The Mech Touch novel Chapter 597

The duel had reached its end stage. Everyone in the audience held their breath after the dramatic turn of events. They all thought that Avid Serpent possessed the advantage. Not only did she cripple her opponent’s mech, but the offensive she put out fully denied her opponent the opportunity to make a comeback.

Yet Captain Orfan found a way to fight back after all. She did so by performing one of the greatest taboos in mech combat, which was to drop her own mech to the ground!

There was almost no reason for a mech to lay prone on the ground. Not only would the machine lose most of its mobility, but it also put stresses on its frame which the designer had never anticipated. Furthermore, a mech that had collapsed on the ground was a sitting duck for any enemy mech. They could easily wreck a prone mech by stepping on it once!

Yet before the New Sentinel completely fell down, it had somehow succeeded in tripping the Rogue Breaker. Not only that, but the mech had also positioned its spear with its butt against the ground in a prime position to impale the falling axeman mech.

"What an amazing desperation move!"

"How did the Vandal mech manage to pull that leg down?"

"Finish off the Vesian!"

When the two mechs exhibited movement, the crowd started rooting for their favored mech pilot. With the Rogue Breaker impaled by a spear that miraculously held on up to now and the New Sentinel being squashed by the former mech with axes embedded into its chest, which mech still possessed the energy to finish the match?

In one of the front seats, Ves gripped his fists and hoped the damage to the New Sentinel wasn’t as bad as it appeared. In times like these, he felt the pain suffered by many mech designers.

It was no secret that many humans in the galaxy wanted to become mech pilots. People like Ves only became mech designers after finding out that their aptitude would never allow them to interface with a mech. Though he had ultimately turned around and embraced his current career, a small part of him still craved to fight in a mech rather than supplying it to someone else.

This was a feeling shared by many mech designers. Back at Rittersberg, his professors sometimes touched upon this subject.

"As mech designers, we are destined to be the people cheering our warriors on. Our primary role in society is to support the mech pilots. Do not delude yourself to be one of them. Even if your causes are the same, their fight is not our fight. The winds and rains that they have to go through in order to survive another battle is theirs to endure. If one mech pilot dies, there is always another customer for you to engage."

Ves recalled those words as he silently rooted for Captain Orfan. Some mech designers believed they needed to be dispassionate to their clients. Others believed that mech designers should build a close connection to the mech pilots that used their products. The different schools of thought often fought against each other, and up to today neither side had achieved superiority.

He supposed he ordinarily fell into the school of thought that believed a mech designer should keep their distance with their clients and avoid becoming entangled with their affairs. If someone bought a Blackbeak one day and used it to massacre an isolated village, Ves did not feel guilty at all. What did the actions of a lunatic have to do with him?

His cognition changed when he accompanied Walter’s Whalers in their jaunt to the Glowing Planet. Ves found it hard not to care about their lives when he serviced their mechs. Still, even when most of the Whalers died in the hellish campaign, Ves hardly shed a tear for their loss. They were only acquaintances at most to him. He couldn’t even recall the names of the fallen.

It was only when he rode with the Flagrant Vandals and assumed responsibility as a head designer that Ves had finally gone over to the other side. Ves cared a lot about the Vandals, and his heart bled whenever they suffered casualties in battle. This was especially because his fingerprints were all over their mechs. Though he hadn’t serviced them personally, the men who worked on the machines largely followed his instructions from above.

Right now, Ves felt the same burden of responsibility crushing on his shoulders.

The strength of a mech depended on both the mech and the mech pilot. Though the skill of the mech pilot was beyond his purview, the state of the mech could not be separated from his hand. The Pointed Sentinel was an old creation of Ophidian-Wheelax Industries, but the New Sentinel was thoroughly a creation that transcended its origins.

"This mech duel isn’t a one versus one. It’s a two versus two."

Captain Orfan versus Avid Serpent.

Ves Larkinson versus Gabriel Creta.

Ves felt fully invested in this duel. Though he could never match the dedication of the mech pilots who put their lives at stake, Ves felt as if his own competence was at stake.

"The New Sentinel is a mech that stems from my work!"

Right now, with both mechs piled up against each other, the capabilities of the mech pilots ceased to be important. What truly counted at this moment was which mech designer fashioned a better machine!

Which mech would still be able to fight after suffering such heavy blows? Would the New Sentinel be able to push off the Rogue Breaker? Did the latter mech still have the capability to function after an entire spear was thrust through its chest?

The answers to both questions relied on how well the mech designers built the mechs!

"Come on! You can still fight!"

Though the New Sentinel suffered a lot more blows than the Rogue Breaker, the damage should have been rather shallow. Ves carefully looked at the axes embedded into the chest of the spearman mech and judged that the weapons hadn’t penetrated too deeply.

Too bad the angle of view was rather bad for him. He turned to the sides and looked at the projections with a magnified view of the mechs. "There’s a fifty percent chance that the power reactor or the cockpit has suffered a breach."