As Athrun charged over with overwhelming killing intent, Reid's first reaction was to run.
Yes, Reid turned and fled without the slightest hesitation.
Athrun excelled at close combat. Only a fool would engage him in a melee brawl when his killing intent was so obviously off the charts.
Hadn't they seen in the original story how a rage-filled Athrun, piloting the Aegis, fought the equally berserk Kira to a mutual kill? And that was in an atmospheric environment where many of his weapons were unusable and his mobility was far inferior to the Strike with its Striker Pack.
Actually, to be more precise, that battle wasn't a complete mutual kill. If neither had been rescued, Athrun wouldn't necessarily have died, whereas Kira, who was covered in severe burns and practically cooked, would have been a goner without Ro's timely rescue.
In Reid's view, the Justice Gundam's maximum speed was a known limit. No matter how berserk Athrun became, he couldn't push the engine to produce power beyond its theoretical maximum output.
After all, Mirage Colloid couldn't create miracles through sheer emotion. Besides, the Justice Gundam wasn't equipped with a dedicated Mirage Particle Generator; the Mirage Colloid it had was only for enhancing the power of its Beam Weapons.
Thus, the battle between Reid and Athrun turned into the Gundam Artemis kiting the Justice Gundam one-sidedly.
It couldn't be helped. The Justice Gundam's speed in the atmosphere was just so-so. It couldn't even outfly the Freedom, let alone the Gundam Artemis, which was doubly blessed with GN Particle Anti-gravity and the immense output of an AC Universe Miniature Nuclear Fusion Reactor.
Furthermore, with Nein's assistance, the Gundam Artemis had eyes in the back of its head. Combined with Reid's ability to sense killing intent, the Justice's mere three long-range Beam Cannons had no hope of hitting the Gundam Artemis.
On the contrary, with Nein controlling the Heavy Ion Funnels, the Gundam Artemis could even counterattack.
When those two heavy particle beams shot over, the Justice could only evade. With this give and take, it became even harder for Athrun to catch up to Reid.
However, this scene of chase and escape didn't last long. Reid's side had a hothead of its own.
After the Immortal Aegis was knocked back by a mutual kick with the Justice, Ange saw this other-worldly Athrun completely ignore her and chase after her husband. How could she tolerate that?
The game of cat and mouse between the Gundam Artemis and the Justice had only been going on for a few minutes when the Immortal Aegis galloped onto the scene.
Although Ange herself didn't have an explosive ability like SEED, her base stats were high enough that Athrun couldn't afford to ignore her.
And this time, Ange was truly furious. She directly activated the Immortal Aegis's PX System.
The Immortal Aegis, originally blue and white, turned a pale cyan under the enhancement of the Minovsky Particle version of the PX System, and its agility instantly jumped to another level.
Now, even the berserk Athrun's Justice Gundam was once again at a disadvantage.
The Immortal Aegis's speed was now comparable to Exia in Trans-Am, leaving behind particle afterimages visible to the naked eye wherever it went.
Ange immediately unleashed her signature high-mobility attack on the Justice.
However, Athrun was no pushover. While he definitely couldn't win a contest of mobility now, it didn't mean he couldn't mount a passive defense.
As a melee Mobile Suit, the Justice Gundam's limb flexibility and strength were the best among ZAFT's five nuclear-powered machines. Coupled with the berserk Athrun's abnormal reaction speed, he was actually able to use his Shield to block the Immortal Aegis's machine gun strafing and close-range slashes one by one, even with its PX System active.
But this was only temporary. The Anti-Beam Laminated Armor Shields of the Justice and Freedom were actually identical, with only a slight color change on the edges.
A pilot's rage wouldn't increase the strength of their shield.
Although the Immortal Aegis used a combination of a Minovsky Reactor and a nuclear fusion reactor, and its Beam Saber's maximum output wasn't as high as the Gundam Artemis's in order to accommodate the miniaturized Minovsky Flight System for speed, its Lambda Driver was also primarily used to counteract the G-forces from high-mobility attacks.
But the continuous attacks still pushed the Justice's Anti-Beam Laminated Armor Shield to its breaking point.
After enduring dozens of seconds of relentless assault from the Immortal Aegis, the shield fulfilled its final duty during a kick, shattering into pieces under the Immortal Aegis's Leg Blades.
The berserk Athrun was ruthless at this moment. Seeing his shield destroyed and his means of defense gone, he directly deployed the Destiny-00 to block Ange's next sword strike.
Unsurprisingly, Ange sliced the Destiny-00 in two with a single slash.
Normally, after Ange destroyed the Destiny-00 Backpack, the Justice Gundam's main body only needed to retreat to survive another round of attacks.
But this Athrun advanced instead of retreating, combining his Beam Sabers into a double-bladed sword and thrusting straight at the Immortal Aegis.
However, such an attack was futile. The Justice's shield was broken, but the Immortal Aegis's wasn't.
There was no way Ange's reaction would be slow enough to not block with her shield.
In fact, this berserk Athrun also knew that a frontal Beam Saber attack wouldn't take down his opponent in a short time, which was why he had chosen to defend and wait for an opportunity earlier.
As for now, this Beam Saber thrust was, of course, a feint.
As Ange maneuvered the Immortal Aegis to raise its shield, the Justice Gundam suddenly reversed its grip and threw the Beam Saber.
One must remember that CE's Beam Sabers are all "lighter" models. They have no internal battery and rely entirely on the Mobile Suit for power (Beam Daggers have stored batteries, but their beams are tiny).
Therefore, a thrown Beam Saber could only maintain its beam for less than half a second on the minuscule residual charge in the hilt's transformer (decaying rapidly), after which it was just a hilt with no killing power.
But the berserk Athrun had another move. After throwing the Beam Saber hilt at the Immortal Aegis's head, he immediately used his head-mounted Vulcan Guns to shoot it.
Although the resulting explosion would be harmless to a Mobile Suit, even a GINN, it did momentarily obscure the view of the Immortal Aegis's main camera.
Ange's reaction wasn't slow. Realizing the Justice's thrust was a feint, she didn't hesitate and immediately had the suit ascend. She had a huge advantage; even if she couldn't finish the Justice this round, she couldn't let him find an opportunity to turn the tables.
However, this berserk Athrun's maneuver was truly exquisite. The explosion of the Beam Saber hilt did indeed block the Immortal Aegis's main camera. While it didn't affect her control to ascend, Ange did momentarily lose sight of the Justice.
But Ange wasn't too concerned. The Justice Gundam's only remaining weapons were its head-mounted Vulcan Guns and two Beam Boomerangs. From its current posture, by the time it could draw a Beam Boomerang, the Immortal Aegis would have already flown out of attack range. Even if the Justice wanted to ram her, it probably couldn't reach her.
However, Ange didn't expect the normally ascending Immortal Aegis to suddenly jolt. Looking down, she saw the Justice Gundam's hands gripping tightly onto the Immortal Aegis's right leg.
Honestly, under normal circumstances, this kind of move from the Justice was suicidal. The Immortal Aegis only needed to sweep its right-hand Beam Machine Gun, and the Justice would be blown to pieces in mid-air.
But when had Athrun ever feared death? At this moment, he directly invoked the 2887 Method.
Fortunately, at this critical juncture, a Magnum Beam shot in from the side and struck the Immortal Aegis's right leg.
Although the Mobile Suit's right leg exploded, the Immortal Aegis, which was ascending at full power, successfully pulled some distance away from the Justice Gundam.
The next second, a nuclear detonation occurred. The Justice Gundam turned into a giant fireball in the sky, and the shockwave sent all surrounding mobile suits flying.
Then, a mushroom cloud rose, marking what had just happened there.
The fighting across the entire battlefield came to an abrupt halt. After the nuclear explosion, the Immortal Aegis, being the closest, was a wreck, its armor covered in numerous cracks.
And this was after Reid had managed to shield it with a Funnel Wave Shield in time.
Yes, the only one who could fire a life-saving Magnum Beam at such a critical moment was, naturally, Reid.
Although Ange had intercepted the Justice Gundam with the Immortal Aegis, Reid hadn't dared to just go and pick a fight with another nuclear-powered machine.
A berserk Athrun was too dangerous. Reid had originally planned for a two-on-one to finish him quickly.
But Ange had then activated the PX System and performed a series of high-mobility attacks.
Reid could only say that with the Immortal Aegis zipping around the Justice Gundam, he didn't dare to open fire, terrified of accidentally hitting Ange.
In truth, Reid understood that Ange was doing it on purpose. She wanted to defeat the enemy in a one-on-one duel.
One could only say that as the protagonist of her own story, Ange had her pride. When facing an opponent she respected, she always wanted to take them on alone. This was unlike Reid, who, the stronger the opponent, the more he wanted to use sneak attacks or gang up on them—basically, the more dishonorable, the better. Who told you to be so strong?
Conversely, against weaklings, Reid would sometimes show off, embodying the principle of bullying the weak and fearing the strong.
Of course, Reid himself wasn't shy about this, stating that to survive long on the battlefield, one had to "bully the weak and fear the strong." Was this life-and-death struggle a game of house? Knightly duels between experts were the most unnecessary thing of all.
However, though Reid said this, he never slacked off in his dueling skills. His duels with Ange could genuinely last for a session during the day and another at night, with them resting for a few hours before fighting again the next day.
So, Reid didn't want to duel, but he wasn't afraid of it. When he had to face the Freedom alone just now, his usual hard training paid off.
No one should really think that a Kira who had shed his naivety was easy to deal with. The reason Reid could win so quickly was due to two indispensable factors: an absolute intelligence advantage, and the fact that his own piloting skills, with Nein's assistance, were not inferior to Kira's.
Therefore, Reid had been skirting the edge of the battlefield between the Immortal Aegis and the Justice Gundam the entire time, ready to provide support.
The moment the Justice's shield shattered, Reid instantly felt Athrun's will to die skyrocket.
Reid had sensed a similar inkling from Athrun back when they were discussing how to deal with Genesis.
So, Reid immediately judged that Athrun was preparing to self-destruct again.
However, the battle between Ange and Athrun was too fast for a normal person's eyes to follow. Shouting a warning now would definitely be too late and might even distract Ange.
So Reid directly raised his gun, preparing to risk a shot to snipe the Justice Gundam.
Then came Athrun's series of slick maneuvers. The Justice Gundam and the Immortal Aegis were practically stuck together, and Reid didn't dare to fire, fearing he would hit the wrong target.
It wasn't until the Justice grabbed the Immortal Aegis's leg that Reid found his chance.
At that point, Reid wasn't sure if shooting the Justice Gundam could still prevent the nuclear explosion. If it failed, the Immortal Aegis would be annihilated by a point-blank nuclear blast, and Ange would certainly not survive.
So Reid chose the safest method: shooting the Immortal Aegis's leg.
With just one or two more seconds, the Immortal Aegis, ascending at full power, would surely reach a relatively safe zone. Moreover, Reid's Wave Motion Shield was already flying towards the Immortal Aegis.
However, the GN Particles that Throne Angel Drei had spread across the battlefield earlier had set the stage for this nuclear explosion.
Normally, the Justice Gundam's self-destruction, though a nuclear explosion, would at most have the power of a tactical nuclear weapon—a small nuke in the kiloton-of-TNT range with a kill radius of 1000 meters.
But this time, with the amplification from the GN Particles, the Justice's self-destruction managed to produce a yield in the tens of kilotons of TNT (like the one in Hiroshima, with a 15-kiloton TNT equivalent).
So the Immortal Aegis, which had already flown several thousand meters away and should have been able to withstand the shockwave and thermal radiation even without the Wave Motion Shield, was now on the verge of being totaled despite having the shield's protection.
The only good news was that Reid could sense Ange's spirit was still active; she probably wasn't seriously injured.
Because Reid had a warning and was at a greater distance, the Gundam Artemis, protected by the dual shields of its GN Shield and Lambda Driver, didn't suffer much damage. The initial shockwave just pushed the mobile suit back a bit.
As for the radiation, given the radiation shielding of Reid's mobile suit, he would be fine even if he stayed at ground zero after the explosion ended. (Protection against various types of radiation is a fundamental basic for any space-faring mobile suit.)
So Reid immediately flew over to catch the Immortal Aegis, which could no longer maintain flight, and asked anxiously, "Ange, how are you now? Do you feel any discomfort?"
Ange had messed up this time, but she was still in decent shape. She replied immediately, "I'm fine. Just feel like I was hit by a bull, like my body's about to fall apart. This other-worldly Athrun is too ruthless, self-destructing at the drop of a hat."
Hearing that Ange felt like her body was about to fall apart, Reid thought, this shockwave is really not something a human can withstand.
But at least she had endured it, thanks to the double protection of the Funnel Wave Shield and the Lambda Driver.
Although this also meant the Gundam Artemis's Wave Motion Shield generator was now gone, all that mattered was that she was okay.
So Reid flew directly toward the Gran Chaos, holding the Immortal Aegis, and instructed her as he flew, "No matter what, let's go back to the Gran Chaos first. I'm sending you to a Medical Pod for a full check-up. You can only come out when you're cleared."
The moment Reid said this, Ange reflexively retorted, "I don't need to go to a Medical Pod. I'm really fine, I can still fight."
But Reid adopted the air of the head of the household and said in a tone that brooked no argument, "No! The Immortal Aegis has lost its combat capability. You must go to the Medical Pod for a check. This was a nuclear explosion, and the most polluting kind at that—a nuclear fission explosion.
"Although the mobile suit can withstand this level of radiation, and theoretically it shouldn't affect the pilot, your suit's armor is already damaged.
"What if you end up with some after-effects from the radiation? Haven't you always been envious of Murrue? You need to take good care of your health."
Reid had brought up the one thing that Ange felt most resentful about, so she could only relent. After all, while Reid was usually easygoing at home, even a bit henpecked, when he got serious, everyone had to listen to him.
There was a bug in Chapter 282. If Celestial Beings had retreated then, the protagonist would have been forcibly sent back.
So the previous text has been changed from "retreated" to "stationed."