While Jin placed the card into his System Driver, he used Bam and Boom in its shield form as a projectile to distract the giant Mecha from firing another blast as it seems like its objective was to kill him. Also, it had already damaged a good portion of the hangar including the valuable items that could be used to be salvaged for analysis.
It would not do any good to Jin's team if it continued to damage any more of the hangar. Unfortunately, the transformation was way too flashy compared to the distraction and the pilot flying the Giant Mecha seems to be veteran enough to know that trouble would be coming if he/she does not stop that blinding light.
The Mecha's arm pulled the rifle up once more for another shot but the pilot had underestimated Jin's transformation and powers as suddenly a wall of roots emerged from him protecting not only the remaining hangar but obscuring his line of sight towards Jin too. At the same time, several branch tentacles were seen shooting out towards the giant Mecha.
First, immobilise the laser rifle and subsequently the trigger finger. The branch tentacles later rage on to entangle the joints of the Mecha like its elbow, neck and then it starts to seep into any hole it managed to find such as the air ventilation modules and even the weapon systems. The tentacles did reach into the booster modules as well and the afterburners were clogged up with the hardening of the branches.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtObviously, the pilot tried to eject, only to find out that its ejection module had been crept on by those tentacles as if they were desperately looking for a way into the cockpit and the pilot just opened the doors to such an obstacle.
"I am sorry, but you will die for me," Jin said as he could sense what the branch tentacles were going on as he poured more Maqi into it, giving it a tremendous amount of energy to perform a burst growth. It forced the end of the branch tentacle to extend and shoot out like a spear thrusting forward, killing the pilot who was desperately trying to destroy the tentacles with his backup pistol.
There was no panic in the pilot's eyes despite the situation he was in. It was as if he knew that there was no way out in this particularly odd situation and he decided to face death head on like he always does in battle. Even in a cramped cockpit, he somehow managed to dodge the very first branch tentacle thrust and then grab it to break it down with his laser pistol.
As part of the branch tentacles, Jin could feel the pain when the laser burns into the branch but he continues to press on to the attack. He knew that he need to cripple the pilot so that the Mecha could be left intact while not posing a threat to the maximum security prison ship (and in turn, his objective protecting Rei's incomplete spacecraft) as the System teleports the entire spaceship back into Jin's instance.
"Now you know how I feel whenever I attack or defend something," Shu muttered out of the blue now that he was one with Jin.
"Welp. I am sorry, I did not know that you had feelings too despite being a tree." Jin apologised despite the situation he was in but Shu thought that his reply was rather sarcastic.
"Just because I am a talking tree-"
"Shu." A voice suddenly resonated between Jin and Shu along with a string of musical chords being played via the System Channel. A voice that was sweet yet calming and both knew who it was.
Ke Mi, the Zither Mistress.
Somehow, she knew that Shu had not been in battle for quite a while, and being abruptly summoned to fight had suddenly given him a bit of anxiety. Thus, the Zither Mistress had a familiar string of chords that Shu had liked to calm himself down.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmIn the meantime, Jin also felt some inner peace as the chords eventually turned into a short music piece, allowing him to focus on the task at hand and defeat the ever struggling possible protagonist in this particular universe. The branch tentacles within the cockpit suddenly moved simultaneously, thrusting the pilot at multiple points of his body.
The pain had severely crippled him and yet the pilot tried to move his arms so that he could at least destroy one of the branch tentacles, in hopes that he could still live long enough for his comrades to come to save him. However, Jin denied him of such hope as a final branch tentacle pierced him through the chest armour plating and spiralled through his heart, leaving a gaping wound that could not be recovered unless he had an emergency surgical operation right at this moment.
The pilot finally resigned to his fate despite him hearing calls that reinforcements are on their way to assist. Yet, they were too late as Jin could already feel the maximum security prison ship vibrating as a whole, a sign that the System's teleportation was happening.
Thus, he quickly secured the giant Mecha which he immobilised by pulling it nearer to the wall of tree roots he previously created. And like a living organism, the roots created an opening in the middle to drag the captured Giant Mecha into its embrace. Other similar giant Mechas were seen flying at their max speeds and provided suppression fire in hopes that the 'living' roots would be destroyed, leaving their unique giant mecha alone.
Sadly, before they could do any damage to the wall of roots, the maximum security prison spaceship suddenly disappeared right in front of their eyes. It was nothing they had seen before as there were no signs of warping in light speed or any travel wormholes around. No sudden black holes were detected either causing them to be confused with the entire situation.
However, the United Federation Maximum Security Prison Ship was still intact but their captain reported that the enemies on board suddenly vanished after a mystical circle appeared right under them, as if it was magic.
At this moment, the two military organisations were at greater odds than usual especially when only one side had untold losses. The tension between the standoff could be broken anytime but it seemed like Captain Farlinger had a proposal to ease the current situation. He offered whatever Xeon Union prisoners who were alive as an olive branch.
The current Xeon Union military fleet discussed for a few moments and decided to take the deal to prevent the current fight while adding the condition that the United Federation would provide all recordings of the kidnapping these unique superhumans had done.
"This is a deal I never imagined they would take. I guess I need to contact the higher ups to see if the Xeon Union is doing anything suspicious." Captain Farlinger's head was aching so badly at the number of weird things that had happened in the past hour or so. He did not know that this particular incident would spur the superhuman race between the United Federations and Xeon Union, resulting in a war that would be deadlier than the ones they usually had.