Chapter 152: Listen to Me Say Thank You!

Hearing Joe's words, Connor and Big Mouth both felt a slight jolt in their chests.

Had this been right upon their arrival at the zombie planet, the two of them would never have worried about the mecha knights in the slightest.

However, they had already witnessed the horrors of the zombie planet firsthand.

Having battled Joe for this long, they fully understood that at a mere 50% power capacity, the kinetic mechas were no match for him whatsoever.

And the energy reserves of the mecha knights were even more concerning...

When some of them reached the outer perimeter of the Ironwood Forest, they had less than 30% of their energy reserves remaining.

With such limited strength, they would struggle even against certain sixth-stage mutants.

Let alone going toe-to-toe in direct combat with a powerhouse like Joe!

If the entity attacking the mecha knights possessed strength comparable to Joe's, it would spell utter catastrophe for the Brolly family's mecha knights!

This regiment of mecha knights formed the elite force of the Brolly family...

If they were all wiped out here, it would deal a heavy blow to the Brolly family's ground forces.

At this thought, Connor didn't hesitate for a second.

In a few strides, he rushed behind Big Mouth.

He removed the energy core from his own inner armor.

And shoved it straight into Big Mouth's hands.

"Plug in my energy core."

"It should let the mecha operate at about 80% capacity..."

"Take him down, and then go support the others."

Holding Connor's energy core in his hands, Big Mouth stared at Joe with a guarded expression.

With Connor having extracted his energy core, his own mecha had completely lost power.

Connor had already crawled out of his small mecha.

Without the protection of the mecha, if Joe were to make a move against him right now, killing Connor would be effortless.

Observing Big Mouth's tense demeanor, Joe chuckled casually and spoke:

"No need to be on guard!"

"I don't plan on killing him just yet..."

"Looks like he handed his very last bit of energy over to you?"

"Hurry up and install it!"

"After fighting you two for so long, I've only used five-tenths of my strength."

"Let me see just how much of my power you can force me to unleash!"

Had Ye Hai been present, he would have mercilessly pierced through Joe's bragging.

During his earlier skirmish with Connor, this guy had used at least eight-tenths of his strength!

And here he was, putting on airs once again.

Hearing Joe's words, Big Mouth wore a blank expression as he inserted the energy core Connor had handed him into the mecha.

Immediately, a violent roar echoed from the mecha.

Judging solely by this single sound, Joe could not help but secretly raise his guard.

Such immense power would undoubtedly translate into a terrifying level of force!

Although Joe now had a thick layer of metallic horny tissue coating his surface.

After their previous clashes, however, Joe was well aware that... apart from that corrosive blade, the throwing knives meticulously crafted by Lister himself were incapable of inflicting fatal damage on the kinetic mechas.

The performance of the two mechas before him far exceeded, by an unknown magnitude, the mechas Colin had brought to the zombie planet.

Though they both resembled iron cans in shape, placing them side-by-side for comparison was like contrasting a World War I vintage tank with a modern main battle tank.

His own throwing knives could slice through Colin's mechas, severing joints in a single strike and leaving deep gashes even on core defensive armor.

Yet against Brolly's mecha knights, they could leave nothing more than a shallow scratch.

Joe knew very well that to defeat such an opponent, he had to resort to Javier's method:

Using brute, overwhelming force to concuss the pilot inside the mecha.

Yet raw strength had never been Joe's strong suit.

Even so, Joe was eager to test just how far he had progressed over the past few months.

At that moment, Big Mouth kicked off the ground with both legs, propelling his massive mecha forward at a speed utterly disproportionate to its bulk.

He appeared right in front of Joe in an instant.

Joe's pupils suddenly constricted.

"So fast!"

This time, Joe did not use his ultra-high speed to dodge the incoming attack.

Instead, he raised the shield in his hand to meet the blow head-on.

However, beneath the mecha's alloy heavy broadsword, Joe's Devouring Shield was as fragile as paper...

And was cleaved straight through.

Yet, the moment the shield split into two, a multitude of tentacles extended from the fragments.

They wrapped tightly around the mecha's arm.

The shield parts that fell to the ground shot out countless tentacles that burrowed deep into the soil.

These tentacles possessed incredible elasticity.

For a moment, Big Mouth's mecha found itself unable to shake off the tenacious appendages.

Because its arm was being held in check, the razor-sharp longsword in its grasp stopped a mere dozen centimeters away from Joe's head, unable to advance an inch further.

Joe immediately broke into a grin.

Although these throwing knives were mechanical life forms,

Compared to the sheer hardness of the mecha, they were simply not in the same league.

A direct collision would undoubtedly leave him on the losing end.

Right from the start, Joe had never intended to trade blows head-on with Big Mouth.

Knowing full well that those tentacles couldn't restrain the mecha for long,

Joe swung his riding spear with both hands.

And lashed out fiercely toward the mecha's chest.

At the same time, he shouted loudly: "Hemolytic Spear... Warhammer Form!"

Instantly, the shape of the riding spear underwent a violent transformation, shifting in the blink of an eye.

A ferocious warhammer materialized in Joe's hands.

Simultaneously, the liquid metal that had originally coated Joe's arms wrapped tightly around the warhammer.

With a brutal strike, it slammed squarely into the mecha's chest.

Struck by this devastating blow,

Big Mouth's mecha was sent flying backward through the air.

Meanwhile, the warhammer in Joe's grip shattered completely.

Metal and flesh splattered in all directions.

Regrettably, all those shattered metal fragments were merely the coating attached to the warhammer.

Big Mouth's mecha did not sustain any actual damage.

Even so, the sheer kinetic force of the blow

Left Big Mouth, inside the mecha, feeling slightly dizzy and disoriented.

While the mecha was still tumbling through the air,

Big Mouth had already regained control of it.

Executing a backflip, he planted both feet and one hand against the ground,

Scraping three deep trenches into the earth.

Joe couldn't help curling his lip.

"This tin can sure is tough to crack open!"

With a flick of his left hand, the shield that had been split in two and fallen to the ground flew back into his grasp,

Quickly fusing back together.

The warhammer that had been blasted apart twitched frantically along its handle for a few seconds before growing right back out.

This brief exchange of blows lasting mere seconds left Connor, watching from afar, utterly aghast.

He muttered to himself in disbelief: "How is this possible!"

"Resisting 80% of a kinetic mecha's power output with pure physical strength?"

"Is this guy even human?"

Right at that moment, a bantering voice sounded from behind Connor:

"Does anything about Joe right now make him look even remotely human!"

"Who would've thought that Joe's strength, which used to be about on par with an ant... would grow to such monstrous levels after his zombification!"

Connor gave a start, whipping his head around to see two men and a woman materialized behind him out of nowhere.

"He's getting so big, I'm going to have to expand my pit, otherwise there won't be enough room to bury Mr. Joe once he kicks the bucket..."

Lister remarked listlessly.

"Mr. Ye Hai, allow me to remind you, an ant's strength among creatures of its own body weight is actually extraordinarily formidable!"

Lyanna said with a faint smile on her lips:

"So many mechas, Mr. Ye Hai!"

"We've struck it rich."

Hearing Lyanna's words, Ye Hai chuckled heartily.

He nodded in satisfaction and spoke up:

"A windfall from the heavens!"

"Two hundred bio-mechas with outstanding performance..."

"We can finally go toe-to-toe with the Xenomorphs!"

As Ye Hai and Connor locked eyes, Ye Hai smiled warmly and said:

"Though I have no idea who you are..."

"Still, listen to me... thank you!"

"Because of you..."