Edited by: Kuro and Lille
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Christoph quickly chased after the fleeing mecha he knew was General Norton.
Norton cursed under his breath as he tried to leave the base to get to his own estate. His estate had someone waiting for him to take him out of the capital, so he needed to survive until then.
Christoph's men— Claus, Kian, and Jamar— took out their non-lethal particle guns to try to shoot Norton out of the sky.
It was a four-against-one situation, but Christoph didn't care. He had to arrest Norton on orders of General Silas and the Emperor.
"If you turn yourself in right now, your sentence will be lowered!" Christoph announced to Norton.
They were both A-ranked and even if there was a difference in strength, it didn't mean it was going to be an easy battle. Especially if someone desperate decided to fight back.
The more desperate someone became, the more they ignored themselves and everyone around them.
"Why the hell would I do that?!" Norton took out his particle gun and began to shoot haphazardly.
If Norton were shooting above the city, Christoph would have killed Norton, but fortunately, they weren't near anywhere important, so he simply dodged the attacks and rushed toward the man.
Christoph took out his sword and slashed at Norton's back. He showed no mercy as he tried to capture the man. It would be better if he was injured so he couldn't fight back!
Norton was prepared though. A light shield popped up on his back, blocking the incoming slash. Though he didn't get injured, it did push him forward because of the momentum.
He took the shield off his back and pulled out his particle sword.
"Christoph, I will teach you the difference between a General and a Lieutenant General once and for all!"
Norton rushed forward while activating his abilities. He was an A-ranked user so he was always arrogant. Arrogance ruins a person. His overestimation of his abilities became the very reason for his downfall...
The two exchanged blows. If Norton tried to get in an overhead slash, Christoph would block it. Christoph had also activated his abilities, but he had better control over it. He simply blocked Norton until he could find an opening.
"Stop blocking me! Do you think you can win if you just go on the defense?!"
Norton, who was rushing to get back to his estate, became angry at Christoph for not "taking him seriously." Christoph seemed like he wasn't breaking a sweat and was rubbing it in his face. His swings became wider and more chaotic. It was like he was a BOSS monster going berserk, not caring about how well his swings were. He just wanted to kill everything in front of him so he could escape.
Even though Norton seemed stronger with his state of mind, Christoph saw it as an opportunity to break through Norton's offense. When he saw a gap in his attack, Christoph switched from a defensive mode to an offensive one and quickly attacked. He showed no mercy and even cut off one of the arms of Norton's mecha.
With this, Claus, Kian, and Jamar took out their large net-guns hoping one of them would at least be able to capture Norton. There was a special function though. It would tase the creature caught in the net. It was enough to knock them out but not damage their internal organs.
Surprisingly, Kian's and Jamar's net-guns were able to grab a hold of Norton in his mecha. With him unconscious, he stopped moving and resisting. He went limp but the trio was able to keep him up in the air.
"Good work everyone. Let's head to the Imperial Palace." Christoph motioned them to head out with their bounty.
Now all he had to do was lock Norton up and head out to General Silas as backup.
*****
Christoph notified Silas of his successful capture of the target. The Imperial family was already notified and was ready to take in the criminal.
Since one had been captured, Silas focused on Caspian, the one who poisoned Grey.
Silas already contacted Captain Aylward. They were going to pincer attack Caspian and his hired mercenaries. Silas made sure his soldiers did not kill the mercenaries, just captured them and threw them in jail cells. They would be released when Caspian was captured or killed.
The mercenary group was a medium-sized group with three spacecrafts and over a hundred mechas. It was like they knew they could not go up against the First Legion. Their attacks were wild with no direction. The thing they made sure to do was obstruct the First Legion so that Caspian could further increase the distance between them.
They were given a lot of money to distract the First Legion.
Even if the distance between Silas and Caspian was increased, it meant nothing to Silas. He already knew where Caspian was heading.
Meanwhile, Caspian was strapped into his chair next to his driver. This person was his personal butler, one he had known since childhood. Caspian forced him to help him escape.
The personal butler had no care for their life or the ones behind them, so he recklessly drove the personal spacecraft to their destination. He knew he couldn't go very far, but he just hoped it would buy them time.
"Can you go faster?!" Caspian shouted as he gripped his seat.
He was snuggly strapped into the chair, not doing anything to help. Made sense though, he was the employer who could not drive a spacecraft much less a mecha.
"This is as fast as it can go."
Their spacecraft was not made for high-speed traveling. If this was a military-grade spacecraft, they could go faster, but Caspian was not authorized to have that.
Caspian gritted his teeth but didn't say anything. From the reports, he had heard that only Grey was poisoned while Silas made it out alive. Grey had saved Silas and made sure the other man did not drink his drink. How frustrating was that? He couldn't help but hate Silas who was blessed by the goddess of luck!
If he could at least kill Grey, then it would torment his brother, but he did not know if Grey was alive or not. Judging by how persistent Silas was, Grey could have died. Caspian could only hope that was the case.
"Master, I don't know how to shake them off!"
The First Legion, who were getting obstructed by the mercenaries, were getting closer and closer to them. It was causing the personal butler to sweat and his hair to quickly turn gray from the stress!
"Go into the asteroid belt!"
"I can drive a spacecraft but I am not as good as those trained by the military. We will die in the asteroid belt, please reconsider!"
"If I said go into the asteroid belt, then go into the asteroid belt! I would rather die there than die by his hands!"
The personal butler could not go against his employer so he headed straight for the asteroid belt. At least he wasn't dying alone! He was glad he had no one waiting for him anymore…
He had nothing to lose, not even his dignity or morals were left.
Silas watched Caspian's spacecraft go into the asteroid belt and couldn't help but give a low, soft chuckle. No one knew why he was laughing, but they felt a chill go down their spines.
"Follow him."
"Yes, General!"
They were soldiers who had fought with the Zerg Queen. A little asteroid belt was nothing for them!
It was true that the asteroid would slow them down, but Caspian's spacecraft also had to slow down. Dodging asteroids was a nightmare. They were all different shapes and sizes, and not only that, they were clustered together leaving very little room to get through.
If the butler was trying to do this on a normal day, they would have died, but he was running on adrenaline. Even if their ship got hit a couple of times, it did not stop him from moving forward. He wanted to get out of here alive!
"Shoot down some asteroids." It was to help their troops move in more easily.
"Yes, General, sir!"
Asteroids around and behind Caspian's spacecraft were blasted to smithereens. This made the butler and Caspian freak out, increasing their speed and going through the belt as quickly as possible.
They barely made it out alive.
Caspian's spacecraft was so damaged, it had to crash land on a nearby planet. Just a bit away from where Caspian needed to go.
{Emergency landing. Please brace yourselves. You have 60 seconds. 59, 58…} The robotic voice began to slowly count down.
"Master, I will try to find a safe place to land, but please protect your head!"
The butler also braced himself and crashed the plane into some trees hoping it would cushion their fall. He thought about going into a lake, but he was afraid his Master would not be able to swim and drown. Which was a good call because Caspian had no idea how to swim.
When they landed, Caspian somehow made it out alive. Unfortunately, his butler died.
Caspian crawled out of the debris, barely alive, but he was alive. That was all that mattered to him.
He didn't see the First Legion, so he knew they were being held up in the asteroid belt.
Ironically, he too crashed into a remote planet. What goes around comes around.