Arknights: I'm Pretty Strong With Minecraft — Chapter 54

Chapter 54: Simple Redstone Cannon

“Give up, Frostnova. You can’t beat me.”

Ivan’s voice cut through the howling wind, carrying over the frozen wasteland to reach the solitary white figure standing before him. He rested the heavy, imposing mass of the Blade of the God of War casually over his shoulder.

“There’s really no point in us fighting like this,” he continued, his tone conversational despite the freezing battlefield. “How about we just sit down and talk things out properly?”

Frostnova offered no verbal reply.

Instead, she raised her pale hands. The ambient temperature plummeted instantly, and a surging tide of absolute cold rushed outward. Lethal, extreme Originium Arts gathered around her slender frame, crystallizing the very moisture in the air.

“Hey, hey, at least let me finish my pitch!” Ivan shouted, throwing his hands up in exasperation. Despite his complaints, his reflexes were razor-sharp.

The biting cold crashed down upon him like a towering, white tidal wave.

“Seriously, what is with this girl?!” Ivan grumbled. He gripped the hilt of his god-tier blade with both hands, raised it high, and smashed it fiercely into the frozen earth.

If the shattered ground beneath him possessed a voice, it would undoubtedly be screaming for him to stop abusing it.

A violent, kinetic shockwave erupted from the point of impact. The sheer physical force collided head-on with the incoming tide of lethal frost. The terrifying, life-freezing cold was literally shattered by raw, unadulterated power, rolling backward and diffusing into a chaotic mist of harmless ice crystals.

Taking advantage of the momentary lull, Ivan cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted into the fog.

“Talulah! Your precious leader, Talulah, has been hijacked by Kashchey’s ‘Black Snake’ consciousness! The person you’re so fiercely loyal to right now isn’t the real Talulah at all! She’s a monster manipulating everyone’s hearts!”

Through the dissipating mist, he saw Frostnova’s hands freeze mid-cast. The swirling Originium Arts around her noticeably faltered, and a faint tremor ran through her shoulders at the mention of the Black Snake.

Seeing the crack in her icy armor, Ivan immediately pressed the advantage.

“Why don’t you come to Rhodes Island instead? Our philosophy on treating the Infected might actually align with what you originally fought for!”

Silence stretched across the ruins for a fleeting second. Then, the biting frost returned, colder and more unforgiving than before.

“You…” Frostnova’s voice was a fragile, chilling whisper. “Have no evidence.”

Meteor, crouching behind a piece of rubble nearby, leaned in and whispered to Ivan. “It’s not that your argument is flawed, it’s just that she really doesn’t seem to be listening to a word you say. She doesn’t want to communicate at all.”

Ivan stroked his chin, looking genuinely offended. “I feel like I’m being incredibly charismatic right now. My logic is flawless. It shouldn’t be ending up like this.”

He sighed, rolling his shoulders. “Fine! If she won’t listen to reason, then I’ll just have to beat her into submission first! We’ll fight until she’s willing to sit down and listen!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Ivan caught a glimpse of his HUD’s mini-map. Two familiar pixelated avatars—representing Amiya and the Doctor—were rapidly closing in on their coordinates.

“Amiya and the others are almost here,” he muttered.

Across the shattered street, the atmosphere pulled taut. The hardened soldiers of the Yeti Squad knew their commander’s unyielding determination. Swallowing their inner dread, they raised their weapons and began channeling their Originium Arts in unison. Freezing mist billowed outward, and countless jagged ice spears materialized in the air, pointing directly at the Rhodes Island vanguard.

Meteor, Frostleaf, and Jessica tightened their grips on their respective weapons, bracing for a brutal, desperate clash.

But right at the precipice of absolute violence, Ivan—the man who had just boldly declared he would beat Frostnova into submission—did the unthinkable.

He turned on his heel and sprinted away in the opposite direction.

Meteor, Frostleaf, and Jessica stared at his retreating back, utterly stunned. Across the battlefield, the heavily armored Yeti Squad lowered their crossbows slightly, thoroughly bewildered by the sudden retreat. Even Frostnova, whose expression remained perpetually frozen in stoic sorrow, blinked. A deep look of confusion flashed across her dark eyes.

A second later, the confusion evaporated into sheer, unadulterated terror as everyone realized exactly what Ivan was doing.

Ivan dashed to a relatively open patch of ruins. With a speed that defied the laws of physics, he began pulling impossible materials out of thin air. Blocks of dense, purple-glowing obsidian slammed into the dirt. Next came a water bucket, piles of red dust, a wooden lever, and several blocks of TNT marked with bold white lettering.

In the span of a single breath, he arranged the indestructible obsidian into a crude, U-shaped structure. A launch platform.

He slapped the TNT blocks into the chamber, dumped the water at the base, and rapidly wired the redstone dust along the edges. A rudimentary, yet utterly devastating Redstone Cannon materialized on the Terra battlefield.

Ivan grabbed the wooden lever. Click.

The Yeti Squad stood paralyzed.

“Time for a mid-lane snipe,” Ivan grinned.

The redstone circuit flared to life with a harsh, buzzing hum. The TNT blocks ignited, flashing violently with a highly unstable, blinding white light.

Frostnova’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. An overwhelming, primal sense of impending doom forced a rare scream from her throat.

“Everyone! Retreat!! Get behind the ice wall! Now!!”

She slammed both palms against the frozen earth. A massive, towering glacier of an ice wall erupted from the ground, shielding her squad.

Standing safely behind his makeshift artillery, Ivan wore a wild, exhilarated grin. He threw his arm high into the air, facing the panicked Yeti Squad and the colossal ice barricade.

As the primer hissed its final warning, he shouted those deep, legendary words:

“Art—is an explosion!!!”

BOOM.

A deafening, apocalyptic roar tore through the ruined city, completely dwarfing the sound of any conventional Originium Arts blast. The sheer kinetic force of the detonation caused the very tectonic plates beneath their feet to shudder violently.

Miles away, a miniature mushroom cloud composed of pulverized concrete, ice, and unknown debris slowly plumed into the gray sky.

The sudden, earth-shaking tremor brought the approaching reinforcement squad to an immediate halt. Everyone whipped their heads toward the source of the blast, their faces painted with shock.

“What… what just happened over there?!” Amiya gasped, her rabbit ears twitching frantically as she tried to gauge the threat level. An explosion of that magnitude was absolutely not a standard skirmish.

Beside her, Ch’en and Hoshiguma exchanged grim looks, their brows furrowing deeply. The Lungmen Guard Department officers instinctively tightened their grips on their shields and swords, bracing for an ambush.

Amidst the heavy, suffocating tension, the Doctor’s reaction was entirely out of place.

The masked tactician immediately deduced the cause of the blast. His voice cracked with a bizarre mix of absolute certainty and frantic excitement.

“It’s Ivan! That’s definitely Ivan! There aren’t many people on the entire continent of Terra who can cause such an absurd amount of property damage! Let’s go! Move out!”

Throwing away his usual habit of cowering behind the heavily armored defenders, the Doctor reached to his waist and drew a glittering, pixelated Diamond Sword. Taking the lead, the usually frail tactician sprinted madly toward the epicenter of the mushroom cloud.

“Ivan—! You better leave some for me—!” the Doctor screamed over the ringing echoes of the blast. “I need to grind too! I need the EXP—! Don’t you dare clear the whole map by yourself!”

Amiya stared blankly at the passionately sprinting Doctor, her mouth slightly agape.

She rubbed her temples, feeling a sudden headache coming on, but quickly snapped back into leader mode, taking over the command the Doctor had just abandoned.

“Attention, everyone!” Amiya called out. “Change direction! Target: the explosion site! Accelerate your pace, but stay alert for secondary ambushes!”