The Greatest Mecha-Chapter 40: The White Blade’s First Battle

Before Damian entered into a game, he remembered that he still had yet to familiarise himself with his new mech. He hopped into the training room, his body projected into a white space where he could see the mech before him.

He walked up to it and touched it, feeling its hard exterior and contours. He was very impressed at how life-like it felt; it was almost impossible to tell that this was a game. To children like him who had recently awakened the X gene, this was a golden opportunity to familiarise themselves with a mech and gain experience.

Though using the in-game function did not translate to training in the real world, it managed to simulate a construct similar to one to some extent. But it was a good start for newbies. After admiring his suit, Damian initialized the suit-up sequence. The suit roared to life as it hissed out steam from the back. Damian’s digital self was covered in a battle suit to help him optimise with the mech itself.

Stepping into the mech, the inside was a bit warm from the mech starting up. It closed up behind him, making him feel snug inside. Damian tried to move; his legs lifted off the ground after a few tries. He started to move his hand slightly and walked around the white space room. Soon, he was running and zipping around at a fast speed. Damian felt a rush of adrenaline from using the mech. Its speed was over the roof, but every once in a while he would feel a strain on his muscles. He suspected this was because he was getting used to the mech, whereas that was not the case.

Because the mech was built with no supportive AI interface or sensors, it had no way of easing the load of being piloted. It could not regulate or optimise its efficiency to make its pilot as comfortable as possible.

Damian was an athletic boy who had grown up receiving the best nourishment from his parents, so he wasted no time in pushing the mech to do more extensive movements. He tried cartwheels, handstands, and back rolls, with the mech delivering quite well. Damian knew very well that the strength of light mechs was their speed and their weakness was their armour, so he felt it was right to test its speed.

Next, he moved to test the weapons, first starting with the laser pistols and firing a few blasts. He realised that the blasts were quite powerful but could not be used for too long before they would overheat. There was the option of purchasing an external weapon, but that was not usually recommended. Damian grew more impatient, so he decided to hop into a match as soon as he could. He was a one-star rookie in the game, so his opponent would be from the rookie match.

He scrolled into the multiplayer function and selected the one-versus-one mode. The game started to search for an opponent, which it found almost immediately. Soon after, a new screen appeared before Damian:

STANDBY, THE MATCH WILL BEGIN SOON.

Damian tried not to lose his focus. He did not want to lose his very first fight—especially not after all those lessons he had received. As he waited, a new screen projected before him showing a lengthy number of rules and regulations. Damian barely read any, but he could see the important ones on top:

1. A WINNER CAN ONLY BE DECIDED WHEN THE OPPONENT’S MECH IS UNABLE TO PARTAKE IN COMBAT OR THE OPPONENT FORFEITS.

Soon the match started. There was a rush of multicoloured light that only increased Damian’s tension. The rush of light stopped, and he was now in a snowy landscape. The game Mech Galaxy Wars was able to mimic actual landscapes that interacted with the mechs differently. Damian, who was seeing a frozen landscape for the first time, was left speechless by the sight. There were frozen trees scattered around him. Not wanting to get pulled into the wonder of the game, he started to move in search of his opponent.

He looked left and right, unsure of which way to choose. He was left dumbfounded. Damian eventually chose a random direction and proceeded with caution.

At the other side of the map was his opponent, who was in a light-medium mech that looked like a knight. It had a slightly protruded chest armour and shoulder plates that carried two shoulder-mounted lasers. The mech was painted a pristine blue and grey. The pilot within cursed.

"Damnit, why did it have to be ice?" Though the landscape was one he could manoeuvre on to some extent, it was clear that the pilot was not a fan of icy terrain.

He started to march into the icy forest, his steps anything but silent. They carried the sound of snapping twigs and the hiss and screeches of his mech. In the hands of the mech was a very large laser rifle. As he walked deeper into the ice, his sensors beeped within his mech suit, and he could see the heat signature of a mech walking directly toward him. From the size of the heat signature on his screen, he could tell that it was a light mech.

He chuckled. "Now this will be an easy win." Saying this, he positioned his mech behind a tree and aimed his laser rifle at the space where his opponent would appear in a few seconds. And surely enough, his sensors were right as he watched a black and white mech walk into the open. "What the hell, is this guy a newbie or does his suit not have any sensors?" He almost dropped down laughing as he saw his opponent looking around like a lost puppy. freeweɓnøvel.com

Damian was beginning to think he would never find his opponent. He wondered if games usually went like this. It made no sense for him to walk around without a clue as to which way to go. Just as he was walking, he caught sight of a flint of light reflected at a distance. He recognised it to be the reflection of light from an object. There was an explosion, and a blast of red laser came flying his way. Damian jumped to the side, the laser blast melting a side of his mech just below the chest portion.

Damian did not notice this. "There you are!" he screamed as he took out his two laser pistols and fired a few shots, only to realise that they would be ineffective at such a range. He cursed himself for losing sight of this and charged forward, zipping left and right to avoid the blasts from his opponent.

The blue knight jumped back from his cover to put more distance between them. Giving his opponent the luxury of a close combat battle was not an option he would choose. What surprised him was the speed of the light mech. Though nothing short of remarkable, it proved to be rather capable.

To dodge the blasts coming his way, Damian had to improvise. He slid under logs of wood and dodged and jumped with ease. A wide smile grew on his face as he closed in on the knight mech, but his happiness was soon cut short as a blast of laser hit him in the chest, causing him to stumble and crash into a tree. Damian screamed out in pain but pushed himself to his feet shortly after. He was unaware that the damage to his suit was far more than what he saw.

Because of the lack of an AI interface or sensor system, it was unable to send damage reports to its pilot or any form of status report. Damian at the time had no idea, but The White Blade still fell very far from the standards of a capable mech.

The blue knight, upon seeing the damage he had inflicted, let his guard down for a second. He knew he had won and there was no way a light mech with such poor armour would still be standing. It came as a shock when he saw his opponent rise to his feet again.

"Dude, that’s insane. That suit should barely be working as it is," the blue knight remarked.

Damian found it very hard to move or focus with all the pain rattling his body. What began as a game had turned into a battle for his life. He managed to raise his laser pistols and fire a few shots at the knight mech. The shots struck it but only managed to burn it slightly. Damian did not stop but continued to advance and fire off shots.

He changed his tactics, and instead of charging forward, he used the trees and fired shots at his opponent. His speed paid off in the current situation, but the limit his mech could take had dropped. He doubted it could take any more shots before it collapsed.

The blue knight’s pilot could tell that his opponent’s mech was in a bad state from where he sat in the cockpit. His mech was not of the best design either, as its armour seemed to be failing slightly.

"Warning: armour integrity at 45%," the mech’s AI system repeated to him.

"Dammit, I should have fixed up the mech after the last battle. But I never expected my next battle to be against such a fast mech." While mechs could participate in multiple battles simultaneously, they would accumulate the damage of the previous battles unless they were repaired.

Damian stumbled and crashed into a tree for the third time. For some reason, his mech kept failing over and over. The next few steps he took were his last as his mech stopped. Its circuits overheated, and the mech was badly damaged. "Work, come on," he begged the mech, but it only hummed gently.

Damian still had control over his upper body, though. He could see the blue knight dropping his guard as it was clear who the victor was. Damian was not inclined to give up just yet. He activated the thrusters on the mech’s legs. The explosion caused his mech to launch forward toward his opponent. The blue knight was raising his rifle to fire a shot, but he was a bit too slow. Damian was already on him, stabbing the dagger into the knight’s neck.

There was a loud clang and a burst of sparks from the clash. The blade cut clean through the neck of the knight mech, ending the one-versus-one duel with a bit of flair.

CONGRATULATIONS! VICTOR, THE DARK SAINT. MECH, THE WHITE BLADE.

Damian screamed for joy, even if he had won through luck. He logged out of the game and came out of the pod exhausted and tired, the stress of the game weighing down on him like a boulder—but he had a victory to show for it.