Keiko muttered in disbelief when she found out that Jeanne was ranked first, despite not being a combatant officer. She knew that Jeanne's mecha control skills were good, but she didn't expect them to be this good. It was a shame that she wasn't blessed with a better physique, or she might've already been promoted to Colonel or higher rank.
Her result even outclassed the second seat by almost twice the points. The second seat was currently occupied by Major General Lynx Ardora. If Keiko didn't remember wrongly, she was the leader of the Southwestern Division Mecha Brigade.
And the third seat was actually occupied by Captain Amanda Hill from the Third Squadron, who was also her superior. This fact also surprised Keiko. It turned out that she had been unknowingly assigned to the team with one of the most skilled mecha pilots at its helm.
She continued checking out the rankings and found the name of her colleague: Lieutenant Lu Diyun ranked 15th and Lieutenant Valentine ranked 21st. Other than the two of them, no one from the third squadron ranked in the top 50.
She and Seol-Hyun Ae were still not ranked since they had only been transferred to Mecha Brigade recently.
Keiko remembered the score needed to be ranked in the top 3 and closed the Monster Arena's Ranking Board, immediately picking the 1v1 mode for warming up and getting used to the new mecha.
The opponent she chose this time was the Furious Earth Dragon that she had fought with several weeks ago. She had already faced this monster and knew what its weak point was. So, this monster was the most suitable for her first solo battle using a mecha.
She chose Hela MK-1 as her mecha and the Furious Earth Dragon as her opponent without hesitation. Then, after pondering for a while, she decided on a plain training arena as the venue of their battle.
In fact, she could also choose a variety of combinations of venues and settings, such as rainforest on a rainy day, a meadow at the night, or even underwater battle in the ocean in summer or scorching-hot-battle inside the volcano during the winter. But, before she could control her Hela to the utmost extent, she would keep it as simple as possible.
In less than a minute, the system had finished the setup for the environment and monster simulation. Keiko was currently looking through the mecha's view. Fortunately, Hela MK-1 had the same height as Sieg-Type Mecha, so Keiko didn't feel disoriented. She could only see an empty field in front of her.
"It means that ugly monster is still hiding," Keiko said while looking at one red dot and one blue dot on the radar screen. She immediately wanted to retreat a bit to put some distance between herself and the Furious Earth Dragon so she could start experimenting with her new mecha.
Just as she swung her right leg a step backward, she felt her foot become so sluggish, like there was a shackle on it.
"The hell, it's heavy!"
One that should've been a smooth movement turned into a stumble and then the mecha fell down on one knee and looked like someone who had done a forward lunge. Keiko ended up in an awkward position.
This was the first time Keiko felt the resistance from the mecha. Usually, when someone piloted a mecha that used the "micro-motion synchronization system" they would only feel a negligence amount of feedback because the mecha system would automatically amplify their movement. But, with the new "Complete Synchronize System", this advantage would naturally disappear, and instead, the pilot would be able to control the mecha as naturally as they control their own body.
Keiko felt like she was an ordinary person wearing a pair of 50-pound weights around her ankles and wrists. She momentarily forgot about the existence of the Furious Earth Dragon, which was still lurking underground as she tried to randomly move parts of her body to get used to the feeling as soon as possible. The more she shook, swayed, and flexed, the more comfortable she felt. Not long after, she had completely adapted to the sensation, and now she could move freely, albeit a tiny bit slower.
Her attention was suddenly attracted by the approaching red dot on the screen, which was getting closer dangerously fast. If it was before, she would definitely opt to retreat, but now, after regaining her confidence, she decided to face the monster head-on.
Keiko began counting down as the Furious Earth Dragon got closer and closer. The ground started shaking; Hela MK-1's pair of high-vibration blades were silently hissing. She was already in her stance—the stance of the Nameless kenjutsu she inherited from her father; this was the first time she could perfectly execute it while driving a mecha.
Boom!
The earth cracked open and a black, huge thing was seemingly about to emerge; at this exact moment, Keiko's blade shone blue light as she swung her right arms upside down.
Slice—
The oblivious Furious Earth Dragon burst forth like an erupting volcano just to find a swinging blade that had already waited for it on the surface. Due to its momentum, the monster couldn't cancel its advance nor change its trajectory.
The Furious Earth Dragon could only watch as Keiko split its body into two as easily as cutting butter, roaring helplessly.
In the previous fight, she felt that the monster was huge and terrifying, but now she didn't find it scary at all. With her blade, she bisected the furious earth dragon with minute precision, splitting it apart with one slash.
As half of the Furious Earth Dragon's body had been split apart, the other half started squirming furiously, trying to separate itself from the main body before it shared the same fate as its counterpart.
Keiko obviously wasn't going to let it go. She thrust her left arm forward, penetrating the monster's body deeply, roared furiously, and yanked its remaining body out of the ground.
The sight was spectacular.
Keiko pulled the monster, whose whole body was twice bigger than her mecha, using only one arm, and bashed it on the ground, causing it to flail about violently. But Keiko didn't stop there. With the blade still inside the monster's abdomen, she dashed toward the other end at lightning speed, dragging the blade along with her, cutting the rest of its body.
From the start to the end, the Furious Earth Dragon couldn't even muster a meager resistance in front of Keiko, falling victim to the hand of the Death Reaper with an unreconciled expression.
Keiko stood beside the Furious Earth Dragon silently.
She felt her heart thumping crazily and her breath ragged, not because she was tired, but due to the adrenaline rush from the action, causing her to feel exhilarated as she saw how easily she killed the monster that had killed so many of her comrades and almost fell Keiko back then.
"This baby is freaking awesome!!!"
Keiko yelled out of her lung, expending her body's excess energy and gradually cooling down. She looked at the display on her visor and found that the battle had only lasted for less than 5 minutes. She nodded and smiled in satisfaction. The performance of this mecha greatly exceeded her expectations.
"Oh Hela, together with you, we will surely become the goddess of death for those disgusting Zerg!"
Keiko laughed to her heart's content, and, after that, she chose her next prey gleefully.
###
Author's note:
Hello, my dear reader!
I want to give a boost to this book so I'll do a targeted vote with a reward this week (21st Feb - 27th Feb).
This week's voting target:
500 PS = Mass release 3 chapters at the end of the month (28th Feb) + 3 chapters System Journey to Godhood.
750 PS = Mass release 4 chapters at the end of the month (28th Feb) + 3 chapters System Journey to Godhood.
1000 PS = Mass release 5 chapters at the end of the month (28th Feb) + 3 chapters System Journey to Godhood.
We've reached the 300 marks and still have one day to get the goal, so if you desire bonus chapters pump up your PS to this book!
Don't worry, I have a sufficient amount of chapters in the stockpile this time, so it definitely not an empty promise!
So, do me a favor and give me those power stones! Thank you all and happy reading!