The final match was a visual spectacle beyond compare!

Unlike the previous matches where the opposing machines mostly fought up close, the current pair of mechs were beating each other up with overwhelming firepower!

The armor of both mechs were being sorely tested as they incurred damage after damage while at the same time trying to wear away their opponent as well. Both heavy mechs were growing further and further away from their original conditions due to all of the attacks they endured.

Everyone could tell that while the mechs were still hanging on, the end was drawing closer!

The insectile Swarm Monarch seemed to have exhausted much of its drilling beetles. More than a dozen of them were currently drilling into the weak points of the Transcendent Punisher, sacrificing their entire life potential in order to penetrate deep enough.

However, before one of the beetles could pierce through the final layers blocking them from tearing through the internals, the Transcendent Punisher did something surprising.

Gwineth Ulser had been thinking on how to solve the beetles crawling over the frame of her mech while directing all of its firepower towards her adversary.

The metallic mech had already lost a few minor sensors and other components due to the incessant drilling. It was only a matter of time before the drilling beetles breached a weapon compartment or something!

This was why Gwineth urgently had to find a way to remove or at least stall the beetles from succeeding in their objective.

As the Transcendent Punisher kept firing its weapons at full blast, she diverted a portion of her concentration to do something unusual.

She deliberately took over manual control over a few components and deliberately deactivated them. Since they belonged to the heat management system, the circulation and diversion of excess heat generated by the positron cannons suddenly had nowhere else to go. The heat rapidly began to pool up until it vented alongside certain portions close to the energy weapon mounts!

As a result, several sections of the exterior of the Transcendent Punisher turned into a sizzling hot surface! Even though the Transcendent Punisher was suffering all sorts of minor internal damage due to the excess heat buildup, the beetles that were stuck on the surface were being cooked as well!

The acid they drooled out evaporated while their drills blackened and cracked. The only reason why the beetles hadn't fallen over was because they were designed to cope with excessive heat, but this property had its limits!

"Wow! Even I didn't think of that!" Ves looked pleased at the mech pilot's ingenuity.

"It's going to be troublesome to repair, though." Gloriana reminded him as she watched the battle with a more critical eye.

The Transcendent Punisher bought itself a bit of time with this self-damaging stunt. Still, its front limbs were already falling apart due to getting struck by constant positron beams. The mech almost collapsed as its remaining four limbs were being forced to bear the remaining weight!

While getting immobilized was not necessarily fatal to the metallic mech, it would definitely give the opponent a major advantage!

The Swarm Monarch didn't look so good either. The superior firepower of the Transcendent Punisher had inflicted a lot of damage across the beetle-shaped biomech's frontal surface.

Gauss cannon rounds, positron beams and even pulse particles struck the hardy exoskeleton with constant abandon. A medium mech would have long been torn apart after getting struck by so much firepower!

However, each time the Transcendent Punisher almost managed to breach through the exoskeleton, the Swarm Monarch simply turned around and presented its undamaged side towards its opponent.

The cannons mounted on the Swarm Monarch were largely omnidirectional, which meant it was still able to fire at the Transcendent Punisher even if it faced its rear towards the enemy!

This made it quite difficult to finish off the Swarm Monarch completely. Its ability to withstand attacks was at least ten times more if it was allowed to absorb damage across its entire frame!

The Transcendent Punisher was able to do this as well, but only to a certain extent. It was designed as a bunker mech and not a landbound artillery mech. While it could function at the latter, it wasn't optimized for the role.

Something had to change, and Gwineth Ulser was trying her best to find a solution. She knew what the Transcendent Punisher was capable of. The manual of the mech along with the data it provided hinted at something more.

Yet in order to activate this mysterious ability, she had to enter the right mindset.

Even though she hadn't piloted the Transcendent Punisher for long, her mind was constantly processing a lot of data and other experiences.

She always possessed an open and inquisitive mind. While she might not be as good at targeting precise components as her current opponent Ilse Lieberman, she had always been good at splitting up her focus to attend to multiple priorities at the same time.

This was why she was able to ensure that each of the Transcendent Punisher's weapon systems were being properly managed so that their firing rate remained as optimal as before. They also aimed in the direction at all times. Furthermore, she was still managing the deliberate accident she created in order to keep the surface of her mech as hostile to the drilling beetles as possible!

Throughout all of this, she continued to keep an eye on the state of her opponent, the environment and what lurked within her own mech!

"This mech is unlike anything that I have ever piloted before." She whispered.

Although her contact with her mech was fairly shallow at first, she became more and more absorbed with what she found inside.

There was a pure and all-encompassing presence inside that constantly drew her closer.

Her mind began to experience something different. She seemed to have passed a threshold where she felt as if she gained enlightenment!

Her performance started to slip as she opened some eyes to truths that she had never realized in her life up until now. The Life Research Association was a state that was based around science and viewing reality with a grounded perspective.

The mech she was interfacing with apparently saw reality in a different way!

It was strange, odd, fantastical yet fascinating all the same. A part inside Gwineth became excited for reasons that flew above her head.

For the first time in her life, she felt as if she was touching upon a greater cause and truth. The future of humanity was much more turbulent from an outsider's perspective and her place in the fabric of time could be much more significant if she escaped the confines of her current life!

Unbeknownst to her and many other people, she started to resonate with the source of her enlightenment. Her fit with her mech increased. Soon enough, she had become so in tune with her mech that the Transcendent Punisher signalled to her that she gained a new option!

She knew what to do. Most of her attention may have been scattered, but a portion of her had always kept an eye on the overall situation.

Gwineth could already foretell the end if no other variables changed. Her mech already lost much of its mobility and it wouldn't be long before the Swarm Monarch's persistent particle beam attacks would bore through a hole that had already been weakened by the drilling beetles.

"THIS IS NOT THE END I WANT!" She abruptly shouted!

With great will, she triggered the new option! Immediately, her Transcendent Punisher seemed to open up to that great source. Power poured in and began to affect the mech in some special way. Through the man-machine connection, much of that power flowed into her mind, whereupon she started to see reality in a different manner.

Her eyes narrowed. She began to act on the information she received. The cannons mounted on the Transcendent Punisher began to aim in slightly different directions.

Boom! Boom! Hiss! Hiss!

The artillery mech fired four shots in quick succession, each of them targeting a different portion of the mech!

A gauss round impacted a joint of one of the Swarm Monarch's legs at a precise angle. Ordinarily, a single attack shouldn't have been able to inflict serious damage to the limb, but due to the tricky angle, the powerful impact somehow caused a number of critical organic components to shift or crack.

The limb was knocked offline!

This abruptly caused the beetle-shaped artillery mech to sink a bit as it desperately tried to correct its balance.

Since the beetle had tipped forward a bit due to the unanticipated attack, a portion of its upper surface became exposed.

A second gauss cannon round slammed onto an already-damaged portion of the upper exoskeleton.

A powerful crunching sound ensued as the round seemed to have knocked a portion of the damaged organic plate away, thereby creating a gap that exposed the internals!

Two precisely-aimed positron beams slipped into the gap and wreaked havoc inside!

Even though the beams only affected the upper portion of the Swarm Monarch's internals, many of them were closely-related to its weapon systems!

All four organic mounts sputtered and died down. Most crucially, the biomech's powerful positron cannons had fallen silent for some reason, causing the mech to lose much of its direct damage potential!

While the Swarm Monarch quickly righted itself up, the portion near the gap in the upper armor suddenly expanded as a second volley of gauss cannon rounds precisely impacted the sides, causing the opening to widen by 75 percent!

The Transcendent Punisher continued to pile up the damage. It even overloaded its weapons and incurred considerable overheating damage in order to crank up the firing rate as high as possible!

The Swarm Monarch couldn't endure all of the firepower. It never found the opportunity to hunker down and regenerate the damaged organs that could bring its main armament back online.

The beetle mech collapsed and dimmed! Its fall was so considerable that the ground around it rumbled!

The moment the energy shields came to life in order to stop the hot and and raging Transcendent Punisher from continuing on, the result was clear.

[Gwineth Ulser and the Transcendent Punisher provided by Mr. Larkinson has won the fifth match. After achieving this victory, the first phase of the design duel has come to an end. The final score is 3-2 in favor of Mr. Larkinson. The second phase will commence in three days!]

The announcer hardly sounded enthused this time. He only perked up a bit when he said the last sentence.

The mood in the arena had grown quite weird. The final moments of the fifth match had progressed so suddenly that none of the spectators could process what had happened.

How was it possible for the Transcendent Punisher to defeat the Swarm Monarch in frontal combat? Prior to this odd turn of events, Ilse Lieberman had been using the entirety of the biomech's frame to good effect!

"We lost!"

"This is absurd! How can a random section of armor collapse so easily?"

"The Swarm Monarch's design is flawed! It's upper section is too weak! Once Dr. Navarro reinforces this section, the biomech will not be taken down so easily anymore!"

The crowd all sounded dismayed. This was not the result they wanted to see. Yet despite their complaints, the local spectators remained remarkably calm considering how much was at stake.

The second phase was where the match would truly be decided. Ves had five more matches in store, and even if he maintained his lead to the end, the verdict of the mech pilots might diverge!

"It could be better, but this is as good of a start as any." He said.

"You've proven yourself to be a serious contender." Gloriana smiled proudly at him. "The Lifers can't dismiss you as casually as before. You pose a serious threat to the reputation of their biomech industry."

"That's not necessarily a good outcome."

Ves could already feel the daggers staring at his back!