Race to the Border ②

---

Around 200 Km from the border, Palmian Kingdom. AU 64 

HAFF Magic Defense Force, Valfreyja special research team.

---

It took Ames one full day to finally back in a shape where he could pilot the magic armor.

At that same time, the flying fortress Valfreyja had not escaped the Palmian border yet. The size of the Palmian Kingdom was massive, and to add to that, the Chason base was positioned closer to the western border. That made the route for reaching the Kingdom of Misr on the east further.

In the time it took Ames to wake up, the Valfreyja reached 80% on their way to the border. What was left on their journey was only several hundred kilometers between them and the border.

Their journey so far had been relatively safe.

From their last communication with the Chason base, it seemed that the enemy had sent their own flying fortress to chase for the Valfreyja. Because of that the crews had been expecting fierce resistance from the elves.

Despite of that though, the Valfreyja's crews had seen no interference from them. But that changed when they were just 200 km away from the border.

Valfreyja's early warning system has detected Five unknown objects approaching them at a high speed.

At the speed that Valfeyja was going, even if they accelerated, they wouldn't be able to outrun the unknown objects. Lyto declared a combat situation and ordered some of the officers to let the three Pixies out of their cell and get ready.

Hearing the commotion, Ames intruded into the bridge to talk to Lyto to let him join the fight.

"You just broke your bones yesterday, there's no way I'll allow that. Do you understand how important you are to this project?"

"I'm doing fine, sir! Please, Captain. Valfreyja's only fighting force is us team Pixy. If you take me out, the enemy will have a better chance to defeat us!"

"Ugh, Why from time to time did you get that fired up? Where's your usual nervousness?"

"Uhm... I'm... Sorry."

"There you are. Haah, well you win, Ames. I'll allow you to join- no, I ordered you to get suited up and intercept incoming enemies." Lyto who seemed to have a soft spot for Ames relented.

"Yes, sir!"

Ames quickly ran out from the bridge heading to the hangar of the Fortrest.

"That's what he wanted. Don't get mad at me, Nensa!" Lyto teased Nensa who had a dissatisfied look on her face.

"You should try a bit harder..." She frownfully grumbled.

---

When Ames arrived at the hangar, the three other Pixies were already starting to get their armor put on. He then quickly put his inner suits on and went to the helper crews that would help him put on his armor.

"Yo, big boy! Is it alright for you to fight? Don't you just finished healing?"

"Ah! yes, Loc... Thank you for your help."

"It's fine, it's fine. We're on the same team, we should help each other. You helped me too when the captain was about to punish us."

"Ah, I don't think you have to thank me for that..." Ames shyly accepted Loclynn's gratitude.

Ames ran away from the conversation by pretending to check his armor fitting by moving his body around. He also pretended to check his helmet by moving it around his head,

"Rookie!"

"Ah! yes?"

The one that asked for Ames now was the team's leader, Pixy 1, 2nd Lt. Pommeline. Along with her, was Pixy 2, Sgt. Kyle.

Linn's usual stern face was enough to make Ames anxious normally. Now that she called to him, it was even more anxiety-inducing.

"Thanks."

"Heh?" Ames was shocked to hear that word coming from the Lieutenant's mouth.

"The thing with the captain. We were ready to be kicked from the project, but you saved us."

"Ah! no... That's..."

"It's up to you to accept my gratitude or not."

"Eh? No, no! I humbly accepted it."

"Hehe, stop being such a nervous mess, rookie! Also, we're sorry. It seems that we have been harsh to you. The stress from our last mission kinda pushed us on edge."

"Sorry," Kyle followed Linn and expressed his apology.

"It's fine... There must be lots of things on your minds. I don't think I took it that harshly too... I'm used to people ignoring me..."

"I see... sorry." Linn once again apologized.

In that time, Ames who arrived last had finished equipping his armor and was ready to launch.

"ALRIGHT! Now the team is one again! let's get out there and shot those damn Adders down, huh!?" Loclynn, ever the moodmaker shook away the heavy atmosphere.

With that, the pilots went to their separate launchers, waiting for clearance.

---

As soon as Team Pixy launched, Nensa who worked as the operator of Valfreyja contacted them.

She told them that all five of the high-speed bogeys had been identified as bandits. They were detected as the MAS-22 Adder. Although those Adders appeared to be modified their radar profile were not the same as the ones that they had seen before.

Additionally, from the Adder specification that the HAFF had, the speed that those bandits showed was impossible to achieve by the Adders.

From what Linn detected, she could not feel any difference in terms of the pilots themselves, so she couldn't confirm nor deny Nensa's theory.

Surprisingly, it was Ames who confirmed that the Adders they were encountering was a different model from the one that had attacked the Chason base.

When Nensa asked how could he confirm that, Ames said that they had different shapes. When they got a little bit closer, Ames could see that the Adders had extra equipments that weren't used on the Adders before.

"I'm surprised you could see that far Pixy 4. Even with the armor's enhancement, I can't see that far." Linn surprisingly praised Ames. "Anyway, whatever they did, our job is still the same. We're taking them down."

"Copy that!"

The team flew in a tight finger four formation. It may be the result of Linn and Kyle opening themselves to Ames, but their movement had become more stable compared to the joint flight test.

"I'm sniping the closest one. Let's hope they'll disperse after that. Once they do, Pixy 4 and 3 will go ahead and engage them. Me and Pixy 2 will provide cover from a distance." Nensa ordered.

"Copy!"

"Roger!

"Yes, ma'am... Copy!"

"Alright. I'm shooting. Three... Two... One!"

Linn's shot was as sharp as always. Physically holding a gun had made her accuracy rise even more. With both weapon and magic in her hands now, one shot was all she needed to shoot the Adder that was only flying straight.

As anticipated, the enemy panicked and spread at the impact of Linn's shot. With one of them taken care of, only four of them left. Of the four elves that were left, one of them seemed to desperately trying to run away from the fight.

As instructed before, Ames and Loclynn Charged at the enemies. Loclynn would rely on his defensive magic to minimize any incoming attack. Ames on the other hand would swiftly dodge them without even slowing down.

Ames who was ahead of Loclynn decided to chase the one elf that tried to run.

The elf shot backward several times trying to hit Ames but came up with no hit. Because of that, he opted to do his best to outspeed Ames instead. Unfortunately for the elf, Ames had closed the distance enough for him to start shooting.

Ames's shots were not as half as accurate as Linn's. But with a closer range and multiple more shots, Ames managed to take down the strangely equipped Adder.

Of the remaining three, one decided to meet Loclynn straight ahead and battle him. The elf was the same type of mage as Kyle, he launched multiple attack magic towards Loclynn. But the weaker magic would leave no damage to Loclynn.

Coming out of the smoke resulting from the magics, Loclynn quickly dispatched the elf with his magic rifle.

"YOU BASTARD!"

One of the elves rushed Loclynn in anger after seeing him kill one of the elves. But as soon as the elf rushed, Linn shot them dead before they could reach Loclynn.

One last Adder left flying. But, their fate was practically sealed already. For the whole time of engagement, they couldn't run or help their friends. All that time was spent trying to outmaneuver the last team Pixy member, Kyle.

It was not like Kyle was deliberately avoid hitting the elf or anything. The two struggled with each other to gain the upper hand in the fight. But ultimately Kyle won. Not by his own strength, but his cleverness.

"Pixy 4! One bandit is incoming from your starboard side! finish 'em!"

While trying to land the killing blow himself, Kyle had manipulated the elf to fly closer toward Ames who was going back from chasing his target.

And just like that five MAS-22 Adders were quickly dispatched by the new Pixy team that for the first time ever truly flew like one.

---

The Palmian Kingdom. AU 64 

United Palmian Mages Movement

---

"I see... So all of them were killed in action?"

"Unfortunately yes, sir."

"I thought their magi armor was made specifically to outrun other magic armor... But they couldn't escape the humans' blood thirst after all."

The man who was speaking in a somber tone was the Palmian crown prince, Deuva.

He had been leading some of his closest soldiers in the UPM movement to chase for humanity's magic armor developer.

They were caught off guard when the flying fortress that was their target left the Chason base way earlier than they had thought. Because of that, their preparation to chase the humans was rushed and even with that, they still couldn't catch up with the humans.

He knew that the fortress's goal must be to reach the HAFF HQ. That made their decision to leave for Misr come as even more of a shock to Deuva. Going east to reach the HQ that was in the west was unexpected.

Deuva ended up following them, but with a larger distance between them than what he had wished for.

Because of that, he opted to send a squad of scouts ahead to confirm the fortress's location.

The five-man squad would wear the newly developed sub-model for the MAS-22 Adder that was designed with reconnaissance in mind. The Adder was equipped with a stronger thruster that was focused on producing more speed while sacrificing maneuverability.

The mission that Deuva tasked them with was to race their way to the target, confirm their location, send it back to their flying fortress, and then go back.

Everything was going fine at first. After receiving the target's location, Deuva told the team to go back, but they were intercepted by the human's magic armor.

And from the tracker that they had on those armors, it looked like all five of them had been killed by the hands of the humans.

It would mean there was a chance that the human pilots aboard the target fortress were better than even them, the elves. But even so, Deuva had no choice but to continue on his mission.

If the human managed to complete the magic armor that non-mages could use. The HAFF would abuse their power in numbers to intimidate other races.

There was no way Deuva would let that happen. Not again. Not after seeing what humans have done 65 years ago.

---