The Mech Touch novel Chapter 160

Joshua took down the enemy rifleman in one shot. The knight endured three more shots but fell after suffering another. The isolated artillery mech panicked after losing its companions and scurried back to base as fast as possible.

Sadly, heavy mechs tended to run at a crawl. Despite its lack of escorts, Joshua prudently slipped away. He shot five times in a single engagement and built up quite a bit of heat. His mech’s internal heat sinks absorbed most of the heat so far, so his mech maintained a low profile.

"All of that heat will spill out if I stress the Old Soul’s heat capacity."

The mech came with a very loud warning to never exceed this limit. Even if he had to let go of a juicy target, Joshua pretty much had no other choice.

He bunkered down his mech and waited patiently for the heat to disperse. Even as every other mech threw themselves into battle, the Old Soul stood as rigid as a statue, as if it knew its time hadn’t come.

"It’s different. It’s the same." He muttered. The feeling of piloting any mech designed by Chasing Clouds always enchanted him. Other models felt cold and static compared to his home town mech designer’s work. "It’s like comparing a stuffed animal to the real deal. They’re completely different even if they look the same."

While he didn’t have the luxury of experiencing the Young Blood, the Old Soul felt like an unfeeling father. Sometimes Joshua shifted his actions without explanation, or start to question things when they didn’t make any sense.

In hindsight, taking out two mechs in a matter of minutes should have been beyond him. Even with an overpowered laser rifle, a young potentate like Joshua wouldn’t be able to kill a knight so easily.

He shook his head. "This rifle is amazing. It’s able to melt through light armor in a single shot."

Every other weapon with comparable power weighed at least twice or thrice as much. The Old Soul’s highly compact laser rifle allowed Joshua to wield it with much greater ease. Compared to all of these advantages, he completely didn’t mind its limited heat capacity and enormous power drain.

Joshua resumed his hunt. He stalked towards the research institute, ignoring the couple of allies who wanted him to cover their backs. While it might help him out if he worked together with others, he kept longing for solitude.

"No one else will die if I screw up." He rationalized to himself. He frowned soon after. "It’s just a game. Who cares about others."

Regardless of the reason, Joshua preferred to move alone. He slowly reached an open park. Above the trees, a couple of aerial mechs harassed each other with largely ineffectual rifle shots. Considering the skill level of the average Silver Leaguer, Joshua expected the stalemate to continue.

"They’re not much better than I was when I started out with the Seraphim."

The main issue he had with the fight was that none of the flying mechs had the guts to close in. Joshua always learned from his tutors to be decisive and eschew battles of attrition. None of these dolts in the sky had learned proper aerial mech tactics.

His Old Soul found a convenient pile of crashed shuttles that gave it some cover against magnetic sensors. As the rifleman mech settled in, it aimed its weapon at the sky.

A minute passed by as the mech kept still. Every time Joshua wanted to pull the trigger, an impulse held him back. He somehow knew he wouldn’t be able to take out his target. They moved too fast for him to land an accurate strike. Even the Old Soul’s targeting systems strained to predict the movements of these idiotic fliers.

"My mech isn’t meant to hunt this kind of prey." Joshua painfully admitted. "They’ll swarm my position as soon as I shoot."

Flying mechs should be the Old Soul’s fatal nemesis. They moved too fast to insure that any of its rifle’s precious shots hit the mark. Even if Joshua activated the particle generator, his mech would easily be sniffed out by these perfect scouts.

Still, Joshua pushed back his unease and patiently waited for the fight to wind down. He knew that these mechs expended a lot of energy in their highly intense clash.

Just as he predicted, his side broke away first after one of their number fell. A trio of haggard-looking aerial mechs gave up on the duel and fled back to base.

The enemy team refused to let their opponents slip and chased after their prey. All of the fliers involved smoothed out their flight trajectories as they prioritized speed over evasion.

Joshua calmly tracked the opponent who lagged behind a bit due to battle damage. Once it crested over an apartment block, he fired.

The laser beam flicked out like a dark and struck the aerial mech’s flight system. A veteran pilot would never fly his mech in a straight line, but Joshua’s unfortunate victim obviously forgot that other enemies might be lurking on the battlefield.

The damaged mech lost altitude and crashed a block away from Joshua. All of the structures in the way prevented him from finishing the job. Instead, he patiently waited out the two seconds for his laser rifle to finish cycling and aimed the weapon at the faltering pursuers.

Just as they came around to the fact that they’d lost a companion, the Old Soul fired its rifle yet again. The laser beam struck the aerial mech square in its chest. Previous battle damage had already peeled away half of its layers. The beam burned through the remainder and carved a hole into the cockpit.

The dummy pilot inside the cockpit couldn’t withstand the massive amount of energy. The dummy tragically evaporated into dust.

"You cowardly sniper!" The surviving enemy pilot raged from his mech. "I know where you’re hiding. Prepare to die!"

Joshua fired twice at the incoming mech but failed to land a hit. Unlike his earlier victims, this guy remembered to dodge.

If the Old Soul possessed a normal laser rifle, then Joshua would be able to dial down the power setting and turn his rifle into a spitter. A rapid barrage of low-powered laser beams would enable him to track his opponent’s flight.

Just as the enemy flier came into spitting distance, the Old Soul’s particle generator released another charge. The thick and blurry cloud of black engulfed the flight mech in an instant. The pilot panicked a bit but quickly wrangled his mech back into control.

He guided his mech straight up in order to shake off the cloud. After gaining back some vision, the pilot tried to track down his hated opponent in order to avenge the death of his comrades.

"Where are you?!"

Had the sniper snuck away while he lost his vision? Or had the sneaky coward stayed in place, confident in the fact that no one could lay a hand on him under all of this smoke?