The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1403

Tracking an immense cat-like creature in a hunting zone required a bit of effort. The experienced hunting consultants riding on the legged transports constantly scanned their surroundings.

Enormous creatures ordinarily left a lot of traces of their passage behind. Ves understood little of what they saw, but one day after they set out, the Felixia Catstrikers found a trail!

\"The tracks are over two weeks old. Not bad.\" One of the fellows stated at the observation compartment of one of the transports.

Ves, Lucky and Nitaa happened to be present as well. The rest of the cramped transport’s interior looked absolutely drab. The vehicle’s entire design revolved around function. Hardly any thought had been spent on comfort, which Ves personally thought was a bad design choice!

The hunters and other personnel aboard the transports didn’t share his complaints. To them, a hunt was serious business. This was no time to sink into a comfortable couch and enjoy a nice glass of wine!

Certainly, a longer hunt on an untamed planet might merit some priority on comfort, but the Felixia Catstrikers estimated that their current hunt would not last longer than a week.

During this period, every mech pilot and every staffer had to be as alert and focused on the job as possible!

Even Ves still carried some responsibilities. He had to keep track of the conditions of the mechs of the hunting team throughout the course of the hunt. He also had to pitch in with performing acute repairs in the field after they concluded a round of fighting with the Crown Cat.

He knew he’d become very busy soon, which was why he prized this quiet period at the beginning. If only he had a comfy couch instead of a drab alloy bench to rest upon! His seat didn’t even come with a backrest!

As the hours passed by, Ves idly distracted himself by studying the surrounding terrain.

The hunting zone that kept Zeigra contained within its area was situated in the very depths of a very huge tropical rainforest environment. Different from regular forests, House Laterna seeded the lands with supersized tropical trees.

It took an extremely long time for these trees to grow to their current height and size, but once they did they absolutely towered over every mech! _{freeweɓnovēl.coɱ}

Ves studied the basic parameters of the trees beforehand and found out that even mechs and huge cats had difficulty cutting them down!

While they weren’t invincible or even highly resilient, their sheer size and mass made trying to cut them down a waste of time. A mech or a huge cat would have to expend way too much energy to go through all of that wood, and that only took care of one among billions of trees!

Aside from the massive trees and huge shrubs and bushes, plenty of wildlife also livened up the vibrant rainforest. Various creatures the size of dogs comprised the smallest animals in the forest.

Larger animals the size of bears or hippos preyed upon these bottom-tier animals, but even these mighty genetically-strengthened predators fell prey to the various cats roaming the hunting zone!

Yes, cats!

Zeigra was far from the only huge cat to occupy the hunting zone. House Laterna wanted to provide hunters with a realistic and challenging hunting experience, and facing multiple predators fell within the range of possibilities that could overcome a hunting team.

For this reason, Lady Miralix and the other hunters slowed their pace and progressed carefully into the rainforest. Even as they tracked Zeigra’s old tracks, they kept their eyes peeled out for the tracks of smaller but still threatening huge cats.

Still, even the most vigilant hunters fell prey to surprises.

Just as Ves was shifting his seating posture, alarms suddenly rang throughout the compartment!

\"Alert! Massive heat signature detected to the west!\"

The observation chamber immediately locked down by sliding down the armored shutters over the transparent windows!

\"What’s going on?!\" Ves asked with concern.

\"A huge cat is lying in ambush along our path!\"

Ves activated a projector and inputted his temporary credentials. Due to his sweeping responsibilities, he gained extensive access to the systems of the hunting team.

Right now, he used his access to call up the live footage of the fight about to take place outside.

As soon as someone sounded the alarm, the mechs and vehicles of the hunting team all moved into position. The legged transports all huddled together, forming the center of a loose formation of ranged mechs that all pointed their weapons outward.

Circling around them, the melee mechs brandished their weapons as they adopted postures that would help them deflect or withstand any pounce from a huge cat!

In this circumstance, the mechs couldn’t afford to evade or dodge an attack! Neither the ranged mechs or the legged transports were built to withstand the raw fury of even a regular huge cat for more than a couple of seconds!

\"It’s coming!\"

The bushes to the west parted as a huge cat pounced at the nearest machine, which happened to be a knight mech immediately placed upon the spot!

The cat did not utter any roar at all, perhaps thinking that its attack hadn’t been noticed at all!

In truth, the hunting team already locked on the creature’s noise, heat signature and other indicators a while ago!

Even if the huge cats were genetically modified to make them harder to detect, that only worked in distances ranging to kilometers. This close, their huge bulk made it untenable for them to remain undetected!

As the huge cat which looked like a green-and-orange panther pounced, the knight mech which stood in the way began to bend its stance and angle its kite shield.

CLANG!

The colorful panther’s claws raked across the surface of the shield and deflected to the side! The rest of the huge cat’s body partially slammed against the shield as well, but due to the clever angling, started to bounce aside as if it was a stone skipping across water!

\"Yes! The cat fell for it! He’s dead meat now!\"

The hunting consultant’s words proved accurate. The panther who looked like an abomination of a kid’s doodling had been thrown so off-guard by the failed pounce that it failed to react in time to the threats approaching its flanks!