CHAPTER SIXTY FIVE

Jason stared at the powerful Scarecrow Envy, which rained additional blasts down at his current position.

He jerked his control board thrusters down and fell into a low roll. His heavily armored Mech hit the ground and curled up as he twisted away like an armadillo. The high-speed dodge was the best he could do.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.

One of the blasts obliterated the leg armor around Jason's right leg. The laminated metal rapidly heated, and Jason barely had enough time to purge the metal.

His fingers dashed across the control board. The pneumatic pump hissed, and the superheated alloy fell apart.

The pieces clattered to the floor, then promptly exploded.

Jason winced.

The Antigone Armor was stronger than the random boxes around the Factory. Due to its unique coat of refractive paint, the thick armor was resilient to beam attacks. It could defuse the incoming blasts of light.

However, the sheer power of his opponent's strikes meant that Jason's protection was limited. His Antigone Armor could weaken attacks, but not for long. If Jason hadn't ejected his armor, his entire leg would have exploded.

Jason gritted his teeth as his partner stumbled.

With the right leg armor ejected, his Mech was now badly imbalanced.

Phil saw the opportunity, and he instantly fired again.

This time, the blast obliterated Jason's heavy tail. Without its fifth limb, his machine fell hard to the ground.

Jason didn't have any time to consider his options.

He reacted entirely on instinct.

ARMOR PURGED

First, he ejected his left leg armor. His first priority was re-establishing his machine's balance.

Next, he scooped up two of the discarded pieces, and then he started scrabbling away on all fours. The heavy metal plates clanked loudly as he fled.

The plates removed any chance of stealth, but considering his opponent's high perch, Jason didn't need discretion. He needed additional ways to stop their attacks.

The Green Envy fired again.

This time, Jason rolled over and blocked one of the shots with the plate in his hand.

Once again, the blast briefly superheated the plate before he threw it away.

The Red Minerva's flame resistance gave him critical protection. Most other Mechs would struggle to toss the heated plate away in time.

Phil laughed.

"Looks like I got you that time! How do you feel with the tables turned?"

Jason grinned.

Both players knew that this battle was just a friendly sparring competition. Laughing and joking around with your friendly rivals was a great part of these casual matches.

"I'll think of a way out of this one."

"I'm not going to give you the time!"

Phil fired off another salvo, which Jason blocked with the impromptu shield in the other hand. He thought for a moment, then returned fire. Unfortunately, the attacks lanced right back at him again.

This time, Jason had anticipated the reflected attack, so he was able to scrabble away.

He uneasily got back to his feet. It'd be difficult to run without his tail, but he had the necessary experience to manage it.

Although he hadn't expected the attack to work, he'd at least wanted to try it again to verify the futility. There wasn't a particularly large risk to getting his attack reflected if he prepared to dodge.

Jason tsked.

The stage sealed off most of his best options.

Normally, he'd dive under the ground, but the steel floor made that impossible.

On top of that, the winding corridors meant that it was tough to get into range.

Lastly, the Scarecrow Envy's maneuverability meant that Jason couldn't use his standby Titan's Macuahuitl. The machine could just bounce away in time.

The Scarecrow Envy fired again. With his legs freed from the heavy armor, Jason had just enough speed to dodge conventionally. In addition, the Scarecrow was gradually heating up the entire building, granting the Red Minerva a partial terrain bonus.

Being surrounded by searing metal increased the Red Minerva's power. This wasn't a cave, but the superheated Factory provided a relatively similar likeness.

Jason thought for a moment, then nodded as soon as a solution came to his mind. He needed to hurry.

If the terrain was a poor fit for him, he needed to adjust the terrain until it worked for him. As the landscape continued shifting, he would regain more and more access to his speed-based tactics.

CLANK

CLANK

This time, Jason purged the two heavy plates around his shoulders.

The armor fell to the ground, and Jason grabbed the two beam rifles with his hands. He raised them, but not at the Scarecrow Envy. Instead, he blasted the nearby assembly lines.

The twin beams lanced forward.

There was a brief pause as Jason held his breath.

The whole match hinged on this. Jason didn't like putting all his eggs in one basket, but this was the only option he could think of.

Normally, his Mech wouldn't be able to destroy the assembly line in a single shot. Although he had an S in shooting, that was only due to the Pestilent Snipe. The beam rifles themselves would be a little bit off.

Jason hoped that he'd make it over the line with the terrain advantage. If he didn't, he'd have nowhere to dodge.

The attack worked.

The pair of assembly lines exploded, and Jason sprinted straight through right as the Scarecrow Envy's attacks obliterated the terrain behind him.

Phil gnashed his teeth in frustration.

"Dang! Nice move!"

Jason grinned.

"Had to come up with something nice to beat your Mech!"

It felt appropriate to return Phil's compliment. While he had Taylor helping him, the other pilot was already giving Jason a difficult time on his own.

Phil continued blasting at Jason as he sprinted through the Factory.

The best part about the purgeable armor was that it allowed Jason to balance his speed and safety on the fly.

Right now, his Mech had the perfect balance between armor and defense.

The Antigone Armor protected the Red Minerva's head, back, and arms. Meanwhile, the exposed shoulders and legs allowed him to fully maneuver his rifles and sprint at a respectable speed.

Jason vaulted over an assembly line, then twisted the Red Minerva's arms behind him to destroy it as he continued running.

He landed on the following line and deliberately allowed the rapid tread to take him across the room.

As it did, he fired wild blasts with his rifles. The red lightning incinerated the lines in front of him.

When Phil counter-attacked, Jason simply allowed himself to fall off the tread. His opponent's attack destroyed the assembly line instead of him.

The run and gun style was critical to Jason's success.

An item like the Macuahuitl would clear the terrain faster, but Jason couldn't afford to get rooted in place against such a deadly opponent. Phil struggled to hit quickly moving targets, but if Jason paused for too long, his wily foe would take out his exposed legs.

At this stage of the battle, the field had completely transformed.

Phil's Scarecrow Envy was still perched in the middle of the field. The scarecrow's position effectively marked a border of the map, almost like a real-life scarecrow at the end of a farmer's field.

All of the Factory behind that central perch was still relatively untouched.

Taylor's Moving Ambulance stood in the far corner. The Mech's hands were raised and ready to protect its ally at the slightest provocation. That same barrier had made it almost impossible for Jason to blast past the scarecrow itself.

However, all the terrain on Jason's side of the room had been reduced to smoldering rubble.

Unfortunately, that wasn't nearly good enough for Jason's purposes.

Right now, he was still dancing around pointlessly and delaying the inevitable. He could dodge Phil's strikes on clear ground, but he needed to deal with the Walking Ambulance first.

Fortunately, Jason had a lot more freedom now that the terrain on his side had been cleared out. Before, he couldn't shoot at the Walking Ambulance while dodging the Green Envy's attacks. Now, he could.

He raised his rifles and fired at the Walking Ambulance.

Unfortunately, the Walking Ambulance reflected the attacks right back at him with its barrier. Typically, support machines couldn't use their defensive abilities on themselves, but Taylor's Mech was of exceptional quality.

It was right back to the drawing board.

As he ran, Jason skittered side to side, dodging back and forth.

The strange dissonance between his cleared-out side of the stage and Phil's crowded one created an amusing visual image. It reminded Jason of the stereotype of a bad stage performer running back and forth to dodge fruit thrown by the hecklers.

Both Phil and Taylor laughed when Jason brought up the comparison on the global communications chat.

Jason's next attempt was a double blast. He aimed one rifle at Phil and the other at Taylor. The attack was passingly clever, but it also failed.

Taylor prioritized protecting himself. Once again, the ambulance machine reflected Jason's attack.

Meanwhile, Phil simply twisted away. The Scarecrow Envy bent back like a person doing the limbo, and the beam blast passed over it.

Jason's attack slammed uselessly into a crate of parts.

The crate burst, scattering its content throughout the room.

His Mech wasn't extremely fast, but it had the maneuverability to avoid attacks.

On top of that, Jason was still an inexperienced marksman.

Although his shooting had continually improved, sniping two targets in two separate locations was a new level of skill. Just like he needed to train his shoulder-mounted attacks, he also needed to train his dual-wielding.

However, that failed attack created an opportunity.

Jason's deliberate attack completely failed to damage Taylor.

However, the secondary attack had an effect.

Although Phil had dodged the attack, the shrapnel from Jason's missed shot had rebounded and struck Taylor's machine. The random nuts and bolts inflicted almost no damage. The Spell Titans were fragile, but a heavy casing protected the Ambulance's power sources.

Jason fired off another pair of twin shots. This time, he was simply aiming for the back walls. He sent one shot at the box of parts to Taylor's left and a second shot to the assembly line to his right.

To Jason's surprise, the shrapnel from both parts hit his Mech.

This time, the burning bits and pieces inflicted enough damage to knock his opponent off its feet. The damage brought the Walking Ambulance down to seventy percent health.

Initially, he'd expected the machine to block one of the attacks while tanking the other.

He'd known that the barrier could only be inputted in a single direction - the mint green energy field was a conclave dish, not a sphere.

However, his experiment revealed another weakness.

The barrier could only be outputted in one direction - straight forwards in front of the machine. His opponent was weak to flanking attacks.

A haphazard plan formed in Jason's mind.

He stared at the Factory outline and formed a plan.

First the fast-moving assembly line, then he could kick off the side of the incinerator.

After that...

He sprang into action.

First, Jason sprinted straight towards the Scarecrow Envy, firing off blasts from his beam rifles.

As expected, the Ambulance blocked his strikes.

The Envy countered, but then Jason followed his traced-out path.

He dodged the first salvo by jumping into the assembly line and letting it carry him forward. When the Envy attacked again, Jason jumped, then twisted his partner's legs to kick off the side of the incinerator.

Although the Factory's traps were deadly obstacles, they were still usable terrain. So long as Jason didn't stick his limbs inside the opening, he was fine.

Clank!

FULL ARMOR PURGED

Jason unleashed all of his armor at once, maximizing his machine's speed. His Mech dashed in a large circle, sprinting as fast as it could to get behind his opponent and get behind the barrier.

Finally, he clapped his hands together and leaped forward.

BLAZING AVARICE: VALOROUS JI

He lashed out with the blazing spear.

He was painfully close.

But...

He was just too slow.

The Red Minerva had to sprint around the Scarecrow Envy in a wide circle. The other Mech was slower than Jason's partner, but it only needed to spin in a much smaller circle.

BANG!

The Scarecrow Envy fired.

At point-blank range, the twin beams incinerated the Red Minerva's arms. Without its armor, Jason could no longer resist his enemy's attacks.

His Mech fell towards the ground. Jason struck back with his only available weapon - his toxic flame breath, but it just wasn't enough.

Moments later, the Green Envy finished him off.

YOU LOST