Chapter 399 Lesson
After tossing the body of the Dark World Transcendent, Avelin jumped back inside the Black Mist before I let go of the now pilotless Ultimate Darkgen, letting it fall down the ground.
If they didn't pick that up later, I'll have someone loot it for us to use. It only had a ripped cockpit after all. One of my girls could use that or perhaps for Old Man Reol.
Giving that Old Man a new toy to play with sounds great, he could bond with the other Old Man at the Empire. If Ezyn also managed to become a Transcendent, the three old men can bond together. They could spar against each other like that.
As soon as Avelin jumped back inside and settled back on my seat, I patted her head and praised her swift kill.
Not that I'm encouraging her to continue terrorizing the enemies by showing her innocent but ruthless side. They're enemies anyway. If not her, one of us will kill them. There's no use having a prisoner here.
To complete the act I wanted them to comprehend, I controlled the Black Mist erratically to make it appear as if it suffered sufficient damage from the frantic retaliation of that Transcendent moments before Avelin snapped his neck.
Convinced with that act, the four Ultimate Darkgens started chasing me around the battlefield, hoping to end me while the Black Mist was damaged. However, unbeknownst to them, I was maneuvering my Ultimate Metagen to direct their attacks straight to their troops down below.
Of course, I was making sure that I would also be grazed by their attacks, letting them chip away armor plates of the Black Mist.
By doing that, it was enough for them to consider that sooner or later, I would make a mistake which would eventually lead to my doom by getting hit squarely on my back.
"See this, Avelin? Sometimes, we need to play around with our enemies. If they become too scared of us, they will most likely separate from each other and it will take us a long time to hunt them down one by one."
Using this chance to educate the Barbarian Girl comfortably using my body as her backrest, I let the video feed on the back of the Black Mist show how the four Ultimate Darkgens compete against each other to hit me with their skills and attacks.
"I understand. Earlier, was snapping his neck good?" Since she always powered through on her fights and battles, Avelin tilted her head, wondering about that earlier event.
"Un. That was magnificently done. I let you pick one of them to kill after all. That's why you don't need to think that hard about that one. Remember, if you can kill the enemy easily, do it without dilly-dallying or waiting for them to reveal their trump card. Those who wait and babble their mouths were simply stupid and idiotic... Look ahead."
Continuing my lecture to the innocent girl, I pointed to the video feed at the back where the four were continuing to chase us.
"Those four. They didn't see how you killed that guy clearly and I made them think that this thing we're riding was damaged. They combined that information and now, they're thinking that they could defeat us because we're weakened."
"Do we wait for the right time to deal with them?"
"No. We will not. I told you. If they become scared of us, they will run away and hide from us. For now, we'll let them live. But that doesn't mean we will let them do what they want. Instead of killing them, we're going to confuse them."
"How?"
"Watch closely and learn from me. If you master this, only those overwhelmingly stronger than you could beat you." I patted her head again before continuing on my plan to confuse them.
I know, these Transcendents could be fooled for a while but because they're not complete idiots, they would start noticing things. That's why before they completely caught on to what I was doing, I would confuse them by doing something that would fool them once more.
Around two minutes of chase, the chance to do that finally arrived.
"He's leading us on, idiots! He's not really injured!" One of them shouted to the other three about his discovery of the strangeness of the current situation.
Upon hearing that, the other three slowed down their tracks which made the gap between us widen. With that one shout, all of them started to form doubts about the strangeness of the situation. If someone caught on like that one who shouted, he would support his notion. However, those who failed to catch on to it would start thinking of other possibilities.
In a while, the four Ultimate Darkgens completely stopped their tracks while I continued to maneuver the Black Mist away from them.
With that kind of display, those who were thinking of other possibilities would start doubting the claim of the first one. And to nail it down in their head, what I had to do is to hammer it in!
Upon reaching a certain distance where they wouldn't be able to easily detect the fluctuation of Energy, I activated the Black Mist's add-on ability wherein a patch of darkness would spread from its feet before covering the whole Metagen completely, making it appear somewhat invisible to the eye when it reached a certain distance.
Following that, I silently activated Phantasmic Doppelganger, creating one clone that continued retreating further, while the real one became concealed as the effect of using the skill turned around to go back in their direction.
Not giving them the chance to convene and align their suspicions together, I focused my eye on the one at the forefront.
"See here, Avelin, they started suspecting me. Now that suspicion will turn around and it will completely confuse them."
While the adorable girl listened calmly while enjoying this alone time with us, the Black Mist crept towards that Ultimate Darkgen I focused on.
As the Flux Energy flowed and circulated from the engine to the regenium all around the Metagen, I activated a Jewel Skill.
Karmic Slash!
With the activation of the ever-changing Jewel Skill, I reappeared in their line of sight. Opening my broadcast channel for them to hear me, I shouted.
"Thanks for letting me repair my Metagen! Now take this!"
Attacking them to prove that whatever that one's suspicion about me not completely injured was wrong, I then presented another answer for them. With that shout, I let them think that I was only recovering before I started to launch an attack again.
Following that Karmic Slash that seemed to be slow or fast depending on one's perception, enlarged Energy Explosion Projectiles followed by numerous Energy Threads were conjured by me, targeting the one I focused on.
With a Transcendent mind being able to process information faster than a normal human, my intention got perfectly relayed to them.
"Bullshit! What 'leading us on'? Are you seeing this? Because we stopped, he recovered enough to launch another attack!" Broadcasting his voice to curse at his fellow Transcendent, the one I targeted hastily dodged the Energy Explosions and Energy threads.
However, the Karmic Slash suddenly zoomed in, slashing straight to his Darkgen's chest.
"No!!!"
While cursing furiously, that one guy who suspected that I'm intentionally playing with them hurriedly invoked some kind of ability pulling the guy out of the way before the Karmic Slash landed.
Unfortunately, because of what he did, the two of them got hit by both the Energy Explosion Projectiles and Energy Threads.
"Damn it! You two! Attack him!" He shouted again and the other two Ultimate Darkgens instantly moved to launch a counter-attack.
However, before they could do that, a Transcendent Aura spread out from the direction of Eldur. Turning my gaze to it, I saw Amry's Crimson Valkyrie rushing towards our position, her flames burning brightly like a meteor.
And not only that, Yuko's stagnant Transcendent Aura due to her synchronization raged once more as it seemingly moved to reach our current position. However, it was now restrained to the point that it's only as strong as a Rank 1 Transcendent's Aura.
Surely, that girl used her Foresight and predicted the outcome I wanted to happen. Moreover, I already informed Reinys, Caila and Noelle that was standing guard there about my plan to let these Transcendents leave first for us to deal with them easily.
Upon being subjected to that, the four Ultimate Darkgens pilots reacted.
"Two new Transcendents on their side… "
"We got injured because of this moron's suspicion. Damn it!"
"I have grounds for my suspicion! Didn't I save you?!"
"Stop fighting, let's retreat first! This operation failed. Strange… Where did these new Transcendents come from?"
Acknowledging the last one's suggestions, the four instantly moved and flew upwards.
But that guy's last sentence… They're not aware of our arrival, huh? Does that mean no one tipped from the Settler Faction?
Ah. In any case, I achieved what I wanted, although I didn't account for Amry and Yuko's appearance, it achieved the same outcome and even quicker at that.
Seeing their superiors leaving, the remaining Darkgens started flying up to follow after them. Elise and Lexie, followed by the Aegis Battalion and the Eldur Metagens chased after the stragglers, destroying more of their numbers.
"Amazing, they really retreated and not because they're too scared of us. They only think they're at a disadvantage." Suddenly, Avelin commented as she cutely clapped her hands, praising me to her hearts' content.
I thought of teaching her something while we're fighting them and looking at her now, despite still having that innocent look, her eyes were shining brilliantly. She certainly understood that lesson I roughly taught her.
This adorable girl has a bright future.