novelUnder Attack II
| ← Ch.519 | Ch.521 → |
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was this fear that made him lose his confidence as he flew his flying vessel. What would happen in this fast paced battle if the pilot hesitated?
Scared out of his wits, the pilot did not realize that he was flying towards the strange giant that he had been making fun of.
When he noticed, it was already too late.
The passive giant in black armor moved. Zing! A dark red alloy sword shot out of the weapons pack on its back and landed in its hand. The giant did a swipe and a slash, the sword seemingly meeting no resistance, and the bright purple flying vessel crumbled into pieces in the air.
Old Wei and his group members were stunned speechless.
They did not make out exactly what the giant did, but they could see that behind the swipe-and-slash attack was a combat veteran of great experience.
This allowed them to conclude that the giant in black armor was highly threatening.
The playboys had never seen battles like these. They usually spent their time showing off their tricks, but had never seen real combat and spilled blood. Now that their strongest comrade was killed, they panicked. Some of them began to cry.
Duo Ka and his beloved fighter machine headed towards Dual Forest. He heard that people saw a giant in black armor, reaching over 10 meters tall, and wanted to see it for himself.
Duo Ka's fighter was a light blue colored Blue Flounder II. Nicknamed Blue Lightning, it was a fighter vessel that was first designed more than a decade ago. The fish shaped fighter had two fins that arched inwards. Right above the pilot cabin in its main body was a fixed wing that looked like a shark's dorsal fin. This was the iconic structure of the model. The fighter was packed with powerful weapons. It had long range shooting capabilities, and could even fire high explosive grenades.
The model was over 10 years old, and was now in its seventh iteration. Nevertheless, Duo Ka never thought of switching to a new fighter. For more than 10 years, he had used and maintained his fighter. He was probably more familiar with his fighter than with his wife. Curiously, the fighter was like a lucky charm for the man. He had survived against impossible odds time and again with his fighter.
"Duo Ka is here, " Gu Reming was the first to notice his arrival. He quickly passed on the news to his friends.
Old Wei looked around and saw Duo Ka's blue, old model.
Duo Ka enjoyed a high reputation in Yedda, since he was the only Level 6 shooter in the city. For shooters, Level 5 separated the mediocre and the skillful. A shooter would be considered a pro if they reached Level 5. Levels 3 and 4 were not exactly common, but most shooters fell into these two levels. To go one level up from Level 4, however, was a challenge that all shooters will face. The difference between Levels 4 and 5 was more qualitative. A Level 5 shooter can easily win against a few Level 4 shooters. The difference in strength was so apparent, that many shooters found themselves never achieving Level 5, and could only accept the fact with regret.
Going further up the hierarchy, the second challenge was in going from Level 7 to Level 8. This was much harder than the first challenge. With talent and effort, and some luck, a shooter might just cross the gap. Level 8 shooters were considered geniuses, but the legendary Level 10 shooters were even rarer, and mostly from the past.
Yedda's citizens recognized Duo Ka's old, blue model, and quickly made way for him. They were excited at his appearance, for Duo Ka was Yedda's best shooter, and rarely fought in public. There were many Level 4 shooters here who would like to see Duo Ka fight, and hopefully gain some insight from it.
Duo Ka was just in time to see Celest's swipe-and-slash and attack. His face turned serious at that. He recognized the bright purple fighter. The pilot reached Level 5 at a young age, a rare talent. However, it seemed that he would not survive. Duo Ka sighed inside, regretting the loss of a genius.
The giant's skills surprised him. As Yedda's only Level 6 shooter, he could discern more than the average person. He sensed great strength behind the giant's every move.
On the contrary, he was not surprised by the giant's huge figure. The universe was vast and full of mysteries. It was not impossible for a giant to exist.
More surprising was the red longsword and armor. He recognized the material, though he did not know its name. He had seen trace amounts of the element in the darker half of Dual Forest. There were more in sandy areas, but only in bits and pieces. He had heard from an elder that these elements were everywhere in that the inner parts of Darkniss, where they came in a variety of colors. Even the plants in the inner parts of the Darkniss were unusual. The creatures that resided in the inner parts of Darkniss were all mysterious and powerful. The inner parts of Darkniss were places that only shooters who reached Level 8 or above could afford to explore. It was a dangerous and elusive place.
Could this odd giant be from the inner parts of Darkniss?
Duo Ka was shaken by where his thoughts lead. However, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. The heavy black armor, the dark red sword, and the black weapons pack on its back were all made of materials that could only be found in the inner parts of Darkniss.
If that was the case, how did the giant escape from Darkniss? According to his seniors who had entered Darkniss before, the creatures in there seemed to obey certain rules, having clearly delineated boundaries of activity. This was why none of the creatures from within Darkniss had ever been seen outside.
...
Ye Chong did now know that an expert was watching him. He was now on the aggressive. Without their strongest fighter, the rest of the playboy gang was no threat to Ye Chong.
He had already destroyed three aircrafts. Celest was faster and more agile in the sky compared to these fighter aircrafts. The disparity in their strengths was clear.
Duo Ka decided to act. He may not like the playboys much, but he knew their parents, and could not simply watch from the side as they died in the giant's hands.
Aim, fire.
A blue laser beam shot out from the front of Duo Ka's fighter, aimed at the giant's throat.
Ye Chong had been fighting carefully. He had the upper hand in the battle, but he was still surrounded by many other aircrafts which might ambush him at any time. His vigilance saved his life.
Celest did a Thomas's Spin, while the blue laser barely grazed past the mech's cheek.
Ye Chong was surprised, and looked around to see the blue aircraft. The other aircrafts were watching from a distance, but the blue one had inserted itself into the clearing that was his battleground.
Ye Chong stopped attacking the aircrafts. He felt an intense sense of danger emanating from the blue aircraft.
Without hesitation, Ye Chong executed the move he was most familiar with - Non-Orderly Wavy Leap. Celest zigzagged in the air like a weightless spirit, defying all laws of physics with its every twist and turn. No one understood what he was doing.
Five laser beams shot towards the spots where Celest was at almost the same time.
The shooter was skilled! Of the five laser beams it avoided, three nearly hit Celest.
The blue beams continued to strike, leaving Ye Chong barely enough time to process them. Duo Ka did not have the habit of talking it out.
The Level 6 shooter was powerful. The shooters around him watched in awe. There were no bells and whistles, but his solid techniques were enough to suppress the giant. Each shot was faster than the one before it. A normal shooter would not have survived the assault.
Ye Chong was experienced in defending himself against long range attacks. Ever since he chose to specialize in close range combat, he had faced all kinds of long range mechs time and again.
However, he was now in a very, very precarious situation!
Compared to all the ambushing or sniping he had survived, this time was much, much worse. The shooter barely took time to aim between shots. The laser beams came strongly at accurate and dangerous angles that made Ye Chong's life difficult.
Celest had switched its alloy sword for a diamond shaped shield. Even so, avoiding the shots was hard.
Ye Chong suddenly recalled a conversation he had with Mu a long time ago. He had once asked Mu if the mech was the strongest attacker. Mu had said no. When Ye Chong asked why, Mu had said that his attacks lacked spirit.
Ye Chong remembered that particular exchange right now. He knew now how deadly a skilled and focused shooter could be. Strength, speed and spirit - of the three elements, the spirit was the most neglected. However, when excellent spiritual training met long range shooting, the result was a deadly long range attacker.
Xi Feg Tribe had its mentalists, but Ye Chong felt that the shooters here were the ones who truly unlocked the potential of combining spiritual training and shooting.
Ye Chong was not in control of his thoughts. He did not know why he was thinking about all these irrelevant thoughts when in the midst of a battle.
He did now know that his body was fighting back in the most direct way right now.
Evasion!
Evasion and shooting are like twins or nemesis to each other. In the Five Galaxies, long range mechs had been developed for a long time. In this time, evasion techniques were also innovated at an astonishing rate.
Ye Chong's evasion techniques were all over the place.
Irregular Veers, Parallel Retreat, Thomas' Spin, Speckled Moon Spin ...
Effective evasion techniques worked not only to avoid the enemy's attacks, but also to interrupt the shooter's rhythm of attack. Only then could a close range mech close the distance between itself and its opponent. The evasive techniques were all designed to confuse, to make the shooters shoot off target.
Celest moved like a ghost, avoiding all the blue lasers raining down on it.
If Duo Ka's shooting was impressive, Celest's evasion measures were even more astonishing to the observing shooters.
They could not figure out how a massive figure like this giant could make such impossibly deft movements in the air. Compared to the giant, their aircrafts looked unwieldy.
Duo Ka turned grim. He had not wounded the giant so far. The giant was too fast, using evasion techniques that he had never seen before. So far, he could not do real harm on the giant.
Ye Chong was also having a hard time. His hands never stopped moving. The blue aircraft never stopped shooting its blue laser beams. All he could do now was avoid being hit at the mech's vulnerable spots.
Duo Ka decided to ramp up his attack. The giant was too slick to tackle.
He activated all the guns on his aircraft, and even put his rarely used high explosive grenades into the fray.
Ye Chong noticed Duo Ka's change in strategy instantly.
However, he could not think of any solution aside from trying his best to defend himself. His hands moved faster, turning into a blur on the controls console.
The sudden increase in intensity of the battle came as a surprised to the onlookers. The battle turned more violent as Duo Ka's fighter began spitting out laser beams with even higher frequency.
The giant's diamond shield was already covered with holes, all from the laser beams that hit it.
Without the shield, the laser beams would have hit on Celest's main body.
Ye Chong held on with difficulty as he tried to figure out another way. He must get out of his situation quickly. Just then, a high explosive grenade hit his shield.
Bam! The air cracked with a loud explosion, together with a bright sphere of white light that hurt the eyes.
The explosion was so powerful that it broke the diamond shaped shield into pieces. Celest was pushed to the ground from the shockwaves of the explosion.
Then, Ye Chong cursed himself for being an idiot.
The battle had started suddenly, and Duo Ka's attacks were so intense that Ye Chong did not have time to think properly. He now realized that fighting a bunch of crazies in the sky with his close range mech was just turning the odds against him.
On the contrary, the dense forest down below was a close range mech's home ground.
Celest curled into itself, blasted its engines at maximum and shot down like a meteor to the bafflement of the onlookers.
| ← Ch. 519 | Ch. 521 → |