In the instant they passed each other, one Tiger was cut down by the Black Astray's sword. Trailing black smoke and flames, it tumbled from the sky. Ahead of the Black Astray, another Tiger kept firing its weapon at it, showing no panic whatsoever at the sight of its ally being shot down. It displayed the exceptional composure of a veteran hardened by countless battles.
After seeing its ally shot down, realizing its attacks were ineffective against the Black Astray, and finding itself directly in the Black Astray's attack path, the Tiger's Flight Pack thrusters abruptly shut off. Without propulsion from its pack or torso, it immediately lost the power to climb and dropped with gravity. At the same time, the five fingers extended from its left hand continued spraying countless points of light toward the Black Astray.
After taking down one Tiger, Xiao Ran did not even have time to retract the Beam Saber before he saw the Tiger near the center of his screen suddenly dive and quickly vanish from view. He nodded slightly, quite approving of the Tiger pilot's response. Even if the pilot's level was lacking, at least the idea itself was quite good.
But the gap in machine performance, combat experience, and, most importantly, pilot level turned the Tiger pilot's plan—to protect itself, evade the Black Astray's attack route, and let gravity carry it down freely—into nothing more than wishful thinking.
The moment the Tiger completely vanished from Xiao Ran's screen, the Black Astray changed direction and began a diagonal dive. The Tiger was framed on the cockpit display once again. Xiao Ran's eyes shimmered with golden light as he calmly glanced at the Tiger, which was restarting its thrusters after falling.
As Xiao Ran operated the controls, two targeting markers locked onto positions before