New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1067: Unconvincing Illusion



Inside the van, the pilot turned his head to look at the woman behind him.

"I have the starboard reactor stabilized, Ma'am. But it won't be developing much thrust. We are down to eighty percent manoeuvrability. Our power reserves are also down to sixty percent. Whatever that man did drained almost ten percent in one blow."

The woman thought about their power expenditure and clicked her tongue.

"With the active camouflage draining most of our power before this and the fully powered shot we fired, we can't stretch this fight for too long before we need to recharge the batteries. What is your take on this, fraulein Becker?" she asked, looking at a younger woman beside

her.

"I think we can either concentrate on attacking and hope we exhaust them or go for a defensive battle and wait for an opening, Ma'am."

The young woman with her long straight blonde hair and crystalline blue eyes looked at her boss, whose pitch black hair, curly like a gentle sea, wavered at her nodding head.

The distinctive trait that made the woman stand out, if she would ever walk in a crowd, was a trait her family had shared for generations. One that, legends had it, came from something they slew long ago: her piercing red eyes.

The red-eyed woman looked at her screen pensively, the hologram outside frozen on her staring gaze through a trick of recordings, while she thought of alternative plans.

She could think of a few more options, but they were more drastic and would either end really badly for them or end up killing one or both of her targets.

Her father did not task her with killing them, but to capture them. She couldn't afford to kill them lest her father tear her heart out.

Even though she had ordered a fully charged blast of their monster-killing cannon, it was more of a threat than an actual attempt at killing the hellspawn. She had hoped it would deter him and make him flee.

Her family were renowned hunters, but a head-on fight wasn't always in their best interest. It was better for them to hunt and prepare, than duke it out with these powerful beings.

But her fear wasn't from the man with wings. She was sure her ship could handle that one. She was much more scared of the flaming woman. Her family had never fought one of those, as far as she knew, and she had no idea what to expect of such a being.

She looked at the pilot, her face suddenly filled with determination.

"How fares the Energon barrier? Is it recharged to full yet?"

The pilot looked down at his display and shook his head.

"No, Ma'am. It's up to eighty percent. The barrage of wind attacks earlier slowed down the recharge. This thing's magical powers are much stronger than anything we've seen since this machine was made..."

"Eighty percent... I can live with that number. Engage defensive manoeuvres. We're going into a battle of attrition," she ordered, sitting back in her command chair and buckling in.

Outside the ship, Alex heard the whine of the reactors priming up, and he knew the stalemate was about to be broken.

"Get ready," he said, raising his hands.

He had been thinking about Kary's earlier words about the residual heat from her flames and had an idea of how to inflict some damage on their foe's vehicle. He only hoped it would work.

The cannon on the aft of the vehicle suddenly lit up again, this time discharging almost instantly, and grazing Alex's wing as he flapped it to get out of the way.

"You think you can pin me down with such lazy aim? Think again!" he shouted, pointing his hands at the flying van.

A hail of small pebbles shot out before them, hurtling toward the aircraft at a hundred miles an hour. The moment they reached the ship, they lost much of their momentum, but still clattered on the metal exterior, making Alexander grin.

'I just need to pump more power into them, then,' he thought, glad his idea worked.

Inside the ship, the woman clicked her tongue in exasperation.

"Don't let him hit us like that. His attacks may seem weak, but I can tell he's been holding back. Dodge everything you can!" she ordered.

The pilot shouted back, "Yes, Ma'am!" but there was only so much he could dodge when flames started licking the other side of their hull.

"They are pinching us!" he shouted, trying to evade as much of the attack as his skills allowed him to.

Turning to the blonde woman, the one in charge glared at her.

"Can't you do something about this? Cast a spell, witch! I didn't bring you along just because I like your presence!" she barked.

The blonde woman nodded fiercely, her eyes focusing on the screen before her.

She closed her eyes and focused on the surrounding ship. A pulse of magic erupted from her and wrapped around the ship.

Outside, Alex felt the pulse and chuckled.

"As if that would be enough," he mumbled, looking at the vehicle.

He saw it become blurry before separating in every direction like it was being stretched out of existence.

But with his mana vision, he could still see what part of the illusion was solid. It was a wasted effort, in his opinion.

As the ship tried escaping the onslaught of attacks, Alex kept calling out its actual location to Kary, making their attacks hit accurately amidst the subterfuge.

"Twelve o'clock! Two O'clock! Seven! Four!"

He kept shouting the general direction Kary had to shoot, and since their target was already big in itself, and the illusion not giving it much more ampleness, it was easy for her to assume firing at the center of that direction would be enough.

Inside the vessel, the commander was getting tired of getting rocked left and right.

"Are you even trying to dodge?!" she roared at the pilot, her anger making her eyes flash

brighter.

"I'm trying Ma'am! They are still hitting us even with the illusion cast around us! It's like they can see through it with ease! What's the witch good for if she can't make a convincing

illusion?!" he cried out, trying to shift the blame.

The woman's glowing red eyes flipped to the blonde, and she hissed at her, her frontal

canines suddenly abnormally long.

"What's YOUR excuse?!" she growled.

"Ma'am, the illusion should have fooled them. They must have a better detection skill thann/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

my illusion magic. If his eyes see through everything, there is nothing more I can do!" the girl

cried out, fear taking her heart.

"Fine!" the woman roared.

"I'll take care of it myself! Open the hatch!"