"Mechanic my ass!" Andreas thought out loud. He strongly disagreed with that stuff. After seeing the overly weaponized mech functioning so soundly without any errors, he felt his chess tighten. His fiery gaze glued completely on the 'mechanic', not moving an inch. Clad in his vigorous competitive spirit, he could still see the top 3 in his batch within reach. The man in his sight, however, gave him the feeling that he was a human, bare naked and looking into the night sky, the stars out of his reach. What's more painful was that the 'mechanic' was of the same age as him.
"I'm gonna go to Logria.." He expressed openly.
Perched on the railings situated before the first rows of the seats, the announcer stood with great stability - his long, bright yellow hair fluttered on his back. He had a raised arm, and a finger folding with each second running out from the timer. Suddenly, without mercy, he flashed a killer smile into the crowds when his hand finally clenched into a fist.
[0:00:00]
"IT'S TIME!! THIS IS THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!! Ahem.. Ahem.." The announcer corrected his character. "Sorry about that folks. I was just carried away."
"The second and final round for our pilots! Now, this is an elimination match. If a mech is repairable, it can return to the battlefield. The pilot who has the highest kills will be the winner!"
The crowds were anxiously on their feet as the fifteen Imperator IIIs were transported into the battlefield, one at a time.
"Now we all know that Laira Runerie will plow the battlefield. It's inevitable! She will only leave debris of her competitors in the ring of death!" The announcer now had all the time to speak.
"We also saw the opposing specialists after seeing our two-eyed Imperator had their knees buckled just like our mayor in the storm!" He added.
Mayor Laging almost stood up on his seat and charge the announcer in fury.
"What do we have here?" The announcer screamed, "Cadet Felix Rubio was unfortunately transported near Laira Runerie!"
In the battlefield, the two mechs stared at each other for a moment. Both pilots were a bit confused at first, but when they realized what was happening, they immediately took to action.
"Oh! Cadet Rubio is charging forward. He does not want the two-eyed Imperator to have the space to bring out its guns!"
Laira placed the rectangular shield on the front of her mech. Cadet Rubio started firing at her with the stock rifle in a single hand and a pistol on the other hand while running forward in a zigzag movement. All the energy blast harmlessly dispersed upon impact on the shield.
The Runerie was carefully instructed by Sy. When the reactor overheat, she could incessantly fire at will, using the laser cannons and the energy turrets as exhaust pipes. However, she shouldn't let the reactor reach below the normal temperature or it will stabilize.
She only had the conventional cannons, but refused to use them. The HE or high explosive shells will give away her position. As such, she waited for Rubio to get closer.
When the opposing mech got closer, it circled around trying not to be a stationary target. Laira only tracked him, rotating her mech on its feet all the while facing the mobile mech.
As Rubio became more relax when Laira did not show any signs of engaging her guns, he suddenly became tense when the heavily armed mech charged with surprising speed and intercepted his course. The rectangular shield slammed into his mech, and with the mass and momentum of the two-eyed Imperator, his mech was thrown away into the base of a giant cliff.
"Shit!" Rubio cursed as his mech just got up and once again slammed by the shield, pinning him into the wall.
Laira started stabbing with her short sword repeatedly. Some penetrated through the armor, skewering components, while others harmlessly grazed against the armor. When Rubio's mech limped and then disappeared hinting an elimination, she sheathed the short sword and picked up her rifle, proceeding to look for a higher ground.
"Murder! Laira just murdered Rubio in plain sight!" The announcer shouted in delight, earning the disapproval of Rubio's crowd while the audience from Logria loved it.
The light-blue haired teenager reached a good elevation, overlooking the surrounding area. She activated her sensors, and almost immediately, ten mechs were highlighted on the vicinity, just behind two rocky hills.
'There are five on the left and another five on the right.' Laira stared at her scanners. When she saw no sign of fighting, she muttered, "I see.."
Planting her rectangular shield, she smiled upon seeing the state of the reactor on her screen. Her disengaged guns began to rise up as she opened her comms, and stated, "Who wants to be first?"
Sy installed a more challenging Targeting System for skilled pilots. A predictive AI would suggest multiple areas depending on the target's movement. On Laira's screen, she could see that the AI suggested only one spot for each mech, hinting her that these mechs had no intention from coming out of their hiding spot.
"Left or right?" Laira mused on the comms, and then decided in a sinister tone, "Left and right!"
All of her guns divided their attention between the two directions and with her permission, unleashed a barrage of destruction.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Subsequent explosions erupted as the two laser cannons were switched to single burst and easily disintegrated the rocky hills' structure.
The open channel burst into a series of panic.
[Break contact!]
[We're pinned!]
[F***ck!]
Laira did not stop even when a small resistance began. Some of them fired their rifles, but could only hit the rectangular shield placed at her fore. With a good defensive position and the advantage of high ground, she used the other guns as distractions while she reserved the two laser cannons in sniping the ones who abandoned their cover.
[Moving to flanking position!]
[Cover me!]
Communication had always been crucial in battle. For instance, the blitzkrieg need close coordination in order to achieve its intended surprise and speed. Unfortunately for the bombarded pilots below, this was a battle royale and their Comms were only meant for open channel, and Laira could hear all of their plots. Without this, they could have been more effective as a team.
One by one they fell as their cover was completely shredded into nothing. Only one mech was left, dragging another mech into a protective cluster of huge rocks.
"Griles!" Laira recognized the armoured mech and retrieved the shield before hopping down.
Griles could only laugh as he turned his mech around. Upon seeing the two-eyed Imperator with all of its vicious weapons directed at him, he let go of his downed comrade and raised both hands, "Common, missy. It was just a small talk."
"Griles.. Griles, boyyo. You should have watched your mouth." Laira let go of the rifle, and retrieved a javelin from the shield.
"That's an ugly weapon, missy." Griles shook in laughter as the flashes of his elimination occured to him.
Laira had never thrown a pilum before, but Sy had added a function which would assist in every movement that's needed to perform it.
Like a Legionary throwing a pilum before battle, she flung the weapon in the air. The projectile directly pierced through the thick armour before bending at a right angle.
Seeing the damage on his screens, Griles tried to remove the weapon but it was stuck. When he returned his sight on Laira, the teenager fired all her weapons and obliterated his mech on the spot.
A satisfied smile appeared on the teenager's face before explosions appeared in the distance. The Runerie glanced at her scanners and saw one mech. It was in the air. With her reactor on its normal temperature, Laira slowly made her way to her next target, patiently building more power. As soon as it started heating up, she up the pace.
The two mechs met on the center of the battlefield. Laira's mech was standing on an open area. When she started tracking the aviator, it started weaving in the air in an evasive maneuver. She started firing, the AI targeting was giving her more suggestions, and confused her a bit.
As she unload a torrent of all kind of projectiles, the aviator barely managed to dodge.
"What grace! What movement by the aviator!" The announcer praised.
Instead of cheering, the audience from Pyr Prime, held on to their chair, with their bodies stiff from anticipation, as their pilot desperately cling for life.
"Shit! My evasion module can't keep up with the incoming projectiles. It's like she's getting used to my dodging pattern." The aviator cursed.
"He's gonna go!" The announcer chanted, followed by the crowd from Logria.
"Tch!" Laira had gotten bored, and instead, designated each of her weapons on every predicted movement of the flyer. With a squeeze, she saw the flying mech hit by an energy blast, and started spiralling down.
"HE'S GONNA GO!" A unison of voices echoed in the amphitheatre.
Laira was not done yet and fired at the crashing machine. Before it could even reach the ground, it exploded into bits as a destructive barrage intercepted it in the air.
"Noooooo!" Dylan Pierre roared as their mech can no longer be repaired.
"Logria's mechanic has toppled the mechs of the specialists!" The hype was at its height as the announcer kept screaming.
The specialists could only throw a resentful look at the announcer. One could not take it any more and shouted, "Somebody change that announcer!"
"Yeah!" Mayor Laging stood up in full agreement, but when the crowd from Logria glared at his direction, he collapsed back on his chair.