The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1166

The latest transformation initiated by Waltz turned his War General from a predominantly melee mech into a highly mobile marksman mech!

While neither Ves, Axelar or the sophisticated sensors of the Ouroboros identified the nature of the radiant beam attack, it was extremely accurate and corrosive!

Each time the radiant beam struck the Ouroboros, another chunk of armor plating disappeared!

Axelar did his best to respond to this latest change. He piloted his Ouroboros forward in an attempt to catch up to the War General. Now that the latter mech transformed its melee weapon into something else, it should be very vulnerable to close-quarters combat!

Yet the War General was far lighter than the Ouroboros, and easily circled around hero mech while it continuously unleashed beam after beam of corrosive particles from its chest!

The only way the Ouroboros was able to retaliate was by shooting at it with its positron pistol! Unfortunately, the War General’s superior mobility and active ECM systems made it very difficult for Axelar to land a hit!

Nonetheless, Axelar no longer feared the War General. So what if his opponent’s mech possessed a hundred different abilities? His Ouroboros already faced down most of them and still managed to stay aloft!

"Come on, Waltz! No matter what weapon system you employ next, my Ouroboros will take it all!"

Although the War General’s latest attack mode posed a serious threat to the Ouroboros, how long would it be able to keep up its attack? _{freewebnoveℓ.com}

A light mech was still a light mech! Just because the War General was an incredibly versatile multipurpose mech didn’t mean it could defy the fundamental weaknesses inherent to the weight class. Ves bet that the War General was expending its reserves a lot faster than the Ouroboros!

Even Waltz began to recognize that the Ouroboros was a very tough mech to crack! Its simplistic design meant that its armor plating was much thicker and heavier than usual!

While the Ouroboros did not possess the mobility to catch up to the War General, it was enough for it to rotate its orientation so that the War General could not focus its attack on a single section of armor!

By employing this simple strategy, Axelar managed to spread out the damage the Ouroboros suffered over the entirety of its damaged but unbroken armor coverage!

The Ouroboros only needed to last long enough until the War General expended its limited reserves!

"Disgusting!" Waltz yelled as he came to the same realization. "Surviving a duel by outlasting your foe is a cowardly way to win!"

Axelar let out a laugh. "Who says that mech duels can’t be won by attrition? You only have yourself to blame for employing an overcomplicated mech like the War General! All of this weapon and auxiliary modules must be putting an enormous strain on its energy reserves, right?"

The mech duel between Axelar and Waltz was not only a clash between mech pilots, but also a clash between their mechs!

The War General embodied the principles of a multipurpose mech to a much greater extreme than normal! Hardly any other multipurpose mech conceived by the Terrans could match the War General in sheer versatility!

As for the Ouroboros, it experienced very little transformations throughout the entire battle! Aside from turning its powerful positron rifle into a weaker but more compact positron pistol, the only other change was that the condition of its armor plating continually worsened.

Yet the Ouroboros never flagged! Its basic parameters were so strong that the War General never managed to break Axelar’s mech!

It took a lot more sustained firepower if Waltz wanted to pierce through its disgustingly simple but thick armor plating!

Seeing that Waltz would only exhaust his mech before he could ever defeat the Ouroboros, he commanded the War General to stop firing its chest weapon.

The mech pulled out the hollow shaft from its chest before separating the lower half from the top half. The two hollow shafts compacted in other each other, reducing their lengths but increasing their structural strength!

Two large slots opened up from the War General’s thighs. Two axe blades floated out of the slots and flew to the two shafts, turning the shortened hafts into twin Destroyer Axes!

"I’ve underestimated you, Axelar." Waltz said in a calmer voice. "I’ve dueled overconfident clansmen before. I’ve beaten all but the most hardworking of them all. You’re not one of them. The only reason you’ve lasted up until now is because I didn’t employ the right strategy against your hero mech! I’ve wasted too much energy on ineffective or inefficient attacks! Only now I’ve realized that the best way to handle an opponent like you is to compete against you on technique rather than the capabilities of our mechs!"

Both Axelar and Ves realized the significance of those words. Waltz undeniably held the edge in terms of skill and experience! Out of all the possible careers a mech pilot could pursue upon graduation, becoming a mech athlete meant they accumulated the most battle experience!

Other careers provided much greater stimulation due to the higher stakes and the constant threat of death hanging over every battle. Yet the frequency of battles could never match the number of fights a mech athlete participated in during a regular competitive season! Many military mech pilots spent months or years in monotonous training before they would ever be deployed in an actual battle!

Even though Axelar was officially registered to an elite mech corps, he never reported in even once! Both his training accumulation and battle experience simply couldn’t compare against a veteran mech athlete!

"Prepare yourself, Axelar! The final dance starts now!"

The War General utilized its superior mobility to rapidly close the distance to the Ouroboros! Waltz intended to force his opponent in a ferocious, close-combat offensive where skill played a much greater role than the parameters of their mechs!

Even a knight in full plate armor could be defeated by a peasant wearings rags as long as the latter possessed more skill!

Axelar welcomed the final exchange of moves. After dealing with so many tedious and annoying attacks, he was glad to see that the War General was nearing the end of its rope!

Although he acknowledged that Waltz was the better mech pilot, he had faith that the Ouroboros he piloted could make up the difference!

"Let’s dance!"

The War General in its light mech incarnation swept towards the waiting Ouroboros while holding out its double axes!

The axe blades glowed in grey, signifying that they were Destroyer Axes which were every bit as deadly as the Destroyer Sword wielded by the Ouroboros!

As the War General charged towards the Ouroboros, Axelar did not entirely sit still. The Ouroboros aimed its positron pistol and fired continuous beams at the approaching light mech!

The War General avoided most of the incoming attacks, only suffering some sporadic hits that didn’t impact its performance.