The Mech Touch



The mechs couldn't fight much longer at this pace.

Each of the mechs had been moving around a lot, which meant that they used their energy reserves at a much higher rate than was sustainable.

Normal mechs could keep going like this for quite a while, but tournaments usually restricted the amount of energy that mechs could have in order to prevent them from stalling matches for hours at a time.

The matches of the Twin Weapons Tournament obviously weren't meant to last that long, so the rules had been rather heavy-handed about limiting their maximum energy reserves.

The mech pilots participating in this tournament were all aware of these limitations. Even if they used their best possible means to reduce the amount of energy they were expending, their mechs were still moving closer to exhaustion with each exertion they made.

When the Furia had thrown its final axe towards the back of the Double Up, the latter had to use an extreme maneuver to get out of the way!

Its abused frame groaned as plenty of components strained under the heavy force that it was trying to summon.

The Double Up succeeded at dodging the axe, but it paid a considerable price by moving out of the way!

Two strikes from the Furia's integrated luminar crystal laser guns accurately managed to add another pair of scorch marks onto the Double Up's damaged armor.

Despite the relatively thin layers that protected the stripped knight mech, its final layer of protection held up remarkably well against the attacks it had endured up to this point.

Beatrice Hendrix might excel in designing modular armor systems, but that did not mean she was unable to design regular armor systems. The protective layers that wrapped up the lighter frame had performed admirably and highlighted their creator's talent and skills once again!

Unfortunately, all of the abuses that the Double Up had suffered caused it to be pushed closer to the brink.

Lizzie and Bobby recognized this. They might not understand the technical side of mechs all that much, but their experience, intuition and observation abilities allowed them to know that the Double Up was like a house on the verge of collapse!

The two mech pilots took action without needing to exchange any words. They inherently understood each other's intentions on a subtle level. Even though neither of them had a good idea of what their partner had in mind, their shared training and understanding of each other's fighting methods enabled them to coordinate their actions on the fly!

"They're trying to finish off the Double Up!"

The Sensia and the Furia threw aside all considerations in an effort to take down the toughest and most resilient mech they fought against so far. The Double Up for its part could do little but to move away while raising its sword and modular buckler for a final stand.

There was no way for the Double Up to open up any distance to its current adversaries. It may have shed a lot of armor but it was never really designed with speed in mind. Beatrice Hendrix possessed a lot of strengths as a mech designer but she rarely focused on imparting her works with greater mobility.

Aside from that, the forced dodging maneuver it performed just a few seconds ago had also caused permanent internal damage that caused it to move a little less smoothly than before!

With two different mechs ganging up on the Double Up, the latter mech ultimately decided to stop its flight.

Instead, its pilot decided that if his mech was likely to go down, the least he could do was drag down an enemy mech while his machine could still fight!

"The Sensia is taking serious damage!"

While three of the mechs converged upon each other, the Triple Spray had not remained idle.

It had previously been firing its triple-barreled rifle at the Furia, but its weapon did not seem to have much of an effect against the hybrid mech.

Now that the Furia had stopped exerting pressure on the Triple Spray, the light harasser mech was completely free to turn its gun towards its original target, which was the Sensia!

Lizzie Cado winced as the light skirmisher under her control started to sound alarms due to all of the bullets that sprayed against the side of the machine.

Some of the bullets even managed to strike the damaged rear armor at an angle. This was particularly alarming because the Sensia truly couldn't afford to take much more damage from this side!

However, finishing off the Double Up was more important, so Lizzie pushed through the danger and eventually managed to bring her light skirmisher close to its target!

"Fall!"

The pilot of the Double Up was happy to meet the Sensia in combat.

Unlike the previous times where the Double Up focused on blocking incoming attacks while occasionally launching a counterattack whenever possible, the stripped mech abandoned almost every pretense at defense and committed to a full attack!

Clang!

One of the knives darting forward were deflected by the buckler that covered the frontal weak point.

The other knife managed to sink into the damaged chest armor of the Double Up. No modular armor plating or other fancy defensive measures took effect, so the knife truly managed to penetrate through the thin protection.

Unfortunately for Team Larkinson, the Sensia's success also opened it up for a devastating counterattack!

The light skirmisher attempted to pull out and either parry the incoming blow or move out the way.

The swift mech had a decent shot at doing so if not for the fact that the Double Up actually gripped the Sensia's stretched arm!

The limb that held the knife that had just sunk into the chest of the stripped mech turned into a shackle that held the light skirmisher in place, if only for a moment!

"Let go!" Lizzie Cado boomed as the light skirmisher's other knife swung and attempted to cut through half of the wrist of the Double Up!

This did not work because the damaged but still functional modular buckler had changed its shape and orientation to block this attack!

The Sensia's response to this was to stab at the Double Up's frontal weak point that had become exposed due to losing the protection of the buckler.

This forced the Double Up to let go of its sword with its other limb and lock the Sensia into place!

"Danger!"

While all of this happened, The Triple Spray had circled around to get a better firing angle. It managed to do so before it dropped down to a knee and assume a stable firing posture.

Its triple-barreled rifle soon began to spit out bullet after bullet in a straight trajectory towards the rear armor of the briefly immobilized Sensia!

These attacks were different than before. The Triple Spray showed no concern with getting chased or getting attacked and focused completely on accurately landing its shots on one of the Sensia's vulnerable weak points in the rear!

A remarkably low quantity of bullets went off-course and struck anything irrelevant.

The vast majority of bullets struck a specific section that had already incurred damage caused by previous attacks.

These bullets cut through this specific section of armor like a plasma cutter.

The stream of projectiles soon began to damage the internal components that became exposed due to this failure.

Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta!

The Sensia seemed to groan in pain as its frame no longer performed as optimally as before.

Nonetheless, Lizzie Cado never stopped her light skirmisher from freeing itself from this predicament.

The Sensia's whose arms were caught by the Double Up's own limbs tried to leverage its legs by kicking at the stripped mech.

This did not work quite as well because the force of the kicks wasn't all that great. The Sensia actually bruised its legs just as much as that of the Double Up!

Lizzie eventually came up with the idea of unbalancing her own mech. The Sensia tried to jump and wrench its weight to a specific direction.

Both mechs started to lose their balance and fall as a response!

"Do it!" Lizzie shouted!

She did not need to make any further clarifications because she already knew what Bobby was planning to do next.

The Furia had come close and pressed the muzzle of its shotgun on the weakest point of the rear armor of the Double Up.

The powerful weapon fired a solid slug that pierced straight through this critical point and dealt a crippling blow to the internals of the stripped knight mech!

Eventually, an emergency energy shield had to come to life in order to protect the cockpit and its occupant from any life-threatening danger.

[The Double Up has fallen!]

[What an admirable mech for one that has only been designed and built in two days.]

[Team Hendrix may have lost a unit, but Team Larkinson is also on the brink of getting reduced.]

The condition of the Sensia was awful. It had not yet shut down completely but it might as well do so on account of all of the combat power it had lost.

The precisely aimed bullets fired from the Triple Spray had damaged too many internals.

Combined with the fact that the Sensia had fallen with the wreck of the Double Up pressing its weight on top of it, there was no effective way for the light skirmisher to contribute to the battle!

[There are only the ranged mechs left now. The Furia and the Triple Spray must finish the fight, one way or another.]

This could drag on for a bit as both of them were light mechs that did not possess the means to deliver any powerful blows.

The Triple Spray only had its rifle to depend upon while the Furia had exhausted the majority of its weapon options.

Its shotgun had run empty. Its missile launchers had served their purpose several minutes ago. Its throwing axes had already been thrown out. Its flamethrowers had almost run out of propellant.

Nonetheless, the Furia could still keep fighting by relying on its integrated luminar crystal weapons.

The two mechs began to circle around each other while firing their weapons at each other.

It was a silly way to end a fight, but it was not as if they had any options left.

The pilots from both sides targeted the frontal weak points of their opponents.

There was not much the Triple Spray could do about this aside from performing evasive maneuvers and using one of its free arms to block any laser beams from striking this vulnerability.

The Furia on the other hand possessed a clear advantage during this phase of combat. Not only did it boast relatively thicker armor, but it also had an emptied shotgun which it could use as an improvised shield!

Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta!

The triple-barreled rifle of the Triple Up continually struck the body of the shotgun, causing the damage-resident weapon to get dented. Its internal mechanisms eventually broke under the torrent of bullets.

Meanwhile, the Furia was left free to fire both of its chest-mounted weapons at the Triple Spray!

Even if the laser beams did not always manage to hit the mark, the constant shots steadily caused the light harasser mech to suffer more damage.

With the attacks it had already endured, it could not withstand so many attacks at once!

Fizz!

Disaster struck the Triple Spray as its constant evasive maneuvers had drained its energy reserves!

The mech forcibly slowed down in order to conserve what little energy it had left. This proved to be a devastating consequence as the hit rate and the accuracy of the Furia's luminar crystal guns began to concentrate their output at the weakest exposed section of the light harasser mech's armor!

Now that the Triple Spray had effectively turned into a stationary target, it couldn't stop the Furia from burning through the internals and causing the exhausted light mech to lose all of its power!

As the Triple Spray collapsed, the Furia slowly halted in place.

The match had actually been closer than many people realized as the hybrid mech's energy reserves had dipped fairly low as well.

Ultimately, only one team deserved to go through.

[Team Larkinson… has won!]