The Mech Touch

After Ves courageously asked for other challengers to come forth, around 50 or so mech designers or representatives eagerly wanted to enjoy their moment of fame as well.

Yet not every mech design was suitable to challenge the recently unveiled Fey Fianna.

"I challenge your Fey Fianna with my Honest Arx! Do you dare to put your drone mechs up against my axeman mechs? If you are confident in the defenses of your mechs, then my Honest Arx will be happy to put them to the test! Let's turn this into a tovsio group match. Combat mechs like ours are not meant for dueling. Only a big battle can their teamwork shine!"

Everyone including Ves could see that the Fey Fianna was at a disadvantage against an axeman mech like the Honest Arx.

The offensive melee mech possessed a good balance between physical power, defense and mobility. It was only armed with a large axe and a backup pistol, but it did not require any more complicated weapon systems in order to function as an excellent breakthrough machine.

Such a mech was sturdy enough to resist a lot of attacks on approach. Once their enemies were within reach, the power of their continuous axe blows could disable nearly any form of defense, including energy shields!

Although the hyper energy shield field fey was able to leverage a large amount of water-attributed E energy to amplify its defenses, there was a limit to this process.

Ves performed a lot of quick mental calculations in his mind. He carefully estimated the specifications of the Honest Arx based on his observations and felt that its offensive power was not weak.

The only part about this mech that was weak was its mobility, but he was pretty sure that his challenger took this into account. The Honest Arx should have a means to close the gap.

Another unfavorable point was the group match. If Ves had a choice, he would rather opt for a one-on-one duel than a more chaotic group match.

Melee mechs working as a team could easily box in their opponents from multiple sides, thereby negating any advantage in mobility to an extent.

It was not possible for a ranged mech to kite numerous melee mechs, especially in a fairly restricted environment such as a mech arena.

In short, the Fey Fianna had to give up so many advantages that the only way for it to win was to overpower the Honest Arx on a qualitative basis!

Yet this was exactly the trap that his latest challenger had set. If Ves refused this challenge, he implicitly conveyed the suggestion that his Fey Fianna were not that special.

This would neutralize a part of the momentum that Ves had managed to build up during his previous presentation.

So what?

The Fey Fianna possessed clear strengths and weaknesses. Though its ability to cope with different situations was greater than usual if it was able to pick and choose the right combination of fey, that still did not take away its vulnerability at close range.

Though Ves had designed the Fey Fianna in a way that it was able to put up a 'decent' fight when armed with a melee weapon, a dedicated offensive melee mech was so much better at the former would only be able to buy a dozen seconds more time before it inevitably got crushed!

Though Ves could think of a few ways for 10 Fey Fiannas to perform a miracle and somehow defeat 10 axeman mechs after paying a grievous price, it was not worth it to take on this punishing challenge.

He plainly shook his head. "If you wish to put your Honest Arx to the test, then I suggest you approach a mech designer who has recently designed a comparable melee mech. I am not afraid to admit that my Fey Fianna will not fare well in this matchup, but only for the time being. If you are willing to wait for a year for the first batches of Fey Fiannas to grow and for our mech pilots to become much more proficient in piloting them, then I am more than willing to accept this challenge. Even if my drone mechs are still disadvantaged on paper, I am more than willing to bet that the precipitation of time has benefited my Fey Fiannas a lot more than your own products!"

Ves smirked as the opposing Master Mech Designer looked upset.

It took a bit of quick thinking, but Ves had successfully mitigated the damage of refusing the challenge. He not only emphasized that this was a lopsided matchup to begin with, but that his Fey Fianna could still defeat a bunch of threatening axeman mechs so long as they had developed their individual powers long enough!

This was a capability that virtually no other standard mech model possessed. Ves essentially communicated to everyone who was watching this Q&A session that as long as the Fey Fianna grew old enough, it could transcend any weakness that restrained it in the past!

The Ouroboros was the most impressive example of this, but it was a pity that Ves was not able to explain that it was 'his' work.

He hadn't even been born when the Ouroboros initially came to life!

"Next." Ves said as he let the randomizer pick another challenger.

A small light soon shone on a woman who sat near the back of the hall.

"Thank you for unlocking my voice. I am Master Ginevra Hubert-Colmain from the Greenwich Middle Zone." A woman introduced herself while she projected her newest work. "My mech company has recently designed the Montebera GHCMQ-3. It is a second-class hyper lancer mech that excels at charging but can purge its armor and competently fight hand-to-hand with short spears. I would like to compare its performance against your Standard Fey Fianna. Their mech archetypes may be completely different, but we can learn the most about our works when they are put into atypical combat scenarios."

Few if any people imagined a matchup between a drone mech and a lancer mech. The two were so far apart that it seemed that they belonged in different galaxies.

Their roles were very different on a fundamental level.

Drone mechs were generally versatile, but lacking in strong specialties and hard power.

Lancer mechs were highly specialized and only excelled in a very specific role.

Of course, the Fey Fianna and Master Hubert Colmain's Montebera were hardly typical to their mech types.

This made this potential matchup a lot more interesting.

Would the Fey Fianna have the hard power to defeat these formidable-looking melee mechs?

Would the Montebera have the flexibility to overcome all of the difficulties imposed by the fey and defeat the drone mechs themselves?

No one was able to come up with any definitive answers to these questions!

That was a strong indication that this challenge was meaningful. Neither side was at an overwhelming disadvantage, and the variables were tricky enough that neither side could complain about the unfairness of this matchup.

That was good enough for Ves.

"Terms."

"Fight in space if preferable. The Montebra needs enough free space to build up its momentum and perform a proper charge."

"Not necessary." Ves rejected. "The Fey Fianna is not a heavy knight mech. Your Montebra doesn't have to build up so much momentum to breach the defenses of my machine. It is best to limit these challenge matches to Phoca Arena. It is large enough that your lancer mechs should still have enough room to perform adequate charge attacks. Do not forget that the limited range in the arena grants my Fey Fianna less time to shoot at your Montebra."

Master Hubert-Colmain conceded this argument. "Very well. Then let us turn it into a match that involves the least amount of mechs as possible. A single duel is most preferable. The mass of our mechs may be far apart, but their prices are in the same range."

That was an interesting choice. Her request essentially signaled that she had greater confidence in her Montebras if they did not have to fight against many ranged mechs at the same time.

Ves had a guess why this may be the case. From what he could surmise from the appearance of the Monebra, the lancer mech was fairly heavily armored in its base configuration.

Once it purged its armor, its physical defenses plunged while its mobility skyrocketed.

Though it would be far too exaggerated if its speed and maneuverability matched the standards of a light mech, the liberated machine should still be fast enough to quickly catch up to the Fey Fiannas.

However, his latest works were not slow. It would still take a bit of time for the Montebra to catch up to the kiting Fey Fiannas.

This gave his drone mechs enough time to pelt the Montebras with a continuous stream of attacks of multiple ranged weapon fey!

Master Hubert-Colmain had clearly witnessed the offensive prowess of the Fey Fianna during the previous demonstrations. If dozens of fey focused their fire on the relatively fast but fragile Montebras that had purged their armor, then the latter would quickly be defeated in detail!

"How about a small team?" Ves suggested. "A one-on-one duel is too simple. I think a two-on-two match is more interesting for everyone. If one mech makes a mistake, there is still an opportunity for the other one to redeem itself in the unfolding battle."

"That is acceptable."

They continued to discuss the terms of this challenge. They were nothing special and contained all kinds of common sense rules that were meant to prevent cheating and gaming the system.

"See you tomorrow afternoon." Ves eventually concluded his talk with the Master from the Greenwich Middle Zone. "It is nice to compete against an actual second-class mech designer. I am curious to see how my Fey Fianna will fare against a pair of lancer mechs."

"Do you have enough Fey Fiannas and mech pilots to fight multiple challenges on the same day?"

"We do." Ves smiled back. "We do not have many Standard Fey Fiannas left that are paired with mech pilots who have been able to train with them for longer than a week. By the way, we still have three Elite Fey Fiannas in stock that are also open to challenges. If anyone else has a collection of transphasic hyper mechs, feel free to issue your challenge."

The randomizer picked a bunch of people who issued unacceptable challenges. Ves did not think too much about these developments and simply refused any obvious unfair matchups.

Soon enough, a man who almost looked as young as Ves stood up when he was lucky to be selected.

"Everyone has learned that you are a prodigy and a genius. You have feats on your name that no other mech designer of our generation has come close to accomplishing by themselves. You are a hero of our times."

Though Ves felt flattered by the praise, he knew that this was useless talk.

"The Q&A session does not last all-night. Please be succinct so that we can spare as much time as possible."

"I have also earned the reputation as a genius!" The young mech designer quickly said. "I might not be able to match you in the quantity of my inventions, but I am utterly convinced that their quality exceeds the quality of your own works! Please accept my challenge and agree to put your Fey Fianna in a duel against my latest hybrid mech!"

When the boastful mech designer finally projected an image of his proud work, all of the other mech designers exhibited a unified reaction.

They grew disappointed.

Ves did not bother to hide his contempt. "Is that it? Let me guess. You are still a Journeyman Mech Designer, right?"

"So only you are allowed to accept leapfrog challenges? Do not underestimate me, professor. I am a genius! I have won design duels against Senior Mech Designers in the past! My latest hybrid mech is more than able to push your Fey Fianna to its limits."

11 n

Ves' response to this extraordinary claim was to transmit a command that opened a hole beneath the Journeyman's seat.

"Bye bye."