[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 53: Test Pilot III

The long match reached its end stage. Most of the fliers were already shot down, while many other mechs were down to their last reserves. The canyon's ruins were mostly blown apart. The frequent close-quarters combat and the occasional artillery barrage flattened so many ancient structures that the city was unrecognizable.

While many other mechs started to run slower, the Mist Prowler came alive. Though the scorch marks and many holes caused the mech to lose its shine, the mech navigated the rubble-strewn streets with remarkable alacrity. Its movement at the start of the match might as well be as slow as a slug compared to its current form.

"This modular armor sure is something." Joshua commented as he moved his mech with his functionality mostly intact.

The more square plates he shed, the faster his mech moved. Shedding so much weight in one single match was a new experience for him. It felt as if the Mist Prowler turned from a medium mech into a light mech. If the internal damage wasn't so bad, he'd actually be able to keep up with fast mechs in a race.

"Too bad the damage is just too extensive."

The many holes in his mech's armor exposed the internal sections to the elements. Though Joshua's dodging improved, he could not prevent flying rocks and other types of wide-area damage from degrading the more delicate electronics. The erosion already turned his mech's left arm into an inert limb.

A heavy knight approached the Mist Prowler's side. Compared to the half-wrecked medium mech, the knight looked fairly pristine with its intact sword and shield. The mech survived the grueling match so far by being too sluggish to reach most skirmishes in time.

"TheSeventhSnake, how's your reserves?"

"I'm down to about 25%."

"I still have 40% left in the tank." The knight boasted. "We've reached the final ten minutes of the match. We have to dislodge whoever's left alive from the central temple."

Joshua looked up his team display and only counted five mechs still alive on his side. Of these five, two never showed up anywhere. Only the Mist Prowler, the heavy knight and a light sniper mech stuck together within the ruins.

"How many enemies are in the temple?"

"I last counted five of them, but that might have changed."

That meant they were effectively outnumbered. Joshua did not like his chances. He worked hard to take down four enemy mechs and drive away many more. Each of his opponents provided him with a hefty challenge. He now fully appreciated the proficiency of Silver League players. While not all of them possessed balanced skills, they almost always had a trick up their sleeve.

"How much of that smoke do you have left?"

"I'm down to my last canister. It won't last long enough to kill off all five of them. They also know my tricks now so I doubt it will be effective in separating them from each other."

"We won't need to separate them in order to win. In fact, I want you to force them to stick closer together." The heavy knight's pilot surprisingly stated. "If they're clumped up together, then our sniper can easily bracket the area with laser fire. Sure, most of them will miss, but if even 20% of his shots hits something, we're on the right track."

That was a fairly ingenious plan, if not for one thing.

"If I go in, I might be liable to get hit by my own side." Joshua said. "But if I don't go in, the enemy has no reason to cling together. They'll just spread out and try to escape the sensor blocking range."

"You need to go in. If we want to win, we have to take some risks."

"And what will you be doing?"

"I'll be standing next to our sniper, making sure he won't get ambushed. Look, you don't need to kill all five of them yourself. Just try to occupy two or three of them. You can leave the remainder to us."