"I am not a hypocrite." Her voice sounded coldly mere moments before her attack landed.

WHAMMM!!

Her massive greatsword smashed inconsequentially on my left arm.

However, she was not fazed one bit by the complete lack of results her furious attack wrought.

She used the power from the recoil of her attack to enter into another swing and attacked me with greater force!

BAMMM!!

Her greatsword struck me at my mecha's weak underarm!

It truly was an impressive attack. The power that she unleashed and the tricky angle in which she launched her attack to reach such a difficult-to-reach spot all showed me that this girl was no ordinary ten year old.

Her enhancement may well go beyond that of her physical body.

BAMMM!!

She launched a mighty kick at me!

But all she managed to do was to fall backwards.

"You should give-"

BOOOMM!!!!

A powerful beam of energy attack suddenly appeared and smashed onto her upraised arm!

"HEY!" I shouted indignantly and quickly turned around to face the sneak attacker.

As you all know, I hate sneak attackers! IF they are not on my side, of course. But on that day, I had no one except Tes on my side.

But alas for me, and for the brave girl, the Grand Melee was an unforgiving event, especially during the initial minutes. If you're on the ground and alone, you're almost sure to be "killed" within seconds.

And if you're on the ground, alone, and were located beside a mecha with a massive red glow that reached the skies worth TEN times a normal mecha in points, then you're definitely dead as soon as you reach the ground.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

I turned around only to face more than a hundred merciless rifle beams raining down on us!

On me, mostly, but not a few landed on the poor girl as well.

She was doing extremely well, dodging this way and that, and blocking the undodgeable ones with her arms and legs, but she was merely extending the inevitable.

If nothing happened, she would "die" in seconds.

What else could I do? She was a brave girl getting pummeled mercilessly by the enemy, and she was in that position completely because of me!

Yes, yes, I could just leave her alone. Yes, yes, mercy to our enemies is poison to our allies.

I know all that. But for some strange reason, I was absolutely compelled to act at that moment.

historical

I leapt in front of her to shield her with my indestructible body. Well not really, but in front of all these practice mechas, it might as well be.

"Get up. Quick! You'll "die" if you stay down much longer! And for God's sake, grab a shield!" I shouted at her.

"I can't." She said very simply. "My arms and legs are shot to pieces."

At that time, I truly, truly had no idea why I did what I did next. Many people had asked me why, and my answer was an honest "I have no idea.".

Of course nobody believed me then, and I couldn't care less what they thought.

But it was a strange decision, nonetheless, and one that kept me awake some nights and made me do not a little bit of soul searching.

I only realized why I did it a few long months later, when she was already an indispensable part of our group.

A small part as to why I did it was, obviously, guilt. I had robbed her of her mecha and dispersed her twenty team mates from her side. She was about to "die" because of me.

The main reason was, however, admiration.

Not love, as most gossip mongers that pretend to be news outlets claim. It was honest to god admiration.

She was extremely clear of my strength, and still she chose to fight me. And all for what? Just to prove that she wasn't a hypocrite.

Damn it, she was really cool back then.

It was like she was standing on a railway track and facing an incoming freight train with her sword raised high, completely unafraid and ready to swing her sword at it even though it meant certain death for her.

It was folly, pure and simple. Stupidity in its purest form, even.

But it was also insanely impressive.

I had recognized in her an ability to do something which I wouldn't - no, couldn't do. And hell, I was impressed.

And I couldn't watch someone so stupidly brave and courageous bow out of the Grand Melee so early!

And so I grabbed her with my left hand, and then charged out of the area at high speed.

"Let me go!" The girl shouted with a surprised voice.

"Just chill, and make sure you don't die." I shouted back as I maneuvered my mecha skillfully to dodge most of the rifle fire.

With my extremely high RPL that was probably beyond 95 by that point in time, I was able to control the mecha like my own body.

Sudden changes in direction, speed and acceleration were not a problem for me!

I made a zig zag approach to the largest cluster of mechas who were firing at us.

The merciless fire from all the other mechas around us continued unabated, even after I had reached the mechas!

BAM! BAM! BAM!

The rifle fire from mechas far behind us began to reap the "lives" of the other mechas that were near me.

"Damn it! I'm outta here!" I could hear one kid scream.

"No you're not!" I shouted furiously and charged at him.

"AHHH!!! SAVE MEE! SAVE-"

BAM!

My spear smashed his head into pieces and he immediately powered down.

I glared at the rest of the mechas who were scrambling to get out of my range and the range of the other mechas firing at them.

"It would be tough to hunt them down with a melee weapon." I realized.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Rifle fire from all around continued to rain down on me.

"I won't last much longer." The girl said calmly.

I was unable to dodge all of the attacks, and quite a number of rifle beams had successfully hit her.

"Damn it!" I cursed loudly. "You're not dying. Not under my watch!!"

"There's nothing you can do. Not unless you can shut down a hundred mechas all at once."

I sighed deeply.

And then I said..

"I can."