After a full hour of battle, the southern waters off Hong Kong were raging. More than ten battleships and over twenty submarines crowded the area, but every so often, massive limbs surfaced from the waves—Kaiju monsters showing off their power.
"Captain, we're taking heavy losses—the fleet can't hold much longer!" a sailor shouted over the roaring waves. No sooner had he spoken than something exploded beneath the sea, sending up a huge dome of water that burst into a fiery, watery display. The sailors paled—they knew what that meant: another submarine had blown up. That made ten. Compared to Mecha Hunters, traditional weapons were clumsy and slow against these living bioweapons.
"Hold the line! The Hong Kong Base cannot fall!" The captain gripped the table to steady himself and barked, "Aim for that thing in the distance—fire!"
Boom! The cannons roared, shells exploding across the Kaiju's body. From another direction, the long-silent super electromagnetic railgun joined in—a blue-glowing round streaked across the sea like a meteor, slamming right into the monster attacking the base.
"Aaargh—!" The Kaiju howled in pain, its cry echoing across the battlefield.
Inside the base, at the Technical Bureau's central data room, a burly young man frowned and whispered, "Got a message from the Magician—this one's basically done for. And we can't keep this under wraps much longer. I'm worried the navy will just bomb this place." If word got out that the base was wiped out and someone was stealing classified data, the navy might just drop a nuke out of spite.
"I'm almost done here too." The middle-aged man ordered, "Tell the Magician to give it one last push—send a Kaiju for extraction, we're pulling out." He glanced at the computer screen—the progress bar was nearly full, just a sliver left. As the young man relayed the order, two Kaiju in Kowloon turned to retreat. One was taken down by Jingzhe Xiao, but the other dove into the sea and sped this way.
This fish-like Kaiju was clearly an Olympic swimmer. In minutes, it arrived and rammed the dying base, causing a massive collapse. The Technical Bureau, once deep inside the base, was now completely exposed. The middle-aged man growled, "Done!" and yanked out a hard drive, stashing it away.
"Go!" The two men sprinted toward the fish Kaiju, hitting a remote switch as they ran. Boom—flames erupted, and the Hong Kong Base's data vault was totally destroyed. They climbed onto the monster's head, grabbed its tough hide, and shouted, "Move out!"
Strange voices echoed in their minds again as the two Kaiju outside the base charged away side by side. The other four tangled with the fleet, leaving no room to attack here. In the distance, a white mecha sprinted toward them, but it was too late. With the sea stretching endlessly, the beasts dove in—once out of sight, a Level 3 Kaiju's stealth skills meant no human tech could track them.
Standing atop the Kaiju's head, with endless blue waves ahead, the middle-aged man couldn't help but laugh. No casualties, and every tactical goal achieved—this battle was ours!
But just then, the burly young man, keeping watch, glanced up and frowned, "What's that? A shooting star?"
The middle-aged man looked up too, spotting something plummeting from the sky—a sparkling dot, zooming closer by the second. Their faces changed, both crouching and shouting, "It's a plane!"
It was a supersonic fighter jet—way beyond just supersonic. The sheer speed and drama of its arrival even outpaced the railgun shell! Like a streak of fire, it plunged from the heavens. The two had barely crouched when a deafening explosion erupted nearby. In a burst of fire, the Kaiju—after all its theatrics—was struck midsection by the jet. The impact landed right near the railgun wound, sending blue flesh flying dozens of meters. A massive hole was blown in the monster.
The Kaiju didn't even get a chance to scream—it was dead before it knew it.
Both men were stunned. Where did that plane come from? Who pulled off that insane stunt? If that collision had hit their 'flagship' instead of the 'wingman,' they'd be toast!
"Look up there!" The young man pointed. A figure was diving from the sky, moving so fast that she curled into a ball, friction with the air causing sparks. Only when she was about two hundred meters from the ground did she stretch out her limbs. Poof—a parachute opened, slowing her down. But the chute couldn't handle the force and tore with a loud rip. At least she slowed down, finally cutting the cords at about twenty meters up and thudding onto the wounded Kaiju's back.
It was Jill Young.
"Ow, ow, ow—so hot!" Jill Young yelled, rubbing her forearms and calves. Her clothes were smoking, and her limbs were a mess of scorched, tattered fabric.
Making such a dramatic entrance wasn't her plan, honestly—it was an accident.
Even with the boost from the Flame Tide, thirteen Machs was just too much for the airframe—the jet started to malfunction. When Jill tried to brake (yes, jets have brakes)—nothing. Tried to throttle down—no response. Maybe change direction, switch from a dive to level flight? Nope. She watched the rudder rip off the wing like a piece of paper.
On the other end of the comms, Kost was practically foaming at the mouth, while Jill could only say, "Haha, actually, this is my first time flying a fighter jet!" Yep, she'd never studied or touched one before. How did she manage to fly it so decently? Think back to the Steelbull arc—her first time with a helicopter was just as wild. She winged it then, and since fighter and helicopter controls have a lot in common, she wasn't worried at all.
Naturally, just like with the helicopter, the first time you pilot anything, you're pretty much guaranteed to crash...
So, in a full-speed dive, she tried every trick to save herself. First, retract the Flame Tide, then eject the cockpit seat. Thankfully, that feature still worked. But the parachute cords snapped one by one, and the chute itself shredded, though it did slow her down a lot. Next, she used the cockpit seat as a shield for a second round of deceleration. When the seat finally broke apart, she tucked in her limbs—her blood was pumping, skin tough as steel, and she managed to drop below sonic speed.
After that, well, everyone knows the rest.
"Good thing I wore a hat today, and good thing I'm in standard uniform!" Jill tossed her scorched flight helmet aside, ripped off the burned sleeves and pant legs, and hopped around barefoot (her shoes were toast). She finally recovered, then exclaimed, "Whoa, did I just smash one? What luck!" In all the chaos, she hadn't noticed—but now, the Kaiju was just a floating corpse.
One smashed, one left. Jill climbed to the highest point of the Kaiju corpse and looked ahead—the other monster was already hundreds of meters away and still accelerating. On its back, two men stared this way, their expressions weird: shock, wariness, maybe something else. Like Sima Yi losing a round but winning on luck, their eyes held both relief and mockery.
The fish Kaiju quickly vanished into the distance. In the ocean, Kaiju are all champion swimmers—no way to catch up.
Boom—here came the white mecha, Jingzhe Xiao, fashionably late. He was just about to roar in frustration when Jill whipped out her phone and called his line. "Carry me over there—I might have a way."
Inside the mecha, Jingzhe Xiao and Yuncong Li exchanged a glance, then promptly maneuvered the mecha to pick up Jill and head where she pointed.
Aboard the South Sea Fleet, the captain was cursing, "Damn it, they actually got away! What are you all doing? Didn't I order tracking devices to be fired? Why is there no signal?"
"Captain, the trackers were fired, but... but the Kaiju's skin squeezed them right out. Not a single one stayed in place."
"What about the Kaiju monitoring network? Sonar? Radar?"
"Signals are dropping one by one. We'll lose track in about two minutes."
Bad news after bad news—the captain slammed the console, "Isn't there any way to get a handle on them? Are Level 3 Kaiju really unbeatable?!"
Just then, a sailor stumbled in, "Captain, something's up—a Mecha Hunter's coming, and—" He pointed outside, where Jill Young jumped from the mecha onto the deck. The nearby sailors snapped to attention—they all knew Jill Young. Not everyone was a Queen fan, but Jill was a globally recognized colonel, a top officer. Even when she hijacked a military jet, folks cut her some slack. Otherwise, with her rookie flying skills, she'd have been shot down ages ago.
The captain rushed over, but before he could speak, Jill waved him off, "Save it. Get me a fast boat right now, and a helicopter if you can. I can track those Kaiju."
The captain couldn't help asking, "How?"
"Don't ask so much. You wanna fight or not? If you do, just do what I say!"
"Fine!" With so many men lost, the captain was fired up—he wanted those Kaiju to pay. "Until the pursuit ships arrive, we'll handle the tracking. Just give us a heading."
Jill nodded at his words. The sea breeze blew, she sniffed the air, then pointed southeast, "That way."