The Mech Touch

Hot air began to cycle through the back vents of the Fallen Retribution as it expended a lot of energy to sustain its attack runs. The flail in its hands continued to swing back and forth with so much force that it had forced the Heart of Victor back time and time again.

The unpredictable trajectory of its chain-linked hammerhead forced Lyain Kepper to concentrate most of his attention on evading the enemy's attacks.

He did not dare to use the Heart of Victor's chainsword as a means to block or parry the incoming attack!

"My sword will crack if hit by such a heavy object!"

That didn't mean he gave up on counterattacking. After adjusting to his opponent's rhythm, Lyain became confident enough to begin hitting back by throwing the Heart of Victor chainsword at the legs of the opposing mechs!

The mech pilot had made a clever decision. If the Heart of Victor threw its chainsword at the upper body of the Fallen Retribution, its weapon was bound to get trapped or entangled!

Although the risk of that happen still existed if the swordsman mech targeted the thick and sturdy legs of the dwarven mech, it was a lot more awkward for the latter to defend against such attacks!

"The Fallen Retribution can't defend against attacks from below when it is in the process of launching an attack!"

The heavy flail was a weapon that gained its deadliness from its mass and momentum. This also meant that it was hard to divert when it was already swinging.

Normally, this did not bother the Fallen Retribution all that much because it was a short and squarish dwarven mech that was considerably easier to defend than taller humanoid mechs!

The Fallen Retribution only had to make a small adjustment to the angle of its large weapon in order to block or batter aside any incoming sword attack.

Even if the dwarven mech chose to ignore the Heart of Victor's weapon, it still didn't matter as much because its armor was substantial enough to take the blow. In the meantime, the Fallen Retribution could just proceed with its original attack and land a much more serious blow onto its opponent!

That was a lot harder to pull off when the chainsword flew at a downwards angle and began to chip away at the ankles of the dwarven mech.

Zirine Fessel began to experience a bit of pressure herself as her mech informed her that the armor integrity of ankle sections were slowly being chipped away.

The legs of a landbound mech were ordinarily thick and strong. They had to be in order to support all of that mass!

Yet no matter how much protection they received, there were still limits on how thick they could be without unduly compromising mobility.

A partial repeat of Team Larkinson's fourth match took place. Whenever the Fallen Retribution launched an unstoppable flail attack, the Heart of Victor grasped the right timing to launch a throw attack that was impossible for the dwarven mech to defend against!

While the thrown chainswords were only capable of inflicting minor damage onto the dwarven mech's thick ankles, the problem was that Lyain employed great skill with every throw!

His control over his mech and its sword was so high that many of the throw attacks landed on the same exact plates of ankle armor!

This rapidly amped up the Fallen Retribution's pressure as the annoying chainsword slowly chipped away at the buffer around its legs.

The inability of the Fallen Retribution to defend against these kinds of attacks was one of the demerits of its design.

While it was capable of accelerating quite quickly in its current state, it was not necessarily an agile mech! It was especially difficult for the flail-wielding mech to defend against high and low attacks depending on its stance.

Combined with the abnormally high precision of the Heart of Victor's throw attacks, it seemed as if the Fallen Retribution was destined to have its ankles nibbled to death!

The emotions among the crowd ran even higher as Team Hammerfall entered into a disadvantageous position.

"Hahaha! So what if your powerful dwarven mech can't be blocked? All of that strength doesn't mean anything if it can't hit its target!"

"You fools! The Fallen Retribution is just warming up for now. This dance is about to become a lot more dangerous soon!"

A competition mech that had managed to overcome four different opponents without fail should never be so weak. Even as the supporters of the Heart of Victor were happy with the current moment, they still held back a bit as they waited for the Fallen Retribution to repeat what it had done in its last match.

As the ankles of the dwarven mech became increasingly more ragged, Zirine Fessel finally couldn't take it any longer.

"Fine! I will fight you in my mech's true form!"

The Fallen Retribution's boosters abruptly burned the last of its fuel at once, causing them to become damaged but at the same time propelling the machine forward at an unprecedented pace!

This time, the Heart of Victor was not quite able to evade the charging mech! No matter how much Lyain was able to read the enemy's movements in advance, his own mech simply didn't possess the speed to evade it entirely!

He made the best response that he could do in his situation. He instructed the Heart of Victor to lift up one of its arms to block the incoming flail attack, knowing that absorbing the hit on the torso would lead to a more severe performance drop!

Crunch!

The Heart of Victor's arm not only sustained severe damage after colliding with the chained hammerhead, but it also bounced inwards as the limb failed to block the attack completely!

Clang!

The hammerhead continued to strike at the chest of the Heart of Victor, causing the mech to rattle from the kinetic impact.

Fortunately, the concussive damage was not too severe due to the Heart of Victor's earlier action.

However, Lyain Kepper did not relax at all. He already knew what was coming!

"ARMOR PURGE!" Zirine Kessel roared as she activated a key command!

The Fallen Retribution instantly exploded as almost all of its armor plating ejected outwards!

Not only that, the mech also got rid of a lot of other redundant components. Boosters, artificial musculature and other components that previously served a purpose had now been rendered redundant!

A rain of solid metal spread out in all directions!

Though most of these materials simply sailed through empty air before landing onto the arena floor, much of it still managed to collide against the Heart of Victor with enough force to dent its own exterior!

The dangerous part about this unexpected armor purge protocol wasn't the fact that the Fallen Retribution had turned itself into a fragmentation grenade.

The real threat was the heavy and weighed-down dwarven mech that suddenly lost a lot of mass!

A short and rather skinny mech had emerged from behind the rain of metal. It held the same weapon as before, but the difference was that it had ditched its heavy hammerhead!

This turned the hammer and flail combination weapon into a staff that was considerably lighter and easier to handle!

"It's charging!"

The downsized Fallen Retribution rapidly dashed towards the unbalanced Heart of Victor and put all of its momentum behind a killer thrust attack that had successfully impaled its previous opponent in its previous match!

Of course, Lyain Kepper already anticipated this move. Even though the Heart of Victor experienced a lot of difficulties at the moment, the mech still retained enough control to move aside and parry the incoming staff thrust!

Unlike the previous heavy flail or hammer, the Fallen Retribution's weapon was no longer as unstoppable as before. Parrying the staff would not break the Heart of Victor's chainsword!

Now that the Fallen Retribution had turned itself into a light mech with drastically different performance parameters, it utilized its exceptional speed and agility to take advantage of the damage inflicted on the Heart of Victor and finish off the swordsman mech in a frenzy of staff strikes!

Although the staff weapon did not seem dangerous at first, its true lethality became apparent when it was used to attack.

Sharp blades extended along its shaft or from its ends whenever the staff was close to striking its target. This extra feature added a lot of penetration power to an otherwise plain weapon.

The bladed staff posed enough of a threat to the Heart of Victor that Lyain Kepper did not dare to let the Fallen Retribution succeed in its attacks.

The battered Heart of Victor exhibited a lot of strain in its attempts to keep up with the dwarven mech's constant circling maneuvers. Lyain had to prevent his opponent from targeting his mech's undefended rear at all cost!

Fortunately, the Heart of Victor's turning speed was not shabby. The only downside was that it could not turn as quickly when it was moving forward.

The Fallen Retribution possessed all of the initiative at the moment. Though its physical strength and defenses were much weaker than before, it made up for it with mobility!

It could compensate for its lack of strength by building up momentum and using its movements to enhance all of its attacks.

It could make up for its lack of defenses by moving as quickly as possible while using its fairly long staff as a defensive tool.

The latter became quite handy whenever the Heart of Victor threw its chainsword at the slimmed-down dwarven mech!

Now that the staff was no longer burdened by a hefty hammerhead, the Fallen Retribution easily moved its weapons in place to block the incoming threat.

Though not all of its defensive attempts succeeded, the Fallen Retribution nonetheless moved quickly enough to punish the Heart of Victor with a rapid strike before the latter could retrieve its chainsword!

[The Heart of Victor is in quite a bit of trouble again! It doesn't appear to be equipped to handle fast and agile opponents, especially now that it has sustained damage.]

[At the start the Fallen Retribution managed to gain the upper hand by virtue of its superior mechanical strength and thicker armor plating. Now, the dwarven mech has managed to regain control of this duel by relying on its crushing mobility advantage!]

Lyain Kepper tried his best to fend off the Fallen Retribution's constant harassment. Unfortunately, the Heart of Victor was just a little bit too slow and sluggish to defend against the constant staff attacks.

Even if he was able to read his opponent's movements in advance, the Heart of Victor was unable to move as he intended to in a few instances.

Each time the Heart of Victor put up its guard too late, the Fallen Retribution's bladed staff already punctured another shallow hole in the swordsman mech's exterior!

Lyain even commanded the Heart of Victor to swing its chainsword like a whip. He hoped to capture the fast-moving mech with this move, but his opponent was being way too careful to fall for such a gambit.

"If this goes on, my mech will be stung to death!"

The main reason why the Heart of Victor was able to hold out for now was because its substantial armor was still largely intact.

As long as the swordsman mech prevented the Fallen Retribution from striking its rear, it could still hold out for a time!

Lyain also made sure to move his swordsman mech in a way that prevented his opponent from concentrating its bladed staff attacks on the same damaged sections. This considerably increased the longevity of his mech.

Many people began to assume that this match would turn into an attrition battle.

Would the fast and unburdened Fallen Retribution be able to gnaw the Heart of Victor before it ran out of energy?

Would the Heart of Victor's defenses hold out long enough before the dwarven mech ran out of steam?

Nobody knew, but the match became more tense than ever! Fans who were rooting for either side became more nervous than ever as they waited for one of the mechs to show weakness first.

While all of this took place, Ketis began to sweat as she exerted her willpower with great effort. Sharpie had been inhabiting the Heart of Victor's chainsword for over ten minutes now and this imposed an increasingly larger burden on her mental strength!

She did not yet put in her full effort, though. She was still able to play one more card that could achieve a wonderful effect in this match.

She hesitated. Was it worth it to make this move? The consequences of pulling it off in public were quite severe.

Her head turned to Ves.

"Do it." He said. "It's too risky for us to gamble on the Heart of Victor's staying power. Whatever price we must pay is worth it as long as we can add an extra fleet carrier to our fleet."

Ketis closed her eyes. Her concentration reached another level as she leveraged her full willpower to power her next move!

The tip of the chainsword wielded by the Heart of Victor gained a faint glow as Sharpie became more active than ever!

In fact, Sharpie wished it could do more, but augmenting the very tip of the weapon was the limit of what it could do at the moment. The companion spirit wasn't able to sustain this state for long, so it was crucial that the swordsman mech made its move at this time!

Lyain already knew what to do after being informed by his mech. The Heart of Victor tossed its chainsword straight towards the sprinting Fallen Retribution with uncanny accuracy!

Zirine Fessel could already tell that her mech couldn't dodge the incoming weapon, but so what? The Fallen Retribution quickly moved its staff into place in order to block this futile attack.

Yet when the tip of the chainsword struck the middle of the shaft, the staff neatly parted in two as the chainsword unexpectedly cut through the sturdy material.

"What?" Zirine Fessel uttered as the chainsword merrily pierced through her mech's guard before it plunged straight into the thin and fragile structure of the Fallen Retribution!

Time in the arena seemed to freeze for an instant before the damaged dwarven mech lost control of its frame and tripped onto the arena floor!

Since it was in the middle of a run, the Fallen Retribution continued to slide forward for a few seconds before it finally came to a stop.

The fallen mech, which was still impaled by a chainsword, did not move.

Seconds passed by as the mostly dwarven supporters of Team Hammerfall waited for it to pick itself up again, but nothing of the sort had happened.

[Team Larkinson… has won this match. Team Larkinson… has defeated Team Hammerfall. Team Larkinson… has become the champion of the Wild Brawl Bowl!]

As soon as the announcer's words sunk in, over half of the audience in the venue erupted into cheers!