Chapter 225: Kings of Close and Long Range Combat III
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In truth, almost everyone was watching Coxcomb’s terrifying sniper mech pilot. This battle between one and 300 would be a story as important to other sniper mech pilots as their course material. Besides, if all 300 of those mechs were advanced level mechs, then no one would object calling the sniper mech pilot as one of the best in the field.
Such a rare battle of historical significance was underway, and no one would want to miss it! Everyone was glued to the holographic screen, counting down the number of mechs left on the pirates side. Besides, the result of this battle would determine their own fates, thus raising the stakes even more. Everyone was astonished to find the pirates wielding such a strong force, but also thankful that they had met this impossibly strong sniper mech pilot.
Be it the pirates of the civilians, this fight would determine whether they live or die.
Ye Chong’s movements were only noticed by a single starship, and that was Claudia’s Lunar Rose. They had been watching the clown mech from the start, and were awed by its performance. They believed that the clown mech’s unexpected movement must be some unrevealed plan.
Puppet clung onto the ore, still. This ore was bringing Ye Chong quickly towards the pirate ships observing from afar.
Roar! The crowd in Lunar Rose’s control room erupted into an outburst. They now understood the clown mech’s intention. Was he suicidal? This was the question that arose in everyone’s mind; only Claudia was watching the mech with esteem.
Ye Chong sat in Puppet’s pilot cabin calmly, without a ripple in his emotions.
“Ye, be careful.” Shang spoke out of concern. He approved Ye Chong’s plan, and had even cooperated by slowing down his shooting, not killing off the pirate mechs as quick as he could to produce the illusion of an equal chance of winning in his fight. This was to draw attention from the enemy and to stall for time.
Ye Chong felt warm inside, but kept his face neutral as he replied plainly, “I know.”
Ye Chong had used this strategy before. When he met with the Red Beard’s Owl pirate crew, he had relied on this strategy to kill the pirate’s leader. That was also when he met Bai Linan. This ambush strategy required three conditions to be satisfied. Firstly, the ambusher must be extremely capable of fighting by himself. Secondly, the enemy should have a weak defensive line. Lastly, the ambusher must be able to reach the starship of the enemy’s leader unnoticed.
In truth, if Ye Chong was flying Han Jia, he would be more confident of his chances. However, given the chaotic situation, he knew that there would be people hidden amongst the crowd, looking for him. Han Jia would be difficult to explain away, and Ye Chong did not want to attract attention.
Even with Puppet, he was confident enough to complete the task, or retreat successfully should he fail. He could do it with Sand Scorpio before, and Puppet was even better than Sand Scorpio, so his chances would be higher now. Besides, Ye Chong believed that the seemingly tight security was just an empty show. If they had another mech squad, Ye Chong believed that they would have been sent in when the battle first begun, securing an early victory.
Now, they could only watch their mechs killed off, one by one without being able to do anything. This meant that they had no more remaining force.
As for the starships surrounding the battlefield, Ye Chong chose to ignore them. If these were warships, they might pose as a threat, but they were clearly unarmed. Without any mechs to protect them, they were helpless.
Ye Chong’s action may seem hasty, but it was born out of detailed considerations.
In outer space, asteroids of all sorts could be found almost anywhere. This particular one slowly making its way towards their ships was anything but noteworthy. Just as the asteroid was about to hit the starship, it eerily traced an arc across the space. If anyone on the pirate ships saw this, they would immediately be alarmed. However, it went by unnoticed, since everyone was absorbed in battle. The mighty sniper mech pilot’s shooting frequency had dropped for some reason, and this gave them hope. They were watching their holographic screen with unblinking eyes.
With his previous experience, Ye Chong was able to quickly identify which of the ships belonged to the pirate leader.
Ye Chong left the ore and landed softly onto a shaded corner of the starship. Puppet was already wielding its two parrying spears in its hand. With one leg as the pivot, Ye Chong drew a circle in the air with its parrying spears. Metal scraps flew outwards. Puppet’s parrying spears were tough, and was the only way Ye Chong could think of that could breach the starship’s hull armor. However, this starship’s armor was thicker than that of ordinary starships, and Ye Chong could not breach the ship even after a few rounds of attacks.
One of the pirates inside inclined his head to listen, and asked one of his comrades beside him, ‘”Huh, I think I heard something just now, didja hear it?”
The other pirate laughed derisively at him and said, “Hah, gotcha heart in your mouth, ain’t ya? Hehe, sonny, let me tell you, I’ve seen situations like this dozens of times in my life, and it always turned out alright in the end! Keep your heart where it should be, now.”
Ye Chong suddenly felt a round plate of armor loosening. Just then, the round plate was flung out due to air pressure. Puppet was now moving as deftly as a human being. It pushed its right hand off the round plate and jumped to the side. Just as the round place left the starship, Puppet inclined itself and evaded the round plate as it swished past the mech and flew straight out into space.
Ye Chong ignored the air gushing outwards from the hole and crawled inside.
If none of the space pirates noticed this, they would be unworthy of their titles. The alarm blared in the starship, and it was chaos inside.
Ye Chong ran towards the control room without hesitation. In truth, he did not know exactly where it was, but he had seen more than a few starships, and could make a rough guess. After deciding on the location, Ye Chong chose the most direct route. He broke through walls and doors, even tore through photon circuits when he met them. Ye Chong destroyed everything in his path, and advanced astonishingly quickly. He encountered some mechs along the way, but they were efficiently dealt with. As for the pirates without their mechs running away from him, Ye Chong chose to ignore them.
The starship was actually quite useless by now. The ship was depressurizing quickly, and the air was so thin now that breathing was almost impossible. Most of the main photon circuits were destroyed by Ye Chong, and the entire starship could no longer function. All the lights were out, and the starship looked like a dead vessel. Only the control room was still illuminated, since it had its own independent support systems.
However, this made it a clear destination for Ye Chong. Ye Chong adjusted his course and ran towards the control room. Ye Chong took full advantage of the darkness and the complicated narrow environment. The mechs which stood in his way were all disabled with Ye Chong’s ingenious plots.
Not sticking to any pattern of attack – that was Ye Chong’s way of fighting. In fact, Ye Chong was mostly using the basic moves that Mu made him train the hardest. He moved simply and quickly, making use of the environment. That was where Puppet’s eerie, unpredictable moves derived their power from.
Walls, ceilings, alloy doors all served as launching spots for Puppet. The mech also used many unusual moves, reproductions of combat skills that Ye Chong could conjure in his mind. These were all moves that were impossible without Ye Chong’s excellent mech maneuvering skills.
Puppet advanced so fast that many of the space pirates had no time to deploy their own mechs. As Ye Chong breached the walls of the starship, they all died from suffocation as air escaped into outer space.
The surrounding defense starships seemed to received their distress signal at the same time, and quickly approached the starship. Even in this dangerous situation, the defense starships could only deploy about 40 odd mechs to assist. This confirmed Ye Chong’s theory that the pirates did not have additional battle forces.
Ye Chong’s mind was now as clear as ice. He did not hesitate as he broke through the wall of the control room with his parrying spears. Air gushed out from within, and Puppet braced through the airflow and entered the control room, agile as a monkey.
Inside, five mechs surrounded a red colored mech in the center. They all waited in trepidation, not knowing how the enemy had entered their starship, or how many of them were here. For now, they could only wait to defend themselves and wait for backup. They believed that as long they could delay the other party for a moment, about three minutes, or maybe two, then their backup would arrive.
Seeing the five mechs before him, Ye Chong did not dare to be careless. The five mechs were all advanced mechs, top class mechs that could be bought from the market. These five mechs seemed to be highly skilled, judging from their positions and posture. If it were one against one or two, Ye Chong would not be concerned. Now, however, it was a matter of one against five. Besides, the enemy seemed ready to put their lives on the line. This was a difficult situation for him.
If Shang were here, he could just finish off everyone one of them with one cannon blast. However, the thought was not helpful to Ye Chong.
He had not much time left. Ye Chong dared not hesitate further. Puppet launched forwards, making a bend, and reached one of the mechs. Speed was the mech’s strength, and its movement gave everyone a shock. The control room might look spacious, but it was definitely too small for a mech.
In this small space, no one would dare to speed up their mechs so fast, for fear of hitting the walls. Besides, that abrupt change in direction seemed impossible for any observer. At this speed, with such an abrupt change in direction, one would think that the mech pilot would be left with broken limbs.
However, this was exactly what was happening before their eyes.
The five of them were horrified. Two of the five were skilled in close combat, but this degree of mech maneuvering left all five of them with ashened faces. Given the circumstances, long range mechs could not unleash their full potential. Weak energy guns could do nothing to the opponent’s mech, but more powerful energy guns might explode the entire starship. Moreover, the other party moved too quickly and unpredictably, and it was impossible to lock on target.
Just when everyone was still caught up in surprise, the clown mech suddenly made a right-angled lateral change in direction. With this, all the mech pilots were once again astonished, even though they were all highly skilled themselves. That move was practically against the laws of inertia!
Ye Chong was now facing a close range mech, with its typical weapon combination of a shield and a laser sword. The clown mech made a go at him. While the mech pilot inside was afraid, he still maintained his calm and charged forward instead of retreating, making a small left step forward while raising his shield, and striking down vertically with his right hand’s laser sword. This series of movements was executed smoothly. The defense offered was strong, and Ye Chong could not find a way to break through. Ye Chong was secretly impressed that the pirate crew could have someone so strong with them.
Even so, the attack was not a threat to Ye Chong. Puppet inclined its body and avoided the sword smoothly. Its right hand pushed against the shield as it leaped across to deliver a right kick towards the other mech’s face. If it hit, the other party’s mech would probably be decapitated, and the mech would become useless.
The clown mech’s unusual reaction was also a surprise to the other party. Fortunately, he was experienced enough to respond accordingly, stepping wide and lowering himself while angling his upper body backwards, thus avoiding the clown mech’s attack.
Ye Chong still wore a calm expression, but his eyes flashed. Ye Chong knew that the moment had come!
On the controls, Ye Chong’s hands were practically a blur. Only his wrists could be barely made out as a blurry shadow.
The other four mechs could only watch in anticipation. They were too close together, and had no space to attack. Besides, of these four mechs, three of them were not specialized in close range combat.
The clown mech then did something that none of them would ever forget for the rest of their lives.
The clown mech suddenly reached out with its left hand, holding on to the lower part of the shield so strongly that the pirate mech was about to topple over, though the pilot quickly steadied himself. With his upper body still, he watched as the clown mech’s left leg swept past his head.
Suddenly, the burden on the shield was gone, and the clown mech disappeared! This sudden turn of events had all the pirates looking around in a daze.
Just then, the pirate heard from his comms a surprised gasp, then a horrifying shriek! The shriek sounded very familiar, it was … it was from his leader! In that moment, his mind blanked.
Behind him, the clown mech leaped high into the air at high speed, bouncing off the ceiling at an angle. When the pirates recovered from their surprise, the clown mech had already disappeared from the hole in the wall where it came from. At the same time, he heard a bang from behind, the sound of a mech falling to the ground.
He turned back and could not believe the sight of his leader’s mech lying on the ground, with a huge hole in the pilot cabin. Inside was a bloody mess. While he could not see his leader, it was clear that no one could survive those injuries.
He still could not understand what had happened.
Later, he learned from his four comrades of what exactly happened, and it would haunt him for the rest of his life.
The clown mech held onto the lower part of his shield and pushed, using the momentum to sweep its left leg across his head, the whole mech doing a complete rotation in the air like a windmill. Just when its legs hit the ground, the clown mech suddenly rolled into itself and slipped under his shield before anyone could react. The clown mech was slender to begin with, and executed a series of moves to make him widen his stance, thus allowing the clown mech to slip past between his legs. After that, the clown mech was directly in front of their leader. It shot upwards like a poisonous snake and finally took out its parrying spear, accurately plunging it through their leader.
When all four of them recovered their composure, the clown mech had already withdrew its spear and leapt off their leader’s mech towards the ceiling, then bounced off again towards the exit!
Inside the icy cold mech, through the hole from the attack, the body of the pirate’s leader was slowly losing its warmth. With that, the leader of this large pirate crew was killed by the clown mech despite their defensive measures.
From that moment on, word of the dark clown spread like wildfire throughout the pirates, and every pirate now knew of the existence of this clown-like mech that walked in darkness.
His mission accomplished, Ye Chong’s next task was to quickly return to Coxcomb.
The clown mech’s speed was now fully unleashed. Ye Chong flew directly towards Coxcomb quickly and without reserve. Behind him were 40 odd mechs in pursuit. Shang increased his firing frequency, and in just moments, the few mechs that managed to get close to Coxcomb were all destroyed. Just like that, with the spectators gasping in shock, 300 over mechs were annihilated!
The sudden appearance of the clown mech on the holographic screen caught everyone’s attention.
Ye Chong proceeded to perform the art of evasive measures. As the 40 over mechs attacked with an array of shots, none of them hit Ye Chong. The eerie change in directions, confusing feints, and movements at all kinds of angles held the spectators in wonder. In the eyes of professionals, this clown mech had instantly become the most dangerous character around.
As Coxcomb drew near, the 40 odd mechs grew fearful of the sniper and began to retreat. Even so, Shang managed to take out three of them.
The survivors cheered jubilantly as the space pirates retreated, and joy from surviving permeated the entire fleet!
