[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 92: Double Trouble

After two hours of careful stalking, Lovejoy managed to deliver four golden coins. Compared to his competitors, he achieved a decent result. His luck was fairly good as he encountered two more light mechs in the process of transporting their coins. As these machines had all been prematurely rushed to the battlefield, Lovejoy easily crushed them through his superior mech's capabilities.

However, now was the time when the match transitioned in the mid-game. Shoddy mechs stopped pouring in by now. With at least twice as much time spent on their design, the second wave of mechs all overpowered the the early birds by a significant margin.

"Too scary! It's getting crowded here." He muttered as he vigilantly retreated from a newly spawned coin. Three mid-game mechs were duking it for possession of the coin. A worn-out light mech like his Unicorn had no contending against even one of them. He knew his limits.

"I still don't have enough coins."

Though he could yield in front of most dangerous encounters, he still had to fight for coins. Without at least two or three more, his chances of making it to the next round might evaporate.

He navigated through the forest carefully. By now, plenty of areas suffered from battle damage. The ground was scorched and many trees had been toppled. Broken mechs were strewn about like toys. Many of them only suffered light damage before they completely collapsed.

"Luckily my mech's designer isn't a total idiot. I can still hold up for a few hours."

The only issue he encountered was that his mech required frequent recharging. The few supply depots spread around the battlefield were all highly visible areas. He always had to watch his back incase he encountered an ambush.

His sensors beeped, alerting him to a nearby coin. He guided the Unicorn forward and carefully stalked past the foliage. He spotted an unclaimed coin resting against a cliff.

"Am I truly alone here?" Lovejoy wondered as he looked around suspiciously.

It seemed too good to be true. With a laser pistol in one hand and a sword in the other, his Unicorn crouched behind a dense patch of trees and waited patiently. He decreased the power to his systems in order to make his mech's thermal signature blend in with the environment.

"Unless someone is piloting a dedicated scout, no one should detect my presence."

His caution turned out to be prophetic, since a well-built light mech approached the coin a minute or so later. The mech appeared to be a sharp-looking skirmisher. Its twin wrist cannons possessed enough firepower to melt the Unicorn in a short amount of time, though it would suffer from catastrophic overheating in return. Still, the skirmisher was not a soft cookie but a well-built machine that took at least four hours to complete.

After scanning the area, the skirmisher evidently failed to detect the Unicorn. It conveniently picked up the coin and jogged away.

"Should I or should I not?" Lovejoy considered carefully. If he jumped the skirmisher, he had a decent chance of making a crippling blow. On the other hand, a light skirmisher was one of the worst types of mechs for his Unicorn to come to blows. He decided to call off his ambush.

"What rotten luck. I found a coin only to let someone else take it away."

Lovejoy felt as if he did his mech a disservice. He should be fighting it out against his competitors in a frank and upright manner. All this sneaking around only to take a step back when he encountered a formidable opponent only rankled him further. When had he ever acted so cowardly?

His sensors picked up a commotion down a riverbank. His mech turned around swiftly and approached the noise. From the amount of noise he heard, he realized the fight turned especially intense. Only a battle over coins could lead to such a frigid battle.