Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 265: The Fierce Logic Bomb’s Effect Against Aerial Targets!
John shifted his gaze toward the location he felt the cyborgs would prioritise first.
"The Hiveminds’ new base is perfect for this. The Hiveminds are already de facto allies of the machines, and they wouldn’t hesitate to move and help the cyborgs activate the den.
Yet, with my current position at the southern territory, I doubt any cyborg or machine will make it past my blade. That leaves only one gaping hole in my strategy."
He finally moved his eyes toward the far south, the only place he had zero control over, the furthest away from his reach: the human territory. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
"From the quest requirements, it seems my earlier suspicions are confirmed. There are more hibernating cyborgs hidden within what remains of the human population. It would only take a single command from Mark, and they could move out to activate a den right in that territory.
It wouldn’t give him much strategic benefit early on, as it’s situated far too south of the Hiveminds and me, but if Mark finds himself unable to establish the sixth core anywhere else, he will definitely do it there, if only to spite me and to slaughter my people right under my nose."
John knew that if he had the luxury of choice, he would head directly to the human territory right now to perform a bloody cleansing. But his hands were tied by the immediate threat. "I’ll have to take it step by step. The first move is to turn this upfront territory into a grinding spot that will choke Mark’s entire plan by the throat."
John’s initial thoughts were focused on turning this specific territory into a kill zone for the machines coming from the den within it and the neighbouring southern den. He didn’t realise, however, that his very presence was acting as a beacon.
This territory was about to turn into the eye of a colossal storm, a place where machines from all active dens would flood in, ignoring all other targets with the singular aim of killing him.
The moment he stepped across the territorial border, John didn’t hesitate. He instantly built a big, very well-defended outpost. He kept a sharp eye on the aerial drones; they were circling the central region in a searching pattern.
Yet, the moment he laid down his defences, it was as if their sensors screamed his coordinates. They stopped their patrol instantly, fully ignited their engines, and flew directly toward him.
It took them less than half an hour to cross the territory and reach him. John wasn’t surprised by their speed. By the time the first flying drone appeared as a speck on the horizon, John had already expanded his foothold. He had built five massive outposts, staggered in a defensive line.
He recalled what Cissel and Luke had done, that efficient half-circular formation, yet he didn’t adopt it. John’s style was different. He placed his outposts in a "V" formation, making the structures slightly bigger than usual, enough to handle the massive waves coming later, and to serve his grand plan.
"Time to test the new limits," he whispered, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword until the knuckles turned white. "Lightning Dance!"
As the flying drones descended and started to lock onto him, John didn’t retreat behind the walls. He surged forward. He activated the Logic Bomb ability one after another.
"Logic Bomb... Ten seconds! Logic Bomb... Ten Seconds!"
John used his Lightning Dance first, eager to see if the one-hundred-meter effect would be limited to a flat circular plane or if it would grow into a true spherical kill-ball surrounding his body. To his satisfaction, the air around him didn’t just ripple; it exploded in a dome of lightning sword shadows.
The expansion of the sword’s special effect field was perfect. It reached upward, instantly engulfing twenty out of the fifty drones. Then, John started to move.
He didn’t hesitate. He mirrored the move he had seen Luke perform on the map, coiled his legs, and ran with the highest speed he could. He hit the rampart of the wall and used the momentum for a massive leap that brought him level with the circling drones.
He landed heavily on the metallic back of a flying drone, but he didn’t draw his blade to strike. Instead, he simply stood there, doing nothing. The Lightning Dance effect radiated from his body in a shimmering, hundred-meter sphere of death, madly attacking the drone beneath his feet and several others nearby.
As he jumped from one flying drone to the next, he began dropping Logic Bombs into the surrounding drones like seeds of destruction.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
"Damn! The Logic Bomb’s additional shockwave effect is a real killer to those drones!!"
John hit the ground in a smooth landing just as the first series of bombs detonated in the sky. He stood up, shielding his eyes from the glare to witness the results. Each Logic Bomb didn’t just explode; it created a shockwave field that stretched out and recoiled five times in rapid succession.
On the ground, against a horde of monsters, it was a strong hammer that crushed bones and left lots of wounds. But here, in the open air, the effect was devastatingly different.
The flying drones were caught in a violent atmospheric gale. With every outward expansion of the shockwave, they were hammered away like tin cans; with every recoil, the vacuum sucked them back into the centre of the blast radius, slamming them into one another, pulling them back into the area of effect of the next shockwave. The mid-air collisions were deafening, sending showers of sparks and shredded alloy raining down.
The realisation hit John with a jolt of pure adrenaline. Using five Logic Bombs on top of a Lightning Dance was complete overkill, a waste of resources against such low-numbered enemies.
"I should try a single Logic Bomb next time," he muttered to himself, an evil grin spreading across his face as he surveyed the field. The fifty flying drones were now nothing more than a smouldering graveyard of twisted metal. "Time to see what type of gifts that bastard Mark sent me, hehehe!"
