[201-400] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 297: Takeru

"I'm in trouble!"

"Did they all take stimulants or something? They're fighting to the death!"

"AAhhhhh! Save me!"

They suffered their first casualty soon after the sudden change. A knight mech got surrounded by two sword-wielding pirates. The defensive knight lacked the speed to fend off both mechs.

One of the pirates deliberately chipped away at the energy cells stored underneath its thinner rear armor. Once the pirate struck the energy cells, they both turned into conflagrations that further disarrayed the mechs around them and even crippled the other pirate mech.

"They're suicidal!"

"Calm down!" Kanaan roared over the channel. "Ranged mechs, suppress the pirate rifleman mechs. Don't let them set off any more mechs. Everyone else, don't hesitate to eject! If the pirates are eager to blow themselves up, then let's oblige them!"

Kanaan's words stabilized the Blood Claws pilot who had been wavering in their resolve. While it was dishonorable to eject too soon, the changes the Glowing Planet imposed on their mechs left them with little choice. They'd rather lose a mech and save a pilot than lose both of them for a needless cause.

Mechs continued to explode left and right, but the Blood Claws always ejected from their mechs in a timely manner. Once the threat of mutual destruction had been taken away, the pirates fell behind, as their reckless offensive turned them into mindless savages that only knew how to attack in a straightforward way.

Raella felt like she had the time of her life. Her nimble Sliverath easily coursed through the pirate formation and harassed them from the rear. Often times, she aborted her attacks and spun away, which distracted her targets and even prompted a couple of them to hit their self-destruct buttons prematurely.

"Hahahaha!" She laughed as she just finished toying with another mech who blew himself up for no reason. "Is this all you've got!?"

"No."

A swordsman mech almost struck the Sliverath. Only Raella's keen reflexes allowed her to juke her mech away at the last moment. She turned her sensors and gazed at the mech that almost cut off her mech and cursed.

She faced one of the elites this time. The command squad joined their suicidal subordinates and shored up their dwindling numbers. Raella happened to have the bad luck to draw the personal attention of one of those mechs.

"What's your name?"

"You can call me Takeru. And who might you be, milady?"

"Raella Larkinson."

The two mechs stood opposite of each other for a couple of seconds. Eventually, Raella made the first move. Her instincts as a mech athlete screamed at her to make the first move since she piloted the lighter mech.

The Sliverath slithered forth in an undulating trajectory that had been this model's hallmark. It didn't offer as much speed as the Vectrix, but it made up for it in flexibility.

Raella cautiously jabbed forward with a knife, only to get deflected by a powerful counter-strike that continued to chop at the Sliverath's head.

Fortunately, the skirmisher mech easily contorted its frame out of the path of the sword. Raella struck with her other knife, leaving behind a shallow nick on the arm.

"Damnit, what is your mech made of?"

The Slitherath didn't feature any compressed armor, but the mech piloted by her opponent evidently did. This placed a significant burden on her as the Slitherath had to target the same areas over and over to penetrate the tough compressed armor plating.