?
Once Max recognized the style, he knew that there was no way that he was losing this battle. He had no idea where the Arisen had learned the technique or when, but it wasn't complete. It was a pale echo of the Million Blades Style.
Sure, the name was a bit Chunni, but it had taken Max a million victories to master it, so he thought it was still a perfectly valid name for the style.
Max charged forward into the slightly larger Mecha, then withdrew his sword at the last instant and let the impact of his shield assist his thrusters in moving him in behind the War Walker, leaving its back open and letting his blade slide cleanly through to disable the unit.
His heart was thundering in his ears. Could it be a coincidence? It was possible that a few moves were the same, which just happened to be used in the way he expected. No, it was more than that. Even the response was exactly what he had expected of a student of his own fighting style.
Max took the fight to another of the largest War Walkers, and again the blade work was exactly what he expected, but this time the War Walker seemed less surprised to see it coming back at them, and a furious battle ensued.
Blades clashed, and energy weapons flared as the two mighty Commanders went toe to toe. Max was just beginning to get the upper hand when suddenly the enemy War Walker fell silent, and the limbs gently drifted away before a red blade appeared through the front of its chest as Nico hacked it to pieces.
[The enemy is in full retreat. The Koleska are fast learners. I think I might have to teach them how to really fight in close combat, but look at you go. I don't think I've seen that fighting style in this life. Did they really push you that far?] Nico asked.
[No, they were using it, and it refreshed my memory. They're not doing it right, like they have forgotten parts of it and replaced it with less efficient movements, or perhaps whoever taught them didn't know all of the styles.
That shouldn't be possible, though, right? You know where that style comes from, and it shouldn't exist, at least not here and now.] Max replied.
[The now part is debatable, but here it might reasonably exist. There is no way to know, but we had to have lived somewhere before, right? What if it simply took time before we were cycled through to new lives? This could be close enough to where we were born last time that they know something about our history, however long ago that was.] Nico suggested in return.
That was reasonable. Even if it had been a few hundred thousand years, the Alliance and the humans of their Galaxy would have long since forgotten even the legends of their deeds, and if they were this far away, in a region of the universe that hadn't even been detected by Alliance Scanners, then it would explain why nobody knew about their past.
Max withdrew for a moment. Something about this retreat felt wrong.
[They're not retreating, they're changing directions, the attack on the Station was a feint, they're going for the planet.] He decided, then grabbed Shattered Pride and flashed to Warp before appearing in front of the planet's defence line.
Half a second later, the Arisen Fleet dropped out of Warp right in front of him, and Max smiled as he opened the channel to Nico.
[Welcome them to orbit.] He directed, and Nico fired another of the Warp Capable shells at the lead ship, a light Cutter.
Even with its shields up and prepared, it was not capable of stopping the impact, and the main shields collapsed under the impact. For a moment, the ship went dark. The War Walkers began to pour out of it while Max finished preparing an Orbital Lance to meet them.
They linked together in a 3D pattern and combined their shields to survive the blast, which caught a large portion of the Cutter in its radius, turning it to more dust in this crowded portion of the cosmos, but that bought enough time for the Koleska to get into position for the attack.
Max checked the area and found himself in a suitable position to fight a cluster of asteroids that had been relocated for industrial purposes.
[Nico, follow me.] He instructed, then moved to take shelter behind the asteroids. They could take the majority of the return fire for them while the two human-made Mecha fought at a range.
The good cover was always hard to find, especially in a space battle, but Max never did, like taking enemy fire straight on. Thousands of rounds hit the metallic boulder, but with the thrusters of Cleanssing Light, it didn't budge from its position, only lost some weight as the weapons burned and blasted away portions of the surface.
Max darted out as soon as the Orbital Lance was recharged and put a dispersed blast into the enemy back lines, then began to pick off light units with his lasers while he fired lighter bursts with the Disruptors.
With dozens of lasers and the six Disruptors, it was a brilliant fusillade of weapons fire from his location, covering for Nico, who was taking potshots at the ships as they arrived, trying to catch one at that magical moment right as they deactivated the Warp Field, but before the other shielding could come online.
If she actually managed it, the result would be glorious. A fifty-kilo shell impacting with a relative speed close to the speed of light would completely annihilate any solid object that it hit. Even when it failed, it caused huge drains on their shields, and the Koleska fleet was quick to take advantage and focus on the most damaged, forcing many to retreat due to damages.
[Shockwave] Nico announced, just before the warning on Cleansing Light warned Max to get out of the way.
One of the Destroyer-sized ships had gone supercritical under the attacks of the Arisen Fleet, and the shockwave and debris ring were rapidly approaching their location from the back.
Moving up would avoid the worst of the explosion, but it would put them in a bad position relative to the Koleska defenders, where the main lines would be between them and the Arisen Army, so instead, Max just moved around the Asteroid and continued to fire.
He let the shockwave hit his cover and then carry both himself and Nico along for a ride while he used his thrusters to slow it.
The final location put them mostly behind the fight, but he could work with that. Max fired the Orbital Lance at the engines of a heavily damaged cruiser and smirked as a second explosion rocked the battlefield.
Eye for an eye, both sides had lost a major ship of the fleet in this battle.
Max picked out another six targets for his Disruptors and continued to fire as the second shockwave spread. The direction of the attack took the Arisen by surprise. They hadn't seen the Mecha being carried along with the Asteroid, and they weren't in a position to defend their ships.
A Titan Class Mecha in close combat range could cause massive amounts of damage to the far less maneuverable ships, but the War Walkers couldn't afford to move that much of their force around in the middle of the explosion's spread.
Instead, they chose to retreat again and pick another spot to attack once they had regrouped.
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