Chapter 143 Retreat

Hearing Lu Chi's order, someone asked in a trembling voice, "Legion Commander, isn't guarding the mining area the order the Governor gave us? Aren't we supposed to prove our strength? Would it be too much to just run away like this?"

"Fools! We've already proven our strength!" Lu Chi pointed at the follower corpses littering the ground and cursed mercilessly, "And compared to some mineral resources, our lives are definitely more important! The Governor's order to us is that in the choice between resources and our own lives, we must always prioritize the latter!"

"Now listen to my order, retreat immediately!"

With Lu Chi's order, the entire Pioneer team began to retreat out of the mining area.

Seeing this scene, the followers tacitly chose not to obstruct them!

Everyone knew that intercepting them at this time would only invite a stronger counterattack, and the two Apostles' purpose was not to kill the Pioneers, but to obtain the resources in the mine!

Since these Pioneers were willing to leave on their own, why bother going out of their way to intercept them?

The followers glanced at the corpses of their comrades scattered on the ground; they didn't want to become one of them!

So letting the Pioneers leave now was a beneficial choice for both sides!

Boom boom boom!

A beam of light struck, and the Mecha Gladiators fired a laser cannon, clearing obstacles on the Pioneers' retreat path.

Then, large amounts of fire blazed on the Mecha Gladiators.

At this time, only seventeen of the forty Mecha Gladiators remained. The moment they saw the Apostles appear, they simultaneously activated Burst Mode. The energy index within their bodies soared to the extreme, and the propulsion engines on their lower backs emitted a piercing hum!

The Star Apostle laughed.

It was very satisfied with its deterrent power!

It had just shown its face, and the Pioneers had fled in disarray, forcing the Mecha Gladiators to activate Burst Mode for a desperate fight!

Boom boom!

The Mecha Gladiators, having activated Burst Mode, broke through the followers' encirclement. They moved in unison to stand in front of the mine entrance, acting as the final guardians.

This was also to buy time for the Pioneers' retreat.

Just like the followers had said before, the Apostles' purpose was to break into the mine and seize resources. At this time, they would concentrate all their power to defeat the Mecha Gladiators and would not spare any extra force to hunt down the Pioneers!

"Truly annoying iron lumps..." The Star Apostle strode forward, and the surrounding flames shot out like rain of arrows, targeting the Mecha Gladiators in front of the mine entrance.

The Ocean Apostle reacted even more directly. Its massive body swung its giant tail, striking the air, and countless spiderweb-like cracks, mixed with terrifying crushing force, spread forward!

Boom boom boom!

The ground cracked. The Ocean Apostle and the Star Apostle both possessed top-tier offensive power. Each of them was a war machine. Under their power, the earth was shaking and shattering. In the sky filled with fire, the tall bodies of the Mecha Gladiators now seemed somewhat small.

And this was still them controlling their power!

If they weren't afraid of collapsing the mountains behind them and causing trouble for mining, the scene would probably be ten times more terrifying than it was now!

The Mecha Gladiator, engulfed in flames, leaped high into the air with the power of its propulsion engine, and slammed a spear down on the Ocean Apostle's giant serpent head. Behind it, more than a dozen Mecha Gladiators attacked simultaneously. Laser cannons, railguns, and giant spears formed a net that was impossible to avoid. No matter which direction it dodged, it would not be able to escape their attacks.

"Looks like I'm being treated like a soft persimmon..." The Ocean Apostle gave a hideous sneer. Facing the Mecha Gladiators' attack, it didn't dodge at all. Instead, it took the initiative to attack!

Its three heads bit at three Mecha Gladiators respectively, and then its giant tail swept through the air with terrifying power. With a burst of crackling sounds, the Ocean Apostle had several charred blood holes on its body, and five Mecha Gladiators were completely scrapped!

The Ocean Apostle swung its three heads, throwing away the shattered remains of the Mecha Gladiators like garbage.

Under its giant tail, two Mecha Gladiators were also crushed to pieces.

The Star Apostle raised its hand, and fireballs shot out like sharp arrows, instantly arriving in front of the Mecha Gladiators and piercing their bodies.

Crack!

Crack!

The Star Apostle's flames were hotter than the Mecha Gladiators' flames in Burst Mode. Under its attack, the Mecha Gladiators collapsed faster, and many parts of their bodies dissolved and scattered!

"How troublesome! Finish them off quickly and take all the minerals!" The Star Apostle snorted coldly, "If I had known it was this simple, I wouldn't have let the followers try! If we had acted from the beginning, we probably would have taken all the resources and returned to the sea by now!"

Although the Mecha Gladiators were powerful, they were still too weak in the face of Apostle-level power. Even in Burst Mode, they couldn't contend with the Apostles.

Boom!

Another Mecha Gladiator exploded.

At this time, only eleven scarred Mecha Gladiators remained at the mine entrance. Even if the Apostles didn't attack, they wouldn't last too long.

The negative effects of Burst Mode had almost completely eroded their bodies. In thirty seconds at most, they would all turn into scrap metal!

But at this moment, three Mecha Gladiators seemed to suddenly receive orders. They turned and ran madly into the mine, and at the same time, the energy index within their bodies soared again.

As two Apostles who had fought against the Mecha Gladiators many times, they naturally knew that this abnormal energy surge was a sign that the other party was about to self-destruct!

"They're going to run into the mine and self-destruct, trying to destroy the mine with the explosion and buy time!" The Star Apostle instantly understood the intentions of these three Mecha Gladiators. Its expression became extremely ferocious, and it quickly chased after them, but the next moment, the remaining eight Mecha Gladiators intercepted it.

"Get out of my way!"

The Star Apostle roared, unleashing its Ancient God power to the extreme. A flaming whip appeared in its hand and fell suddenly, instantly cutting two Mecha Gladiators in half!

At the same time, the Ocean Apostle's massive body drilled into the mine with incredibly violent movements.

The mountain was extremely large, and the mine was also developed very spacious, so accommodating the Ocean Apostle's massive body was not a problem at all.

The Star Apostle looked at the Ocean Apostle's disappearing figure in the mine, and a strong murderous intent appeared between its eyebrows.

Both of them wanted to be the first to enter the mine, because if there were any resources in the mine that were more valuable than the new metal, the one who entered the mine first could take it for themselves!

It was like two adventurers simultaneously exploring a treasure cave. Everyone wanted to be the first to enter, fearing that the other party would hide some more precious treasures and not share them.

But those few Mecha Gladiators kept blocking its way, making it extremely irritable.

"Go to hell!" The Star Apostle finally roared, waving the whip in its hand like a giant python, tightly wrapping around each Mecha Gladiator. With a forceful wave, the flaming whip tightened, like a giant python strangling its prey. With a loud crack, these Mecha Gladiators finally collapsed completely, and their limbs fell from the sky, turning into a pile of charred metal scraps.

"..." After the Star Apostle finished all this, it didn't stop at all, and rushed straight into the mine, running all the way towards the end of the mine following the Ocean Apostle's aura.

"The Mecha Gladiators' self-destruction is very fast... it will be completed in three seconds at most! But I didn't hear any explosions, and there are no traces of any explosions in the mine." The Star Apostle gradually noticed some abnormalities. It frowned, "Were they strangled by the Ocean Apostle?"

"No, there are no remains of them in the mine..."

"Where did they go?"

After entering the mine, the Star Apostle did not find the remains of the three Mecha Gladiators that were about to self-destruct, and it did not see any of the rare metal ores that it had seen before exposed on the rock walls in the mine.

In such a short period of time, was Li Tianran able to mine all the resources in the mine?

The Star Apostle felt that something was wrong, but it couldn't put its finger on it.

If this was a trap, then Li Tianran's only armed force capable of killing an Apostle hadn't arrived yet, so what would he rely on to pose a threat to it?

The Star Apostle stood there and thought for a long time.

Just then, it suddenly heard the Ocean Apostle's angry and terrified roar from the end of the mine.

At this moment, the Star Apostle didn't hesitate at all. It turned around and fled out of the mine!

...

The Ocean Apostle chased the Mecha Gladiators into the mine, but after entering the mine, it found that the energy reaction in the Mecha Gladiators' bodies was slowly decreasing.

Could it be that they had run out of energy and couldn't support self-destruction at all?

Or was it because they hadn't reached the center of the mine, and the destructive power of the self-destruction was too small to reach the level of destruction?

The Ocean Apostle only thought for a moment before continuing to follow the Mecha Gladiators towards the depths of the mine.

The Mecha Gladiators in Burst Mode were extremely fast, but the Ocean Apostle itself was not good at speed, and its body was too large, making it seem a bit bloated in the narrow mine, so it couldn't keep up with the Mecha Gladiators' pace for a while.

And if it used its pulverizing ability here, it was afraid of directly collapsing the mine...

In this way, more than ten seconds passed, and the Mecha Gladiators arrived at a mining pit at the end of the mine. The flames on their bodies gradually extinguished, their bodies reached their limits, and they began to gradually disintegrate.

The Ocean Apostle's huge head stretched in. With the help of the light from the flames on the Mecha Gladiators that hadn't completely dissipated, it saw the scene in the mining pit, and its pupils shrank suddenly, screaming in terror!