Ves grimaced for a second once he saw that Lanie had suffered another defeat.
"That's six deaths so far. She isn't having the best luck."
He had tracked the young ch pilot's performance due to his prior experintation on her. He had reason to believe that she could stand out in this competition on account of her excellent skill and piloting acun.
While her performance at the beginning was good, Lanie quickly fell victim to the qualifying round's excessive chaos.
There was no way for Lanie to guard against ambushes by multiple chs!
She could not help it if the environnt around her virtual ch shifted in an unfavorable manner.
After getting three tis during the qualifying round, her swordsman ch perford only 85 percent as good as before.
This gap in comprehensive performance exceeded the differences between ch generations!
While Lanie had still been able to earn a smattering of points by hunting down weaklings that suffered even more defeats than herself, her luck consistently ran out as her progressively weakened machine painted an increasingly larger target on its back!
After suffering so many deaths, it beca unlikely for Lanie to earn any further points. The only way she could still fell opponents was by forming large groups of cannon fodder chs and hope that her swordsman ch would not get taken out first.
This was a slim hope as many of the undefeated or lightly defeated chs simply mowed through these mobs of loser chs without getting stopped!
Lanie was not the only ch pilot who entered into this death spiral. Many other Larkinson ch pilots that Ves had a good impression of had befallen the sa fate.
It was a good thing that Lanie and nurous other Larkinson ch pilots still managed to harvest their fair share of points. Their skill at least ensured that they could take a few opposing chs down as their own machines finally succumbed to the damage.
Ves frowned and rubbed his hairless chin. He glanced down at his two children who appeared to be enjoying the spectacle!
"Hihihi!" Andraste giggled as she held Lucky against her chest. "Look! The gravity in area B13 has reversed. Those landbound chs are falling upwards!"
"ow…" The damaged gem cat comnted as he tried his best to take a recuperating nap.
Marvaine began to look upset. "Why are our brothers and sisters losing so much? Aren't they better than the others?"
Ves smiled and patted his son's head. "Better is a relative and contextual word. Are our Larkinsons better at piloting living chs on organized battlefields? That is definitely the case. Are our soldiers better at participating in a free-for-all where teamwork and opportunism is paramount to accruing a high score? Not necessarily. Our ch pilots are all out of their elent. If you studied the real-ti statistics closely, you will find that rcenary ch pilots score consistently higher than others. Can you tell why that is the case?"
His children frowned as they thought about this question from their own perspectives.
"I think the Swordmaidens complained about this a lot when I trained with them." Andraste spoke up. "They say that we Larkinsons are too honorable and gullible for our own good. We haven't t too many scumbags and don't know how to deal with them when they try to trick our soldiers."
Ves tapped his daughter on the head. "Language, young lady! I don't mind it too much if other people have a habit of calling people nas, but it is not polite for you to do the sa. You are supposed to be better than that. Besides, your mother will punish you if you use foul language."
His naughty daughter's response to that was to stick out her tongue.
Marvaine anwhile did not understand what was wrong. "Can you explain to , papa?"
"You're still too young, my boy. Wait until you've grown a little older. All I can say for now is that your sister is right. Our clan and people are honest, honorable and generally nice people. That is good for us but not entirely. The dwarf galaxy we live in is a dangerous place, and nice people don't tend to survive that long. Just look at the virtual matches taking place down below. The ch pilots of our clan aren't doing so well. In fact, it is telling that out of all of our pilots, the Swordmaidens perform the best on average."
The Swordmaidens had split up into many different tournants, many of which focused purely on lee combat.
Not a lot of ch pilots from this iconic ch legion had actually signed up for the Davute Star Tournants, but those that did were predominantly old veterans who not only survived the old frontier during their pirate days, but also lived through all of the crazy battles the Larkinson Clan had fought.
Even though these older won from the sa generation as Venerable Dise did not possess any special spiritual traits, their skill, experience, resilience and above all their adaptability were top notch!
Ves turned his attention towards the best performing Larkinson in the tournant up to this point.
There was no benefit to earning way more points than the theoretical cut-off threshold, but Georgina Larkinson didn't get the ssage.
The woman not only managed to collect 36 points, but also managed to gather and lead a mob of 25 lee chs!
Ves could tell that Georgina had been clever about this. She did not take over an existing group, but recruited lone lee chs one by one with the force of her personality and her brilliant display of solid swordsmanship skills.
She did not approach any of her peers who only suffered 1 or 2 defeats, but she sought out the more worn chs that had been beaten down at least 5 tis over the span of a couple of hours.
Slowly but surely, she gathered a fluid following which she used to charge at other ch groups and harvest as many points as possible!
"Surrender or die. Either give us your points and weaken your ch by another 5 percent, or join my side and earn more points. It is your choice."
The lees always turned into a confusing brawl, and it was inevitable for many of Georgina's brothers to fall.
However, as long as her target group suffered enough losses, she forcibly instructed her group to stop fighting, sotis turning the sword of her ch on her own subordinates if necessary!
Her swordsman then pointed at the handful of surviving chs that earned a much-needed reprieve.
"Surrender or die. Either give us your points and weaken your ch by another 5 percent, or join my side and earn more points. It is your choice."
When faced with such a choice, the surviving losers imdiately agreed to join Georgina's warband. Though it had suffered a number of losses, the addition of fresh blood actually resulted in a surplus of 2 chs at the end!
On and on her warband continued to roam through the chaotic battlefield that constantly changed and shifted.
Mountains rose, uncaring for the chs that were present in the terrain. Many of the machines that tumbled down beca so beat up that they turned into easy at for other competitors.
An ocean appeared in place. chs that previously enjoyed solid footing imdiately beca subrged in water. This was not instantly fatal if the chs were fortunate enough to not have too many holes in their armor. The sa could not be said for the rest.
The extre reduction in gravity caused chs that jumped to keep soaring into the air. These chs continued to fly without any ans of controlling their trajectory. Once they reached a portion of the battlefield where standard gravity reigned, a powerful attracting force caused them to fall down and never stand up again!
The veteran Swordmaiden exhibited extre wariness towards these fatal terrain changes. Even though she wasn't the most clever ch pilot, she soon learned a basic rule about this virtual battlefield.
Once a region of space experienced a shift, it usually took at least 10 minutes before another transformation occurred!
Of course, there were exceptions to this rule, but these incidents happened so infrequently that it was better to flock to these 'safe spaces'.
Through mastering these rules, the champions of the qualification round accrued more and more points while keeping their deaths to a minimum.
Ves furrowed his brows as he compared Georgina's performance to that of Lanie.
Both of them were highly skilled, but their life experiences and ntalities had made the difference.
Lanie was too young and inexperienced to handle this sort of situation. She might be good in a straightforward ch battle, but she did not possess the leadership skills or cunning to gather a warband out of fellow strangers and take advantage of their relative weakness.
"Hm, maybe our clan truly needs to engage in more independent operations." He murmured under his breath.
The Larkinson Army had already engaged in limited forms of rcenary work during the long break in Davute.
He heard stories about boring protection duties, exciting hunting missions and beating off opportunistic raiders.
Ves bet that veteran ch pilots such as Georgina of the Swordmaidens continued to learn more ways to deal with complicated situations that couldn't be solved by hacking her sword a lot of tis.
By the ti this lengthy qualification round finally ca to an end, both Georgina and Lanie managed to make it to the next round.
The forr easily breezed through and managed to attract plenty of attention. The latter ranked at the bottom end of the survivors and had beco completely lost in the crowd.
"Alright. That's it for now." Ves stood up and brushed away any non-existent crumbs. "The Davute Star Tournant is over for today. What do you want to watch next?"
"I want to see ch duels!" Marvaine piped up! "Not virtual, but real ones!"
"What about you, Andraste?"
"I want to go to a personal combat tournant. Can we go there instead, papa?"
"There will be plenty of ti to see both. Let check with your mother first."
They spent the rest of the day dropping in and out of various arenas and competition venues. They never stayed too long, but managed to catch the highlights for the day.
With his personal assistant and his staff taking care of all of the tickets and reservations, Ves did not encounter any hindrances.
His children laughed and beca amazed at the feats they witnessed today.
They saw Swordmaidens ard with greatswords defeating formidable warriors who ca from many different regions of the old galaxy.
They cheered a team of Avatar ch pilots as they fought against an opposing team that belonged to a prominent rcenary company originating from the galactic heartland.
Ves, Andraste and Marvaine even joined up with Gloriana and Aurelia at a singing competition in a fancy dining hall located in the Austere District.
The voices that sung today were so radiant and enchanting that even Ves couldn't forget about it for the rest of the evening.
Gloriana appreciated the performances. She even started to have ideas.
"Ves?"
"Yes, honey?"
"I think our second cohort of children should focus on the arts and the humanities." She explained her views. "We already have the essentials covered with our current offspring. This is the ti for us to diversify our brood and expand our network. What do you think about raising an artist or an actor? With our clan's imnse advantages, I think our next sons and daughters have the potential to beco famous throughout the galaxies."
Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine all perked up at the ntion of more siblings.
"I want another little brother!" Andraste asked as if she was ordering a product from a store.
"Can I have a little sis as well? I'm tired of having only older sisters." Marvaine begged.
Ves smiled embarrassingly at his wife and children. "Let's not talk about this now. I already have my hands full with raising the three of you. Let think about this further. I'm not sure if this is the right ti to have more kids."
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