“That hard?!”
Jian Jingyu pushed the throttle to maximum, constantly searching for new cover. The moment he moved, machine gun fire or artillery shells would rain down on his previous position.
“Bro, you’re a heavy gunner—why do you keep chasing me? I’m the assault specialist!”
Hearing Jian Jingyu’s aggrieved voice, Wu Pingzhuo’s heart remained completely unmoved.
You’ve got some nerve to complain? Your crew, the Kirin, was the one that started playing off-script first.
Zhang Lyra, a heavy gunner, kept doing close-range blitz attacks… just now, she’d rammed him and sent him flying ten meters. Almost puked up last night’s dinner!
Since they were both heavy mechs, he had no edge over her beyond pure specs. Only Fu Xingyuan’s speed could match hers.
And he was already a “veteran” junior—no way he could keep up with her ultra-aggressive style. So he figured the next best thing was to blow you brat up instead…
With Wu Pingzhuo locking his fire at him, Jian Jingyu had no choice but to scurry around like a headless chicken. Zhang Lyra, meanwhile, was jumping in frustration, unable to shake Fu Xingyuan off no matter what!
A light mech should stick to scouting and flanking—got it? But instead, this guy, instead of going for the commander, comes straight at the firepower operator!
The five multi-purpose cannon barrels on the “Porcupine” locked on simultaneously, and the hair on the back of Fu Xingyuan’s neck stood up!
He forced a hard turn and slammed the accelerator. Three railgun rounds and two rockets whizzed past, nearly scraping the hull of his mech.
Before he could even catch his breath, his vision warped. Wait—why is the “Tunnel Larynx” of Kashmir Orb behind him?!
He focused all his mental strength to break through the illusion. As his vision cleared, the Porcupine’s square-shaped face was already right in front of—
“Bam!”
“You blocked even THAT? Are you even human?!”
Zhang Lyra couldn’t believe it. She’d put a hundred percent power behind that kick and finally managed to close in and crush Fu Xingyuan at close range… and the guy still managed to ride the momentum and absorb the impact?
Fu Xingyuan gritted his teeth, enduring the stabbing pain in his forearm, scrambled up from the ground, and transformed his mech to lift off, weaving away from the heavy mechs on the ground just to buy himself a breath.
“Haah… Captain, how’s it going on your end? Huang Yan just used mental powers to ambush us.”
No sooner had he spoken than the squad’s comm channel filled with Huang Yan’s voice:
“That’s slander.”
“…”
Fu Xingyuan was speechless for a moment.
“I recall the competition rules say you can’t hack into other people’s communications.”
“No, not really! The rules say you can’t hack into the safety officers’ or the rescue vehicles’ comms—it says nothing about hacking into yours!”
Wang Tianwei ripped out the backup power conduit from Leola’s mech. She’d originally planned to casually tuck it into her storage capsule, but Fu Xingyuan’s reminder made her remember that the rules apparently didn’t allow her to casually “pick up” spare parts. Reluctantly, she used mental strength and gunfire to snap it apart. What a total waste.
Leola whipped around and lunged at her.
“Wang Tianwei! You rip off my power conduit AGAIN?!”
Wang Tianwei immediately transformed into fighter mode, ready to bolt.
She shot up to midair and did an emergency 180° spin, barely dodging the hellfire from both Leola and He Siyu.
On the other side, Huang Yan blocked Fu Xingyuan from going to help.
“Stay focused. And for the record—my illusion is like this.”
The moment Fu Xingyuan turned his head, he was yanked into a vision. When everything steadied, he stood before a practically endless physical training ground.
Wu Pingzhuo, Leola, Hiranuma Yusho… everyone he knew was in there, sweating it out.
Before long, Barry strutted over, flexing his massive arms.
“Come on, let’s get some good training in—three straight days and nights!”
As he said that, he deliberately made his biceps jump one-two punch… What do you do when you know you’re in an illusion but can’t break out? Absolute despair!
He Siyu abandoned Wang Tianwei and instead shoved her mental strength toward Huang Yan.
“Your opponent is me. Leave our assault specialist alone.”
Wang Tianwei danced through heavy blasts from Leola while firing off a railgun at Fu Xingyuan in her spare moment—hitting him square in the torso.
“Woohoo! Alright, stop guessing—I’M the one who made the Tunnel Larynx!”
Fu Xingyuan had just barely woken from the illusion when the shell found him. Spotting the bright red “WARNING” on his display, he scrambled for cover.
He froze at her words for half a second—she made that? The Tunnel Larynx and the environment were all too realistic, far beyond what an A-rank mental powers mech pilot should be able to fabricate. But if it was her… actually, it made sense.
Besides, he’d trained with her through those setups. Why hadn’t he thought of using his mental strength to attack at any time? I’m too rigid!
Leola caught Wang Tianwei’s mental jolt a moment later too, and although she’d guessed what they were up to beforehand, she still roared in fury over the comm:
“Wang—Tian—Wei! You with a fake A-rank psychic rating, get back to Axis Capital Star and GO UPGRADE ALREADY!”
Wang Tianwei was shocked.
“Excuse me, like I wouldn’t love to get promoted?!”
She aimed her weapon at He Siyu, and the next instant, she felt the overwhelming spiritual wave of He Siyu’s attack! Crap, she got caught!
“I’m sorry, Captain He!”
But a moment later, Huang Yan’s mental barrier swooped in, shielding her cleanly.
“Didn’t you say the opponent would be me? Also leave our mecha engineer alone.”
Wang Tianwei wiped the cold sweat off her forehead.
“Phew, that scared me… AAAH!”
A wrench—no, Fu Xingyuan, who had popped out from nowhere—came flying feet-first and knocked her right into the ground.
“That’s payback.”
“Sister Zebra!”
Jian Jingyu fired a wide net mid-dash, catching his teammate just before she tumbled into a nearby crevasse. That saved Wang Tianwei from a face-plant.
“Oh, my poor back…”
Wu Pingzhuo unwillingly re-squared off with Zhang Lyra, and couldn’t help but snicker when he heard Wang Tianwei over the comms. Then he instantly forced his face back into a dead-serious expression. Damn his low as heck laugh trigger.
Wang Tianwei scrambled upright, scanning for her next target. Through visual sync, she could see Sir Huang and Captain He duking it out mid-air, locked in a savage brawl—pure physics and magic slamming into each other… No chance to get between that duel!
“Captain He! We agreed you’d hand over half the supplies, and now you come trying to take out our whole squad from the start?”
“…There weren’t any special supplies this time around. You guys already passed up the melt-away outer shell armor—still want that?
Besides, the promised drop time was on the shuttle ride here; if you didn’t mention it then, doesn’t that mean you turned it down?”
(Captain He) didn’t even need to think hard. Before, being too “upright” and rules-abiding was exactly their weakness—but the First Military Academy had learned that lesson. Those days were never coming back.
Her mental power solidified into a wall of spikes, slamming toward Huang Yan. The instant they touched his barrier, the spikes dissolved into pure energy, attempting to drag him into an illusion.
Over on the ground, Jian Jingyu finally caught up with Fu Xingyuan. Zhang Lyra found herself getting double-teamed by Wu Pingzhuo and Leola.
Wang Tianwei gripped a splitting tool in one hand and her chainsaw saber in the other—“VRRRRR!”—and roared straight at Wu Pingzhuo.
“What the— Aren’t you supposed to be fighting Fu Xingyuan?!”
Wu Pingzhuo had just managed to blast off two of Zhang Lyra’s power tubes when he saw Wang Tianwei’s cube-faced mech barreling toward him. Headache set in.
“An eye for an eye! You can’t just pick on whoever looks easy!”
“Those two assault types have legs way too long—there’s no way I can catch up with them! And besides, since when are YOU the easy one?”
Wu Pingzhuo, his face expressionless, aimed the mech’s weapon system at Wang Tianwei.
“Your cursing is too dirty. Who are you calling short-legged? Careful, or I’ll go back and deal with Wang Kaiyu.”
