[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 40: Finals

When the Kirby entered the workshop, Ves looked grim at the amount of damage it sustained. The fragile shoulder laser mounts were total losses while the knife wound that disabled one of the arm cannons was very hard to fix. In addition, the overheating damage from the first match still plagued the mech's internals in addition to the abrupt fall that certainly knocked a few things loose.

All in all, the Kirby could be fixed in a week. As it was, Ves only had an hour or two at most before the Kirby was scheduled to enter the stage for the last time tonight. He glanced at the arena, where the top favorite of the newly instated Fusion Cup trounced his opponent handedly.

The top pilot of the cup, Christopher Yang, happened to be the number three seed of the Young Tigers Exhibition. Unfortunately for him, he got knocked out in the main tournament by getting matched against the predicted number one mech pilot. Thus, everyone inferred that the YTE offered somewhat of a second chance for him to win an actual prize.

His medium mech sported thick armor and a vicious loadout hated by arena goers everywhere. His wrist-mounted flamethrowers and stubby shotgun-like heat projector turned his mech into the penultimate close-ranged striker. The damage his weapon caused might not be as overpowering as solid projectiles, but they had the nasty property of cooking the enemy inside his cockpit.

In optimal circumstances, the striker tanked everything its opponent threw at them and simply blasted them with constant heat, leading to an inevitable victory when the enemy's machine practically looked like it took a dive inside a volcano.

Such a mech was terrifying already in an arena environment, but Ves cared more about Edwin McKinney. The prodigal son who returned from one of the biggest human superstates, Ves really dreaded what he cooked up. From what he saw so far, the striker moved more fluently than he'd expected of such a well-armored mech, and he spotted no gaps at all in its defenses. Christopher's current opponent managed to test his mech a little bit, but not to the point of actually threatening Christopher's lead due to the damage he sustained in the previous match.

Charlotte grunted at Christopher's indomitable performance. "Christopher's an arrogant son of a bitch, but he has the accomplishments to back it up. He rose up to become one of this year's top graduates due to his own hard work. He overcame poverty and lack of training resources to beat a lot of other mech pilots who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths."

Ves could imagine how tough that was, being from the Larkinson family as well. Pilots in well-off families and organisations enjoyed specialised diets, personal mech simulators in your home and sometimes even private tutors instructing you from the ground up.

"The longer the match goes on, the more advantages Christopher accrues. We'll need to configure the Kirby in a way that will help end the match quickly."

"Tell it to me straight then. How's the arm? Can you fix the knife wound?"

After consulting a high-powered scanner, Ves grimaced at the results. "The knife dug in too deep. That heated knife cut through several essential cables and feeds. I can't fix it without dismantling the entire arm. It's better to dislodge the arm from the shoulder socket and stick another arm in its place."

Obviously, Charlotte disliked the idea very much. The Turbofire sported a very specific set of arm cannons. The spare parts provided by the organizers didn't include a weapon arm of the same model. She'd have to get used to a different weapon or switch over to a fully-fingered humanoid arm.

"What about the shoulder launchers?"

"I can replace them with generic launchers. They don't have to be lasers either. When Alexander wrecked your laser mounts, his knives only penetrated the casing and inner components. They stopped piercing through after that, leaving the modular sockets intact. If you don't care about fast and accurate targeting, I can whip up a new pair of shoulder mounts for you in a rush, but don't expect a good performance."