Dangerous Folk Dance

Danger!

Very dangerous!

The Triangle Aircraft behind him had locked onto his tail. Every instinct in Liu Jun's body warned him of imminent danger, but seeing his comrades' damaged fighters, he resolutely pulled his aircraft into a climb, making subtle, irregular adjustments to evade any incoming attack.

With an enemy on their tail, he and his instructor still had a chance of survival, but their comrades in damaged aircraft had no way to evade an attack!

Liu Jun gently pulled back on the stick, adjusting his fighter's flight path as it climbed so the enemy could not stay on his tail without affecting the aircraft's ascent.

Just as the danger behind him reached its limit, Liu Jun prepared to pull back hard. But before he could, amid the howl of engines, two other J-15Ss dove down and launched PL10s at the unidentified aircraft locked onto his six.

After launching their missiles, the two fighters dove at the Triangle Aircraft without hesitation, preparing to tie it down and create an opportunity for Liu Jun.

No words were needed, and in any case, electromagnetic spectrum interference had made communication impossible. Seeing the enemy aircraft on his six being held back by his teammates, Liu Jun focused all his attention on the Triangle Aircraft ahead. Even though the rear seat's view was not as good as the front seat's, Liu Jun could still clearly "sense" its position.

Closer!

Even closer!

When the distance between them fell within five hundred meters, that familiar feeling returned. Something was off! Very off!

Liu Jun glanced at the IRST. Its tracked position differed somewhat from the position he sensed. His vision had been deceived. In that case, he would stop trusting his eyes and follow his instincts!

There was no time to think. He pulled back and cut into the Triangle Aircraft's rear hemisphere. It seemed extremely wary of Liu Jun. The moment he got on its tail, it began maneuvering. Liu Jun checked the airspeed on his helmet sight, assessed both sides' energy states, and followed.

With afterburners on, fuel burned away rapidly. If he gave up halfway now, the remaining fuel would not be enough to return anyway. He might as well go all in here and gamble on shooting it down before his fuel ran dry!

As for everything else, this was not the time to think about it!

The two pilots of Flight 140 saw the Triangle Aircraft being held up by their comrades and immediately adjusted course, flying toward the Liaoning. Their fighters had been badly damaged, but they could still fly. They needed to leave the mission area as quickly as possible and avoid becoming a burden to their comrades.

The Triangle Aircraft pulled to one side, and Liu Jun followed. The two wound around each other as if dancing through the sky, constantly closing in and separating again. Visible vapor trails streamed from their wingtips as they competed to see whose engines had more power.

Come on! Start the scissors! This maneuver demanded superb flying skill and precise control.

They climbed while twisting around each other. Every time they were about to cross paths, Liu Jun tried to point his nose at the enemy, working the Rudder and pulling the stick to align his aircraft with the position he sensed, then firing his forward weapons.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Liu Jun's shots struck empty space, slicing past through the air. The Triangle Aircraft seemed startled and immediately intensified its maneuvers, attempting to evade the J-15S's fire and leave the forward weapon engagement envelope.

And so, one fled while the other pursued. The Triangle Aircraft wanted to escape, but could not.

Whenever Liu Jun tried to get into its rear hemisphere, the Triangle Aircraft would twist its fuselage, preventing the J-15S's nose from pointing at it.

The Triangle Aircraft kept twisting its fuselage to bleed speed, trying to force the J-15S on its rear hemisphere to overshoot. Liu Jun immediately deployed the speed brake on the aircraft's back, slowing the fighter like a car applying its brakes, preventing an overshoot that would instantly turn his advantage into a disadvantage.

That was the Scissors Maneuver: incomparably dangerous. Attack and defense could reverse in an instant. Whoever reacted a fraction too slowly would fall into danger, and whoever disengaged first would have their six taken and be plunged into an absolute disadvantage.

Under the Triangle Aircraft's violent maneuvers, it lost speed even faster, and when it failed to achieve the desired result, it immediately abandoned this move that would put itself in danger.

As both sides continued pulling upward, their entangled flight gradually turned into a Spiral Climb. Just as the name suggested, they spiraled upward. This maneuver rapidly drained an aircraft's energy, testing both sides' thrust-to-weight ratio and angle of attack.

The J-15S's speed kept dropping. Its twin turbofan engines, in afterburner mode, supplied tremendous power, but Liu Jun could sense that the unidentified aircraft entering the Ascending Scissors with him was equally powerful.

During the Spiral Climb, Liu Jun discovered that the Triangle Aircraft's angle of attack was no weaker than the J-15S's. As their speeds began to fall, he felt his aircraft growing heavier and heavier, its response becoming sluggish, shown by how slowly it reacted whenever he pulled back on the stick.

At that moment, gravity tugged at his soul, trying to bind him to the earth!

There was not enough lift! Liu Jun realized his situation and turned to look at the Triangle Aircraft dancing with him. Its aerodynamic shape was far inferior to the J-15S, which had undergone countless wind-tunnel tests. Its speed was already extremely low, and it could stall at any moment.

To increase lift, Liu Jun deployed the takeoff flaps. Near the roots of the wings, the flaps slowly extended. Once deployed, they increased the wing area and greatly improved the aircraft's lift.

After deploying the flaps, the J-15S still felt heavy to control, but the sensation that it could drop from the sky at any moment weakened.

The two were like actors moving in slow motion, climbing bit by bit. Their speeds grew lower and lower until the two utterly different aircraft were almost completely motionless in midair, their energy exhausted.

So close! Just a little more!

The Triangle Aircraft was already showing signs of falling, but the J-15S was not much better off. At this rate, the J-15S would likely drop before it did. And during the fall, the aircraft would be unable to build up speed at all, like meat laid out on a chopping board, ready for slaughter!

At a time like this, whoever fell later would slam down on the opponent like a dunk!

Deploy landing flaps.

At that moment, Liu Jun was somewhat grateful that the J-15S was a carrier-based aircraft. To improve its short takeoff capability, its aerodynamics had been specifically optimized.

The J-15S's flaps opened to their maximum. At the instant it was about to fall, it seemed as though time had stopped, and it hung in the air.

One second later, the Triangle Aircraft that had been performing Ascending Scissors with him finally could no longer maintain its speed and was seized by Earth's gravity. Seeing his opponent dragged downward by gravity, Liu Jun cut the throttle, pulled the stick all the way back, and pressed the Rudder to help the aircraft roll over in midair before diving down.

As his nose dropped, it pointed toward the motionless Triangle Aircraft. Although the ballistic computer calculated the firing lead, Liu Jun fixed his gaze on a point beside the Triangle Aircraft. Its true body was there!