The Mech Touch

Even if a handful of them managed to luck out and face even weaker opponents on occasion, it was practically impossible for them to match up against three awful teams in a row!

The nine teams that managed to make it to the fourth round had all been tested in multiple ways and came out on top. Few mechs remained intact at this time as there simply wasn't enough time to repair every damaged section and component. This caused the surviving machines to look as if they had aged at different speeds.

Surprisingly enough, even Team Danilov that managed to perform fairly well in the first three rounds did not present any pristine mechs.

The Killer Kitty looked pristine because the mechs of Team Voiken did not bother to attack it at all during the previous round.

Only the Lancernaut mech looked as if it had gone through a beating!

"The mech pilots assigned to my team weren't able to keep up their mechs for long, but they went down swinging." Dulo Voiken smirked. "When the Lancernaut charged our spearman mech, it got impaled by a spear in turn. Our javelin mech meanwhile ignored the Killer Kitty and tried to launch as many javelins at the damaged centaur mech as possible. Quite a few managed to land on its large and formidable horse-like frame before it managed to run its lance through my baby."

The mass and volume of the centaur mech was considerable, so the penetrating attacks hadn't come close enough to take it down.

What the attacks did manage to accomplish was to inflict a lot of spread damage, some of which went a lot deeper than normal.

The large size of the Lancernaut meant that it took a lot more time, resources and effort to repair its condition. Team Danilov obviously did not have the time to fix up all of its holes, so it entered the arena in less than stellar condition.

Meanwhile, the Twin Souls returned to the arena in close to peak condition!

The previous match against the mechs of Team Polter ended faster than usual. This not only gave Ves and Juliet less work, but also enabled them to address issues that were not critical but should still be handled sooner or later!

[Ah, Team Danilov has turned out to become another favorite in this tournament, and for different reasons. The Lancernaut is an impressive lance-wielding centaur mech whose charges cannot be blocked. It is an impressive feat of mech engineering and I have always wondered how it will fare against the other top mechs in the competition such as the Furia. Now we finally have an opportunity to find out and see which one can prevail over the other!]

[Don't forget about their light mechs either. Even though many dismiss them as afterthoughts, they have played a crucial role in many matches time and time again. The Sensia has proven to be a deadly finisher if it is able to attack its targets from the rear, while the Killer Kitty has just as many lives as a real cat.]

Ves twitched at the mention of this name. He somehow felt as if Team Danilov had stolen what should rightfully belong to the Larkinsons.

Cats symbolized his clan!

How dare others try to defeat the Larkinsons by fielding cats of their own on the battlefield?!

It took a surprising amount of effort for Ves to suppress this silly thought. Tiger mechs were fairly common in the beast mech community. Just because they looked like big cats did not mean they were specifically employed to taunt the Larkinson Clan!

[Mobility is key in this match. All four mechs that are about to fight against each other are fairly maneuverable in different ways. The worst of the lot of the Furia, but it is clearly a hybrid mech that has traded armor for additional mobility. I wonder whether the hybrid mech is able to evade the infamous charges of the Lancernaut. A highly inflexible centaur mech is not difficult to defeat if it is forced to a standstill, but the challenge is to survive the initial attack runs.]

[Objectively speaking, Team Danilov has a greater chance of making it through than Team Larkinson. The Lancernaut is too suitable to fight in an arena that features flat and empty terrain. The area of the arena is also too small to give ranged mechs much time to cripple a melee mech from a comfortable distance.]

[I wouldn't dismiss the mechs of Team Larkinson that quickly. The Killer Kitty deals negligible damage and cannot offer too much assistance. Meanwhile, the Furia has a diverse arsenal of weapons. If its pilot is skilled and lucky enough, one of its weapons might be able to deal crippling damage to the Lancernaut by exploiting the battle damage that Team Danilov has only hastily managed to patch over.]

As the commentators prattled on, the mechs all got in position and started to go over their attack plans.

Both sides knew that they needed to take out the 'big brothers' of the opposing team first. The Sensia and the Killer Kitty were not as impressive as the Furia and the Lancernaut. The former mechs complimented the latter ones. It would therefore be up to the hybrid mech and the lancer mech to produce a breakthrough in this match!

[Start!]

"Go Larkinson!"

"Impale another mech, Lancernaut!"

"Here, kitty kitty. Go meow them all to death, little tiger!"

The voices of the crowd turned louder as the fans who did not really care about maintaining their image got caught up in the moment!

The fact that the mechs did not delay at all and immediately took action caused many people's blood to pump faster!

[The Lancernaut has directed its spear towards the Furia and burst into action! It seeks to end this confrontation in a single charge!]

[It is not as if it has any other choice. The longer the Furia remains in the field, the more damage it can pump out with its myriad weapons.]

Bobby Orwell knew that his mech would get targeted by the charging centaur mech from the beginning.

He had been ready to respond to this situation.

The first action he took was to command the Furia to detach its bandolier of throwing axes.

There was no point in throwing them out because the centaur mech was too tough to get taken down by a few axes.

It was not worth it to carry around all of that additional mass. The Furia needed all of the mobility it could get!

The second action taken by the Furia was to fire its full complement of missiles before detaching its cumbersome missile launchers in a hurry!

What was strange was that they did not strike the Lancernaut or the immediate area around it. The centaur mech moved around too much for the smoke to obscure its sight for longer than a second.

Instead, the Furia directed its smoke missiles to detonate almost as soon as they launched in front of the hybrid mech!

The immediate area around the machine became shrouded in smoke, making it a lot harder for the Lancernaut to pin down its target!

At the same time the smoke cloud broke the Lancernaut's line of sight, the EMP missiles continued to fly forward and detonated as soon as they came into proximity of the beast mech!

The Lancernaut slowed down for a moment as the EMP discharges affected the machine more than usual.

If the mech was in peak condition, then the EMP attacks would have done nothing as it was fully isolated and shielded against such effects.

However, the holes poked into its armor during the previous matches had left a considerable amount of weak points and damaged sections that could not easily be repaired in a short amount of time!

The pilot of the Lancernaut adjusted to the changes fairly quickly and the mech itself also possessed damage control functions that automatically prevented its condition from deteriorating even further.

Ultimately, a confused centaur mech plunged into the smoke cloud in the hopes that its sensors could detect the hiding Furia fast enough to impale it with a lance.

Boom!

Fizz!

The centaur mech suffered multiple attacks at an angle!

The shotgun slug along with the laser beams had damaged the armor on its flanks and created a few new weak points, but that was all. It was the next attacks that became a lot more serious.

Two gouts of flames started to engulf the centaur mech as it continued to hone in on the source of the attacks.

The flames not only blinded a lot of sensors, but also applied a small but steady amount of damage to the centaur mech's front.

The massive injury it suffered on its front during its previous match became aggravated as the hasty repairs conducted by Team Danilov proved insufficient to stop the flames from damaging the internals!

However, the activation of the flamethrowers completely exposed the position of the Furia.

Even through all of the interference, the Lancernaut clearly identified where it needed to go in order to impale the hybrid mech!

It charged forward with renewed speed despite all of the damage it was taking. Its pilot trusted in the armor and the solid construction of the centaur mech and concentrated solely on making its lance hit the mark!

"There!"

The Furia cut short its flames and jumped to the side at the most critical timing!

Bobby Orwell had to pick his timing extremely well.

Too soon and the Lancernaut would merely change its course in time.

Too late and the Lancernaut merely had to go straight forward to ensure a devastating hit!

What happened next caused many spectators to hold their breaths in excitement.

At first, the Lancernaut changed its direction, only to stumble for a minor moment as it briefly lost its balance and its smooth trajectory.

It turned out that its forelegs had inadvertently landed on the missile launchers that the Furia had just purged!

This caused the mech to slow down just a bit while its pilot lost his concentration.

Though the interruption was ultimately fairly minor, the delay bought the Furia enough time to evade the charge entirely!

As the centaur mech passed through without producing any results, the hybrid mech it passed by immediately opened fire with its shotgun and its integrated laser weapons!

The centaur mech incurred even more damage, this time on its sizable horse body.

It was hard to miss such a large target, and the Lancernaut was capable of performing evasive maneuvers like a conventional humanoid mech.

This was why the centaur mech turned around and commenced another charge as soon as possible!

The Furia came under threat once again. This time it did not have the benefit of the smoke cloud anymore as its own flames had burned or blown away the majority of its concealment.

As the Lancernaut closed in once again, the mech continually received hit after hit. The attacks targeting its main weak point were blocked by the shield held by the centaur mech's other humanoid arm.

However, this still left it unable to protect the hole that had been produced by previous attacks!

Since the centaur mech was unable to sway too much from side to side as it was building up momentum, quite a few attacks managed to exacerbate this damage!

From laser beams to shotgun pellets, the Lancernaut endured abuse that would have caused a light mech to falter.

However, the centaur mech continued to go strong as its internals were far too robust to fall apart after getting hit by a few attacks!

By the time Lancernaut had come close enough, the Furia failed to inflict enough damage!

"Evade!"

This time, the hybrid mech jumped to the right!

Though the timing was good, the pilot of the Lancernaut activated the special feature of the machine.

The legs of the centaur mech stomped the floor at an angle and forcibly pushed itself to the right!

Its steps thundered loud while its mechanical legs groaned under all of the powerful forces pressing onto their construction.

The centaur mech managed to turn by 53 degrees this time!

While it was not as good as before, it was still enough for it to pierce its lance through the Furia, if only barely!

The sudden redirection had caused the Lancernaut to lose a considerable amount of speed and momentum, but its remaining power was more than enough for its weapon to pierce through the frame!

[The Furia is struck!]

[Wait! The attack did not manage to take out the Larkinson hybrid completely. It only took out its arm!]

The arm of the Furia shattered from its shoulder, causing the hybrid mech to lose a flamethrower but fortunately nothing more.

Bobby Orwell had commanded his mech to jump to the right for a purpose, because that would allow him to preserve the shotgun-wielding arm of his hybrid mech as best as possible!

Just as the centaur mech passed by, the hybrid mech took control of its spinning form and shot its weapon at the distancing beast mech!

This time, the slug struck one of the Lancernaut's rear legs, causing it to slow down and falter!

The abuse it suffered from trying to forcibly change its direction along with the damage it incurred over several matches had caused a few important components to break!