CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN

Stephanie yelped as another artillery shot exploded right in front of her.

"Shit! This thing needs to stop firing!"

Her heavyset Mech barely dodged back in time. The heavy legs clanked across the ground as it quickly backstepped. The cannonball left a massive crater in the ground, but the powerful artillery machine ignored the eruption of shrapnel. It just clanked uselessly against her heavy armor.

Jason grinned. His hands were taut against his control board.

"Nice dodge, nice dodge! Keep it up!"

Stephanie had only taken two attacks so far. Her burly machine could survive at least six or seven more shots. As the battle went on, she was growing increasingly confident in her ability to dodge the enemy's attacks.

Unfortunately, the constant barrage made it nearly impossible for Jason to think. Stephanie's evasive maneuvers were improving, but evasion only delayed the inevitable.

The other team's sudden strategy adjustment had thrown Jason and Stephanie totally off guard. Their original strategy of focusing on the Knight was no longer possible - the centaur had completely taken the back foot.

The white Paragon was no longer bothering to charge. The machine just wheeled back and forth near its ally. The squishy machine had already taken damage, and it clearly had no interest in clashing with Jason again.

The Squire continued obliterating the tournament grounds, firing round after round from its Heavy Mortars. Although the Squire was at the very edge of the stage, the strange anchors that'd emerged from its knees had nailed the machine to the ground. It could attack with hardly any recoil.

Thump.

The next cannonball was headed straight for Jason.

If he couldn't think of an idea, he would just have to improvise. He sprinted forward on four legs, ducking past the explosive as he pushed forward in an aggressive assault.

The Antigone Armor rattled as the Red Minerva scrabbled forward at maximum speed. Despite the heavy armor, the Red Minerva's speed in its four-legged stance was still highly impressive. The Red Minerva grew faster and faster, building up increased momentum.

The Knight wheeled away, so Jason shifted his focus to the Squire. The bulky Mech had an A-rating in defense, but it also couldn't move. The constant bombardment from the Heavy Mortars meant Jason would end the battle as soon as possible. Considering the current battlefield conditions, it was much more important to attack the immobile target than to chase the fleeing opponent. He already knew that the Knight was way too fast for him.

"Let's go for him! Break his shield with the bazooka!"

Stephanie nodded.

"Good call!"

She promptly raised her bazooka again, firing out a blast right at the Squire. To Jason's surprise, she followed his commands just like he was Danny or Steven.

At the last second, one of the dummies slid in the way, blocking Stephanie's attack. The black outline went spinning haphazardly out of control.

Stephanie cursed.

"Dang! I thought it would only protect the Knight!"

Jason had hoped the same thing.

Once again, the two of them would have to adjust their strategy. That was the most difficult thing about challenging a newly reworked map. There was no guide they could turn to - the two teammates were finding out more as the battle went on.

The remaining dummies jerked back and forth, swerving wildly in his field of vision. The mass of dummies obscured both the Squire and the Knight of Friendship. However, the Squire had no problems continuing to attack with its Heavy Mortar.

"Alright...let's try this!"

Twang!

Jason fired his harpoon, aiming for the jousting dummy to his left. Unlike the Impenetrable Barrier, the jousting dummies couldn't prevent the bonus effects associated with attacks. If the dummies were going to block him, he could also use them as anchors. He could swing from cutout to cutout as he aggressively moved forward.

The harpoon anchored onto the jousting dummy.

The flat cutout tried rolling away, but the Red Minerva - Assault Mode was just too heavy. With a single mighty yank, Jason flung the jousting dummy backwards. It slammed onto the ground with an enormous clatter, allowing Jason to swing right in front of the Squire. His Mech barreled forward, knocking away the remaining dummies due to sheer force and momentum.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

The force of the many impacts left countless fist-shaped holes in his Antigone Armor, but Jason didn't care. He landed in front of the Squire, which was finally forced to stop its long-ranged attacks.

The Squire promptly began to summon an energy spear, but the machine's positioning was terrible. The Mech couldn't generate any force in its knelt-down position.

Clack..

Clack...

Jason's opponent hastily undocked their machine from the ground. Anchoring was great for artillery attacks, but it was terrible for melee combat.

Jason clapped his hands together, activating the Blazing Avarice. He deliberated for a moment, then nodded. Unlike the Knight, the Squire wasn't a particularly rare or powerful machine. It was just the Knight's designated partner - its equipment was powerful, but not particularly expensive.

BLAZING AVARICE: VALOROUS JI

The familiar burning spear-axe appeared in his hands, and he eagerly slashed downward. The forceful blow took full advantage of his foe's poor positioning. Jets flared at the edge of his Antigone Armor, further empowering his attack.

This time, Jason learned from his previous mistake.

Twang!

Just before his attack would have landed, Jason fired his second harpoon, but it didn't inflict any damage. However, it nullified his opponent's shield. Next, Jason began his ruthless melee attacks. The Squire had no choice but to stay and take the damage.

The Valorous Ji smashed into the Squire's armor, leaving a searing gouge on his opponent's shoulder. After the attack landed, the beam spear in his opponent's hands fizzled and vanished.

Jason grinned.

Interesting!

It seemed like the beam spear was easily disruptable.

Jason brought up the Ji again. This time, he attacked with a vicious downward thrust as Stephanie cheered him on from the backline.

"Nice moves! I'll hold my fire and wait for him to escape."

Jason nodded.

"Good call."

At this point, there wasn't much Stephanie could do. In hindsight, their team had an inherent lack of synergy. While the Squire could lob shots over the Knight, Stephanie couldn't do the same with her machine's bazooka.

The seasoned pilot carefully kept an eye on his other opponent.

Jason initially expected the Knight of Friendship to come to the Squire's aide, but instead, it leapt high into the air. The swift shadow flickered over the Red Minerva as the machine went on the attack.

Crap.

The Knight was going for Stephanie instead. They were taking advantage of Jason's split formation. Instead of a two-on-two, they wanted two separate battles. Jason hastily wheeled back, but by then, the Squire had gotten back to its feet. The heavyset Mech tackled Jason, doing its best to keep him from running to assist his teammate.

Unlike Jason's wrestling shoot, this move was far less graceful. The Squire simply shoulder-checked him into the ground before grabbing onto him. However, the attack still succeeded in anchoring his machine in place.

Jason grit his teeth as he deftly maneuvered his controls.

He needed to escape.

For a brief moment, he considered purging his armor, but a quick look at his status screen showed that it wouldn't work. The enemy machine had grabbed onto Jason too tightly. It wasn't like someone could try and take off their leotard to escape in a wrestling match - their opponents' hands would still be wrapped around them.

His only chance was to fight.

He flipped around, and the two Mechs rolled across the floor. The two tanky Mechs battled each other for supremacy, fighting furiously to gain the advantage.

In general, Jason was more comfortable as the aggressor. He preferred bringing his opponent down with an aggressive shoot. Now, he had to play defense and position the Red Minerva firmly on top of the Squire.

He did his best to recall the moves Vinnie had taught him. The key was using his elbows to break his opponent's grip before re-establishing control. Rather than wrestling, this was more akin to conventional self-defense.

As Jason and his opponent grappled, he glimpsed the Knight savaging Stephanie's artillery Mech with its lance. The thin spear slithered forward over and over again, sliding through the gaps in the artillery Mech's armor.

Unlike before, Stephanie wasn't berating herself for her poor gameplay. She was focused entirely on defeating the swift Paragon. She slashed with the Urumi of Envy and brought her shield around to block. The Knight elegantly darted back each time she swung the bladed whip. She landed a successful hit, but it was eventually nullified by the shield.

Jason continued struggling, but it just was too late.

By the time he broke free, the Knight had already savaged Stephanie with its hooves. The equine legs repeatedly thudded against the artillery Mech's cockpit.

Stephanie called out for help, but her machine exploded moments later.

As soon as she died, Jason died too. The Partner ruleset caused his machine to explode. A notification flashed on his screen.

YOU LOSE!

Five seconds later, the notification vanished, and Jason found himself next to Stephanie in the central spawning station.

Stephanie was wearing her usual piloting uniform. She had a plain and simple red and white outfit with a helmet held under the crook of her arm. The female pilot had an exceptionally annoyed expression on her face.

"Man! I'm sorry about that, I should have held it off for longer."

Jason shook his head.

"No. You played well. I could have done a better job - I shouldn't have left you on your own. Even then, I shouldn't have let the Squire grab me."

Stephanie scoffed.

"Thanks, but that just means that you didn't carry hard enough!"

She made a fist.

"I hate it when I'm holding people back!"

Stephanie sounded irritated with herself, but her voice lacked the same overly distraught tone as before. She was annoyed, but she was no longer tilted out of her mind.

Jason didn't know her well enough to know why. It might have just been the post-match adrenaline, but he hoped that she was at least a little satisfied with how she'd played. She'd made many excellent moves. As a relative newbie, it wasn't her job to defeat a Five Star Boss in a one-on-one clash.

In fact, it was Jason's responsibility to develop a strategy that allowed their team to win. In hindsight, he'd left out plenty of viable options. Now that he was back in a calmer and more controlled environment, he had a much better idea of what he was doing wrong.

He turned to his erstwhile teammate.

"Honestly, I thought you played really well. My plan of charging at them was incorrect. I got thrown off because of the Knight playing so carefully. In hindsight, we shouldn't have bothered charging like that. The Dummies and the Impenetrable Shield were too powerful. Instead, we should have gotten into a shooting duel while using displacement weapons."

The Jousting Dummies were very sturdy. If Jason had tried using his Titan's Macuahuitl, they would have broken the sword. However, the force of the attack still would have displaced the dummies. The same thing had happened when he swung in with his harpoon - the force had left his Antigone armor full of dents, but he'd been able to knock his opponents away with sufficient force.

The solution was obvious - he should have used the most forceful ranged attack at his disposal, the Pestilent Snipe. It took two full seconds to charge up the sniped shots, but the Knight was relatively outclassed when compared to Stephanie's artillery machine or the Red Lamia in ranged combat. The beam rifle hidden in the lance was more powerful than the ones on Jason's Antigone Armor, but it couldn't compare to a Bazooka or a fully charged saliva missile.

As Jason explained the Red Lamia mode's abilities to Stephanie, he found her nodding along.

"Yeah, yeah. That does make sense. I think that could work!"

Jason smiled.

"Yeah, I still need to get better at coming up with stuff on the fly. I can do pretty well if I'm given time to think things through, but it's tough developing a strategy when everyone is shooting at you!"

Despite the loss, Jason still felt proud of his improved shotcalling and on-the-fly planning abilities. He'd gotten through the Tournament of Assassin's first round with careful planning and execution, but he had a feeling the Castle Notoria stage would be much more chaotic. He had to keep pushing himself to get to the level he needed to achieve.

Stephanie smiled, and a note of timidity crept into her voice.

"You want to go again?"

Despite Jason's words, she still sounded worried that Jason didn't want to play with her. Of course, that wasn't the case at all - playing with Stephanie was fun!

"Yeah! Let's do it!"

It would take them three hours to fly back to the Palace of Emotions, which was rather irritating. However, they needed to rejoin with the group there anyways - they'd fly to Castle Notoria tomorrow and then descend the day after that.

The trip was long, and Jason might as well do it with a friend.

Besides, he still needed to acquire the Partner's Lance. That was the good thing about Overdrive's elite PvE maps. The stages could be annoying, but so long as Jason had the determination, he could challenge the Five Star Bosses again and again!