CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN

The Green Envy promptly continued its ruthless attacks.

The air screamed again and again as the slender machine ceaselessly swung its whip blades.

The bending steel swords chopped repeatedly at Jason's team, and they had nowhere to go.

The other Mech had cornered them against the wall.

It was a good thing all of their machines were so bulky. The countless steel whips seemed almost impossible to dodge.

On top of that, it seemed like the enemy pilot was deliberately targeting Jason.

The sheer size of the blades meant that the strikes fell on the team as a whole.

However, the Green Envy was clearly prioritizing attacking him. Every single one of the blades was directed at him. The strikes that landed on his teammates were purely incidental.

Jason felt nauseous as he desperately twisted his control board thrusters back and forth. Steven's O-Flier whirred relentlessly as it brought the Vampire Brawler from side to side.

The world soon became a disjointed mix of the red carpet in the background and the slashing swords in front of him.

The communications wire was filled with countless worried cries and shouts.

Even though they weren't receiving the brunt of the attacks, his teammates couldn't counterattack.

They were far too frightened.

"Run!"

"We can't run. There's a wall!"

Steven was shouting loudly to try and rally the team, but the other players were just speaking over him.

"We need to blast through! Form up! Form up! Look! He's attacking Jason. You guys only have to dodge one or two of these at a time!"

Unfortunately, it seemed like the only person who heard him was Jason.

The BAG Guild was organized and disciplined in ordinary situations, but now they were running around like headless chickens. Some of the Mechs were even bumping into each other as they chaotically fled.

That was the natural response to such a chaotic situation.

The ferocity of the urumi's attacks was unlike anything the beginners of the BAG Guild had faced before.

"Stephanie! Watch out!"

She didn't react in time.

The urumi hit her again, and this time, the compounding damage was too much.

A high-pitched splintering wail resonated through the room. The noise rang painfully in Jason's ears.

Then, Stephanie's Mech crumpled.

Forty percent of her machine broke off.

Her cockpit was still intact, but her right arm and leg had been totaled.

The Mech's right arm was cut off just above the elbow.

She'd lost almost her entire leg - just a stub of the thigh was remaining.

The Green Envy raised its urumis again.

For once, it shifted its attention away from Jason. Instead, it directed the whips towards Stephanie's stumbling machine.

Despite the dangerous situation, Stephanie fought bravely.

Without a leg, her heavy machine couldn't flee. Like Jason's Vampire Brawler, the artillery unit could only fly for a short while before rapidly depleting its fuel. As a result, he just started firing wildly as the whips bore down on her.

Steven called out to Jason.

"Pull her away!"

Jason was doubtful he could make it in time, but he listened to Steven's command. As he'd promised, he'd follow the BAG Guild's commands to the end.

As Jason jetted forward, Steven gave his team another directive.

"Franz, now!"

A large black rectangle suddenly whirled through the air as Jason flew forward. Franz's tower shield spun round and round again, almost like a boomerang.

CLANG!

The sturdy shield blocked off the whips, giving Jason the time to yank Stephanie aside.

Jason smiled in appreciation.

That was a smart call by Steven.

The Green Envy's high angle of attack meant that the shields were normally useless. In this case, the heavy weight of the machines worked against them. They couldn't fly for very long, meaning that Franz struggled to block the constant high strikes.

Throwing the shields sucked, but it was the best way to use the item.

Jason let go of Stephanie.

His machine had no problem carrying her, but he needed to keep his hands free to fight for himself.

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"Fly to the back. If you stay behind us, you'll still be able to attack."

Stephanie nodded.

"Thanks for the save."

Unfortunately...

Thunk.

Jason got knocked forward after Stephanie made an ill-timed movement.

Her machine promptly fell off balance as she tried withdrawing. The urumi's attack had imbalanced her Mech, and Stephanie wasn't good enough to fly the unevenly weighted machine.

As a result, Jason went flying right at the Green Envy.

The other pilot let out a loud cry.

"Shoot! Sorry!"

Unfortunately, Jason had no time to respond.

As he flew towards the other machine, Jason instinctively raised the Vampire Brawler's hands, then paused.

Crap!

His instinct had been to clap his hands together and activate the Blazing Avarice. He'd spent so long playing on his main Mech that the ability had become second nature.

The tension of this critical moment had overwhelmed his usual battle sense.

The urumi slammed into Jason's Mech, hitting him so hard that he bounced off the floor.

What an error!

On top of that, Jason had clearly gotten spoiled by the Blazing Avarice's strength.

The Legerdemain Blade would have easily bailed him out of this situation, but he couldn't always rely on his powerful items. He needed to remember his origins as a One Star Boss.

The Green Envy raised its urumis again.

The enemy's attacks had wreaked havoc on Jason, but they'd also given him critical information.

The other Mech was powerful, but its attack patterns so far were extremely one-dimensional. It simply raised its sixteen steel whips then slammed them down repeatedly.

Other than that, the machine lacked any other weapons or tactics.

In that case...

Jason no longer had the Blazing Avarice, but the Vampire Brawler had its own strengths. The machine was extremely durable. Jason had already seen the machine's defensive prowess in action during the fight above the Palace of Emotions.

He didn't even bother getting up.

Instead, he just set his thrusters to full throttle and charged straight through the lashing bladed vines. As he did, he once again spammed his machine guns.

Before, Jason would have preferred falling back. The Green Envy was clearly weak to long-ranged attacks. However, fleeing was no longer an option anymore.

As Jason flew, he carefully aimed the arm-mounted harpoons.

The Green Envy was very tall, but the frame itself was thin and frail. If Jason latched on, he beat the Vampire Brawler could yank it to the ground before crushing the machine with raw weight.

Jason just needed to get on top of the small disk-like torso. He could take out the enemy machine by stomping it to death.

Thunk.

Twang!

Twang!

Shit!

Jason had patiently aimed before firing, but two of the whips had slammed onto his Mech at the last second. As a result, his Mech had gotten forced off course, and he'd tragically missed both shots. The metal harpoons streaked uselessly past the other machine's thin limbs.

Once again, Jason's unfamiliarity with the Vampire Brawler frame and its weaponry was looming its ugly head. He'd been practicing hard, but there was only so much he could do in a couple of days.

He had no problem aiming and attacking under regular circumstances, but landing his attacks after getting knocked off balance was still beyond him.

Nonetheless, Jason continued streaking forward.

If he couldn't draw himself in with the harpoon, he'd just bash them with his body!

His Mech slammed into the enemy machine's skinny arm.

Crik...

He yanked, and then the strange lengthy arm snapped.

The other Mech stumbled, but it did not fall.

To Jason's surprise, the other machine's grip was extremely strong.

The hand Jason snapped off was still embedded into the ground. Similarly, the other hands dug into the floor allowed the Green Envy to maintain its balance despite losing a slim leg.

However, Jason's location beneath his opponent's feet had another critical advantage.

The urumis were attached to hands that lacked arms.

As a result, the machine couldn't reach beneath it.

It was forced to leap through the air to reposition.

This time, the other machine figured out its mistake.

Instead of jumping directly in front of Jason and his party, it landed a little further back. The pilot was skilled. They didn't want to risk tanking another tackle.

On top of that...

The Green Envy landed on the roof rather than the floor.

Just like before, the Mech's strong hands pierced through the terrain without any issues. The Mech clung from the ceiling with its two remaining arms.

For a brief moment, Jason dared to dream of attacking the fragile cockpit, but then the sixteen lashing whips immediately dissuaded him from that dream.

Once again, he was forced to fall back.

Previously, the urumis had struck in a top-down fashion. Now, the other pilot was raking their hands upwards.

The reversed direction of the attack caught Jason and the BAG Guild totally off guard.

They were thrown high into the air.

Once again, the slicing swords inflicted serious damage to their party.

Jason did his best to dodge, but he lost an arm in his attempts to flee. The infinitely sharp whips effortlessly severed his right arm, leaving him with just a single remaining limb.

Jason snarled and tried countering with his shoulder-mounted machine guns, but the odd angle of the other machine threw off his aim. His bullets whirled uselessly past his opponents before blasting holes in the roof.

The rest of the group had it worse.

The unpredictable angle of the urumis made their shields more or less useless. The sword whips swept the items cleanly out of their hands.

On top of that, none of them had the O-Flier. The floatation ring kept Jason off the floor.

His teammates weren't so lucky. The upwards strikes eviscerated his teammates' legs.

They crashed hard to the floor.

Not a single one of them could stand anymore.

Steven shouted as loud as he could, trying to get the group to calm down.

"It's okay! Don't get in each other's way! We need to stand our ground! We can't run. Let's attack! We need to all shoot together!"

Once again, Jason instinctively responded to Steven's command.

He held his ground and began firing.

It took the other team members a bit, but they soon formed up.

They were finally adapting to the chaos.

Together, they sent a stream of coordinated bullets at the Green Envy, forcing the other machine to retreat temporarily.

Unfortunately...

Their Mechs were in horrific condition.

Jason knew his teammates lacked the skill to beat the Green Envy in a head-on duel. They might have driven it back once, but the slender Mech was extremely mobile and flexible.

They needed to make a decisive move.

Somehow, they had to end the fight as quickly as possible.

The Green Envy rebalanced itself, latching itself onto the roof again.

The Mech was almost like a turret. It could instantly anchor in place and go on the offensive.

The other pilot clearly realized that the upside-down configuration was more powerful than the reverse.

Jason aimed again, but the Green Envy promptly scrambled away. Instead of staying in a single location, it abused its speed and balance to leap and attack frequently.

The extreme movement threw off Jason's shots. The inexperienced artillery players on the BAG Guild couldn't land a single hit either.

The other player's fighting style became increasingly frenetic.

It was almost like they were learning how to use the machine in real time...

Jason frowned.

Come to think of it...

The other pilot's moves were very similar to the pilot of the Red Lamia.

It might have been the same player.

That'd certainly explain why they'd focused Jason at the very start of the map. Even though he was using a new machine, the other pilot would have noticed Jason's player tag and recognized him as someone who'd beaten them before.

The more Jason thought about it, the more that made sense.

After all, the Palace of Emotions was a little-known stage with low player participation.

It was sort of like the Vaults - the high-level stage was an insider secret for Overdrive experts. There was no way the Overdrive Corporation could hire pilots for every stage.

They probably had a few free safety pilots who shifted around.

Even if it wasn't the exact same pilot, they undoubtedly had the same ethos.

Rather than practicing a specific Mech and a specific stage, they were generalists who prioritized their overall skills.

Jason clenched his fists against the control board.

The longer this went on, the more dangerous it became for his team.

Somehow, he had to think his way out of this.

He'd outsmarted a Five Star Boss once before.

Could he do it again?