[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 53: Test Pilot III

The plan was wracked with holes, but Joshua couldn't figure out another way to win. The longer they stayed near the temple, the more their capture score accumulated. Once it reached the limit, they'd win the match.

Joshua parted from the pair with a heavy heart. He was essentially tasked with acting as distraction and bait. Victory and defeat rode upon his shoulders. He didn't want his first match with the Mist Prowler to end so ignominiously.

"C'mon fellow, I know you have it in you. Please stay together for a couple more minutes."

His back cage holding the cloud generator and projector lost a lot of weight as the match went on. Almost all of the canisters were missing as Joshua already used them up. Only the last canister remained unused. Joshua programmed the particle ejector, and then initiated a delay. He controlled his mech to quickly detach the back module and throw it in the direction of the central temple.

The particles instantly engulfed the surrounding area. A great fog of shiny particles and rainbow colors blocked everyone's view. If the sniper had not prepared a position and zeroed in on the temple, he would be as blind as the rest.

"I'm going in. Hey sniper, I'll be alternating from the left to the right side of the temple area each minute starting from now."

"Roger that."

With that out of the way, Joshua entered the mist yet again, rendering himself blind. By now, Joshua got used to the sheer amount of visual noise around him. Having prepared his entry with a rudimentary map, he eased his mech forward. Its steps landed softly in the soil, much gentler now that it only wore a fraction of its armor.

Joshua felt more in tune in this blind environment. The Mist Prowler was made for hunting in the heavy fog. Like an extradimensional specter, the sorry-looking and creaky mech approached the temple. As a minute passed, he switched a little to the right. He decided to increase his pace and probe the enemy's disposition.

Once the main temple came into view, a laser shot out at him from a corner.

"Contact!" Joshua yelled as he dodged further to the right. Then he realized the particles in the air blocked all communication signals as well. "Shit."

His mech spurred ahead with a scavenged sword in hand. The spear and heated knives weren't able to survive Joshua's rough handling. More shots to ping in his direction, but luckily they were just exploratory in nature.

Another set of laser shots started to fire from the outskirts. The sniper in Joshua's team finally went into action and focused most of his shorts to the left.

The grand temple came into view. Unlike the other stone ruins in the map, the main structure of the alien city was carved out of an exotic stone that shone bright black in the sun. Its appearance was incongruent with the local architecture.

Joshua cared little for these fictional curiosities and instead focused on getting into sword range with what looked like a banged-up heavy centaur. It lost most of its weapon emplacements from previous attacks. Most notably, one of its legs appeared to be lame.

"It's a sitting duck." He grinned at the sight. The heavy mech did not use any weapon other than what looked like a salvaged laser rifle. The mech's fixed weapon emplacements were either destroyed or expended all of their ammunition.

The heavy mech released a trumpet-like sound in the air as it called for help. Knowing that he didn't have much time, Joshua squeezed out all of the Mist Prowler's potential and dodged the heavy mech's plentiful shots with clumsy grace.

Knowing that its end was near, the heavy mech dropped its rifle and instead lifted off a ridiculous-looking maul from the ground. Even before the Mist Prowler came into range, the centaur already started to swing the hefty weapon.