The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 83: Multi-kill

Chapter 83: Multi-kill

It took a few moments for the man piloting the mech to understand my request of hoping on the shoulder of his mech. I wasn’t sure why, I thought I was very clear with my extremely reasonable question. 

He asked for confirmation, “Umm, are you sure?”

(“ You could just fly up yourself ”)

Espr questioned my intention.

And? That cost me mana, not to mention [Burst] is extremely unfriendly for constant flight.

(“ Wow, look how mana-friendly you are today ”)

Shut up. Stop acting like you didn’t already know I was being conservative with my resources.

(“ But I can’t. I have to keep this back and forth up or your mind will just wander off ”)

Still bullshiting.

(“ Stop it, you are making me blush ”)

Planets don’t even blush, you don’t even have blood vessels.

(“ None that you know of ”)

I once again chose to ignore Espoiramissa's crap and continued my conversation with the gentleman.

I replied, “Yep I am sure.”

He scratched his head for a moment, "Well, as long as you are fine being mostly likely shaken, shot, or exploded off?

“Sounds all good to me.”

With a little push off the ground, I pulled myself up to the left shoulder and waited for the man to finish his prep before flying.

A coworker of his wearing the same grey uniform ran up to him. The coworker had apparently heard the conversation and was going on about how crazy my suggestion was. 

“It’s fine.” The pilot, who was quite laid back just shrugged. “If the worst happens, it happens, you know.”

“Don’t ‘you know’ me? We aren’t going to risk being sued because of your nonchalance.”

“Are you seriously worried about being sued? What century are you living in?” There were many laws around hunters and other combat groups in warlike situations, and the laws that covered general protection in case other hunters did or suggested stupid shit still applied–not that my plan was that stupid. "Plus, if the worst happened, I’d be dead, and you would have no one to sue you anyway, if I even could.”

The seemingly young coworker sighed; if I had to guess, he was around his thirties. 

The pilot added, “You really need to get with the times.”

“And you still need to not be so relaxed when people are dying everywhere!” 

I looked at the pilot, and he returned the look. We both shrugged.

The coworker raised his arms into the air and walked away, moving to where the rest of the team was located, handling medical supplies.

I said, “I’m surprised your friend is working in this field.”

“There are reasons for it, but yeah, I think he should quit.”

The man finished the prep work, and the hatch closed. The thrusters on the back and feet ignited, and we were headed off into combat.

For weapons, there were multiple small turrets on the legs and torso of the mech, and a large rifle in the mech's hand.

The man asked, “I didn’t catch your name.”

I replied using the fake name I had been using, “Lux.”

“Mine’s Roger.”

“Good to meet you, Roger.”

He smiled and nodded. “You too. Good luck at not dying.”

“I’ll send that back to you. You’ll need it more.”

With pleasantries completed, it was time for combat and murder.

Ships were flying everywhere, some shooting, others not. Explosions from the weapon fire and skills made for good fireworks as we got into position.

I fired my first shot at a cruiser whose cameo had already started failing.

The solar rifle shot a barrel of light that, when it came into contact with the ship, did nothing but scratch the paint job.

It’s a little finicky to adjust the output.

I had to adjust the power, but it was so sensitive I could easily accidentally set it to the max and empty the remaining battery in one shot. 

One ship turned towards us and began firing. Roger quickly returned fire, but the small ship was manoeuvring past the bullets.

The ship zipped by, leaving behind a bomb floating in space. In response, I raised my starlight shields, but Roger was too busy firing at the ship to deploy his.

The bomb nearby exploded, launching hundreds of small drones that swarmed Roger’s mech.

Roger tried to smack the drones with the mech’s hand; however, another ship flew towards us, and he worriedly raised his rifle, but the drones were damaging it. The electric gunfire of the drones had instantly destroyed the automatic turrets, and he was worried the gun would be gone quickly after.

“I!” I tried to talk, but I couldn’t hear my voice through the mana waves. It was working a second ago, so I could only assume the drones or something else was blocking it.

I pointed at the ship, then pointed at me, signalling to Roger that I would take care of it. Thankfully, he understood me and kept trying to crush the drones.

I fired repeated blasts of my weapon, which caused the ship to turn away from its attack, but it soon came back around for another go.

On its second attempt, I fired a weak shot of sun energy using my own mana out of my hand that I placed under the barrel of the rifle. The ship dodged, but it was bait. Without a moment to waste, I fired a high-powered shot right towards where the ship dodged.

It was a clear shot of the ship's repulsion engines. The ship spun out for a second, was flung diagonally up, and smashed right into another ship that was flying by.

…We are just going to say that it was an enemy ship.

I mean, the likelihood of it was high, and I even think it was the one that dropped the bomb.

Mr. pilot asked, “Was the ship taken care of?” He was still distracted by the fast-moving drones zapping the mech, but he had managed to quash most of them, allowing the coms to come back online, leaving their corpses as debris in space. I was surprised with how fast the mech’s hands moved—definitely faster than average.

“Yep, two hostile ships down.” There was no time to celebrate as another ship came in for the attack. 

Roger was ready and countered before I needed to do anything.

Still, I wasn’t going to let him hog all the fun, so I aimed my rifle as well.

However, I was distracted for a moment as I saw a person in the distance riding on top of a ship with a spear in hand. It was an unusual sight for some, but when I saw it, I became filled with rage. The tip of the spear was a reinforced arrow shaft, one that I hadn’t been able to forget.