Planet Master

175- Last Stand (3)

On the other hand, Ame had to play with the Marine Corps of the Accelerated Growth division. She stealthily moved through the shadows before attacking one marine who was realizing that a presence had appeared and aiming their assault rifle at Ame.Ame then disarmed the marine but the marine then raised his leg and wanted to kick her. Ame just twisted her body and delivered a chop with her hand. To neutralize the enemy without lethality, she decided not to use her Myriad Manifestation Umbrella.

The marine wanted to raise his arm but he was a bit too slow as the chop hit the neck and caused the marine to be unconscious.

Then Ame tied the blue rope to the marine before she moved toward another.

This was done in almost one second, meaning the speed was faster than what ordinary people perceive.

Ame jumped from one marine to another, without getting hit and gracefully tied them all.

“Bore is not here. Which means he has gone after Husband.” Ame put her finger on her chin and believed that her thought was correct.

Because she recognized that some of the marines were acquaintances she had seen before, she treated them ‘kindly’.

But she was not worried about Tatsumi. Instead, she worried that Bore would suffer more at Tatsumi’s hand.

“Surely he knows how to show restrain.” Ame murmured before she continued to move and subdued the other children.

Bore was being hit repeatedly. On the exoskeleton, on his head, on his torso and his limbs for trying to grab his weapon.

“What’s wrong? You should be able to mount a resistance. Why are you still weak?” Tatsumi taunted.

Bore screeched as he had to admit one thing. He was still weak despite getting stronger.

“How can you be so strong!?” Bore had to ask this since he could not make sense of what had happened to him.

He was being battered and bruises appeared on his body due to being hit ‘gently’ by Tatsumi.

“I don’t know that myself but perhaps the transcendent path of our civilization is superior to yours? That should give you things to think.” Tatsumi shrugged his shoulder but gave Bore a hint.

Bore stood up and lunged at Tatsumi once more. But still, Tatsumi easily neutralized Bore’s attack one by one. As if dismantling the attack of Bore, Tatsumi barehandedly hit Bore in the limbs and body, even hitting his neck.

Bore felt that his consciousness had faded but he was still conscious. But now he fell and had difficulties rising from his current position.

Bore then coughed up some blood.

‘Looks like I sustained internal injury.’ Bore thought as he looked at the blood and then raised his head, only to look at the standing figure in front of him. Tatsumi crossed his arms in front of his chest, eyeing Bore as he was lying down and suffering.

‘But still, I need to be able to be equal to him.’ Bore thought about one thing and focused on it.

Then, golden light permeated the surroundings; the source was from Bore’s body. He felt once again that the transcendent energy from outside his body entered his body, circulate throughout his body and strengthening him once again.

Tatsumi who had seen this did not act. His eyes were scanning Bore’s body and found out that the transcendent energy of his opponent was rising.

‘Right, this place is near Rodentia so the effect of the Star Child will be apparent. Being strengthened by the planet itself is a fortune but unfortunately, in front of absolute power, all of this amounted to a waste.’ Tatsumi shook his head.

There had to be limit in what one could do even if one was blessed as a Star Child. Even if Bore was strengthened once again, he ultimately could not threaten Tatsumi at all.

‘Peak of Rank 2!’ Bore was excited. The power he had now could crush the previous him but when he looked at Tatsumi, he still felt the danger. No, it would be apt to say that he felt the chasm of power between them.

“How!? How can our gap be this big?” Bore realized that despite being strengthened, he could not bridge the gap between him and Tatsumi.

“Haha, looks like you finally can feel the difference between us.” Tatsumi smirked as he finally looked at Bore with a slightly amused expression.

“I will not give up!” Bore then stood up and lunged once again at Tatsumi, his eyes focused on each of Tatsumi’s limb to see whether it would move or not.

Tatsumi then made a move a split second late but his movement was faster.

Tatsumi did an uppercut which Bore had to dodge. He now used his tail to his advantage and swept it, using it to Tatsumi’s foot.

Tatsumi knew that the tail was coming, so he moved his left leg and prevented the tail from sweeping his footing while his arms were busy with Bore’s fore limbs as well as his bite.

“That’s a good move but your overall strength becomes weaker.” Tatsumi commented.

“Where is it weak? Tell me!” Bore screamed.

“First, your physical body is not systematically strengthened so the effect from the strengthening when the transcendent energy flows through your body is minimal. Second, your technique is inferior to that of what I have at home. Third, your movement is too rigid. As expected, you are still a child.” Tatsumi said out loud so that Bore knew what his defects were.

Bore thought about it and was still attacking Tatsumi in waves. With each swing of his limbs, Tatsumi would react differently as if he were an expert in this. Tatsumi twisted Bore’s forelimb and his body involuntarily spun, giving Tatsumi more time to deal with him.

He then knee-kicked Bore and the child fell.

Tatsumi released the grip from Bore’s limbs.

“See. Our gap is not something that can be easily bridged, even with the help of your planet’s fortune.” Tatsumi said while shaking his head.

He wanted to see the limit of the Star Child’s help by the fortune of the planet and he was satisfied. The help was tremendous and he could see that Bore was starting to incorporate Tatsumi’s technique into his own.

“Well, now that we are done here, let me put you to sleep.” Tatsumi had exchanged hundreds of moves with Bore, mostly to see Bore’s limit while also gauging the Star Child’s position through Bore.

Now that that was accomplished, it was time for the farce to end. Tatsumi then injected Bore with some chemical that reacted to the transcendent energy. This chemical was inducing sleep in those who were injected relatively quickly.

“What are you…saying?” Bore felt something sting on his neck before he felt that his eyelids were starting to get heavy.

Then Bore slowly got down and could not help but go to sleep, even if he was against it.

“Sleep well, Star Child.” Tatsumi said before he went to the bridge, uninterrupted.

When the metal door opened, Tatsumi could see that the captain was sitting on the authority chair and he could also see that Ame was already there, accessing something using the wristwatch.

“Ah, I guess I am slightly late.” Tatsumi said nonchalantly.

“Not really. You are on time to hear what I have gathered.” Ame corrected him.

Tatsumi then went closer to see that there was information in what Ame was currently accessing.

“This spaceship is inhabited by the people who have undergone Accelerated Growth. But the senior of the military instead retreated to behind while letting these people to become cannon fodder.” Ame said while realizing that her words may sound harsh.

“I am sorry if that bother you. But this is what the information I can glean from this spaceship.” Ame added.

Tatsumi nodded in understanding but his gaze then went to the captain which did not look like someone who had undergone Accelerated Growth.

“Then about the captain here…” Tatsumi pointed to the captain who had locked eyes with him and became timid and shrank into himself.

Ame glanced at the captain but still accessing the information inside the spaceship.

“Oh, about him. He is one of the lackeys of the senior at the military to oversee the Accelerated Growth people. He should not be killed now since the spaceship system would initiate self-destruction if that were to happen.” Ame added.

“But if his vital signs are not disappearing, then all is fine, right?” Tatsumi had a menacing glare as he looked at the captain.

Ame could only nod in agreement.

Tatsumi then went to the captain and punched him all over his body. The captain suffered such an injury but his life was not going to be extinguished so easily. To Tatsumi, this captain was a participant in the tragedy of letting the children participate in the Star Battle.

The captain wailed in pain but Tatsumi did not care as long as he was not dead. The captain became battered and bruised but overall still alive.

Tatsumi made sure that each hit was as painful as possible without threatening his life.

“You feel like gloating to your colleague, huh?” A punch hit the head of the captain.

“You know that those children are just children, right?” Another punch to his stomach.

“You hide behind them like a coward!” Then the last punch, which caused the captain to be unconscious.

Tatsumi dusted off his fist as if there were dirt and filth on it. Looking at the battered and unconscious captain, he did not feel the slightest sympathy toward him. Only anger.

That anger led him to what he did.

“We need to bring this spaceship to our territory. There, the children will be treated like one. They don’t need to participate in this meat grinder.” Tatsumi said.

“That’s what I plan to do. I just switched the autopilot mode to manual.” Ame said as she pressed several keys on the control board.

-

On the battlefield, the Glings biological spaceships were sending numerous Suiciders to overwhelm the close-in weapon system as well as to damage the spacecraft and even depleting the shield of the spaceships.

“This battle will be the one to decide the fate of the two sides.” The Queen’s right hand was sensing the presence of the Suiciders, slowly reduced in numbers, hitting and exploding upon contact with the enemy.

Then the Undead came. Although there was only one spaceship but this one was fortified so much so that the spaceship was no different from a mobile fortress.

The Glings that died were resurrected as undead, resuming their attack on the enemy. The corpses of the enemy which were strewn around, became the breeding ground for the undead.

The undead element spread far and wide, reaching a hundred thousand kilometers due to their recently increased quantity.

But all of them suddenly felt the change in the battlefield. Although the battlefield was large in size but they were meticulous in detail so an enemy spaceship that went to their forces was noticeable.

“Quickly scan the life signal from that particular spaceship.” The captain of the Adrian Spacecraft Carrier hastily said.

Then the sensors scanned the enemy spaceship and found two recognizable life signals on the enemy’s spaceship bridge.

“Hold your fire, everyone. This is the captured ship which contained the children who have undergone the Accelerated Growth. There are other ships which our ally will deliver them in batches.” Ame’s voice reverberated in the communication channel.

“Ah, yes. Let them through.” The captain ordered after a bit flustered.

Then a sight he would never forget appeared. Dozens of enemy ships were heading toward the Federation Fleet’s side.

When the life signal scanned them, they turned out to be familiar life signals from the bridge. One by one, the enemy spaceships were going to the safe zone in the Federation’s side.

“This is Edward. Mission accomplished.” Edward said through the communication channel.

Then everyone also said something similar. This was not done in a beat of a moment but orchestrated with details and precision. They needed to know which spaceship belonged to the children and which one belonged to the formal military forces.

The steps were, first the Glings summoned the Suiciders to eliminate the shield of the enemy spaceships. Then the assassins entered the spaceship and tried to go to the bridge at the earliest convenience if the spaceship contained the children who had undergone the Accelerated Growth. Or if the spaceship contained formal military forces, eliminate them and got out from the spaceship as they would be destroyed immediately.

Second, the Federation fleets had to receive the communication channel from them before letting them through or if it was confirmed that the formal military forces were in the spaceship, destroy it with Plasma Cannon or Bio-Cannon.

The two steps were completed with flawless execution due to the extensive intelligence from the HQ as well as the constant battlefield intelligence.

One by one, the captured spaceships were coming to the center of the Federation’s fleets. Then they gathered there, and they could return to resume their mission.

“We need to monitor the captured children so that they would not do something reckless.” Tatsumi said in the communication channel.

The assassins which would return then realized that they need to watch over the children and groaned in protest.

“Alright. He is not wrong. We need to look after them while the Federation’s Fleets will do the rest.” Ame said, coolly.

“Will do.” Edward’s voice came from one of the captured spaceships.

The others then also did as was told.

While this was happening, the frontline was now cleared of the children, which made things easier for the Federation.

Now, the battle reached another round of firing and countering. The shields of both sides were depleting at a fast rate, but the first one to be depleted was actually the Yul Municipality's.

The Federation’s Fleets as well as the Glings and the Undead did not waste this opportunity and attacked them relentlessly. The sheer number of the attacking units caused the Yul Municipality’s fleet to be overwhelmed by the attack.

Even if their bow cannons fired at them, only hundreds of them would vanish while there were thousands or ten thousand of them. Even their close-in weapon systems were also overwhelmed before being destroyed.

Explosions could be seen on the bridge of one spaceship, while the others were hit in the energy-producing facility, causing a chain explosion. Others were mostly hit in their hull or keel, causing some damage but they could still operate.

The Federation also suffered some damage as there were two seriously damaged spaceships and dozens of medium to light damage spaceships. The two sides were throwing their best shots and attacking spacecraft at each other but the Federation, with the Silpheed’s spacecraft, gained the upper hand.

Hatten was dealing with the remnants of the enemy spacecraft. He shot down another one before the communication channel was filled with happy celebration.

“Yippie, we have eliminated most of the enemy spacecraft!”

“That large spacecraft really gives me a headache.” Hatten commented.

“Happy Four, you are becoming an Ace. Shouldn’t you treat us for a meal?” the voice of his squadron members were connected and Hatten considered it.

“Sure. I have taken down fifty targets. How about you all?” Hatten suddenly asked.

“Yep, he is the Ace.” Happy Squadron leader said this as a confirmation about everyone’s number of shooting down enemy spacecraft.

“So I am the one who will treat you all.” Hatten was surprised to hear that and even his tone was slightly raised.

“Yes, a good meal after a mission is always good for me.”

Hatten was looking at the surroundings since he was still on the battlefield. He still needed to be cautious while listening to the chatter.

Then just as Hatten wanted to turn around and go back to the main battlefield, something happened.

There were five spacecraft approaching him. Worse, he felt like the space surrounding him became a cage.

“Damn it. It’s that move again. From the intelligence, it should be a space-based weapon. But where did they launch it?” Hatten was surprised but he still maintained his composure.

Then he needed to outmaneuver the five spacecraft as big as his Silpheed, which should be easy for him.

Hatten then used the Vulcan gun to eliminate one of the five, causing the other four to change tactic and sent two for decoy while the other two were hunting Hatten’s tail.

On the outside of the space cage, the Happy Squadron was worried about the member of their squadron.

“What’s happening, Happy One? Looks like the space around Happy Four is forming a cage.”

“Well damn. He has only himself in there. Let’s hope that someone will be able to break this cage.” Happy One could not do much since his capability was limited and he knew that.

Even firing the Vulcan gun at the space cage was ineffective. Just as they were waiting, someone made a move.

“Wait, is that a transcendent over there? They are going to the space cage!” Happy One saw someone floating toward the space cage.

Then he saw the transcendent use his dagger and the berserk undead element appeared on him. Then as if a tofu, the space cage which the Silpheed Squadrons could not solve in a short time was solved just like that.

“Good. They finally used this. I already locked on the source.” Long Wu finally looked at a certain direction near Rodentia.

“Thank you, sir. I am Hatten, the pilot of the Silpheed, Happy Squadron number Four. If I am trapped there, I will not know how to proceed after eliminating the five spacecraft.” Hatten relayed his thanks to Long Wu through the larger communication channel.

“You surviving that is the testament of your talent. There is no need to thank me. I am here to destroy that space-based weapon.” Long Wu said before he proceeded toward the source.