4811 Cat and Sword
Ketis was already a powerful killing machine by herself.
Even if those elite pescans managed to gather and surround her from multiple angles, she would have been able to figure out a way to break out of the encirclement and turn the tables against her formidable opponents.
It just would have taken a lot of time, effort and risk in order to solve these latest problems.
Now that Lucky had made his move, everything became much easier!
Having fought alongside each other several times before, Ketis and Lucky had long developed a tacit understanding on how to coordinate their actions.
Ketis ostentatiously made her presence known and attracted much of the attention of the enemy. This created many easy opportunities for Lucky to slip through the cracks and attack the opposing soldiers when their focus was directed elsewhere!
It was a familiar dynamic and one that worked like a charm. The swordmaster and the gem cat continually mowed over one alien after another with their deadly talents.
The only pity was that Lucky found himself unable to phase through the thick transphasic stone floor. This made it a bit harder for the cat to sneak up on enemies undetected.
Fortunately, the cat was much smaller than the humans the pescans were targeting, so Lucky still managed to use the surrounding cover to get close to his next targets.
"Meow!"
"Cut!"
None of the aliens in their path lasted long enough to hinder the pair too much. It was only after they started to approach the immobilized tank that they encountered more organized opposition.
It appeared that the pescan commanders had taken notice of the lone human and her pet rampaging in their midst!
Just as Ketis and Lucky approached a squad of pescan troopers that were coated in a different color than usual, the swordmaster abruptly altered her course!
"Evade!"
Her warning gave Lucky enough time to fly out of the way before an explosive blast engulfed the place where they were about to walk over.
More attacks struck in the general direction of the pair, forcing them to split up in an attempt to reduce the intensity of the incoming attacks.
Four metal giants revealed themselves through the debris of the structures that used to obstruct their vision.
"The intelligence reports said nothing about this model of pescan battle suits!"
The newcomers towered over every other human or pescan combatant. Their height approached four meters while their bulk was much more considerable.
Their greater sizes imbued them with lots more power. Not only were the weak points in their armor covered by thick plating without exception, they also mounted several more weapon systems onto their forms, including ones that could attack behind their backs!
Ketis quietly cursed. "These giant battle suits are too difficult to take down at close range."
He could see that every giant alien trooper was armed with a shotgun-like transphasic cannon.
The coverage of these devastating shotguns was so wide that Ketis would hardly be able to evade them if she got caught in their cones.
Though the firing rate of these weapons were awfully slow, all four of these giants knew how to cover for each other!
"What I wouldn't give to have a missile. Even a grenade is fine!"
What she truly wanted was her Bloodsinger and her true suit of combat armor. She would have been able to dismantle them one way or another if she had her best equipment at hand.
She should have learned a lesson from Ves and form a habit of carrying her own combat gear around!
Ketis knew that if they managed to survive all of this, she and her fellow Larkinsons would definitely change their ways. If even a planet as well-defended as Davute could turn into a crisis-ridden danger zone, then no other place was truly safe!
"Lucky! Are you alright, buddy?!"
"Meow meow!"
"We need to take out these giants first before they can threaten the others. Let's find a way to get close!"
"Meow…!"
The pescans that had been waiting for her arrivals worked together to put her under pressure through the use of increasingly overwhelming firepower.
"Ah!"
Ketis winced as one of the powerful transphasic energy weapons mounted on one of the battle suits had clipped her armored leg.
She anticipated the attack in advance, but found herself unable to evade it because she would place her body in the way of deadlier attacks!
Too many enemies were targeting her at the moment. It took all of her effort to test and exceed the limitations of her borrowed suit of combat armor.
Even if it was designed with moderate maneuverability in mind, its servos had never been designed to perform so many powerful and nimble movements in such a short span of time.
She knew exactly how much abuse they could take, and she understood clearly that they would fail her within a minute if she kept stressing to such an extent!
The aliens had wisened up at this time. Not all of them fired their weapons at Ketis even if that would make it likelier to score a hit on her body.
At least two of the giants and a third of the other pescan soldiers were keeping their eye out for the appearance of a certain mechanical cat.
Lucky did not dare to dash forward rashly, especially when the aliens had deliberately blasted all of the surrounding cover away.
The pescans realized that all of these obstacles benefited their current opponents a lot more than themselves!
TZZZ!
Three powerful transphasic laser beams seared the position that Ketis was in, forcing her to make an ungainly roll in order to evade all of them at the same time.
This left her unable to evade the shotgun blast that one of the giant suits fired in her direction!
Fortunately, the spread of this sweeping gun was so wide that not a lot of transphasic pellets struck her armored form.
Ketis had bent over and desperately tried to shrink her silhouette as much as possible, taking special care to protect her head.
Clank! Clank! Clank! Tz!
Several armor plates suffered penetrating damage and would have cut through her body if not for her personal shield generator.
Even then, the outdated device strained to block the kinetic energy that was left. The capacity of its battery drained considerably in order to save Ketis from suffering any actual wounds.
She couldn't withstand these attacks much longer!
The only other choice she could make was to make a tactical retreat, but that would delay or postpone all of her efforts into providing the other human fighters the support they needed to push through this assault!
Despite the massive amount of pescans killed so far, this enclave of alien exiles still had plenty more bodies to throw into the fight!
The pescans brought out more and more armed civilians, wounded soldiers and odd war machines.
Even their children entered the fight! The smaller humanoids couldn't fit into any of the adult-sized battle suits, but they could still contribute in various ways such as ferrying crucial supplies or manning simple defensive systems.
Seeing how extensively the pescans sought to crush the resistance from all of the humans, Ketis grew a lot more concerned.
Just like Ves, Ketis sensed a looming danger surging from the center of the prison facility.
It was as if a star was about to go supernova. A major event was about to occur and the nature of the threat was so massive that a swordmaster like herself could do nothing to resist against its might!
"No! I cannot let that happen!"
Just as Ketis' willpower surged to push back against the massive amount of pressure induced by the current circumstances, a strange development occurred.
"Reeeeriiaarrreee!"
A wounded and crippled pescan soldier roared in panic as he ran towards the circle of soldiers.
The injured pescan male who was clearly a civilian has suffered an awful gash in his arm that caused it to spurt dark red blood.
"Ayyyhhaa! Rrewhha!"
The conscripted fighter wasn't supposed to run in this direction and a couple of professional soldiers warned the wounded alien to move to a different location!
The wounded alien did not do so as his panic and his pain blinded his sensibilities.
He just wanted his life to be saved!
Though the soldiers surrounding the four giant battle suits continued to make threatening movements with their arm cannons, they ultimately did not do anything else to stop the intrusion.
That was the worst decision that they could have made.
As soon as a pescan field medic or the like came close in order to treat the injured conscript's wounds, a bronze cat phased right out of the latter's body and jumped into the next one!
Both the constrict and the medic screamed before their bodies collapsed.
It turned out that Lucky had not only phased through their armor and bodies as if they were air, but also skillfully materialized a claw from the moment it was about to pass through their alien hearts, thereby inflicting fatal wounds on both!
This was a skill that the Black Cats forced Lucky to learn until he was able to assassinate any human with a near-perfect success rate!
Although the pescans possessed bodies that significantly deviated from the human norm, they possessed hearts like all humanoid creatures, and that was enough for Lucky.
If nothing else, he could also run his claws through other vital organs such as the brain.
"MEOW!"
Even though it was extremely dangerous for Lucky to rampage in the middle of the enemy formation, the pescans were completely caught off-guard by his creative means of approaching their position!
By the time the sluggish pescans registered what was taking place, the cat had already run his claws through a dozen nearby soldiers at once!
Their decision to cluster together had given Lucky a lot of cover and convenience. He could kill a lot of enemies in quick succession and also take advantage of the fear of causing friendly fire.
Ever since the pescan race had been reduced to a couple of thousand individuals, each of them had become incomparably precious to the continuation of their species!
For years, the pescans had lived in a time where their race and civilization had reached the lowest point. Killing each other had become a cardinal sin, and they had been repeatedly instructed to never harm the few pescans left alive.
The strong hesitation this induced in the soldiers caused them to become extremely reluctant to open fire in the direction of any friendlies!
This was a major flaw of the pescan race. Their close combat abilities were non-existent due to their short arms and the other limitations of their race. They had only waged war from various distances and tactics involving closing in on opponents were non-existent as far as they were concerned.
"Meeeeooow!"
Lucky's only regret was that this tactic didn't work against the giant battle suits or the other soldiers equipped with transphasic armor. His body simply couldn't phase through them with his current level of strength!
It would take concerted attacks to breach transphasic armor, but that would take so much time that the enemy would definitely be able to retaliate.
Just as Lucky continued to throw the enemy ranks into chaos, Ketis took advantage of the lapse in concentration of the enemy and boldly charged forward!
"I shall cut your armor!"
Ketis charged towards an elite soldier and sliced her weapon straight through his neck, causing yet another head to be flung in the air!
She kicked against the body of another tall alien and thrust the tip of her sword into the rear of another elite soldier!
After clearing up these threats, she dashed straight towards the pescans equipped with the largest and most formidable battle suits!
However, before she could get close enough to test the sharpness of her blade against the armor of her latest foes, several transphasic energy shields came online and completely blocked her passage!
