The Mech Touch

The Shield of Samar immediately caused the audience to gasp in admiration as it intercepted several simultaneous laser beams at once with its polarized shield.

The mechʼs tower shield covered a very expansive surface area. To polarize the entire surface of the shield was very wasteful and would quickly drain the energy cells of the mech.

Jannzi did not employ the polarizing module in such a crude fashion. Instead, small square fields of light covered all of the sections of the shield about to be struck by lasers.

While she didnʼt manage to intercept every laser in this fashion, the fact that she managed to block at least half of them from damaging the surface of the shield was impressive enough in itself!

Lasers traveled at the speed of light! It was impossible for any human or machine to perceive the trajectory of the deadly beam of energy as it propagated through space!

The only way to predict their trajectory was to keep a close eye on where the enemy mechs pointed their muzzles at! The difficulty of doing so to a mech pilot already burdened with multitasking various functions was immense!

Yet Jannzi somehow managed to make it seem almost effortless!

Ves continued to stand on the stage as he watched the proceedings while stroking Luckyʼs back.

”Meow.”

”I know. Jannzi is going all-out this time! It seems like she has taken some of my advice to heart!”

Although the distance between him and the Shield of Samar was too great for him to sense the spiritual strength emanating from the impressive mech, its splendor had become even greater than before!

If the previous Aurora Titans looked good during their individual demonstrations, then the Shield of Samar fought like a beast!

Under Jannziʼs proficient direction, the Shield of Samar began to absorb the incoming firepower in a measured way. Even as small missiles and kinetic weaponry impacted her mech as well, she rapidly configured the shield of her mech to only absorb the energy damage.

By blocking all the lasers with its polarizing fields and blocking the physical damage with the mass of its tower shield, the Shield of Samar withstood the incoming fire as efficiently as possible!

All the mech pilots and more knowledgeable mech enthusiasts in the crowd recognized the incredible mental effort required to direct the polarizing module with so much alacrity!

However, even as Jannzi proficiently intercepted all the ranged firepower coming in her direction, a swordsman mech approach the Shield of Samar from an angle.

The Shield of Samar was about to get entangled in close-quarters combat while continually being bombarded by ranged fire!

Jannzi couldnʼt move her mech out of the way. Aside from exposing the mech dummy she was supposed to protect, her mech simply didnʼt have the mobility worth mentioning to dodge most of the incoming fire anyway.

She needed to stand her ground!

The moment the swordsman mech came into range, the two mechs entered into a showy duel. Even though her opponent made exaggerated attacks, they nonetheless hit at full force!

The Shield of Samar couldnʼt stand still and let the swordsman mech beat them up. Due to the diverging angles of attack, the tower shield could not block both sources of damage at once!

As previously planned, she fended off the swordsman mech with the Shield of Samarʼs broadsword while continuing to employ its tower shield to block the rain of fire.

The mech did so splendidly! Not only was it able to continuously employ its polarizing field to mitigate the lasers, it also wielded its broadsword sufficiently enough to block and parry the swordsman mechʼs powerful slashes!

Even though the mech insiders among the crowd that such a silly situation would never arise in an actual battlefield, the Aurora Titan model never looked as impressive as now!

Nobody questioned why the swordsman mech didnʼt simply bypass the Shield of Samar in order to strike the dummy mech behind it. They all became enthralled in the impressive way the mech continued to hold out against overwhelming odds!

The searing beams of lasers and the kinetic rounds impacting the surface of the shield looked impressive, especially considering that it could do some serious damage if the Shield of Samar showed any weakness!

Nonetheless, Jannzi never even once indicated any alarm. She continued to fend off the swordsman mech with her sweeping sword moves while her shield slowly chipped away.

Against so many ranged mech attacking the Shield of Samar at once, its tower shield lasted for a respectably long time, especially considering that it was made up of conventional uncompressed armor!

However, nothing lasted forever, and the audience groaned as the shield finally snapped in half due to the horrendous-looking breaches inflicted by the kinetic rounds and explosive missiles!

The mech had lots its shield!

A torrent of fire immediately poured onto the surface of the Shield of Samar. Even as the mech looked like it was being baptized in fire, the mech amazingly held out without suffering much damage!

Its Pisaro armor system resisted much of the damage! Not only did it fare well against physical damage, the polarizing fields that Jannzi called into being resisted most of the energy damage as well!

Jannzi managed to do all of this while at the same time becoming burdened by fending off a swordsman mech up close!

The performance up to this point had already surpassed her best results in the simulators. Even as she directed the Shield of Samar to employ her polarizing fields in the most efficient fashion, she also started to allow some lasers to strike the alien crystals embedded on the surface of her mech!

As laser fire occasionally hit in the vicinity of the crystals, they absorbed most of the energy from the lasers. After a minute of charging up, the crystals then began to fire a radiant white beam back at the ranged mechs!

The moment this happened, the entire crowd peaked in their excitement!

Even though they already witnessed this reaction at an earlier demonstration, to see it employed in such an arduous scenario impressed everyone! While the Shield of Samarʼs unexpected counterattack hadnʼt taken out any enemy mechs, the light beams nonetheless caused them to enter into disarray!

The broadsword, the Pisaro armor system, the alien crystals and the polarizing module all formed an impeccable combination that showcased the Aurora Titan design to the fullest!

Even though the armor of Jannziʼs mech slowly started to chip away, the mech still lasted for a very respectable amount of time! A midrange medium space knight would have already succumbed at this point, but the Shield of Samar still endured!

Ves knew that the end was close, though. While he contemplated manipulating the battle scenario in a way that allowed the Shield of Samar to take out some enemy mechs, such an outcome would be too contrived.

He made the decision that it was better to focus on showcasing the Aurora Titanʼs defensive capabilities and leave the question of offense up in the air.

”Jannzi should be sending the signal to end the demonstration at any moment now.” Ves muttered to himself.

Even though she employed the polarizing module as efficiently as possible, the energy reserves of the Shield of Samar would definitely be hitting below twenty or thirty percent by now. Once Jannzi was forced to abandon the use of her polarizing module, the damage incurred by the mech would quickly escalate, thereby necessitating a stop.

Yet even as the Shield of Samar continued to sustain more damage to its armor plating, the radiant mech still held its ground!

What was Jannzi thinking?!

The mech did not draw back from the demonstration as planned. Instead, it grew increasingly more active! Even as it endured the incredible amount of fire pouring in its way, the mech aggressively attacked the swordman mech that had been harrassing it all this time!

Through a display of unexpected zero-g acrobatics, the Shield of Samar engaged its flight system to rotate its orientation so that its legs faced the enemy melee mech just as it had finished launching an attack!

The legs grappled with the sword and somehow caught it in a way that allowed the Shield of Samar to rip it off the grasp of its wielder!

The swordsman mech was disarmed!

Jannzi reacted instantly on this development! Not only did she control the Shield of Samar to fling the sword off into the asteroid behind her mech, she also surprised the weapon-less swordsman mech with three simultaneous light beams from the charged alien crystals she held in reserve!

The light beams struck fairly hard at close range! Not only that, but they had been aimed in the most strategic weakpoints of the enemy mechs!

One light beam struck the head and blinded its main sensors!

Another light beam hit a critical joint in the left wing of the swordsman mechʼs flight system, causing a portion to detach! This caused the mech to spin unevenly for a moment!

The third light beam struck the chest of the mech during its spin! While the chest plating easily resisted the damage, the particular position Jannzi had struck happened to be aimed directly at the cockpit of the mech pilot!

All of these attacks gave the Shield of Samar enough opportunity to engage its flight system into another rotation that allowed it to chop at the unbalanced swordsman mech with a powerful half-moon chop!

The crowd went absolutely bonkers as the swordsman mech lost both of its forearms! Like a fish on the chopping block, Jannziʼs powerful attack managed to cleave straight through the two limbs!

Another attack struck at the swordsman mechʼs unbalanced flight system, destroying it utterly from its base!

The melee mech lost all of its mobility in space! It spun helplessly as the mechʼs feeble legs couldnʼt find any footing in empty space!

As Ves wondered what the hell Jannzi was doing, she decided to go on the attack!

The Shield of Samar gripped the spinning mech with its free arm that used to hold the tower shield and used the swordsman mech as a makeshift shield!

This immediately forced the ranged mechs in the distance to stop shooting! How could they fire on their own comrade, and in an exhibition battle at that?!

Yet Jannzi ignored all of those considerations and willfully used the immobilized mech as a shield to bring the Shield of Samar closer to the ranged mechs!

While the Shield of Samar accelerated rather slowly with the added burden, the distance to the ranged mechs wasnʼt all that far!

The mech pilots of the ranged mechs were so shocked at the unplanned turn of events that they only reacted when the Shield of Samar reached halfway! They quickly flew their mechs backwards in order to avoid getting entangled in a battle up close, but Jannzi made a surprising move during this time!

Her mech arced her sword arm back before flinging the broadsword forward!

It spun unerringly in space at the fleeing ranged mechs before managing to clip one of the flight systems of the mech! The mech instantly lost half of its maneuvering power! Not only that, but the uneven damage caused the mech a lot of difficulties in adjusting its trajectory!

All of these problems allowed the Shield of Samar to come close enough to let go of the mech it used as a shield to wrestle with the ranged mech!

The Shield of Samar used its considerable bulk and strength to crush the ranged mechʼs flight system and break the joints of its arms and legs!

The mech had been crippled in an instant!

Even then, Jannzi still hadnʼt gotten enough! The Shield of Samar picked up the disabled ranged mech as a makeshift shield and continued to accelerate towards the other fleeing ranged mechs.

Though the super-medium space knight could never catch up to its swifter opponents, the mere absurdity of the situation had stunned the audience before gaining their full support!

The entire crowd cheered Jannzi Larkinson on! Strong waves of enthusiasm and admiration emanated from the audience as even the non-mech fanatics got caught up in all of the excitement!

Even though Ves wanted to excite the crowd, this battle scenario had completely gone off the rails! The mech pilots involved might have gotten seriously injured, which would inevitably result in a major scandal for the LMC and NORA Consolidated!

Just as Ves tried to figure out a way to rein in his berserk cousin from causing an even greater scene, the Shield of Samar faintly flickered as a strange field minutely flickered around the mech!

Although the field only lasted for an instant, Ves widened his eyes as he recognized the effect!

A veteran mech pilot sitting at the front seat suddenly stood up!

”I recognize the flicker that happened back then! Thatʼs the precursor to forced resonance! The mech pilot of that Aurora Titan has just broken through to expert candidate!”

A lot of people nearby heard the veteranʼs words. The news instantly spread like wildfire among the audience!

”Jannzi Larkinson broke through!”