Chapter 239

239 Quarter-Finals, Pt –

Pilot: Crackpot

Role: Assault

Loadout:

Federal Shipyards “Enforcer” Armed Response Suit [B]

Myrmidon Technology “Barracuda” Shardthrower Elite Pro [A]

Federal Shipyards Chaingun SM [C]

Federal Shipyards “Adjudicator” Electromace [B]

–

.....

Pilot: Porkbelly

Role: Defender

Loadout:

Federal Shipyards “Enforcer” Armed Response Suit [B]

Hrothgar Tyr Submachine Gun [C]

Hrothgar Tyr “Legatus” Resonance Round Shield [B]

Federal Shipyards “Wasp Hive” Minirocket Pod SM [B]

Federal Shipyards “Adjudicator” Electromace [B]

–

Kali swung her greataxe in a wide circle in front of her, and clipped both of the enemies she was facing. Though the two mecha in front of her were both well armed and armored, both could hardly keep up with her sheer ferocity in melee.

Both stumbled backwards from her single blow.

And in the same smooth movement, Kali brought her axe up and slammed it down on one of them. Unfortunately, he leapt backwards just in the nick of time, and blasted her with his Shardthrower and Chaingun at the same.

Kali’s Rakshasa was riddled with shrapnel which embedded deep into her thick armor. The bullets simply bounced off harmlessly and left little more than a few scratches

But she was completely unfazed by it all.

Instead, she charged forward with even more ferocity, and slashed at her opponent with seemingly reckless attacks. And with every wild and powerful swing she committed, her opponent only stumbled further.

She chipped away at his footing until she found an opening, then expertly swung her greataxe upwards. It lodged itself halfway into her opponent’s Shardthrower, which allowed her to yank it up and out of his hands.

And at the very height of her swing, she adjusted her grip on her axe, and flipped which of her two arms held it. Without skipping a beat, she spun the axe around and slammed it downwards on her enemy. The Shardthrower that was stuck on its edge smashed against the mecha’s chest.

Kali’s axe cut right through the gun itself, and embedded its edge into the mecha’s armor plating.

The gun, now split in two, simply fell to the ground. It was reduced to little more than heavy scrap.

But before she could gloat, her back was peppered with the other mecha’s minirockets. Since she had cleaved off the arm that held his SMG, the only weapon he had at his disposal was his shoulder-mounted rocket pod.

And so he had no choice but to wait until the perfect opportunity to take her down and attack her.

Dozens of the minirockets impacted her armor, and detonated all over. Their combined force caused Kali to stumble slightly and lose her footing.

But before she could lose all her balance and fall completely, she stomped down with one foot and regained her mecha’s balance. Blast marks and numerous dents appeared on her back armor as the smoke cleared. Though her armor had taken some damage, none of it was critical.

With a low growl that came through the mecha’s external sonic emitters, Kali turned her head towards her assailant. Slowly. As though she was just interrupted doing something important.

A chill fell over the pilot when he realized he had made a huge blunder.

She grabbed her axe and charged straight at him with beastial celerity. The axe itself ripped out of the other one’s armor, and tore it wide open. While the first mecha fell and tumbled to the side, Kali swung her axe at the second.

He raised his shield to block her blow, but she simply bit right into it. It gouged into the shield’s armor, and bit into it deeply. The edge had sliced right through its armor, and down to the structure.

He stumbled backwards as he tried to resist her assault, but her relentless blows were far too much for him to handle.

And with utter ferocity, she slashed at him over and over, and chopped away at the shield itself. Every time she struck the shield, more and more of it came apart and flew off. She chipped off pieces of his shield until half of it had been torn away.

Then she came over the edge with the bearded portion of the axe, and yanked hard.

Since the shield was literally a part of his arm’s armor, it simply tore right off and revealed the structure underneath.

Kali brought her axe up and reared back to smash into her opponent, but was yet again interrupted. This time, the first mecha had recovered, and riddled her back with countless chaingun rounds.

He sprayed her back thoroughly, from the shoulder down, diagonally. They smashed into her, down her back and her right thigh. A number of bullets tore into the back of her right knee, and completely blew it out.

Kali’s Rakshasa fell down onto that knee, her momentum completely negated.

Seeing their opportunity to end things, the mecha in front of her opened up its thigh, where a handle popped right out. He grabbed it, and pulled out what looked like a mace with four small flanges on its head.

When he activated it, arcs of electricity coursed up and down its tip.

He swung down on her as hard as he could, but she quickly parried him with her axe’s handle. But he kept on hitting, over and over. And even though she parried each of his strikes, he still got what he wanted.

Every hit he made transferred some of his mace’s charge into Kali’s axe. The electricity coursed up and down its haft, and further down her arms. They began to shake and shiver uncontrollably from the electricity that coursed through them.

When she attempted to swing back, her arms’ movements stuttered somewhat, and the force behind her blows were dampened. The electricity caused her systems to go haywire, and didn’t move exactly how she wanted them to.

Inside, Kali poured power into her repairs as well as her energy shielding. Blow after blow from the mace caused her systems to slip further from her control, which in turn angered her a little.

More and more each time.

After a few seconds of intense repairs, her knee gained a minimum of functionality back. Alerts came on screen that it could once again move.

With that, she leapt up and shoved the mecha in front of her backwards. She quickly switched arms and swung her axe ferociously. Since they were unhampered by the debilitating electricity, they had no problems moving and operated with full power.

She attacked with one pair and allowed her other pair of arms to recover.

Unfortunately for her, the other pilot had drawn his own electromace and advanced right on her. Together, the two enemy mecha swung away at her and chipped at her defenses. Though they couldn’t do much physical damage, they were sure they could keep her pinned down.

And for a while, they did.

Even though Kali did her best to evade and parry, every hit that struck simply slowed her down that much more. Her footwork became sluggish, and her own attacks were blunted heavily.

She was once again driven to her knee, which allowed the two to hammer her with increased fervor. They saw their opportunity to take her out, and beat on her madly.

Every strike caused more electricity to be injected into her system, and slowly neutralized her capabilities.

Just as the first mecha reared back to deliver another devastating blow, a CRACK sounded in the air. His arm was completely shorn off from the elbow, and flew off to the side. The electromace along with it.

There were more loud cracks as multiple bullets punched his shoulder, upper body, and head. Each shot pierced right through the armor, and shredded the structure underneath. The force of the shots pushed the mecha aside, and rendered it down for the count.

The mecha fell over into a wrecked heap, completely useless. With its head caved in and its internal sensors a mess, there was no way it could do a damn thing. Thin wisps of smoke rose up from each of the bullet wounds he had received.

Its pilot, Crackpot, had no choice but to concede defeat. After all, the only thing he saw on his screens were red alerts, trees, and black screens.

With the pressure greatly relieved, Kali forced Rakshasa to stand and fight back. Though her arms felt feeble, she still swung her axe at her opponent.

Both of them traded blows – a swing for a swing, a parry for a parry. Each time, Kali switched which hands held her axe and minimized the electrical damage they all received.

Even then, she had taken too much already. Her circuits’ energy shielding were just about at capacity, and could hardly take more. If they did, she was certain that the mecha would be forced to shut down.

The frustration of it swept through her, and manifested itself as anger.

Kali focused herself through it and simply stopped defending herself. She realized it was a completely pointless act. If she was going to get electrocuted either way, then she may as well take on a completely aggressive stance.

She launched herself forward with a roar and swung her axe with maximized power. At the same time, her opponent brought his mace laterally towards her head.

It smashed right into the side of Rakshasa’s head, and a shot of electricity coursed through the primary sensor cluster inside. They caused a blip in her sensors, but it hardly mattered at that point.

Her own axe had found his mecha’s side, and bit its way partway into him. It chewed right through the armor and into the structure. And if she had gone any further, it would have cleaved right into the core and into the pilot himself.

Luckily, the tournament-issued S-ranked armored cores prevented such accidents and incidents.

But the force of it was still tremendous. The strike flung the mecha sideways half a dozen meters, and smashed it into a tree. It slid partially down its trunk, and fell into a seated position at the tree’s base.

Kali didn’t wait for it to recover and charged right up to him. She slammed him a second time with her axe, this time right where its neck met its chest.

It dug deeply into the armor, and the structure beneath.

Inside, Kali’s screens flickered as she angrily yanked her axe out of her opponent’s side. She grabbed it by its head, then pushed against its chest with her foot. Then, with a roar, she tore it off as she pushed the mecha into the ground.

She reared back and howled in victory, the decapitated head of her opponent in one hand, and her battle-worn greataxe in another. Not only that, but one of her feet was planted on top of her defeated enemy’s wreck of a mecha.

For the first time in her life, Kali was having the absolute best time of it.

The crowd went wild and cheered their absolute victory. The Ravens had utterly crushed their seeded opponents. It certainly seemed to some that this amount of devastation was something they did on the regular.

They watched as Kali walked casually to the center pyramid, up to the top. She stood up there triumphantly, where she was joined by the rest of her team.

The drone flag popped out and attached itself to one of them, as though it was still somehow relevant.

Once they were all up there, the announcer hovered back into the audience’s view. Lights splashed all around him again, and everyone could see the wonder in his eyes.

.....

He grinned widely and announced, “The Conspiracy of Ravens have won the match! They’re set to move on to the Semi-Finals, where they’ll compete with the absolute best of the best! Can they keep this up? I’ve got little doubts now, after seeing all that! What a show!”