The Mech Touch

In her duel against Naeduvis, Captain Orfan adopted an approach that mech pilots typically employed against heavy mechs.

While a heavy mech possessed enough power to crunch a medium mech in a single, powerful blow, the crucial requirement was that they needed to land a blow in the first place!

Laymen often thought that heavy mechs were ordinarily strong due to their incredible amount of armor and offensive power. Certainly, their high production and maintenance costs suggested that they sat at the top of the totem pole.

The truth was a lot more nuanced than that. Heavy mechs can be employed to devastating effects, but only when directed in a strategically advantageous situation.

Employing heavy mechs was like making a leveraged bet. If a commander managed to put them in a good position where they could employ their strengths to their maximum, then they won big.

However, if their opponents exploited their fatal flaw of low mobility, then the heavy mechs risked taken out with far too much ease, thereby wasting the expensive machines!

Therefore, most of the times, the military forces that could afford to field heavy mechs typically opted to employ them in ranged combat. It was safer and more convenient to keep the heavy mechs back as a strategic weapon platform that could output a lot of firepower from a protected position.

Heavy mechs generally made for very poor duelists, especially if they lacked any form of ranged retaliation.

Only heavy knight mechs saw regular use. Their formidable defenses made up for their lackluster offense and their heavy shields allowed them to act as mobile shields for more vulnerable mechs.

However, this did not apply to the current duel. While Naeduvis boasted a defense that enveloped its hide and even its beast rider from any external sources of damage, its enhancements did little to speed its body up!

Even as the fifteen crystals emitted more energy and enveloped the exobeast’s body in a powerful antigrav field that lessened the effects of gravity upon it, Naeduvis simply couldn’t escape the consequences of its bulk!

"It’s a pipe dream for that exobeast to match the mobility of a medium mech that is optimized for melee combat." Ves confidently stated. "The mass of that creature is seven or eight times the mass of Captain Orfan’s mech. That’s almost an order of magnitude apart. So long as Naeduvis doesn’t possess a form of ranged attack, the odds are low it can turn around its predicament."

Perhaps their low mobility didn’t matter as much if they dueled against the other lumbering exobeasts. While the ten exobeasts that stepped outside of the city all differed in size and mass, even the smallest among them still fell within the weight class of a heavy mech.

In addition, most of the other exobeasts hadn’t been embedded as much crystals as Hokaz and Naeduvis. The natives had definitely put out their strongest two exobeasts.

"You annoying gnat!" Pirisa shouted as she remained strapped into her saddle. The beast rider didn’t worry about being struck by Captain Orfan’s spear at all as the protective energy field extended to her body. "Naeduvis, summon your might and show these godless interlopers the might of your godhood! Summon the waters of life!"

Naeduvis stopped its tactic of trying to swipe the darting spearman mech with its maw or limb. Instead, it focused its attention on something entirely different. A low thrum escaped from its throat as the dark blue luster of its scales started to shine even brighter!

"Energy levels are rising!"

"Press the attack! The beast is a sitting duck!"

"Seismic sensors are detecting irregularities! We’re detecting something massive approaching underground! It’s covering a massive range!"

"The other nine exobeasts are plodding backwards as fast as possible!"

"Withdraw this transport and every mech by at least three-hundred meters!"

A huge surge of water sprung from the previously arid soil! Though they didn’t surge up with too much pressure, the sheer scope of the area meant that Naeduvis managed to lift up so much water that it could fill entire mech arena!

"The water is being held aloft by a different energy field! It’s not very concentrated, but it is extremely wide-spread!"

Naeduvis roared in exaltation as it summoned a small lake’s worth of water from an underground source! Pirisa chopped her hand towards her opponent.

"Naeduvis, show them your godly might! Life Cutter!"

A portion of water slowly began compressing into large water balls half the size of mechs. Then those water balls began to compress into flat circular saws.

Those ominous-looking saws then launched towards Captain Orfan’s mech with the speed of a thrown weapon!

Ves issued out a warning. "Tell the captain to avoid those water saws at all costs! A single hit can cut through all of the armor layers of her mech!"

The spinning water saws that Naeduvis launched towards the spearman mech boxed in its target, leaving it with no possible angle to escape any damage. Captain Orfan gritted her teeth and decided to risk a blow to her frontal chest which boasted the thickest armor in exchange for dodging every other projectie.

Crack!

An awful sound occurred on impact! The spearman mech jerked back with an awful horizontal gash in its chest armor. It had mostly held up against the water saw, but it had lost all but one of the layers of armor plating adorning its chest!

If the water saw had struck somewhere less protected such as the arms or the rear armor, then the mech would have suffered a crippling hit!

As of now, the spearman mech really couldn’t afford a second impact on the same area.

"The exobeast is expending a large amount of energy every second it keeps up this party trick." Chief Dakkon reported. "Calling upon and lifting up all of this water may look impressive, but nothing comes for free. Naeduvis won’t be able to sustain this for long, especially if it tries to compress another set of water saws."

Pirisa screamed in satisfaction. "Hah! You metal cowards can be hurt! Naeduvis! Strike the godless machine again! Let us see whether it can bleed! Life Cutter!"

Another salvo of water saws launched into the spearman mech’s direction. Having made the mistake of underestimating the water saws before, Captain Orfan grew wiser than before and already dodged away well before the water saws launched.

All of the deadly water saws missed! Captain Orfan leveraged her mech’s superior mobility to maximum effect!

"Tell Captain Orfan to keep evading." Chief Dakkon suggested. "Attacking the exobeast removes a lot less energy from the beast than all of the water it is levitating. Her mech can simply keep dodging and wait for the beast to tire itself out!"

Once Naeduvis launched the third volley of water saws, Pirisa recognized that the Life Cutter attack wouldn’t be enough to pin down this annoyingly agile opponent.

Her god needed a way to hamper this mech’s mobility!

"Naeduvis, block the path of this swift and cowardly prey! Wall of Smothering Death!"

Huge sections of floating water started to form into walls that placed itself right in the spearman mech’s path. Captain Orfan had to abort her original direction and force her mech to veer to the side, only to encounter another water wall!

The water walls quickly boxed the spearman mech in and attempted to close the machine into a box!

Ves found the entire display to be fascinating, especially since Ves felt a constant tingling from his sixth sense. The form of energy and control the exobeasts employed didn’t appear to be spiritual energy, but some other form of energy that possessed some relations to it. "The water walls won’t work. The mech and every aspect of it is waterproof, and it possesses enough strength to overcome the loose water pressure of the walls.

The trapped spearman mech realized that it couldn’t escape cleanly, so Captain Orfan just decided to break through the envelopment through brute force.

The spearman mech succeeded! Despite the unsettling nature of the direction water walls, they didn’t appear to possess any notable strength. Naeduvis appeared to be unable to compress so many large water walls into something more formidable.

Pirisa appeared a bit flustered at the abject failure. It was as if she expected the mech to short out or drown when surrounded by so much water.

Ves chuckled under his breath. "If a mech can be defeated by a splash of water, they’re practically useless during the rain."

Although it still wouldn’t be a good idea for a mech to stay submerged under an extended amount of time, a brief dive into a body of water wouldn’t do any harm. Energetic mechs even sought out any large surfaces of water because they conducted heat away with a lot more efficiency than through air or through the soles of their feet!

A spearman mech didn’t generate too much heat, so Captain Orfan hardly paid attention to such a potential boon. Instead, she tried to figure out a way to end this battle faster before the exobeast pulled another trick out of its hat.

"C’mon you eggheads, tell me how to kick this water magician’s butt!"

Nobody came up with any better suggestions. The energy field that continued to envelop the exobeast was truly all-encompassing. In fact, if not for their clearly living nature, some of the Vandals might have even mistook Naeduvis for an expert mech!

Of course, even if the exobeast could sommon some of the powers of an expert mech, it didn’t mean they gained the same combat effectiveness of one.

Having gone mad from her failures, Pirisa urged Naeduvis to shape the water into other shapes before attacking Captain Orfan’s mechs.

Water trees, water whips, water beasts and more all attempted to tackle the spearman mech in their own ways, but each time the mech either avoided them or broke them apart with a strong sweep of the spear.

Four minutes went on while this energy-draining charade continued. The energy levels of the crystals steadily dropped, and Naeduvis exhibited clear signs of exhaustion.

At some point, the crystals had grown dull. The exobeast stopped exerting its control over the elevated mass of water. The fluids immediately filtered through the arid soil and disappeared deep underground where it ultimately belonged to. The exobeast lost the energy to employ its water any further!

Captain Orfan’s spearman mech stopped a fair distance away from the exhausted Naeduvis. It pointed its spear at the creature in a provocative gesture. "Is that all your water beast has got? I can take more! Show me your best attacks!"

Unfortunately, Naeduvis appeared to be unable to muster any further attacks. It didn’t summon another energy tornado either, so it seemed that siphoning ability possessed some kind of limits as well.

"Naeduvis has lost interest in this little spar." Pirisa slowly said as she pulled her mind out of the wireless man-beast connection she maintained with the sacred god. "She has judged your strength to be worthy of acknowledgement."

"Pffff!"

Fortunately for everyone, Captain Orfan didn’t express anything else than a disdainful snort. She had won the duel, but her animal opponent made it sound as if it did the mech captain a favor.

The Vandals ultimately accepted Pirisa’s face-saving excuse and allowed Naeduvis to withdraw with some of its honor intact. Both sides knew that Naeduvis had actually lost fairly barely. Captain Orfan’s mech only received a couple of heavy blows from the water saws and some of the more creative forms of water manipulation, but her mech could keep fighting even after accumulating so much serious damage!

The first duel ultimately served to reveal each other’s battle capabilities. Both the visitors and the defenders learned a lot from the duel. It didn’t really matter if neither side went for the kill, as they valued the information they obtained over the outcome.

If the initial duel was an appetizer, the second duel was the main course.

Hokaz, the Tyrant of the Wastes, crawled forward and released a majestic cry.

"Lieutenant Dise! You’re up!"