Kira and Athrun went to intercept the nuclear missiles and vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving Cagalli in Xiao Ran's care. This gave Xiao Ran an extra burden he had no choice but to watch over. Cagalli's skills were not particularly good to begin with; at most, she was only a little better than the rank-and-file pilots. Xiao Ran had no choice but to constantly keep an eye on her, lest Crimson Strike be hit by stray fire from who knew where.
However, fighting while burdened with deadweight was not Xiao Ran's first time doing so. At the very least, he often found himself in such situations in Prometheus. Xiao Ran, Graham, and Naluo had training sessions every day that involved protecting Sheryl in battle, so he did not feel unaccustomed to fighting under these circumstances.
The three of them took turns piloting their own mecha to protect the Black Hawk piloted by Sheryl, and they also arranged various emergencies to deal with. They had likely long grown accustomed to fighting with deadweight behind them, so it did not feel particularly wrong. At most, it merely diverted some of their attention.
Xiao Ran had kept Crimson Strike within the dense spread of GN Particles at all times. In other words, Crimson Strike had always remained within his perception. Combined with the rapid thought processes granted by his awakened skill, the entire world seemed to slow down in Xiao Ran's perception, allowing him to calmly face sudden developments.
But Cagalli and Sheryl were different, after all. Cagalli's desire to attack was far stronger than Sheryl's. If Sheryl's mecha followed behind Xiao Ran's or someone else's, she would never charge forward as recklessly as Cagalli did. Instead, she would swiftly maneuver and evade to lessen the pressure on the others,