Chapter 6: Prodigal Son

He doesn't wait for a response, knowing how his father would react to him taking on such a dangerous task; Leon simply vaults into the Armor and sits down into the cockpit.

Muscle memory from another life springs into action, going through all the necessary activation procedures to reactivate the mech. Screens come online with simple flicks of switches and pressed of buttons; status readings being shown, both energy and mech integrity readouts displayed, and the mech's weapon loadout as well as its remaining munition count are put on display. As the MT's torso cockpit door closes, the visual sensors come to life; displaying the outside surroundings to Leon as he grips the controls.

The interior is tight, with barely any room to scoot around and adjust his seating. Ventilation is poor, and Leon starts to sweat mere minutes after settling into the mech. Holes dot the chassis, resulting from the mech's previous fight against the monsters outside.

But all Leon can think is; 'I'm home.'

The mech's flight system activates and he boosts himself out of the wreckage, entering a stable hover as he swaps out his melee weapons for the rifle. A fresh magazine is loaded and a new road racked into place with the speed and efficiency of a seasoned pilot.

//REACTIVATING – COMBAT MODE// reads his central display. Leon finds himself grinning even as he turns to the Aurelian Hawk and the gawking crew.

"W-When did you learn to pilot an Armor, Leon?" comes Barcus' voice through the comms link, naked shock and genuine awe in his every word. "I don't remember letting you in one before…?"

"What can I say; I rise to the occasion." Leon laughs, genuinely happy. "Get the ships ready; I'll buy you the time you need."

Leon guns the thrusters and flies forward as fast as the mech could go, positioning himself a good distance away from the Aurelian Hawk while standing between it and the horde of monsters. He brings his rifle up and fires even as he runs a mental check of the MT he's piloting.

AP at 60%, energy holding at 85% and dropping 0.5% per 15 seconds spent in the air. The mech was armed with a bolt action rifle and a one-handed battle axe, both of which were appropriately upscaled.

His flight speed is horrible; barely reaching over 200km/h. The flight system lacked the additional thrusters needed for quick-boosting too, but he figures he could jury rig something

There are two types of ammunition for his rifle; regular unenhanced bullets and canister shot. The latter was good against hordes of lesser fodder-monsters, while the former could kill Old monsters like the ones he was facing. But there were caveats to this; mainly that Leon couldn't switch between munition types fast enough to be combat effective, which meant he could kill either the fodder hordes or the two Old monsters… but not both at the same time.

Regular rounds could kill any single fodder-monster, but it was only a single bullet and the dozens of monsters would mean that single kills wouldn't be effective. Canister shot could reliably wipe out whole hordes of the fodder, but would only do scratch-damage against the Old monsters; which could down him and his Armor.

Melee was possible, but he didn't want to chance a lucky hit from the enemy on an already-damaged mech. This wasn't an AC after all, so he didn't want to risk anything if he could avoid it.

"Keep away it is." Leon finds himself saying, turning on the Armor's external speakers as he empties his rifle. "Over here you ugly-looking fuckwads Fresh Holfort man-meat, ready to serve!"

He reloads and fires again, grapeshot down dozens of monsters per round. The two Old monsters turn to his Armor and roar-screech, sending the fodder into yet another berserk frenzy… and diverting their course to him instead of the Hawk.

"That's it, right this way!" Leon laughs, flying backwards whenever the fodder get too close to prevent them from overwhelming him; his energy gauge gradually going down as he flies at full speed. "There's plenty for everyone if you can get me! Come on!"

The monsters come for him, spreading out to try and corner him in the air as the Old monsters make a direct beeline towards him. But Leon's mech is faster, and he's able to keep out of their range until his rifle clicks empty and he runs out of canister shot.

//ENERGY AT 30%// the mech's systems remind him.

"Damn, that was quick." Leon curses, boosting onto a floating rock to let his energy gauge recharge. "Over here, shitstains! Come get some!"

His rifle barks again, sending full rounds at the two Old monsters. They punch deep, and the beasts hiss at the pain of actual damage being dealt onto instead of the metaphorical ant bites from the canister shot.

But they are undeterred, let out another screech-roar that has the fodder immediately swarming for Leon. The young man eyes his energy gauge, reading 50%, and flips his rifle so he's holding it by the barrel with one hand. With his other hand, he draws his axe.

"Not the best melee setup, but it'll do." he decides, lowering the mech's stance. "Bring it on!"

Individually, the fodder monsters can do nothing to Leon's mech; their claws and talons too weak to pierce through the armor. But the mech's already damaged, and there's plenty of exposed parts on it that are vulnerable to damage; the joints, internal circuitry, the visual sensors– things that the fodder monsters could damage and severely hinder his performance.

He was already operating a sub-optimal machine in terrible conditions against bad odds; he didn't want to lower his chances of survival any more by sustaining damage to sensitive systems and hampering his performance further.

Moreover, he wouldn't lose to mere monsters. If he was to die again then it would be a duel in the arena; mech against mech, Raven against Raven. His past life's pride as one of the best demanded nothing less.

The fodder comes in waves dozens strong, throwing themselves at the mech and uncaring of their lives due to the beserk fury their bigger counterparts had inspired in them. Leon moves, swinging his axe in cleaving strokes and bludgeoning monsters into paste with his rifle. Monstrous forms die to his blows, only a scant handful managing to fly past his guard and latch onto his mech.

More swarm in, keeping away from his blows and swarming around to attack his vulnerable back. They dive in, screeching and bloodthirsty–

"Hah!"

Leon swings his axe as he shifts his mech's stance– sending the entire rock he was standing on into a brief spin. He holds out his rifle and follows up his axe strike with a bludgeoning blow that pastes what monsters that evade his cleaving strike. The momentum lets him dislodge what fodder cling onto him, and forces the rest to stay back; giving him enough room to catch his breath.

He glances at his energy gauge, 70%, as another wave comes for him.

"Leon!" his father's voice crackles. "Cover your cockpit!"

He obliges without thinking, moving his axe to cover the mech's front torso and bringing his mech's arm up to cover the head part. A moment later, he hears distant cannon fire followed by hundreds of tiny objects impacting his mech; hitting with such force that the mech systems report damage, however minor.

When Leon moves his shield arm, he beholds a big chunk of the fodder monsters falling away; disintegrating in death. He whoops at their demises and lifts off his rock, turning to the remaining monsters; now reduced to just two Old monsters and their dozens of fodder-monsters where there used to be hundreds.

"Are you alright? Give me a damage report!" Barcus' voice thunders through the radio. "Leon, respond!"

"Armor integrity holding at 54%. I'm down to regular munitions, but my rifle and axe are still functional." Leon answers. "Relax dad, I'm doing okay."

"You better be! And pulling out the ability to pilot Armors like a veteran out of nowhere– we're going to have a long talk about this later!"

"Yeah, whatever– look, we still have two giant monsters to deal with here!" Leon reminds him. "We can talk about my Armor piloting skills when we're back home, or on the trip back if you're really that–"

The two Old monsters screech-roar and surge to him, while the fodder horde turns to the side and makes a beeline for the fleet. Leon curses.

"Shit– dad, you have incoming!" Leon warns.

"We'll take care of them, just regroup with the fleet!" Barcus says, gunfire and magic echoing in the background from his side. "The storm's closing in and we can't recover you if you're blown out of range!"

Leon jumps with his mech to avoid the first Old monster's open-mouthed charge, then uses the mech's flight capabilities to dodge the second monster's charge by leaning out of the way.

He flies backwards, firing his rifle all the way. Rounds meant to disable Armors tearing through the bulk of his targets, but their sheer size and persistence lets them tank the hits as they circle around for another pass. He sights down one monster, shoots, and scores a hit on its face; causing the beast to thrash and divert its course. The second one closes in, prompting Leon sight it down, pull the trigger–

*click*

"Motherfu–!"

The monster smashes into his Armor and carries it forward. Its talons come forward and start slashing, craving increasingly deeper marks into the mech's armor. Its head comes around and bites at the mech's left shoulder, fangs piercing metal and punching into the mech's internals.

Warnings go off in Leon's cockpit, the displays flashing red and informing him of damage sustained to the mech's left arm that threatens to render it inoperable.

Gritting his teeth, Leon swaps out his rifle for his axe and starts hacking away at the monster; cleaving deep into its flank and even cutting off a limb. The monster screeches and releases him, and Leon immediately boosts away to get more space between him and the monster. The rifle returns to his mech's hands, another set of rounds go into the internal mag well, and he takes aim–

The other Old monster plows into Leon's side, sending him into a dizzying spin. The impact compounds damage to his mech's left arm and more dire warnings come up; informing him of additional damage to the left arm that has limited its range of motion.

"Sonuva–!" Leon curses, fighting to regain control of his flight. "Stupid fucking Light MT!"

He diverts power to mech's flight system to counter the spin, stopping just in time to see the hacked-up Old monster charging at him; maw wide open and fangs closing in.

Instincts and reflexes from his past life kick in, and he deactivates his flight systems. His stomach lurches as his mech suddenly drops out of the sky like the heavy lump of metal and magic it was, allowing him to narrowly dodge the monster's charge.

Then he reactivates the flight system and surges forward. He puts away his rifle and produces his axe just as he shoulder checks the monster's underbelly, grabbing whatever his mech's damaged left arm could reach as his right arm rears back and starts hacking away.

"Eat! Shit! Bitch!" Leon curses, emphasizing every word with a successful hit with his axe. "You're! Not! Killing! Me!"

The Old monster thrashes wildly with all the strength its damaged form could muster, screeching all the while.

Leon does not let go, even as the monster carries him into free-floating rocks and takes him further away from the fleet. He keeps hacking away, chopping monster flesh with his axe, with every intent to kill and return to his family alive.

Then, one hit bites deep enough to finally stop the monster's thrashing and silence it's screeching forever. He lets go of the beast's disintegrating bulk and allows it to plunge down into the abyss down below. But he doesn't relax, switching back to his rifle as he scans his surroundings.

He sees the fleet, a good distance away but still reachable with his mech's flight system. There were plenty of places for him to land on and restore his mech's energy gauge, so he wasn't worried about making it back. But he was worried about the second Old monster that he hadn't downed yet.

The reincarnated Raven keeps his head on a swivel, sweeping his Armor's visual sensors left and right as his gaze seeks out the remaining Old monster. It couldn't have just left him, not after the shot he landed on its face; it must be nursing a grudge.

…

"Leon to dad, come in." he radios. "Bartford fleet, respond; how's the fighting going?"

"Le–!" comes Barcus' garbled response. "–sters ar– flank– taking ev–"

Leon curses; the amount of monsters present must still be significant enough to disrupt communications. He'd have to fly back and assess the situation himself and see what aid he could lend with his mech and its rifle.

He glances at his system diagnostics as he starts flying back; noting how his mech's left arm is flashing red. His ammunition is running low too, with 15 rounds in total; 10 remaining and 5 in his rifle. He'd need to pick his shots now, not just landing them but hitting critical places on the monster itself.

The sooner he killed it, the sooner he could rejoin the fleet and help where he can–

A flash of movement in his peripheral vision has Leon stopping and landing his mech on a floating rock, rifle going up immediately to where he saw it.

"Come on out, don't be shy…" Leon murmurs to himself. "It'll only hurt for a split second, I promise…"

A familiar telltale screech-roar echoes from the environment around Leon. He steels himself, not moving even as his heart rate quickens. He sweeps his vision right, noting floating rocks drifting sedately to the side. He pans his gaze right, watching yet more rock float by with the same deceptive slowness as the others.

Another screech-roar echoes through the open air, and Leon curses the MT's lack of advanced sensors. Damn this new world and their lack of forethought in actually finding the enemy! Didn't they know that part of warfare was actually finding targets to shoot and not just running in melee?

No, focus. He could vent whatever vitriol he had against this world's engineers when this was over and he was alone– right now he had a monster to kill.

"Come out, fucker." Leon grits out, still looking. "If you're not around me, then…"

He chances a glance upwards, finding nothing.

He looks down–

Something big and feather smashes into him and the world becomes a blur as he's catapulted upwards and away, cartwheeling through the air. He squawks in indignant rage, reactivating his flight systems and finding the slippery bastard as it swims through the air. No longer hidden and vulnerable to Leon's wrath.

"There you are." Leon snarls, taking aim with his rifle. "Eat lead!"

Leon leads his shots, aiming for the beast's center of mass rather than the head; the environment and range make unassisted precision shooting pointless. Leon is good, but he's no expert marksman.

And unenhanced regular bullets or no, it's still a high-velocity projectile against an unarmored and large squishy target. All he needs is to time his shots and make every shot hit; even the biggest monsters go down eventually after taking enough hits.

The monster knew this too, or perhaps was just eager to get within melee range, so it flies fast and jinks repeatedly, banking repeatedly and altering flight altitudes frequently. Even with his past life's memories and piloting skill, the lack of targeting assistance makes it so that Leon can't keep up with the monster's movements; most of his shots whizzing close but ultimately missing.

His rifle clicks empty and he reloads. The monster sees its chance and surges forward with sudden speed, screech-roaring with its maw opened wide.

"Nngh–!"

His past life's reflexes and experience come in, and Leon moves his mech; spinning it out of the monster's way like a bullfighter dancing past a charging bull. He finishes reloading just as his spin stops, and he takes aim at the surprised monster.

Three shots ring out, and the beast drops out of the sky. Dead.

"Finally…" Leon sighs. "Leon to fleet, I've just finished with my monsters. How copy?"

"...on! Ol–! …ou! Mov–! …an you c–!" Barcus' voice buzzes, static ridden.

Leon sighs again, flight systems bringing him forward as he starts moving back to the fleet. Damn monsters making things needlessly more complicated than they need to be–

"Signal's still disrupted dad, come again?" he asks, moving past a floating rock. "I'm en-route to help now, what's your situation? Do you need–"

He rounds the rock just in time for a heavily wounded Old monster, the third one that attacked the fleet bites into his mech's left arm and a small swarm of fodder monsters descends onto him.