Two rapid forms soared in the air!
After pitting two sluggish defensive mechs against each other, the third duel presented viewers with a completely different experience.
Two different light skirmishers were zipping around the dueling ring. Even though they were forced to make frequent turns due to the limited dimensions of the fighting area, this gave center stage to the mobility of the dueling mechs!
Even minor differences in agility, acceleration, mass and so on became crucial. The mech that was able to move a little faster than the other would always be able to secure the initiative.
At least, that was what people were used to seeing from duels between two swift machines.
The reality was very different!
One form was lighter and possessed a greater thrust-to-weight ratio for that reason. Yet this light mech was doing everything possible to distance itself from the opposing mech!
The other mech was not as fast and nimble as the other mech, but it exuded so much threat that its opponent simply refused to clash upfront!
The audience sitting on the elevated viewing platforms extended from the crown of trees all fell silent.
Their enthusiasm quickly faded after the start of the third match. There was very little to cheer about once the two mechs exchanged their first blows.
Practically even before the biomech designed by Dr. Navarro closed in to perform an attack on its opponent, it was already attempting to escape!
The battle never turned around after that. Even though the two mechs were supposed to be in the same range, one mech acted like a scared rabbit while the other flew forward like a shark smelling blood!
“This is a disgrace!” Someone yelled!
“I thought the mech pilot of the Faerie Stinger was supposed to be a military mech pilot. Why isn’t Katarina Volsemar turning around to fight the metal mech like a real soldier?”
“Light mech pilots are all cowards! They just differ by their degree of cowardness. We just had the bad luck of drawing the more frightened mech pilot this time!”
Stunned dismay soon transformed into pejorative remarks. The frustrated Lifers who expected to see a repeat of the second match’s glorious victory instead witnessed a completely different show.
They all felt scammed!
They all thought that there was something wrong in Volsemar’s head!
How could the design duel possibly attract such a flawed mech pilot?
The only reason why the audience hadn’t let their tempers rise any further was the realization that she would become Ves’ problem in the second phase.
Still, so long as Katarina Volsemar piloted a biomech, she was practically shaming the LRA’s entire biomech industry in a live broadcast watched by an uncountable amount of people!
“These people don’t understand!” The much-maligned mech pilot spoke through gritted teeth. “It’s not as if I want to run away, but I have no choice. I can’t maintain my battle effectiveness when I’m in the vicinity of that infernal metallic mech!”
She expected a very different fight. As an experienced special operations mech pilot, Volsemar went through plenty of tough situations. She had come on top in situations where she was outnumbered, where her unit performed a classified mission but got cut off and even fought against an expert pilot and managed to live to tell the tale!
Her mental fortitude was anything but feeble. In fact, the people who approached her with the offer to participate in the design duel explicitly told her that they were looking for someone who could endure a lot of mental pressure.
They even gave her a heads-up on the mech she was about to fight in the first match. While information on the second-class version of the Ferocious Piranha was fairly sparse, she was able to study the third-class version extensively.
She even had the opportunity to experience its glow in person, allowing her to get accustomed to it as much as possible before the match began!
Yet for all of her preparations, acclimatizing to the glow at rest was completely different from experiencing it during combat.
For one, the Ferocious Piranha’s threat never centered around its glow alone. It was the combination that truly comprised the hurdle that she had to overcome.
Even if she was strong enough to maintain her wits at close range, she still had to exert significant mental effort in order to properly pilot her mech.
“Hahaha! I love this mech!” The mech pilot of the pursuing machine exulted. “Every light mech should be like this! Hardly anyone can match me in close-quarters combat as long as I’m piloting a Ferocious Piranha!”
Rez Killigan indeed realized his current advantage! As a military scout, he did not clash against hostile mechs very often, but learned the capitalize the opportunity when it presented itself!
He unabashedly drove his Ferocious Piranha forth, trying to keep up the pressure by sheathing one of the heated daggers of the mech in order to pull out a pistol and firing potshots at the biomech’s colorful flight system.
The Faerie Stinger was supposed to be a challenging mech to overcome. Compared to the Ferocious Piranha, the uncovered biomech fared worse against attacks but possessed a very crucial speed advantage. Its exceptional nimbleness and flightiness turned it into a fantastic aerial duelist.
The biomech’s offensive power was also fairly potent. It was armed with two fang-like daggers that were designed to sink into weak points in order to inject corrosive acid through the hollow tubes running through the length of the weapons.
The specially-formulated corrosive acid had the potential to seriously damage or degrade the internals of either biomechs or metallic mechs.
In fact, according to the information provided by the mech, the acid tanks of his Faerie Stinger currently carried a substance that was supposed to be especially potent against metallic components.
Yet all of this lethality didn’t even have a chance to play out because Volsemar couldn’t put up an adequate fight against the Ferocious Piranha.
She could forget about sinking one of her stingers in the opposing mech. Instead, she had to worry about her biomech getting stabbed instead!
Even though the heated daggers wielded by the Ferocious Piranha weren’t anything special, the threat they posed to the Faerie Stinger was quite significant.
This was because the biomech did not feature a lot of protection!
While its flesh was relatively dense and resistant to damage, the Faerie Stinger was too skinny to possess much muscle mass. This meant that serious attacks could easily punch through the relatively thin flesh layer and damage the crucial internals!
Even though the Faerie Stinger avoided this fate by maintaining its distance from its pursuer, this was not a long-term solution.
The Ferocious Piranha’s laser pistol constantly seared the backside of the biomech!
Even though the output of the laser pistol was not that impressive, the Faerie Stinger’s rear was not able to cope that well against attacks. Its majestic rainbow-colored wings were especially exposed!
If not for the biomech trying its best to evade every incoming attack, its flight system would have been knocked out long ago. Volsemar was also thankful that the Ferocious Piranha wasn’t optimized for ranged combat.
Still, plenty of hits still got through. Even if the laser beams didn’t hit the flight system, they still impacted the back of the Faerie Stinger, causing the flesh to blacken and smoke. This not only degraded the range of movement of the mech, but also brought it closer to defeat.
To its credit, the Faerie Stinger was not without solutions of its own. It sheathed one of its daggers as well in order to pull out a biopistol.
Different from the weapon wielded by the Ferocious Piranha, the biopistol was capable of integrating into the palm of the Faerie Stinger. This increased integration brought numerous benefits, such as added stability and more efficient transfer of heat and energy.
Instead of firing energy beams or solid projectiles, the biopistol fired a different payload.
As the weapon fired, fleshy orbs accelerated forward at massive speeds and either impacted the pursuing mech or exploded around it if they missed the mark.
As the orbs ruptured, they released a small but potent quantity of corrosive acid. Lots of acid splattered onto the surface of the Ferocious Piranha if the orbs hit the mech, but even the ones that exploded in the vicinity managed to spray a few splatters onto the side of the chasing mech.
This caused the mech to slowly acc.u.mulate smoking pits onto its surface. Yet no matter how much acid stuck onto the Ferocious Piranha, the substance’s ability to melt through its armor was notably slow!
The reason why the Ferocious Piranha was not as swift as the Faerie Stinger was because it boasted better protection. Its thin but well-regarded armor system provided it with enough of a buffer for Rez Killigan to completely ignore the threat of the biopistol!
A few successive laser strikes managed to impact one of the ’wings’ of the Faerie Stinger. The biomech’s flight destabilized a bit as it wasn’t able to accelerate as well as before.
“You have no choice!” Killingan shouted!
Volsemar couldn’t afford to keep running away. The arena was too tiny to allow the Faerie Stinger to utilize its speed advantage to shake off the Ferocious Piranha.
Seeing that the Faerie Stinger’s biopistol required far too much time to penetrate the Ferocious Piranha’s exterior, Volsemar finally gave in to the inevitable.
“I’m not running away anymore!”
Unfortunately for Volsemar, her determination to acquit herself well encountered some issues.
The damage inflicted on the rear of the Faerie Stinger slightly reduced its maneuverability. This caused the mech to become a little more clumsier up close.
Combined with the overpowering disorientation field projected by the Ferocious Piranha, Volsemar felt as if she was forced to fight with two hands bound behind her back!
Her responsiveness and ability to plan out her moves suffered badly the closer she got to the LMC mech.
Killigan clearly noticed the difference and fought more aggressively as a result. Even if he took some risks, his opponent wasn’t capable of exploiting his openings!
“I’ll finish you off before you can turn the tide!”
He took no chances and ruthlessly pressed his Ferocious Piranha close. With some clever moves, the metallic mech batted aside the stinger daggers and plunged into the c.h.e.s.t and lower abdomen of the Faerie Stinger!
Smoke sizzled from the wounds as the red-hot daggers pierced deeply and inflicted a lot of heat damage to boot!
Unlike wounds inflicted by regular blades, it was a lot harder for a biomech to heal flesh that had been burned or cauterized.
The initial stab already damaged or destroyed numerous biocomponents. This prevented the Faerie Stinger from mounting a defense before the Ferocious Piranha pulled out its weapons and stabbed a second time!
“Kill!”
A succession of stabs ensued as heated dagger after heated dagger turned the c.h.e.s.t of the biomech into an ugly rendition of a victim of a serious killer!
Upon the fourteenth stab, a massive energy shield f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y bounced the dagger aside.
[The third match has ended! Mr. Larkinson has achieved his second victory in the first phase. The score is now 2-1 in favor of our foreign visitor.]
The end of this match felt like a relief to all of the Lifers. The audience had long accepted the possibility of defeat. They could only hope that Dr. Navarro would be able to improve the Faerie Stinger before the next phase commenced.
“We only have two more chances left to gain the upper hand today. Please, don’t drop the ball again.”
