The Mech Touch

Despite the fact that Team Reemus was able to pass through the fourth round without a fight, it still had the capital to be strong.

Eric Reemus, a 71 year old Journeyman, clearly led the team. He was one of the many travelers who had come to Davute in order to make his name in the tournaments.

His partner Yzard Holliston was less remarkable, but he was a long-time friend and collaborator of Eric Reemus. The two worked well together as evidenced by the quality of their works.

Both of them happened to be beast mech designers. The combination of their mechs was a little unusual, but seemed to work out well against the opponents they faced before.

The simply named T1 was a light tiger mech that stood out for its light construction and high offensive power.

The T1 was difficult to defend against due to the natural advantages afforded by its tiger form and its left paw that was able to deploy plasma claws!

Although the T1 undoubtedly had low endurance due to its excessively high energy consumption, it could tear apart any mech with the help of its plasma claws.

Eric Reemus must have mastered melee plasma weapon technology to a high degree if he was able to reproduce a simplified version out of low-quality materials.

It wasn't the T1 that caused the opponents of Team Reemus a lot of grief.

It was the S1 that was primarily designed by Yzard Holliston that generated a lot of alarm!

The S1 was a heavy artillery spider mech that featured a simple but considerably massive design.

As its name suggested, it featured eight thick and sturdy legs that provided unparalleled stability and footing for the upper body.

The S1 mounted multiple simple but powerful kinetic cannons that could fire a large amount of rounds in multiple different directions!

It was clearly a ranged mech that was designed to stand in place and throw out as many projectiles in the vague direction of the enemy!

Unlike the aforementioned Daugen, the S1's guns weren't particularly powerful or precise, but the heavy artillery spider mech made up for it with sheer volume of fire!

Slower and more armored mechs could not withstand its firepower for long. No matter how much protection a defensive mech carried, it would never be able to resist the attacks forever!

The S1 did not have to worry about running out of ammunition anytime soon. Its large frame provided plenty of capacity for reloads. The matches often ran out long before the heavy mech expended all of its rounds!

The spider mech did have its shortcomings, though. Its defenses were not as tough as that of an actual doom crawler, and its movement speed was terrible.

It had already taken a lot of time and effort to design the basic structure of the S1 and mount all of its formidable weapon systems onto its frame. If Team Reemus had more time, then its mech designers would have definitely mounted it with thicker and stronger armor!

In any case, it did not seem to matter all that much. No other mech in the competition fielded any mechs that possessed nearly as much ranged attack power as the S1!

Even the Daugen designed by Team Clive would probably struggle to disable all of the weapon systems of the heavy artillery spider mech before it got blasted into pieces!

The only viable way to disable the S1's weapons systems and eliminate it entirely was to send in a melee mech that could tear it down while evading its weapon arcs.

Of course, the T1 always stood ready to punish those that tried to get close!

All in all, Ves did not think that Team Reemus reached the fifth and final round without merit. The T1 and the S1 had always been able to demolish their opponents in quick order due to their overwhelmingly high attack strength.

Ves actually had a headache when he considered how well his Twin Souls could fight against these terrible beast mechs.

The Sensia had managed to take out the Lancernaut after jumping onto its equine back, but that was when the latter did not have an effective helper by its side. The Killer Kitty was a joke of a light mech and played no role aside from annoying mechs with its weak laser weapons.

The works of Team Reemus were much more threatening because both mechs could effectively back each other up.

No matter whether the Twin Souls focused on the T1 or the S1, one or the other would always do their best to prevent themselves from getting defeated in detail!

However, before he thought about what sort of confrontation was about to ensue, he first needed to know the details of the final round. The rulebook had accounted for the possibility of uneven teams at this stage, but it was a big mess as far as he was concerned.

[Now let us get back to the main event. Only three teams stand tall at this time. Since we cannot resolve the winner of this tournament by holding a straightforward match between two teams, we must consider an alternative means to decide the championship. Team Larkinson, Team Clive and Team Reemus are allowed to vote on a choice on how to structure the last round of the combat phase of this competition. This is a rare privilege and one that might add extra spice to the final match!]

Ves frowned for a moment. He did not like what he heard. As far as he was concerned, the tournament should have structured its admission process to ensure that only two teams would be left in the final round. Ending up with 3 teams instead of 2 made this process far more complicated than usual.

Then again, that wouldn't be as fun. The rules of the tournaments were set up in a way to force the participating Journeyman Mech Designers to contort their designs in order to meet unusual demands.

All of this gave him the impression that a bunch of Masters working for the Davute University of Technology got bored and wanted to break their monotony by setting up an unusual ruleset.

[All three teams are allowed to vote on a favorite option. Allow us to present the methods in which they can determine the winner among themselves. First, is any team willing to withdraw at this stage and claim third place without any suspense?]

Ves looked around for a moment before he realized he probably needed to provide an answer. He took a single step forward.

"No."

Jocasta Clive did the same.

"No."

Eric Reemus looked just as combative as the rest.

"No."

[That is clear. Then I shall proceed with presenting the following options. The three teams can choose to resolve it by running a gauntlet. Their competition mechs must each fight against a continuous stream of automated battle bots that slowly seek to overwhelm them. The rankings will be determined by how long they have managed to survive.]

That was a rather destructive way to determine the winner of this tournament. It was a completely different experience and not every mech was designed to fight against a mob of battle bots.

[The next alternative is to hold a free-for-all where the competition mechs of all three teams are placed in the arena at once. There are no additional rules, so this match is bound to be chaotic. The rankings are determined by the times their mechs remain operational in the field. The last mech standing is the ultimate winner.]

This was the most straightforward means of determining the winner. From the reaction of the crowd, this was a particularly favored option for the audience!

[The last choice we can present to you is to hold a split round robin. What makes it special is that we shall split up the mechs from each team and have them fight separately against other single mechs. The final round will therefore be decided in three separate matches. The matching process will be completely randomized in order to ensure fairness. The rankings will be determined by the time it took for the mechs to win their matches.]

Ves did not like this one at all. His Sensia and Furia were designed to fight together. Their teamwork had been improving slightly with every passing round and it would be a shame for them to get pulled apart.

[Now, make your choice, teams. Announce your decision!]

Before Ves could step up, Jocasta Clive spoke up first!

"Team Clive chooses the free-for-all!"

That did not surprise Ves too much as Daugen and the Reedan were not suited for mass destruction. They also wouldn't fare well in the split round robins as their dependence on teamwork was even greater.

"Team Reemus chooses the gauntlet!"

A heavy artillery spider mech that almost matched the configuration of a doom crawler would definitely feel at home in a gauntlet! The S1 would probably be able to smash a large amount of battle bots for a long time as it was the most suited for mass destruction among the six surviving mechs!

Everyone's attention turned towards Ves. He had the privilege of casting the deciding vote.

None of the three options appealed to him that much to be honest. If he wanted to generate more chaos, he could vote in favor of the split round robin.

If that happened, the tournament organizers would decide the format by rolling a virtual dice.

This was anything but desirable as Ves would lose complete control over the format of the final round.

He decided to stop keeping everyone in suspense.

"I choose… the free-for-all!"

Much of the crowd cheered as this option was bound to please the crowd!

[Free-for-all it is! All six mechs will be put in the arena at once. The fighting will not stop until two teams have been eliminated.]

Ves briefly looked in the direction of the other two teams. Jocasta Clive nodded at him with respect while Eric Reemus did not look particularly pleased.

Team Reemus had too much of an advantage in the gauntlet. Why should Ves give his competitor a golden opportunity to win this tournament? Casting his vote for the free-for-all ensured that his own team would have a realistic shot at winning this contest!

The only downside was that Ves probably had no chance of recruiting Eric Reemus and Yzard Holliston anymore.

This was not a big loss as Ves was not too keen in hiring beast mech designers at this stage.

The Power Pair were already capable of designing most of the beast mechs that his clan would need in the short and medium term.

A few minutes passed by as all six mechs entered the arena.

The Sensia.

The Furia.

The Daugen.

The Reedan.

The T1.

The S1.

Out of all of the mechs designed over the course of the previous two days, these ones had managed to defeat all of their opposition to this point.

As the countdown started, all six mechs were already eying their opponents.

[Start!]

As soon as the starting signal had been triggered, the mechs of Team Larkinson and Team Clive immediately turned to the S1.

The pilots of both teams did not have to communicate with each other to agree on a common goal.

No matter what, the S1 had to be taken out as soon as possible!