CH 34

Battle of Leboir [4]

“Mother……no, Your Majesty. I apologize for our belatedness. The 3rd Fleet is here to join the frontline.”

“No, without the information you obtained, we wouldn’t have been able to intercept them here. You have nothing to apologize for.”

Alisha responded to Schleer’s apology with a solemn voice. Schleer is currently not at the bridge of the [Radiant] but inside [Mistilteinn]’s cockpit. As this is a big battle, Schleer put herself on the frontline from the very beginning. The fact that Alisha is in command of the overall battle also played a big part in her decision.

“Right now we must rebuild the frontline. I need the 3rd Fleet to assist our soldiers in their retreat.”

“Understood. Please leave this to us.”

Schleer had already deployed her troops with that intention from the start. After disconnecting the communication, Schleer looks around to see the state of the battlefield. Due to insufficient preparation, her allies are all being routed. They need to do something to stall the enemy’s advance.

“Your Highness, is he really going to be okay?”

The voice came from the [Dainsleif] that is deploying nearby. She’s asking about Kisei. When they arrived at the Leboir system, Kisei flew out to join the battle immediately. She did try to stop him but due to Kisei’s assertiveness and the worsening war situation, she had no choice but to allow him to sortie.

“We can detect his signal nearby. He’s not that far away so we should be able to join up with him soon.”

Thanks to the communication equipment installed all over the planet, they have the data link established. They can check on Kisei’s status and position any time they want.

However, Schleer is still worried. That man is someone who can calmly plunge himself into the middle of the enemy position with a single machine. Naturally, he has more than enough skill to handle himself in such a situation but from the outside, something like that still looks dangerous. Thinking so, Schleer kicked the ground and flew off to join Kisei.

“—-There he is!”

Around 10 minutes later, Schleer and Saki finally found the [Caliburn-Revive] fighting against a large group of [Jettas]. Despite being in a one-vs-many situation, Kisei is gradually pushing back the enemy strikers while jumping and accelerating around them.

“Kisei-san, we are here to back you up!”

Schleer aims the blaster cannon on [Mistilteinn]’s shoulder at an enemy striker. The thick blaster beam accurately hit an enemy [Jetta], blowing away its lower body. Its remaining upper body was sent rolling on the ground, generating a cloud of white dust.

“I’ve been waiting for you! I mean, this number is too much even for me!”

Kisei responded cheerfully. Most of the other allies are already giving their all into retreating so they can not afford to provide any support. Even with just Schleer and Saki here, he couldn’t thank them enough to get some help here.

“It’s because you flew off by yourself, idiot!”

“You could say that.”

Kisei replied to Saki’s jab with a smile. Seeing his unremorseful attitude, Saki sighs. However, right now their priority is to stop the enemy here.

So, Saki fired her thrusters at full power and immediately closed in on an enemy [Jetta] with the [Dainsleif].

“Three?……We can’t deal with 3 Zeniths at once!”

“Too late for that!”

An enemy [Jetta] tried to retreat but it was cut in two by a single swing of the electromagnetic slash.

“Tsk!”

Another [Jetta] was readying its blaster rifle to intercept Saki but it was immediately incapacitated by Kisei who shot a blaster beam at its abdomen.

“WE CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS ALONE! WHERE ARE THE ARISTOCRATS!?”

“We’ve been calling them but they said they are not coming! They want us to do something about this ourselves!”

“If they are going to flaunt their power at every opportunity they have then can’t they at least be useful in a time like this!?”

Cries of agony were raised from the Noredian side.

When he spotted a slow-moving [Jetta], Kisei kicked off a slope and jumped at it. The [Jetta] holds up its shield to try and defend but Kisei activates the anchor on the sole of the [Caliburn-Revive]’s foot to make a sharp turn and thrust the pile bunker to the [Jetta]’s side. The surrounding [Jettas] keep shooting at him with their blaster rifles and submachine guns without worrying about their fallen ally but Kisei skillfully dodges them all and jumps up again.

“I heard that there are rabbits on earth’s moon, this must be what it means.”

Seeing Kisei, Saki says that with a bitter smile. Certainly, the white color and the blade antennae really make the [Caliburn-Revive] give the impression of a rabbit.

“But what he’s doing right now is more like a tiger hunting its prey rather than a rabbit though.”

“Rabbit……? I heard that some people eat them but I never knew that rabbits are such ferocious creatures.”

Schleer, who has no connection whatsoever to earth did not seem to know what kind of creature rabbits are so she gave a strange reply.

“Well, I’ve never seen a living one before either.”

Saki said so and shrugged. During that time, Schleer fires her heavy machine gun at another [Jetta] unit that came as reinforcement while sulkily pouting her cold lips.

Although she didn’t hit anything, the enemy reinforcement was forced to stop for a moment in fear of the flood of blue tracer bullets. And as though he was aiming for that chance, Kisei fires his blaster rifle in rapid succession taking out three of the newly arrived [Jettas].

“What a great aim.”

While looking at Kisei who fired his sub-thruster to retreat to the nearby rock and reload his blaster rifle, Schleer muttered in a tone that is a mix between admiration and bitterness. She has confidence in her shooting skill but she knows that she can’t possibly get anywhere close to his accuracy.

“No good. If this keeps up……let alone protecting him, I will be the one that will be protected instead.”

While murmuring to herself in a small voice, Schleer clenches her teeth and aims at another enemy striker. Despite the fact that they have been taking down striker after striker, the enemy reinforcements keep showing up without end. The battle has just begun.

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