But Zhao Chen's Dragon-Fang fighter did not dive; it flew backward!
That's right.
Flying backward.
For the Dragon-Fang fighter had that capability, only at a speed much reduced from flying forward.
At the same time,
black objects fell away in free fall from the flanks of Zhao Chen's fighter, one after another.
They were nothing else but the missiles carried by the other Dragon-Fang fighters.
But these missiles had not been launched!
That was what Zhao Chen had asked of them.
A request that let them help while bearing no risk.
Zhao Chen knew the human heart well.
He had used that in his words before, telling the whole flight squadron they would all die, rather than in truth the great majority.
And the task he gave them required no risk either.
Only that, at designated positions and in order, they jettison the missiles they carried.
Because these missiles had not been armed, the jettisoned missiles naturally fell in free fall.
Zhao Chen put his hand on the cannon's firing button.
His eyes were on the swarm of aliens coming up in pursuit.
He pressed the firing button.
Only, the cannon did not strike at the aliens, but at those falling missiles.
Struck, the missiles exploded outright!
The fireballs of the blasts caught the aliens, who had kept their black-vapor shields in front of them and never noticed the threat of the missiles falling around them.
They were caught by the missiles bursting around them without warning.
Grade-three aliens within the blast radius were, for the most part, all killed.
Grade-four aliens were badly hurt too: either their flight slowed, or they fell freely until they recovered.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
Fireball after fireball.
At last Zhao Chen fixed on his real prey.
The grade-five alien!
Because the aliens in pursuit were too many,
the few missiles left to the flight squadron could not destroy them all; they could only slow their pursuit a little.
That was not what Zhao Chen was after.
And the only way was to destroy that grade-five alien.
Zhao Chen had information on the aliens in his mind.
Higher-grade aliens could command lower-grade ones.
So most of the time one need only destroy the higher-grade alien to throw the lower-grade ones' command into brief confusion,
like an army that has suddenly lost its commander.
Zhao Chen checked what his Dragon-Fang fighter had left aboard.
Only three missiles.
Zhao Chen looked at the attack lane cleared by the missile blasts before.
That grade-five alien was already charging ahead all alone.
The grade-three and grade-four aliens around it had all been affected,
leaving a gap between them.
And because Zhao Chen's Dragon-Fang fighter was flying backward.
In the blink of an eye, Zhao Chen's Dragon-Fang fighter was the last of this flight squadron.
The tail-ender who had nearly wept just now looked like one reprieved from death.
And at the same time was rather worried about the pilot of XG091 nearby!
And XG091 at the very rear had come almost face to face with the pursuing grade-five alien.
Zhao Chen did not even need to magnify the image.
He could see the grade-five alien's hideous shape.
Fire!
Without another word, Zhao Chen pressed the launch button for the last three missiles.
Nor were these three missiles simply hurled out all at once.
They went at intervals.
The first did not target the grade-five alien, but a missile that had not yet detonated and happened to be falling right in front of it.
Two missiles exploded together,
producing a huge ball of flame,
that swallowed the grade-five alien.
After that, the remaining two missiles struck the grade-five alien at the center of the blast, one after the other.
By now Zhao Chen had already turned his Dragon-Fang fighter about and gone on withdrawing toward space.
So long as the grade-five alien was destroyed.
The interstellar fighters left in the flight squadron could all withdraw safely.
Just then the command channel was full of praise and admiration.
"091, that was amazing!"
"091! Where did you learn that? To hit every single jettisoned missile with cannon fire in so short a time!"
"091! If I were a woman I'd marry you!"
Zhao Chen paid no mind to this flattery.
But the next second, Zhao Chen's heart lurched.
For he saw on the fighter's radar that the high-energy signal behind had not vanished.
It had only slowed a little, and then at once come after them again,
closing the distance to Zhao Chen's fighter without pause.
Zhao Chen looked back at once.
The grade-five alien, of all things, was not dead.
It had only lost the black vapor guarding it.
In that moment the others in the flight squadron noticed it too.
At that, everyone on the command channel fell silent.
All that flattery just now was gone.
No one made a sound.
The flight squadron leader, who had long since muted her own microphone and was running out in front, saw it.
And her heart fairly blossomed with delight.
That'll teach you to show off.
Now you'll get what's coming to you.
Fool.
Zhao Chen frowned slightly, but he did not panic.
He went on thinking of a way out.
The missiles aboard this Dragon-Fang fighter were spent; his only weapon was the cannon.
But to face a grade-five alien with a cannon, with a whole swarm of aliens coming up behind besides,
was beyond doubt to court death,
unless… he could kill it in one blow.
Kill it in one blow?
Something came to Zhao Chen.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
In his mind he ran through every movement again and again.
By now, beyond the fighter's canopy, the scene of space could be seen, and even the interstellar warships lying in low orbit.
Every warship's guns were trained now on the planet's surface.
Zhao Chen's eyes snapped open.
He pressed a button.
The next second, the Dragon-Fang fighter's canopy opened.
Zhao Chen unfastened his harness.
And leaped clear in one motion.
The sight left the whole flight squadron dumbstruck.
Powerless as they were, they had still been quietly watching this remarkable XG091.
But now, seeing the pilot do what looked like an ejection, they could make nothing of it.
And if it was an ejection, why had the seat not gone with him?
Then the man seemed to draw something from his waist,
with a flash of a column of light.
Everyone knew what it was.
A light-blade!
And looking at the grade-five alien directly below the man,
one unbelievable thought rose in every mind.
This man…
Means to use a light-blade…
To cut down a grade-five alien?!!