31 Lambda Driver

"Huuuuuh, Ballack is dead, but his AS is weaker than me, but he still useless, he could not win against ordinary AS"

A grenade Lauren lobbed exploded in uncomfortably close proximity.

The Arbalest ducked to avoid the blast and any shrapnel. Then,

appearing to stand up, it grabbed a fallen tree and flung it.

When the tree crashed to the ground in between the two mechs,

they could no longer see each other. At that instant, although neither could see the other, they fired simultaneously.

Conifers blew apart.

The Arbalest took a hit on the lower-right part of its head.

Machine-gun ammo went off, and half of the main sensors were destroyed. Lauren's AS, on the other hand, sustained damage to its rifle; the binary liquid tank ruptured, and it broke down completely.

In terms of damage to the mechs, the Arbalest was in more serious condition. However ...

"I win"

Sousuke still had weapons. It was close range, and he would not miss.

Sousuke blasted away with his shot cannon. Lauren's mech still staggered from the previous attack. The small warhead flew from the barrel, separated into eight pieces, and continued toward the other mech's torso.

Sousuke didn't believe what he saw next:

Every piece of the shot shattered before hitting Lauren's AS as if it were crashing into an invisible wall. Sousuke didn't understand.

Shortly after that, a violent shock rocked the Arbalest. It seemed as though a great force were pulling Sousuke forward, but then it threw him back.

The Arbalest arced through the air spun and tumbled shoulder first to the surface.

Lauren's loud laughter resounded through the ravine.

"Dammit, there it was," lamented Kurz.

From a faraway vantage point, it still looked like some incomprehensible phenomenon.

It couldn't have been a fragmentation mine, nor explosive reactive armor. It was a force field and some kind of shockwave.

There simply was no other way to describe it.

The white AS didn't move.

Although Kurz and Kaname couldn't see it, they imagined it to be damaged. After all, an M9 in good condition had been blown

to pieces from the same device, so this prototype surely couldn't withstand it.

Kaname remained still.

"Oh, God," she pleaded.

Sousuke gasped, shaking his head. He literally was seeing red;

it must have been "red out" from the G-force of the crash. His whole

body felt numb, and he barely could move his fingertips. His side felt wet, indicating that his wound had reopened.

He remembered Kurz's words: "It was like being hit with a

hammer."

So, this is what he had meant.

He knew Kurz's mech had been destroyed by a hit like that, so

Sousuke assumed that he was in a similar state. There was no way

it could be functional after that kind of shock. His AS had lost. He had lost to Lauren.

This time, it really is the end.

After a moment, his reddened vision returned to normal, and he studied the on-screen letters. Blue letters. Contrary to his expectations, the screen read:

"Damage slight no hindrance to combat."

Now, it was Lauren's turn to question his eyes: With great effort, the white AS sat up. And then it stood.

Although the head was partially destroyed, the machine appeared to be otherwise unharmed. The Mithril AS that Lauren had defeated earlier had blown apart completely!

"Ah! Why didn't that work?"

Shaking his head, Lauren checked his drive system. He used the

Lambda Driver properly-having charged its personal condenser so it wasn't an output problem.

"A misfire? Weird."

In any case, it was an imperfect device; at times, it did not operate as desired.

The personal condensers were in a cylinder like a six-shooter,

and Lauren revolved it, causing a new one to lock into place.

"There." Lauren chuckled, planning to attack with the Lambda

Driver again. This time, he'd make sure to get the job done.

"What's going on?" wondered Sousuke, still in awe of the damage report.

Outside of the head damage, the machine virtually was unharmed.

"How the hell ... ?"

It sounded like something was turning around on the Arbalest's back-some kind of cylinder. Then, there was the sharp sound of something connecting.

"What did you do? What's that movement?"

Ignoring those questions, Al said, "Lambda Driver

initialized."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Unable to respond. Resuming combat."

"Answer me, AI."

"Unable to respond."

On the screen, Lauren's AS unsheathed its knife-like monofilament blade.