PeaceWarrior called it. Yekase did want to drag her into close-quarters.
Running the floating lasers bled her dry. Flash Energy kept up, but juggling multiple spatial visions splintered her mind like a cracked mirror.
After watching PeaceWarrior’s three-stage shooting, she had no choice—build a “long‑range immunity” persona and bait PeaceWarrior in for gun‑fu.
Yekase, though, made one mistake—
She didn’t expect PeaceWarrior’s skull to be that iron. The woman doubled down on firepower.
If one missile gets intercepted, fire ten. If ten get stopped, fire two more volleys.
Yekase had never fought this rich. Her playbook didn’t even include “stand and trade.”
“You’re so annoying…”
She fished out an MP3 player. If PeaceWarrior stayed cool and read the field, then push her into emotional tilt.
Track select—Anger.
The tossed MP3 spun midair. Before it fell, bullets from three angles punched its path aside. A chain of impacts shoved the armored little box to the ceiling. It dropped into a far corner.
…Wasn’t this a bit…
She looked at the dozen-odd muzzles PeaceWarrior had casually spread out, then at her four floating laser cannons. Her mind stalled. The gap between people hit like cold rain; grief welled up.
Some are born for StarCraft. She’d stare blankly just ferrying a single SCV from main.
Bullet holes chased her shadow. Yekase broke sideways into a run.
“—Comet!”
She leaped. Teleport. Below her, the Polaris Staff split and reassembled into the set form, catching her light and stable. She arched like a cat, one knee on the pad, right foot bracing a trembling metal prong against the sudden G.
The battlefield unfolded from flat to full three‑dimensional. Yekase didn’t rush in; she roamed wild, swooping through the vast underground like a freed swallow.
She pinged with floating lasers now and then. The energy barrier swallowed them all.
These four Ivaris‑born floating laser turrets were hot‑rodded—max power rewritten, safeties ripped out. Triple normal output at the price of cartoonish cook‑offs when overheated.
PeaceWarrior’s barrier wasn’t basic, either. Near thirty, she fought rooted, mostly a turret. The barrier was her real life insurance, surely honed for years.
Yekase pulled a handful of Black Spiders from the teleporter box and dropped them as she drifted over PeaceWarrior.
These modded scatter charges were smaller than an MP3. She dumped them en masse and secretly juiced the first few with extra speed.
PeaceWarrior popped several right away, yet stragglers landed beside her.
Everyone knows—energy barriers don’t stop hard rounds.
Black Spiders detonated the instant they kissed floor. Rice‑grain steel beads fanned out, peppering PeaceWarrior’s legs and body.
“—Ungh!”
She lost balance and dropped to a knee.
Between shredded skirt strips, flesh flipped open and steel beads driven deep mixed with blood slurry, sticking to black stockings hanging by threads.
Yekase grabbed the barrier device Nayuta had meant for her, ready to shatter‑throw. PeaceWarrior canceled her own barrier first.
Then she yanked out a thing and smashed it at her feet.
Whump.
A thick smoke bloom swallowed her whole. Yekase swept with Infinite Power vision and saw nothing—the instant PeaceWarrior merged into smoke, she stripped off every non‑kinetic weapon on her.
Even that little Infinite Power sight trick—she’d mapped it?
“Partial deploy, Unit Three!”
“Peace Walker—Part 3!”
“There! Rule one of smoke: don’t make a sound—”
A light screen snapped up before Yekase’s diving bow.
A silver object like an airplane nose
punched straight out of the screen.
“—What the—?!”
She couldn’t dodge. The nose hit her square (physics), blasted her across, and slammed her into the far wall.
She hit the floor and spat blood.
Close call. An unaugmented human would be pulp—organs crushed, spine snapped. She spat grit. Strength wouldn’t come. She could only sprawl.
When Flash Energy washed her, she felt stronger. But her base was too weak. Even after, she sits at Inner World average. The extra “adaptation” has hard limits. Against a sucker punch, she’s helpless.
She didn’t even get to hit the phase‑shift button.
“Full deploy!”
PeaceWarrior seized the window, using Unit Three’s screen to transfer Peace Walker.
“Peace Walker—Full Armored!”
The portal’s synthetic voice tolled like a funeral bell above Yekase.
Seriously—this is a death play.
Feels like the second time she’s thought that, lately.
Since she started acting as Magical Girl Icarus, Yekase hasn’t tasted real mortal peril, nor shown her cap. Even she doesn’t know it; how do you investigate that? On what basis did PeaceWarrior assume that hit wouldn’t kill her?
This one really lacks a sense organ.
Not like Ling Yi’s kind—brain on, leaks patched with courage. Not like MAYA’s kind—I’m mad, I black out, I let it rot. PeaceWarrior is smart in theory. Yekase bluffs once, and she retaliates under the banner of honest violence.
Diagnosis: pure blockhead. Prescription: read “Resilience.”
Thinking that, Yekase stopped hoping PeaceWarrior would pull her punches. Even the range’s med team can’t reassemble mince.
She watched the portal’s mechanical giant hand reach out slow. She could only pull one last thing from the teleporter box.
Her present, final trump.
A Xiaolingtong phone.
Six, six, six—
Dial.
“Show her your power, Luciferin!”
Complete.
The same synthetic timbre. An identical silver portal flared on the wall behind Yekase.
“Celestial Speech. Passion. Levitation Spell!”
Her pain‑locked body spring‑launched. The silver robot stepped from the portal, opened its chest cockpit, caught the falling Yekase, then sealed her into steel.
Professor F’s lovingly sponsored transporter.
This vast underground looked cramped between two machines. Luciferin could barely stand upright. By proportion, Peace Walker would have to kneel to move.
A heavy, overloaded hum rose. Peace Walker’s head finally pushed through the portal, appearing above PeaceWarrior.
Yekase lifted her eyes, polite, to its head design—and froze.
“That’s… this?”
Then that would mean—
“Retract my earlier words. I’ve got questions.”
Flash Energy surged through Luciferin’s circuits. Detecting the pilot’s poor condition, three needles punched into the back of Yekase’s neck, piping in stored Flash Energy.
She’d begged Professor F for this Protect‑the‑Pilot add‑on. Her body’s no longer baseline human, closer to Xiaoyuan’s undying. If she can drink Flash Energy to heal, use it—others can’t get that kind of milk.
Also handy if someone pulls the classic steal‑the‑mech— the seat restrains the thief and injects a dose enough to shred a normal mind.
Energy streamed through the lines. The pain of that hit thinned. Strength rushed back. She rolled her neck. Two crisp cracks.
“Have you considered that if we fight mecha in a paid indoor venue, we probably shouldn’t? If the owner bills us, I’ll plead minor and push it all on you.”
PeaceWarrior didn’t answer. She raised a hand to Peace Walker, turned into white light, and slipped into the cockpit.
Yekase’s estimate wasn’t off. Peace Walker couldn’t unfold in this room. That’s why she warned—if PeaceWarrior says she can afford it, Yekase might go apprentice under Omega Ray.
But even kneeling, that oversized mech radiated pressure. Even inside her cockpit, Yekase felt the unstoppable weight.
She thought.
Head‑on, she probably loses.
If they accidentally tear down the range, that’s worse.
Time for words.
Luckily, PeaceWarrior’s resistance to wordcraft is low. Hack her comms and pour in an Eldritch Whisper.
Eldritch needs material. Yekase pulled out her phone—stowed the Xiaolingtong and took her own.
She dialed.
“Hey, A‑Yuan? Sorry. Need a favor. Right now. Run a check.”
“‘Even battles without smoke’?”
“If I had air, I’d do it myself. Exception this time. Just this once.”
“Send what to check. Hurry.”
“Beast King Squadron.”
“What angle?”
“Their team history. Especially—”
Through Luciferin’s eye cams, Yekase watched Peace Walker’s big, cast‑iron face—design familiar in a way she didn’t expect.
Exactly like the Beast King Advancer.
“Especially whether that squad… was ever reorganized.”
