The Mech Touch

Inspiration.

Mech designers craved it. They yearned after it like pirates l.u.s.ted after plunder.

Without inspiration, how could they fuel their imagination?

Without inspiration, how could they design works that stood out from the competition?

Without inspiration, how would they be able to stand out from AI mech designers?

It took skill, effort, talent and serendipity to gain inspiration.

Not everyone was cut out to be an artist. Those who failed to get inspired when needed would not be able to create works that dazzled their target audience and put them ahead of their peers.

To some people, inspiration came as easy as breathing air. These blessed individuals possessed both a rich imagination and a mindset that was receptive to new ideas.

Most people lacked this blessing. There was nothing wrong with that. To those whose views were less than vivid, they could often compensate for their lack of vision by acting more proactively.

To mech designers such as Ves, it was enough for them to travel around and experience different cultures and customs. Every adventure, every war and every tour provided a wealth of inspiration to Ves. The majority of his mech designs directly originated from sparks of inspiration that he gained over the course of his travels.

As his student, Ketis developed a similar inclination to gaining inspiration from new experiences.

However, she was different from Ves.

Her mentor grew up as a relatively average third-rate citizen in a fairly normal third-rate state. His sudden improvement shortly after his graduation launched an eventful career that constantly propelled him towards new horizons.

He was living the dream he developed over the course of his fairly mundane life. Every average person yearned to become exceptional, and Ves was no different.

As for Ketis, she lived and breathed through danger ever since she became self-aware. She grew up in a typical rural pirate settlement in the frontier. Her life wasn't all that good in that lawless backwater.

If not for the Swordmaidens touching down and picking up some stray girls, Ketis would have lived a much worse life!

Since then, she drilled and trained under the harsh but ultimately beneficial regime of her sisters and succeeded in slaying an exobeast with her own sword.

The constant cycle of training, killing, studying as well as developing deeper bonds with her fellow sisters had shaped her entire mentality. She had become so indoctrinated in the creed and customs of the Swordmaidens that hardly anyone recognized her as a talented mech designer!

In fact, she knew that her ability in mech design wasn't all that great in the beginning. Despite Mayra's diligent tutelage, she had become too enamoured with practicing her swordsmanship to completely dedicate herself to mech design.

She was a bit better now. Under Ves, she discovered her love for mech design, found her design philosophy and learned how to marry her passion for swordsmanship with her primary profession.

Marrying swordsmanship with mech design was not something commonly seen in mech design.

Although it made absolute sense to Ketis, most mech designers were nerds who rarely entered gyms, let alone practice with any weapons!

Even Ves, who couldn't beat even the youngest Swordmaiden trainee in swordsmanship, dared to design sword-wielding mechs with great confidence!

This was the norm. Mech designers only possessed a limited amount of time and needed to devote most of it on absorbing new knowledge or designing more mechs. How could they ever waste their time on training their bodies and learning how to defend themselves?

If they needed protection, they could just invest in more bodyguards!

With Nitaa constantly by his side, Ves decided to completely let go of any opportunity to train his martial prowess. While he was eager to craft or acquire better gear, that was because it didn't take that much time to increase his ability to defend himself.

Otherwise, Ves would have relied exclusively on gear produced by other manufacturers to save himself the trouble!

As for Ketis, she was different. Lately, she vastly increased her knowledge base. Whatever Ves had fed to her had vastly expanded her cognitive abilities. Even without an implant, she wasn't that worse off from the assistant mech designers with average cranial implants!

Yet all the book learning in the galaxy did not help her make any progress in her heart for swordsmanship.

Some lessons couldn't be learned from passive study. Only active effort enabled her to advance.

Sparring with her fellow Swordmaidens and the other fighters in the clan helped a bit. Yet those restrained, rule-bound practice sessions failed to get her blood pumping.

How could she ever understand what it meant to wield a sword if she never fought to kill?

Even when she chopped up the prospective new hires for the Design Department, she hardly achieved any progress.

None of those weaklings wanted to beat her. Chopping off their limbs without encountering any meaningful resistance was fun, but pointless.

It was different now.

Standing in an expanding pool of blood, the corpses of dozens of chopped-up Roid Rats laid before her feet. With her strong and undaunted sword strikes, she leveraged the power of her combat armor and the strength and sharpness of her cutlass to the fullest.

The result became clear to every spectator who roared their jubilance at the impressive carnage that had unfolded earlier.

They had rarely seen a single pirate slam into such a sizable mob of enemies! The moment when she harvested lives left and right with her deceptively easy sword swings turned into an unforgettable moment to the people who paid to watch the grudge match.

The K-bits they paid had absolutely been worth it! Those who bet on the victory of the small group of Mirror Raiders were even more excited!

In fact, few locals and visitors who bet their K-bits and K-coins on the Roid Rats had any regrets. Some lopsided battles were boring to watch, but this was not one of them! The actions of a single cutlass-wielding warrior had made a remarkable impression on everyone!

Hardly anyone paid attention to the young heir of the Mirror Guards and his band of rifle-wielding bodyguards. Even though Dietrich and his companions killed the majority of Roid Rats when they broke, they were just doing some cleanup work.

The true champion of this match was Ketis.

Amidst the elation of the audience of thousands, an expression of extreme ecstasy appeared on her face.

With her thick helmet completely covering her head, Ketis did not restrain her emotions. She completely allowed her body and mind to become engulfed by the brilliant emotions that burst out from the depths of her being.

The sensation was indescribable.

"This is what I sought."

"This is what I want."

"This is what I need!"

Like a gladiator who gloriously vanquished his foes, Ketis spread her arms and raised the tip of the cutlass into the ceiling.

The cries of joy from the crowd instantly doubled!

"Blood! Blood! Blood!"

"Kill more people!"

"Where are the rest of the Roid Rats? Bring them here right now so we can dye the entire arena with red!"

The degenerate locals weren't squeamish at all. Every single individual who chose to attend this arena match lived for spectacles like these!

Dietrich and some of his disguised companions all frowned at the unrestrained bloodl.u.s.t from the audience.

The star of the show paid no mind to how barbaric she seemed. In her exceptional state of mind, her bond with Sharpie had reached an even greater degree of intimacy.

During the grudge match, she not only baptized her physical sword in blood, but also her spiritual one!

A subtle flicker appeared on the edge of her cutlass. In her mind, Ketis imagined herself gripping the hilt of her mind sword!

A subtle aura surrounded her. If anyone stepped close enough, they would have noticed a strange intensity emanating from her body!

To Ketis, this was her sword intent manifesting!

The other Swordmaidens often spoke in airy terms about sword intent. A lot of sisters chased after it, but no one had ever developed it aside from Commander Dise.

Now, Ketis believed that she had taken an important step forward in nurturing her sword intent. The sharpness radiating from her would have stung anyone who approached her at the moment!

Since she fused her swordsmanship with mech design, something else took place as well.

Her mind and imagination churned and began to produce numerous mech concepts and mech ideas. Vague design schematics blended with her sharp sword intent, causing a portion of her mind to produce vivid mental simulations where mechs that resembled her current self unceasingly rampaged through formation of hostile mechs!

The moment passed too soon, much to her regret. Her aura disappeared as Dietrich guided her away.

After the handful of Mirror Raiders achieved an explosive and dramatic victory against the Roid Rats, the situation in Ulimo's public area completely changed!

The strength shown by the Mirror Raiders signified that their actual strength was far beyond a typical undisciplined bottom feeder pirate gang. There were signs of military training, and the rumors that their leader was a former military officer appeared to be true!

Word of mouth spread quickly. Even if those who passed the stories about the grudge match exaggerated a lot of elements, it became clear that the newly-arrived pirates belonged to a different class from the gutter trash of Ulimo!

"These outsiders are demons. Don't provoke them! Who knows what they will do?"

"Stop sending reinforcements to the Roid Rats. Those guys are out of luck for pissing off the Mirror Raiders!"

"Friends? What friends? Get out and don't come back! We don't want your trouble!"

Every local gang and faction in Ulimo turned around and refused to help the Roid Rats. All talks of solidarity against pushy outsiders and unfamiliar pirates turned into nothing.

Though the gangs were all confident that they possessed enough strength to demolish the Mirror Raiders, the losses would certainly be serious. If every Mirror Raiders possessed gear as good as the guards on the arena, then the poorly-equipped locals would likely die by the hundreds before they achieved victory.

Hardly anyone wanted to pay such a big blood price! This was especially so when helping the Roid Rats only benefited one of their rivals at the expense of their own strength. Why should those other gangs engage in meaningless charity?

As long as the Mirror Raiders did not attack anyone else, it was far more ideal to let them have what they wanted. If they wanted to destroy the Roid Rats and take over their territory, then that was fine!

Deprived of their allies, the Roid Rats found themselves alone.

Shortly after Abis and the rest of the Mirror Raiders received word about the victory that Dietrich and Ketis accomplished, they knew they had to move quickly.

"The Roid Rats should be discouraged and isolated after they suffered this loss." Lieutenant Rodan quickly advised his superior. "This is a golden opportunity to sweet the territory of the Roid Rats. In fact, I believe that 'Captain Itris' should be on her way already. Don't let her and her confidants attack the main base of the Roid Rats by themselves!"

Though Abis never intended to set out on this path, now that they had been forced into it, he had no choice but to go all the way!

"Move out and don't stop until we roll over every Roid Rat!"

The Mirror Raiders hastily mobilized their combat troops and swept through the streets and buildings owned by the Roid Rats. Their thugs and cadre instantly folded and died under the ruthless aggression of the supposed pirates.

As for their main stronghold, the disguised Swordmaidens had already begun their assault on it! By the time Abis and Rodan along with the bulk of his fighting troops arrived at a dilapidated-looking building, they had just witnessed Lieutenant Sendra and her fellow Swordmaidens breaching through the gates.

In order to disassociate them from the obscure but not completely unknown Swordmaidens of the Larkinson Clan, the aggressive women in armor did not wield any swords.

Instead, they held submachine guns in one hand and combat knives in the other hand.

With their powerful suits of combat armor, most of the weapons of the Roid Rats failed to inflict any damage!

Only the few heavy infantry weapons such as the machine gun emplacements and a couple of thrown grenades managed to slow the Swordmaidens down.

Even then, the marksmanship of some of the Swordmaidens were not that bad! After concentrating their fire on some key targets, they managed to overrun the first line of defense and make their way inside after blasting through the gate with some directional explosives!

By the time that Abis and the main force of Mirror Raiders entered the Roid Rat stronghold, the enemy had already broken!