The Mech Touch novel Chapter 238

The second round commenced after various bots cleaned up all the debris from the pressurized arena ring. Two very different aquatic mechs emerged from the hatches.

The Cava City Sea Dragons sent out a stubby eel-like mech. The announcers already laid out their predictions.

"Slippery Winston has entered the stage! Will the third-strongest member of the Sea Dragons deliver another victory for his team?"

"Not very likely in my eyes, as the Velton Myrmidons mean business this time! Look who they brought into the ring!"

The Myrmidon supporters among the crowd erupted in support of the mech athlete who entered.

"Firebreather! Firebreather! Firebreather!"

Unlike other aquatic mechs, Firebreather’s mech took on a shape that didn’t resemble any terrestrial animals. From the commentary the announcers provided, Ves learned that the designer adopted an original shape that didn’t resemble any Terran or exo creature.

If Ves had to describe Firebreather’s mech, he’d say it resembled an octagonal honeycomb. Its symmetrical angular sides all featured octagonal-shaped armor plating. Besides functioning as modular armor, the armor plating also camouflaged the placements of thrusters, boosters and weapon hardpoints.

The logic of its unusual design became evident once the round commenced. The eel mech approached the octagon mech, slithering forth with electric grace. Sparks of current ran throughout its frame, making it obvious that tangling with it up close was a bad idea.

Slippery Winston started off the engagement by launching a pair of high-powered harpoons at the octagon mech. Both of them puncturered through the octagon mech’s relatively weak plating.

"Firebreather got harpooned! But will it stick?"

A strong current ran through the cables between the harpoons and the eel mech. Yet before it could do much damage, a spark of liquid heat erupted from the affected side of the octagon mech. The cables melted apart, freeing Firebreather from the electric attack.

The octagon mech started to spin a bit and present an undamaged side to the eel mech. Its strange shape gave the mech a lot of options as it possessed an array of weapons and thrusters at each side. Constraints in disposable space limited their power, but the enormous redundancy gave the mech a lot of options.

Not content to sit back and let Slippery Winston out of his grasp, Firebreather sent his mech forward and fired off volleys of short-ranged heat attacks.

Even if Slippery Winston gained his fame for his ability to dodge all kinds of attacks, the wide area heat sprays proved extremely difficult to avoid. His eel mech specialized in agility, but its top speed left something to be desired.

"It’s like a battle between a striker and a skirmisher." Raella noted. "Except this skirmisher is a little slow."

"It’s hard to design an aquatic mech that can go faster under these circumstances."

Mech designers had to allocate an exponential amount of power to mobility if they wished to make an aquatic mech go faster. Thus, most deep sea designs emphasized agility and power over pure speed.

Right now, Slippery Winston’s eel mech started to looked cooked as its armor plating started to break down from the continuous exposure to heat. The duellist of the Sea Dragons attempted to fight back by launching harpoons and missiles, but the octagon mech’s ridiculous amount of redundancy made it look like they fell into an endless hole.

"This match is over." Ves predicted. He could tell that the eel mech didn’t have much in store except to go all in.

Ordinarily, such a move would be best as it could use its deadly electrical currents to fry its prey from within.

Slippery Winston must have realized his predicament. As his eel mech started to get cornered, he finally stopped avoiding the attacks and dove head-first into the octagon mech.

"Oh, Winston is going in! Will this be the end?"

"He’s falling right into Firebreather’s hands!"

The octagon mech blasted out a giant spray of heated liquids that struck the eel mech head-on. The sheer amount of heat distorted the water around them, but Ves could see that Slippery Winston cleverly rotated his mech to spread the damage over its frame.

However, the octagon mech kept pumping out a constant torrent of thermal energy. Firebreather decided to dump his full arsenal at this moment, which rapidly degraded Winston’s mech.

Yet the eel mech still persisted under these circumstances. It used the tail end of its frame to lash against the octagon mech, smashing aside the armor at those spots.

The two mechs continued to batter at each other, hoping to force their opponent to concede first. The contest of endurance turned into a contest of wills. Whoever lost their nerve first would be savaged by the pumped up crowd!

Even Raella clenched her fists at the action underneath their floating room. "Get closer!"

"I can’t. There’s too many rooms in the way!"

A whole pile of floating rooms had congregated around the side where the fighting took place. The VIPs all wanted to get close to see the outcome of this decisive moment with their very own eyes.

Moments like these reminded Ves why he adored mechs. The visceral combat stimulated the primitive part of his brain that craved for blood. For all humanity pretended to be civilized, deep down they still let themselves be ruled by the instincts that evolution had been slow to erase.

The sense that he lost his purpose started to fade as he got caught up in the fight. He made an important realization during this match.

"Mechs embody violence."