CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

Both opponents immediately sprung into action. Both contestants had a clear cut goal in mind - they wanted to achieve an advantageous position in the quickest and most effective way possible.

Against a ranged foe, Jason abandoned his pre-conceived strategy of luring them into the mass of houses.

Phil wasn't an expert pilot, but he'd always been savvy and calculating. He'd take full advantage of his machine's range.

His opponent's spells had a radius of about five hundred feet.

In addition, lightning strikes would probably trigger the other houses to explode.

While the flames themselves wouldn't affect Jason, he still had to worry about the shrapnel.

As a result, Jason leaped off the rooftop.

On the other hand, Phil had gotten lucky. He'd spawned in the best place possible. His magical Mech wasn't affected by the water. Meanwhile, the adversarial terrain severely affected Jason's damage capabilities.

As a result, Phil sought to keep Jason far away from him.

His opponent set his feet in the sandy ocean floor and blasted out a large jet of water.

Jason twisted to the side, briefly shifting to his four-legged form to dodge the attack.

The Red Minerva bounded across the beach, running faster and faster with every single step. To Jason's pleasant surprise, his partner had no issue running across the sand.

On the surface, the Watchdog-2 variant had been similar to the Watchdog-1 version.

However, there'd also been a second subtle change - the Red Minerva's interior arm muscles had grown much more robust.

Normally, Jason was heavily reliant on a two-legged stance when prioritizing balance. The Red Minerva's grafted mechanical goat legs granted her enormous traction.

However, this new four-legged mode provided even better benefits.

His Mech rocketed forward as Jason ordered his partner to kick off with her powerful robotic feet.

This was why playtesting was so valuable.

Without it, a Mech's strengths were just a list of items on a screen.

The notification had simply described four-legged running as a speed and agility bonus. It wasn't until testing it that Jason realized how beneficial those bonuses were.

Of course, Jason would still try the other form in the next match.

After all, better defenses were a much more subtle benefit that players overlooked at first glance. It was always easy to pick flashy abilities over reliable stats.

Phil fired another jet of water, and Jason dodged again.

This time, the Red Minerva leaped right over the wave before flipping in midair and landing on two feet.

Jason comfortably shifted from side to side as he avoided the follow-up salvo.

Unfortunately for Phil, Mechs that were very reliant on landing combos usually weren't particularly good.

In theory, the Dual Caster machine could inflict more damage than a Mech specializing solely in either water or lightning-based attacks.

However, that was dependent on consistently landing both blows.

Diversifying a Spell Titan's magic roughly led to a fifty-fifty split in damage dealt. As a result, his opponent would only inflict half as much damage as usual from a typical water blast.

In theory, the second electricity-empowered blow would land with triple damage.

Overall, that was a net increase compared to a Mech which focused solely on one element.

However, landing two strikes was much harder.

Opponents effectively had twice as much of a chance to dodge your combo as they would under normal circumstances. Dodging either one of the two attacks - or taking the two attacks in the wrong order - would lead to significantly reduced efficacy.

In addition, this Mech wasn't particularly well-built.

The best multi-element Spell Titans used a rotation system.

They switched the location of their Mana Gatherer Spikes in real-time, mixing up their attacks and confusing their opponents.

This machine's weapons were in fixed locations.

All water attacks came from Phil's left side, and all electric attacks came from his right.

Because Jason knew his opponent attacked in a set pattern, it was much easier to avoid Phil's attacks.

That was the thing about certain content creators, including TheCreativePilot.

In a controlled situation, the synergies they discovered looked amazing.

The same couldn't be said on the actual battlefield.

The Red Minerva's thrusters powered Jason forward as he returned to running on four legs.

After a few steps, he abruptly lost control of the once-familiar cave dragon as his arms flopped forward.

Jason already had plenty of experience running on four limbs, but he was utterly unused to this gait.

The speed was at a totally different level.

On top of that, it was critical for a Hemoborn's mechanical upgrades to synchronize perfectly with the machine's biological parts.

The Red Minerva's thruster placement wasn't meant for consistent four-legged movement.

If Jason went with the second-tier injection, he would have to rework the thrusters and diligently practice with the modified arms.

Of course, he couldn't do that right now.

He was still in the middle of combat.

Jason swiftly caught himself, thrashing the heavy cave dragon tail to knock his Mech to the side and avoid Phil's next blast.

Jason scowled.

He was a little embarrassed that he'd tripped, but that wasn't a major problem.

Ultimately, that was the whole point of playtesting and practicing.

Rather, Jason was irritated because he'd uncovered an annoying weakness of this new four-legged mode.

Although it greatly boosted his speed and maneuverability, it struggled to actually attack.

Jason needed to stand still to charge up the Pestilent Snipe.

On top of that, the four-legged stance made it challenging for him to use the Blazing Avarice.

Of course, the enhanced speed still provided a critical benefit. Along with slithering and digging, the Red Minerva now had another tool to enter the battlefield.

Of course, Jason couldn't get so caught up in new abilities that he forgot all about the basics. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.

After Eric showed them the film, every regular at the Good Game Shoppe had already seen Jason battle using the Blazing Avarice.

Phil was wisely staying inside the water - a relatively safe location while continuing to bombard Jason with long-ranged weapons. It was a good common sense strategy that made up for Phil's lack of individual control skills. Rather than getting into a high-speed duel against Jason, he claimed the terrain advantage and shot Jason from afar.

Jason was dodging easily, but his luck wouldn't last forever.

As always, it was better to play aggressively and take the initiative.

Jason clapped his partner's hands together.

The Blazing Avarice was restricted to melee weapons, but that didn't mean it couldn't strike at longer ranges.

Under normal circumstances, Jason would have used his new Legerdemain Blade.

The weapon's hand-pommel could have stolen one of Phil's two items.

The theft would have been utterly crippling. Phil would have been stuck doing half damage for the rest of the match.

However, Jason wanted to practice new moves. The Legerdemain Blade didn't take a lot of practice - Jason just needed to point it at his opponent and activate the weapon.

Jason wanted to win the local tournament, but his main goal was winning the Tournament of Assassins.

As a result, he didn't summon the magical sword.

Instead, he tried a new technique he'd recently theorized.

BLAZING AVARICE: TITAN'S MACUAHUITL

The enormous weapon appeared in Jason's hands, and he slowly but steadily swung it forward at the water, careful to keep it at the surface.

This time, Jason was careful not to use a full-powered swing.

He kept the joints in his Mech's arms locked, keeping the arm straight and stable.

Jason moved slowly and steadily. He didn't even bother to build up momentum.

Under the current circumstances, that kind of technique was too unreliable.

Instead, he wanted to herd Phil out of the water.

This was an alternate way to use the Titan's Macuahuitl.

The enormous Aztec club wasn't only powerful because Jason could destroy a massive store of opponents.

The massive bladed club was almost always too unwieldy to attack opponents directly.

It was possible to skewer opponents stuck in the air with no room to dodge, but Jason could also use the giant club for its zoning potential. Jason's swing was very slow, but nobody wanted to get hit by a gigantic column of flames.

Slowly but steadily, Jason herded his foe out of the beach - it was almost like a pool boy getting something that'd fallen into the water.

In theory, the Titan's Macahuatl was exceptionally effective in this situation.

Slow and steady artillery Mechs usually wanted to find cover and blast opponents away. The massive sword was the perfect weapon to herd players out.

Jason's opponent had other plans.

Phil held his ground, faced the flaming sword, and started firing blast after blast of water at it.

An enormous wall of steam burst into the air as the Spell Titan eagerly expended almost all of its mana.

Phil eagerly held the trigger, and soon, the entire stage was blanketed by mist.

Neither player could see, but Phil had the advantage.

Since the stage was briefly blanketed in mist, Phil's attack's bonus had activated. Now, any electric-based attacks would inflict triple damage.

Jason smiled.

Phil had gotten better in the last five years. Before, he'd always struggled with creative thinking.

However, Jason had an ace up his sleeve.

He reached for the blue button at the top of his control board.

A quick menu appeared on his screen.

Now, his Mech had multiple special abilities - transformation and advanced senses. He picked the latter of the two, and data from the Red Minerva's empowered nose and ears flashed across his screen.

Jason's eyes widened.

The level of detail was utterly amazing.

Earlier, Jason had been impressed by the Red Minerva's new four-legged movement speed.

However, he'd still had a comparison point. After all, the Red Minerva moved all the time.

These sensory abilities were all-new, and Jason only needed a brief glance to understand how overwhelmingly impactful they could be.