Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 240 - 062. Aerial Combat

Chapter 240: 062. Aerial Combat

"Knowing full well that I had the advantage in speed, yet he charged towards me at high speed. Interesting."

Li Aozi lost sight of one target, but it wasn’t a big problem. The "Eye of Truth" only had a 7-second cooldown, and he could scan again soon.

However, it was Magath, who was rushing straight toward him, that deserved more attention.

Magath increased his speed to five times the speed of sound, dragging a distinct Mach ring behind his fighter jet. Although slower than Li Aozi, the fighter’s range advantage was far superior.

He took the initiative to fire two high-speed, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles. Like javelins, the slender missiles carried the initial speed from the aircraft, coasted for a while due to inertia, and then ignited, attacking Li Aozi from two tricky different angles.

Li Aozi didn’t slow down at all. He immediately started maneuvering his body, rolling freely in the air like a spinning bullet, secreting combustible gel from his palms. "Spontaneous Combustion" ignited it, and he quickly flung it at the two missiles.

Bang! Bang!

The high temperature of the fireballs misled the missiles into believing they were hitting a jet’s heat source. They crashed into it without doubt, each causing a massive explosion. Just as Li Aozi was performing a barrel roll, twelve drones swiftly flew towards him.

"Take him down, Fledgling Eagle!"

Magath’s thought, transmitted through the data link to the drones, caused the drone formation to burst apart like fairy scattering flowers, maneuvering with overloads that defied human understanding and continuously firing lasers, weaving a distorted cage of light in front of Li Aozi.

"’Fledgling Eagle’ model laser loyal wingmen? I didn’t expect that they were already in service in this era. It looks like they also have TLS to counter me," Li Aozi realized. He deliberately didn’t activate the gravity distortion beams, choosing instead to use his high maneuverability and reflexes to create an impression of ’frantically dodging.’

Azure Star wasn’t a cosmic civilization; its fighter jets didn’t carry float guns but relied on drones for firepower suppression.

Normally, wingmen would play the role of flanks, responsible for electronic warfare and operating drones, while the main aircraft took on the primary combat tasks as the assassin.

"Well done, Fledgling Eagles!"

Seeing Li Aozi being suppressed, Magath was pleased but remained vigilant.

"This guy previously rammed the aircraft with his body. The footage from the drones shows that the armor on his body is very strong. This might be a ploy to lure us into close range."

"Leave it to me."

Ye Lifan eased off the throttle. ’Vulture’ unfolded its forward-swept wings, decelerating to subsonic speeds and achieving extremely high maneuverability and the best stealth performance. In doing so, he silently swooped past the high-speed flying Li Aozi and lay in wait directly behind him, almost hovering, perfectly aligning himself with Magath for a combined assault.

"Tactical laser ready!"

Ye Lifan, like an assassin poised to strike, saw the cockpit cover at the back of his fighter jet slowly raise the launch base. A prismatic laser emitter immediately began to accumulate energy.

Ye Lifan quickly tapped the keyboard by his side and simultaneously raised his hand to turn off the electronic devices. He manually operated, aimed at Li Aozi through mechanical sights, ensuring that the laser emitter, in its silent state, pointed steadily at the target, completely blending into invisibility.

His eyes surged with purple flames, his whole body’s Qi Energy powering the fighter jet. His pupils instantly contracted to a pinpoint, fixating on Li Aozi’s form.

"Absolute Focus"

"Burst Loading"

"Lock-On Aim"

All three "Ranger" Advance Skills activated simultaneously, imposing a great burden on Ye Lifan. However, his Beta Rank body could handle this pressure. He shouted in a low voice as he pulled the trigger,

"Fire!"

Whoosh!

The red and white laser bolted through hundreds of kilometers of sky in an instant. Even those on the ground could see the striking light.

"I was waiting for this!"

Li Aozi had been watching Ye Lifan’s movements with the "Eye of Truth." The moment he stopped moving, Li Aozi’s golden eyes instantly expanded. He timely halted his high-speed flight, and his fists clashed in front of his chest.

Gravity turbulence!

The moment the roaring laser hit Li Aozi, it was like a turbulent sea wave crashing onto a circular island. Under the shocked gaze of Ye Lifan and Magath, it immediately curved around Li Aozi’s figure and refracted into the distance.

It wasn’t just the attack from the tactical laser—all the weapons fired by the loyal wingman drones, in that instant, experienced a deflection, scattering in all directions, and even one drone got burned and fell from the sky on the spot.

"What the hell is this!"

Magath was startled, immediately initiated an acceleration, and lunged towards Li Aozi. He fired a barrage of ground attack multi-warhead rockets, forcing Li Aozi into the network of drones, then unbelievably taking advantage of an opening, he personally activated his tactical laser.

Whoosh!

Li Aozi intentionally stopped, hovering in the air. He raised his hand and flicked, parting the laser as if swatting it away, and instantly shooting it into the sky.

"Shit!" Magath cursed, feeling as if he had taken a massive blow.

"Demon Stone No. 2, this guy isn’t afraid of optical weapons! He’s intentionally making us use lasers!"

The TLS is an extremely precise, energy-consuming weapon; each sortie had only one opportunity to use it. Using it one more time would cause the fighter’s avionics to overload and crash.

"We’ve been had—this guy is very familiar with our weapon systems."

Having realized Li Aozi’s strategy, Ye Lifan promptly deactivated his optical cloaking and joined Magath’s pursuit team, forming crossfire with Magath and continually blocking Li Aozi’s flying space.

"Increase maneuverability, use energy tactics to drag him to death!"

As soon as Ye Lifan finished speaking, Li Aozi suddenly made a sharp stop. From a limit speed of Mach 6, he instantly stayed in the same airspace, causing Ye Lifan and Magath to overshoot, exposing their vulnerable rear sides.

"Fledgling Eagle!" Magath timely gave the command, and eleven drones swiftly turned around, countering back towards Li Aozi.

"This move is no longer useful against me!"

Li Aozi’s body emitted intense fire, his flesh rapidly proliferated, and he directly crashed into the swarm of drones.

[Gravity Contact]—Stack

[Blood of Eternity]—Stack

[Spontaneous Combustion]—Stack

"Trinity, Heavenly Phoenix Bomb!"

Li Aozi spread his arms wide, like a phoenix bathing in fire, and instantly crashed into the network of drones. The intense heat first disrupted the drones’ signal transmission; Azure Star didn’t have advanced quantum network technology. Magath could only watch helplessly as the drones were burned up by the high temperatures, eventually causing their batteries to explode due to the heat, setting off a series of explosions in the sky.

Suddenly—

The high-speed flight put out the flames on Li Aozi’s body, and he quickly reappeared on both pilots’ radars.

"Damn! He’s caught up!" Magath shivered, "Was this guy an angel in his past life? This sky, it utterly belongs to him!"

"Perform vector maneuvers, release heat flares!" Ye Lifan didn’t have time to joke around, he injected himself with an anti-load drug, a bitter taste spreading through his mouth. He swallowed the nausea and immediately braced himself for 78G of instant maneuvering, forcibly pulling around the direction of his aircraft’s nose.

"Huff ha huff ha huff—"

The intense overload nearly overwhelmed Ye Lifan, even as a Beta Rank, enduring such overload for five or six seconds nearly cost him his life; Ye Lifan momentarily experienced black vision, his anti-load suit timely pressurized his lower body to push the blood back into his brain,

Pup pup pup—

The two Vultures immediately released a large number of heat flares; white smoke obscured the vision, blossoming in the air like pale wings.

"Useless."

Runes once again appeared in Li Aozi’s eyes.