Mobile Suit Gundam: Blood Price

"Mission: Gundam Rising"

2 Days of training under Marion gave me a sense of her character.

She sucks as a knight.

She is clumsy, gullible and very sensitive. How she even became a knight is a mystery of its own.

But she is a good teacher.

First she noticed while practicing my swordplay is that I'm unused to the sword's weight (I'm using a wooden sword).

It is because the Beam Saber has zero weight to its blade due to being made of pure energy. This is a huge detriment as my balance is shot off.

I just adapted to it.

Second, she also noticed that I'm ambidextrous. I need to be when I'm using a sword and shield combo at the same time in the Astray. It turns out, I had a habit of using a Shield in front of my body and my sword behind, hiding it from view.

A counterattack focused stance she called.

It was a good stance for someone new to swordsmanship to use, especially if I'm using a shield.

So she began training me to switch between counterattack and attack stance in to fight.

The attack stance is where my shield is still on my front, except my sword is now hidden behind it. It's a good technique in combat as it uses mind games against the enemy.

If they focus on the shield, I can thrust my sword between any gaps I can find in their defense. If they focus on the hidden sword behind the shield, they would be susceptible to shield techniques such as bashes or worse, catching their weapon and disarming.

Overall, Marion is a good teacher but sucks as a knight, no offense.

But tonight, I will finally face the 4 Zaku II in my first mission. For the 42nd time.

Later...

Once again, I found myself in a massive area filled with various warehouses. Explosions and Gunfire rang not far away, the Enemy.

Remember, Observe and Assess the situation and the capabilities of your opponent and yourself.

Marion's lessons rang in my head.

Quietly, I began cruising towards the direction of the attacks. At low power, the Astray is capable of hovering on the ground and moving silently to some extent.

A stealth option is always the best option in starting a fight. Always.

I soon found them separated. The first group had advanced, leaving behind two units behind to rummage in the warehouses.

Let's do this.

"Full throttle!"

With thrusters on full power, the first Zaku II unit didn't have the chance to dodge out the way as I flew straight at him.

A Beam Saber to the chest took it out of the fight.

Using the Zaku II unit's unresponsive corpse as an impromptu board as we skid to the ground, I used the decoy function.

It's quite a funny thing. It basically leaves behind an inflatable copy of the Astray which would just float in place.

It's a neat device.

It also helped that my rough landing caused debris and dust to be blown up in the air, hiding the release of the decoy. This allowed me to pull the Beam Rifle as the Zaku II popped the decoy.

Unfortunately, I missed my shot.

The Zaku stumbles backwards as my shot hits its left leg. Using the advantage, I immediately closed the distance, swinging my Beam Saber towards its sides.