Inside the forest of Area S, a 12-man mecha team was carefully moving through the forest in order to make sure they were not caught out, while simultaneously investigating the surrounding area."Stop, hide!" The front line member suddenly gave a signal. Everyone rapidly operated their mecha and darted into the rock formations within the forest that could hide the mechas.
A few seconds later they sighted two smoke-emitting, wrecked advanced mechas. They were flying through the air unsteadily; it was likely that they had reached their limit. These two mecha were falling towards them.
Although the operators of those two mecha were trying their best to make an emergency landing, the damage to their mecha was likely too severe and thus they unable to control the direction; they were unable to avoid breaking a few branches from the towering trees of the forest as they landed. They took a hard fall into the thick snow mounds and slid out many meters away.
One of the mechas abruptly smashed into one of the towering trees and stopped sliding, while the other had lost control even more and was spinning around in the snow before it was stopped by the large and thick snow mounds.
The two mecha that fell lay in the snow silently. Smoke rose out from the mecha and shot towards the sky.
The captain of the battle team hesitated a bit and then decided to help them. In a battlefield, even if it was the enemy, it would be morally justified for them to help them. Especially now, the opposition wasn"t really an enemy.
He carefully operated his mecha to walk towards them, slowly moving closer to the mecha nearest to him that was stopped by the tree.
When he had approached to around 10 meters away from the mecha, its external communication channel was switched on. A morbid coughing sound came out from the mecha.
The captain was worried and quickly asked, "Do you need any help?"
The operator inside was finally able to stop coughing and gave a word of warning instead of requesting aid, "Run. They"re coming." At the end of those words, there was another bout of loud coughing…
The captain heard this and was surprised. Was it that group of a.s.sa.s.sins? He quickly asked, "Who are they?"
"The First Men"s Military Academy!" the voice of the mecha operator inside the advanced mecha angrily screamed out.
"It"s them!" This answer did not surprise the captain. He had communicated with the other military academies and deduced that the a.s.sa.s.sins were either from the First Co-ed Military Academy, First Men"s Military Academy or Third Men"s Military Academy. The First Men"s Military Academy was the most suspicious, but they didn"t have any hard evidence. Everyone couldn"t make a decision to attack the First Men"s Military Academy together.
"How are you right now? Can you still provide support? If you can, then I"ll take you back to our headquarters. As long as you can prove the attackers are from the First Men"s Military Academy, we will help you take revenge," asked the captain with care while telling the person his thoughts at the same time.
"No problem, I can still support!" the advanced mecha operator quickly replied. "I won"t let them go that easily. Only Little Wu and I are left from our battle team… Ah, is Little Wu alright?"
The captain quickly said, "Wait here, I"ll send someone to check."
"Hurry. When we were running away, the people from the First Men"s Military Academy were right behind us. It"ll be bad for us if they catch up," the advanced mecha operator said hurriedly. He wanted to leave right this instant.
The captain became nervous after hearing this and asked, "How many people do they have?"
"24 people," replied the advanced mecha operator.
They actually had two battle teams. The 12 people that they had would definitely not be able to go against two teams. The captain made a decision right then that they would leave right after they checked up on that mecha operator called Little Wu.
While they were waiting, the captain didn"t forget to ask about the situation of that advanced mecha operator. "Can you still operate your mecha?"
The advanced mecha operator slammed down hard on his control panel and said, "My mecha"s beyond repair. It"s really annoying!"
Upon hearing that, the captain hesitated a bit; however, the situation did not allow him to think for too long. He needed to take this operator back to prove the ident.i.ty of the a.s.sailants, and thus he ordered one of his team members to give a co-pilot seat to that operator.
"Captain, the advanced mecha operator hit his head and is unconscious and bleeding, but it"s not fatal," reported the member who had gone to check on the other mecha.
"Okay. When you move him into the c.o.c.kpit, we"ll head back," ordered the captain quickly.
"Yes, Captain!"
The other members took the unconscious mecha operator and put him into a co-pilot seat. The captain turned around and asked the mecha operator who was in better shape, "Which academy are you guys from?"
This was because both of them were wounded everywhere; their protective suits were already drenched in blood, which made the logo that represented their military academy become unclear and hard to make out. It made it difficult for them to know who they were at the time.
"We"re from the Third Men"s Military Academy," the advanced mecha operator said embarra.s.sedly.
The captain was horrified. The Third Men"s Military Academy was also one of their suspects…
"Ah!" One of their small team"s members was heard suddenly screaming on the team"s communication channel. The captain knew something was wrong. He heard another member scream into the channel, "They are…"
A bang sounded on the channel and the member"s screams came to an abrupt stop. Right then, the captain did not know anything. He furiously screamed out, "Despicable!"
"Captain, be careful!" screamed the members who were terrified all of a sudden.
Their surrounding area was suddenly engulfed by multiple beams of light. Seven beams of light came shooting towards them. This sudden attack caught them with their pants down—all seven of their mecha were hit. The A.I. of their mecha decided that the mecha operators had been immediately killed in action and turned off all of the mecha"s functions, engaging lockdown mode.
After losing all of their functions, the mecha fell down towards the ground. Although the operators were not harmed, they were unable to contact each other. They were also unable to open their c.o.c.kpit and go outside. They could only wait for the staff members of the tournament to unlock their mecha in order to reacquire their freedom.
The opponent"s attacks did not stop. The second round of beam attacks poured towards them. Although they were hit by the first round of fire, the 3 mecha that remained had some time to dodge the incoming attack. Other than the captain, the other two were not so lucky after dodging; they were simultaneously hit by multiple shots. They met the same fate as their teammates from before. The A.I. declared that they were killed in action and thus they fell into the snow like the rest.
The captain knew that he would definitely "die" if he stayed there. After dodging the second round of beam shots, he operated his mecha to dart towards one direction. As long as he got into the deep forest area, it would be very difficult for beamfire to hit him because the trees would provide natural cover. This was his only chance to escape. He had to bet on this move.
Perhaps his thoughts of escaping were too intense, as the speed of the captain"s fingers had surpa.s.sed his usual limit, increasing by one level. He was full of focus and somehow made his piloting meld with his mecha, allowing him to dodge the next round of fire.
He was close to escaping the ambush area. The captain thought to himself, "Faster! Faster!"
He made an irregular move and instantly flashed behind a towering tree. Right when he had escaped the ambush area—before he could celebrate—his mecha was struck by a huge force, pushing his mecha back into the ambush area.
Following a "bang", his mecha smashed onto a towering tree and bounced onto the ground. The captain felt blood gushing out from his chest, and he uncontrollably spat out a mouthful of blood.
He looked up in front of him. A special-cla.s.s mecha was standing there with a large cold weapon in its hands, pointing slightly downwards. It was this weapon that had pushed him back and cut off the only chance he had to escape.
The mecha turned towards him. Its two dark eye sockets seemed to be mocking him, pitying him and not caring about him all at the same time. The captain looked at the chest area of the mecha with his bloodshot eyes and saw the emblem of the Third Men"s Military Academy shining clearly on the mecha.
The captain quickly pushed down the public communication b.u.t.ton and screamed using all of his strength, "The culprits are the Third Men"s Military Academy!"
That sound soared through the sky. The opposing forces were surprised and quickly yelled out, "Advance!"
Six beams of light hit the mecha without a hint of mercy. The A.I. instantly declared the mecha operator had "died". The captain looked on as the light inside his mecha instantly disappeared and his c.o.c.kpit was plunged into pitch darkness. His eyes were red with anger and his thoughts full of hate. "I will never forget how the Third Men"s Military Academy humiliated us today." Because of his carelessness, his team members had "died" here frustratingly. He could not help but blame himself.
After defeating this 12-man battle team, the advanced mecha operators who took over the opposing mecha opened the c.o.c.kpit. They hit the "concede" b.u.t.ton on their way out and saw that the opposing mecha were locked up. They then confidently returned to their own advanced mecha.
The mecha that had been smoking suddenly had no more smoke coming out. The two mecha that had looked like they were wrecked beyond repair somehow easily stood up from the snow.
"They"re almost here. Let"s go!" quickly ordered the special-cla.s.s mecha operator who had destroyed the captain"s mecha, looking towards the sky on his left.
A few seconds later, a battle team of mecha arrived at this location. They saw the mecha slumped around, making their expressions change immediately.
"Little Cao, go take a look. Which military academy are these guys from?" ordered the team captain, raising a brow.
"Yes, captain!" Little Cao quickly operated his mecha to land on the ground. He put his head down and carefully looked at the logo on the chest of the mecha and answered, "Captain, it"s a 12-man battle team of Changkong Military Academy."
"There are signs of a battle here. Looks like it was a sneak attack. Is it the same rumor that was spread earlier about those attacks?" a.n.a.lyzed the captain after careful observation.
"Just now, I think I heard someone scream out "Third Men"s Military Academy", which is why we came looking…" The captain thought back to the possible voice he heard earlier. He felt that there was something wrong.
"Captain someone"s coming towards us!" the member in charge of surveillance warned.
The captain looked at the radar and saw that there many mecha quickly advancing towards them. "Looks like they know that something has happened here." Suddenly, he seemed to have realized something and his expression immediately changed. "s.h.i.t, we"ve fallen into a trap!"