The Mech Touch

The Urthinan expert candidate had always been fighting in this battle. His lancer mech had already skewered a lot of Bright Warriors during this match.

However, now that the Larkinson expert candidate decided to wipe out the precious Urthinan cannoneer mechs, he could no longer stand aside.

Although it was a shame that the mech's thrown lance had failed to impale the enemy mech, the champion mech grabbed hold of another lance just before it reached the Quint!

Commander Casella didn't foolishly stay in place. She moved the Quint behind a pile of wrecked mechs and commanded the mech to jump aside as soon as the powerful Urthinan lancer mech expended most of its destructive power against the derelict mechs!

Even though the enemy expert candidate failed to nail the Quint, he expected it wouldn't be so easy to take out such a valuable masterwork mech.

"Urthina, witness me as I slay this great enemy!"

The champion mech came with more weapons than the usual lancer mech. It not only had access to two powerful lances, but also carried a collapsible spear that it had quickly drawn from its back.

Although the spear was partially hollow and didn't possess an exaggerated reach, it was made out of plenty of high-quality materials.

Instead of blasting away in order to circle around for another charge, the enemy champion mech sought to eliminate the Quint more directly!

"This lancer mech is just as agile as a spearman mech!"

Unlike other lancer mechs, the machine piloted by the expert candidate was specially prepared. A dedicated spearman mech might be more capable of dueling enemy machines, but the champion mech was good enough for an expert candidate to leverage its agility to great effect!

The Quint was not a slow mech either, so Commander Casella was still able to use it to dodge and block the incoming spear thrusts.

However, the Quint was still in its rifleman mech configuration so Casella was at a definite disadvantage!

The difference wasn't that important if she fought against regular mech pilots, but the Urthinan expert candidate was good!

The enemy expert candidate did not take any unnecessary risks. Despite his great desire to slay the larkinson expert candidate and prove himself worthy to his goddess, he was too experienced to let his excitement override his common sense.

The Quint and its mech pilot clearly didn't excel in melee combat, but they could still reverse the situation by launching a desperation attack.

In order to prevent these last-ditch attacks from happening, the Urthinan expert candidate mainly stuck to launching repeated stabs with the spear of his mech.

Even if the attacks were monotonous, they were difficult to block and divert and therefore posed a considerable threat against the Quint!

The Quint kept moving backwards while the Urthinan champion mech kept up without letting the gap between them grow too big!

Due to the latter's insistence on sticking to the former, Commander Casella found no opportunity to disengage from her current opponent!

As long as she could put enough distance between their two mechs, the Quint could switch back to its rifle and begin to cripple the Urthinan champion mech from afar!

"I won't let you get away!"

The Quint already suffered a few stabs as Casella failed to respond well enough to block or deflect the incoming attacks.

When the Quint attempted to take flight, the enemy champion mech flew up in order to block its ascent.

The Larkinson masterwork mech was considerably faster and more agile in the air, so the Urthinans could not allow it to take flight again!

"Damnit!"

Commander Casella grew increasingly more concerned about the progression of the match.

So far, both sides had already lost hundreds of mechs. Many Urthinan lancer mechs bore scars from the energy beams they withstood. The Avatar Bright Warriors weren't in good shape either. All of their actions expended a lot of energy and generated an even greater amount of heat.

All the while, the sandstorm kept sweeping across the frames every mech in the arena. A lot of surfaces featured scratched coating and sanded metal as the dangerous particles continued to wear down the mechs.

Some mechs even suffered problems in the air because the sandstorm also damaged the weaker parts of their flight systems.

The more their backs faced the direction of the sandstorm, the faster their flight systems malfunctioned!

This caused the battle to become a little more constrained as both sides sought to preserve their mechs as much as possible.

Nonetheless, the Larkinsons gained a slight advantage as their ability to strike at any target in front of them made it much easier for them to deal damage while trying to keep their mechs at a safe orientation.

The poor Urthinan lancer mechs had to make harder choices in order for them to fulfill their purpose!

If not for the fact that Commander Casella had been unable to eliminate the last few cannoneer mechs, the Avatars of Myth remaining in the air would have been able to mop their remaining enemies!

Yet those few intact cannoneer mechs were still downing a mech every once in a while. Each time, they directed all of their guns towards the same Bright Warrior mech. This not only caused the latter to be boxed in, but the increased attacks also put a lot more pressure onto the unlucky Larkinson mech pilots!

The remaining Urthinan mechs made sure to never let the Bright Warriors come close to their remaining cannoneer mechs.

While there were a lot less of these powerful mechs in working condition than before, the amount of Larkinson mechs that still remained active had shrunk as well!

This meant that every mech the Larkinson Battalion could still employ in this match was of crucial importance. Seeing them removed from the board after they got hit by a couple of heavy gauss rounds increasingly tilted the balance of the battle in the favor of the Glory of Urthina Battalion!

[Oh dear. It appears the Larkinson Battalion is closing in on defeat. Does it have any chance of reversing this outcome?]

[That is hard to say. There is always a possibility, but if the Urthinans do not make any mistakes, they will likely be able to win this battle of attrition.]

[The only way for the Larkinsons to change the outcome is to flip the board. They must pull off a brilliant maneuver, unveil a brilliant maneuver or display greater skill than they have ever before in order to defeat the remaining Urthinan mechs.]

That sounded nice and all, but the Larkinson Battalion didn't have further depth left to uncover!

The Penitent Sisters were taken off the board and the other Larkinson mech legions didn't even take part in the battle in the first place.

There were no Transcendent Punishers to call upon. There were no Eternal Redemptions that could threaten the Urthinan champion mech. There weren't even Swordmaidens who could easily demolish the enemy expert candidate by relying on numbers and teamwork to take down a superior foe!

The lack of strategic depth in the Larkinson Battalion's lineup left it without any solutions that could extricate it from its slide towards defeat!

"We can't let this go on! Help the commander! We need her to break the balance!"

Recognizing that Commander Casella and the Quint were the only variables left for the Larkinsons to change the outcome, numerous Larkinson mechs descended from the air.

They faced withering fire from the surviving cannoneer mechs and also had to dodge charges from hostile lancer mechs. The pressure made it difficult for any of them to make it to the ground.

Commander Casella was not unaware of what her fellow comrades were doing. Seeing them falter or get destroyed in an attempt to reach her position made her feel increasingly more distressed.

She knew quite well that none of the Larkinson mech pilots actually died when their mechs fell apart. Still, she had witnessed so many tragedies and losses in the previous battles of the Larkinson Clan that she couldn't help but recall those painful moments.

In some instances, her mind went back to the Battle of Reckoning and the Battle of Fordilla Zentra.

The Urthinan champion mech turned into a Fridayman expert mech in one moment and a dwarven expert mech in the next moment!

Though Casella was aware that she was letting the pressure get the better of her, she simply couldn't catch her breath so that she could clear her mind at this time. The enemy expert candidate was so skilled that just a single moment of inattention from her was enough to spell the Quint's end!

While the Quint became more alive and active as the one-sided duel continued, the living mech was not quite content with the way it was proceeding.

The enemy champion mech constantly maintained the upper hand. With its repeated spear attacks, it was always on the cusp of winning the bout.

The Larkinson masterwork mech on the other hand could do nothing but keep stepping back while using its movements and its sword to stave off a crippling blow.

In the hands of a better mech pilot who was more skilled in melee combat, the Quint would have never ended up in this position!

YOU ARE TOO FAR REMOVED FROM JOSHUA, CASELLA. YOU LACK PRACTICE AND YOU ARE UNWORTHY TO WIELD THIS SWORD.

"I'm a ranged mech specialist!" Casella complained to her mech! "My talents lay elsewhere. I cannot commit all of my time on mastering my swordsmanship when it isn't necessary!"

YOU ARE BENEATH JOSHUA. YOU HAVE TOO MANY SHORTCOMINGS AS A MECH PILOT. THE TIME YOU WASTE ON OTHER ACTIVITIES SUCH AS COMMANDING YOUR TROOPS HAS MADE YOU REGRESS AS A WARRIOR.

"THERE ARE MORE WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE TO A BATTLE, YOU PIG-HEADED MECH!" Casella finally exploded!

She couldn't take the backtalk of her own mech any longer! Even if the Quint was a revered relic of the Larkinson Clan, that didn't mean she liked being told what to do by it. She was a Larkinson! She was an Ingvar! She was the legion commander of the Living Sentinels!

A flash of inspiration dawned upon her mind. Even as she continued to repel her opponent's attacks, she latched on to a radical idea.

She might not have her Living Sentinels at her disposal this time, but she was still surrounded by plenty of Larkinson mechs!

"AVATARS! RALLY TO MY COMMAND!"

Casella's mind surged as she reached out into the existence known as the Larkinson Network.

Every member of the clan was connected to it. More precisely, they were bonded to the Golden Cat.

After feeling what Casella Ingvar attempted to do, the Golden Cat gave her blessing to the expert candidate and facilitated her actions as best as possible!

The Quint began to take on an unexplainable golden glow as Casella's presence grew greater!

Not only did she try to exert as much of herself as possible, she also tried to reach out to the other Larkinson mech pilots that were still taking part in the fight!

"ALONE, WE ARE WEAK!"

The Avatar mech pilots that had been invoking the Golden Cat and thereby making active use of their connections to the Larkinson Network began to feel a stronger influence pressing on their own minds.

"TOGETHER, WE ARE STRONG!"

Although the Avatar mech pilots instinctively resisted this intrusion at first, the powerful words of Commander Casella caused them to embrace this oddly invasive influence.

"WE ARE ONE FAMILY!"

Though the Quint did not fight more effectively against the Urthinan expert candidate despite the odd golden corona around it, the same could not be said for the other Larkinson mechs.

As time went on, the Larkinson mechs began to unleash a soft golden glow as well! The brighter this glow, the more their marksmanship improved!

"OUR TEAMWORK IS OUR GREATEST ADVANTAGE!"

What was even more remarkable was that the Avatar mechs displayed increasingly greater coordination! They covered for each other more effectively and moved to assist their comrades at just the right times.

The improvement was gradual but noticeable. Less Bright Warriors fell from the air and more Urthinan mechs collapsed instead.

"OUR FAMILY IS OUR ROOT!"

A strong sense of kinship and shared identity welled up from the mech pilots who listened to Casella's uplifting roars! Every Larkinson mech pilot in the arena felt as if they were digging up their latent power and willingly offered it up to the Sentinel Commander!

"OUR MECHS ARE OUR PARTNERS!"

Not just the Larkinson mech pilots, but also their mechs sought to provide their strength to Commander Casella!

There were only Bright Warriors active in the field on the Larkinson Clan's side. Each of these mechs were brothers and sisters of each other, with the Quint as the unquestionably greatest sibling among them at the moment!

Now, these ordinary Bright Warriors were answering the call of Commander Casella. Even the Quint became swayed by the rallying cry of its current mech pilot!

"TOGETHER, WE SHALL VANQUISH ANY FOE OF THE LARKINSON CLAN! THIS I SWEAR!"

As those words echoed in the ears of every Larkinson, an oddly calm moment ensued.

Even the audience had fallen silent. The arena had access to all of the communication feeds and did not hesitate to broadcast Casella's heartfelt words to an audience of many billions of spectators.

Only the sounds of the whipping sandstorm continued to fill the venue.

Then, the Quint exploded with power!

The Urthinan champion mech couldn't even finish off its next attack as a wave of power flung the high-quality lancer mech away from the masterwork mech!

"FOR THE CLAN!"