Honkai Impact 3rd: My Days as a Captain in Schicksal

Keng Huo paused for a moment, something he had anticipated.

Ultimately, it comes down to a matter of trust.

Keng Huo, Mei, and the other two usually have a good relationship and are very familiar with each other in their daily interactions. However, no matter how good their relationship is, they will be very cautious when it comes to matters of life and death.

Mei is right. It's not a question of whether Keng Huo would deliberately use someone as a pawn in his command, but rather a lack of trust caused by the unknown level of Keng Huo's actual combat command ability.

Because in their current state, if Mei completely trusts Keng Huo's command, it means she is entrusting her life and death to Keng Huo alone. If Keng Huo's command is flawed, and she completely trusts him, she might die because of that flawed command.

In particular, Keng Huo's command style is like that of a nanny, meticulously arranging every subtle change and response. If one step is wrong, the subsequent plan may fall behind, and the entire operation may need to be re-determined.

Keng Huo awkwardly scratched his face. He had actually considered the situation Mei mentioned, but...

Keng Huo sighed: "It is indeed too detailed. It's probably due to my personality. I always like to plan carefully before taking action... When giving orders, I always hope to give orders as detailed as possible according to my expectations. But thinking about it, I was indeed short-sighted."

“I understand your concerns. It’s impossible for me to never make a mistake. It’s impossible to force you to follow my steps because there are just too many uncertainties.”

"But my field of vision is superior, since I'm observing the battlefield through unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. Therefore, I have a better overall view of the battlefield than you do. I will remind you of your actions, tell you the next steps for cooperation, how to maintain a mobile formation in battle, and how to coordinate with your teammates without vision obstruction."

"You can decide the specific details of the operation yourselves. I will only be responsible for the general direction of coordination and the formulation of objectives for each phase of the operation, how about that?"

"I hope we can trust each other in this operation and achieve our operational objectives. I also hope to build trust between us in this operation, since we have a long road ahead of us to cooperate."

"So, are you willing to trust me?"

“Since Teacher Keng has said so…” Mei twirled a strand of hair that fell to her chest, a smile appearing on her lips, “then it will be a pleasure to cooperate with you, Commander-in-Chief.”

"Commander teacher?! What the heck?! Is he a commander or a teacher?!" Keng Huo frantically tugged at his head in the command room. "Grammatical errors are so annoying!!"

Chapter Sixty-One: Sexy Valkyrie Plays Volleyball Online

"There's another problem... I feel like our communication isn't very good." Mei and Kiana, after overcoming numerous hardships, finally found the place where Kiana had buried the five assassins in the rubble. Mei looked at the pile of debris, resembling a demolition site, and frowned in worry. "The commander didn't tell us when Kiana changed the battle plan on her own..."

Just now, Mei started calling Keng Huo "Commander," and Bronya followed suit. Only Kiana still insisted on calling Keng Huo "the idiot."

Of course, you might not be able to tell the difference just by listening to the pronunciation, but you can definitely feel that Kiana's name means the same thing...

“Hmm… that was indeed my oversight, but the situation in battle changes in an instant. If instructions are given to each other through a public channel, it could easily lead to misunderstandings,” Keng Huo explained. “For example, in an emergency, I might not have time to name names and only have time to say ‘retreat,’ but I actually told Kiana to retreat. If you heard that on the public channel, you might have to think about whether I was telling you to retreat… which is very disadvantageous for the position.”

"This was mainly due to my oversight. I didn't have time to communicate with you when I noticed that Kiana had arrived. I will let you know in advance next time."

"Hmm...that's true, but..." Kiana looked at the pile of rubble in front of her, troubled. "How are we supposed to dig this up...are we going to have to bring a shovel next time?"

"Heavy Bunny, activate the gravity crushing module." Bronya gestured for the two to step back, and silently activated the gravity crushing module in the [Tank] combat system. Just like the [Super Gravity Field] she used to defeat the Tank-class Honkai Beast, she flew into the air with the assistance of Heavy Bunny, condensed a bound gravity field in her palm, and slammed it down hard on the pile of ruins.

The only difference was that she didn't fly very high this time, and because the condensation time of the gravitational field was relatively short, the destructive force was also much smaller. However, the scene was still left in a mess by her attack. The pile of rubble seemed to have been blown up by a bomb and scattered everywhere, but it also smashed the corpses of the assassins hidden inside into pieces.

Fortunately, the weapons carried by the suicide soldiers were made of materials that were more durable than expected, so the weapons did not suffer any substantial damage. Of course, even if they were damaged, it wouldn't matter, since these weapons would eventually be melted and purified again to synthesize anti-collapse alloys. As long as the quality was not lost, everything would be fine.

"Why do we have to rely on Valkyries to collect materials?" Mei complained softly, clutching two longbows. "Why can't we just leave these tasks to autonomous machines?"

Keng Huo looked up at the ceiling of the command room with a hint of sadness. He didn't say these words aloud over the communicator: "Our academy is poor right now... how can we afford it..."

"Intelligence on another small settlement has been detected." Keng Huo's hands flew up and down in the command room like a conductor, constantly zooming in on newly emerging intelligence reports. After reading them, he would either set them aside or throw them into the interface's trash can. "This small settlement is much more troublesome than the last one. This time there are two Titan Mechs that originally belonged to [Anti-Entropy], but judging from the paint job, they should be the original models. There is also a Chariot Honkai Beast, a Knight Honkai Beast, and an elite rapid-fire archer... This enemy is quite troublesome, completely different from the previous group. Each of them has a [Honkai Energy Shield]... I hope everyone will take this seriously and carry out my battle plan diligently."

"Our first priority is to deal with that archer. Otherwise, if we don't eliminate him immediately and he manages to find a good firing position under the cover of the other large enemies, his high-speed bursts will greatly increase your chances of injury. Therefore, we must take advantage of the surprise attack to kill him."

"Then we'll have to face two [Titan Mechs] and two Honkai Beasts... In the current situation, the Knight Honkai Beast is actually relatively easy to deal with, because a single Knight Honkai Beast cannot form a charging formation, and its destructive power only becomes apparent after it begins to charge... The other companions present, all of whom are of enormous size, will undoubtedly limit its charge, so its impact on the battlefield will actually be minimal..."

"It would also be the largest if it chose to charge towards Bronya."

"So after killing the archer, the second target is the Knight Honkai Beast. We need to ensure Bronya's output environment. Against such a large enemy, heavy firepower is undoubtedly the best strategy... Kiana uses a powerful shock grenade to stun it, and Bronya seizes the opportunity to use [Super Gravity Field] to severely damage it. Using the [Gravity Lock] effect created by the [Super Gravity Field] to hinder the enemy's movement, we can quickly leave the battlefield and look for a second opportunity for a combined attack."

"Based on the data collected during the battle, we should be able to kill the Knight Honkai Beast after two attacks from the [Hypergravity Field]. At the same time, remember not to rush the attack. We need to leave the Chariot Honkai Beast alive. Its [Honkai Energy Shield] should be able to withstand the aftershocks of two attacks from the [Hypergravity Field], and it is the most important part of our next tactic."

"The Titan mechs of Anti-Entropy are extremely strong. I have reiterated this many times. Their defense is astonishing, and their destructive power is also astonishing. The only thing that could limit them is the energy problem, which is completely absent in this environment rich in Honkai energy. It can be said that their form here is almost perfect... If you were to fight them head-on, it would be difficult to destroy them without suffering casualties."

"So we need that tank-type Honkai Beast."

Keng Huo lowered his head, gathered his thoughts, and slowly began, "After eliminating the first two targets as quickly as possible, our next target is those two Titan mechs. But be careful not to engage the remaining enemies head-on. Just engage them, circling around them, and be careful not to let them hit you. Then look for an opportunity to use the powerful shock grenades to stun the tank Honkai Beasts again, use the [Supergravity Field] to attack, and use the aftershocks of the [Supergravity Field] to attack the two Titan mechs..."

"Wait, why don't we just target the Titan mechs directly?" Kiana asked, looking confused. "The aftershocks of the [Supergravity Field] aren't that destructive. We might need to coordinate many attacks to destroy those two Titan mechs..."

“Because the [Supergravity Field] cannot be used on mechanical targets.” Bronya answered Kiana’s question for Keng Huo. “The attack principle of the [Supergravity Field] is to use a pseudo-gravity field created by a magnetic field to attack living beings. The interference effect of the burst energy field detonates the energy inside the enemy’s body, thereby causing explosive destruction to a single target and the aftershocks of the energy explosion to affect surrounding enemies.”

"The most crucial element is the target's state. The target must be briefly disoriented, rendering them unable to control their internal energy when attacked, thus triggering an energy explosion. Simultaneously, the [hypergravity field] requires a period of charging to create a pseudo-field that meets the standards. Currently, the only method we can find is to temporarily stun the opponent using powerful shock grenades during combat to satisfy these conditions." Keng Huo continued, picking up where Bronya left off, "If we focus our primary target on the Titan mechs… Titan mechs aren't living beings; they don't get stunned. As long as their main control computers aren't damaged, they won't stop operating. Their internal energy flow is also bound by their own internal energy magnetic field, so the energy detonation effect of the hypergravity field will have minimal impact on them."

"So that's why we need to keep that tank-class Honkai Beast alive, to make it our... fuse?" Kiana used a strange-sounding rhetoric without any instruction, "to detonate the energy inside it to damage the Titan mech next to it? Sounds like a mobile bomb."

"That's right, but we still need to be careful about the Titan's [Berserk Mode]. When the main control computer detects that the Titan's damage exceeds a certain level, it will activate this mode. In this mode, all the Titan's components will instantly overload, using their lifespan to obtain maximum burst power in a short period of time. The Titan in this state is terrifying. Although the continuous combat time under this overloaded combat mode is not long, it is more than enough to finish a battle. After the battle, there will still be time to go back and apply some oil and wax..."

"Therefore, when the two Titan mechs enter overload mode, you must react quickly and listen carefully to my next instructions..."

"[Tank] is in position, please give instructions, Commander." Bronya stood on the rooftop of a tall building not far from the small settlement, staring coldly at the aimlessly wandering enemies. The wind was cold and strong at high altitude, making her short skirt flutter loudly. Bronya subconsciously covered the bottom of her skirt and asked somewhat uneasily into the communicator.

She seemed to hear a sigh coming from the communication.

"...Ahem...The wind detection shows that the wind has suddenly increased. Will this affect your ballistic correction?" Keng Huo asked.

"The impact is relatively small, but Bronya can also switch to tracking missiles for the attack to prevent changes in wind speed from affecting the trajectory of the ballistic missiles."

"Don't switch, continue using Markov Type A attacks," Keng Huo thought, a series of damage comparison data flashing through his mind, and decisively rejected Bronya's suggestion. "The damage of the homing missiles is relatively low at this distance. We need to unleash our maximum destructive power in the first sneak attack to kill the archers. After you fire the first wave of fire, immediately prepare to charge the [Supergravity Field] module. Kiana will stun the archers immediately... Note that if the enemy tries to breach the load-bearing wall of the building you are in, quickly move to other nearby rooftops."

"Bronya received, requesting order to fire."

"Request for unconditional kill approved."

The moment the Heavy Bunny's cannon fire left the barrel, the five enemies on the ground seemed to have a telepathic connection and looked up in Bronya's direction. But it was too late. Bronya was only a few hundred meters away from them, a distance that was only a blink of an eye for a cannonball.

With the assistance of the [Tank] combat support system, even the biting cold wind at high altitudes could not make the shells deviate from their targets. Three shells, almost end to end, instantly struck the archer who had just turned around. The huge explosion sent the archer flying, and even the semi-transparent shield formed by Honkai energy on his body developed fine cracks.

"Kiana!" Keng Huo seized the opportunity in the public channel to signal Kiana to take the next step.

"Coming!" Kiana's voice rang out from the communicator. Just as the archer was adjusting his balance in the air to land safely, a slender white figure suddenly flew out from the second floor near his predicted landing point. The white figure, as agile as a monkey, grabbed the lamppost in mid-air, swung with the force, and flew towards the archer like a sharp sword.

"Neko...Charm!" A fierce flying kick struck the archer's back before he even landed, and the sound of bones cracking could be heard even through the communicator.

Shield broken!

The archer, struck with such force in mid-air, flew like a kite with a broken string to the other side of the road.

"Now! Seventeenth Style: Weasel Slash Dance!" A ghostly red figure suddenly flew out from behind a half-collapsed wall. As the archer fell uncontrollably toward her, she used the ground to propel herself high into the air, drawing a graceful arc in the air. Like a whirlwind, she swept toward the archer. The composite willow-leaf blade in her hand was like the blade of a high-speed rotating turbine. Several blades flashed almost simultaneously, cutting countless wounds into the archer. In an instant, a large amount of Honkai energy particles were released.

Just as Mei's spinning force was exhausted, she stretched out her body in the air, like a fully stretched spring, gripped the hilt of the sword with both hands, and plunged the entire blade into the archer's body, all the way down to the hilt. Under this enormous force, the archer, along with Mei's body, fell heavily to the ground.

Mei used all her strength to pierce the archer and pin him to the ground. Then, she quickly pulled out her sword, leaped back, and created a distance of nearly ten meters. Like an assassin who had completed her mission, she quietly drifted back into the shadows.

At that moment, Kiana landed and activated the fully charged [Powerful Shock Bomb Module]. She seemed to only glance at it briefly before launching the shock bomb at the archer.

The stun grenade, carrying immense energy, exploded in front of the fallen archer's chest. For a moment, the surrounding air seemed to be distorted by the powerful shockwave, displaying unstable ripples.

The assassin archer hadn't even recovered from the first wave of attacks before being overwhelmed by the successive barrages, and now this powerful stun grenade rendered it powerless to resist.

When it regained some consciousness, it vaguely saw a small black dot falling from the sky, and this small black dot, accompanied by the sound of air being cut, rapidly magnified in its field of vision.

Finally, it saw clearly that it was... the right fist of a steel monster!

boom--

The deafening bombardment, accompanied by the shockwave of the energy explosion, swept over all the enemies in the small settlement. Those who were close by even had their Honkai energy shields shattered by the explosion. The gravity field that erupted with the energy explosion also attracted all the enemies at the same time. A strong sense of gravity bound them, making it difficult for them to move, as if they were covered in super glue.

The rapid-fire archer who was attacked was blasted into the air like a volleyball in the turbulent energy flow, and was as powerless as a volleyball being tossed around in the air.

"Floating Spiral... Kick!" Following closely behind, Kiana seized the opportunity while the rapid-fire archer was in mid-air with nowhere to catch up or dodge. She quickly unleashed a set of kicks that relied on the centrifugal force of her body's rotation to accelerate and increase destructive power. The opening was large, but the killing power was extremely amazing. The last kick was like a rainbow piercing the sun, sending the rapid-fire archer flying like a cannonball into a nearby building, smashing through countless ruins along the way.

Just as the remaining enemies finally broke free from the gravitational field, the enemy in front of them vanished like a weasel that had successfully stolen a chicken.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye, within two or three seconds. If one of them hadn't been missing, they would have wondered if they were dreaming.

If Honkai-side creatures could dream.

Chapter Sixty-Two: If the Titans Return from Hell

"Bronya, quickly find a high vantage point. Kiana and Mei, move together. The target is the Knight Honkai Beast at the rear of the enemy formation!" Keng Huo continuously transmitted orders and information through the communicator.

"Roger that!"

The complex terrain of the Ruins of Annihilation proved to be a great help. The three of them quickly and quietly infiltrated their respective ambush locations. Mei and Kiana hid behind a half-collapsed wall, secretly watching the Knight Honkai Beast and waiting for Bronya to finish taking position.

The Knight Honkai Beast was a full three meters tall. Its lower half resembled a white horse's torso, covered in white carapace, but only including the limbs, joints, and vital organs like the head and neck. Its abdomen and the area below its shoulder blades were not covered by carapace, revealing a purplish-black fleshy structure underneath. This structure allowed it to simply and crudely reduce its weight to increase speed and explosive power. Its head resembled an inverted, flat triangular pyramid, with no organs that could be associated with vision, making one wonder if this horse even existed as an independent life form.

But on the back of this horse sat a humanoid creature.

Its body structure seemed no different from that of a human. Judging from its figure, it appeared to be a slightly taller human female, with some white hair peeking out from under its helmet. Its entire body was covered with thick chitinous armor, and it had a black chitinous collar around its neck. On its head was an organ that could be either a helmet or had a special function. On both sides of this part, long purple hair extended out like twin ponytails, and at the connection between the hair and the helmet, there was a ring of chitinous hairpins with many spikes protruding from their surface, like a meteor hammer.

Keng Huo still thought that this helmet was more likely to be functional. After all, this helmet, which looked cute and had two circles made up of black and purple lines that looked like big eyes on top, didn't look like the kind of heavily armored European knights that had any defensive capabilities...

If it weren't for the snow-white knight's lance it held in its right hand, which was over two meters long and sent chills down one's spine at first glance, no one would probably mistake it for a Honkai Beast, but rather a girl cosplaying a knight from some anime.

“By the way, Kiana…” Keng Huo’s expression and tone became somewhat serious, “I suddenly realized something…”

"What's wrong? Does the battle plan need to be changed?" Kiana asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Do you think the two parts of this Knight Honkai Beast are conjoined or separate? If they're separate, how did they find each other? If they were born together, after the horse dies, will the knight on its back only be able to serve as an infantryman...?"

"【White Silk】Pfft, communication with you has been lost."

"...Kiana, stop being so dismissive! I don't even know where to begin complaining!" Keng Huo grabbed his hair in frustration. "If you're going to imitate the system's speech, at least do it properly! What's with that 'pfft' in the middle of your sentence?!"

"The [Chariot] is in position, the [Supergravity Field] module is warmed up, and it is ready to launch at any time." At this moment, Bronya's voice came from the public channel. This time, she did not stand on the rooftop looking down conspicuously, but instead lay in ambush on the fourth floor of a ruin.

"Begin the second round of attacks!" Keng Huo also knew the importance of a quick victory. The battlefield here was relatively close to the center of the mining area, and the battle fluctuations had probably alerted the leader of this mining area. If the battle was not resolved quickly, reinforcements would likely arrive soon.

"Powerful shock grenade fully charged, launch!" Kiana nimbly vaulted over the broken wall, bringing the Knight Honkai Beast within her attack range in a few leaps. At the same time, the Knight Honkai Beast clearly noticed Kiana's movements. Its white horse pawed nervously, its upper body slightly lowered, as if preparing to charge.

But the powerful shock bomb wouldn't allow it to do that. The powerful shock bomb, flying at supersonic speed, exploded in front of the Knight Honkai Beast, and the intense ultrasonic waves and shockwaves caused it to lose its senses for a brief moment.

"[Supergravity field] setup complete."

It resembled a spectacular nuclear explosion.

"The combat results exceeded expectations, possibly due to the unique structure of the Knight Honkai Beast itself. The energy detonation was very thorough, and the target has lost its combat capability. Bronya requests instructions." Having released the [Supergravity Field], Bronya used the emergency evasion system to report the results to Keng Huo while the other enemies were still locked by gravity traps.

"【White Ribbon】 and 【Crimson】 prepare for close combat! Target: Titan Mech! Once the powerful shock grenade module is fully charged, use the combined attack tactic again! 【Chariot】 retreat quickly and find favorable terrain!" Keng Huo swiftly changed his original battle plan.