The Mech Touch

Only the mechs of Team Larkinson and Team Reemus remained in the field, but the ones belonging to the latter were in a considerably worse shape!

The S1 no longer looked like the large and proud heavy artillery spider mech like before. The Daugen's piercing gauss rifle had torn through most of its external structure and destroyed almost all of its cannons and much of its legs.

It hardly took any effort for the Furia to finish the job and remove the S1 from the board!

The only hope for Team Reemus to win first place was for a miracle to occur. Unless the T1 was able to avoid the Furia's firepower and outfight the Sensia in melee combat, the light tiger mech was unlikely to attain an improbable victory!

The events in the arena occurred exactly as predicted. Neither the Furia nor the Sensia had expended too much resources in the previous fight, so they were able to gang up on the T1 without any issue.

The only variable that could ruin Team Larkinson's chances of winning the match was if the T1's incredibly powerful plasma claws somehow managed to cripple either of the Twin Souls in a single hit!

Sergeant Bobby Orwell and Sergeant Lizzie Cado of the Federal Military of Davute were both aware of this danger. It took no time at all for them to adopt the right strategy and try to focus on containing the T1.

There was no need for the Sensia and the Furia to take excessive risks and fight the T1 up close where it was most effective.

The Sensia cleverly circled around and constantly threatened to savage the T1's flanks and rear.

Whenever the T1 turned around in order to chase after the annoying light skirmisher, the Sensia promptly avoided a confrontation and ran away!

The Furia in the meantime tried its best to rely on its flamethrowers and its shotgun to wear down the T1's thin and relatively light armor.

These striker mech armaments might experience difficulties in trying to take down a large and sturdy machine like the Lancernaut, but they were more than adequate enough to strip the armor of a light mech and inflict torture on its internals!

The only real way the T1 could make up for its disadvantage in numbers was to charge at the Furia and savage the hybrid mech with its plasma claws.

However, the T1 never got the chance to get close throughout the remainder of the free-for-all match. The Furia was not a slow mech by any means and could run away fast enough to give the Sensia time to catch up and attack the opposing light mech's rear.

Aside from that, the Furia's armaments became a lot deadlier at close range. Its flamethrowers were no joke and had no trouble with cooking the T1 despite the latter's best efforts at evasion!

As soon as the flames and shotgun pellets finally wore out the T1 to the point where it collapsed onto the floor, the first and second-place winners had been decided.

The crowd erupted in cheers!

"Yay! We won!" Marvaine clapped as he hopped in his seat!

"I knew our papa would beat everyone. I just knew it." Andraste smirked as if she hadn't doubted for a single second.

"Meow!"

"Miaow miaow!"

The Larkinsons who watched the Twin Weapons Tournament from beginning to end felt both elated and relieved that their patriarch managed to win first place.

Aurelia looked happy as well, but she also grew confused at the numerous twists and turns that took place over the course of the free-for-all match.

"Why did Team Clive end up in third place?" She asked. "How did Team Reemus manage to stay in the arena longer? Shouldn't Team Clive and Team Reemus focus on eliminating their strongest competitor first?"

"It is not that difficult to figure out, dear." Merrill O'Brian replied to the young lady. "First, let us consider the mechs as a whole. The S1 heavy artillery spider mech is the singular most powerful threat in the field. It possesses the greatest mass and the greatest firepower out of all of the other mechs. At the same time, its mobility is low and its ability to defend itself is not that great. The Daugen and the Reedan whose combination is extremely susceptible against massed attacks really have no choice but to eliminate it first. They could not afford to waste their time on attacking the mechs of your father's team from the start."

"Okay. I understand that. Team Reemus also has no choice but to prioritize the Daugen first due to its superior firepower against slow-moving mechs."

"That is correct." Merrill affirmed. "The Sensia and the Furia simply weren't threatening enough in comparison. It also wasn't worthwhile to attack them because they're too fast and elusive to go down quickly. This caused them to be ignored most of the time. This is actually the reason why Team Larkinson's chances of winning have doubled if not tripled. Everyone who is able to think far enough has already made this conclusion as soon as the exchange of fire began."

"Truly?!" Aurelia looked surprised.

The recently promoted Journeyman Mech Designer smiled. "The mech pilots fighting on behalf of Team Reemus and Team Clive are not shortsighted. They likely understood that focusing their attacks on each other would likely allow Team Larkinson to have the last laugh, but they had no other choice. The mech pilots of the S1 and the T1 figured out sooner that their chances of winning first place had dropped to almost zero. Rather than trying to win the ultimate bet, they stepped back and recognized that it was better to compete for second place. That was the maximum achievable result that they could aim for. This was why they wordlessly decided to do Team Larkinson a favor and eliminate the mechs of Team Clive."

"Ohhh…"

"When the S1 was almost on the verge of getting destroyed, the mech pilots of Team Reemus sided with Team Larkinson for a simple reason. The relatively sturdy but slow-moving Daugen-Reedan combination is much easier to eliminate than the much more mobile Furia and Sensia. Again, the Reemus mech pilots had made a cost-benefit analysis that told them that their chances of winning second place is much higher if they did not bother to waste their firepower on trying to take down the pair of mechs that are harder to target."

Marvaine paid attention to this conversation as well. He became fascinated by how the Twin Souls were able to escape being targeted by both sides for the same reason.

"Is it more important for mechs to be fast than to be tough?"

"Not always, little cutie." Merrill smiled indulgently at him. "It depends on the battlefield and the opposition. No single answer is always correct. The mech industry clearly produces both light mechs and heavy mechs. That means that both of them are useful. You just need to deploy them in situations where they can maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. The larger and more massive mechs have performed well in this tournament. Team Clive and Team Reemus wouldn't have made it to the top 3 otherwise. I do not think it is a coincidence that Team Larkinson has taken first place."

The final match generated a lot of discussion, both among the Larkinsons and among a larger audience.

There were plenty of people that thought that the mechs of Team Larkinson had slid into first place without putting as much effort into the fight. It was basically a case of Team Clive and Team Reemus beating each other up first before the Larkinson mechs rolled in to mop up the remnants!

The commentators had a different opinion, though.

[The mech designers of Team Clive and Team Reemus have reaped the consequences of their design choices, for both good and ill. Both of them have decided to base their strategy on maximizing the firepower of their mechs at the cost of sacrificing their mobility. This has served them well in the previous rounds as they relied on brute force to defeat their opposition. It did not work out for them in the fifth and final round, though. Mechs that lack mobility are often targeted first. The teams should know this fundamental truth.]

[The foresight displayed by these mech designers still has room for improvement. They knew that 71 teams of mech designers had entered this competition from the beginning. If anyone charts out the single-elimination bracket, they would understand that they would finally end in a situation where only 3 teams are left. There are a number of possibilities on how the final match would be structured, and a free-for-all was a distinct possibility. It may be possible that Team Reemus took this into account and voted on holding a gauntlet, but I truly expected better from Jocasta Clive and her partner. What did they expect to happen if the six surviving mechs entered the arena at once?]

The commentators continued to prattle on even as the closing ceremony commenced.

Ves did not have much interest in what happened next. He tuned out the spectacle as he had been through this song and dance multiple times already.

He didn't even care about the prize that he had managed to secure!

Compared to the powerful MTA-affiliated organizations in Chance Bay, the Davute University of Technology was smaller and poorer. It was impossible for the educational institution to award Ves with a starship or a few kilograms of phasewater!

The only prize that mattered was to earn more bragging rights and enrich his record. Winning first place in any legitimate mech design tournament was rare. Many Masters weren't even able to boast of winning any tournament when they were at this rank and age bracket.

In short, winning the Twin Weapons Tournament significantly raised their credibility among their peers!

How could Ves be dissatisfied with this result? He would face a lot less doubts about his design ability in the future.

All of those doubters that thought that he did not deserve to receive so much special treatment from the colonial government had much less ground to stand upon.

In contrast, people such as President Yenames Clive and other like-minded people had much more faith that Ves would be able to give Davute a substantial advantage in the upcoming war.

It would be even better for his reputation if Ves was able to win a few more mech design tournaments, but they did not happen often enough.

This was the final day of the founding ceremony. The Larkinson Clan already participated in plenty of tournaments.

While the Larkinsons managed to win a few of them and bring a lot of glory to the clan, the time for festivities had passed. Davute had already exhausted a lot of resources to hold all of these events and wouldn't be starting anything similar anytime soon.

Ves actually had no interest in taking part in any public pageantries. He had already fulfilled his main objectives. He knew where he stood in his mech design career and he possessed a clear understanding of his strength relative to other colleagues in the industry.

He even managed to meet plenty of interesting recruitment prospects, though he was not quite sure about their willingness to join their clan.

Ves looked for Beatrice Hendrix but couldn't find her among the competitors who decided to stick around.

Hopefully, he'd be able to meet her once again so that he could have another chance at luring her into his clan. He had a feeling that he managed to spark enough interest, but that lone wasn't enough to secure the allegiance of a proud and confident mech designer.

The Design Department desperately needed another defensive specialist. There were few mech designers who were more suitable to plug this gap than Beatrice Hendrix. Her specialty in adaptive modular armor systems presented lots of new possibilities that would certainly complement a lot of Larkinson mechs.