062. Aerial Dogfight
"Knowing full well I have the speed advantage, yet still charging headlong into me—interesting."
Li Aozi temporarily lost sight of one of the targets, but it didn't matter. His [True Eye] had only a 7-second cooldown, and he could scan again soon.
In the meantime, the opponent charging directly at him—Magath—demanded more attention.
Magath increased his speed to five times the speed of sound, leaving a clear Mach ring in his wake. Although slower than Li Aozi, the jet had a significant range advantage over him.
Magath fired two high-speed, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles. The javelin-like projectiles, carrying the jet's initial velocity, coasted for a while before igniting, aiming for Li Aozi from two different, sharp angles.
Li Aozi didn't slow down. He twisted his body mid-air like a spinning bullet, fluidly rolling as combustible gel seeped from his palms. [Natural Ignition] ignited it, and he flung the blazing gel towards the incoming missiles.
Boom! Boom!
The missiles, mistaking the heat of the fireballs for a jet's exhaust, locked on and exploded violently. While performing his barrel roll, twelve drones rapidly closed in on Li Aozi.
"Take him down, eaglets!"
Magath's thoughts transmitted through the data link to the drones, which immediately scattered like petals, accelerating at impossibly high Gs, spraying lasers and weaving a twisted web of light in front of Li Aozi.
"Eaglet-class laser loyal drones? Didn't expect those to be deployed in this era. Seems they're saving the TLS for me."
Li Aozi understood their plan. He deliberately refrained from using gravity to bend the laser beams, instead relying on his high agility and reaction speed to create the impression of 'desperately dodging.'
Blue Star wasn't an interstellar civilization yet. Their jets relied on drones for fire suppression rather than floating turrets.
Typically, drones played a flanking role, managing electronic warfare and controlling the unmanned crafts, while the main jet acted as the primary combatant.
"Good job, eaglets!"
Seeing Li Aozi pinned down, Magath felt a surge of joy but remained cautious.
"This guy was ramming planes with his body before. The drone footage shows his armor is pretty strong—he could be luring us into close combat."
"Leave it to me."
Yelivov eased off the throttle, allowing his 'Vulture' to unfold its forward-swept wings, dropping to subsonic speeds for maximum maneuverability and stealth. This enabled him to silently slip past the high-speed Li Aozi, positioning himself right behind the target, almost hovering, perfectly setting up a pincer attack with Magath.
"Prepare tactical laser!"
Like an assassin lying in wait, Yelivov readied the laser weapon. Behind his cockpit, the prism-shaped laser cannon slowly charged up with energy.
Yelivov manually disabled the electronic targeting systems, switching to mechanical sights to keep Li Aozi in the crosshairs, maintaining complete stealth.
Purple energy surged in his eyes, and all of his ki flowed into the fighter. His pupils contracted to a single point as he locked onto Li Aozi's figure.
[Absolute Focus]
[Burst Loading]
[Lock-On Target]
Three advanced [Ranger] skills activated simultaneously, placing Yelivov under immense strain. But his Beta-tier body could withstand it. He gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger:
"Fire!"
Whoosh!
A red-and-white laser beam shot through hundreds of kilometers of sky, so bright it was visible even from the ground.
"I've been waiting for this!"
Li Aozi had been monitoring Yelivov's movements with [True Eye]. The moment Yelivov stalled his plane, Li Aozi's golden eyes widened. He stopped his high-speed flight and slammed his fists together in front of his chest.
Gravity Disruption!
The laser beam hit Li Aozi, but it was like a raging wave crashing against a circular island. In Yelivov and Magath's astonished eyes, the beam bent around Li Aozi and refracted into the distance.
Not just the tactical laser—all the weapons fired by the loyal drones scattered at that moment, dispersing in all directions. One of the drones was even destroyed on the spot.
"What the hell is that?!"
Magath was horrified. He slammed on the afterburners, launching a salvo of ground-attack multi-warhead rockets to box Li Aozi into the drone network. Then, catching a gap, he fired the tactical laser himself.
Whoosh!
Li Aozi deliberately stopped in mid-air, floating as he flicked his hand, causing the laser to deflect upward into the sky.
"Shit!" Magath cursed, mentally shaken by the blow.
"Magic Stone Two, this guy isn't affected by optical weapons! He lured us into using the laser!"
The TLS was an incredibly sophisticated and power-hungry weapon. Each sortie only allowed for a single shot—using it again would overload and crash the jet's avionics.
"We've been tricked—this guy knows our weapon systems too well."
Yelivov realized Li Aozi's ploy and disabled his optical camouflage, joining Magath in the chase. The two pilots coordinated crossfire, constantly limiting Li Aozi's airspace.
"Increase maneuverability, exhaust his energy with tactical maneuvers!"
Yelivov's command came just as Li Aozi suddenly braked, dropping from Mach 6 to a dead stop. Both jets zoomed past him, exposing their vulnerable rear positions.
"Eaglets!" Magath quickly ordered, and the eleven remaining drones swarmed back toward Li Aozi.
"That trick won't work on me anymore!"
Li Aozi's body ignited in flames as his flesh rapidly regenerated. He charged straight into the drone network.
[Gravity • Contact]—Stack
[Immortal Blood]—Stack
[Natural Ignition]—Stack
"Trinity—Heaven-Drawn Phoenix Bomb!"
Li Aozi spread his arms wide like a flaming phoenix, crashing into the drone network. The intense heat first disrupted the drones' signals—Blue Star didn't possess advanced quantum networking technology yet, so Magath could only watch as his drones overheated and shut down. Their batteries exploded in a chain of fireballs.
Whoosh—
Li Aozi's high-speed flight extinguished the flames on his body as he reappeared on the two pilots' radar.
"Damn it! He's on our tail!" Magath shuddered. "Was this guy an angel in his past life? This whole sky belongs to him!"
"Perform vector maneuvers, release heat flares!" Yelivov had no time for banter. He injected himself with anti-overload drugs, grimacing at the bitter taste in his mouth. He fought through the nausea and endured a 78G turn, yanking the jet's nose around.
"Huff, huff, huff—"
The intense overload nearly knocked Yelivov out. Even as a Beta-tier, enduring such high G-forces for five to six seconds almost killed him. His vision blacked out momentarily, but the pressure suit activated in time to squeeze the blood back into his brain.
Puff, puff, puff—
The two Vultures released a barrage of heat flares, white smoke blooming like feathers in the sky.
"It won't help."
Li Aozi's eyes flared with runes again.