The mechas swooping in at high speed didn’t bother with words, opening fire immediately.

Miles Sherman and Erin Xavier instantly deployed their own cannons. The two sides exchanged bombardments, the blasts washing over the green trees below. The high-temperature shells left scorched trails, setting the woods on fire with a sharp, CRACKLING sound.

It was only then that Miles Sherman noticed Zoe Pierce, the person he was protecting behind him, had also used her mecha to attack the enemy reinforcements.

A few more mechas had been dispatched, swelling the enemy’s ranks.

Before the next bombardment arrived, Erin Xavier grabbed Zoe Pierce’s mecha and pulled it back, retreating.

Realizing they were trying to escape, several mechas attempted to bypass Miles Sherman to give chase, but he shot them down before they could get close.

The man in the command center’s brow furrowed once more. "Send someone to catch them."

The more they ran, the more it proved something was amiss.

If Erin Xavier knew what the man was thinking, he would have cursed out loud. ’What kind of screwed-up logic is that? They’re trying to kill us without a word of explanation. Are we supposed to just sit here and wait to get blown to bits by their mechas?’

The fighter jets hovering at the highest altitude now aimed at Zoe Pierce and Erin Xavier. Even mechas that had yet to reach the wormhole’s location broke formation and flew directly to attack them.

"Are they insane? They’re just going to throw away these experimental Beta mechas that were so hard to come by?" Erin Xavier cursed over the channel.

Miles Sherman had already shot down seven or eight of their mechas.

Zoe Pierce’s lips were pressed into a thin line as she followed Erin Xavier. They were now at a disadvantage. They were certainly not as familiar with the terrain as the natives of Planet B36, and now the sky was swarming with their enemies, magnifying their disadvantage.

Suddenly, Zoe Pierce sensed something and shouted to Erin Xavier ahead of her, "Dodge! Erin!"

In the blink of an eye, cannon shells fired from several positions bombarded Erin Xavier from all sides. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Seeing that they couldn’t take down both targets at once, they chose to attack one first, and then the other.

Erin Xavier pushed his mecha to its limit, dodging three energy blasts at maximum speed.

These guys were clearly relying on overwhelming numbers.

Erin Xavier’s doe-like eyes were now narrowed. Seven or eight mechas took turns surrounding and bombarding the two of them. They were more agile than Xenobeasts and better at coordinating.

But even under these circumstances, they couldn’t get the better of the pair.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man in the control center gave a direct order: "Lure them to the Glimmerwood cliffs. Bombard the mountain."

The Beta mechas switched to pursuit, slowly forcing the two of them toward the middle of the cliff.

The fighter jets bombarded the cliff face directly. As Erin Xavier and Zoe Pierce dodged the energy cannons from the mechas, they suddenly felt something was wrong.

The laser bombs were no longer targeting them as before. Instead, they were striking the rock.

When Zoe Pierce came to her senses and looked up, she saw a deluge of giant rocks falling from above, heading straight for Erin Xavier.

He was still facing off against mechas and had no way to escape.

In the instant the boulders began to fall, Zoe Pierce violently shoved Erin Xavier.

The next second, they were buried under a pile of rocks nearly twenty meters high.

The surrounding mechas and fighter jets went silent. The real-time feed was transmitted to the command center.

The middle-aged man’s brow finally smoothed out a little. "Withdraw. Head back to the wormhole point. The other group will continue."

Under that kind of impact, even an extremely durable mecha would be crushed flat. They were on a tight schedule and couldn’t afford to dig them out for confirmation. They would leave for now and handle it later.

There was still one mecha they hadn’t dealt with.

"Erin Xavier!"

"Erin Xavier, are you okay? Wake up!"

In the rubble, buried under layers of rock, an invisible defense of spiritual power silently held its ground, sheltering the two mechas that had nearly been smashed to smithereens.

Erin Xavier touched his still-dizzy head, his eyes fluttering. ’Who... who’s calling me?’

’The voice sounds familiar.’

’It’s a woman’s voice.’

Taking a few shaky breaths, it took him a few seconds to register where he was.

After the boulders fell, he’d felt a violent tremor. A series of jarring impacts had knocked him out for a moment, but Zoe Pierce’s calls had pulled him from that daze.

"Erin Xavier! Erin Xavier!"

Erin Xavier shook his head. He realized the voice wasn’t coming from inside the mecha, but from outside. He pushed open the cockpit door and, in the pitch darkness, saw Zoe Pierce’s face.

Her expression was wrought with tension, but when she saw him open the door, she let out a visible sigh of relief.

"Zoe, stop yelling. It’s noisy." He pulled himself out of the mecha. Its legs were completely pinned, with only the upper half remaining operational.

It was only after getting out of the mecha that Erin Xavier realized he was still alive entirely thanks to Zoe Pierce.

She had used her spiritual power to create a protective barrier for them both, buffering the impact of the giant stones.

’How strange.’

’He was always the one protecting people; no one had ever protected him like this.’

’Besides, that spiritual power looked familiar.’

’Ah, it’s like the spiritual power of that teammate from the joint examination, the one who was with that poor sap, Ethan Grant.’

’Zoe Pierce knows how to do that already?’

After climbing down from his mecha, Erin Xavier retracted it into his Space Button. A muffled THUMP THUMP sounded, and the space around them changed again.

A stable space formed around them, one that wouldn’t collapse even if Zoe Pierce were to withdraw her spiritual power.

’My mecha is probably mostly scrap now,’ he thought. ’First, I need to check if Zoe’s is still okay.’

Various thoughts flashed through his mind as Erin Xavier turned his head.

But to his surprise, a pair of soft hands seized his arm.

He froze for a moment and looked up.

It was Zoe Pierce grabbing his arm. She was so close.

So close he could sense the rise and fall of her chest.

He stood there, stock-still.

His throat felt inexplicably tight and dry. "Zoe?" he asked in a low voice.

"I’m fine now."

Erin Xavier thought she was only acting this way because she was worried about him.

But Zoe Pierce’s body didn’t react to his answer. She continued to tremble, and her grip on his arm grew even tighter.

’Something’s wrong.’

’Something is wrong with Zoe.’

Erin Xavier immediately reached out and lifted Zoe Pierce’s face.

In the space buried beneath layers of rock, only the faint light of a mecha flickered.

By that faint light, Erin Xavier saw that Zoe Pierce’s face was as white as a sheet of paper.

Her whole body was trembling abnormally; even her pupils were contracting violently.

Even as he lifted her face, she seemed oblivious, clutching him like a lifeline. Her body drew nearer and nearer, until her head was pressed completely against Erin Xavier’s arm.

"My head... it hurts so much..."

In the darkness, her breathing quickened. Erin Xavier had to take a step back to steady himself.

The young woman’s breath ghosted past his nose, then suddenly brushed against his earlobe.