The Mech Touch novel Chapter 97

The second duel commenced. Cadet Lovejoy became accustomed to the anomalous sensations and brushed them off as inconsequential ghosts. Instead, he focused his attention on the state of his mech.

His mouth curled out. "I like my designer more and more. My armor is back to its shiny state."

His Sword Dancer gripped its sword in anticipation of the next fight. Lovejoy hoped his opposition had more bite this time. The last duel was too disgraceful for him to feel any pride.

The darkness receded, revealing a normal suburban environment. Small houses and municipal parks dotted the arena. The obstacles were tall enough to hinder a mech but short enough to avoid blocking their view. It was a tricky environment that favored ranged weapons.

"Over there!" He said as he zeroed in on his opposition. It turned out to be a light harasser, a mech that specialized in running rings around melee mechs like his Sword Dancer. "Damn, this one’s a challenge."

The only thing hopeful about his second duel was that the light mech sustained a lot of damage. Even after receiving some repairs, it still suffered moderate damage to its torso where an artillery shell must have exploded.

"I can use that to my advantage."

Lovejoy moved the sword back to its place and retrieved the flimsy little laser pistol again. He felt a little depressed that he couldn’t showcase his swordsmanship and instead had to rely on his pitiful backup weapon. Still, against a mech that moved faster than him, he’d be a fool to chase the enemy.

The light harasser responded first by firing its light laser rifle at him. The firing rate of the weapon was high, but the power behind each laser beam was lackluster. Even if the Sword Dancer received hits, it did not affect its integrity at all due to the strength of its compressed armor.

Ignoring the intermittent damage for now, the Sword Dancer closed the distance. While the light harasser tried to maintain the distance, the complex environment did not always make that possible.

While any mech possessed sufficient force to crash through any residential home, such an act slowed it down while also incur some minor damage. For a fragile mech that prized its mobility, that was unacceptable.

"Get back here you chicken!" Lovejoy yelled over the comm as he started firing his pistol.

While its power paled in comparison to the rifle in the harasser’s hands, the light mech’s armor could not withstand too many hits. Lovejoy carefully paced his shots in order to avoid overheating the pistol. He aimed specifically at the light mech’s damaged torso in order to exacerbate its internal damage.

Thus, the two mechs engaged in a lengthy shootout. The rate of fire slowed down for both mechs once their weapons overheated. The laser rifle held an advantage in that aspect as the larger weapon dispersed its heat much better. The Sword Dancer started to accumulate a lot more damage than its opponent.

"Man, this is why I hate light mechs." Lovejoy complained and let loose a few more curses when a lucky laser beam shot a portion of his mech’s damaged leg.

The light mech noticed that the Sword Dancer’s legs were slimmer than normal and therefore focused much of his firepower there. The devastating hit damaged some internals which abruptly reduced the speed of Lovejoy’s mech.

"C’mon! How is that discount laser rifle able to get past my armor!"

The tables turned a minute later. Though the Sword Dancer’s legs started to get chewed up, the pistol finally achieved a promising result. The latest low-powered beam that escaped the pistol managed to penetrate the scorched section of the light mech’s torso. All of the successive hits to that area paid off.

The light mech toppled over as its power reactor initiated an emergency shutdown. The enemy pilot quickly signalled his surrender before Lovejoy could unleash a few more shots.

In truth, if both mechs were in their peak condition, the Sword Dancer would have lost. The slower medium mech had no way of catching up to a light mech piloted by someone competent. While its laser rifle might be a light variant, it still functioned as a primary weapon. The backup laser pistol wielded by the Sword Dancer could not compare.

"Truly fate smiles on me again." Lovejoy smirked as he realized this disparity. He won a match that he should have lost. "Bad luck for you. Try to keep your mech in better shape next time!"

Still, with the Sword Dancer’s half-mangled leg, he risked suffering the same situation in his next duel. He hoped his designer could fix up the leg with the remaining time available. His shootout against the light mech expended a lot of time.

In fact, Ves already started to feel depressed. While lasers might not be the most optimal weapon to chew through armor, once it got past the layer of protection, they were capable of dealing immense damage.

The abrupt transfer of energy wrecked or melted a lot of vulnerable little components near the area struck by the beam. Some cables and tiny components vaporized entirely, while more distant parts only suffered from the symptoms of extreme overheating. In a practical perspective, these half-molten parts might as well not be functional anymore.

For a proper repair job, Ves needed to clean up all of the damage no matter how lightly they got off.

"I only have one-and-a-half hour left. That’s not enough to repair the entire leg."

Technicians hated these kinds of repair jobs. While Ves was lucky that the internal frame didn’t sustain any substantial damage, sorting out all of the tiny components and replacing them took a lot of tedium. He also had to set aside the other damage the mech sustained.

"I bet this QuickForge bucket can automate the repairs." Ves boldly guessed. The amount of automation packed in the machine could fill an entire library of books. He refused to believe the machine had to be operated manually to this degree. "They likely turned off the easy mode so mech designers like me have to work for our results."

With no other alternative, Ves helplessly started to repair the leg. He tried to save as much time as possible by ripping out entire chunks of machinery. He cared little whether the things he removed were functional or not. As far as he was concerned, the proximity to excessive heat had compromised them all. Testing out each component’s integrity took too much time.

"Now I have to fabricate and put back the replacements."

Most of the internal portions consisted of simple parts like cables, bolts and other miscellaneous things. They were simple parts that required very little thought in their production. The real challenge started when he had to put the parts back into the hollowed-out leg.

Ves had the mistaken impression that he was playing a puzzle in the highest difficulty. Sometimes he had to stuff the parts through an obstacle in order to put it in its rightful place. He prioritized speed over caution, which did not help much with the repairs as other parts sometimes got bent out of shape.

As the clock started to expire, Ves rushed his repairs and even started to slip up here and there. The damage he inadvertently caused affected the leg only marginally, but at least he was able to put replacement armor back into place.

"Alright! Let the third duels commence!"

Cadet Lovejoy had not fully recovered from his last match when he was thrown back into the Sword Dancer. The extended duel frustrated him. When his consciousness fully grasped his mech, he quickly inspected the damage.

He clicked his teeth. "The leg looks better, but not at its best. My armor coverage is still the same."

The spread-out laser shots also scorched the Sword Dancer’s other sections aside from the legs. Though they did not penetrate the compressed armor, they still weakened it substantially.