Two rapid forms soared in the air!
After pitting two sluggish defensive chs against each other, the third duel presented viewers with a completely different experience.
Two different light skirmishers were zipping around the dueling ring. Even though they were forced to make frequent turns due to the limited dinsions of the fighting area, this gave center stage to the mobility of the dueling chs!
Even minor differences in agility, acceleration, mass and so on beca crucial. The ch that was able to move a little faster than the other would always be able to secure the initiative.
At least, that was what people were used to seeing from duels between two swift machines.
The reality was very different!
One form was lighter and possessed a greater thrust-to-weight ratio for that reason. Yet this light ch was doing everything possible to distance itself from the opposing ch!
The other ch was not as fast and nimble as the other ch, but it exuded so much threat that its opponent simply refused to clash upfront!
The audience sitting on the elevated viewing platforms extended from the crown of trees all fell silent.
Their enthusiasm quickly faded after the start of the third match. There was very little to cheer about once the two chs exchanged their first blows.
Practically even before the bioch designed by Dr. Navarro closed in to perform an attack on its opponent, it was already attempting to escape!
The battle never turned around after that. Even though the two chs were supposed to be in the sa range, one ch acted like a scared rabbit while the other flew forward like a shark slling blood!
"This is a disgrace!" Soone yelled!
"I thought the ch pilot of the Faerie Stinger was supposed to be a military ch pilot. Why isn’t Katarina Volsemar turning around to fight the tal ch like a real soldier?"
"Light ch pilots are all cowards! They just differ by their degree of cowardness. We just had the bad luck of drawing the more frightened ch pilot this ti!"
Stunned dismay soon transford into pejorative remarks. The frustrated Lifers who expected to see a repeat of the second match’s glorious victory instead witnessed a completely different show.
They all felt scamd!
They all thought that there was sothing wrong in Volsemar’s head!
How could the design duel possibly attract such a flawed ch pilot?
The only reason why the audience hadn’t let their tempers rise any further was the realization that she would beco Ves’ problem in the second phase.
Still, so long as Katarina Volsemar piloted a bioch, she was practically shaming the LRA’s entire bioch industry in a live broadcast watched by an uncountable amount of people!
"These people don’t understand!" The much-maligned ch pilot spoke through gritted teeth. "It’s not as if I want to run away, but I have no choice. I can’t maintain my battle effectiveness when I’m in the vicinity of that infernal tallic ch!"
She expected a very different fight. As an experienced special operations ch pilot, Volsemar went through plenty of tough situations. She had co on top in situations where she was outnumbered, where her unit perford a classified mission but got cut off and even fought against an expert pilot and managed to live to tell the tale!
Her ntal fortitude was anything but feeble. In fact, the people who approached her with the offer to participate in the design duel explicitly told her that they were looking for soone who could endure a lot of ntal pressure.
They even gave her a heads-up on the ch she was about to fight in the first match. While information on the second-class version of the Ferocious Piranha was fairly sparse, she was able to study the third-class version extensively.
She even had the opportunity to experience its glow in person, allowing her to get accustod to it as much as possible before the match began!
Yet for all of her preparations, acclimatizing to the glow at rest was completely different from experiencing it during combat.
For one, the Ferocious Piranha’s threat never centered around its glow alone. It was the combination that truly comprised the hurdle that she had to overco.
Even if she was strong enough to maintain her wits at close range, she still had to exert significant ntal effort in order to properly pilot her ch.
"Hahaha! I love this ch!" The ch pilot of the pursuing machine exulted. "Every light ch should be like this! Hardly anyone can match in close-quarters combat as long as I’m piloting a Ferocious Piranha!"
Rez Killigan indeed realized his current advantage! As a military scout, he did not clash against hostile chs very often, but learned the capitalize the opportunity when it presented itself!
He unabashedly drove his Ferocious Piranha forth, trying to keep up the pressure by sheathing one of the heated daggers of the ch in order to pull out a pistol and firing potshots at the bioch’s colorful flight system.
The Faerie Stinger was supposed to be a challenging ch to overco. Compared to the Ferocious Piranha, the uncovered bioch fared worse against attacks but possessed a very crucial speed advantage. Its exceptional nimbleness and flightiness turned it into a fantastic aerial duelist.
The bioch’s offensive power was also fairly potent. It was ard with two fang-like daggers that were designed to sink into weak points in order to inject corrosive acid through the hollow tubes running through the length of the weapons.
The specially-formulated corrosive acid had the potential to seriously damage or degrade the internals of either biochs or tallic chs.
In fact, according to the information provided by the ch, the acid tanks of his Faerie Stinger currently carried a substance that was supposed to be especially potent against tallic components.
Yet all of this lethality didn’t even have a chance to play out because Volsemar couldn’t put up an adequate fight against the Ferocious Piranha.
She could forget about sinking one of her stingers in the opposing ch. Instead, she had to worry about her bioch getting stabbed instead!
Even though the heated daggers wielded by the Ferocious Piranha weren’t anything special, the threat they posed to the Faerie Stinger was quite significant.
This was because the bioch did not feature a lot of protection!
While its flesh was relatively dense and resistant to damage, the Faerie Stinger was too skinny to possess much muscle mass. This ant that serious attacks could easily punch through the relatively thin flesh layer and damage the crucial internals!
Even though the Faerie Stinger avoided this fate by maintaining its distance from its pursuer, this was not a long-term solution.
The Ferocious Piranha’s laser pistol constantly seared the backside of the bioch!
Even though the output of the laser pistol was not that impressive, the Faerie Stinger’s rear was not able to cope that well against attacks. Its majestic rainbow-colored wings were especially exposed!
If not for the bioch trying its best to evade every incoming attack, its flight system would have been knocked out long ago. Volsemar was also thankful that the Ferocious Piranha wasn’t optimized for ranged combat.
Still, plenty of hits still got through. Even if the laser beams didn’t hit the flight system, they still impacted the back of the Faerie Stinger, causing the flesh to blacken and smoke. This not only degraded the range of movent of the ch, but also brought it closer to defeat.
To its credit, the Faerie Stinger was not without solutions of its own. It sheathed one of its daggers as well in order to pull out a biopistol.
Different from the weapon wielded by the Ferocious Piranha, the biopistol was capable of integrating into the palm of the Faerie Stinger. This increased integration brought nurous benefits, such as added stability and more efficient transfer of heat and energy.
Instead of firing energy beams or solid projectiles, the biopistol fired a different payload.
As the weapon fired, fleshy orbs accelerated forward at massive speeds and either impacted the pursuing ch or exploded around it if they missed the mark.
As the orbs ruptured, they released a small but potent quantity of corrosive acid. Lots of acid splattered onto the surface of the Ferocious Piranha if the orbs hit the ch, but even the ones that exploded in the vicinity managed to spray a few splatters onto the side of the chasing ch.
This caused the ch to slowly acc.u.mulate smoking pits onto its surface. Yet no matter how much acid stuck onto the Ferocious Piranha, the substance’s ability to lt through its armor was notably slow!
The reason why the Ferocious Piranha was not as swift as the Faerie Stinger was because it boasted better protection. Its thin but well-regarded armor system provided it with enough of a buffer for Rez Killigan to completely ignore the threat of the biopistol!
A few successive laser strikes managed to impact one of the ’wings’ of the Faerie Stinger. The bioch’s flight destabilized a bit as it wasn’t able to accelerate as well as before.
"You have no choice!" Killingan shouted!
Volsemar couldn’t afford to keep running away. The arena was too tiny to allow the Faerie Stinger to utilize its speed advantage to shake off the Ferocious Piranha.
Seeing that the Faerie Stinger’s biopistol required far too much ti to penetrate the Ferocious Piranha’s exterior, Volsemar finally gave in to the inevitable.
"I’m not running away anymore!"
Unfortunately for Volsemar, her determination to acquit herself well encountered so issues.
The damage inflicted on the rear of the Faerie Stinger slightly reduced its maneuverability. This caused the ch to beco a little more clumsier up close.
Combined with the overpowering disorientation field projected by the Ferocious Piranha, Volsemar felt as if she was forced to fight with two hands bound behind her back!
Her responsiveness and ability to plan out her moves suffered badly the closer she got to the LMC ch.
Killigan clearly noticed the difference and fought more aggressively as a result. Even if he took so risks, his opponent wasn’t capable of exploiting his openings!
"I’ll finish you off before you can turn the tide!"
He took no chances and ruthlessly pressed his Ferocious Piranha close. With so clever moves, the tallic ch batted aside the stinger daggers and plunged into the c.h.e.s.t and lower abdon of the Faerie Stinger!
Smoke sizzled from the wounds as the red-hot daggers pierced deeply and inflicted a lot of heat damage to boot!
Unlike wounds inflicted by regular blades, it was a lot harder for a bioch to heal flesh that had been burned or cauterized.
The initial stab already damaged or destroyed nurous biocomponents. This prevented the Faerie Stinger from mounting a defense before the Ferocious Piranha pulled out its weapons and stabbed a second ti!
"Kill!"
A succession of stabs ensued as heated dagger after heated dagger turned the c.h.e.s.t of the bioch into an ugly rendition of a victim of a serious killer!
Upon the fourteenth stab, a massive energy shield f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y bounced the dagger aside.
[The third match has ended! Mr. Larkinson has achieved his second victory in the first phase. The score is now 2-1 in favor of our foreign visitor.]
The end of this match felt like a relief to all of the Lifers. The audience had long accepted the possibility of defeat. They could only hope that Dr. Navarro would be able to improve the Faerie Stinger before the next phase comnced.
"We only have two more chances left to gain the upper hand today. Please, don’t drop the ball again."
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