Chapter 372: Crisis!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
Qi Long's team distributed themselves this way because Qi Long, Luo Lang, and Xie Yi already had great rapport in their attacks. Although Li Lanfeng's combat ability seemed better than Xie Yi's, in this kind of fight where teamwork was crucial, he might not work as well as Xie Yi with Qi Long and Luo Lang.
Another point was that although there was only one other mecha remaining for the rest of their team to attack, the combat ability of the other members was considerably lower than Qi Long, Luo Lang, and Xie Yi. Thus, the other group of four needed a powerful lead attacker to fend off the opponent. As a senior cadet with obviously much more mecha piloting experience than the others, Li Lanfeng was undoubtedly the best candidate. In comparison, even though Li Shiyu was also a senior, as he had specialized in military medicine, he only merited a passing grade in terms of mecha piloting. Thus, he was not suited to take up the responsibility of being the lead attacker.
Due to those various reasons, the seven people very naturally split into these two teams. Qi Long's group kept their opponent busy with their teamwork, while Li Lanfeng's group relied primarily on Li Lanfeng to hold off the enemy as the other three members coordinated themselves to attack.
In terms of danger, Li Lanfeng's group was without a doubt in more danger despite having an extra member. Not yet used to working with one another, every time they made a mistake, it was all thanks to Li Lanfeng's desperate efforts that they managed to salvage the situation. As a result, it was not long since the battle started when Li Lanfeng's mecha was scored with two deep gouges from a beam saber ...
As the battle dragged on, due to their great rapport, Qi Long's group of three were acting as one, so their opponent was unable to find any openings anytime soon and could only continue to struggle with the three. However, on Li Lanfeng's side, their opponent had managed to find a weakness in their teamwork.
"Jijyun, dodge quickly!" Suddenly, Lin Zhong-qing's shocked voice rang out in Ling Lan's team's commlink. Qi Long's hands could not help but slow for a brief moment — if Luo Lang and Xie Yi had not moved in time to cover for him, a flaw might have opened up in their teamwork ...
Ling Lan was currently exchanging blows with her opponent; she had just dashed backwards in preparation for her next attack when she heard this horrified shout. She quickly lifted her head to look over and saw Li Lanfeng pilot his mecha to slam Han Jijyun's mecha out of the way in mid-air as he forcibly received the opponent's beam saber attack.
"Zing ..." The beam saber struck the mecha and countless sparks were sent flying. The power behind a special-class operator's beam saber was not something an advanced mecha's beam shield could completely deflect. The beam shield's power suddenly dimmed ... Li Lanfeng was just about to use his own beam saber to parry the other's beam saber away when, taking advantage of Li Lanfeng's attention being turned to his weapon, the enemy lifted his leg and kicked down savagely.
With a loud "boom", the special-class mecha's right leg struck the chest of Li Lanfeng's mecha with great force, instantly sending Li Lanfeng crashing towards the ground.
Perhaps due to the tremendous force behind the blow, Li Lanfeng temporarily lost the ability to control his mecha. Li Lanfeng's mecha completely lost balance as he plummeted towards the ground. Within the blink of an eye, he had crashed into the ground with a loud boom, sending up a blanket of dirt and dust into the air at the same time ...
Ling Lan's heart clenched at the sight — could the leopard have come to harm?
After that special-class mecha kicked Li Lanfeng to the ground, he did not stop his attack there. He coldly lifted the beam saber in his mecha's left arm and aimed it at the mecha lying on the ground, ready to send the other to hell ...
Realising what was going to happen, Li Shiyu and Lin Zhong-qing pounced frenziedly towards the special-class mecha from both sides. Meanwhile, Han Jijyun, who had been thrown quite a distance away from the push earlier, clenched his teeth and pulled the trigger on his beam gun desperately, trying to use his attacks to hinder the other from attacking.
Seeing how critical the situation was, Ling Lan quickly shifted on the balls of her feet and controlled her mecha to retreat rapidly, preparing herself to rush to Li Lanfeng's aid. But how could her opponent just let Ling Lan do as she wished? Moreover, he had the upper hand right now, so of course he had to stop Ling Lan from heading over to assist. Rather speedily, he flew over and blocked Ling Lan and said in a cold tone, "Don't forget, I am your opponent."
Ling Lan looked at the enemy blocking her way and her expression turned cold. The killing intent in her eyes shone clearly for the first time since the fight began ... no one could see but within her cockpit, Ling Lan's body was now enveloped by a thick miasma of blood-red killing intent. The killing intent spread rapidly and had soon even leaked out to the outside.
The ace operator across from her suddenly felt a chill run through his body. Before he could figure out the reason behind it, Ling Lan's attack was already at his face.
This time, Ling Lan's attack was even fiercer and even more domineering. In the fight before this, Ling Lan had only been using 60 to 70 percent of her power to attack. In other words, she had held back at least 30 percent of her strength as a reserve for defence. But now, in order to finish off the opponent quickly, Ling Lan no longer held anything back and was attacking with her full strength. Either the opponent died or she died — this was a path of no return.
Sensing the clear difference in his opponent, the ace operator's bearing turned grim and serious as well. He did not dare to spare any mind on anything else now, putting his entire focus into countering Ling Lan's attack. Still, a question flashed across his mind — for Tang Yu to be so concerned over that mecha, could it be that the one piloting it was his student Qiao Ting?
At the thought of this possibility, the ace operator was moved. After fending off one of Ling Lan's attacks, riding the momentum, he moved back several steps to pull a distance away from Ling Lan. He then swiftly connected to his team's commlink and said to his two secondaries, "Do your utmost to destroy that mecha on the ground. That is very likely to be Qiao Ting."
There was no rule that the ace level Qiao Ting had to operate an ace mecha ... they might have been limited by this fixed mentality.
At their superior's words, the two secondaries were taken aback, but they trusted their team leader very much. If their team leader believed this was so, then that mecha could truly be Qiao Ting.
Once again evading those annoying advanced mecha, the two special-class mecha raised the beam guns in their hands almost simultaneously to aim at the mecha on the ground and pulled the trigger ... two beams rent the air as they shot downwards, flying right at the mecha lying on the ground.
"Leopard! Dodge quickly!" Ling Lan, who was once again clashing with the ace operator, had still been keeping an eye on Li Lanfeng's situation. When she saw the two beams flying at Li Lanfeng, her eyes were wide in anger and concern as she yelled loudly.
"Pew pew!" The two beams hit the ground, once again sending up countless amounts of dust and dirt. For some time, all the mecha's screens were obscured, preventing them from seeing the situation on the ground clearly. No one could tell whether those two beams had actually struck Li Lanfeng.
The ace operator's heart was filled with joy at the sight. He felt that the other most definitely did not have any chance to avoid the blasts. Besides, he also had faith in the shooting skills of his team members — they definitely would have shot accurately at the other's cockpit. The cockpit was the most defensibly weak area on a mecha 1 , and there was just no way a mecha without the protection of a beam shield would have been able to withstand two beam shots.
The ace operator stayed back, waiting for the dust to settle so that he could enjoy the fruits of victory, when he abruptly found that the enemy before him had not become at all flustered by this turn of events. In fact, the other had even become even more focused and centred ...
The opponent had controlled his mecha to retreat swiftly, pulling about 10 metres away from the ace operator. The ace operator thought that the opponent was planning to run over to the advanced mecha's side to attempt a rescue, but just as he was about to charge over to intercept the opponent, he found that the other was merely pausing for a moment before leaping back at him at high speed.
The ace mecha's gaze narrowed. This kind of nearly delay-less operation not only had high requirements in terms of control skills but also placed a great burden on the operator's body. This type of manoeuvre pushed great feedback force on the operator — thus, in order to protect themselves, if the situation was not critical, most people would not resort to this.
Before the ace operator could do anything, he was rendered dumbstruck once more because the other's silhouette had disappeared from his mecha's screens ...
No, it could not be said that he had lost sight of the other — rather, the other had suddenly split into two shadowy figures which were now gliding towards him from both sides. Briefly stunned, the ace operator's expression changed rapidly immediately afterwards. He had realised that what the other was displaying was a top-level technique of ace operators. It was the Shadow Clone technique which even he was not sure he could pull off.
Of these two shadowy figures, one was real while the other was fake. He needed to determine which was which in an instant — if he judged wrongly, he was sure to receive a serious hit.
The ace operator gritted his teeth. He did not choose any one side to attack, instead controlling his mecha to retreat swiftly. He did not like to gamble, especially this sort of gamble which relied solely on luck. Hence, he chose to retreat.
The ace operator thought that as long as he backed off quick and far enough, he would definitely be able to crack the opponent's move. Unexpectedly, after retreating as far as 20 metres, the two shadows were still trailing him without any sign of dissipating — he was still stuck in the same predicament as before.
"This is impossible!" exclaimed the ace operator. No matter how skilled an ace operator was, they would still only be able to maintain a shadow clone for up to 10 metres or so. However, the opponent had managed to double the distance — this made it impossible for the ace operator to keep his composure any longer.
Just then, he heard a great force slam into his mecha's right-hand side. His mecha which had still been moving backwards swiftly was completely thrown off-balance by this sudden impact, causing it to tumble out towards the left side ...
The ace operator knew he had been struck by the enemy. He was silently grateful that he had increased his mecha's beam shield to its maximum defence value right before the attack had hit when he had felt something off about the situation. This meant that even though his mecha had been forced to take a blow from the other's beam saber, the defensive power of his beam shield had been able to completely neutralise the energy attack, ensuring that his mecha remained undamaged. As long as he could stabilise his mecha quickly, he would still be able to regain control of the situation ...
However, before the ace operator could fully appreciate his relief, his mecha's A.I. began to blare a loud warning. "Warning, mecha's right side severely damaged. Right side mobility reduced by 40%. Defence of damaged area reduced by 80% ... Warning, damaged area cannot withstand a second attack!"
"What in the world is going on?" As the mobility of his mecha had been damaged on the right side, the ace operator was unable to take control of his mecha and stabilise himself as easily as he had imagined. Instead, he continued to tilt and fall towards the ground — in the next second, he might just crash.
The ace operator was still an ace operator after all; even in this unexpected situation, he still managed to calmly change his control method. He shifted so that his left arm would hit the ground palm-first, then pushed off it to send his falling mecha springing up into the air once more ...