Chapter 43: Kidnapping XIX - Civilized

Belevere ejected the spent casing and took aim again at the engagement taking place far away from her, yet once she nonetheless managed to influence. From her vantage point, she could clearly see the lull in the battle that had occurred when she sniped that knight.

She had spent the last dozen seconds or so aiming, deathly afraid that she would miss. In a normal battle, she would never have had that much time. But for her first shot, as long as she remained unnoticed, she had all the time in the world.

A beam of laser streaked passed her in retaliation, but it came nowhere near her. 

For space-atmospheric hybrid mechs built to engage in the vast distances involved in space, the accuracy was pathetic. It was as plain as day that their primary sensors had been disabled from the Guards’ alpha strike.

While she would’ve loved to stay here and shoot, Belevere knew she didn’t have the skill to engage from such a distance. Ultimately, she started up her thrusters again and accelerated toward the battle, narrowing her eyes.

Terror Rider... a mercenary under the Florent Group.

She had received the same file that the captain of the Guards had gotten. While the captain might not bear a grudge against the Florent group, she did. That the Terror Riders were acting as an arm of Vesmelda’s venomous arm condemned them all in her eyes whether they knew what they were doing or not.

She would not show any mercy to anyone who threatened Annabelle’s safety or freedom.

Like a meteor, she shot across the sky, her powerful thrusters boosting her to speeds far beyond any other mech present in exchange for her pitiful armor. But it was fine—she didn’t need armor anyway.

“Who’s first?” she shouted, broadcasting her challenge over the public wave.

For a moment, her challenge went unanswered, before a gruff man replied with a peeved voice. “Who the hell are you, and why are you interrupting our battle? You even attacked one of my men and destroyed his shield!”

“That was obviously intentional. You don’t need to know my name,” she replied. “Just that I’m here to retrieve my friend Annabelle. I’ve come to stop you lot from getting to her!”

“What? Why? We’ve never even met!” the voice said.

By now, Belevere had identified the mech that had been speaking. It was a swordsman mech that was flying after Captain Maxwell’s mech. Upon closer look, she realized that Maxwell had lost his primary weapon and now only had his backup knives.

Are the Terror Riders so skilled? No, it’s only because of their numbers advantage. No way the captain will lose otherwise...

Nonetheless, she weaved past a few more shots of laser that narrowly missed her before she leveled her massive long rifle at the man who had spoken. The man’s mech was lightly armored compared to the knight and he didn’t have a shield for her to accidentally hit either.

In other words, easy prey. She won’t miss this time!

Relative speed, okay.

Wind speeds, over. 

Taking gravity into account.

Tracking flight patterns of the past five seconds.

In an instant, Belevere processed all that information. When she opened her eyes again, she knew exactly where she needed to shoot. 

BOOM.

A sound that would have surely deafened any unprotected ears burst from her long gun like a thunderclap The round emitted from the barrel rapidly ate up the vast distance still between her and the loud-mouthed Terror Rider. Fall!

But what she had hoped for did not happen. While the round was powerful to obliterate the insides of the swordsman mech in one shot, the mech was not destroyed. Instead, the swordsman mech’s sword flashed diagonally and the wreckage that she expected did not appear.

“What the heck?”

“Haha! Are you surprised? Don’t be. You’re facing the great Ares Synton!” the man laughed. “I’m not an expert candidate yet, but I might as well be one! So close, so close!”

Ares Synton? She had never heard of him in her life. But more importantly, did he just cut her round out of the air? There were no other explanations. What the hell is that sword made of?

As her mind wandered, her mech suddenly blared a complaint as a thin beam of laser finally swept across her mech, leaving behind a scorch mark.

Belevere cursed. She had to stop getting distracted in the middle of the battle. This was a battlefield, not an academy training session. 

However, the goal was the same—to take down the enemy mechs without being taken down in return. Just like in the training sessions, there were usually some especially tough nuts to crack that she usually avoided until later. So Ares was one such nut. 

Okay, but there are more mechs more than just his to shoot at. Deciding to ignore the man for now, she prepared to find another easier target to clear away the distractions before focusing on Ares again. She reloaded, ejecting the heavy spent casing.

Ares Synton suddenly cackled as he slowed his mech, letting the Guard mech he was chasing escape. “Hey Captain, you were a disappointment, to be honest. I’m going to go play with the girl.”

Play with the girl? “Do you mean me?” Belevere asked. She cocked her head.

“Of course. Who else? I don’t know who you are, but if you’re going to get in my way, then don’t blame me for not showing mercy,” Ares Synton said. “Say, is that an Academy emblem? But you don’t seem like an Academy Guard.”

“And what about it?” Belevere growled. Play around? What did he take her for? Did she think she was someone so easily bullied? Just because he was somewhat skilled!

“How about this. If I win, you tell me who you are?” Ares asked.

“No.” Belevere raised her gun and aimed again. However, unlike before when Ares was mostly traveling in a line, mostly shifting up and down, this time Ares was charging straight at her. He was dodging a lot more, too.

To her chagrin, she realized that she couldn’t keep up.

“Urgh, I’m still not good enough yet. I need to get better,” she grumbled. While she was aiming, Ares had gotten quite close. Ugh. Time to go.

Before Ares could draw any closer, Belevere turned and blasted her thrusters at full strength, instantly accelerating to a speed far faster than the trailing swordsman mech. She thought she heard a gasp of surprise through the public wave, but perhaps it was just her imagination. Either way, she smiled. “How do you expect me to win if you can’t even catch up to me?”

Her smile failed as a laser beam scorched her again. Another one is shooting at me? Wait, another one?

As she switched up her dodging, dancing through the air unpredictably, she realized that almost all of the Terror Riders’ were targeting her. She gritted her teeth.

“Coward!”

“Shut up! I dare you to face me man to man!” Ares Synton hollered.

Belevere was about to retort when the persistent lasers suddenly stopped again. What was that? Oh. Haha, serves them right.

Without the laser marksmens’ support, the rest of the Terror Riders suffered at the Guards’ hands. There was even a Guard mech on the ground far below them, although the pilot was quickly forced to eject shortly after when a knight personally descended to grind his mech to dust.

With the Guards being such a thorn in their side, the Terror Riders were forced to shift their full attention back to the Guards instead of all taking potshots at her.

It was just Ares and one other laser marksman left, who was barely helpful against her agile mech. She steadily widened the distance between her and Ares until she felt it was safe to take another shot against him. She changed her mind when a white beam of light shot past her.

Not only was the laser marksman an easier target, he was also the greater threat. Instead of aiming blatantly at him, though, she first made sure that Ares were between them.

Finally, she leveled her gun with a smile and took aim.

“Hahaha! I’m telling you, it won’t work no matter how many times you try!” Ares shouted.

She ignored him and continued to aim. While the tip of her gun was always aimed at Ares, her target was always that laser marksman lurking in the back. 

I think I’ve taken everything into account... now, just to wait for the perfect moment.

She didn’t need to wait long. Ares’s random dodging patterns took him everywhere and he crossed the laser mech many times. On one such crossing, the tip of Belevere’s gun no longer followed him and instead stopped, pointing straight at the laser mech that was chasing after her.

Almost at the same time as she fired, the laser marksman suddenly took evasive maneuvers, but it was already too late. The hypersonic round smashed into the mech, crushing through multiple layers of armor, smashing through the subsystems embedded in the chest of the mech.

From pure momentum alone, the laser marksman continued to fly upwards for a while more before it began to fall.

Belevere allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction. “One down, eleven more to go,” she said, grinning.

“Hmm?” The grin quickly disappeared as she stared in confusion at Ares. 

Instead of continuing to chase after her, Ares made a U-turn and was instead heading toward the falling laser marksman. A few others of the Terror Rider mechs were doing the same. They weren’t even attempting to dodge. But strangely enough, none of the Guard mechs were shooting, even though it was the perfect chance to do so.

It was as if the whole battle had come to a standstill.

Well, whatever. She’d worry about the reason later. For now, she reloaded and pointed her gun at Ares.

“Wait!” Maxwell shouted, causing her to jump, throwing off her aim. “Please wait, Lady Odis. Don’t shoot!”

“What? Why? It’s the perfect chance!” Belevere asked. Reluctantly, she raised her weapon.

“Can’t you see they’re trying to save that mech? You destroyed the entirety of its internals, so if it fell, its pilot will die from the fall,” Maxwell said.

Belevere blinked. “Oh, so that’s what they’re doing.”

By now, the nearest mechs had reached the falling wreckage and managed to slow it down slightly. It was quickly joined by its comrades and together, they managed to halt the mech’s plunge.

Her fingers itched. There were so many targets gathered in one spot. She’d have to be blind to miss it.

“So what?”

“What do you mean, so what? We’re all from Tamsel III. We’re all Margentians. Why should we fight to the death?” Maxwell demanded.

Belevere almost laughed. What a silly question—was there even a need to ask? “Because they’re enemies to be exterminated. I have not aimed for its cockpit, nor am I aiming for the disabled mechs. Why should I not fire?”

A growl of frustration came from Maxwell. “We’re not enemies. Just two people with the same goals coming at odds because of circumstances!”

“Maybe not for you, but for me, they’re enemies. Anyone who is a threat to Annabelle is an enemy,” Belevere said. “But this once, I’ll listen to you.”

“L-lady Odis, you’re insane!”

She shrugged. Perhaps she was, but she didn’t think so. If the captain knew about Annabelle’s circumstances, he would no doubt agree with her. But there was no time to explain, nor did she intend to go around telling Annabelle’s story to any more people before she asked again.

There were two more rounds left in her long gun. Taking advantage of the unexpected break, she pressed the bottom of the gun against her ammunition pack, docking it firmly. Slowly, the mechanisms of the pack pushed new kinetic rounds into her gun, topping it back up to six rounds.

She still couldn’t get used to this kind of reloading method. It was so much slower than a magazine pack. Ballistic rifles were actually pretty clumsy in general to reload compared to most laser rifles that needed no reloading at all.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, the Terror Riders finally reached the ground. However, they didn’t seem to have any intentions of rising again.

“...Have they given up?” Maxwell asked.

Like ants, the Terror Riders scurried around on the ground, too small to see. But through her sensors, she could tell that something was being taken off of a mech’s shoulder and put into the ground. 

That something then came to life and began to burrow into the ground. The Terror Riders put more and more of those things into the ground.

A knot formed in her stomach. A bad feeling.

She quickly raised her gun and fired, barely aiming. Nonetheless, the shot flew true, landing exactly where she wanted it to be, but she was too late to destroy even one. Even her powerful kinetic penetrator could not pierce through meters of dirt and bedrock. She could not reach that ‘something.’

“Destroy them all!” she screamed.

But she was once again way too late. As one, the Terror Riders lifted off, flying low, and several explosions blew the ground apart, sending the black plume of dust into the air.