked at the Elf scout.

“No problem with that, right?”

“Well, I’d like to say, yes……”

The Elf scout hesitated for a moment, reluctantly nodded, then she looked at Ogis next to Duanmu Huai, furrowing her eyebrows.

“What about her?”

“She will follow me.”

Knowing these Evil God Cultists were plotting something sinister inside the city hall, Duanmu Huai brought Ogis along immediately, in case they summoned another Chaotic demon…

“Alright, then.”

The Elf scout didn’t say much. Despite Ogis looking like a damsel out traveling with a suitcase, it was… well, a bit strange in these ruins.

“So, I’ll go first. You guys act accordingly. If you encounter anything you can’t handle, find a way to signal me.”

Having said that, Duanmu Huai straightened up and looked straight ahead. Then, a brilliant red light radiated from his helmet, followed by dazzling light shooting from the flashlight on the side of Duanmu Huai’s helmet, illuminating the dark street in front of him. Duanmu Huai then proceeded, gripping his war hammer and striding towards the city hall not far away, with Ogis silently trailing behind him, like a wordless ghost.

“Weird, really weird.”

Watching Duanmu Huai’s retreating figure, the Elf scout humphed, if she hadn’t noticed a limited amount of Chaos Aura from him, she might have mistaken this Black armor knight for someone summoned from the depths of Hell.

With that thought, the Elf scout drew back her gaze, looking at the soldiers behind her.

“Follow me.”

As a Star Warrior, Duanmu Huai didn’t know what plan the Elf scout had. His only plan was to kick down the door, burst in, and fight till the end.

What else could he do?

The armor he was wearing wouldn’t even let him cross a wooden bridge without collapsing it under his foot.

Besides, Judges were direct and straightforward, loyalty was all that mattered.

“Boom!!”

Duanmu Huai gripped the War Hammer, dashed up the steps of the City Hall, and like a human Siege Hammer, he smashed the heavy, tightly-shut wooden doors into smithereens.

“Ahhhhh!!!”

At the next moment, amidst screams, a few Ratmen rushed over, spears in hand, aimed straight at Duanmu Huai’s body.

But it was to no avail. For a power armor from the Cosmic Age, an attack from medieval times was utterly useless. Duanmu Huai didn’t even bother to block, letting the spears snap upon contact with his armor.

At the same time, Duanmu Huai held up his hammer and swung it down forcefully.

“Boom!!!”

The War Hammer smashed into the ground, causing a thunderous explosion that engulfed the surrounding Ratmen. Most of the Ratmen screamed and turned into ashes under the brilliance of the local thunder. Only a few Ratmen’s bodies began to swell and then exploded like grenades, scattering into bright red flames and high-temperature explosions.

At the same moment, a few dark green bottles were thrown from behind towards Duanmu Huai’s location. Upon hitting the ground, they turned into a cloud of green poison gas, enveloping Duanmu Huai entirely.

This was the poison gas attack that Ratmen were best at.

For the Ratmen race to have survived to this day without being completely exterminated, they relied on their rodent-like breeding capability, their intelligent brains capable of reverse engineering technology, and lastly, their use of poison – which wasn’t much of a new trick for rats anyway.

Duanmu Huai was completely unfazed by the Ratmen’s poison gas attacks. The power armor had a built-in circulation system that rendered standard poison gas attacks useless. Hence, he didn’t care and charged straight out of the poisonous fog, crushing the grenade-throwing Ratmen into minced meat in a matter of moments.

Naturally, Duanmu Huai’s intrusion caught the attention of other enemies. Soon, a flood of hundreds of Ratmen came rushing towards him from all directions, weapons raised high.

Duanmu Huai didn’t require any special techniques to deal with these Ratmen.

Who wouldn’t know how to whack a mole?

Duanmu Huai hoisted the War Hammer, and swung mightily. Lifted, and swung down again. Each time he hammered down, a flash of lightning would burst, causing explosions in the crowd of Ratmen as though grenades had been thrown into their midst.

[Thunder Warhammer (Close Combat, Two-handed, Heavy Hit)]

[+15% chance of causing enemies to explode upon being killed, dealing area damage equivalent to 50% of their life value (can be stacked)]

Although the chance wasn’t big, the sheer number of Ratmen who faced him boosted its effectiveness. Coupled with the spiritual energy attack of electric burst, the Thunder Warhammer was a force to be reckoned with each time Duanmu Huai swung it. A single swing would result in a wave of carnage, and in just a few moments, the hundreds of Ratmen rushing towards him from all sides had been wiped out.

However, Ratmen weren’t the only enemies present.

“He-he-he….!!”

Just as Duanmu Huai was thrashing about, out of the blue, a fat wizard clad in a cloak materialised behind him. He held a magic staff in one hand, chanting blasphemous spells while he reached out with his other hand, launching a spectral claw towards Duanmu Huai!

As the wizard made his move, Duanmu Huai’s hulking body shuddered violently, rendering him immobile momentarily. Then, against his will, he was being pulled towards the wizard.

However, just when Duanmu Huai reached the wizard’s side, he let out an angry roar and a flash of spiritual energy burst from his body.

Spiritual Energy Blast!

The wizard was taken aback, not having expected that the warrior in front of him was also a psychic. Caught off guard, he was knocked back by Duanmu Huai’s spiritual energy blast. The energy binding Duanmu Huai collapsed instantly, allowing him to leap up and smash his War Hammer down on the corpulent wizard, pulverising him.

“Damn wizard…”

Duanmu Huai spat out, Star Warriors had incredibly low magical resistance which was why he chose to boost his resistance. While relying on his power armor, Duanmu Huai could stand against the Ratmen or even the minions of the Brutal God. But against magic and spiritual energy, his power armor was practically useless.

That was why Duanmu Huai had asked Ogis to standby, just in case he encountered a mage or a psychic he couldn’t handle. That would be Ogis’ cue to step in.

Luckily, it seemed there wasn’t any problem right now.

After dealing with the fat wizard, the entire City Hall was in shambles with Ratmen and Evil God Cultist bodies strewn about. Duanmu Huai did not bother about the mess and strode forward. As per the Elf Scout’s report, he located the basement.

Next, Duanmu Huai smashed the basement door open with a punch.

When he peered inside, he saw a vigilant Elf Scout at the ready, bow drawn, arrow nocked, directed at him.

“Ho, you guys got here pretty quick.”