Disappear... Sousuke thought. In that instant, the fairy wing responded to his wish, warping the surrounding air for just a second as the canceler’s effect burst out for several hundred meters around him.
That was the only change. Nothing else happened. In a way, it was the sign that the fairy wing had worked... The point of the unit was to make sure that “nothing happened,” after all...
“Did it work?” he finally asked Al, just as a large cloud of dust rose up around the ruins about three hundred meters in front of the Laevatein. Leonard’s black AS, which had been flying invisibly, now plunged straight into a building.
It had worked. The enemy lambda driver had lost its power, and Sousuke exclaimed with surprise as an alarm sounded out. Despite having plunged to the ground mid-flight, Leonard’s machine seemed to have regained its footing, dropping its ECS in favor of firing immediately from the ground.
Leonard must have realized that Sousuke couldn’t use his lambda driver, either. Sousuke ran evasive maneuvers, but because he was holding Tessa and Lemon in his auxiliary arms, he had to be careful. I don’t have much power, either, he realized. The fairy wing had sapped his energy, which rapidly forced him into conserving his movements.
“Dammit!” Sousuke cursed, pulling his Boxer shotcannon from the hardpoint on his machine’s back and returned fire.
He couldn’t use the demolition gun. He couldn’t even fire it without his lambda driver’s assistance. And Leonard’s AS was agile even without a lambda driver, capable of moving from obstacle to obstacle as it returned fire.
Perhaps on the lookout for attacks from Sousuke, Leonard’s AS wasn’t reckless in its approach. but if it came to a full-on shootout, the Laevatein wouldn’t stand a chance. What to do? Sousuke considered.
《Warning. Temperature spike in LDC-1 detected. Range of influence decreasing.》
The fairy wing on his left shoulder had overheated from the strain. The cooling system couldn’t keep up with the heat the explosive electricity generated. It would break down soon, and Sousuke knew that it was only a matter of time before the one on his right shoulder suffered the same fate. If the lambda driver canceler shuts down, he thought grimly, I’m finished. He had no way of beating Leonard’s machine in a straight fight. He couldn’t even retreat. They’d all be killed. All of them...
《Sergeant. I’m sure you realize this, but...》
“Yeah,” Sousuke responded while returning fire. If I’m going to retreat, he thought, I’ll have to do it fast. He’d have to withdraw at top speed while keeping Leonard’s machine at bay, get picked up by Gebo-6 waiting over the ridge, and escape as fast as possible.
《We will have to abandon retrieval of Uruz-6. Given my analysis of the ADM data—》
“Don’t say it,” Sousuke ordered.
《—he is already dead.》
“Shut up!” None of us know that for sure, Sousuke told himself optimistically. Kurz could still be clinging to life. If we treat him quickly, he might just pull through. We might be able to save him. I survived wounds at least that bad, didn’t I? Kurz is too stubborn to die from something like that. We can’t leave him behind. There’s no way. What would I say to Mao when we got back?
《LDC-1 disabled. LDC-2 temperature rising.》
The left shoulder unit would burn out soon. He didn’t have time. Studying their positions on the digital map with a cool head, Sousuke found that Al was completely right; every element told him there was no way to retrieve Kurz from his current location.
《Your decision, Sarge.》 Al didn’t push him any further than that, waiting patiently for Sousuke’s reply.
After a long pause, Sousuke gave it. “Withdraw,” he ordered shortly.
《Roger.》
Setting his shotcannon to automatic, Sousuke threw out all the grenades he had, detonating them in midair with his head-mounted machine guns. While Leonard’s machine was held in check, the Laevatein used its remaining power to go leaping and jumping across the mountains.
Gebo-6, standing by at low altitude, began to accelerate and ascend. Ignoring standard withdrawal procedure, Sousuke’s Laevatein latched onto the lower half of the Pave Mare with his emergency hook, with Gebo-6’s pilot accelerating to top speed without comment. Dangling from the helicopter with one arm, the Laevatein left Yamsk-11, heading east.
“They escaped, eh?” By the time Leonard’s lambda driver was working again, Sagara Sousuke had nearly completed his escape by helicopter. Realizing that pursuit was futile, Leonard turned his machine around. I could fly after the helicopter and catch up with it, he speculated, but if that canceler activated again, I’d be finished. The Belial had numerous strengths, but the ability to survive a thousand-meter fall without a lambda driver wasn’t one of them.
A canceler, eh? He knew it was possible in theory, but Leonard was genuinely shocked that Teletha and the others had managed to complete one. And he felt like that red-and-white AS had given him more trouble than the Arbalest he’d fought before. It had managed to dodge his lambda driver-assisted shots, he recalled, which was impressive, even considering the distance from which he’d been firing.
Of course, that didn’t change the fact that Leonard held the advantage. It had occurred to him during the fight that his opponent’s machine might not have an ECS counter-sensor. He’d disengaged his invisibility with the assumption that doing so meant little against a third-generation machine, but...
Ah, well, he thought regretfully. The next time they fought, he’d be more careful and better prepared, and he would take him down. “Even so...” he said out loud.
Kaspar, you failed this time, Leonard thought to himself next, snorting as he gazed down on Wilhelm Kaspar’s corpse. His red Eligore was in a bad way as well, having taken a hit while unmanned during the chaotic battle with Sagara Sousuke.
Kaspar’s loss was a serious blow. Fowler and Sabina were both very talented operators, but there was simply no replacing Kaspar’s sniping abilities. He was just the person Leonard wanted on his side for the upcoming battle.
He received word from Kalinin as he and his men reached the surface. “Soviet air force approaching from the southwest,” Kalinin reported. “Two companies or more. Should we open fire?”
The Soviet Army was approaching. Leonard didn’t know how they had picked up on the fighting in the ruins, but it also wasn’t especially unexpected. It was their territory, after all.
“No,” he decided. “There’s nothing left for us here. Hurry up and withdraw.”
“Roger.”
“Ah,” Leonard added. “Also, Kaspar is dead, but it seems he finished off Mithril’s sniper first. I’m told he was one of yours.”
Kalinin remained silent for just a second. “Then it’s a significant loss for their side, as well,” he finally replied. “Weber’s skill was a greater threat than even Sagara Sousuke’s AS.”
“Does it hurt?” Leonard inquired.
“I’ve thrown away my capacity for pain,” Kalinin told him stonily.
Leonard and his men quickly loaded their remaining forces in the helicopter and left the deserted town behind.