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AFS 2: Strange Flame Strangeness - Part 7 - YaoYao and Chad POV
🕑 Added 2025-03-30 18:03:21 +0000 UTCPart 7
Liu YaoYao clutched Prince Chad’s chair as he faced off with a bipedal star bug. It had a bulbous head and long claw-like fingers that it never stopped moving. Its thin, nearly nonexistent lips curled into a smile when it looked toward their white mech. Then it started to glow as if it was powering up an energy strike.
“First, I had to fix the faulty ankle springs your cousin sabotaged and now this!” She leaned forward a bit and touched his broad shoulder. “Will we be alright? Can you take it in this mech?”
Chad’s jaw tightened. “The last bipedal star bug I fought nearly killed me, but it looked more human than this.” Meaning that it was far more powerful. “I think... it will be close. If only I had my actual mech on me.”
The bug finally finished charging and fired the blast. Chad dodged by jumping high into the air and punching the minor rocket boost for so long a warning flashed on the screen. The rest of the forest could not and the energy beam tore through massive trees that had been there for thousands of years, shrubbery that was so thick that it used to be the home of various herbivores and even through several massive S-rank beasts who had been sneaking up behind Chad.
When their mech landed, the cabin shook. The alien practically appeared right in front of him.
Chad pulled out his cold bendable sword and started deflecting attack after attack.
The mech’s warning system went off. The joints of the mech strained to keep up with the prince’s superior physique.
Even though she did as much as she could to compensate for the increased speed, YaoYao was still failing to prevent the mech from overheating and the artificial muscles from breaking from the strain.
“I’m sorry, Miss Liu. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you at least come out of this alive.”
“Prince Chad, No! You have to live. You’re the Empire’s best hope to eventually defeat the Star Bug Queen someday.”
“Miss Liu... I wanted—”
“Watch out!”
The bug fired another blast of energy, but this one wasn’t nearly as strong since it only had a fraction of a second to charge. Still, it was enough to cut deeply into the hull and expose some of the mech’s inner workings. Another energy blast managed to penetrate into the cockpit and shot through Chad’s waist.
He coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, but smiled. “Maybe I am still lacking when it comes to skills.”
“Prince Chad!” Warnings practically filled the viewing screen, which YaoYao dismissed.
Chad brought his rifle over and fired at the bug’s disgusting face. Half of its skull vanished. Then he used his sword and cut off the legs of the alien.
The alien screamed, then seemed to vanish.
It wasn’t dead. Sadly, that hadn’t been enough to kill a bipedal bug. If it had been, then humanity’s greatest enemy would have been defeated long ago. Fortunately, he’d done enough damage to make it retreat for now.
“No, no, no!”
“I’m fine. This is nothing.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” she sniffled and her eyes watered. With a deft tug at her harness’s belt, she released her bindings and made her way to Chad’s front. She quickly brought out the first aid kit that was in every mech engineer’s space button. “Maybe if you had on your normal mech pilot uniform, but this one gives you too little protection.”
She wiped her moist eyes, then her hands went to Chad’s collar, and she began removing his uniform. Once she exposed his pale collar bone, he grabbed her hands and smirked. “I didn’t know you were so desperate to see this Prince naked. All you had to do was ask.”
Her face turned bright red.
“That’s what I thought. Just leave me the medkit and get back into your seat. I can put medicine on myself.”
She huffed, threw the kit onto his lap but, instead of going back to her seat, she started repairing the hole in the hull.
***
Prince Chad had moved the mech towards thick cover where they could hopefully hide from the injured bipedal star bug and give Liu YaoYao enough time to make repairs.
His vision went black at the edges. While a laser hole in the side was usually easy to handle for a normal SSS-rank physique, he could tell that there was something off with the energy the bug had hit him with. He’d done what he could to patch himself up, but he’d need time and an actual medical pod to get over this. His body was already starting to show signs of a fever.
He blinked, shook his head to clear it, then squeezed the mech in between two massive trees. With shaking hands, he had it kneel down before opening the cabin.
“Miss Liu.” His voice was too hoarse. “I’m counting on you to repair this mech, so it can run back to base... I think you’ll also need to reconfigure it for your specs.”
She moved in front of him. “What do you mean?”
Her cool hand pressed against his forehead, and he couldn’t help but lean into it.
“You’re burning up.” She frowned and pulled out a turquoise pill before placing it on Chad’s lips.
On reflex, he grabbed her arm. Then he stared into her eyes intensely. The pain on his face was obvious.
When Miss Liu bit her lovely lip with concern, he hid it behind a blank expression. He didn’t release her soft arm.
“It’s just a fever reducer.”
Then he allowed her to feed it to him. His mouth was dry, so it was hard to swallow, but he managed it.
Then his world really went black.
***
“Prince Chad. Your vital signs aren’t good!”
He opened his eyes to see Miss Liu hovering over him with a worried expression. Judging from the light, it had already been several hours. The mech had also been repaired.
Somehow, Miss Liu had brought him down from the mech and had set up camp. There was even a hotplate with a pan on it. Something odd was cooking, probably local flora of some kind, but he couldn’t recognize it.
“I think there is something poisoning you.”
“MedPod,” he managed to get out. His tongue felt like sandpaper.
“HQ is too far at this point, unless you think it would be a good idea to launch our escape pod?”
He shook his head slightly.
“That’s what I thought.” She sucked in a breath, showing that she was not as composed as she seemed. “I don’t want to risk running into a beast or bug. I can’t fight it like you.”
Yeah, it may have been too much to ask of any mech engineer... except for Lady Victoria.
“But don’t worry. My brother is on his way here. He’ll help us get you back.”
Who knew that Wang MingRen would be so reliable?
“Fortunately for you, I know of a family recipe that can help you detox from this. It’s just that this is my first time making it, so I don’t know if it will work. Are you willing to try it?”
He trusted Miss Liu. She had helped cure him with her family’s herbs after he was injured by the humanoid star bug. He nodded. The smile she sent him was stunningly beautiful.
His heart seemed to pound in his ears. There was definitely something wrong with him.
She turned off the heat on the pan and brought it over. With her long elegant fingers, she dipped a spoon into the concoction and brought it to her lips. She blew on it, then tasted it.
“It’s not the best, but it tastes the same as what I had before.”
She then gave him the next spoonful. It did have a terrible flavor. Still, if Miss Liu was giving it to him, he’d eat it. In the time they’d spent together, she’d been nothing but respectable toward him. Something he was both glad for yet found frustrating.
***
After he finished the medicinal soup, he passed out. When he next opened his eyes, his body was still feverish, but it also felt strange. Different. Too hot.
Miss Liu still sat next to him, looking like the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
“Prince Chad, are you awake? Are you feeling better?” Her cold hand pressed against his forehead. When she went to remove it, he grabbed her wrist and pressed it back to his forehead.
That helped for a little until he lost strength, and she pulled away.
He couldn’t think very well. Everything was too hot. He pulled at his clothes until his suit top came off. The moist jungle air hit his skin. It wasn’t enough.
“Hey, stop.”
That voice. It belonged to Miss Liu. If he could just get close to her, he might find the antidote to what he was suffering through. He sat up and stared at her intently, with hazy eyes that couldn’t seem to focus. Then he went to leap toward her.
Something struck him on his temple and he became weightless.
“Whoa! Fairy Lin, you sent him flying!”
Wang MingRen?
His back hit the wet jungle floor.
“Oh No! Prince Chad! What did you do? He’s injured! He can’t take a hit like that.”
Then something invisible pressed down on top of him. He struggled to get out of it and return to the person who could detoxify him.
“So damn frustrating. Hey. You can thank me for this later. I just stopped you from traumatizing your poor soulmate, who deserves better than some emotionally stunted asshole like you.” She paused as if she’d had a great idea. “Hey, maybe name one of your future kids after me.”
“What?”
“Right, right. I forgot to say, ‘get her consent first, dumbass.’ It was just that punching your pretty face was too cathartic.”
His world went black.
Author’s Note:
Ah, that punch was so cathartic. Thank you for that, Lin. I wish I could do that to every ML who does a forced kiss.
Also, for the image of injured Chad, I was trying to get one where he was face down... the AI refused.... I was not disappointed. >.>’
