They had always been cautious not to engage with the sentinel mechas head-on.
But now, there was no avoiding it.
Wang Qi had also prepared to activate the final lifesaving measure, planning to use her Spiritual Energy flintlock pistol—which only had four uses—to aid Lacroix in combat.
However, this youth from Rage Owl Star, who had just claimed to only ensure her safety and not take her commands, left her agape with a series of maneuvers.
Even within a narrow alley, his figure displayed extreme agility.
How desperate would a scenario be where a sentinel mecha rapidly fires its twin-barrel machine gun down a cramped alleyway?
But Lacroix had dodged it all.
He practically ran up the walls, reaching over two meters high, akin to scaling rooftops.
The Kingdom Knight followed him, firing, as bullets trailed his footsteps without a single one hitting. And even when the Knight changed tactics, attempting to predict Lacroix’s movements and using high firing speed to block all his potential escape routes, Lacroix still managed to evade in an inconceivable manner.
Of course, what Lacroix did wasn’t dodging bullets; he essentially anticipated and evaded before the machine gun could fire.
And even if his physical strength and reaction speed were exaggerated, it would be impossible to dodge indefinitely. But just two or three seconds were enough.
During this time, Lacroix also fired a burst of bullets from his grenade gun, accurately killing all the accompanying soldiers around the sentinel mecha, and also striking its observation sight.
He had only fired about a dozen grenades, but with extremely precise shooting, he managed all this while employing serpentine evasion tactics.
Even killing those seven accompanying attendants didn’t require seven bullets, as four were enough by exploiting the grenades’ micro-explosion characteristic; the remaining fired precisely at the sentinel mecha’s observation sight.
The structure of the sentinel mecha’s sight was robust, but it couldn’t withstand ten precise, pinpoint shots.
Its head, where eyes would be on a human, was blasted into a mess.
Suddenly, the sentinel mecha’s attacks became chaotic and disorderly—the Kingdom Knight inside could no longer see outside.
This left the operator inside awkwardly pulling at the levers.
He could lift the faceplate of the sentinel mecha. Despite it integrating a considerable portion of auxiliary systems and observation functions, now that it had been precisely destroyed, he had to abandon it. Afterwards, he could still fight using his own sight.
But… he didn’t dare.
In the battle he had just experienced, he realized that he was facing an enemy with almost perfect precision in shooting. He had never seen anything like it in his life; it was no longer as simple as being a sharpshooter.
He feared that once he lifted his helmet, a bullet from a grenade would hit his forehead.
It would be the same fate as those who had fallen around him in two seconds.
However, he wouldn’t have to ponder this problem much longer.
A moment later, an intense, scorching sensation pierced through his chest.
Inside the cramped cockpit of the sentinel mecha, the Kingdom Knight couldn’t even bow his head to look at his wound. But he felt that his heart and left lung had been completely seared through.
…
As the sentinel mecha fell, Lacroix confirmed that it had completely lost its combat capability. Experience more content on empire
He put the fully charged plasma pistol back into the holster on his leg, turned around, and found Wang Qi again.
Shock was still evident on Wang Qi’s face, “Do… do all the soldiers under your governor have your kind of strength?”
“Uh…” Lacroix really thought about it for a moment, then said very strictly, “Not really.”
“I was overthinking it. How could there really be so many warriors like you? But since you have the ability to eliminate a sentinel mecha, why didn’t you use it before?”
“Because of the risk,” Lacroix said, “Just now, any small mistake and I would have been the one to die. I don’t mind death that much, but if I died, then the mission to protect you would have failed. So, unless it was a situation as dire as the one we faced just now, I didn’t want to take the risk.”
“I see… It’s a pity for those warriors who were sent to distract the enemy.”
“There’s nothing to pity; it’s their mission,” Lacroix said. After thinking for a moment, he added, “And you shouldn’t act as if they have already sacrificed themselves; they are all elite warriors and not so easy to kill. Along the way, I left our special marks for them, and if they see them, they will follow us.”
“I hope so.”
Despite saying that, Wang Qi didn’t hold out much hope.
Lacroix didn’t say much more and just urged them to get on the road quickly.
A battle had just erupted here; it was already unsafe.
And then, a surprising scene unfolded before Wang Qi less than an hour later.
Not only had Lacroix led her almost out of Pincer’s urban area, but just as he said, those comrades of his had really tracked them down by the trail they left.
A total of fifty people, and when they regrouped, there were still forty-two left. Although they looked a bit ragged, they were able to carry out the mission to attract the enemy’s attention, escape, and then make their way here, losing only eight people. Moreover, based on their information exchange, they killed at least two hundred enemy soldiers along the way.
This performance was quite remarkable, and Wang Qi was somewhat numbed by it.
She had thought that warriors like Lacroix were one of a kind, but to her surprise, even though his comrades weren’t as formidable, they were still so strong.
—How could they not be strong? Those Lacroix chose to bring to her side were the most elite soldiers from the 10th Brigade. This meant that these soldiers were T2 level warriors trained in the Army Badge System by Gu Hang, who were eliminated in the final stages of the selection process for new starfighters.
Each of them cost Gu Hang eleven points of grace and moreover, not everyone had the potential to be trained to this level.
By comparison, Wang Qi’s own well-paid and loyally cultivated security forces didn’t fare well. They did not betray her, but they were almost entirely wiped out.
In this situation, Wang Qi had no other thoughts; she simply followed Lacroix and the others and continued to break out.
En route, they once again made contact with the command post of the Alliance Expeditionary Force and learned that a relief force had launched a sortie and was on the way.
After some more time, they finally linked up with that force.
It was a team from the 38th Mechanical Brigade.
All eighteen Lion Tanks from the brigade had been deployed, along with over a hundred armed personnel carriers and more than two thousand mechanized or motorized infantry speeding their way there.
After the forces converged, it wasn’t until Wang Qi was within the protective embrace of the troops that she finally let her anxious heart settle back into her stomach.
But then, she felt an oddly strange sensation: looking around, everyone was a stranger.
Among the people around her, she could say she recognized no one.
These people were not her subordinates. Her needs would be catered to as much as possible, but in reality, none of them would directly obey her commands.
These were the resources accumulated by her son, whom she had once despised as a good-for-nothing, and now, if she wanted to survive on this alien planet, she would have to rely on these people.
However, besides feeling ‘uncomfortable,’ she also inexplicably felt a sense of reassurance.
This reassurance came from super warriors like Lacroix; from the outstanding individual strength of the special forces; from the steel monsters like the Lion Tanks and the armoured personnel carriers…
It came from her son.