The Mech Touch (Web Novel)
chapter-2790

When the Dragonscale Warrior opened its mouth, it revealed rows of sharp and jagged teeth. They certainly looked like bad news especially when the biomech possessed a jaw that looked strong enough to apply a lot of force!

However, before those teeth could actually sink in, an energy shield came into existence.

Trip Oxxon had not forgotten about this feature! While the Bright Warrior did not possess a particularly powerful shield generator, it was still strong enough to block the Dragonscale Warrior's surprise attack!

The energy shield disappeared shortly afterwards. Its capacity was limited and it was too wasteful to leave it up all of the time.

"Eat this!" Oxxon yelled!

The low-profile missile launchers mounted on the shoulders of his mech fired a bunch of missiles at point blank range shortly afterwards!

Even though these explosions weren't very strong due to the restrictions set by the design duel, all of the missiles happened to carry incendiary payloads, which meant that a lot of flames and flammable materials spread out from between the two mechs!

Flames began to burn on the frames of both machines! The Bright Warrior didn't suffer that much damage because it's damaged chest armor was still solid enough to prevent the flames from spreading inside its frame.

The Dragonscale Warrior fared a little worse! The process of healing and regenerating its scales didn't happen instantly, which meant that a considerable amount of flesh became exposed to the flames.

While the flesh of the biomech was too tough to burn so easily, it was not pleasant in the slightest to let the flames persist!

Both mechs put out the flames as soon as possible, drawing back as they did so. The stab wounds they inflicted on each other looked serious but hadn't sunk too deep, thereby limiting the impact on their performance.

Even so, the battle had definitely entered a new phase. The Dragonscale Warrior had exposed a third weapon in the form of its sharp teeth. While its range was absurdly short, they still looked deadly enough to cause serious damage.

The Dragonscale Warrior had accumulated even more heat, but that did not stop Bavros from continuing his assault. The biomech stormed towards the Bright Warrior and began to push the classical mech back!

At this point of the match, both mechs had lost their shields. This not only removed some obstacles in their way but also allowed them to wield their weapons with greater force.

Continuous clangs sounded as the two flying mechs crossed blades again and again!

At this time, the Bright Warrior had given up on launching attacks. Oxxon firmly tried to block or mitigate every incoming blow in the hopes of tiring out the opponent.

He was performing quite well in this capacity. Against a single opponent, the knight mech specialist was quite proficient in blocking and evading attacks. This frustrated Bavros as his Dragonscale Warrior had already expended a lot of resources on regenerating its wounds and was expending even more energy to maintain its current assault.

Something had to change!

The Bright Warrior still put up a lot of resistance despite incurring some internal injuries. Its altered glow not only caused Oxxon to become more efficient at defending his mech, but also made Bavros feel as if none of his attacks had any effect!

The mech pilot of the biomech grimaced. "This is just an illusion!"

He was not unaware of the power of glows. It was just that experiencing it was considerably different than reading about it. There was just something about glows that caused him to look at LMC mechs in a different light.

Under other circumstances, Bavros preferred to admire a mech that could make him feel this way. This was not the time to listen to those impulses, though.

After making a few considerations, he decided to activate one of the Dragonscale Warrior's most desperate solutions.

"It's drawing back!"

The biomech uncharacteristically pulled back. It flew away from the Bright Warrior, causing Oxxon to become suspicious. Even though the move favored him because his intention was to stall the fight, he was not naive enough to assume his opponent would play along.

He listened to his instincts and reluctantly drove his mech forward.

The Dragonscale Warrior did not intend to stay away for long. It just needed to buy a few seconds of time to initiate one of its special features.

"Purge!" Bavros shouted!

The Dragonscale Warrior suddenly released a lot of steam!

Not only that, the mech actively shed all of its remaining scales! The bone-like material fell from the skies and clattered onto the ground like hail.

What was notable about the growing pile of scales was that they appeared hot. This was because the Dragonscale Warrior actively transferred a significant portion of excess heat to them before shedding them from its frame!

The results of this transformation were obvious. Not only did the biomech got rid of a lot of mass, it also vented much of its heat in rapid tempo! The exposed flesh of the Dragonscale Warrior had also shrunk as a consequence.

Of course, the downsides were also clear. The defensive properties of the Dragonscale Warrior were no longer as comparable as before. It also expended a lot of energy to enable the transformation, which meant that it shouldn't be too far from running out of juice!

Yet at this time, the scaleless biomech turned into a completely different machine.

It zipped forward but circled to the side before the Bright Warrior was halfway to turning around itself!

The shrunken and unburdened biomech wasn't fast enough to reach the rear of its opponent, but it was still able to dive forth and transfer its entire momentum in an attack that was about to inflict serious damage to the weapon arm of the Bright Warrior!

Fortunately, the classical mech activated its shield generator, causing the incoming attack to be stopped in exchange for exhausting the defensive option!

"Damn!" Ves cursed.

The Bright Warrior quickly passed its sword to its other arm, but the Dragonscale Warrior had already turned around to make another attack run!

This time, Oxxon managed to respond in time. Not only did the Bright Warrior move aside, it also lifted its sword to block.

Unfortunately, the incoming stab had so much force behind it that the Bright Warrior's guard was overpowered!

A serious blow struck the Bright Warrior. Its side armor failed to stop the remaining momentum of the Dragonscale Warrior and incurred a deep stab wound!

This time, the classical mech suffered a substantial problem in transferring power. The LMC mech's responsiveness decreased considerably, causing its defensive posture to fail.

Ves tightly gripped his hands. He had not lost hope completely as of yet. Even as the transformed Dragonscale Warrior inflicted major damage, its exhaustion was very much evident. The mech was definitely overexerting itself in order to sustain this performance!

Just as the he thought that the Dragonscale Warrior was about to run out of steam, the mech practically contorted itself in order to reach around the Bright Warrior flagging guard and sink its sword into one of the stab wounds it had already made!

Since the attack struck at a different angle, the penetrating blade damaged a different set of components.

A few volatile elements within the Bright Warrior exploded, causing the mech to lose most of its functionality!

"It's over!" Ves groaned.

He knew exactly what kind of damage his mech had suffered. Since the Bright Warrior was not a true defensive mech, its redundancy and compartmentalization only stretched so far. His mech was no longer able to contain the damage.

Before the Dragonscale Warrior could finish off its immobilized opponent, large-scale energy shields came online and forcibly separated the two mechs.

Antigrav modules came online to give the falling Bright Warrior a gentle landing.

[The second match has concluded! The Dragonscale Warrior prepared by Dr. Navarro has prevailed this time! Please give a round of applause to Zenon Dia Bavros for his excellent performance!]

This time, the crowd truly went wild! Even though Bavros would soon turn into an enemy three days later, right now he was the champion of the biomech industry. His excellent use of the capabilities of the Dragonscale Warrior not only delivered Dr. Navarro a convincing victory, but also showcased the advantages of biomechs in the process.

The second match splendidly negated the humiliation of the earlier defeat. At the very least, Dr. Navarro avoided a double loss, which would have depressed the morale of much of the audience.

Ves and the Larkinsons all saw the spectators sitting far away celebrating as if they had won the battle of the century.

Raella looked amused. "Water always tastes sweeter after a draught. The Lifers are desperately trying to overcompensate for their earlier defeat."

"It's working, though."

"Yes, it is, Ves. I'm afraid the third match will start under less than ideal circumstances."

As the damaged and downed mechs along with all of the debris was being moved away, Gloriana grew a bit suspicious.

"Your mech this time did not perform as well as the one that went before."

"There isn't much that it can do, Gloriana. Sometimes, a loss is a loss. The Dragonscale Warrior proved to be the better of the two mechs this time."

In fact, if Ves really wanted to, he could have tried to activate one of the trump cards he embedded into his mechs.

He just didn't see the need to do so. Victory in this design duel wasn't decided by winning or losing the matches. It was decided by the preferences of the mech pilots participating in the matches.

This meant that he could lose all of his remaining matches and still be in contention for victory as long as he won over enough mech pilots. Of course, an awful record and ugly personal losses would definitely color the opinions of the mech pilots, so winning matches was still important.

It was just that Ves didn't think it was necessary in this case. Even though the Dragonscale Warrior showed some amazing capabilities, it demanded too much from its mech pilot in order to leverage all of its special capabilities.

While the Bright Warrior's defensive configuration was lacking in features, its solid performance and overall reliability must have left a good impression. Qilanxo's glow also helped with facilitating Oxxon's defensive mindset.

Hopefully, that was enough to give the young mech pilot a yearning for piloting LMC mechs once again.

"The regeneration ability of the Dragonscale Warrior is unusually high." Raella said. "Are biomechs always that hard to deal with or is this one just special?"

"It's the latter." Ves responded. "The Dragonscale Warrior is based around it so it doesn't actually do anything else. The resource consumption of regenerating its injuries and scales is so high that it's impossible for the mech to last long on the battlefield. This is a mech that is much more suited for duels and short engagements."

Dr. Navarro had been in business longer than Ves. That meant that the biomech designer had a larger mech catalog to draw upon.

The Dragonscale Warrior was clearly a mech designed to serve a specific purpose. Ves couldn't see how it could be commercially viable considering how much energy and nutrients it expended to allow it to restore itself in the field.

None of that mattered right now. Whether a mech model sold a hundred times or a million times was completely irrelevant. As long as it existed, it was a valid entry to this design duel.

Ves glanced in the direction of the Masters. Compared to before, he had the sense that their moods had shifted a bit. Even though their expressions remained virtually unchanged, their powerful minds betrayed a portion of their reactions.

Professor Werther Cline showed a hint of satisfaction for example. Even though this trace was small, it still revealed that he was rooting Dr. Navarro to win the design duel.

What was notable was that the other five Masters reacted in the opposite manner. In fact, the one who was sitting furthest away seemed a bit more upset than the others!