Among the group, a few stood out. The F-22 pilots were seasoned professionals, experienced in real bat. But the rest? They were a mixed bag. Some had been hastily transferred from civil aviation. Others hadn’t flown more than a handful of times. A few had never been inside a fighter cockpit until this mission.

  Still, ohey were airbor didn’t seem to matter. The een fighters quickly formed a bat fleet. On radar, the red blips of their pnes lined up in formation, approag a solitary red dot that moved with an unnatural precision.

  “Sir, een enemy fighters spotted!” Ego’s voice chimed in Zack’s ears. “They’ll ehe enemy’s log range in ten seds!”

  Zack’s tone was icy. “Where did these fools find so many pilots?”

  In the high-stakes game of modern air bat, maneuverability was king. And the Apex armor Zack piloted wasn’t just a step ahead—it was a leap. No number of fighter pnes could close the teological gap.

  Soon, Zack’s dispy came alive with the telltale sounds of missile locks. The HUD filled with circur iarking targets: four, then five, then six. Uhe chaotic dogfights of World War II, modern aerial bat was all about beyond-visual-range es. Before enemies could even spot one another with the naked eye, missiles were already locked and fired.

  “It’s just a matter of who has better tech,” Zack muttered. His grin turned cold as he watched the number of locks climb to eleven. “Against me, it’s hardly a fair fight.”

  The Apex was still outside the log range of the enemy squadro Zack had already locked onto eleven of their pnes. He knew his tech superiority would make this enter a one-sided massacre. “But I’m fih that,” Zack murmured. He had no iion of drawing out the battle. If these pilots had been anyone else, he might have toyed with them. But for these two-bit enemies, he po crush them ht.

  “Fire.” With that single word, the missile bay on Zack’s left shoulder snapped open. Eleven micro-guided missiles unched in rapid succession, streaking through the sky like arrows. Their targets were spread across the formation, ensuring maximum damage.The miissiles weren’t as fast as Zack himself, so as he surged ahead, the missiles quickly fell behind.

  A warning bred in his ears. “Sir, you’re locked!”

  “I see it,” Zack replied calmly. On the HUD, four enemy missiles—Sidewinders unched by the F-22 pilots—raced toward him, their speed peaking at Mach 2.5.

  “Deploy termeasures,” Zack ordered. As the Sidewinders closed in, Zack dove sharply, his movements so fast they seemed impossible. At the same time, his armor released more thay heat decoys, bright fres desigo fuse the missiles.

  The sky lit up with a series of explosions as the Sidewinders were tricked inteting the decoys. Oer ahey detonated prematurely, leaving only fireballs in their wake. “The target is using advanced termeasures!” one of the F-22 pilots shouted. “Our le attack failed. Spread out and prepare for cle bat!”

  The enemy formation broke apart. Seventeen remaining fighters veered off in different dires—some climbing, others diving, each pil to find the best position for an attack. That’s when disaster struck. An Su-30 piloted by an inexperienced Ah San collided with an F-15 piloted by another rookie. Both had chosen the same escape route, aher reacted quickly enough.

  “Get out of the way!” “Move!” Their screams were cut short by a deafening explosion. The two pnes disied in mid-air, the wreckage plummeting to the ground alongside the pilots who hadn’t even had time to eject.

  Zaow within visual range, watched the se unfold. “Did… did they just take each other out?” he muttered, stunned. His missiles hadn’t even reached the formatio, but the enemy had already lost two pnes.

  “The target is in raack!”The remainieen fighters opened fire. Missiles streaked toward Zack from every dire. He locked onto the two F-22s immediately. These were the only pnes in the enemy squadron that posed even a minor threat.Zack accelerated, weaving through the barrage with inhuman movement. The Apex’s maneuverability made it seem as though Zack was threading a needle at supersonic speed.Uo nd a direct hit, several pilots resorted to detonating their missiles manually, hoping the shockwaves or shrapnel would bring Zack down.

  Explosions surrounded him, filling the sky with fire and debris. But the Apex’s Ultralium alloy armor shrugged off the shrapnel like it was nothing.“Time to take these F-22s out of the equation, “Turn on the fp booster!” he barked, adjusting his position quickly.

  As the booster kicked in, the turbulence disappeared, stabilizing him instantly. “Quick! Intercept him now!” “Don’t let him get near us!” The pilots of two F-22s paheir voices crag over the s as they shouted orders to each other. Desperatio into their tones as they watched Zack close the gap. The sleek humanoid figure in the sky moved with terrifying speed and precision.

  Both F-22s pitched their noses up, trying to climb away from his approach. But Zack, uerred, pierced through their defensive line like an arrow. In seds, he was alongside one of the fighters, flying parallel with unnerving ease. “I see him! He’s right o me!” “Humanoid aircraft—he’s closing in!”

  The pilot of the F-22 gnced out his side window, sweat beading on his forehead. His hands gripped the trols tightly as he tried to shake Zack off. But no matter what he did—diving, weaving, accelerating—the F-22 couldn’t match the agility of Zack’s Apex suit. Trapped, he was too close for his allies to risk firing.

  “What does he want?!” The pilot’s voice trembled as he looked directly at Zack, who hovered just outside the opy. Zack tilted his head slightly, his expression unreadable through the helmet. Then, in a calm, steady voice, he spoke over their el. “Look ahead.”

  The eerie posure of Zack’s words sent a chill through the pilot. Against his better judgment, the pilot instinctively turo see what y ahead. One gnce was all it took. His face went pale. “Guided—” he began, but the words were swallowed by the deafening bst as a miissile ner than a pencil smmed into the nose of his aircraft.

  Boom! The sky lit up as the F-22 burst into a massive fireball. It didn’t stop there. Ten more miissiles followed, eaing in oargets with fwless precision. Boom, boom, boom—one explosion after another paihe sky with fiery wreckage. The missiles moved slowly, almost leisurely, pared to the fleeing fighter po an observer, it looked less like the missiles struck their targets and more like the pnes deliberately flew into their owru.

  Meanwhile, Zack turned his attention to the remaining fighters. With the speed and maneuverability of the Apex, he was untouchable in cle bat. His palm ons charged and fired in quick succession. Boom! Anhter down. Boom! And ahe sky became a graveyard. One by one, all six remaining pnes fell, torn apart by Zack’s relentless attaone mao nd a si on him.