The Mech Touch

"That Commander Sendra of yours acted a bit too excessively this time." Angelique Harcourt spoke as she met with Ketis back at her villa at the end of the day. "The more traditional swordmasters frown upon showboating. Her conduct towards her opponent this afternoon is disrespectful. With their skills, she could have defeated her foe in an upright manner. There was no need for your superior to demean someone weaker. The poor man's career is pretty much over given how widely his humiliating defeat has spread."

Ketis sheepishly shrugged. "For what it's worth, I agree with you, but Commander Sendra has a mind of her own. None of us except Venerable Dise can rein her in, and even then it won't do much. She chose to win the match in the most attention-grabbing way possible, and she definitely succeeded in that. The amount of attention we've received is at least two orders of magnitude greater than before!"

Commander Sendra's stunts were very controversial to the more conservative and traditional swordmasters. There were plenty of snobby Heavensworders who thought that Sendra acted dishonorably by failing to treat her opponent with respect.

Good sportsmanship entailed fostering a circumstance where every participant benefited by taking part. A loss should only signify an end to someone's journey in the tournament. It should not be a punishment where the loser was humiliated in front of a crowd of billions if not trillions of spectators!

A lot of matches took place each day. The Greater Omanderie Festival was a truly massive event that offered something to every Heavensworder.

Initially, the number of people who paid attention to this specific match only numbered in the tens of thousands. Most of the broadcasts focused on the exploits of the seeded contestants and particularly interesting dark horses.

Yet the manner in which Sendra's mech defeated its opponent was so newsworthy that all of the domestic and foreign news portals that covered the event broadcasted the highlights of the match in front of a huge audience!

The publicity generated by this match exceeded the efforts of every other Swordmaiden by at least a hundred times!

As it turned out, there were plenty of people who loved the theatrics!

It took a lot of skill and cunning to steal an opposing swordsman mech's weapon. Sendra definitely proved that she was by no means weak.

As long as at least some of these people looked Commander Sendra up, they would eventually know about the Swordmaidens.

Once they found out that the Swordmaidens were accepting recruits, a small proportion of eligible swordswomen might be interested enough to apply!

While the number of applicants was still low in absolute terms, the trend was much more optimistic than before. The Swordmaidens came a lot closer to accomplishing its goal of recruiting at least a thousand battle-ready swordsman mech pilots than before!

Ketis admired Sendra's decision. The Swordmaiden Commander prioritized the greater needs of the Swordmaidens over her personal honor.

Angelique was right that Sendra could have won the match in a more normal fashion. Yet matches like these where two honorable swordsman mechs hacked their swords at each other until one side succumbed happened all the time.

The highlights of Sendra's match would have never reached such a massive audience if it depicted a fight that was indistinguishable from the thousands that had already occurred that day!

Angelique Harcourt crossed her arms as she leaned against a pillar. She observed Ketis with a critical eye as the latter tossed some stones into a fish pond.

"I really don't know what to make of your group of women." The Journeyman sighed. "On one hand, I sense a true warrior spirit in each of you. On the other hand, your conduct and your choices make it clear that you Swordmaidens are not as honorable as the rest of the Larkinson Clan."

"We're different. Honor is great and all, but surviving and succeeding are more important. We have fought against plenty of honorable soldiers who ultimately died at our hands."

"Does that mean you don't care about your honor at all?" Angelique looked puzzled.

"We care about our reputation."

"Is that not the same?"

Ketis shook her head as she tossed in her next stone. Different from the last ones, her latest rock didn't skip across the surface. Instead, it cut straight into the water and almost cut one of the placidly-swimming fishes!

"Honor is a luxury that we don't deserve. Sure, it's useful and all, but to Swordmaidens like us, it isn't necessary. You have never been in our position so you don't know what it is like to do what is necessary to stay alive."

"I don't understand. What does this have to do with reputation?"

"We are cruel to our enemies but kind to our friends." Ketis smiled. "There is no need to show any mercy to our opponents. That just makes things worse for us. Maybe it sounds selfish to you, but we really can't be bothered with all of the pretentious behavior that is associated with honorable conduct. When we want to achieve something, we'll accomplish it in the most effective way possible."

"And that has led Commander Sendra to turn herself into one of the more notorious competitors?

"We don't care for our reputation in the Heavensword Association. We'll be leaving once this tournament is over, hopefully with lots of like-minded recruits in tow. We aren't looking to recruit any goody two shoes anyway. We like practical women who aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty when the situation calls for it. There's enough room for those types of soldiers in the rest of the Larkinson Clan."

The more time she spent with the Swordmaidens, the more Angelique learned about this peculiar group of women.

As a mech designer who grew up in the Heavensword Association for her entire life, Angelique became immersed in a very upright culture that prized honor and mutual respect.

Some aspects about their culture ran counter to the prevailing notions in the rest of Majestic Teal, but the Heavensworders didn't care about that. The founders of their state were old-school warriors who wanted to start a purer warrior society than the glory-obsessed Garlen Empire.

As much as she was interested in exploring an alternate mindset, Angelique was too attached to her state to adopt the Swordmaiden way.

Intriguing though they might be, the Swordmaidens were only guests. Just as Ketis had said, she and her fellow sisters would leave once their participation in the tournaments ended.

The next day, the personal combat tournaments began their next round of matches.

This time, the top team of Swordmaidens were preparing to fight a group match against a formidable opponent.

The stakes were higher now that Commander Sendra attracted so much attention to herself and the Swordmaidens. It became more important than ever to plan their approach and agree on their conduct.

"Each of you have studied the documents on our next opponents, I hope." Commander Sendra spoke as she stood in front of Ketis and three other veteran Swordmaidens. "The so-called Fortune Belters consist of locals who are not pushovers by any means. While they are not a match against the teams of seeded competitors, they are still good in their own right."

"I've studied all of their prior matches." Another Swordmaiden said. "They're stronger than the riffraff we faced before. They are all skilled in individual combat but their teamwork isn't as good as ours."

Sendra shook her head. "That's what they want you to think."

"Are they trying to say they are faking it? That's.. difficult to believe. The Fortune Belters have already fought a hard match."

"The Fortune Belters are too fishy for me to believe that they have shown their full strength already. I highly suspect that they are holding back. To what extent, I don't know, but I can just feel that they have let go of a lot of opportunities in order to draw less attention at the beginning."

A few Swordmaidens frowned. Now that Commander Sendra pointed this out, the others were also able to recall a few dubious elements.

"What do we do with this information? If it is in any way true, then we need to remain alert."

"That's true, but we should never let our opponents disrupt our rhythm, Ketis. We fight as usual. There is no need to restrain ourselves."

"If our opponents are really hiding a lot of strength, then we might want to pull out our Unending greatswords." Ketis suggestion.

"I tried to bring this up with Venerable Dise, but she refused yet again." Commander Sendra sighed. "Showing off the effectiveness of our Unending greatswords is a great way to draw more attention, but Venerable Dise feels we are more likely to attract trouble in this way. With the rest of the Larkinson Clan in trouble, we should do our best to keep our heads down."

It was for this reason that the Swordmaiden team entered the arena with conventional equipment. Aside from wearing their slim, padded protective suit, they also wielded regular Breyer alloy greatswords.

The Fortune Belters appeared as well. Five brown-suited men held their longswords with either one hand or two hands.

Different from the mech combat tournaments, the bodies of every swordsman and swordswoman differed.

It was not desirable for each of them to switch to different bodies that were completely standardized and identical to each other.

While it was technically possible to do so, either in a virtual or real setting, the shortcomings were too much.

While the Heavensworders celebrate pure skill, the personal combat tournaments also centered around good training and good equipment.

Commander Sendra, Ketis and the other three sisters at their side had ingested a copious amount of candy the previous month. Their physical attributes were leagues better than the average.

While there were a number of top seeds who possessed superhuman strength or other attributes, the augmentation they went through came paired with lots of side effects.

The same was not the case for the candy-addicted Swordmaidens! While many of them had already altered their genes in the past, the boosts provided by the candies were exceptionally gentle and harmless.

This allowed the Swordmaidens to exert good control over their bodies. While they hadn't fought enough matches yet to regain the control they had before, the sheer benefits they obtained from the candies were more than enough to compensate for any lingering adaptation issues!

"Swordmaidens!" The lead Fortune Belter shouted from the opposite side of the arena.

"What is it, Fortune Belter?" Sendra asked in response.

"Yesterday, you disgraced one of the swordsman mech pilots of our state. While I cannot pilot any mechs, I will do my best to restore the honor of our state by pressing you to your knees! We shall not rest until each and everyone of you shows remorse for your actions."

Oh boy. He did not just say that. Ketis could already smell trouble.

"Sisters." Commander Sendra whispered as she began to tighten the grip on her greatsword. "Let's ditch the wait-and-see approach. These Heavensworders think they are strong enough to force us to kneel. Let us cap their knees and teach them that they don't stand a chance against our full might?"

"Are you sure?"

"Don't worry. Just fight to your heart's content!"

When the match began, the five Swordmaidens charged straight towards the Fortune Belters.

While the latter did the same, once the two sides met, the crowd witnessed a completely unexpected sight.

As the swords of the two sides clashed, the men were forced to take numerous steps back. They failed to resist the force acting on their bodies!

"Wait a minute! These women!"

"It's too late!" Commander Sendra yelled as her greatsword hacked against the smaller weapon of her direct opponent. "You want us to kneel, right? Let me show you how I feel about that!"

The entire area around her whoosed as she utilized her entire augmented strength to bash her greatsword against the leader of the Fortune Belters.

Even though the latter managed to block every strike, the force of the collisions were so heavy that the man's footing became less and less stable.

After Sendra performed an exceptionally powerful chop, the swordsman finally couldn't take it any longer.

He collapsed to his knees!