Chapter 147: Ace Operator?
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
At that moment, the squad leader also caught sight of the few 'little mice' that Kotou had noticed. He knew of his subordinate's little penchant, and so grumbled at him good-naturedly, "I'll give you one minute to deal with these little mice. Shikamaru-kun, let's go."
The squad leader could leave so easily because he did not think that these few little mice would be any trouble for Kotou, so there was no need for all three of them to be there. Might as well let Kotou enjoy himself.
The two of them very quickly sped off in their mecha, leaving Kotou behind alone. When they left, they did not notice that from another direction, close to the ground, a white and blue mecha was skimming its way towards the area ...
Kotou controlled his mecha to lock onto the group below him. From a distance, he raised his mecha's right arm, aiming his beam gun right at the people staring at him fearfully from below.
Qi Long, Wu Jiong, and the others naturally knew they had been discovered by the other. Their faces paled, and they shouted desperately for their comrades to run ... but in fact, they knew deep down that no matter how fast they ran, they would not be able to outrun the impact of the mecha's beam gun.
"Wakaka! Pitiful worms, say farewell to the world just like this!" Kotou saw the terrified faces of the children below and began to laugh wildly in excitement. This was the type of expression that excited him! It was like the high from taking drugs — irresistible ... this was also the reason why he had always loved torturing and killing children.
With this twisted mentality and a crazed smile, Kotou decisively pressed down on the launch button in his hand. Energy began to gather at the muzzle of his beam gun, about to burst forth at any moment ...
A loud "Boom!"
From a distance, a beam struck his mecha's beam gun before he could shoot. Because of this beam, the beam gun exploded instantly, blowing off the whole right arm of Kotou's mecha. The arm dropped to the ground below.
"Federation mecha!" Qi Long, Wu Jiong, and the others had thought they were doomed, but unexpectedly, they were saved at the last second. They all turned to look for the source of the beam, and saw a blue and white mecha flying swiftly from a distance, heading straight for the Twilight Empire mecha in the air.
"That's great! We're saved!" There was an expression of great relief on all the children's faces.
Han Jijyun was the only one who was still somewhat level-headed. "Take advantage of this chance and run!" There had been three Twilight mecha, while only one Federation mecha was coming here. If the other two Twilight mecha hurried back, Han Jijyun did not think the Federation mecha had good odds of surviving. The mecha had saved them, so Han Jijyun also did not want him to die, but reality forced Han Jijyun to first prioritize their own survival.
Qi Long and the others knew Han Jijyun was right; they cast a reluctant look at the blue and white mecha, and then gathered everyone and moved deeper into the forest ...
"Good luck, Federation mecha operator!" Everyone was silently cheering on the Federation mecha operator in the sky.
"Baka!" Kotou was livid. He had only wanted have some fun and kill off a few mice, but just a slip in attention had allowed the opponent to blast off his mecha's right arm, losing him his beam gun.
He glared hatefully at that incoming blue and white mecha. It was a standard advanced mecha, with only the Federation's logo on its chest, nothing else. From this, he could tell that the other was just a regular advanced mecha warrior.
In the Federation, mecha of ace level and above would have their own personal symbol on the chest other than the Federation's logo. The higher one's level, the larger one's personal symbol would be. When one became a god-class operator, the Federation logo would no longer be displayed, leaving only one's unique personal symbol behind. Take Ling Xiao for example. On the chest area of his mecha, there had only been a fiery phoenix on display.
His initial plan to contact his squad leader abruptly stopped ... he had really been thinking of calling his squad leader over, but seeing that the opponent was just a regular advanced mecha warrior, his pride would not allow him to press the connect button.
If he had to call for help against this kind of opponent, it would truly be a disgrace.
Kotou felt that he could not afford to lose this face — he was the elite of the Empire, an ace operator — how could he lose to a common advanced mecha warrior of the enemy nation?
Kotou decided in an instant that he would avenge himself. Even if he only had his left arm remaining, with his control skills, it was enough to torment the opponent till the other yearned for death.
Kotou controlled the mecha's left arm to pull out the beam saber behind its back, in preparation for close-range combat.
"Boss, the opponent is actually choosing to engage in close-range combat!" Little Four was thrilled. Compared to long-range attack, Little Four had much more confidence in Ling Lan's close-range combat.
"That's pretty good luck. Little Four, engage full horsepower, charge!" Ling Lan commanded decisively.
Initially, she had been controlling her speed, wary of the other sniping at her mecha. Thus, she had been fully focused, ready to push her mecha into irregular flight. This decision of the opponent actually eased her mind greatly. Mind you, irregular flight was very taxing mentally, and was also a high-level movement that Ling Lan only learned recently. If forced to use it, Ling Lan would have only been able to do her best despite her average proficiency with it.
"Got it, Boss. Leave it to me." Little Four's reply was accompanied by a burst in speed.
Kotou had thought that he would have some time to adjust, but unexpectedly, the opponent's speed suddenly increased by several folds, and the opponent appeared before him in the blink of an eye. Even worse, the other did not seem to have any intentions of slowing down, instead choosing to barrel straight at him, as if determined to bring him down and perish together.
Kotou naturally did not want to die together with the opponent. His first reaction was to dodge — he activated the emergency thruster on one side, forcibly shifting his mecha to a side, narrowly missing the other's charge.
But before Kotou could relax, the blue and white mecha about to pass by suddenly stopped strangely. At the same time, its mechanical arm bent and pushed out savagely. The crook of the black mecha's neck was struck by a forceful elbow.
A loud "Bang!" This strength behind this elbow was considerable. It immediately sent the black mecha spinning, and the initially air-borne mecha began plunging towards the ground ...
"Goddammit!" A moment of negligence made him lose the initiative and take on the passive role in this fight. Kotou tried desperately to regain control of his mecha, hoping to slow the speed of his descent and recover the mecha's balance to counterattack.
He finally managed to stop his mecha's descent with much difficulty, but the blue and white mecha did not stop attacking with just that elbow. The opponent actually descended as well, flying upside down to meet him head first, sending an iron fist hurtling his way.
This attack once again disrupted the mecha's balance. The mecha dropped sharply, and just when Kotou was trying his hardest to pull up his mecha, he was flabbergasted to find that the opponent's blue and white mecha was falling even faster than him, actually overtaking him in an instant.
This was all because the blue and white mecha had engaged both main thrusters at the same time, boosting its speed so the mecha could descend faster ...
Qi Long and the others, who had just run away to a safe distance, were hiding and watching the battle. Seeing this development, their hearts jumped into their throat. Could it be that there was something wrong with the Federation mecha's systems? Or did the mecha operator make an operation mistake?
The blue and white mecha was about to smash into the ground when — barely 2 metres from the ground, the mecha's thus far inert secondary engine for reactionary propulsion activated, its 12 jet spouts all opening up. A powerful surge of air blasted out, actually blowing the leaves and broken branches on the ground into the air, twirling on the whirling winds.
This blast of energy was enough to stop the falling mecha cold. At the same time, the blue and white mecha's two mechanical arms lifted high above its head, all ten fingers spread wide, and slammed heavily onto the ground. Meanwhile, in the air, its two legs spun fiercely, kicking out towards the spot where the black mecha was about to fall into.
And so, a mecha spun gracefully into an intermediate difficulty Thomas flair 1 , kicking the black mecha back up into the air. This time, due to this large force, the black mecha no longer had any way to deflect, and was sent flying by the blue and white mecha's kick.
"Amazing!" Qi Long and the others were utterly stunned by this sight. They had not expected that a mecha could pull off human combat arts, and it was even more impressive and exciting than seeing a real person pull it off.
The blue and white mecha pushed off its hands and flipped to stand upright. Without hesitation, it used its left hand to pull out the beam saber on its back, while its right hand grabbed the high-frequency blade on its thigh, and pounced ruthlessly at the black mecha who had hit the ground and was now lying there immobile.
"Argh, baka, die die die!" Kotou shook his concussed head. Seeing the blue and white mecha rushing at him with its blades, he immediately fired all the artillery he could on his body to try and stop the other. Perhaps out of fear, he actually began cursing vehemently within the cockpit.
Facing the black mecha's barrage of fire, the blue and white mecha's rushing figure suddenly started folding and overlapping, even creating multiple layers of ghost images ... The artillery all landed around the blue and white mecha, releasing countless light and flames, but not a single one hit the mecha.
"Isn't that the irregular flicker that only ace operators would know?" asked Wu Jiong, astonished.
Qi Long nodded excitedly. "Yes, yes, it is! The one controlling that mecha must definitely be an ace operator!"
Qi Long was currently looking at the formidable blue and white mecha with a face full of admiration. He wished that he could be the one piloting that mecha ... The desire in his heart was raging: I want to operate mecha, operate mecha (several hundred thousand more 'operate mecha's omitted) ...
"Impossible, how could it be irregular flicker ..." When Kotou saw this, his eyes popped wide open in disbelief. A wave of regret crashed into his heart — he felt as if he had been tricked ...
"Despicable chinks 2 !" In his final moments, he reflexively pressed the button to connect to his squad leader. But it was too late. The blue and white mecha's beam saber stabbed viciously into his cockpit. The immense beam energy immediately destroyed his upper body, leaving the cockpit filled with blood.
********
The squad leader, already 3 kilometres away, saw Kotou's communication request, and hurriedly accepted. "Kotou-kun? Kotou-kun?"
The other end was silent, but for the strange sound of dripping water ...
"Not good, something happened to Kotou-kun! Let's go back!" The squad leader had a bad feeling about this. He instantly made his decision, calling for another team member to go back with him to check out the situation.