"Hang tight, we'll accelerate a bit more!"
Finding the situation a little bit disadvantageous to the Defense Troops, Melody decided to rush to her post. Sylveria's back booster opened up before exploding into a powerful burst, pushing the Doppel to reach Mach 3.
Yinuo felt her chest tighten from the sudden acceleration but quickly got used to it after a few. Still, with the speed they're going, she fears for the moment they go to a sudden stop.
"Sylveria to Control Tower. ETA in fifteen seconds, over!"
From the map, they've already gone past the academy grounds long ago. The current frontlines are pushed until the edge of the vast ocean that the Echoes needed to fly over before reaching human civilization.
Along the way, although brief, Yinuo saw how devastated the infrastructure below was. She couldn't confirm visually, but through her senses, she hadn't sensed even a single survivor within those rubbles.
"Don't worry, the people there have already evacuated. Do you see that large dome on the edge of our view? That's the sturdiest shelter in our city, with enough capacity to hold all the citizens in case of emergency."
Following her gesture, Yinuo did see a large dome quite some distance away. It was wide, about a kilometer in diameter, with white roofs to reflect most of the sun's heat. Based on its size alone, it could probably hold hundreds of thousands, or even millions, if ignoring the sense of comfort of the citizens inside it.
However, while Yinuo was looking at it, her eyes narrowed. "What's that...?"
A big black dot approached the large dome, closing in at speeds almost matching Melody's. However, before Yinuo could determine what it was, Melody suddenly began descending, causing her to feel like her stomach was turning upside down.
"Sylveria to Gregory. Backup has arrived! Over!" Melody quickly announced to the radio, contacting the other Doppel, who was already busy fighting.
{Gregory to Sylveria. Thank God, you're here. My nose was starting to itch, and I couldn't even scratch it. Over.}
The other person joked, trying to make their situation look less grim. But in reality, they only have two mechs to fight on their side against almost a hundred Echoes whose sizes were similar to the ones that attacked them before.
"Roger that. Then let me buy you some time to pick your nose!"
Melody didn't waste a moment and shifted to battle mode. Two blades appeared on both hands of her Doppel before a buzzing sound echoed. Looking closely, the edges of the two blades were covered in what looked like purple plasma. They weren't normal blades, but plasma cutters!
"Sylveria, charging in!"
While casually reporting to the other Doppel, Melody commanded Sylveria to dash forward and up. About five Echoes were standing close together, so they became her target.
"Take this!" Melody roared as she swung the swords like a broken pair of scissors, cutting the enemies into three parts each.
Although her attack failed to land a hit on their weaknesses, the high current on the blades' surface was enough to shatter their core crystals into pieces. The enemies fell down to the sea, but Melody wasn't done yet.
Using the boosters on her back, Sylveria did a double jump in mid-air and dodged the incoming sound attacks by the enemies. It was easier to dodge since Melody's Doppel had advanced sensors that could detect changes in the surrounding light waves caused by incoming sound waves.
In short, as long as her reflexes allow it, it wouldn't be hard to evade the invisible attacks of the Echoes.
With a swing, Sylveria's twin plasma cutters decapitated another Echo, while bisecting the other one. Both hands moved individually as if being controlled by two separate entities.
Like a dancer in a ball, Sylveria weaved between the Echoes, making sure to keep a safe position to avoid getting surrounded. In just under a minute, Sylveria had already killed half of the almost one hundred Echoes flying around them.
{Damn girl! Are you really a student? You're even better than my superior!}
Gregory, the other mech's pilot, couldn't help but comment out loud. He was on a public channel, so the Command Tower could hear his outburst too, however. Melody could only smile, trying not to think about what sort of penalties he'd get for technically insulting his superior.
Melody was like a fish in water, free and untouchable. However, given how weak the enemies were, Yinuo couldn't help but frown. 'They're too weak to even be a threat to Melody. There must be some other threat close by!'
Yinuo was busy searching for whatever that was, but came up with nothing even after all this time. Now, only about a dozen Echoes were left scattered across the sky, and Gregory was sniping them one after another, destroying their Crystal's effortlessly.
Melody flew down since she had already done her part. As soon as she landed, she made sure that the coast was clear before heaving a sigh of relief.
"I guess we've done our part here. Sylveria to Control Tower. The area is neutralized, asking for further orders. Over."
*STATIC!*
Although she tried to contact the Control Tower, no reply came back. Melody frowned, trying to call the Control Tower again. "Control Tower? This is Sylveria. We've cleaned up all the small Echoes in the area. Do we go to the next area or RTB? Over."
However, even her second message remained unanswered.
"Weird." Melody frowned even deeper. "They should at least acknowledge my radio message, right?"
Asking for confirmation, Melody turned to the mech beside them, Gregory. However, something looked different than before. No, something was wrong.
"...!"
Gregory's upper part was missing, leaving only the legs of his Doppel planted firmly on the ground. Sparks flew from the exposed wires as hydraulic fluid and oil kept gushing out of the broken cylinders.
Even Yinuo was surprised. She was paying attention to her surroundings the entire time, but she didn't even notice that the guy right beside them died. The enemy was more powerful than she thought!
"Melody, run fast!"
Although she didn't know what did that or how it attacked without being detected, Yinuo knew that Melody was its next target. Although still out of it, Melody started to pilot Sylveria, trying to fly into the air and retreat.
*CREAAAAAK!* *BAM!*
But at that moment, something flashed in front of their cameras. Along with loud creaking sounds, a powerful attack hit them, sending them crashing to the ground as fast as a falling meteor.
"Ugh..."
Yinuo felt like her head was rocking hard, her vision spinning. Despite her unstable vision, her mind was still working fine. In a split second, she realized that the attack that hit them was the same as the other Echoes, a sound-based attack.
'But it's too fast!'
Sound should be traveling at a constant speed in the air. Its speed may vary by a small amount, but it shouldn't be enough for the sensors to not be able to even detect it.
When her vision returned, the figure of the enemy was finally captured on one of the cameras.
"... A dragon?"