Chapter 371: Ace VS Ace!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
"Little Four, pay attention to Qi Long and the others' location. When they are 3 kilometres from us, let me know." After coming to a decision, Ling Lan began to arrange things. "Also, listen for my commands after this."
"Understood, Boss! Emergency activation, right? Little Four will make sure to activate it successfully in the shortest time possible," Little Four accepted her orders.
Destroying team M and instant activation of mecha — all of this was possible due to Little Four's optimization of the mecha's systems. Under emergency activation, the mecha practically booted up in less than a second. If the Federation mecha researchers ever found out about this, they would be absolutely gobsmacked. They had already been researching this issue for several generations, but still they had not found a way to push an ace mecha's emergency activation period below three seconds ...
The anxious team of Qi Long's moved quickly. Under the full speed of the mecha, ten kilometres were swiftly covered within three minutes.
"Three unidentified mecha discovered. Two in the air, one on the ground." Qi Long's team, which had just entered the three-kilometre boundary, heard the warning from their mecha's A.I.. Due to the power difference between the mecha, only now did they learn of the enemy mecha's presence.
"Zoom in!" At first notice, they all chose to first identify whether those mecha were friend or foe. When they zoomed in to see the outer appearance of those three mecha, they all became tense. Sure enough, those mecha were enemies, and the one on the ground was actually an ace mecha. Even the two mecha in the sky were one level above their own mecha, both being special-class mecha.
"Qi Long, what do we do now?" Han Jijyun's expression turned grim at the sight of those three mecha. He was the first to speak up and prompt Qi Long — at critical moments, Han Jijyun habitually defaulted to letting Qi Long decide.
"I want to continue pushing forwards. Since we already know Boss is ahead, no matter how dangerous it is, I still want to go over there and see what's going on," Qi Long said as he looked at those three mecha. Despite knowing that he would most likely meet a bad end if he continued pushing forwards, he could not allow himself to retreat since he knew Boss was there.
"You all can do as you like!" Qi Long had decided to take the risk, but he would not drag his companions together unwillingly. He would let them make their own decisions.
"I will go with you," said Li Lanfeng without hesitation. He had already vowed that he would never abandon the rabbit ever again — no matter how dangerous it became, even if he had to pay with his life, he would not go back on his promise.
Li Lanfeng's words had barely faded when all of the others spoke up to say that they would come along as well. They were not timid people — many years of friendship had prepared them to share one fate with their comrades.
However, Li Shiyu, who had been swindled and pressured into joining the clan, remained silent. When everyone turned to look at him, he only replied evenly, "I need to take responsibility for my patient. Wherever Qi Long goes, I go ..."
"Good brother!" Qi Long said gratefully to Li Shiyu. Just as he was about to lead the way forwards, a message suddenly appeared on the team's mecha screens.
"It's Boss!" Qi Long shouted in excitement. The message was sent by Ling Lan via Little Four's abilities. Ling Lan instructed Qi Long and the rest to attack the two special-class mecha in the sky, while she very explicitly labelled the ace mecha as her prey.
"Boss has given us our assignment. We must complete it!" said Qi Long in high spirits with a swing of his fist. Up against two special-class mecha, perhaps they might have a chance.
"Yes!" Ling Lan's appearance instantly gave the clan members great mental support. With different voices but one mind, they replied confidently. Their initial hesitance and uncertainty were swept away, and even as their gazes became steady, a measure of ruthlessness appeared within them. They drew the weapons from their mecha's backs — a beam saber and a beam gun.
Their initially slowed steps sped up once more, and very soon they had emerged in front of those three enemy mecha.
"It's a group of advanced mecha, and academy training mecha at that." After taking a closer look at Qi Long's team's mecha, one of the secondary mecha in the sky could not help but spit.
The ace operator responded calmly. "That's fine. Our mission is to eliminate Qiao Ting, along with all of the cadets here. Since we haven't found Qiao Ting yet, then let's just kill these cadets first. It's all the same."
Students in the military academy who could achieve advanced mecha warrior status must also be extremely talented in terms of mecha piloting. The ace operator knew that if these students were allowed to grow unchecked, as long as they did not die, they would one day become ace operators themselves ... so, the ace operator was very happy to eliminate these cadets who might become their future opponents.
As Qi Long's group of seven was charging straight at him, the ace operator thought they would be attacking him directly. However, around the 1000 metre mark 1 , those mecha suddenly revved their thrusters to sweep up from the ground into the air, leaping towards his two wingmen instead ...
Was it because they had discovered he was an ace operator and so did not dare to attack him? Still, even if they decided to change targets, did they think he would just sit still and not follow them to attack? As expected of a group of academy cadets without any battle experience, actually leaving their backs exposed to an enemy ... the ace operator sneered as he unhurriedly removed the high-precision laser sniper rifle from his back. That's right, he was an excellent sniper — he specialised in killing from a distance.
The ace operator quickly raised his sniper rifle to aim at the cockpits of one of the mecha ...
Right then, the A.I. of Lin Zhong-qing's mecha suddenly blared a warning alarm. "Danger! Mecha has been targeted. Please evade immediately ..." If this were any other time, Lin Zhong-qing would definitely have begun evasion procedures immediately, but recalling that Boss Lan had said to leave the ace operator below to him, Lin Zhong-qing gritted his teeth and ignored the A.I.'s warning. He continued to use his fastest speed to fly in a straight line towards his target.
It wasn't that Lin Zhong-qing did not want to evade, nor did he trust Ling Lan blindly, but the moment he moved to avoid being targeted, Luo Lang, who was before him, would definitely become the enemy's target instead. It had to be said that the sniping trajectory chosen by the ace operator was just too precise — with one attack, he was aiming for two people at one time 2 . Whether to protect himself or to protect a teammate, it was all up to the target. No matter which choice his target made, the ace operator would not miss.
Seeing the cadet show no signs of evasion, the ace operator's eyes held a trace of pity as he said, "You've got guts. Shame ..." Just as he was about to pull his trigger, a long, giant object came hurtling at him from the side, ramming into the sniper rifle in his right hand ...
With a loud bang, the powerful blow jostled the grip of the mecha's right hand, causing the sniper rifle to fall to the ground. The ace operator reacted quickly. With a twist of his body, he instantly moved over 10 metres away from his original spot. At this moment, he was already facing the direction the attack had come from. A military academy trainee ace mecha had appeared where he had been standing, casually catching the giant sword which had yet to fully hit the ground.
"So you are here." The ace operator stared at his opponent and said through the external speakers, "Lieutenant Colonel Tang Yu?"
The ace mecha's question confirmed Ling Lan's suspicion that the enemy had mistaken her for Tang Yu. Ling Lan naturally would not take the effort to correct this misunderstanding — she would be able to gain practical experience and there would be someone else to take the heat for her ... what else could she ask for?
And so, Ling Lan remained silent. Whether or not the opponent was certain in his assumptions, she herself would not expose her identity.
"Who'd have guessed that the elite ace of Huaxia would be stuck here in this small little military academy to be an instructor? You Huaxians really know how to waste talent." Ling Lan's silence did not dampen the interest of the ace operator, who once again spoke up to mock his opponent.
Ling Lan's lips thinned in displeasure. Why did the enemies in this air invasion have so much to say? The first advanced mecha warrior she had encountered had been a chatterbox, and this ace operator now was not much better ... Ling Lan did not want to waste any time, because she knew her team members were engaged in a tough fight right now. She needed to swiftly finish off this ace operator so she could go assist her team members.
With that, Ling Lan accelerated, leaping forwards in an oblique arc. She was before the ace operator in the blink of an eye, and the giant sword in her hands swung in a narrow trajectory, aiming straight for the opponent's waist.
Against another ace operator, she could not use the giant sword the same way she had with the advanced mecha, brainlessly plying brute force. The defence threshold of an ace mecha's outer shell itself, as well as the anti-shock systems inside, would reduce the giant sword's blunt force as much as it could, so she could not achieve a one-hit kill. Therefore, Ling Lan did not expect to defeat the other in one blow — her aim was to throw the enemy's mecha off-balance so that she would have the opportunity to execute some combo attacks after this.
However, Ling Lan's plans fell through — an ace operator was an ace operator after all. Right at the moment the giant sword was about to hit, the opponent smacked the flat of the blade with his palms. Pushing back from this smack, and engaging his thrusters, the mecha slid back several metres.
Meanwhile, the giant sword was forced to pause for a brief moment due to the force of the smack. Although it continued to swing forwards the very next second, this brief pause was enough for the opponent to find time to evade the strike.
When this attack of Ling Lan's struck air, with a swift shake of the right wrist of her mecha, Ling Lan pulled back the giant sword once more. By this time, the opponent had already drawn a beam saber from his back, which was now emitting powerful waves of energy. Seeing this, Ling Lan decisively hung her giant sword back on her back and switched to a beam saber as well.
The giant steel sword was indeed overbearing and powerful during attacks — it did not fear clashing against other steel weapons or mecha. However, it was useless against these energy-based swords, because the high electrical charge emitted by the energy swords would easily erode the internal structure of the giant steel sword. Once the energy absorption became too much, causing the inside of the sword to overheat, the steel sword would definitely lose its initial hardness and perhaps even be melted down by the energy sword. This was why Ling Lan had switched to a beam saber — she could not bear to see such a powerful cold weapon go to waste like this.
"Bam! Bam! Bam!" Consecutive sounds rang out as the two mecha clashed. The beam sabers met again and again, violently, each collision sending countless electric sparks flying. It looked like the two were fighting evenly, none able to get one up over the other ...
Meanwhile, in the air, the two secondaries of the ace operator had already been separated from each other by Qi Long's team of seven. Qi Long, Luo Lang, and Xie Yi were surrounding one special-class mecha, while Li Lanfeng and the other three were attacking the other mecha.