CH 70

The Roar of Heaven 2

Back to the present. When Nora announced herself as one of the 4 Heavenly, a big wave spread among both her enemies and allies.

“The 4 Heavenly!? Has Nora-sama came for us!?”

“We weren’t abandoned!”

“Speaking of the [Gouten], she’s one of our empire’s strongest right! We won!”

The morale of the Noredian soldiers which plummeted after the defeat of the [Valizer] recovered at once. Their sluggish movement quickly improved and several strikers immediately went after Schleer and Ryaka. Seeing that, Kisei has a happy smile on his face.

“This is why I can’t have enough of a battlefield. It’s so much fun right?”

“Kisei-san! Please be careful. The 4 Heavenly is the title given to the 4 best pilots of the Nored empire!”

Schleer, who flew off to join the mobile artillery unit, gave him a warning with a sharp voice.

“That’s an opponent you can’t let your guard down against! Please, be careful!”

“I know.”

While nodding to her, Kisei returned the now useless photon saber to the hardpoint and instead pulled out the blaster rifle from the waist. The attached bayonet gleamed at his opponent.”

“Hmph!”

The one who made the first move was Nora. Activating the extra-large thruster on the back of the [Zarava], Nora speeds toward him with a powerful thrust.

“You’re coming at me huh!”

Kisei mercilessly fired his blaster rifle on the [Zarava] which is racing toward him like a comet.

“So what!”

Nora skillfully utilized the big boost given by her thruster and avoided the beams. Kicking off the rocky surface of the asteroid, Nora fires her blaster magnums at Kisei while performing zigzag maneuvers. A large particle cartridge is ejected with each shot and the beam fired at Kisei was so thick that it dwarfed the muzzle. In response, Kisei flicked it back with his spare photon saber he pulled out using the left hand. Naturally, the thick beam was deflected back directly toward the [Zarava].

“Just like the rumor said huh!”

However, Nora wasn’t named the strongest just for show either. She avoided it with minimal movement and fired the thruster even more. The powerful thrust blew the dust up from the surface of the asteroid, generating a cloud of dust.

“I might be a little disadvantaged at mid-range but close quarter combat is my thing [DESU]!”

Nora accelerates even further while baring her fangs in a ferocious smile. The accelerating power of the [Zarava] which generates clouds of dust behind it every time it speeds up is unordinary. Its output is probably greater than that of the [Caliburn-Revive].

“Hahahaha! Nice, fight me at whatever range you want, I will keep you company!”

Saying so, Kisei also steps on the foot pedal. Now, the two are only a stone’s throw away from each other.

“HAH!”

Activating the anchor, the [Zarava] scrape the rocky surface as Nora operates the control stick to aim her blaster magnum at Kisei with a crisp movement. However, the moment she pulled the trigger, the bayonet attached to Kisei’s rifle flicked the magnum away, disrupting her aim. The shot beam missed and ended up scorching the rocks nearby.

“There’s more where that came from!”

However, another magnum immediately pointed its muzzle at the cockpit of the [Caliburn-Revive].

“You think I will let you!?”

Kisei performed a strong high kick on the arm of the [Zarava]. Although the magnum was not dropped, the impact from the kick managed to shake the blue striker’s massive frame.

“Tsk!”

Nora did not try to forcefully regain her bearing. Instead, she fires the thruster up and jumps back while performing a somersault.

“I’m actually quite acrobatic myself too [DESU]!”

In the middle of a somersault, she fired both of her magnums again. Two powerful red beams race toward Kisei.

“Sloppy!”

However, both shots were deflected back by his photon saber. Of course, once again it all fly back toward the [Zarava].

“Ugh…..you little–!”

Nora fully utilized her thruster to completely avoid the deflected shots but Kisei immediately followed up with a shot from his blaster rifle. Nora managed to avoid the shot but cold sweat started to form on her face.

“He flicked the shots right back at me again……just what is this guy!”

Normally, it would be easy to avoid projectiles at this distance. However, the beam fired by Kisei’s rifle flies exactly toward the location where Nora moved to as though he knew beforehand where she planned to move. Without Nora’s extraordinary reflex and the mobility of the [Zarava], she would be ridden with holes by now.

“Kuh, if I attack poorly from a distance I will be disadvantaged instead. I have to get close [DESUNE]!”

Still, Nora has her pride as the strongest of the Nored empire. She can not afford to retreat here. So, she forcibly puts on a smile and fires her thruster at full capacity to charge at Kisei.

“I can’t have enough! This is why I love doing this!”

In return, Kisei bears a big smile as though he truly is enjoying this. He then fires his rifle in rapid succession toward Nora.

“A few shots from that thing won’t hurt this [Zarava]!!”

Nora kept evasive maneuver to a minimum. She allowed a few shots to hit but with a thick frontal armor plate and a high-performance regenerative armor capacitor, no major damage was caused to the machine itself.

“So you stopped overthinking already huh! GOOD!”

Kisei was smiling but his blaster rifle had already run out of bullets.

“I’ve got you!”

Nora shouted as she saw he ejected the empty magazine.

Her finger pulled the trigger and a shell was fired from a large caliber short-barrel grenade launcher mounted on the chest of the [Zarava]. The shell has a proximity fuze that detonates before Kisei could deflect it off and black smoke bursts out from the inside of the shell.

“You have something like that too huh!”

Kisei groaned while glancing at the radar. The smoke appears to contain Chaff that can jam the radio wave as a countermeasure for radar.

(TLN: Chaff are pieces of small aluminum or metalized glass fiber that are used as radar/targeting system countermeasure.)

Not only can he not rely on the optical camera, the reading from radar also became unreliable.

“You are mine!”

Inside the black smoke, he can’t possibly deflect the beam back at her. Thinking so, Nora fired her blaster magnum with a smile on her face.