Athrun Zala could not believe his eyes. To intercept a boomerang rapidly closing in from behind, one had to confirm its trajectory with their own eyes—this was basic common sense in MS combat.
Dealing with attacks from the front and rear at the same time required either an instant shift in the pilot's attention or the assistance of wingmen.
Yet what the pilot of the Goddess of Liberation Gundam had done completely overturned that fundamental premise.
She had not only failed to turn around, she had not even used the main monitor to track the boomerang's trajectory. She had sensed the threat closing in from behind through instinct—with her own body.
Athrun Zala had never seen a fighting style like this. It was not skill, nor was it experience. It was some more primal, more instinctive combat intuition—like a beast knowing which direction a predator would pounce from without needing to look back.
As it shot down the boomerang, the Goddess of Liberation Gundam raised its shield toward the approaching Justice Gundam. Scorch marks from the burnt anti-beam coating still remained on the shield's surface after taking Beam Rifle fire, yet it steadily blocked Athrun Zala's descending Double-headed Beam Saber.
The collision between the blade of light and shield produced a tremendous impact. Athrun Zala felt his entire body being jolted backward as the machine tipped back under the recoil.
But he did not concede defeat. Rather than wasting time recovering the Justice Gundam's knocked-back posture, he directly picked up the Beam Rifle again while it was still falling.
The cockpit shook violently. It spun wildly, and the concepts of up and down blurred in space.
Athrun Zala desperately maintained his failing sense of direction, tightening his abdominal and back muscles at once to resist the G-forces caused by the