With the combined attack of Leoanrd from the front and Summer from the back the last heavy knight stood little chance. Still it put up a commendable fight, holding out while trying its best to strike back at Leonard. However its fate was sealed, and after slowly grinding away at its armour Summer was able to send a ballistic round through its powercore, turning the mech dead in the water.
"Even though I saw it with my own eyes, I still don't get how you move your mech like that." Summer began as they re-entered the lobby. "A knight should not be able to move like a skirmisher. It doesn't make any sense."
"Then you just need to get better," Leonard teased, earning a dissatisfied pout in return. "I'm going to go grind some ranked games for a bit, if you don't mind."
"No no," Summer waved her hand. "I need to go sit down, the way you pilot your mech has given me a headache."
Summer logged out of her account and the simulation pod slid open. She grabbed her water bottle and chugged the rest of its contents, an enriched water with a slight strawberry flavouring.
"Hey Sum," one of the cadets she went through the Mech Corps Academy with approached as she climbed out of her pod. The academy was on holiday break, and so everyone had returned home for a week. "I saw your match up on the big screen. Who was that you were with? His movements were crazy."
"Urgh, that was my dumbass brother," she complained as he was brought up again. "I think he is just trying to show off."
"Even still it was crazy," the young man, Seth, said. "Even some of the old folks up on the balcony were talking about it."
"Huh? The elders were?" Summer looked up, and sure enough a small gathering of older members of the estate started to form, all watching a projection of Leonard's current battle. They were mainly retired veterans or active pilots stationed at the home estate. "Why are those old folk so interested?"
"Just watch and you'll find out." Summer's eyes trailed to the large screens overhead, her brother's battle having now been expanded to fill an entire screen. It looked like he was toying with his opponent, dodging and weaving through all of the saber mechs attacks before finishing the duel with on decisive powerful thrust through the enemies cockpit. "You saw that right? How he slipped the spear right through the tiniest crack and through the cockpit?"
"Yeah I did.." he had finished every opponent so far off that way, something that shouldn't be possible. The cockpit was the most protected area of a mech, even the engine was as well armoured as it. Fights often ended only when one was so badly damaged it could no longer move, fights where the cockpit were destroyed were few and far between. Especially in a 1v1 duel.
Leonard wasted no time after the battle finished, loading into another match back to back. Summer watched as his ranking quickly grew, his name moving from 1037th to 764th in record time. The estates ranking board still had records from previous generations, while the family did have a lot of active pilots it was nowhere near 1000.
Summer herself sat all the way down at 2038th place, battling for positions with other family members not yet old enough to join active service. And, to her dismay, those who were not pilots and simply played for fun.
"How is he already in the 700 hundreds? Isn't that full of Advanced pilots?" Summer asked as she watched his ranking rise. She couldn't help but feel a mix of pride and jealousy as she watched his rapid ascent. He had always been talented, she would begrudgingly admit, however it looked like she was watching her father pilot a mech again rather than a fresh pilot in their twenties.
She couldn't help but glance at the elders who had gathered up above again, all watching her brother's performance as they talked in hushed voices, eyes filled with awe and an expression she couldn't quite place. They knew something she didn't about how Leo was able to pilot his mech the way he did, however she wouldn't hold her breath waiting for them to share.
Seth gave her a nudge. "Hey, do you think your brother is using some new tech in his mech or something? Did he get those crazies from the Theocracy to share some of their tech?"
"No, I took a look at his specs before." Summer shook her head. "It's a standard model, there's nothing in there like that."
"Then how the hell is he pulling this off?"
"I don't know. Let's just keep watching, maybe we can find out."
– –
Leonard had never felt more alive as he rushed through a desert battlefield. His opponent, a ranged based mech armed with a laser rifle was playing hard to get, constantly backpedalling while taking potshots at him.
The pilot was incredibly accurate, while the rounds didn't land one on top of the other, they still burnt a tight circle into the hard platting of his shield. He was having trouble closing the distance, even with his improved piloting abilities the differences between mech model types were not so easily overcome. Especially when the enemy pilots slowly began to match his skills.
He was slowly catching up to his foe, however at the rate he was moving by the time he got within striking range he would be long dead. The enemy pilot's marksman skills were great, if he kept hitting his shots as he was now he would melt right through his armour given enough time.
If he wanted to win he would have to do something drastic, however he had still yet to figure out what that could be. His eyes scanned the terrarian, the flat open desert was broken up by the occasional sand dune, however they were not large enough to obscure his movements.
"How am I going to do this?" He racked his brain for a solution, however so far nothing worthwhile presenting itself. Strangely his mind wandered to an experience from his younger years, when he and
his father were sparring in a hand to hand combat exercise. His father had beaten him soundly, even at one point kicking up some sand and throwing it in his eyes to prove a point he had still yet to learn. A fight was never fair.
"That could do it," he thought as he watched the rifle mech run across the top of a waist high sand dune. "It's risky, but it's my only option."
Leonard dropped his shield and was instantly hit with a laser shot in the centre of his chest. His armour shrugged off the damage, however if the rifleman was able to keep it up uninhibited it would soon melt right through into his cockpit.
However he didn't plan for that to happen. He stretched his arm back, his spear pointed up at the sky while his other came forward to help him aim. He took a few running steps before he launched his spear forward towards the rifleman, the spear barreling through the air.
The rifleman easily saw it coming, simply stepping to the side and letting the spear impact the ground. However Leonard wasn't aiming at him, instead the spear hit the ground with a powerful thump, a massive explosion of sand busting out into the air.
Leonard charged forward, without his shield or spear to weigh him down his speed greatly increased, reaching the dust cloud in a flash. The rifleman for his part wasn't going to sit still and wait while his vision was obscured, rushing out the back of the plume of dust to a better position.
Leonard had expected this however, as so as he reached his spear he hefted it up and the moment he was clear of the cloud and had vision on his opponent, threw it again creating another large smoke screen.
The process repeated a few more times, Leonard constantly getting closer and closer. The rifleman returned fire as best he could, however without vision on his target most of his shots went wide, completely missing him.
Leonard retrieved his spear again, charging out the dust cloud. This time however he did not throw, now that he was close enough he simply ran down his opponent. The rifle mech pilot cursed, throwing his large laser rifle to the side and drawing out a smaller ballistic submachine gun, spraying its entire magazine at the approaching knight.
Leonard raised his remaining arm before him, letting it take the brunt of the assault. He was now within striking range, lashing out with his spear in a large swipe, only getting a shallow cut on the riflemechs leg as it dodged out of the way.
Leonard was undeterred, striking again and again. At this distance he had the upper hand, the riflemech only being able to stave off the inevitable for a short period of time. Leonard's spear caught the mech's leg again, the light armour, already having taken a beating, couldn't hold up any more, and his spear cut through it cleanly like a knife through butter. Its leg completely detached from its frame, sending the mech crashing down to the ground as it lost its balance.
"A good match." Leonard said through his mechs speaker as he pointed his spear down at the immobile rifleman.
"It certainly was," the faceless pilot responded, admitting his defeat and surrendering. "Well done, I've never seen someone do something that ballsy before."