The Mech Touch

The match between the Valkyrie Redeemer and the Frokyn was close!

Both mechs circled around in the air and clashed against each other, attempting to slam their weapons into each other's frames.

Each time they closed in, the audience clenched their fists and gritted their teeth. They cheered whenever the Valkyrie Redeemer incurred a serious blow. They groaned or shouted their dismay any time the Frokyn received a serious wound.

Overall, the energy of the crowd see-sawed so frequently that it was as if they were all affected by the Ferocious Piranha's glow!

Even Ves felt a bit nervous about the outcome of this battle. The Valkyrie Redeemer was one of his great successes and the mech that best represented his mother. It lost a bit unjustly in the first phase, so he hoped it would be able to make a comeback in the second phase.

"It's close." Vincent commented as he became engaged at how the mechs were fighting each other. "I don't know too much about the mechs, but I can tell the mech pilots are treating this like a high-stakes match. They don't want to lose, so they don't dare to pull off any daring moves. They just want to grind each other down. It won't end until one of the mechs falters."

This was an approach that removed many variables from play. Instead of using their wits and the special capabilities of their mechs to outmaneuver each other, Mireilla Linschoten and Carter Day both chose to fight each other in one of the simplest and most straightforward methods.

The only variables that mattered was their skill along with the resilience of their mechs!

Their skill was roughly even. Both of them were experienced mercenary mech pilots. While neither Mireilla nor Carter received any elite training, they invested decades into polishing their fundamental skills, allowing them to perform quite well even if they piloted relatively unfamiliar mechs.

That left the mechs. This was where the real differences lay.

The Valkyrie Redeemer lost badly the last time and still suffered the consequences for it. Its reduced performance and patched armor left it in a relatively dire state. Mireilla constantly had to employ caution in order to prevent a single strike from damaging a critical component!

Yet the mech was still putting up a good fight regardless. Its spear granted the mech a longer reach than its opponent, thereby granting the metallic mech an inherent advantage in performing its attack runs.

Second, Mireilla constantly became more in tune with her mech.

Unlike Carter Day who only formed a shallow relationship with the Valkyrie Redeemer, Mireilla became increasingly more in tune with the mech.

She was not a Hexer. Far from it. She was loyal to the Life Research Association and had no intentions of changing that. Yet that did not prevent her from getting charmed by the mech she piloted.

"No mech has made me feel as strong as this one!"

She was just a regular mercenary before this duel. The Valkyrie Redeemer impressed her because of its significantly higher specs compared to the mercenary mechs she piloted before.

Even in a damaged condition, the Valkyrie Redeemer could still beat the mechs she utilized before!

She never piloted a mech this good outside simulations. The power she wielded and the additional systems at her disposal caused her to become more and more enamoured with piloting the Valkyrie Redeemer.

What was even more fascinating to her was how the mech responded so well to her. The Valkyrie Redeemer seemed to possess a mind of its own. In fact, she felt as if there were two minds. One of them allowed her to forge a closer connection to her mech while the other one was vastly more profound than anything she had felt before.

When she tentatively deepened her bond with the latter, she became more and more in awe. The more she reached out, the more she came in touch with. There was an endless depth to this indescribable bond that completely fascinated her but miraculously did not distract her from the battle.

"Is this what it is like to be a Hexer?" She asked herself.

She felt as if she was caught up by an enormous wave of Hexer-ness for a lack of a better description. Whenever she reached out with her mind, she felt as if she became more inured with values associated with strong and assertive women.

"Women are better."

"Women must take the lead."

"Women cannot lose."

Her mind began to resonate with these ideas. Even though Lifers like her were raised to view reality in a grounded and objective perspective, her irrational side found a great amount of comfort and agreement with these Hexer values.

Why should she lose this battle?

She won with the Frokyn before! Was she destined to lose because she hit the Valkyrie Redeemer a little too hard the previous match?

"It's not fair!"

She was a winner! She refused to concede against Carter Day. Even though he respected her opponent, it did not change the fact that she thought she was better.

"If my Valkyrie Redeemer was in the same condition as the Frokyn, then I would have won by now!"

This was not an idle boast. The performance of her current mech fell below that of the Frokyn, yet she was holding her ground just fine so far. Her skill expression slowly rose over time as she became increasingly more familiar with the Valkryrie Redeemer in multiple ways.

Clang!

The Frokyn managed to chop apart the shield held by the Valkyrie Redeemer! Axes were highly suited to destroy shields to begin with and Carter Day already knew that he had to get rid of this obstacle in order to launch a fatal blow against the Valkyrie Redeemer.

However, Mireilla Linschoten wasn't stupid. She always knew that the shield wouldn't be able to last the fight. It was not a thick and sturdy tower shield that was designed to withstand immense bombardment. It was more of a delaying tool that could be utilized to make favorable trades.

This time was no different. When the Frokyn exerted itself in an attempt to chop apart the shield, the Valkyrie Redeemer thrust forward and stabbed its spear into the abdomen!

A spout of purple blood sprayed from the wound as the spear retracted from the flesh. Scabs hastily formed over the nasty wound, preventing the organic machine from leaking out more blood, but the damage was already done!

The Frokyn became a bit less responsive. Although the wound hadn't struck anything critical, it still interfered with the functioning of the biomech. Dr. Navarro began to look quite concerned as he observed the match!

The successful blow inflated Mireilla Linschoten's confidence. Her momentum increased and her fit with her mech increased even further!

This allowed the Superior Mother to exert even more influence over the mech. When Ves prepared this specific machine, he already tweaked its spiritual design and warned the design spirit that the mech pilot deserved extra care.

As a maternal spirit, the Superior Mother excelled at giving care, especially towards those that helped out her son!

Ves could see what she was doing. His spiritual senses noticed the increased activity from the Valkyrie Redeemer.

His face grew a little grave when he noticed what was happening.

He hadn't prompted the Superior Mother to do anything throughout the entire match, but his helpful 'mother' took the initiative to intervene on her own accord!

The difference became increasingly more telling. The strength of the Valkyrie Redeemer's glow grew stronger. Even with its ruined head, the Hexer mech was still radiating a sharp glow onto the Frokyn, which exerted more and more psychological pressure on its mech pilot.

Even though Carter Day knew quite sure that this was not a death match, he could not get rid of the sense of impending doom!

"No wonder the Fridaymen all hate this mech! The Valkyrie Redeemer is truly difficult to fight against!"

His responses became less tight and his mech began to incur more stab wounds. Even though the difference was relatively minor, he felt increasingly more pressed to keep up his performance.

"Get down already!" Linschoten shouted as her spear seemed to possess a touch of brilliance as it whipped past the Frokyn's axe and punctured a shoulder!

Though the wound inflicted by the Valkyrie Redeemer was fairly shallow, it was nonetheless a concerning attack because a follow-up strike might very well be able to knock out one of the Frokyn's arms!

The biomech was not harmless, however. Even as Carter Day came under increasing pressure, he became more determined to end the match before his mech reached the point of failure!

"I can't let you grow any further!"

The match suddenly heated up as Carter recognized that time would only make the Valkyrie Redeemer stronger instead of the opposite. He had to cut this strange growth process short by attempting to chop down the Valkyrie Redeemer sooner!

The Frokyn no longer made any sparing attack runs. Instead, it flew forward and attempted to stick close to the Valkyrie Redeemer!

Its weapon might have a shorter reach, but that meant it would definitely be able to savage the Valkyrie Redeemer up close!

Linschoten knew this well. Under her direction, the Valkyrie Redeemer frantically stabbed its spear whenever the biomech attempted to get closer.

More puncture wounds adorned the Frokyn's surface as it tried and failed to get past the guard of the spear-wielding mech!

The spear held in the Valkyrie Redeemer's hand was like a wall that blocked the biomech's path. The Frokyn had no choice but to face the spear attacks head-on in an attempt to get closer, and that made it extremely difficult for it to get past this challenge.

Eventually, Carter Day decided to throw caution to the wind.

"I'll accept any blow as long as I can get close enough to hack at you with my axe!"

The Frokyn fearlessly dashed forward! It held its axe in a blocking manner in an attempt to guard its chest, but the spear that snaked forward keenly avoided every obstacle and stabbed deep in the already-wounded abdomen of the biomech!

Yet no matter how serious this injury appeared, the Frokyn succeeded in getting close!

Its biometal axe is already chopped down like a descending moon. The air whipped as the sharp and resilient axe blade hungered to split apart the chest plating of the Valkyrie Redeemer!

Yet just before the axe was close to doing so, the Valkyrie Redeemer abruptly detonated its last Starburst grenade while simultaneously activating its strongest Shock and Awe Pulse yet! More raw power had been pumped into the latter than ever before, causing Carter Day to be blanked for a small moment before he regained his wits.

The Valkyrie Redeemer's spear was still thrust into the abdomen of the Frokyn, but the mech that previously held the weapon was gone from its place!

"Where!?" Carter became alarmed. The Frokyn's axe cut through empty air, signalling that its opponent was truly gone. "Wait a second…"

The sense of doom that was directed towards him no longer came from the front.

Instead, it came from below!

It turned out that the Valkyrie Redeemer cut off its propulsion at the same time it activated its close-ranged counter-measures!

This caused the mech to lose altitude for just a moment until its flight system came online again. Mireilala Linschoten pumped more power into the flight system than ever before, causing it to rise up just enough to empower her next blow!

"This is the end!" She yelled as her will seemed to echo with her mech and the spirit that was supporting her from behind!

The Valkyrie Redeemer's backup knife rapidly rose up from between the legs of the Frokyn before sinking straight into the crotch of the biomech!

More purple blood leaked out from the mech than ever before as the spear dug deep into the flesh and internals in its way!

The Frokyn suffered a terrible blow!

Carter screamed, and so did much of the audience!