Captain Richard Litgow was being driven mad. His mech company consisting of light mechs ranged ahead of the main formation in order to detect traps and other dangers in advance. In order to perform their duties better, the mechs under his command rarely grouped up together. They often split up into different teams or pairs in order to cover more ground. While it was always dangerous to separate from the main body of a larger mech force, the light mech models assigned to his units relied on a combination of superior speed, agility and efficiency to make themselves as elusive as possible. Even if these models weren't the best of what the Bontue armed forces could offer, Captain Litgow's mech pilots trained with them for years. Of course, as his mech company was part of a planetary garrison unit, the models weren't particularly costly. Their armor was rudimentary at best and the light rifles they were armed with could only scare away aerial mechs and opposing scout mechs at best. Ever since the Bontue Republic's forces in the Korinna System launched their counterattack, Captain Litgow's mech company enjoyed a smooth ride at first. Though it pained him to see so many cities of his planet get devastated to the point where they killed many millions of local citizens, there was no point in protesting the decisions of the higher ups. He could only lay the blame of the atrocities at the feet of the invaders that disrupted the peace of the planet. As the Bontue vanguard units advanced in the direction of Dershin with haste, Captain Litgow expected to encounter little resistance. The Quillim invaders had obviously been caught flat-footed and could barely keep themselves together without their precious starships. The remnant survivors found in the ruined cities quickly collapsed after suffering a single blow. To go from mopping up scattered and disorganized mechs to approaching a fortified enemy location under fire was like going from heaven to hell! BOOOOOM! An enormous orange blast engulfed a surprisingly large area at the rear of the vanguard formation in pure destruction! An offensive knight mech that possessed just enough mobility to keep up with the rapid mech force had been caught at the edge of the blast radius. Normally, an artillery strike shouldn't be able to do more than inflict moderate damage onto an expert mech, but it was clear that the long-ranged attacks weren't normal in the slightest! Once the smoke and fury cleared, the knight mech had lost half of its frame. Many different pieces had been torn from the mech and flung tens if not hundreds of meters away. Yet another Bontue mech had been lost! "Damnit! No one told us that the Iron Hedgehog had become this strong! What sort of shells have the Quillims dug up from their storerooms?" "Have the Quillims gone mad? These expensive supershells are normally reserved for sieging fortresses or suppressing expert mechs. Which enemy commander allowed Venerable Mox to waste these deluxe shells on normal mechs such as ours?!" The Bontue troopers possessed a general awareness of the enemy expert pilots and their respective expert mechs. They had no idea that a newborn spiritual cat was secretly amplifying the attacks launched by the Iron Hedgehog. Their lack of information caused them to assume that the Iron Hedgehog was throwing lots of money away by foolishly depleting her extremely expensive warheads in advance! Even though Captain Litgow and many of his fellow Bontues understood that the Iron Hedgehog was supposedly squandering a trump card in advance, that still did not give them a lot of comfort during this phase of the engagement. BOOOOOOM! This time, a spearman mech piloted by a mech lieutenant of a different mech company got blown up! Despite the best efforts of the mech officer to evade the incoming shell, it was already too late for him to evade the incoming shell. The blast radius was just too ridiculous! Captain Litgow winced just before the powerful shell had landed. The distant enemy expert heavy artillery mech fired once every twenty seconds or so. The frequency of attacks had been irregular at first, but it seemed that Venerable Irene Mox had found her rhythm, much to the detriment of the Bontue vanguard forces. Although 20 seconds was a fairly long interval of time, the fact that the powerful enemy expert pilot was so skilled that she could strike down at least one mech with every shot was outrageous! "How is she able to whittle us down at this range?! We are still well over the horizon!" "If this goes on, we'll be down 200 mechs or more by the time we can effectively launch our own attacks." "It will be even worse once we reach the 50 kilometer mark as it becomes much easier for Venerable Mox to aim her attacks at our mechs." "Why didn't we bring our own heavy artillery mechs?" "It's useless. The Iron Hedgehog will eat them all up like breakfast." BOOOOOM! The defenders of Korinna V had quickly gathered up thousands of mechs, so a loss of 200 mechs was not that significant in the greater scheme of things. The Bontues also noticed that the Iron Hedgehog only fired one of its howitzers at a time. This suggested that the enemy expert mech clearly had problems with its ammunition reserves. Perhaps the powerful machine might lose its relevance in the later phases of the battle. However, that was from the perspective of the commanders in the rear. To the mech pilots who piloted these unfortunate machines, they felt as if they were playing an oppressive game of Russian roulette! The impact this had on their morale was disproportionately large, especially due to the long period of time it took to cross the remaining distance! The mech pilots had been piloting their mechs for several hours already, so they were anything but fresh. BOOOOM! Stopping to rest and resupply within artillery range of the enemy was extremely foolish, so Captain Litgow and the other Bontues had little choice but to press their advance and immediately go on the attack once they reached the city in their sights! Soon, the depressed Bontue mech officer received a new order. "Captain Litgow! I need your mechs to press further and strangle those Quillim scout mechs! The main reason the Iron Hedgehog is able to accurately target our mechs is because the enemy scout mechs are transmitting accurate observation data to their rear. I am dispatching several more light mech companies to completely drive those scouts away." "Understood, sir." BOOOOM! Privately, Captain Litgow did not have high hopes for this. Scout mechs were extremely fast and elusive. They were difficult to catch and could easily lead pursuers on a long and fruitless chase. Fortunately, the vanguard forces were not short of light mechs. Even if many of their models were not as good as the military mech models employed by the Quillim invaders, their speed combined with their advantage in numbers should be able to drive the enemy scouts back! It did not take long for over a hundred light mechs sprinted forward at greater speeds and closed in on the Quillim scout mechs. The latter could not possibly fare well in a direct confrontation, so they helplessly stopped their attempts at recording and transmitting rich observation data to the rear. Though Captain Litgow's mechs were able to open fire at the retreating enemies with their light rifles, it was anything but easy to land consistent hits under these circumstances. Even if their weapons occasionally struck the rear of the enemy scout mechs, the damage usually wasn't too serious at first. The Quillim scout mechs turned out to be better than the ones employed by the Bontues, so the range between the two never decreased. BOOOOM! Though it was impossible to eliminate the enemy scout mechs outright, Captain Litgow was already pleased with driving them away. Combined with the fact that the Bontue aerial mechs had flown forward in order to push back the Quillim's own aerial assets, there was no way the Iron Hedgehog should be able to bombard the vanguard formation as easily as before! Everyone waited for Venerable Irene Mox to miss her first artillery strike. The Bontue mech pilots already regarded her as a devil, so they looked forward to pulling her off the throne they constructed in their minds! Over thirty seconds had passed since the Iron Hedgehog's last howitzer attack had landed in their midst. This should have been a reassuring sign, but Venerable Mox had pulled off so many amazing shots already that Richard Litgow and the others started to grow nervous. Soon enough, the friendly aerial mechs in the air detected a supershell approaching from the distance. Although it was not that difficult to detect the incoming shell in advance, the resonance-empowered projectile closed in so fast that the Bontue mech pilots barely had any time to react! Different from the previous attacks, the potent enemy warhead dropped a lot sooner from the air than before! Captain Litgow's eyes widened when his mech sounded a distinct alarm. "She wouldn't dare!" Though the idea that entered mind was too outrageous for him to believe, he did not waste his time on any further thought and desperately flung his machine towards the left. The light mech he was piloting could just catch the bright orange trail of the rapidly nearing shell arcing towards his mech unit. BOOOOOOOOOOM! Though the shell turned out to land far enough away for his mech to come out unscathed more or less, the powerful shockwave released by the excessively powerful explosion buffeted all of the nearby machines. The resonance-empowered blast even spread an inexplicable wave of hostility that briefly caused mech pilots such as Captain Litgow to shake in their seats. They all felt as if they had been one step away from having their bodies and mechs torn apart by the explosive power of the enemy expert heavy artillery mech! It took a few more seconds than normal for Captain Litgow to regain his wits. "The Iron Hedgehog has shifted its firepower to our scouting mechs!" "Continue your mission but do your best to keep your units spread and ready to evade. Do your best to eliminate the scout mechs. The sooner they are taken out, the sooner the Iron Hedgehog will lose its range advantage." BOOOOOOOOOM! Captain Litgow winced as he lost another subordinate. The nature of the highly destructive artillery attacks made it nearly impossible for the targeted mech pilots to eject from their cockpits. The muzzle velocities of the artillery cannons of an expert mech was considerably higher than that of an ordinary mech. Each time the aerial mechs detected an incoming resonance-empowered artillery shell, it was already too late for the mech pilot in trouble to transmit the ejection command. Before the cockpit managed to blast out of the rear of a mech, the fast warhead already reached the end of its journey! BOOOOOM! The repeated attacks on his mech unit already depressed the morale of Captain Litgow's mech company even further. If this went on any further, even he might break from the pressure! "Stand by for reinforcements." "What reinforcements?" The mech captain inquired. A bright blur raced across the battlefield and passed by Captain Litgow's mech unit from behind! Numerous seconds later, four Quillim scout mechs quickly collapsed as an unstoppable sword sliced through their torsos while hardly encountering any resistance! The Bontue light mech pilots instantly regained their good mood as they realized what had happened! "The Blue Amazon has taken action!" The Blue Amazon was one of the few Bontue expert mechs on the planet. It was an expert swordsman mech that happened to be piloted by an older heroine who was forced to retire from the frontlines after suffering a severe injury. Though the expert pilot still hadn't returned to her peak, she was more than capable enough of returning to the fight. The Blue Amazon was one of their main solutions against a threatening expert mech such as the Iron Hedgehog! Just as the powerful expert swordsman mech advanced towards another enemy scout mech, the Blue Amazon hastily changed direction and even leapt away in an undignified manner! BOOOOOOOM! A rapidly closing shell struck the area in front of the Bontue expert mech!