Brought One Down

Although Xiaerdi was certain Li Zhi wouldn't actually fire a missile, he didn't dare bet his life on it.

At the same time, his competitive streak wouldn't let him accept defeat just like that. He cared a great deal about saving face and didn't want to become a laughingstock among his comrades.

Xiaerdi was quick-witted too, and he soon thought of a solution.

It was a somewhat despicable solution, but he had only three seconds. It was hard enough to think of a way out at all, so why would he care whether it was despicable?

Xiaerdi's fighter suddenly rolled over the top of Sanjay's plane, coming out on its left.

A roll couldn't shake Li Zhi's lock, but an obstacle could.

That obstacle was Sanjay's fighter. Xiaerdi used his plane as a shield and successfully escaped Li Zhi's fire-control lock.

But although Xiaerdi got away, he sold out his teammate Sanjay.

Xiaerdi hadn't warned him beforehand-he hadn't had time to-and when the fire-control radar painted Sanjay's plane, Sanjay didn't react at first.

Sanjay wasn't the only one caught off guard. Even Li Zhi was dumbfounded.

Using a teammate to take the hit for you? What kind of move was that?

Dragon Country's soldiers had always taken hits for their teammates, never dragged their teammates over to take hits for them. Li Zhi had seen something new today.

Although Li Zhi was dumbfounded, his hands didn't stop. He went along with it and switched targets to Sanjay.

Sanjay wasn't quite so despicable, or perhaps he simply hadn't thought of using a teammate to take the hit.

If the two from Peacock had coordinated well and kept using each other as shields, it really would have been a good tactic!

Li Zhi was currently headed toward Peacock Country, so he couldn't keep flying that way forever. In the end, the border would force him to give up the lock.

But there were no ifs. Xiaerdi's use of Sanjay as a shield proved that there was no trust or understanding between the two.

Sanjay chose to keep descending. As long as he got lower than Li Zhi, the fire-control radar naturally wouldn't be able to lock onto him.

There was nothing wrong with his method; it was also the best option available. But he had clearly overestimated himself.

As Sanjay descended lower and lower, Li Zhi's fire-control radar could no longer maintain a proper lock on him.

With his fighter also getting closer and closer to the border, Li Zhi didn't switch his target back to the other Peacock fighter. Instead, he chose to climb first to avoid crossing the border.

Xiaerdi, on the other side, was somewhat impressed by his teammate. He couldn't have flown that low himself.

Just as Sanjay was preparing to climb and continue pursuing Li Zhi, something went wrong.

The terrain here was too complicated, and the trees varied in height. Sanjay was flying too low!

In a moment of inattention, the top of a tall tree scraped the underside of Sanjay's fighter.

"Oh my God, damn it!"

Sanjay was a little calmer than Sangji Ayi had been. Although he had already reached one hand beneath his seat, he didn't rush to eject.

He didn't know what had been damaged. Multiple warning lights were flashing, and the fighter's flight attitude was extremely unstable.

Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with the fighter's aerodynamic configuration or power system. Stabilizing it was only a matter of time.

The fighter gradually began to level out. Although the warning lights were still flashing, the impact wasn't significant for the moment.

At that point, Sanjay made a serious mistake. When the fighter had become somewhat stable, he didn't immediately pull up and climb.

He wanted to stabilize the fighter completely.

There was nothing wrong with Sanjay's thinking, but he had forgotten his surroundings. He was flying at ultra-low altitude over complicated terrain!

As Sanjay worked to stabilize the fighter, he didn't notice that one tree ahead seemed unusually tall.

Bang!

The fighter collided head-on with the tree.

"Right engine failure!"

"Fuel leak!"

"Navigation system failure!"

"..."

A string of warnings sounded, and the fighter's console began flashing nonstop like the lights in a nightclub.

"Danger! Danger!"

"Pull up! Pull up! Pull up! ..."

The fighter could no longer maintain its flight attitude. The entire right side of the fuselage was badly damaged, and half the right wing had been torn clean off.

There was no way to pull up under those conditions. The fighter couldn't be saved!

Sanjay didn't hesitate. He reached down with both hands and yanked upward.

His luck was good. The ejection system didn't fail this time. The fighter's canopy was successfully blown clear, and Sanjay and the seat beneath him were ejected.

The seat's thrusters carried Sanjay upward for some distance before he began to fall, and his parachute opened successfully.

Floating in the air, Sanjay watched his aircraft trail black smoke and plunge headfirst into the dense woods.

Boom!!!

A burst of flames shot into the sky, drawing the attention of Li Zhi and Xiaerdi in the distance.

The two were still locked in an intense chase and hadn't noticed what had happened to Sanjay. Only when the fighter exploded did it catch their attention.

"Sanjay!"

Looking at the parachute drifting slowly down, Xiaerdi could hardly believe his eyes. Everything had been fine, so why had Sanjay ejected?

Unfortunately, Sanjay was bound not to hear him, and even if he did, he probably wouldn't want to answer.

Using his own teammate as a shield, then asking what had happened to him-this man was either bad or stupid.

Li Zhi hadn't expected such an unexpected gain either. After Sanjay escaped his lock, Li Zhi had stopped paying attention to him, so he didn't know why Sanjay had ejected.

But whatever the reason, this incident had definitely become a major affair!

"Muhante, Muhante, the lead has ejected. I need support! Repeat, I need support!"

In fact, Xiaerdi didn't need to notify them. The Muhante command center had already received the signal sent after Sanjay ejected.

Once a pilot ejected, the flight seat immediately sent a rescue signal to the control center. It was automatic and didn't require the pilot to do anything manually.

The signal was transmitted by both satellite and radio, so there was virtually no chance of being unable to locate the pilot.

"Did the Dragon Country fighter attack you? Why did Sanjay eject?"

Commander Sunak began questioning the surviving Xiaerdi. They had lost another fighter, their sixth in the past two months, and Sunak could no longer suppress his anger.

"I don't know why Sanjay ejected, but the Dragon Country fighter painted us with its fire-control radar!"

"You don't know?! Why didn't you report the fire-control radar lock?"

Sunak was completely set off. It was bad enough that Xiaerdi hadn't reported the fire-control radar lock, but he didn't even know why his own teammate had ejected. What the hell was he doing?