Just then, in that suffocating silence of deadlock, when another clash could erupt from a single misunderstanding.
"Nicol! How is it going?!"
It was a woman's voice, carrying an impossible-to-ignore force that cut straight into the squad channel.
Nicol and Michel were startled almost simultaneously.
"Jiliang?!"
The radar showed a high-energy heat source streaking in from the other side of Mendel at an astonishing speed.
Michel turned his gaze to the side monitor and saw the Freedom Gundam, with its magnificent twin wings, racing toward them like a Valkyrie descending from the heavens.
To the ZAFT forces, that blue-and-white machine was both a symbol of humiliation—the stolen cutting-edge unit—and another name for fear.
"Yzak! Watch out!"
Dearka's voice tensed again. The moment he saw Nicol waver, he forcibly suppressed his own turmoil, replacing it with the instinctive response of facing a powerful enemy.
"Damn it! Why now of all times?!"
Yzak had no choice but to temporarily pull himself out of the emotional storm surrounding Nicol, clicking his tongue in frustration.
His battlefield instincts told him that machine was extraordinarily dangerous.
The Duel Gundam's thrusters flared as it forcibly opened the distance from the Blaze Gundam before it. Rolling through the air, it raised its shield and faced the rapidly approaching Freedom Gundam head-on.
The atmosphere shifted in an instant from a "standoff" to "a melee on the verge of breaking out."
This was bad—
Nicol shuddered all over. If Jiliang joined the battle too, there would be no room left for words.
There was no doubting Jiliang's skill, but once this chaotic battle began, whether Yzak hurt Jiliang or Jiliang hurt them, the fragile possibility of dialogue they had finally established would be completely destroyed.
He immediately shoved the control stick forward. The Strike Gundam completely abandoned its attacking