BATTLE FOR STARS

Lina became genuinely curious about Ding Yufei’s posture.

She had never seen anything like it.

After all, martial arts had almost disappeared even on Earth. Since the invention of guns and artillery, hand-to-hand combat techniques had gradually become obsolete.

In interstellar warfare, starfighter combat was decided almost entirely by reaction speed, firepower, and weapon loadouts. Even if martial arts had once existed in early human history, they had long since been buried in some forgotten corner of civilization.

Mech fighters and sword fighters like them were already a rare minority within the Resk Empire—and more importantly, they were slaves. They simply didn’t have the time or resources to study such things.

So when Ding Yufei held that unfamiliar stance, Lina hesitated for a moment.

She genuinely couldn’t figure out what he was trying to do.

But Lina knew she couldn’t just stand there watching.

Even if she didn’t understand the meaning behind the posture, she still had to attack.

Her mech shot forward.

This time, Ding Yufei didn’t use engine bursts to evade. Instead, he raised both arms to block while shifting his lower body to redirect Lina’s force.

Lina launched over a dozen rapid attacks in succession, but every strike was either deflected or avoided.

From Belina’s perspective, Ding Yufei wasn’t actually moving much. Each time, he only shifted enough to narrowly avoid the impact point. Because Lina had to commit to longer movement arcs at high speed, her apparent advantage in speed didn’t translate into clean hits.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Continuous impacts echoed through the arena.

Lina was increasingly shocked.

She was already close to full output, yet she still couldn’t land a clean hit. Even more surprising, Ding Yufei sometimes used subtle body turns or lateral shifts that redirected her punches off-line, even pulling her momentum slightly with him.

There were two moments where she nearly lost balance. If not for her reflexes, she might have been counterattacked.

Lina stopped briefly to reassess.

Then she launched another wave of attacks.

This time, she deliberately reduced her speed and force. She avoided overcommitting, preventing herself from being pulled off balance.

But in doing so, her speed advantage disappeared completely. Even if she managed to land a hit, it lacked meaningful impact.

Ding Yufei only took a light hit on his leg; everything else was blocked or avoided.

For Ding Yufei, this was exhilarating.

He hadn’t expected Taiji to actually work on a mech.

Although he couldn’t rely on direct muscle contact to sense force like in traditional practice, after several exchanges he began adapting. He started reading Lina’s movements through speed patterns, habitual motion, and feedback from each collision transmitted through the neural system.

Borrowing force, redirecting momentum, and neutralizing impact—all of it was actually usable.

Lina’s competitive instinct flared.

She had never encountered a fighter who stayed almost stationary, only reacting at the moment of contact. That kind of defensive timing made her extremely uncomfortable.

Of course, if weapons were involved, the outcome would be completely different. Ding Yufei’s technique could deflect fists, but it couldn’t block blades.

But right now, neither side had weapons.

Under identical conditions, Lina realized something she didn’t like admitting:

Winning wasn’t going to be easy.

Her pride tightened.

She decided to use her finishing technique.

“Phoenix Dance of Nine Heavens.”

In the Resk Empire, there were no phoenixes. The name originally came from a different bird species Lina had modeled the technique after, but after hearing it, Ding Yufei had insisted on renaming it. He thought it sounded more imposing.

The technique itself wasn’t complicated.

It relied on rapid engine bursts to circle and reposition around the opponent at high speed, striking repeatedly from shifting angles.

It was a combat style Lina had developed through years of fighting and training.

But it consumed enormous energy. In a full mech match, it could only be used two or three times at most.

At first glance, it looked like nothing more than repeated bursts and directional changes combined with strikes—but execution quality varied drastically between pilots.

Lina had used it to defeat many strong opponents.

Most fighters used engine bursts purely for evasion or escape. Skilled ones could combine bursts with attacks, but their movements often lagged behind the burst acceleration.

Ding Yufei had already shown that weakness earlier—his punch had missed during acceleration because his body couldn’t keep up.

Even after long training, most pilots could only attack in the brief moment after a burst ended.

If they chained bursts continuously with mid-air direction changes and instant attacks, they could already defeat many opponents.

When two mechs fought using engine bursts alone, the outcome usually came down to who got hit first—or who sustained more damage.

But Lina had taken it one step further.

She could attack during engine bursts themselves.

This effectively increased her speed beyond normal limits, making her extremely difficult to predict. Either the opponent failed to evade, or they were forced into full directional escape—burning through energy rapidly.

And Lina’s “Phoenix Dance of Nine Heavens” had another critical feature:

It was extremely close-range.

Unlike her earlier tournament strategy against Jennyfer, where she maintained distance to mislead her opponent, this version operated directly in the opponent’s immediate space.

At that range, it became a pure test of reflexes.

If you were fast enough, you could escape or counterattack.

If not, you could only keep retreating.

And the pursuer always had the advantage—controlling positioning, timing, and energy expenditure.

With Lina’s speed, most opponents would barely create distance before she was already back on them.

To date, no mech fighter had successfully escaped her Phoenix Dance.

Some had chosen to endure damage and counterattack instead, relying on armor thickness—but even those attempts had failed.

Lina made her decision.

She would end this with Phoenix Dance of Nine Heavens.

Losing here would be unacceptable.

If she couldn’t beat a newcomer like this, how could she face the finals of the mech fighter championship in a few days?