CHAPTER FIFTY TWO

Left!

Right!

Right!

Right again!

The other pilot's attacks were quick and efficient.

The Dehua pilot's moves had none of the flourishes of his previous salute. Every single one of the attacks had absolutely lethal intent.

The other pilot stabbed over and over again, and it was all Jason could do to gradually fall back with his vampire Spell Titan. Compared to the solid and reliable Dehua, the newly bought Mech's actual movement speed was rather poor, and its mobility was equally unimpressive.

It was difficult for Jason to fall back with a straight-line retreat.

Instead, he focused on slipping side to side.

The skilled pilot gritted his teeth as he tightly held the control board.

He swung his body around, once again swiping with the Kite Shield. This time, the Dehua didn't fall for the bluff. It allowed Jason to smash the shield into his shoulder.

At the last second, Jason once again empowered his strike with the Blood Transfer ability.

The shield glowed bright red as Jason's command abruptly increased its offensive power.

The impact jolted the vampire Spell Titan's arm and sent the Dehua stumbling backwards.

This time, the arms of both Mechs cracked. The sheer impact of the full-force blow rattled the Dehua and compounded the vampire Spell Titan's health payment.

Splinters of metal drifted through space.

The Dehua got knocked off course, but it lashed out with its blade again even as it fell off balance.

The move caught Jason off guard.

He hastily pulled his thruster back, but to no avail. His reaction was simply too slow to help the slow Vampire escape.

The Vampire Spell Titan's arm screamed.

Crshhhhhhhh - clang!

The sword hacked through the first layer of armor before cutting the arm off just beneath the elbow.

Fortunately, the attack failed to destroy the fragile Mana Gatherer Spike. The enemy's blow had just been a bit too low to damage the energy tank.

Jason's detached hand went spiraling through the air, uselessly clutching the machinegun.

Jason snarled and responded with a furious kick.

Once again, Jason empowered his strike with the Blood Transfer ability. The leg glowed bright red before smashing into the Dehua's head.

It might have seemed risky to keep empowering all of his attacks, but Jason knew that the vampire Spell Titan was a glass cannon. In terms of pure statistics, his Mech was weaker than the enemy Dehua in almost any aspect. His best chance was playing as aggressively as possible.

The blow left an enormous dent in the enemy Mech's face.

Even better, the metal had collapsed inward, covering up one of the enemy's eye cameras. The Mech would struggle to see from its weakened side.

Now, it was just a matter of attacking from the advantageous position.

Jason shifted towards the right-side blind spot, but the other Mech pivoted elegantly.

The skilled pilot refused to let Jason attack from his blind spot.

For a brief moment, the two Mechs simply spun around each other as they jostled for position.

The starry night whirled wildly in the background as the two clashing opponents pivoted around each other like dancers.

The Dehua slashed and slashed, but Jason diligently stuck at the very edge of its vision. He didn't have time to switch his shield for the spear, but his opponent's attacks were no longer accurate.

In that case...

Jason spun backwards, twisting his controls and coaxing the slow vampiric Spell Titan into a three hundred and sixty degree spin. The Dehua's sword went completely wild. The bizarre move caught the enemy pilot totally off guard.

After gathering enough momentum, Jason hurled the shield at his opponent. Once again, he empowered the item with his Blood Transfer ability, but to his disappointment, the item stopped glowing as soon as it left his hand.

Thunk.

The shield smashed into the Dehua's neck, jerking the Mech back.

It was a solid blow, but not enough.

Unfortunately, the empowered version of the attack would have decapitated the enemy machine entirely. It seemed like the blood magic bonus would disappear if the vampire Spell Titan ever threw its items. The ability description hadn't said anything about this. It was the sort of thing you could only learn after actually piloting the machine.

It was irritating.

Fortunately, the gathered energy wasn't wasted - it'd simply concentrated on his Mech's fist. Jason briefly considered pulling out his spear, but he didn't have the time.

The Spell Titan's hand had turned a bright ruby red. The fingers began pulsating wildly. The tremendous amount of gathered energy would soon burst and reverberate on the machine.

Jason smashed his opponent in the deck, putting his current Mech's full weight behind the attack.

Clank!

Jason knocked the Dehua's head clean off. The light blue helmet-covered head went flying wildly through space.

Unfortunately, Jason had no time to celebrate.

The other pilot was relentless in their attacks.

The enemy Mech couldn't see anymore, but it could still sense nearby opponents via touch.

The Dehua grabbed onto Jason's arm and yanked him forward.

The Mech wrapped its other arm around the vampiric Spell Titan, and metal screamed as the more powerful Dehua grabbed Jason's machine in a vicious bear hug.

The Dehua had thick arms, and the Kingbreaker Mech class was naturally more powerful than the magic-oriented Spell Titans. The scenario was similar to a burly knight crushing a slender warlock.

The Dehua didn't even need to use its sword at this range.

The Dehua couldn't safely destroy Jason's Mana Gatherer Spike without injuring itself, but it didn't need to. It could simply overwhelm Jason with sheer weight.

Jason cursed and inputted his counter.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

With no arms, his best chance was just kicking his opponent over and over again. His legs turned bright red as he alternated attacks with both legs.

After a while, the thin limbs splintered.

The vampire Spell Titan's blood payment ability already exacted a prominent toll.

However, the sheer armor difference between the two Mechs was another obvious problem. His Mech was simply too fragile for sustained close combat against the bulky Dehua.

Clank...

Clank...

Jason's struggling grew even more fervent.

The Dehua was trying to lift him into the air.

They wanted to move Jason's cockpit over its head so it could blast them from point-blank range with its high-powered cannons. The enemy Mech's fingers squeezed hard against Jason's remaining arm and torso.

Unfortunately, Jason could do nothing now that the enemy Mech had a hold of him.

The veteran pilot's mind scrambled as he tried to find options.

There was nothing he could do alone, but he was playing with a team.

He shouted into the mic.

"Guys! Help me out here!"

He thought for a moment, then imitated Danny by pinging his exact coordinates.

CLANK!

The response came moments later.

The Dehua went stumbling backwards as its arms were forcibly wrenched off of Jason's vampire Spell Titan.

Steven's O-Flier had dropped from the skies, wrapping itself around Jason as it simultaneously scrapped the enemy Mech clean off.

The circular O-Flier wrapped itself around the injured Spell Titan. The ring of armor vastly boosted Jason's defenses.

Jason promptly drew his spear, yanking it off his back.

Red mana concentrated around the sharp edge, then he stabbed it cleanly through the started enemy Mech's cockpit. There was a brief pause as sparks flew around the metal wound, and then the Mech exploded.

Jason let out a sigh of relief.

"Thanks."

Steven shook his head.

"No need. You distracted that guy pretty good. I don't think we would have won the battle without you."

Jason turned.

He'd been so focused on his own battle that he hadn't noticed everything around him.

The BAG Guild was driving back the loose force of Bandits, Dehuas, and Zombies. The souped-up Grunt Mechs had superior equipment, but they were extremely disorganized.

Many got in the way of each other in their haste to attack.

Wendy's voice went down into a conspirational whisper.

The other team couldn't hear her, but it was a pretty natural impulse to lower your voice when talking crap.

"See? Like I told you guys. They are just trainees."

Now that Jason's own tense battle was over, he was able to observe his remaining opponents.

The Dehua Jason battled had been their leader for a reason - aside from that pilot, the rest of the mob was extremely weak, even weaker than the BAG Guild's lackluster members. Many of them were fidgeting at their controls, and they held their hands inconsistently while shooting.

Danny shot Jason a note.

Rooster7: Focus on healing your Mech for now, I want to give the rest of the guys experience

Clank!

The Lucky Duck sent Jason a Medic Pack. Jason chased down his missing arm and held it in place before activating the item.

The white box looked just like a medicine pack for humans, but its function could not have been more different.

Once Jason turned it on, it acted as an independent drone.

The thrusters at the base of the box ignited before the whole thing opened up, revealing a set of four mechanical arms and a full stock of resupply equipment. The drone flew around Jason's Mech and gradually restored his machine to its initial condition.

The white medical pack drone replaced the many broken parts and used sealant to repair the cracks in the armor.

Jason and the BAG Guild's more experienced players hung back for the rest of the battle, only intervening when they needed his assistance.

After the battle finished, the BAG Guild continued traveling for the next forty minutes.

They eventually reached the first marked designation, and then Danny told the group to land and resupply.

After that, they saved their current location on the server before logging off.

Danny knew that most of the other group members were casuals who didn't want to practice too much. Fortunately, Jason didn't want to spend too much time on the server. He wanted to do most of his practice at the Good Game Shoppe.

As soon as he logged off, he got changed and then started walking down to the game shop. Even when there wasn't a tournament, he could challenge the random players loitering around the shop. If nobody else was there, Jacob was always down for a game. The game store's son was a solid and reliable pilot.

Jason continued flying with the BAG Guild and training at the Good Game Shoppe for the next three days.

When online, Jason troubleshot and improved his Vampire Spell Titan build.

Every time he struggled in a battle, he adjusted his items to better fit his playstyle. The number one need was increasing his machine's armor and melee capabilities.

In fact, Jason's biggest inspiration for the machine was the Devoted Monk.

He closely emulated Vile's Grunt Mech because this machine's Blood Transfer ability was similar to the Devoted Monk's ability to channel beam energy qi throughout its body.

However, thicker armor expanded the machine's health pool, meaning that forfeiting health for the blood-related attacks was less of an issue.

As a result, Jason transformed the Spell Titan into a bulky close combat fighter. The Mech was more of a brawler and wrestler than the standard slender and classy vampire seen in the movies.

Of course, Jason didn't neglect his training with the Red Minerva either. That was still going to be his main Mech for the Tournament of Assassins and other future competitions.

He wound up doing a 30-70 split between the vampire Mech and his usual partner.

Jason and the BAG Guild continued traveling for three days without much excitement.

There were a few skirmishes, and random players got sent back to the spawning fountain, but most of them returned. After all, the overall trip distance was only five hours total. The distance was doable in a single day. Danny was only conservatively splitting the distance to ensure comfortable playing time for everybody.

In addition, the Guild increased in numbers as more players logged in.

They were just over twenty strong when they reached their first stop, a hidden stage known as the Palace of Emotions.

There, Jason would find the two items he was looking for - the Urumi of Envy and the Partner's Lance.