eurekapd Chapter 320 Stopping Golza, a New Battle?
Chapter 320 Stopping Golza, a New Battle?
The Flying Swallow-1 missile traced a near-maximum angle of attack, regaining high-altitude dominance. The safety cover of the missile launch pod slid open, revealing a honeycomb-like launch port.
“The hard kill effect is limited, but the shockwave and shrapnel…” Ye Rui’s mind raced, his gaze fixed on an area that Golza was about to pass through.
There, two deep fissures in the ground intersect, along with a large number of unstable building ruins.
"It can cause a landslide."
He pressed the launch button repeatedly.
Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!
Four high-explosive missiles, trailing plumes of flame, were not aimed at Golza's massive body, which was almost immune to conventional explosions, but rather precisely penetrated the fissures in the ground a hundred meters in front of the behemoth, as well as the precarious load-bearing structures of the ruins on both sides.
Rumble—!!!
A series of explosions, even more frequent and sharper than Golza's footsteps, rang out.
The earth trembled in agony, and the already fragile surface completely collapsed under the internal explosion, sinking into a huge, dusty crater.
Countless pieces of reinforced concrete poured inward like a waterfall, instantly forming a natural barrier more than 100 meters wide.
Almost simultaneously, Ye Rui activated special smoke grenades again, dumping all the remaining grenades around the crater. The thick magnetic smoke mixed with the dust kicked up by the explosion, further obscuring the true appearance of the area.
Golza happened to walk up nearby.
It looked at the sinkhole that suddenly appeared in front of it and the billowing smoke.
In its confused perception, this was perhaps another combination of "terrain change" and an unpleasant barrier. It growled irritably and tried to pry open the edge of the pit with its forelimbs, as soft soil and gravel slid down.
Go around it? The pit seems to be very long.
Should it step directly across? The situation below is unclear, and the soft, collapsed structure is not entirely without risk for a behemoth of its size. Moreover, the annoying smoke and possible residual sound interference impair its judgment.
It hesitated again.
Time: 8 minutes and 15 seconds.
“Not enough!” Ye Rui watched as Golza lingered on the edge of the pit, not moving away, but assessing the situation.
Once it decides to risk crossing or follow the edge of the pit to find the end, it may still quickly return to its original direction.
He needs to provide it with a clearer, more "comfortable" alternative.
The energy reading has dropped to 47%. The holographic projector is cooling down, and the sound generator effect is diminishing.
Ye Rui pulled up the topographical map details he had previously overlooked, his gaze sharp as an eagle's.
About 1.5 kilometers northwest of Golza's current location, the map shows the remains of a huge, abandoned artificial lake, which has almost dried up due to geological changes, but the lakebed is deep and the surrounding terrain is relatively open and flat.
“Guide it there.” Ye Rui made the decision instantly.
The deep pit in the lakebed is a more significant terrain obstacle than the blasted pit. Once Golza enters, it will take more time and effort to climb back southeast.
He needs to "pave the way" for Golza, a "road" leading to the northwestern lakebed.
Feiyan-1 began a series of short but precise harassing shots.
The laser cannon no longer aimed to inflict damage, but instead, like the most pesky horsefly, specifically targeted sensitive but non-lethal positions such as Golza's ankles, the tip of its tail, and its exposed flanks when it turned southeast.
Each attack was accompanied by the enhanced monster's angry roar and its instinctive dodge or turn.
Ye Rui's firing rhythm was precisely calculated, and combined with the agile flight trajectory of the Flying Swallow No. 1, he gradually "drove" Golza away, causing it to unconsciously adjust its orientation. At the same time, he used the onboard computer to simulate a "path of least resistance" from Golza's current location to the abandoned lakebed, and dropped a final batch of special smoke grenades at the beginning of this virtual path, forming a directional, faint smoke trail.
Golza finally lost patience with the constant, though not fatal, but extremely annoying harassment.
It let out a deafening roar and strode after the laser beam, heading towards the northwest where the smoke was lighter.
At least in its simple mind, the goal is to crush that annoying "flying insect".
"They've taken the bait!" Ye Rui's heart pounded, but his movements remained steady.
He maintained a distance that was neither too close nor too far, so that Golza would feel he couldn't catch up and give up, nor did he allow himself to enter Golza's truly effective attack range.
These are all his gaming skills.
Soon, the abandoned giant lakebed came into view at the edge of the horizon.
The dried-up, cracked lakebed resembles a huge, ugly mouth.
Ye Rui embarked on a daring adventure.
He piloted the Flying Swallow No. 1 in a dive, heading towards the center of the lakebed. At the same time, he poured most of the remaining energy into the standard laser cannon and fired the strongest shot at a rock wall structure on the edge of the lakebed that was already brittle due to the dryness!
boom!
The collapse of the rock face caused a large amount of rubble to tumble onto the lakebed, and the dust raised further "deepened" the sense of depression in the lakebed.
Golza chased after them to the lakeside and stopped.
It looked down at the deep pit below, then at the Flying Swallow No. 1 circling provocatively on the opposite side of the pit, and then looked back at the smoke-filled, uneven, and irritating path it had come from.
The urge to drive away the "flying insects" and the potential fear of falling into an unknown abyss collided fiercely in its enhanced but still beastly brain.
Time: 5 minutes and 02 seconds.
The evacuation route is currently safe.
But Golza has not yet set foot on the lakebed.
Ye Rui's palms were sweating profusely.
Energy warning begins to flash: 21% remaining. Most non-standard weapons are depleted or on cooldown.
If Golza were to turn back now, he would no longer have sufficient means to effectively mislead others.
At this critical moment—
[Warning: Local adjustments to simulation environment parameters. Severe convective weather is forming.] The cold system notification suddenly sounded.
The sky, which was originally shrouded in smoke, suddenly gathered dark thunderclouds, and a gale swept in without warning, carrying sand and stones!
Ye Rui was startled, but then realized that this was another test of "nightmare difficulty," but it could also be... a turning point!
The gale was blowing from the southeast to the northwest! Thick smoke, mixed with magnetic particles, was swept up by this sudden gale and surged towards Golza and the lakebed like a giant gray-white wall!
Golza was made even more uneasy by this sudden force of nature. It hated the thick fog that blotted out the sun and the things inside that made it lose its sense of direction.
The wind, invisibly, further "pushed" it away from the source of the smoke, towards the relatively "clean" northwest, towards the opposite shore of the lakebed.
However, the effects of this strong wind are two-way.
If the monsters are affected, then the impact on Nozue's Victory Flying Swallow No. 1 is even greater.
The gale, like a raging giant hand, fiercely seized the slender fuselage of the Victory Flying Swallow No. 1.
Ye Rui felt an irresistible lateral force suddenly strike him, and the fighter jet instantly went out of control, tumbling and plummeting to the right! The instrument panel flashed wildly, and the alarms and the shrill whistling of the wind hitting the fuselage mixed into a piercing symphony of death. He was pressed tightly against the right side of the bulkhead, and the scene before his eyes spun wildly, with the dried-up lakebed, rolling thunderclouds, and Golza's massive figure flashing chaotically in and out of the porthole.
"Stay calm...stay calm!" Ye Rui gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead. This wasn't a simple "QTE" button press in a game that could restore his balance. He gripped the control stick tightly with both hands, pedaling the rudder with all his might, wrestling against the raging airflow and the fighter jet's uncontrolled inertia. At the same time, his brain had to operate like a parallel processor: rapidly reading the wildly fluctuating data from the altimeter, attitude indicator, and airspeed indicator, predicting where the next airflow shear might come from.
The aircraft shuddered violently, groaning under the strain. In just two seconds, it lost nearly a hundred meters of altitude, plummeting straight towards the dry, hard lakebed!
Just as the fuselage was about to scrape against the protruding rocks on the lakebed, Ye Rui finally managed to pull the fuselage level through almost instinctive micro-management and resistance, narrowly pulling up while skimming the surface of the lakebed. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
However, the crisis was far from over. The strong convection brought not only gales, but also rapidly changing air pressure and turbulent eddies. Like a small boat in a raging storm, Feiyan-1 barely managed to stay afloat, but its flight path became erratic, making precise tactical maneuvers difficult. Maintaining its previous "close yet distant" precise provocation became exceptionally challenging.
Even more critically, Golza's attention seemed to be briefly drawn to the fighter jet's sudden and disorganized loss of control. Its massive head turned, its dark purple glowing organs locking onto the struggling Flying Swallow 1 in the air. It seemed to have temporarily forgotten its fear of the smoke and the deep pit, and a predatory interest, mixed with the anger of being harassed for a long time, rekindled in its eyes.
It let out a low growl, its massive body lowering slightly, its thick tail flaring restlessly, as if gathering strength to leap and pounce, or...
"Oh no, it's changing its mind!" Ye Rui's heart skipped a beat. Energy was running low, and the fighter's maneuverability was greatly reduced due to the bad weather. If Golza abandoned its attempt to enter the lakebed and instead attacked him with all its might, or simply ignored him and turned back, the mission would fail instantly.
We must act immediately! We must keep its attention firmly focused on the path of "chasing the flying insects - stepping onto the lakebed"!
Ye Rui slammed the throttle valve, allocating more of his remaining energy to the engine to forcefully fight the turbulence and propel the fighter jet toward the opposite shore of the lakebed, slightly above and directly in front of Golza. This position was extremely dangerous, almost within Golza's possible straight-line attack range, but it was also the direction most likely to provoke and lure it forward.
At the same time, he made an extremely risky decision—with the aircraft shaking violently and the aiming system almost malfunctioning, he manually took over the weapon and, relying on his intuition and experience, fired a final burst of lasers at the edge of the already soft pit that Golza had just dug into!
The string of shots was completely inaccurate, with most hitting empty spaces or hard rocks, scattering a few sparks. But one of them managed to graz the bottom of a cracked boulder at the edge of the crater.
Crack... Boom!
The giant rock, already structurally fragile due to Golza's ravages and internal explosions, finally collapsed completely, carrying even more mud and rubble as it slid into the bottom of the pit with a crash. The dust it kicked up even briefly obscured some of the smoke.
This insignificant "secondary collapse" might be interpreted by Golza in his confused state of mind as: this annoying "flying insect" is not only provoking him, but also continuously destroying the "road" beneath his feet!
"Roar--!!!"
Golza's rage was fully ignited. Any slight apprehension about the deep pit was overwhelmed by a more primal urge to destroy the annoying target before it. Adding to this, the gale-force winds blowing from the southeast, carrying the magnetic smoke it loathed, continued to shove its back, as if urging it to leave this hateful area.
It no longer hesitated.
With a roar that seemed to tear the simulated sky apart, Golza leaped forward!
But it didn't pounce on the Flying Swallow No. 1 in the air; instead, its heavy, mountain-like body stepped straight into the center of the dried-up lakebed!
"Thump—!!!"
A terrifying crash resounded, shaking the entire lakebed. Golza's feet sank deep into the cracked lakebed mud, the immense inertia causing it to stagger forward several steps before finally regaining its footing in the center of the lakebed. The deep terrain immediately came into play; every step it took seemed much slower and more strenuous than on flat ground.
Success! It's in!
Ye Rui was almost exhausted, but he dared not relax for a moment. He immediately pulled up the fighter jet with great difficulty, avoiding the shock wave mixed with sand and gravel stirred up by Golza stepping in, while using the last bit of usable energy to maintain the most basic stable flight, and keeping a close watch on the giant beast in the lakebed.
Golza trudged across the lakebed, trying to catch up with the intermittently appearing dot on the opposite shore. Climbing the steep rock face on the other side took a considerable amount of time and effort. Its strength was astonishing on Nightmare difficulty, carving huge claw marks into the rock face, with pebbles raining down, but this process also greatly depleted its stamina and concentration.
Time ticked by second under Ye Rui's tense gaze.
5 points...4 points...3 points...
When Golza finally roared and climbed onto the opposite shore of the lakebed, he looked around angrily, but could no longer find a clear trace of that annoying fighter plane.
Ye Rui had already taken cover behind a rocky peak using the remaining smoke and airflow, and the system's cold countdown had come to an end.
[Countdown: 3...2...1...]
Mission objective achieved.
Advance to Golza has been halted. Evacuation routes are secure.
[Simulated battle ended.]
[Evaluation in progress...]
[Assessment successful. You are now authorized to intervene in the campaign midway!]
[Campaign loading...]
[Battle successfully loaded. Your faction is Ultraman.]
[Victory Team has been unlocked. Please prepare your battle strategy.]
A series of notification sounds rang in Ye Rui's mind. After the notifications stopped, he realized that he had entered a brand new battle, and this battle had neither a name nor any other prompts.
As he looked around, the alarm on Victory Flying Swallow No. 1 started beeping!
Just as he was about to operate it, a huge beam of light shot towards him.