Arknights: Soul Knights of Terra — Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Do You Think You Can… Kill Me!!!You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

After the Eldest shouted, he raised his massive shield, bracing his heavy frame to meet the incoming assault. Saria narrowed her eyes behind her visor. It seemed the towering opponent before her was not just another mindless monstrosity born of Catastrophes.

Instead of sitting back and waiting for death, the Eldest actively tried to rein in the scorching, volatile power surging through his new body. Bursting flames shot out from the jagged cracks in his lava-like armor, sweeping across the corridor straight toward Saria in a blinding wave of heat.

Saria’s gaze hardened into cold steel. She activated her Originium Arts without a second thought. A massive, pristine white crystalline shield instantly materialized in the air in front of her, catching the inferno. The roaring flames split violently to both sides, washing over the steel floor panels until the metal began to glow red and melt into slag.

Seeing the standoff, the Rhine Lab security personnel stationed nearby immediately raised their weapons and launched a coordinated attack on the Eldest. However, their etched bullets were reduced to molten droplets by the sheer ambient heat of the flames before they could even scratch his carapace.

Feeling the intense, blistering heat radiating against her palms through the crystal, Saria knew she could not afford a battle of attrition. She pushed her weight against her shield and charged directly toward her towering opponent.

The Eldest was genuinely startled. She was charging right through the roaring flames?

Saria’s speed was terrifyingly fast. Before the Eldest could even recover from his momentary panic, she had already closed the distance and slammed her entire weight—shield and all—into his chest.

The Eldest could not stop a heavy grunt of pain from escaping his throat.

The voices of his sworn brothers instantly rang out in his mind, overflowing with frantic concern.

[No. 2: Eldest! Are you okay?]

[No. 3: Eldest, are you hurt!?]

[No. 4: Damn it! Eldest, activate your shield! Where the hell are your skills!?]

The violent, bone-rattling impact made the Eldest feel as though he had been hit head-on by a speeding armored transport. His heavy, magma-forged body involuntarily stumbled back several meters, his feet carving deep, molten gouges into the floor. Saria’s charging force was far beyond anything he had imagined.

[I’m fine!] The Eldest responded urgently through their mental link, desperately struggling to stabilize his footing. [That was a hell of a hit, but I can still take it!]

In reality, a flash of deep gravity crossed Saria’s eyes. She had not held back an ounce of strength with that charge. Yet, this towering lava monster in front of her had only stumbled back a few paces?

“Intruder, do you come from Kazdel? What is your purpose in making an enemy of Rhine Lab?” Saria demanded, attempting to extract tactical information while her relentless assault never ceased. The very moment her crystalline shield dissipated into the air, she stepped into his guard. A powerful, heavy straight punch, backed by the full torque of her hips, smashed brutally toward the Eldest’s abdomen.

[No. 4: Eldest, hurry up and talk to Saria! This woman is actually quite reasonable if you explain things!]

[Eldest: You think I don’t want to? I can’t speak a single human word right now!]

A deafening, unintelligible roar of a Flame Demon tore from his throat instead of words.

Saria said nothing more. She simply continued to throw devastating punches.

The Eldest groaned inwardly. Facing Saria’s wind-swift, punishing jabs, he had no choice but to force his heavy shield downward to cover his vitals.

“Clang—!”

A dull, massive boom echoed through the ruined facility. A solid, bone-jarring impact transferred straight through the shield into his arm, while a scorching recoil force traveled back along Saria’s gauntlet.

A sudden flash of inspiration struck the Eldest. He tried to manually channel the rushing, chaotic flame energy boiling within his core.

A violent shockwave of fire instantly erupted from the broad surface of his shield, expanding outward in an attempt to blast Saria away.

Saria’s combat reflexes were monstrous. She retreated the exact fraction of a second her fist made contact, letting the erupting flames only singe the empty air where she had just been standing.

Looking at the faint scorch marks left on her calcified gauntlets, and then observing the opponent’s movements—which appeared clumsy at first glance but were actually highly responsive—her gaze grew even colder. It seemed this creature was rapidly adapting to the battlefield and improving its mastery over its own abilities in real time.

“Target is unable to communicate. It possesses a high threat level and extreme growth potential…” Saria whispered sharply into her tactical headset. Her eyes narrowed with lethal intent. “Execute suppression operation.”

The Rhine Lab security personnel standing by on the perimeter immediately opened fire. A dense, deafening barrage of high-explosive Originium grenades and armor-piercing etched bullets poured down upon the Eldest like a torrential rain of death.

[No. 2: Explosions? They have explosives too!]

[No. 3: What do we do, what do we do! Eldest, run!]

[No. 4: Run? Run where? Don’t be afraid, Eldest! It’s time to test out your skills!]

[Eldest: I don’t know how to use them!]

The Eldest roared in frustration, slamming the bottom edge of his massive shield heavily into the melting floor. He crouched his hulking, lava-like body entirely behind the metal bulwark.

Suddenly, a transparent blue barrier expanded outward from his position, forming a perfect dome that intercepted every single bullet and artillery shell before they could touch him.

[Eldest: Holy shit! The shield actually works!]

[No. 4: It works? Then tell me, Eldest, do you feel any mana consumption?]

[Eldest: I don’t feel any drain for now. It should hold for a long time.]

[No. 2: Eldest, watch out! That shield can’t block melee attacks!]

No. 2’s frantic warning had barely faded from the mental link when an absolutely irresistible force crashed against the front of the shield.

Saria had planted her boots firmly into the ground. Pulling her right fist back to gather momentum, she delivered a devastating, heavy punch completely encased in jagged calcified crystals. It struck the Energy Shield like a siege cannon.

“Boom!!!”

The blue Energy Shield shattered into a million dissipating fragments upon impact. The Eldest felt an overwhelming, crushing force slam directly into his chest, launching his massive frame flying backward through the air until he crashed heavily into a pile of twisted metal wreckage.

“Open fire.” Saria issued the cold, merciless command.

The surrounding security personnel did not hesitate for a second, pouring relentless firepower directly into the thick cloud of dust. Originium grenades and etched bullets rained into the wreckage in a continuous storm of destruction.

However, most of the munitions striking that dark, hardened lava carapace only produced sporadic showers of sparks, failing to even make the Eldest register a flinch of pain.

“Roar—!”

A low, deeply suppressed roar of pure fury rumbled from within the settling dust. The Eldest propped his heavy body up from the debris, a blinding anger roiling violently in his chest.

As his volatile emotions surged, the glowing lava veins mapped across his body suddenly flared with blinding intensity. Violent, uncontrollable flames erupted from his core, turning him into a living furnace. The surrounding metallic ruins quickly began to melt down, crimson magma flowing freely at his feet while the very air warped and distorted from the extreme heat.

[Eldest! I’ve figured it out!] No. 2’s urgent voice pierced through the mental link. [To use your skills, you have to shout the skill name! Reciting it mentally works too, but you need an incredibly strong intent to trigger it!]and support the real translator.Read at elysianreads.com This is a stolen translation. You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

[Got it!]

The Eldest swung his lava-drenched arm in a wide arc. A scorching, impenetrable curtain of fire materialized out of thin air, prematurely detonating several incoming high-explosive Originium grenades in mid-flight.

Just as he drew a breath to shout the name of his ultimate defensive skill as instructed, a pale, deadly shadow broke through the dust at an astonishing speed right at the edge of his vision. It was accompanied by a terrifying, high-pitched whistling sound!

It was a massive calcified crystal cone, thicker than a grown man’s torso, condensed entirely from Saria’s formidable Originium Arts.

The Eldest only had enough time to let out a mental curse. There was absolutely no way his heavy body could mount an effective defense in that fraction of a second.

“Boom—!!”

The massive crystal cone slammed solidly into his abdomen with the force of a meteor. The terrifying kinetic impact carried his entire massive frame backward, smashing through several reinforced ruined walls before finally pinning him firmly against a jagged pile of twisted steel girders.

“Cough… uh…”

This time, the sharp, agonizing pain was incredibly clear and violent, far exceeding any blunt impact he had suffered so far.

The Eldest looked down with immense difficulty, staring at the pristine white crystal cone that had nearly impaled him straight through. The hardened lava carapace around the impact zone had completely shattered, revealing the raw, glowing flesh beneath, which seemed to be composed of pure, scorching energy rather than blood and bone.

The wound was constantly trying to knit itself back together, but the foreign Originium energy attached to Saria’s crystal cone actively hindered the healing process.

The very real, suffocating threat of death washed over him like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing the reckless agitation born from his earlier anger.

He realized once again, with absolute, terrifying clarity—this was not a video game. This was not a dream.

The opponent in front of him was dead serious. She fully intended to capture him, or tear him apart trying!

The Eldest gritted his teeth and struggled to pull the massive crystal cone out of his flesh, but Saria was a seasoned veteran. She would never give an enemy room to breathe.

She charged in once more, her hands and boots heavily encased in dense, calcified white crystals. Every single strike she threw contained enough raw, kinetic power to crack monuments and split boulders, smashing mercilessly into the Eldest’s crumbling lava body.

“Bang! Bang! Thud!”

The heavy, sickening sounds of blunt force trauma echoed incessantly through the ruins. The Eldest was shaken to his very core with every hit, chunks of hardened lava and molten droplets flying everywhere.

He desperately tried to mount a counterattack, swinging his burning, massive arm in a wide sweep. But Saria’s footwork was flawless; she calmly slipped past his desperate strikes and delivered a punishing heavy blow to his ribs the moment he overextended.

[Eldest: This is no good! My speed can’t even begin to keep up with her! If this continues, she’s going to wear me down to death!]

The Eldest could feel the very lava composing his physical form trembling under the relentless assault. The looming shadow of death violently stimulated his nerves.

Desperate, the Eldest released a towering wall of fire to block her next attack, only to suddenly realize that Saria’s devastating fist had stopped entirely in mid-air. Her brows were slightly furrowed beneath her visor.

A frantic scream from a Rhine Lab research colleague had just crackled through her earpiece.

“Stop! Saria! Stop immediately! Don’t kill the specimen! You are ordered to capture it alive!”

Taking full advantage of the split second Saria paused her assault, the Eldest screamed into the mental link.

[Eldest: No. 4! What the hell are Saria’s weaknesses?!]

[No. 4: Weaknesses? Are you kidding me? She’s a freaking max-stat monster! If I absolutely have to say something… she’s technically better at dealing with large-scale units and mid-to-long range combat. Close-quarters? No, wait, she’s fierce as hell in melee too!]

[Eldest: Don’t talk absolute nonsense at a time like this!!!]

Saria finished processing the command in her headset and began walking toward him once more, her posture radiating lethal intent. The Eldest completely tuned out the chaotic shouting in the group chat.

This couldn’t go on…

Pure fear and boiling rage intertwined within his chest, eventually condensing into a single, razor-sharp sliver of absolute ruthlessness.

[Fuck this!]

You think I’m just a stuffed toy because I haven’t bitten your head off?!

Enduring the blinding, sharp pain tearing through his abdomen, he forcefully erupted with a massive wave of flames to push Saria back one more time.

Letting out a deafening, monstrous roar mixed with both agony and unyielding determination, he raised both his fists and repeatedly clawed directly into his own ruined waist and abdomen.

Molten lava splattered everywhere in a gruesome display. The Eldest had actually, forcibly hollowed out his own wounded flesh to purge the foreign energy.

Saria’s gaze hardened at the sheer brutality of the creature’s self-mutilation, and she immediately raised her hand to condense another massive crystal cone.

“Energy Shield!”

[Paladin Skill 1 — Energy Shield]

[Effect: Activate Energy Shield to absorb all incoming damage; absorbed damage is converted directly into energy.]

A blinding crimson lava field instantly expanded outward from his body. The ambient temperature in the surrounding area skyrocketed to apocalyptic levels in a fraction of a second, causing the surrounding steel structures to rapidly liquefy into glowing molten iron.

Not only that, but the massive, self-inflicted wound on the Eldest’s waist and abdomen began to heal at a terrifying, visible rate, the glowing magma knitting together until the injury vanished in the blink of an eye.

Saria’s eyes narrowed dangerously, and she immediately hurled the newly formed crystal cone straight at his chest.

However, the very same crystal cone that had previously possessed the power to impale him was instantly, quietly erased from existence the absolute second it touched the outer edge of his expanding energy field. The fundamental law of the dungeon—bullet erasure—had taken absolute priority.

Feeling the immense, surging energy within his body reach a critical peak once more, the Eldest slowly raised his massive, glowing palm toward Saria. Furious, apocalyptic flames gathered within his grasp, illuminating the ruins.

“Do you think you can…”

“Kill me!!!”

[Rhodes’s Note: “Max-stat monster” is adapted from the Chinese slang “hexagonal warrior” (六边形战士), referring to a character whose stat radar chart is maxed out in all six directions. “You think I’m just a stuffed toy…” is adapted from the classic Chinese internet idiom “If a tiger doesn’t show its might, you treat me like Hello Kitty,” maintaining the comedic gamer tone of the crossover.]You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.