Caught You

"Hiss—hah—!"

Yet all that answered him was still Noer's breathing, though this time, its rhythm was clearly off.

"Boom—"

As the dark green MS approached Noer, it suddenly leaped up, driving a bent knee viciously toward Noer's cockpit.

"Boom—"

The violent impact rang out into the distance. Noer's unit had no way to evade the attack and was knocked straight to the ground.

After striking, the dark green MS did not stop. Instead, it kept raising its fists and hammering at the cockpit.

Boom boom boom—

Every impact made everyone present tense up. Sparks flew in all directions, and the ground trembled.

This had been a completely unequal battle from the very beginning.

Leaving aside the fact that Noer had only just gotten the hang of it, the gap in their units' power output alone was enough to crush him.

When facing an enemy who overwhelmed you in strength, skill, speed, and every other aspect, it was difficult to find any way to win.

[Beep beep beep! Alert! Alert! The trainee's physical data feedback has seriously exceeded the set safety threshold! Please stop the MS immediately!]

[Warning! Trainee, stop the MS immediately!]

[Beep beep—According to regulations, to ensure the trainee's physical safety, forced shutd... dow... do...]

[Bzz—]

The forced shutdown triggered by the body monitoring system suddenly seemed to encounter interference and failed to activate.

"Boom boom boom—"

The dark green MS continued swinging its fists at Noer.

"Clang—"

No one knew how long passed. Just when everyone thought Noer could no longer resist—

The training unit piloted by Noer suddenly raised its head and looked at the dark green MS.

"Bang!"

Its two arms suddenly shot up, tightly catching the fists that were about to come down.

Under everyone's stunned gazes, Noer's MS raised both legs high and slammed them down, like doing a sit-up, while shoving hard with both hands.

Using the combined force, it directly pushed the dark green MS that was straddling it away.

Boom—

Before the dark green MS could attack again, the engine of Noer's training MS ignited.

With a massive burst of thrust, the MS rose from the ground in an extremely practiced manner.

"That move?"

"Interesting—"

Thud—thud—thud—

About ten seconds later, under everyone's astonished gazes, Noer piloted his MS slowly toward the dark green MS.

"Watch out!"

"Fall back!"

Just as the distance between them shrank to less than an MS arm's length, the thrusters behind the dark green MS roared. It stepped forward, clenched its fist, and punched toward Noer's head.

At that distance, and given Noer's unit's limitations, there was simply no possibility of him dodging that punch.

Yet what happened next was something they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

The instant the dark green MS moved, Noer's MS seemed to foresee it, turning its body and tilting its head aside in advance to evade the attack.

However, due to the considerable speed difference between them, the fist still grazed the MS's neck, sending up countless sparks and arcs of electricity.

"Caught you—"

Just then, Noer's cold whisper rang out.

Before everyone's eyes, Noer turned, putting his back to the dark green MS, then suddenly raised both hands and clamped down.

As the thrusters roared, the instant Noer's MS turned, its right leg stepped forward and stomped down.

The MS's engine and both arms exerted force at once. As the ground shattered, the seventy-ton training MS suddenly flew into the air.

It was a perfect shoulder throw—

Boom—

The ground shook, and Noer viciously slammed the dark green MS into the earth.

At the same time, after throwing down the opposing MS, Noer's unit turned, grabbed the enemy MS's arm, and twisted around, forcibly wrenching the arm over. Then it drove a knee strike into the elbow from the side.

Crackle—

Electric arcs and sparks burst everywhere. Borrowing the MS's strength, Noer tore the dark green MS's arm right off.

"A... a shoulder throw? That was a shoulder throw just now, right?"

"Am I still asleep?"

"MSs can do shoulder throws?"

"Holy shit!"

"How did he pull off that move? Can a training MS's joints even withstand that kind of load?"

"Hiss..."

"I feel like I've seen this scene before..."

"Wasn't this what happened to Yzak not long ago..."

That move of Noer's directly stunned countless MS trainees. Even the MS instructors were dumbfounded, staring blankly at Noer as he continued attacking the dark green MS.

A shoulder throw, an arm lock, a knee strike—those were absolutely not moves a trainee piloting an MS for the first time could perform.

Athrun and the others no longer knew what to say.

They could do the kip-up, and they could do it even better than Noer.

The shoulder throw was no problem either. As long as one practiced it deliberately, it was not difficult at all for Athrun and the others.

What they truly could not get over was Noer's reaction when he evaded the dark green MS's punch.

The dark green MS was at least nearly twice as fast as Noer's.

This was not merely attack speed, but the MS's overall speed in every regard. If they were talking purely about attack speed, it might have been around three times as fast.

Under those circumstances, Noer had actually dodged that attack and counterattacked in an instant, directly disabling one of the opposing MS's arms.

That level of reaction speed and MS control was something only Athrun, who specialized in close combat, could rival.

But Noer was only a newly enrolled student in the MS Maintenance Class.

One was an "old student" who had been enrolled for nearly a month; the other was a "new student" who had only been enrolled for a few days.

One was in the MS Training Class and could practice with MS units regularly.

The other was piloting an MS for the first time. Other than touching an MS, the gap between them was...

Faced with this situation, even Athrun, steady as he was, could not help but feel a stir in his heart.

"Yzak, I remember last time, you seemed to have been beaten like this by..."

"Diakka! Are you looking to die?"

Hearing that, Yzak suddenly recalled some rather unpleasant scenes. He gritted his teeth and looked at Athrun. "Next time, I'll definitely win!"

"..." Athrun.

"Stop!"

Just as Noer's MS was beating the little green MS senseless, a rumbling sound suddenly came from the distance.

Several MSs were racing over from afar.

"Bang bang bang—"

However, Noer turned a deaf ear to them. He simply kept striking the little green MS's cockpit while casually tearing parts off its body.

If not for its insufficient power output, Noer would have nearly dismantled that MS into scraps.

"I said stop—"

The leading MS landed behind Noer, raising a hand toward Noer's shoulder in an attempt to stop him.

"Bang—!"

"Ah—!"

Before his arm could touch Noer's MS's shoulder, Noer suddenly lowered himself and turned, driving his right fist viciously into the other unit's cockpit.

The violent impact rang out together with the pilot's cry of pain.