Commanding his mobile-knight squadron from the cockpit of the Vanadís Frey, Kurt noticed some enemy mobile knights launching from a ship he had shot down.
“Are they sending out craft that missed the chance to deploy earlier?”
By now, they’d taken down almost all the enemy forces on the planet; Cleo’s faction—now House Banfield’s faction, in truth—was one step away from victory. Thus, new enemy units joining the fray at this point didn’t make Kurt too nervous.
Another knight in command of his own mobile knight unit, like Kurt, headed toward the adversaries Kurt had just spotted. “We’ll take on these new foes. If I let House Exner’s heir steal all the glory down here, I won’t be able to boast to our leader.”
This squad was made up of mass-produced current-gen mobile knights. As he watched the twenty units make for the new enemies, Kurt received some fresh information.
He hurried to warn the squad. “Don’t get too close! They’re—”
The enemies that had sortied were large, twenty-four-meter craft. Even now, with Liam’s Avid making waves, units of that size were considered outdated. The Avid was an outlier; other mobile knights of that scale couldn’t perform at its level in battle.
The charging knight was assured of his victory. “Looks like they’re new models. But they’re out of luck now that they’ve run into me! Large craft like that are—”
The knight couldn’t finish his sentence. His craft was shot down the moment the enemy mobile knights came within range. The particular craft that had downed him was a unique unit that, unlike the other four, was painted red. Kurt felt a chill. Something about that red craft set it apart from the others.
“They look like the Avid…”
All five ascending craft resembled a mobile knight of Liam’s that Kurt was quite familiar with. Some details differed from the Avid, but there were many similarities.
The red mobile knight spread its arms, and several magic circles appeared in the air around it. Moheive mobile knights appeared from within these circles, wielding weapons. Their upper halves leaning out of the circles, the Moheives took aim.
“How does it have the processing power for that much spatial magic?! All units, retreat!”
The moment Kurt gave that order, the mobile knights in his squad moved, but other friendly craft were a little slower to respond. The Moheives around the red mobile knight opened fire, blowing away House Banfield’s forces.
“One mobile knight can do all this…? Its specs must be the same as the Avid’s too.”
A single moment had made it clear how much their enemy’s abilities differed from their own.
“Captain Kurt! They’re heading for the main force, outside the atmosphere!”
Looking up, Kurt saw that the other four enemy craft were still ascending, leaving only the red one behind. At their speed, even the Vanadís Frey wouldn’t catch up to them. Their capabilities were clearly on an entirely different level from the average mobile knight’s.
“Are they monsters or what?”
“Checking their make… Nothing. There’s no match?! The only model these resemble is the Seventh Weapons Factory’s Avid, but that’s…”
Kurt’s men tried desperately to gather intel on the enemy, but all they could determine was that the craft resembled the Avid.
Kurt switched his focus from the four craft that had escaped to the red mobile knight that had shot down his allies. “We can’t pursue those ones. We’ll attack the red unit that stayed here!”
“Roger!”
“All units, be careful not to approach. Fight from a distance.”
As Kurt gave his orders, a voice from the red craft addressed him through an external loudspeaker. “You must be the one in charge.”
“Huh?!”
Kurt reacted immediately, taking evasive action with the Vanadís Frey just as a slash whooshed past his craft, missing him by a hair.
“That was…”
Cold sweat dripped down his back. He had seen that technique numerous times—often enough to be more familiar with it than anyone else currently on the battlefield. It was the technique that his friend specialized in, and which he himself had been trying to perfect for decades now.
“You copied Liam’s Flash too?!”
“If you could dodge that slash, you’re really something! You’re not a small fry, huh? Maybe I’ll get a little more serious, then!”
The red mobile knight accelerated, coming at the Vanadís Frey, and both drew their swords to slash at each other. Even the movements of the red craft’s blade were familiar to Kurt.
“You wield a sword the same way as him too? How identical are you trying to be?!”
The red craft’s movements resembled those of the Avid to an astonishing extent.
“Do you know Liam? If I kill you, will he come out?”
Lots of pilots were chatty during battle, but his adversary’s voice was giving Kurt some complicated feelings. She sounds so young. She could be changing her voice artificially, but the way she fights is rookie-like too, even if her actual techniques seem well-honed. Who is she?
The enemy pilot could reproduce Liam’s techniques, but her speech and behavior made it seem like she thought that battle was merely a game. “If Liam comes out, I’ll beat him…and if I do that, Mr. Hat will be happy…so die already!”
Kurt sensed more innocence than bloodlust in his enemy. He addressed the red craft. “Who are you? What’s that red Avid?”
“It’s not the Avid! Its name is Gerbera! I gave it that name myseeeeelf!”
As the enemy pilot shouted, a series of attacks rained down on her red craft—the Gerbera—from behind. Kurt’s allies were sniping at it from a distance.
“Shooting someone from behind is cowardly!”
She’d been facing off against Kurt, but when those rear attacks struck her, she turned around. This pilot was overwhelmingly short on experience.
“Don’t turn your back on the enemy in battle.”
Kurt swung his sword at the Gerbera, but it was protected by the same rare metals that shielded the Avid, so he couldn’t land a fatal blow. Still, he managed to damage the craft’s back.
The red unit turned to face him again. “How dare you hurt my Gerbera?!” the enemy pilot screamed, and slashes struck the Vanadís Frey one after another.
“Captaaain!” Kurt’s men shouted as his mobile knight was hacked to pieces.