Gray had been fighting Yurika for over an hour straight at this point and he had yet to even scratch her, but at the very least he was able to last a bit longer than before.
Gray missed a block with his shield and Yurika managed to dig her axe into the shoulder of Gray's mech.
"Gray, you're slowing down." Yurika said.
"I'm just getting worn out, sorry."
"I think you need some proper motivation…" Yurika said playfully.
"Oh? What did you have in mind?" Gray started to already have a few thoughts come to mind that will be omitted due to trying to maintain a PG-13 rating.
"Everything that you're thinking if you manage to give me a solid hit." Yurika said with a smile.
Gray felt motivation well up inside of him that he has never felt for a very long time… motivation for the completely wrong reasons, but motivation never the less.
Gray practically roared out "OH YEAH! LET'S DO THIS!"
"That's better!" Yurika said happily.
Gray rushed Yurika again and went for a chop with his axe to try and rip her shield away from her, unfortunately Yurika's axe locked around his when she parried Gray's axe swing, then she quickly pulled her axe down and used the momentum of Gray's swing to cause his mech to stumble. As she was pulling Gray's axe away from her, she borrowed some of the momentum used to redirect Gray's axe and ended up punching the head of Gray's mech with her shield hand.
Fortunately for Gray, the head was merely the primary sensor suite so getting it punched didn't affect the performance of his mech, instead he stepped in to her mech to try and tackle her instead with his shield arm. Yurika pulled Gray's axe arm forward with the tackle, dropped her shield and hooked her free arm under Gray's axe arm to twist them around together so they both went crashing down together but with Yurika on top of Gray instead of Gray landing on top of Yurika as he had hoped.
"Not, bad, you're at least not giving up after your first plan fails. Plus I prefer top…" Yurika said. This distracted Gray as Yurika pulled out her and plunged it into the waist of Gray's mech where the engine was and watched as the power left his mech. "Again?"
"Yes!"
Yurika smiled and then both of their mech's reset.
Yurika attacked first this time and swing her axe at Gray's shield to hook just like he had done. Gray then swatted her axe away with his to redirect it the same way she did but he wasn't able to pull her forward since he didn't hook her axe like she had his. Gray thought she was stumbling like he had just done so he also tried to hook her arm with his and roll over on top of her, but Yurika wasn't stumbling and instead planted her left foot firmly to stop her forward movement. Gray's mech was still moving back slowly as he thought he was taking Yurika's mech with him in to a roll like she had done earlier, instead after planting her foot she tucked her shield close and then shield bashed Gray's mech causing his backwards momentum to increase more than expected and him stumbling back. While Gray was stumbling Yurika was able to cleave at Gray's mech with her now freed axe.
Gray lifted his shield to block her attack but forgot that he dropped it to try and hook her arm so his arm instead go chopped. It wasn't a complete chop off so his arm was still attached, but it was unusable from the elbow down. While Gray tried to stand up straight again, he gave up on his shield arm and instead swung his axe in low and up to try and reach behind Yurika's shield. Yurika merely shield-bashed his axe away while freeing her axe then used it to cleave into the side of Gray's mech. The primary power feed to Gray's left arm was cut from the engine in the waist as the sides of the torso had thinner armor than the front and back. His mech's left arm was already useless from the elbow down so cutting the primary power completely didn't affect him too much, instead he tried to hold Yurika's axe down with just his upper arm against his torso. Yurika wasn't able to pull her axe back so Gray brought his axe down on her right arm. Instead of her arm getting hacked, Yurika let go of her axe and then hip checked Gray when his axe swung down to hit nothing. Gray stumbled again and flailed his axe around in a last ditch effort to hit her. Yurika held off Gray's right arm with her shield arm as she pulled out the combat knife again and plunged it into the waist of Gray's mech, hitting the engine and disabling his mech.
Yurika's breathing had started to pick up as she said "Getting better! Again?"
"Of course!" Gray was already breathing heavily from exertion, which seemed odd since he didn't physically operate the mech. Gray realized that it was actually just his adrenaline pushing him as he found these fights to be quite exhilarating despite no risk to his life. Still, his ego was taking a bit of a blow from getting beat up over and over.
__________
Gray lost count of how many times Yurika thrashed him, but he did realize that he was getting better as he could last longer between each reset. Gray's mech was lying on its back, Yurika's mech was standing over it, her axe was buried into the chest of Gray's mech and her combat knife was even sticking out the head of his mech.
"Oh, looks like it's almost time to meet up with everyone else! You almost had me there a few times!" Yurika said while breathing heavily.
"Just… one… more… oh it's time? Let me just lay here for a bit…" Gray said, he wasn't tired despite breathing heavily, he was just disappointed that he wasn't able to land even one hit.
"Come on lazy bones! It's just mental fatigue probably, log out of the simulator and let's go!"
Gray sighed and logged out of the simulator. His eyes felt tired from looking at the simulator's screen for so long with no break so he rubbed his eyes and then stretched while yawning. He wasn't sure how, but his right eye seemed tender for some reason. Yurika walked up next to him and was stretching herself a little as well.
"Guess I should give you something for putting you through all of that…" Yurika paused for a second when she looked at Gray's face and stifled a laugh before continuing with "… that much punishment even though it was merely simulated. Carry me!"
"Really?" Gray said with a tired expression on his face.
"Yes, spoils to the victor!" Yurika said proudly.
"…Fine… I guess you could've asked for worse." Gray said then he got down on one knee and held his arms down and waited for Yurika to climb up.
Yurika pounced on Gray's back and she clung her arms around his neck while he wrapped his arms under her legs. Gray was surprised at how light she was considering how toned she was and actually enjoyed carrying her as she put her head on his shoulder.
"Gray… what are we?"
"Sorry, what was that Yurika?"
Yurika rolled her eyes but Gray couldn't see it as she was still resting her head on his shoulder as they headed towards the pilot's quarters and then Caleb's room. "What are we doing here?"
"That's kind of what I want to talk about with everyone else."
"…what if I just want to run away… would you come with me?" Yurika said sadly.
The tone in Yurika's voice hinted that she didn't really want to take part in the war which surprised him considering her personality and how good she was at it.
"I… I can't… I just feel responsible for everyone else. We've only known each other for a short time, but I feel like I can trust everyone else here with my life and if we ran away we would have nowhere to go to. I hate to admit it, but by keeping us on merits instead of any form of credit we've become dependent upon the military for now." Gray explained.
"I know, but I meant… well, nevermind, I trust everyone too even if Paul and Xyra are new to the group."
"Yes, and what I want to create is a long term plan of sorts. We've only been living day to day and if we continue to do so we'll be forever under control of the Alterran Alliance." Gray said solemnly.
"If we didn't have to fight, what would you do?" Yurika asked.
"Hmmm… honestly I'd just be happy living an ordinary life… have a kid or two, definitely a dog, would prefer to not mow the grass but it's not a deal breaker." Gray said while laughing.
"Sounds wonderful… What about a cat?"
"Cats are assholes, but sure why not if it makes the wife or kids happy."
Yurika smiled to herself as they finally reached the pilot's quarters.