CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The transformed Red Lamia raised the deadly blade high above its head.

The flaming weapon looked identical to the original Dragonbane Sword.

The Dragonbane Sword was a hand-and-a-half sword used for either single or two-hand strikes.

The long hilt was forged from dragon bone, and the sword had a small dragon's skull at the end instead of a traditional pommel. The skull had been taken from a baby dragon, but it was still massive - over five feet long.

The blade's back consisted of several dragon spines hideously entwined together. On the real Dragonbane Sword, the Eternium cutting edge was black as night, a sharp contrast to the hideous bleached white bone of the spine in the back.

However, this version summoned by the Blazing Avarice was made entirely of fire.

The blade blazed a simmering scarlet.

The replica sword created by the Blazing Avarice was so hot that the air bent around it. The dance of the flames was eerily hypnotic.

The sword flickered back and forth in the Red Lamia's hands, and smoke wafted high into the air.

Jason instinctively knew that this item would still damage his partner despite his Mech's immunity to flames and heat.

The replica had the same menacing air as the original.

After summoning his new dragon-slaying sword, the Red Lamia's pilot instantly charged.

The transformed creature's muscular legs thundered against the ground. Its crocodile-like jaws - thicker and wider than the Red Minerva's thin snout - eagerly snapped up and down.

Jason's response caught his opponent completely and utterly off guard.

Instead of running backwards, Jason held his ground.

In fact, his Mech slowly leaned forward as Jason stabbed towards his opponent with the Valorous Ji.

The machine's moves were slow and sluggish. The Genetic Absorbers were filled to near-bursting levels.

His odd move caused his opponent to completely overshoot his attack.

There was absolutely no reason for somebody to stay in place.

After all, his opponent had just demonstrated a totally overpowered ability - his machine could summon items from thin air.

Anyone else would have run away.

Anyone else would have been frightened.

The pilot had expected to bowl Jason over as the Red Minerva fled. He'd pounced forward with all his strength.

As a result, the Red Lamia jumped right over Jason's head.

The pilot tried changing direction mid-air, but his machine was just moving too quickly.

That was one of the few negatives of using a Mech with such high physical stats. Even if your machine had an excellent Maneuverability stat, Overdrive machines were huge. A rapid increase in speed and momentum could quickly get out of control.

As the Red Lamia crashed onto the ground, Jason turned around and stabbed his foe with the Valorous Ji. This time, the strike instantly vaporized a portion of the Lamia's chest.

Jason laughed to himself as his opponent stumbled back.

To an outsider, Jason's move would have looked like a stroke of extreme genius.

It seemed like he'd read his opponent like a book.

In reality, Jason had just gotten extremely lucky.

Earlier that day, Jason had noted that Overdrive players weren't good at calculating the odds. When faced with a difficult challenge, plenty of players looked only at the possible glory.

They would risk everything in order to acquire rare parts.

However, those thrill-loving players included Jason himself.

He'd stood his ground, but not because of his usual insight into his opponent's psychology and thinking.

He'd stayed in place because of pure unadulterated greed.

Throughout this match, his opponent had displayed several godlike techniques. The moves were all empowered twists on abilities that Jason had used countless times before.

The first was the Pestilent Snipe, a far more powerful version of the Red Minerva's usual acidic flame breath. Instead of a weak area-of-effect move, the Snipe was a concentrated blast that destroyed everything in front of it.

The second was the machine's transformation ability. The ability to shift between a limber sniping mode and a muscular attacker showed that the Red Lamia was superior to the base Red Minerva frame in every way.

Both those abilities were blatantly powerful, but the Blazing Avarice topped all of them.

The ability was a modification of the Red Minerva's supply gauntlets. Instead of depositing a few small items into the machine's hands, Blazing Avarice allowed its pilot to summon a weapon as powerful as the Dragonbane Sword.

The ability was everything that Jason had longed for.

It combined absurd power with absurd versatility.

His desperate craving for the item had anchored him in place, and his greed had inadvertently saved his life.

Jason was hyperaware of the Genetic Absorbers tied around his Mech's arms and legs. He knew how close he was to achieving this power for himself. As a result, he'd stayed to strike instead of falling back.

Now, he just needed a single attack before the genetic absorption process would be complete.

Normally, filling up the Genetic Absorbers meant that you'd inflicted enough damage to kill the opponent.

However, the Red Lamia's absurd toughness meant that wouldn't be the case.

Jason didn't mind.

It meant he would have the chance to try out this new ability in the middle of the battle.

His opponent steadily advanced.

Jason's seemingly brilliant move had left a strong impression in his foe's mind. The veteran pilot was proceeding cautiously just in case Jason had another trick up his sleeve.

Jason lifted his spear again.

He was back to his senses. He'd pushed back the sudden spurt of emotion and was thinking clearly again.

Jason knew he needed to take advantage of his opponent's excessive caution.

After swiftly reviewing his options, he decided his best chance was a bluff.

His opponent didn't know what items were still hidden inside the Red Minerva's wristbands.

Jason was clean out of items, but his foe didn't know that.

Exploiting the information your opponents lacked was a key part of close Overdrive battles.

He raised the Red Minerva's hand and splayed out the machine's fingers.

Clang!

The noise of the supply depot jerking open resonated through the Vault.

His opponent flinched in surprise.

Jason instantly took advantage of their confusion.

His fingers pushed both thrusters forward, and the Red Minerva hurled the Valorous Ji with all its might. He directed the attack right at the center of his standing opponent.

The Red Lamia's pilot reacted in time to avoid the worst of the damage, but the flaming spear still nicked the Mech's side.

Jason grinned.

That slight bit of damage was all he'd needed.

Ding!

His screen buzzed.

GENETIC ABSORPTION COMPLETE

TRANSFER INITIATED

The Genetic Absorbers instantly injected all the genes straight into the Red Minerva's body. Afterwards, the cumbersome bands shattered. The process took less than a single second.

White light engulfed Jason's partner, and when it faded away moments later, his Mech had become far more powerful than before.

A storm of notifications flooded Jason's screen.

Ability Obtained: Pestilent Snipe

Ability Obtained: Blazing Avarice

Ability Obtained: Lamia Transformation (Innate Frame Ability)

Stat Increase: Melee

Stat Increase: Shooting

Stat Increase: Speed

Stat Increase: Maneuverability

Stat Increase: Defense

Although Jason hadn't acquired the boss only Queen's Command ability, he'd gotten everything else.

Despite the added genetic information, there was no outward physical change to his machine.

His Mech remained tall, swift, and limber, a sharp contrast to his thick and burly crocodile-esque opponent.

Normally, the Genetic Absorbers would change a machine's physical appearance.

However, both the Red Lamia and the Red Minerva were cave dragons. Although Jason's partner had absorbed her opponent's powers, the differences in height and weight were simply natural variations among their species.

As a result, the outer appearance remained the same.

Jason took a deep breath.

He had to do something he'd never done before.

His usual careful playstyle of researching items and practicing attacks over and over again before using them on the battlefield was going completely out the window.

His conventional strategies wouldn't work against his ridiculously tough opponent.

He had to use these new abilities.

Jason instantly selected the ability that had been most appealing to him - Blazing Avarice.

He copied his opponent's earlier move, clapping his hands together and then pulling them apart.

The notification flashed on his screen.

BLAZING AVARICE ACTIVATED

The Red Minerva's hands glowed bright red, and flames flickered between her palms, but no weapon emerged.

NO ITEMS IN MEMORY

What the?!

Jason was totally shocked, and so was his opponent.

The battle between the two experts ground to a total halt as the Red Minerva and the Red Lamia stared dumbfounded at each other.

Jason had only been introduced to Blazing Avarice a couple of minutes ago. He had no idea how the ability truly worked - he'd simply been copying his opponent.

Meanwhile, Jason's foe also failed to understand why the attack had failed. Judging by the stance of the Red Lamia's feet, they'd been gearing themselves for a deadly sword duel ever since Jason's Genetic Absorbers shattered.

The two players only gaped at each other for a few seconds.

After all, both players were pros.

The Red Lamia promptly charged, swinging its deadly blade back and forth.

Even a glancing blow would inflict critical damage to another dragon.

Jason turned and ran.

His speed brought a smile to the skilled pilot's face.

Getting rid of the Genetic Absorbers had been an enormous buff. Gathering genes from his opponent's stronger and more athletic frame had been an additional boon.

Right now, he was faster than his opponent.

The two had the same base speed, but the Red Lamia had been wounded more times.

Jason was dealing with shattered bones, but his foe had severe internal bleeding. Both ailments were terrible, but Jason had a decisive advantage.

The Red Lamia lunged and swung its sword.

Jason ducked low to the floor.

As he did, he pulled up details on the Blazing Avarice ability.

His eyes darted from left to right as he read as fast as he could.

Blazing Avarice Left Hand: Your Mech's left hand is the Hand of Destruction. Touching an item with the left hand for five consecutive seconds will destroy the item. Afterwards, a copy will be saved to the left hand's internal computer system.

Ah.

Gathering data from an item required touching it with the user's left hand.

The items must have come pre-loaded in on the map boss, but Jason needed to gather them for himself.

As for how to summon the items...

His opponent roared and leapt high into the air.

It swung its sword as hard as it could, and Jason barely managed to roll aside.

Right now, the Red Lamia's pilot knew that his best bet was finishing Jason off before he unlocked the full strength of the Blazing Avarice ability.

The Red Lamia jabbed, and Jason twisted away from the cursed biological weapon.

He jumped into the air and then kicked off his opponent's shoulder, briefly creating a gap between the two machines and giving him the time to read on.

Blazing Avarice Right Hand: Your Mech's right hand is the Hand of Creation. It has an internal generator that recreates items made of flame. The duplicate will replicate all on-hit effects. In addition, the copied item will deal bonus fire damage in addition to its usual damage type. Clasp the Hand of Creation's generator to the blueprint computer stored on the Hand of Destruction in order to select an item to summon.

Ah.

Now that Jason understood the ability's workings, he knew how he could win this fight.

The rubble might have buried the Dragonbane Sword, but there was an arguably better option that'd survived the ceiling's destruction.

The Red Lamia continued its dogged pursuit, furiously sprinting after Jason's Red Minerva.

The powerful machine furiously swung its blade back and forth.

Despite his opponent's frantic need to finish the fight before Jason figured out his abilities, the enemy pilot's attacks were still calm and measured.

He struck so that his blows were as hard to dodge as possible, and eventually, one of the deadly attacks hit home.

His foe's attack slashed cleanly through the Red Minerva's tail.

The cursed Dragonbane Sword sliced through the cave dragon's flesh like it was butter.

Just as Jason expected, his immunity to fire didn't protect him from the sword's on-hit effects. On top of that, he'd also taken standard physical damage.

The added flame effect of the Blazing Avarice ability was purely a bonus. It did not detract from the weapon's usual strengths.

The heavy tail thudded to the ground.

For a brief moment, Jason sprinted even faster.

It was almost like his opponent had helped him.

After all, Jason was always complaining about the tail's weight.

Unfortunately, Jason wasn't used to sprinting at top speed without the comforting weight of a fifth limb. Despite his keen pilot sense, the abrupt change caught him off guard.

He stumbled and fell to the ground.

Shit!

Jason cursed as his opponent lunged forward to hack off his leg.

He barely scrabbled out of the way in time.

Instead of getting back on his feet, he sprinted forward on all fours. The Red Minerva had the speed and balance to use such an eccentric maneuver.

Jason finally reached the massive item he was looking for.

Normally, the Red Minerva would need to stay still in order to absorb an item, but the Titan's Macuahuitl was so large that he could continue fleeing so long as he kept a single hand pressed against the enormous club.

The Red Lamia must have realized what Jason was doing, but it had no choice but to continue the assault - backing off more or less guaranteed defeat.

Five seconds later, a notification appeared.

BLAZING AVARICE BLUEPRINT DOWNLOADED: TITAN'S MACUAHUITL

Jason flipped his machine around to face his opponent.

Then he lined up his palms and clapped his hands together.

BLAZING AVARICE: TITAN'S MACUAHUITL

Under normal circumstances, the Titan's Macuahuitl was a highly unwieldy weapon.

There was no way Jason could easily control the large and cumbersome club. It was impossible to hit such a fast opponent before they ran away.

However, Jason had no problem controlling his hands.

The Blazing Avarice ability allowed him to dictate when the legendary Aztec club appeared.

The enormous weapon burst into existence as a storm of fire erupted from Jason's hands.

Instead of swinging it as a club, he'd simply pointed it at his opponent as it spawned. The effect was similar to firing an enormous missile.

The Red Lamia's flame resistance meant nothing in comparison to the sheer concussive force of a gigantic weapon erupting through its body.

The creature's choked gasp reverberated hauntingly through the Vault before the beast finally exploded, showering the Red Minerva in scarlet blood from head to toe.

BATTLE WON

VICTORY