Lying Through His Teeth

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Having escaped the Aegis Gundam's gunfire, Xiao Ran saw through the rear monitor that the Strike Gundam and Aegis Gundam had become entangled again, their beam sabers clashing. It sent a cold sweat down his back.

"Beep, beep, beep."

Before he could relax, the cockpit's red alarm suddenly blared again. Xiao Ran nearly jumped out of his skin. When he looked at the display, there was a Ginn on each side ahead of him, both aiming their guns at him. Directly in front of him, another Ginn was pointing a massive cannon at him.

They saw through my flight path. The thought flashed through Xiao Ran's mind. He was shocked to find his route forward blocked. If he did not change course, he would have to face attacks from three directions at once, with nowhere to dodge.

"Move!"

"Teacher!"

Communications from the Archangel, the Strike Gundam, and Moebius Zero rang out simultaneously. Amid the chaotic voices, Xiao Ran watched the gun muzzles on the display erupt with flames and focused every ounce of his attention on his enemies. For some reason, time suddenly seemed to slow down. He could even feel some kind of power rapidly draining away.

There was no time to think. In less than a second, his left hand performed a series of actions in rapid succession. He pulled back the thruster power control, shutting all the thrusters down, then tapped rapidly across the buttons. His feet slammed down on the pedals while his right hand pushed the control stick forward one notch before yanking it all the way back. Then, with his left hand, he turned the thruster energy back up to maximum.

In an instant, Xiao Ran was pinned to his seat by the overwhelming force, unable to move. Even his head was held down so firmly that he could not raise it at all. Fortunately, the state did not last long. After only a few seconds, it vanished completely in a blinding flash of white light.

To everyone else, the Lightning Ginn had been charging at top speed toward the encirclement formed by the three Ginns. At that speed, it would inevitably have been shot down by their combined attack. But just before the three Ginns fired, the Lightning Ginn's Flight Pack abruptly went dark. Its feet, still propelled by inertia because their thrusters had not been shut off, were flung forward, forcibly turning the mecha from a vertical I-shape into a horizontal line.

At the very instant it completed the maneuver, the Lightning Ginn's pack erupted with scorching flames again. The powerful thrusters launched it sharply upward, narrowly evading the Ginns' shells. The Lightning Ginn's dazzling chain of maneuvers had all been completed in just over a second, leaving everyone astonished. But the price was severe damage to its hip joints and knee joints, with the damage level exceeding fifty percent. Worse still, a Drake-class battleship behind and to the right of the Lightning Ginn was blasted into fragments.

After escaping what could only be called a fatal danger, Xiao Ran found that everything had returned to normal. Yet the emptiness and faint ache in his head seemed to be reminding him of something.

"Attributes."

Accuracy 9 (11): Affects shooting ability and accuracy.

Agility 8 (10): Affects melee ability and strength.

Reflexes 9 (10): Affects reaction speed and dexterity.

Mental Power 3 (10): Affects skill consumption and perception.

Constitution 8 (10): Affects physical fitness and endurance.

While operating the Lightning Ginn, Xiao Ran glanced at his attributes. With one look, he understood the reason. His attributes had all been maxed out when he entered battle, yet after only a little over a second, his Mental Power had fallen to just one-third. Perhaps he had somehow activated Mental Power consumption during that critical moment, enhancing his perception and allowing the Lightning Ginn to perform those maneuvers.

"Damn it! How could you space out in the middle of a battle?!" On the Archangel, Bargyll grabbed the communicator at hand and roared at Xiao Ran.

Mwu, still shaken by the close call, added, "Be careful next time. You will not be this lucky every time."

"Whew, sorry. Rookies tend to lose focus on the battlefield. Still, if I could escape that kind of encirclement, I suppose I count as an elite grunt—an elite cannon fodder, right?" Xiao Ran gave a self-deprecating smile through the pain in his head. His gaze sharpened as he became serious. The targeting sight he had never used because he lacked the focus to spare slid out from the side.

The Lightning Ginn slowed, turned around, and flew back toward the combat zone. A crosshair drifted constantly across Xiao Ran's right eye, locking onto the Ginn that had been holding the rocket launcher earlier. As he listened to the beeping prompts, he calmly made minute adjustments to the controls.

"Beep!" The instant the crosshair finally locked onto the enemy, the Lightning Ginn fired three beams in succession. The first beam passed beneath the Ginn's arm. The second struck its shoulder. The third passed through the Ginn's ******, barely throwing up a burst of sparks.

But Xiao Ran did not hear a system prompt, and he knew his three attacks had not hit the enemy at all. Just as he was about to fire another shot, the cockpit alarm sounded. He could only give up helplessly, performing a rapid series of spins to evade an attack from the side. He could only watch as an Earth Force battleship nearby finished off the wild Ginn that had been left to fend for itself.

Xiao Ran shot an annoyed look at the battleship that had stolen his kill. What left him speechless was that it was the very Nelson-class battleship he had always wanted the ZAFT forces to destroy as quickly as possible—the ship Flay's father was aboard.

He glanced at the percentage indicating the Eighth Fleet's remaining strength. As the number continued to shrink, Xiao Ran cursed inwardly, The ones that should blow up refuse to blow up, while the ones that should not keep exploding.

Filled with resentment, Xiao Ran turned his mecha around and began circling near the Nelson-class battleship. Whenever he spotted a Ginn, he gave it a couple of shots. Before long, he had drawn a great deal of hostility.

On this battlefield, the Lightning Ginn and Kira's Strike Gundam were barely accomplishing as much as a single MS fighting with full focus, causing the Earth Force vanguard fleet's losses to mount rapidly. The Strike Gundam was tightly entangled with the Aegis Gundam. Since Kira was unwilling to fight Athrun, even shooting was difficult for him. Though the two occasionally separated, they would quickly become locked together again.

Xiao Ran had enough Self-Awareness to know that his own skills were poor and his mecha was not much better, so naturally he would not risk his life in battle. He could only weave through the battlefield and fire opportunistically, but his Accuracy Rate was low. Especially now that the Ginns had become wary of him, he could not accomplish much at all.

As for the Earth Force's other MAs, what could they do besides block bullets? Moebius Zero could not be counted on either. Not long after Xiao Ran had entered the battlefield, it had been tied down by Cruze's custom unit. Mu was having too much fun fighting to come over anyway.

Half an hour later, the battlefield was filled with explosions and wreckage. The MA force had been wiped out in less than half an hour. Of the original seven battleships, only three remained. The 250-meter Nelson-class battleship Xiao Ran least wanted to see was still stubbornly holding on despite trailing smoke, but with its engines completely disabled, it was nothing more than a living target. The mission's remaining percentage had fallen to only thirty percent.

As for how the Nelson-class battleship had ended up in such a state, that was naturally thanks to Xiao Ran. He kept flying back and forth in the Nelson-class battleship's direction. It looked as though he was helping it fend off enemies, but in truth, he was drawing fire in that direction. About one-third of the shells Xiao Ran evaded flew toward the Nelson-class battleship.

Still, to avoid making others suspicious, Xiao Ran had also intercepted several shells headed toward non-vital sections of the Nelson-class battleship.

On ZAFT's side, the three battleships were almost entirely intact, aside from one Loorasia-class ship that had suffered minor damage. Of the nine Ginns, Mu and Xiao Ran had taken down two together, Xiao Ran had destroyed one himself, the Strike Gundam had taken out one, and MAs and battleships had destroyed two. Three were still fighting. Including the Aegis Gundam and Captain Rau's custom commander-class GOUF, ZAFT still had five MSs and three battleships, with combat strength far surpassing that of the Earth Force.

After half an hour of fighting, the Lightning Ginn's energy was nearly exhausted due to Xiao Ran's high-speed maneuvers. Seeing a Ginn charge toward the smoking Nelson-class battleship and a Loorasia-class ship turn its main cannon toward it as well, Xiao Ran smiled inwardly and piloted the Lightning Ginn in a wide arc toward the Archangel.

Opening the communicator, Xiao Ran removed his helmet and shook off the sweat that had accumulated from the heat and battle. "Archangel, I am out of energy. Returning now."

"No, no, you cannot come back! You have to protect my father, you have to—"

Instead of Bargyll's voice, Flay's shrill cry entered Xiao Ran's ears. But before she could finish, the communication was forcibly cut off from the other end, making Xiao Ran frown.

Not long afterward, the communication connected again, and Miriallia's voice came through. "Teacher, you may return to the ship. Please pay attention to the timing of your return."

"Received." Xiao Ran wiped the sweat from his forehead, glanced through the display at the Nelson-class battleship still struggling desperately alongside the other two Drake-class battleships, and gave a disdainful smile. He activated the mecha's thrusters at full power and flew toward the Archangel.

Two minutes later, Xiao Ran leaped from the Lightning Ginn and floated straight toward the elevator leading to the bridge. When the elevator doors opened, the Nelson-class battleship appeared before his eyes, pierced through by two green beams. Amid silence and disbelief, the Nelson-class battleship erupted in light and shattered apart, while Xiao Ran drifted to Mwu's side.

Without waiting for any orders, Xiao Ran watched the percentage figure fixed in the corner of his vision drop by another ten percent. He immediately grabbed the communicator beside Mwu. "Miriallia, broadcast on all frequencies."

Miriallia hurriedly nodded and pressed a few buttons on the panel in front of her. "Teacher, it is ready."

"This is a notice to all ZAFT forces. Cease fire immediately. This vessel is currently providing humanitarian rescue and protection for your important person, Lacus Clyne. If you continue firing, it will be regarded as your abandonment of all obligations toward Lacus Clyne, and we will be free to dispose of her as we see fit."

The moment Xiao Ran finished speaking, the elevator behind him opened again. When he turned around, he saw Flay, her face crazed, dragging the calm-faced Lacus slowly out. But before Flay could say anything, her mad expression instantly turned blank. Her eyes lost all focus as she stared at the shattered remains of the Nelson-class battleship.

"No... no... Dad!"

Watching Flay's heart-rending cry, even Xiao Ran could not help turning his head away and sighing softly. "Sai, take her out."

"O-Okay." Sai rose from his station and quickly led the stunned Flay away from the bridge.

After Flay left, everyone on the bridge looked at Xiao Ran with utter disbelief. Mwu and Bargyll looked at Xiao Ran, who seemed to think there was nothing wrong with any of this, and could only sigh helplessly.

Xiao Ran did not care about anyone else's looks or opinions at all. He shrugged and smiled faintly at Lacus. "Miss Lacus, I trust you will not mind helping us this once?"

Lacus was slightly taken aback by Xiao Ran's words, then a sincere smile appeared on her face. "Mm, if we can avoid fighting, that would be best."

"Wonderful, wonderful!" Harow jumped out of Lacus's hands and flew wildly around the weightless bridge.

"Then I will have to trouble you to see this favor through to the end." Xiao Ran smiled, turned around, and pressed the communication button again. "I repeat: this vessel is currently providing humanitarian rescue and protection for your important person, Lacus Clyne. If you continue firing, we will regard it as your abandonment of all obligations toward Lacus Clyne, and we will be free to dispose of her as we see fit."

"Once you cease fire and ensure our safety, we will return Lacus Klein. However, as this vessel has taken in too many civilians, we cannot determine which one is Lacus Clyne. After your side withdraws, send a Shuttlecraft to receive the civilians. But Captain Rau must arrive aboard this vessel with the Shuttlecraft. We will allow no more than two MSs to accompany it as escorts. What do you say, Cruze? Do you have the courage?"

After speaking, Xiao Ran looked up at the masked Cruze on the Communication Screen, a teasing smile curling at the corner of his lips.

"Hello, Captain Rau." Lacus smiled as well and gave a small wave toward the screen.

Everyone on the bridge was so shocked by Xiao Ran's words that their jaws nearly dropped. They looked left at Lacus, who was waving, then right at Cruze's fierce expression on the screen. Their admiration for Xiao Ran's ability to lie through his teeth soared beyond the heavens. Had they not seen Mwu and Bargyll lower their heads in shame?