Chapter 187: Devoured by the Machine
If the antenna on Dijeh's head, designed to enhance communication, could be considered part of the mobile suit—
Then Amuro, of course, noticed Daryl's counterattack instantly. He immediately dove the suit down to evade while skimming even closer to the ground.
However, this was Amuro's first time facing Neue Ziel's beam saber, and he misjudged its size. As a result, the saber's edge grazed the antenna, nearly melting the head armor of the Dijeh.
Fortunately, Dijeh still followed Amuro's intent and charged straight into the middle of Neue Ziel, drawing its own beam saber!
At this distance, no matter how powerful the I-Field was, it couldn't stop Amuro's slash from posing a serious threat to Neue Ziel.
"Clack!"
Yet Amuro wasn't able to bring the saber down.
"So many sub-arms…"
Amuro stared at the mechanical arm that had locked onto Dijeh's left arm and immediately prepared to retreat.
But in that moment, Neue Ziel deployed four additional sub-arms from its body. Combined with the two already exposed mechanical arms, the machine now truly resembled a praying mantis.
And like a mantis, Neue Ziel lunged forward. The main arms clamped down on Dijeh's shoulders, while the four sub-arms gripped all four of its limbs, locking it tightly in an embrace.
Amuro frowned and yanked hard on the controls, but all that did was make Dijeh's joints emit ominous creaking sounds—there was no other response.
It was complete overpowering through brute strength!
Immediately after, Neue Ziel, still clinging tightly to Dijeh, ignited its remaining thrusters and began plummeting toward the outer wall of the colony satellite.
Unfortunately, Eli and the others were still a fair distance away—and Amuro was too close to Neue Ziel for them to intervene.
"Vmm!"
A beam shot straight toward Neue Ziel's head—it was a supporting fire from Eli.
But Neue Ziel's I-Field was still active, and the shot dissipated harmlessly into nothingness. It couldn't help Amuro.
"Damn it."
Amuro tried to open the cockpit hatch to escape, but Daryl manipulated Neue Ziel to press tightly against Dijeh, preventing the hatch from opening.
He never imagined he'd fall into danger like this.
Had he grown sluggish… was it Beltorchika's fault?
As memories of a long period of comfort spent with that blonde woman surfaced, Amuro blamed his current lapse in awareness on the complacency that came from overconfidence in his own abilities.
Ever since he'd come back under Bright's command, he hadn't faced a battle that truly pushed him to take things seriously.
And now, that had led to this disgraceful predicament.
But Amuro had no intention of giving up. He operated the electric needle cannons on his shoulders again.
Because the two suits were pressed so close together, the long barrels couldn't aim directly at Neue Ziel.
Even so, Amuro still activated the charging phase.
Then, he fired a volley!
It missed entirely, as expected—but Amuro didn't care. He immediately diverted all power from the mobile suit to the needle cannons and fired again!
Another miss. And again, he forced a shot.
Low on ammo—
Amuro hovered his hand over the trigger, his eyes flashing with the same deadly gleam he had during the One Year War, when they called him a demon despite still being a boy.
"Boom!"
As Amuro slammed the fire button, the dual electric needle cannons suddenly burst with a brilliant surge of electricity—an internal explosion caused by overloading the capacitors from repeated firing!
The needles detonated inside their barrels. The built-up charge, along with stored energy from the emitters, all erupted at once.
At this range, the discharge not only engulfed the upper half of Dijeh but surged directly toward Neue Ziel, who was practically touching them!
Unlike the GP03, which used a standalone external unit for its I-Field generator, Neue Ziel's I-Field was created by a network of small generators embedded throughout its body operating in unison.
Each approach had its pros and cons, but at this moment, it clearly worked in Amuro's favor.
The two mini I-Field generators on Neue Ziel's front shoulders were each struck by arcs of electricity.
In the next instant, another beam fired by Eli arrived!
This time, the beam was still obstructed—but not as completely. Some of it diffused, yet the remainder punched through the weakened barrier and struck Neue Ziel's main body.
Immediately afterward, a precise beam pierced the front end of Neue Ziel's right arm.
And the beam didn't stop there. It kept firing in a sweeping motion, destroying the right-side sub-arm along with it.
"Amuro!"
After discharging the beam rifle for a sustained attack, depleting all its stored MEGA particles and causing it to overheat, Eli shouted from inside the GP04 toward Dijeh's direction.
And Amuro didn't let him down. Despite the electricity paralyzing even parts of his own suit, he gritted his teeth, grabbed the control lever for the left arm, ignited the beam saber, and thrust it forward!
The blade stabbed deep into Neue Ziel. In Amuro's senses, he was certain it had pierced through the cockpit!
He slashed out, severing the arms that had imprisoned him, and extracted the heavily damaged Dijeh from within Neue Ziel.
"Honestly, you're hopeless. At this rate, Amuro, you've still got a long way to go before you can call yourself a grown-up."
Eli's relieved, teasing voice rang out in Dijeh's cockpit.
"If you were really dependable, you'd have stopped this monster before it got to me—aren't you piloting a Gundam, after all?"
Amuro replied irritably, though he knew full well that an MS still couldn't be evenly matched against an MA.
The only reason he'd been able to defeat the Perfect Zeon was because that unit hadn't been equipped with an I-Field—otherwise, it would have been just as hard to bring down.
"Well… the important thing is that you're safe, Amuro."
Eli said sincerely.
After such a long separation, to finally reunite only to see the other in such peril—it was impossible not to feel guilt.
"Yeah. I'm glad to see you safe too, Eli-sa—hm?"
As Amuro expressed his concern in return, he suddenly felt a strange sensation along his back.
Neue Ziel's combat claw—only the front end of which had been destroyed—suddenly detached and lunged again at Dijeh's back!
The cockpit had already been destroyed—how was it still moving!?
At this range, Eli had no time to draw a secondary beam rifle. He could only watch helplessly as the claw closed in on Dijeh!
But just then, a beam shot in from the side, as if it had foreseen the danger in advance, colliding directly with the incoming claw!
And then, two more beams fired from different directions, thoroughly bathing the remnants of Neue Ziel in destruction.
A faint fluttering sound reached Amuro's ears.
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