The Mech Touch novel Chapter 98

Ves imagined that others had it worse. He certainly didn’t envy the designer of the knight his mech faced in the previous duel. Repairing a submerged mech took a lot of time, perhaps days to get it right.

"Well, at least my mech has more working parts than broken ones. A busted head and an amputated arm is nothing to speak of after the third duel."

The competitions in the past had shown that results diverged wildly in the second round. The consecutive duels tested the skill of both the designer and the pilot. If either of them were not up to standard, the damage accumulated pretty fast, to the point of making the mech a derelict.

Only a gifted designer like Carter Gauge or a talented pilot like Richard Lovell could turn around this convention.

The duel above the frozen lake lasted a long time. The extreme thermal conditions that simulated a frozen planet environment played havoc with the internals, especially since the armor lost its weather-sealing capabilities in the previous duels. The rapid transition from hot to cold strained the more sensitive components.

"I don’t have time to fix up the internals. My mech is has enough redundancies so that a couple of faulty components won’t break the mech."

Ves only had a limited time to fix up the arm and head. In his view, both of them had the same priority, but he decided to start with the arm.

"Fortunately, it’s a clean cut. I don’t have to sort out the damage components."

Forging a replacement arm did not take a lot of time. As all of the internals had to be made from scratch, Ves did not have to resort to stuffing new parts in an existing space. It only took about thirty minutes to create a new arm, and an additional ten minutes to add the accompanying compressed armor.

That left him with just enough time to sort out the head. The deformed head posed some difficulties to Ves. He did not have enough time to fabricate an entirely new head. Instead, he put his jury-rigging skill to good use. He cut off the deformed section and cleaned up as much damage as he could. After fabricating a replacement sensor module, he carefully put it inside.

He flash-forged a hastily designed mask and put it over the hollow front of the head. The Sword Dancer appeared creepy now, but what mattered the most to Ves was that the sensors were operational now. The mask might not provide a lot of protection, but it was better than keeping the entire head exposed.

"It’ll do."

Time ran out before Ves could do much more. He really did not feel comfortable releasing a substandard mech from his embrace. Having gotten used to the MTA’s strict standards, it was against his conscience to deliver a piece of junk to a pilot.

When Lovejoy connected to the mech for the final time, he also felt let down by its damaged state. "The arm is alright, but the rest of the frame is still degraded."

He sighed a little as he got used to his mech’s deteriorated performance. "I know it’s been hard on you, pal, but you’ve got one fight left to go. Don’t disappoint the crowd."

Through luck and skill, he already eked out three marvellous victories. According to past trends, he should have reached the top 25 so far, but only at the bottom of the list. One loss might knock him down enough to miss to incredible opportunity to participate in the final round.

"There’s no way I’m going to miss this chance. Fame, riches and more awaits me." Lovejoy grinned as he daydreamed about all the amazing luxuries he could finally enjoy. "Hopefully my final opponent is a mech in a worse shape than mine."

The match started when the environment finished materializing. It turned out to be a hilly prairie. Vast green fields only interrupted by vision-obstructing hills encompassed Lovejoy’s view. The beauty of the environment masked a deadly undercurrent.

Such a wide open environment with rolling hills and no other obstacles provided ranged mechs with an ideal shooting environment. Lovejoy lowered his mech’s stance so that it wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb too much. As the Sword Dancer climbed its way up a nearby hill, his hastily repaired sensors pinged when it detected a very powerful heat source.

"What. The. Hell." Lovejoy uttered when he saw what made his sensors go mad. "How much energy does it take to keep that thing afloat?!"

What Cadet Lovejoy encountered was the now-infamous Pterodactyl. Outside the arena, much of the crowd’s attention got drawn to the gigantic flying mech. This strange and extremely powerful beast mech stomped over its opponent through superior range and overwhelming armor ever since it came from the hand of one of the competition’s most popular contestant.

"Looks like Ves Larkinson’s swordman mech is matched up against Carter Gauge’s Pterodactyl." _{fгeewebnovёl.com}

"Better call the undertaker, because this poor little sword-wielding mech stands no chance against Gauge’s brilliant work."

"Ordinarily you’d think so, but the Pterodactyl suffered a lot of damage back in its third duel. I’m kind of hopeful for the mech called the Sword Dancer to be honest."

"Are you blind? That dinky little medium mech only has a laser pistol! How many times does he have to shoot until the Pterodactyl’s armor get scratched?"

"Anything can happen, baby. Even Gauge can’t work miracles. The Pterodactyl’s bottom armor still has holes."

Ves learned that Gauge met a strong opponent for the third duel. His mech fought hard and finally overpowered the enemy cannoneer at a substantial cost. While the flying mech’s armor could take a lot of damage, it also made it hard to replace if time was short.

Much of the armor on the Pterodactyl had not been treated with the fanciest techniques. This meant that the Sword Dancer’s backup weapon stood a tiny chance of inflicting major damage.