The Mech Touch

Before the Wild Brawl Bowl moved on to the most exciting phase of the tournament, the staff quickly inspected the 32 competition mechs in order to verify they were all safe and valid.

Though the monitoring system had already tracked their creation from start to finish, the tournament organizers had to be strict and leave no doubt for cheating in order to maintain the credibility of the event.

This did not take long. As soon as the competition mechs were all cleared, the Wild Fighters quickly employed an unusual procedure to match the competition mechs against each other.

[For the first round of the fighting phase of the Wild Brawl Bowl, sixteen separate mech duels will take place. The loser will end its run right away while the winner shall advance to the next round. Now, let us fill in the tournament bracket!]

A large branching diagram projected in the middle of the enormous hall. Ves and every other tournament participant watched closely as its bottom side was about to become filled with names.

The method that the tournament organizers used to determine the order of names soon became clear as 32 voribugs appeared in a closed-off portion of the hall. Bots injected each of these native alien pests with a special chemical that completely scrambled their ability to distinguish allies from enemies.

The adult voribugs all uttered loud screeches as they charged each other and brawled in the middle!

There was no sense of order and reason in their behavior. Each of the voribugs acted like berserk animals that would not rest until every other enemy was dead!

The Wild Fighters had clearly marked the upper side of the voribug exoskeleton with the names of the different mech designer teams, so there was no ambiguity with regards to the order of names that appeared on the tournament bracket.

To be honest, it didn't really matter whether a voribug died early or late. The only wish the mech designers held was that their work wouldn't get matched up against a mech that could counter their efforts.

[Team Larkinson shall face off against Team Youngbuck in the first round!]

Ves almost jolted from his place. Of all of the possible opponents he might face, Team Youngbuck was certainly one of the more 'interesting' ones!

He quickly glanced in the other team's direction.

Neither Gerxer Dardan Nor Olivander Peese looked happy with this outcome. If the voribug associated with their team didn't perish at the exact wrong moment, they would have been able to avoid confronting the tournament favorite in the first round!

Now, all of their hopes and dreams could come crashing down after just a single match. Their proud Rayvin might not have the opportunity to show its impressive capabilities for long if the Heart of Victor managed to defeat the plasma sword-wielding mech!

Ves sympathized with the pair of young centrist mech designers. He used to be in their shoes less than a week ago. It was always an intimidating prospect to confront a tournament favorite.

He still felt odd about that. Ves had the feeling that his team turned into the bad guy in everyone else's eyes! Though the other mech designers regarded Ketis with a lot of respect, they definitely didn't want to become her opponent in any way!

"What do you think about Team Youngbuck's mech, Ketis?"

"It's is a good warmup for Lyain Kepper." She quietly responded. "The Rayvin is strong, but not too strong. Although it is powerful in the first few minutes, it is still within a tolerable range."

"Are you sure? That plasma sword can burn through anything, even weapons. It can even cut through the chain connecting the Heart of Victor's weapon to the mech frame."

"If Lyain Kepper fights carefully enough, he will never give the Rayvin a chance to cut the chain."

"That assumes that Mr. Kepper is able to outfight Mr. Giles Harnacher. Haven't you forgotten that Team Youngbuck has managed to snag the strongest and most skilled swordsman mech pilot?"

Ketis grinned. "Oh, I haven't forgotten. I was looking forward to challenging Team Youngbuck because of that. I admit that Mr. Dardan and Mr. Peese can design a good mech, but that has never been the sole victory condition. What actually matters is how well a mech can draw out the strength of its mech pilot and vice versa. I think that no one is able to do a better job at that than us in this tournament."

Ves felt the same way as well, but he didn't grow arrogant because of that. Establishing a good fit between a mech and mech pilot was valuable, but there were times when another combination of mech and mech pilot were simply too powerful despite their inferior cooperation.

As long as their raw strength was high enough, there was no need to rely on exquisite cooperation to win their matches!

Both the Rayvin and Mr. Harnacher were strong in their own right. The former was an advanced mech designed by a pair of centrist mech designers. The latter was the best swordsman mech pilot in the tournament.

Though Ves was confident in his own setup, it was never wise to underestimate an enemy. Team Youngbuck had the capital to pose a serious threat even if Mr. Dardan and Mr. Peese were the youngest pair of mech designers in the Wild Brawl Bowl.

Once all of the voribugs had their fun, the fighting stage soon began in earnest.

Unlike the High Tide Tournament, the Wild Brawl Bowl preferred to conduct its matches one by one. This would inevitably slow down the pace of the event, but would also draw much more attention to every match.

When the mech designers received the schedule for the first round, Ves and Ketis immediately noted that their match against Team Youngback was left for last.

"Figures." Ves grimaced. "The tournament organizers want to save the best for last. They don't want all of their remote viewers to tune out as soon as the most anticipated match has come to an end."

This meant that both Team Larkinson and Team Youngbuck had to remain in suspense for a long time while the others went ahead.

At least the other matches kept the mech designers entertained. Ves keenly observed the duels that erupted in the arena.

Ves had witnessed plenty of collisions between different mechs throughout his life, so the matches taking place before him weren't too special.

The mechs that fought against each other were all landbound mechs that were developed with relatively low design budgets. This led to fights where the mechs mostly relied on their basic combat capabilities to overpower or outmaneuver their opposition.

Although Ves was initially disappointed with the lack of high technology and advanced solutions, he soon developed an appreciation for the more basic and visceral combat that these conditions produced.

Heavy weapons slammed into solid mechs. Cutting weapons tore through armor. The mech frames sometimes collided against each other, causing both of them to become jarred!

Many of the more notable mechs that he was keeping his eye upon such as the Fallen Retribution each displayed some or all of their unique tricks.

In fact, when the Fallen Retribution got matched up against a light skirmisher, many people already thought the dwarven mech was destined to lose.

Yet Team Hammerfall's work defied everyone's expectations. Even though the Fallen Retribution failed to hit its opponents even once in the first minute, all of that changed once the light skirmisher was finally done with testing the hammer-wielding mech and circled around to attack it from the rear.

Even though the rear side of the Fallen Retribution had been reinforced with extra armor, the inability for the hammerman mech to quickly turn around meant that any light mech could deliver a lot of uninterrupted damage!

Yet instead of stabbing its knives through the rear of its target, the Fallen Retribution abruptly spun its entire upper torso by 180 degrees!

The dwarven mech did so while its two short legs were still firmly planted on the same position in the arena!

This unexpected move not only allowed the Fallen Retribution to defend attacks from the rear, but also impart a lot of rotational momentum on its greathammer!

The upper torso's rotational speed was surprisingly high. Ves didn't know how the pair of dwarven mech designers did it, but the speed and force of its rotation was terrifying!

The light skirmisher fighting against the dwarven mech stood no chance. Even if its mech pilot recognized the danger and wanted to turn away, the light mech had already committed to an attack.

It still took a bit of time for it to divert its trajectory or turn around, but by then the hammerhead had already arrived!

BANG!

That was the end of the Fallen Retribution's first opponent. The dwarven mech that many people thought was too slow to resist a light mech was actually able to release its strongest attack at its rear!

The mechanical systems needed to produce such a powerful rotational movement was quite difficult to implement in a mech. There was only limited space and even a broad dwarven mech could only offer so much capacity. Ves held a lot more respect towards Mr. Rondal Crenstin and Mrs. Gisella Crenstin for realizing this capability in just a limited amount of days.

"Looks like we should never attack the Fallen Retribution from behind."

That was quite a troubling conclusion as the dwarven mech was not weak when attacked from the front!

"This mech can only work against melee mechs."

If the Fallen Retribution had to fight against a ranged mech, then any decent rifleman mech could maintain its distance and slowly grind down the dwarven mech's thick armor plating at a steady pace.

More matches ensued. Some of them started and ended quickly while others turned into attrition battles where both sides did not dare to make any mistakes.

The mech designer teams weren't trying to achieve high scores this time. The only criteria for advancement in the next round was to win, and if the slow and steady approach was safer, then it was often the better course of action!

As a result, there were times when both Ves and much of the audience grew bored when they saw two spearman mechs cautiously poking each other from a respectable distance or two bestial mechs chasing each other's tails until one of them began to run low of energy.

Finally, the last and most anticipated match of the first round was about to commence!

Two different swordsman mechs stepped into the arena that had recently been cleared of all debris.

The green-and-gray swordsman mech exuded an unmistakably strong impression. Its glow caused everyone to develop the impression that it was a champion in the making. Just its sight inspired everyone's belief that it would achieve victory!

[The Heart of Victor is true to its name. It hasn't even made a single move and already I am thinking about how quickly it will crush its subsequent opponent.]

[Don't count the Rayvin out just yet. If you compare their specs, the mech designed by Team Youngbuck is unquestionably stronger in the first three minutes or so. Mr. Giles Harnacher is also a formidable swordsman mech pilot. Now that he is armed with the most lethal sword in the Wild Brawl Bowl, he will soon be able to terrorize his opponent!]

Though most people possessed an inexplicable confidence in the Heart of Victor, there were still plenty of people who placed their bets on the Rayvin.

The design prowess of a pair of centrist mech designers shouldn't be underestimated! The Rayvin was considerably faster and more agile than the Heart of Victor. As long as Harnacher made the most of his momentary advantages, it was not inconceivable for him to disarm his opponent!

Lyain Kepper knew this. He was anything but nervous, though. With the confidence instilled by his mech, only victory was on his mind at the moment!

"I won't let you beat me again, Giles!"