Vincent chatted with Alex while waiting for the third wave, “Hey, I took out five enemy frames when I got the notification that the wave had ended. Was that your doing?” Alex nodded, “Yup. There were 20 enemy frames in that wave. Taking out 15 isn’t that hard for me. Especially D class ones.” Vincent knew Alex was just bragging, but he knew she was also telling the truth. If it were him, he knew he did not yet have the skill to pull off something like that. While they chatted, Alex finally asked a big question, “So, Vincent, why are you beating yourself up to learn how to fight in space? When I entered this mission, I caught sight of you being bullied by the game A.I. Despite being ganged up on, you looked like someone who’s desperately trying to fight back but doesn’t know how.”

Vincent sighs, “Honestly, I want to be able to fight without dragging my team down. In all of our previous practice battles, even in our recent practice match, I was the deadweight of the team. I easily fell for the opponent’s trap and got ambushed, and they had to bail me out. Plus when I had a practice battle with my team coach, I had my butt handed to me the moment he changed the battlefield to space. I was able to put up a fight on the ground but in space.”

Vincent was too embarrassed to think of that battle. Alex patted Vincent on the back, “Everyone goes through something like that when they were starting out. You are no different than all the other players in Nexus. So don’t beat yourself over it.” After Alex said that, the alarms inside the hangar sounded. Alex looks to her frame, “Looks like the final wave is here. Come on, let’s complete this mission and head back to the tower.”

Vincent and Alex were both flying in the vicinity of the Pegasus. They were waiting for the next final wave of enemies to reveal themselves. “Did the alarms go off prematurely? Because I’m not getting anything on my radar.” Alex’s eyes became wider, “Why did you have to say something like that? Now we’re jinxed.” Vincent looked at Alex with a weird expression on his face, “Isn’t that too much of an exaggeration?”

Just when Vincent said that, both of their radars detected the presence of enemy units. 30 units suddenly appeared on their radar, then one more, large object appeared on the radar. Vincent’s mouth was agape while Alex commented angrily, “You did jinx us. Now we don’t just have to deal with 30 enemy units but a destroyer too.”

Vincent apologized, “I’m sorry.” Alex readied her frame for battle, “Just forget about it and concentrate on taking out as many enemy units as possible. Take out the small fries before taking on the ship. Otherwise, they’ll just get in the way.” Vincent and Alex separated and took out as many enemy units as they could. Vincent was trying what Alex had told him about adjusting his directions mid-flight. When he did so, he found it easier to dodge a few of the enemy attacks.

Even though he was now able to use the skill, he was still pretty slow, as he tried to get the hang of it. He flew and shot down 2 units and threw a grenade at the third. When a fourth and fifth tried to get him with their beam swords, he fired his missiles at them before taking out his ax and cutting them. He left them with large gashes across their chests right before they exploded.

Vincent was excited. It was now easier for him to destroy 5 units after he got the hang of flying in space. In his excitement, he looked at one of the smaller monitors. It showed his teammate for this mission. While he was excited simply from destroying five units, he saw how Alex’s Milady was flying around and dispatching enemy units with great ease.

She fired precision shots at her targets and destroyed them in one or two shots. Vincent was slack-jawed. He was already ecstatic about destroying five units, Alex had already destroyed 10 of them. Vincent thought to himself "After this mission is over, I have got to ask her." Seeing Alex’s performance, got Vincent’s heart pumping and his blood boiling, “I can’t lose out to her.” He exclaimed.

It took Vincent a while but he finally managed to defeat 10 other units. Just as he thought he was finished. He was alerted of a large beam approaching. Reacting quickly, Vincent maneuvered his frame. He was able to get it out of the line of fire on time. When he turned his camera in the direction where the shot came from, he was flabbergasted, to say the least.

The large green enemy ship that was shaped like a capital L on its back, was shooting at him. Just as he was relieved that the shot had missed him, Alex flew beside him. She exclaimed, “We need to destroy that ship now.” Vincent had question marks floating over his head, “Why?” he asked. Alex then told him, “Look at the top left corner of your screen. That’s the health bar of the Pegasus. The ship we’re supposed to be protecting. After getting hit by that last shot, and from the previous attacks by the frames, the health bar has already dropped by half.”

Vincent looked at the top left corner of his screen and he finally understood what Alex had meant. When Vincent turned to look at the Pegasus, he finally saw the damage that the ship had taken, and how poorly he had done his job. Parts of the Pegasus that were pure white were now burned black, a result of the scorch marks left by the attacks of the frames.

The last shot from the enemy ship had caused one of the wings of the Pegasus to be melted off. Alex then called out to Vincent, “Come on, we have to take out that ship before it does any more damage.” Vincent nodded and they both flew towards the enemy ship. Once they were in range, Vincent targeted the crucial parts of the ship such as weapons and engines and Alex did the same. With both of them working together, they quickly dispatched the enemy vessel.

Just as the enemy ship was about to explode, both Vincent and Alex received a red alert as their alarms rang. The red alert read ‘Warning! Warning! Warning!’ After the alert disappeared, they saw a single frame flying out of the ship just before it exploded. It escaped the explosion and flew above Vincent and Alex. Seeing the new enemy frame, Alex grinned, “Get ready Vincent. We’ve got a boss on our hands.”

Vincent exclaimed in surprise, “A boss. Seriously! I thought this game didn’t have bosses. I thought we only had to worry about other teams during missions.” Alex corrected him, “What are you talking about. Nexus is just like any other game. When you play the missions prepared by the system, you should expect a boss battle. Though, not all of them have boss battles. Looks like the boss for this battle is a General.”

Vincent zoomed in and found that the boss was of a similar frame as him, a Jakqoo. The only difference between the two was that the boss was bulkier and indigo-colored. It was armed with a sniper rifle in its right hand while a Gatling gun hung over its left shoulder. The unit started firing beams out of its sniper rifle. Vincent retaliated by firing his missiles but the beam destroyed a few of them and when they got close enough, the Gatling gun on its shoulder started to spin and fired a hail of beams at his missiles. While it was distracted by Vincent, Alex flew in close and fired her shotgun at it. General retaliated by aiming its Gatling gun on Milady. When the shotgun was fired, so was the Gatling gun, both units suffered damage from the exchange but Alex had suffered more.

“Man, this guy packs a punch.” Alex distanced herself from General but it simply aimed its sniper rifle and fired. She was able to avoid most of the shots but one of them was able to hit. It passed right through her shoulder and it exploded as a result. The Milady had lost its right arm. Now the only weapons it has is the machinegun in its remaining hand and the missiles on its back.

After Milady was shot, Vincent quickly charges in and shoulder tackles the General, sending it flying back. But it quickly regained its composure and stood face to face with Vincent’s Jakqoo. Vincent launched another barrage of missiles before discarding his weapons. The spikes on the Jakqoo’s right shoulder and the shield on its left detached. Vincent quickly put them on his hands and rushed in. General had just destroyed the last of the missiles, and the smoke had not cleared yet when Vincent suddenly appeared in front of it and began punching at it non-stop.

Under the constant barrage of fists, the General eventually exploded. Each one of Vincent’s blows with the shoulder spike and the spiked shield chipped away at its health. Eventually, it succumbed to its own destruction. After it exploded, a card appeared from the rubble. Vincent took the card before receiving a notification. It read, ‘Mission Complete’. Once Alex and Vincent received the notification, they both reappeared at the mission counter.

Seeing the new card in Vincent’s hand Alex congratulated him, “Hey, congrats Vincent. You just got a mission reward. Some missions give cards as a reward. So, what did you get?” Vincent showed the card to Alex before reporting on the success of the mission. After reporting on the completion of their mission, Alex told Vincent, “You should get them to scan that card. If you do, you will be able to print it out and use it.”

Upon hearing this, Vincent quickly gave the card to be scanned. A few seconds later, he was told that the process was completed and that the card would be printed from his cockpit upon exiting Nexus. Vincent fist-pumped, “Who knew you can get cards from the game.” Alex tapped his shoulder, “Everyone knows. The trick is knowing which mission can reward you with a card. Now that our mission is over, catch you later Vincent. I’ve got things to do so I’m logging out.” Alex waved goodbye and left. Vincent was not even able to thank her for her help. After Alex logged out, Vincent checked his stats and found something new written in it. Upon reading it, he became ecstatic. He had finally gotten an ultimate attack.