651 Hang In There

The attractive field medics that accompanied Wang Tong everywhere had attracted many soldiers' attention. The way they stared at Wang Tong and fluttered their lashes convinced everyone that all four medics had something for him.

There were the attractive four medics, and there was Heidi. Her beauty was not for the mortals' eyes. Luckily, she was with Karl and Flash on the X-6 mission, so the human soldiers wouldn't have to stomach the envy of watching Wang Tong and the goddess' interactions. 

All the space warriors worshiped Wang Tong as their hero; however, the officers didn't share the soldiers' admiration. The commanding officers were all full of themselves and snobby toward the METAL warriors on their ships, much less an outsider such as Wang Tong. 

There were even rumors about something fishy going on between Wang Tong and Samantha. The two generals were very pleased by the spreading of these rumors; their smear tactics had worked well. 

Samantha had kept her silence before the rumors, and Wang Tong didn't seem to care a wee bit about it either. As they said, one must be doing sometime right when one became the target of jealousy.

"Have you got a handle on it?" Wang Tong asked, and the six casters nodded their heads. 

"Wang Tong, you have given me so much grief. I suck at pretty much everything except for the fire element." Guan Dongyang smiled wryly. 

"You are more powerful than you think. There is something else you could try, called…"

Guan Dongyang cut Wang Tong short with a wave of the hand. "No, don't try to lure me into another one of your plots! Try it on Michaux…He is much stronger than me."

"Be a man, do the right thing! When the war is over, you will be responsible for passing down the torch of mastery to the next generation. Don't you want to learn any other techniques other than BBQing your enemy?" Wang Tong jested. 

"Touché! You need to raise your bar. Otherwise, I will be bored to death before the Zergs claim me." Michaux chimed in. He liked to hang out with Wang Tong and his friends since he didn't have to don the mask of the Divine Master; it was much relieving that way. The less than one month's time he had spent with Wang Tong's crew was the happiest time he had enjoyed in a long while. There was no paperwork or politics to slow him down as he engrossed himself in cultivation. 

"Are you on my side or not, Michaux? What you four cupcakes think about this? All of us employees have to stand together." The girls looked at Wang Tong and Guan Dongyang, then giggled without replying. 

"Wang Tong, why do you ask me to learn the earth element? If we are going to fight in space, where the heck am I going to find the earth element?"

"Just wait. You will see what I mean after you have learned what I am going to show you guys."

"Oh? Another new spell? What is the level?" Guan Dongyang's face was lit up with glee at the promise of learning a new spell. Unlike Michaux who was obsessed with the divine path, Guan Dongyang was addicted to learning new spells.

"Even the forbidden power is nothing compared to this new spell."

Everyone was shocked by Wang Tong's claim as they wondered what kind of spell it could be.

"Hehe, the spell itself seems ordinary, but when used under certain circumstances, it could be extremely deadly." Wang Tong started to explain the theory behind the spell. It was a spell that strengthened elemental resonance. However, Wang Tong had tweaked the spell and added some extra elemental attributes.

When Wang Tong finished explaining, everyone mauled over the spell for a while and conceded that the spell by itself was not powerful at all.

"I don't understand what it the purpose of this…unless!" Suddenly, Wang Tong's friends had a moment of epiphany. 

"Are you sure it will work?"

"Oh my gosh! It's insane!"

Wang Tong stood up and stretched as he looked out of the window. "How did the GN force allow us to survive extremely hostile environments? And what is mastery except for the manifestation of human intelligence? We need to look at the universe from a much higher point of view. "

"Humans' exploration of the universe was within the spatial dimension, while the endeavors in the world of mastery are on an entirely different one." Michaux put in.

"Are you sure only the few of us will do?" Guan Dongyang asked with concern in his voice.

"It will be enough. There will be another hurdle, but we will deal with it then. No point to fuss about it now."

"It's almost cruelty."

"So? After all, we are only human." Wang Tong smirked.

…

Two days later, a small ship took off quietly from one of the mother ships. However, this didn't escape Li Hong and Xiao Se, as they had been watching Wang Tong and his crew closely. They knew it was about time for Wang Tong to do something.

"What about the rest? Did they leave with him?"

"Yes, general! All six mastery casters are gone."

"Did they bring any weapon with them?"

"Just standard equipment. They took an X-6, so only a couple of pilots are with them."

"Very well…Dismissed!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Xiao Se, what do you think he is trying to achieve?" Li Hong asked. Something was amiss; this whole thing didn't pass a smell test.

Xiao Se didn't reply as he lit a cigar and drew on it. He had kept a close eye on Wang Tong ever since he arrived. However, other than harmless rumors about his personal life, he had learned nothing new about him. There were only twenty days before the deadline. What could he possibly do with only six casters?

The more he observed Wang Tong, the less he knew about this mysterious warrior. Xiao Se was convinced that the latter had hidden something up his sleeve, and not knowing what it was unnerved the shrewd general.

"How are things on Mars?" 

"The war is ending very quickly. The Martians were taking a swath of land that they had previously lost to the dark ones. They are also building the fleet at an incredible speed."

"You don't think that Wang Tong was waiting for the Martian fleet, do you?"

"He won't have that much time. Plus, the new fleet is useless with all the freshmen on board."

"Then we shall wait and play by the ear. How's the negotiation with Lie Jian?" Xiao Se asked

Li Hong shrugged. "It's slow. I don't think Lie Jian is fully in charge of things down there. "

"Hehe…That is exactly why we need to work with him. He is an ambitious young lord of a great house. He won't just sit and watch Wang Tong take over the mars. The enemy's enemy is my friend…he should know that."

"Generals, we just got a report that we have detected Wang Tong's location."

"Ah? Where is he?"

"Saturn."

"Saturn again? He is a stubborn fool! He thinks he can duke it out with the Zerg armada with only two hundred X-6 units?"

"What is Samantha up to?"

"She is... moving her fleet to assist Wang Tong."

"What? It's unacceptable! How could she make such a decision without informing us?" Li Hong's anger burst out.

"I want to speak to her…NOW!"

Not far away, Samantha was waiting for the dark faces of Li Hong and Xiao Se. 

"What's the hurry, General Xiao Se?"

"Admiral, what is going on here? Why are we moving toward Saturn?"

"I have decided to fight the Zergs around the Saturn's asteroid belt. The success of the X-6 mission has told us that we are much more powerful than the Zergs. We need to strike out decisively when we have the upper hand."

"You are crazy, Samantha! What upper hand? This is suicide!"

"General Xiao Se, do I need to remind you that I am the Admiral, the commander of the Armada? You have promised me that you would cooperate with my missions."

Samantha didn't give the two any chance to rebut, turning off the terminal immediately. Afterward, she turned on the intercom and reinstated her authority and resolution in this mission to all the soldiers.

Xiao Se could only stare at the black screen, unable to believe that this was the prudent and circumspect Admiral Samantha that he used to know.

"She has gone mad! She is nuts, I tell you!" Li Hong shouted. 

"How did Wang Tong manage to convince her?"

Li Hong's blood boiled. "We can't let her do this! We need to take the authority out of her hand."

"Just.. be quiet and let me think." Xiao Se waved in annoyance at Li Hong as his mind raced. Could it be that the promise he had forced Samantha to make had spurred her to do this out of desperation?