The Mech Touch

[Please do not forget the central theme of this tournament. The mechs that each team is instructed to design and build must complement each other in battle. Team Larkinson has made a sincere attempt at doing so by making both of its mechs effective enough in combat to land the killing blows. Team Danilov on the other hand has opted to allocate the majority of its time and resources into designing the Lancernaut. Although the centaur mech has indeed lived up to its promises and crushed its opponents in the previous three rounds, it is too much to expect it to fight against two mechs at the same time.]

[I agree. Teamwork is stronger than individual excellence. Barring outliers such as high-ranking mechs, it is always better to field several weaker mechs than a single stronger one. The former may suffer more losses, but the latter is unlikely to survive the confrontation. Mech combat is as much a numbers game as it is a quality game. Mech designers cannot rashly enter a mech design tournament that is centered around teamwork and duo combat and subsequently focus on designing just a single good mech.]

Team Danilov's strategy had its limits. James Danilov and his sidekick Laurence Tsukai had both spent an inordinate amount of time on designing and building the Lancernaut.

The results of their efforts were obvious as the mech was tougher, heavier and more robust than many of the other mechs in the competition.

However, everything had a price. The frame of a centaur mech was several times larger than a medium mech, and that meant it took a lot more time to design and fabricate.

The consequence was that the two mech designers barely had any time left to fabricate a relatively weak and basic tiger gun mech!

As the only mech of Team Danilov that remained in the field, the Killer Kitty did not give up despite the fall of its 'big brother'!

Seeing that it was too difficult for the tiger mech to utilize its laser guns to land a solid hit on a fast and agile light skirmisher, the mech had decisively turned its weapons against the crippled and immobilized Furia!

Team Danilov must at least down a single opposing mech in order to be able to leave this tournament with dignity.

However, would the mech pilots fighting on behalf of Team Larkinson allow that to happen?

Absolutely not!

The Furia had already begun to fire its single remaining luminar crystal laser weapon at the distant tiger mech.

Unlike the centaur mech that had already fallen, the Killer Kitty turned out to be quite a fast and agile beast mech.

Its ability to perform lateral movements and just to the sides was much better owing to its much lighter frame. Its weapons loadout may be unimpressive, but that was also the main reason why the Killer Kitty had managed to stay out of the reach of the Sensia all of this time!

Unfortunately, its attacks were ineffective. It might be able to kill finish off the Furia if there was no interference, but the Sensia did its utmost to interfere and get in the way!

This time, another weakness of its relatively weak design became exposed.

The Killer Kitty was only able to launch attacks at targets that were almost directly in front of its facing!

Team Danilov had hastily mounted two laser guns onto the sides of its feline body in order to satisfy the 'ranged mech' requirement and called it a day.

If not for this weird tournament rule, James Danilov and Laurence Tsukai would have probably opted to settle for a more traditional tiger melee mech.

As it was, the Killer Kitty only managed to land attacks onto the Furia's kneeling frame for a short amount of time before the Sensia came close enough to force it away!

"I won't let you kill off the Furia!"

The Sensia continued to chase after the Killer Kitty while making sure that the tiger mech could never turn its guns towards the Furia for long.

While it was impossible to prevent the fast and agile tiger mech from firing its energy weapons at the Furia entirely, the hybrid mech simply hunkered down and made sure to guard its weak points as best as possible.

The match eventually came to an end after the Killer Kitty ran around and launched attacks until it had emptied its energy reserves.

The Sensia hadn't even needed to sink a single dagger into the tiger mech's frame!

[Team Larkinson has won again!]

[As expected.]

[What do you mean, 'as expected'?! The Lancernaut almost crushed the mechs of Team Larkinson! Just look at the state of the Furia! It is so badly damaged that it is doubtful whether Ves Larkinson and his partner are able to repair its leg and arm in time to fight in the next and most crucial round.]

[That is an interesting question. The delay between the rounds has shrunk considerably now. I believe that Team Larkinson only has time to repair the foot and a portion of the damaged torso. They can forget about restoring the arm. There simply isn't enough time.]

[I wonder whether the mechs of the other teams that have made it this far will be in a worse or better state.]

The commentators continued to exchange their views as the next matches of the fourth round unfolded one by one. More and more machines suffered serious damage as the design capabilities of the teams that made it this far were by no means weak!

Meanwhile, Ves and Juliet quickly raced down to the workshop to do their utmost to fix up their mechs.

They had already exchanged their plans and views in private and knew exactly how they wanted to proceed with this crucial repair job.

"Blinky!"

Mrow!

The companion spirit had rested more than enough to support its design network again.

Both Ves and Juliet entered into a familiar state of knowing and mutual understanding.

Ves automatically approached the Furia and began to operate the bots and assembly machines to rip away the ruined or heavily damaged parts that needed to be replaced.

Juliet on the other hand was closely operating the superfab in order to churn out all of the replacement parts that were necessary to restore the combat effectiveness of their hybrid mech!

Neither of the two paused or slowed down in their work. Conversation was not necessary at all in order to communicate what they wanted from each other.

This allowed them to work a lot more efficiently than normal. Tasks that normally took 10 minutes to complete could be done in 4 minutes or less due to removing so much friction!

As the first batch of replacement parts arrived, Ves immediately went to work with fixing up the legs again.

The footing of a landbound mech was the foundation of the entire machine. A bad foot could easily spell disaster as the inability to reposition rapidly or maintain its balance under difficult conditions could easily cause the Furia to trip and fall!

Ves and Juliet therefore decided to do their best to restore foot to its original form despite how much time it took to complete this job.

"Torso and arms next!"

This was a more serious and demanding job. The Lancernaut's charge had struck the shoulder that connected the arm to the torso. This caused a lot of damage onto the torso which absolutely needed to be fixed!

Ves first concentrated on restoring the functionality of the integrated luminar crystal weapon in the chest area on the affected side.

The core mechanisms of the weapon thankfully remained intact, but Ves had to rip out a lot of broken channels and circuitry and replace it with newer components.

This took a lot of time! Ves was actually feeling a lot of pressure because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to complete his repair plan in time!

Fortunately, no complications occurred. Ves not only managed to restore full functionality to the luminar crystal weapon, but also fixed a lot of structural parts that prevented this damaged section from worsening the state of the hybrid mech.

"Replacement arm left!"

There was not a lot of time left anymore, so Ves and Juliet had already agreed to take the most expedient action.

It was far too troublesome and time-consuming to restore the arm complete with a wrist-mounted flamethrower once again, so the pair of Larkinson mech designers didn't even bother with this solution.

Instead, Juliet had fabricated a large ballistic rifle that could easily be attached against the empty shoulder of the Furia!

"I guess our hybrid mech has partially degenerated into a frontline mech." Ves quipped.

This was the most efficient decision that they could make. Ballistic weapons were quite weak but they were extremely simple and low-tech. Modifying it so that it could be mounted on the side like a replacement arm was also a trivial matter to a Journeyman.

Once Juliet completed all of the fabrication tasks, she joined Ves in assembling all of the loose parts.

The final result was a Furia that had been reborn, if only reluctantly!

"What do you think, Bobby?" Ves asked the pilot who had the pleasure of piloting this uneven mech.

"I… will try to make the best of its restored capabilities." Bobby said.

"That is good to hear." Ves smiled as he patted the military mech pilot in the back. "Remember that the foot is fully restored. We put a lot of effort into ensuring that the Furia can take full advantage of its mobility. As for the new ballistic weapon hardpoint, it should allow your mech to pose a light to moderate threat towards other machines at greater distances. Try and maintain distance as the Furia's ability to fend off melee attackers has weakened considerably. This is also one of the reasons why we did not decide to mount another flamethrower or shotgun in the empty shoulder socket. The shortcomings are too great."

"Understood. Is there anything else I should know about the Furia, sir?"

"Don't ignore the connection between you and Lizzie who is piloting the Sensia. Both of you are piloting a pair of living mechs. There were moments in the previous fight where the two of you could have cooperated better with each other. Focus on that. The two of you have yet to discover the full potential of your living machines."

That was rather vague advice. Bobby barely knew what he was dealing with and he had no clear idea on how to foster a greater connection with Lizzie.

Once the break time was over, the surviving few teams emerged once again.

Ves immediately frowned when he observed the remaining competition. "Oh. I forgot that there was 1 bye. This is awkward."

[Let me introduce the remaining teams that have preserved their chance to win the championship of the Twin Weapons Tournament.]

[Team Larkinson needs no further introductions.]

Ves smirked and briefly bowed at his audience.

[Team Clive is our ultimate hometown representative.]

A pair of mech designers who bore the emblem of the Clive Consortium on their suits greeted the public with PR-friendly smiles.

[Last but not least, Team Reemus has come out of nowhere and defied many expectations.]

The mech designers of Team Reemus were travelers who had no connection to Davute. Hardly anyone cheered for them, but plenty of people respected their accomplishments.

[Now, who among the top 3 shall be crowned the victors of this tournament?]

Since there were 3 teams left after a long day of running many different matches, there was only time to hold a single round to determine the final standings.

How would the tournament structure the final round?