The Mech Touch novel Chapter 596

The face of Ves turned ugly when the Rogue Breaker pressed the New Sentinel with its flurry of attacks. The duel-wielding axeman mech exhibited a distinct superiority over its adversary, and never stepped out of range, giving the New Sentinel very little room to maneuver!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Each swing of the axe landed with the force of a hammer. The Rogue Breaker seemed to dance on the arena ground, causing the public to become mesmerised by its ferocious movements. Even Ves found the view to be compelling in a way. There was a pattern to Avid Serpent’s chaos, but it was too abstruse for Ves to figure out.

The reason why Captain Orfan found it difficult to defend against the assault was because of the random nature of Avid Serpent’s attack routine. Sometimes, the force boosters lent more power to the blow, while other times they remained inactive. The irregular activation of the force boosters left the New Sentinel unbalanced as its pilot was unable to adjust its defense.

Captain Orfan gritted her teeth as she endured the assault. She had been afraid of this outcome! Giving the Rogue Breaker a single breather had been enough to turn the tide!

"My mech isn’t any weaker than hers!"

The Vandal mech officer was pleased with the New Sentinel’s performance up to now. The machine may have been somewhat weird, but it was mostly able to keep up with her movements. _{freeweɓnovēl.coɱ}

However, it still missed a pace compared to her service mech! That difference was subtle in some aspects, but huge in other aspects. These limitations constantly frustrated the captain and prevented her from performing her desired moves.

The duel between the two mechs had entered a superheated moment. The entire audience stopped speaking as they concentrated on the current phase. Nobody wanted to miss the moment where something changed. This might be the last seconds before the New Sentinel succumbed!

Ves bit his lip. He knew the New Sentinel the best. Captain Orfan had done her utmost and squeezed out every bit of performance it could unleash.

The spearman mech accumulated more battle damage as time went on. The New Sentinel currently bore two major wounds. The first one was the chest wound where Avid Serpent’s axe had dug into its chest armor. The second one was the leg which suffered major damage from the Rogue Breaker’s kick.

The other mech wasn’t in a good condition either. One of its arms suffered a cut, while a couple of other attacks spread the mech with wounds. However, the most significantly damaged portion of the Rogue Breaker was its waist area.

When the New Sentinel knocked down the Rogue Breaker and climbed on top of the prone mech, Captain Orfan’s mech had pressed down with its entire weight. The Rogue Breaker hadn’t been able to bear this weight, thus its waist became deformed!

Somehow, this hadn’t impacted the performance of its engine, but the same couldn’t be said for its leg joints. The Rogue Breaker had to move its legs forcefully in order to keep up its offensive.

"The honor of the Flagrant Vandals is at stake! I can’t falter like this!"

She had proudly stood up and answered Avid Serpent’s challenge three days ago. This was because she felt boundless confidence in her own ability to overcome Avid Serpent. The Vesian hadn’t shown off any exceptional ability back then.

It turned out that Avid Serpent fooled them all!

Even though the Vesian piloted a much-improved mech, that wasn’t of much use if her skills couldn’t keep up. The problem was that Avid Serpent’s performance exceeded everyone’s expectations.

This meant that Avid Serpent had definitely held back at least twenty to thirty percent of her strength when she dueled Broken Claw!

This additional boost in skill was the difference between an average advanced pilot and a peak advanced pilot. It separated the rank-and-file from the officer-level mech pilots in the military.

Captain Orfan bet with at least eighty percent certainty that Avid Serpent used to be a mech captain as well! Her opponent’s courage and judgement stood out from regular mech pilots like a crane among chickens. It reminded her of the time she clashed against the recently-advanced Venerable Foster!

The suffocating pressure emanated by Avid Serpent threatened to engulf Captain Orfan. "Really sneaky of you, Avid Serpent! You’ve hidden yourself well!"

"It’s not my fault you imbecile Vandals fell for my ruse." Avid Serpent taunted back as her mech kept unleashing more and more attacks without any signs of depleting its energy reserves. "How else would I be able to goad you dumb brutes into stepping onto the arena field?"

"Do you even care about your own honor? Hiding your identity like a rat and relying on subterfuge to get ahead of us, do you feel proud of yourself?"

"My pride is nothing you should concern yourself about! I hope the Vandals have prepared your coffin, because your broken corpse is about to rest in it! Sleep well and know that your defeat will be the stepping stone to my redemption!"

The New Sentinel’s spear became more ragged as it had to block more axe attacks. Although the material held up against the strikes for now, it wouldn’t be able to hold out for much longer, especially when her opponent didn’t have any scruples about conserving the energy of her mech.

"I can only choose to suffer!"

Captain Orfan let go of her desire to defend. Instead, she stridently controlled the New Sentinel to flip its spear in an offensive stance. The mech ignored the incoming axe attacks and instead thrust out with its spear in a desperate jab!

The twin axe strikes landed upon the unguarded New Sentinel without any hindrance. One axe bit deep into the side of the New Sentinel, while the other one heavily damaged one of the spearman mech’s shoulders.

Its performance had definitely suffered a significant impact this time as its internals received significant damage! However, because the axes had dug into her mech, the Rogue Breaker had momentarily exposed itself to Captain Orfan’s counterattack.

The spear stab almost went straight through the abdomen of the Rogue Breaker. However, the abundant layers of armor ultimately prevented the spear from penetrating into the internals.

The New Sentinel’s attack lacked sufficient force! Its sudden attack came out of nowhere, and while this had caught Avid Serpent off-guard, the New Sentinel hadn’t been able to put much weight behind the thrust.

Still, even if the spear stab hadn’t managed to pierce the abdomen, the kinetic energy behind the blow wasn’t easy to shrug off either! The shock incurred by the internal components underneath the abdomen was sufficient to hitch up the Rogue Breaker for a single instant.

This was enough for the heavily-damaged New Sentinel to disengage. Bearing new scars on its shoulder and its sides, it practically lost most of its functionality of the arm attached to the damaged shoulder. For all intents and purposes, the New Sentinel could only choose to fight on with a single arm.