CHAPTER SEVENTY FOUR

A start timer appeared at the top of Jason's screen. Unlike a conventional count from three, this timer gave him a full ten seconds. The extended time period was probably to give players a fair understanding of their opponents and the terrain conditions.

He glanced over at the newly modified Knight of Friendship.

Like the old machine, this Mech was white from head to toe. Its head was a perfectly round oval, just like a mannequin at a clothing shop.

The machine's face only had two distinguishing features. The first was the pair of tiny model wings at the side of its head. The fanciful ornaments wouldn't have been out of place in a decorative European helmet from a museum.

The Mech's other notable feature was a staple of the Palace of Emotions. Jason hadn't seen it on the unique Giga Mech Green Envy, but these bizarre "emotional masks" were a staple of the Palace of Emotions' ordinary machine's designs.

The strange bandannas were strapped over the lower part of each machine's face, and they each had a simplistic cartoon mouth drawn on top of them, just like an Internet emoji. The mouths represented each machine's respective emotion. For example, the Searing Anger had a deep frown.

In this case, the Knight of Friendship had a wide smile that looked out of place with the rest of the machine's stern and austere appearance.

The centaur had four lengthy legs with thrusters at the end. Under its right arm, the Mech had couched the famous Partner's Lance. The versatile weapon could be used for both stabbing and throwing. In addition, it contained a hidden beam cannon at the tip.

The machine held a small kite shield in its left hand.

The course itself was made of simple dirt, and it'd been carved into the side of the mountain. There were ten large rings in total, and each of them looked like an ordinary lap of a track, just like what Jason would see at any high school in the Bay Area.

At the end of the racecourse were the idyllic jousting lanes from the original Knight of Friendship map. Stephanie sat at one side of the course inside her bulky artillery Mech.

On the other side of the course was the thick and stocky Squire machine. The machine was well-armored, but it had the same rounded head as its partner.

Just like the Knight of Friendship, the Squire wore a mask on the lower half of its head. The simple drawing displayed an identical U-shaped smile.

Jason's scanner was still gathering the complete information on his opponents, but the Squire seemed like a tanky artillery type. The well-armored Mech had a pair of Heavy Mortars strapped on its shoulders. The powerful cannons poked from either side of its head.

In addition, the Mech had a pair of fanciful gloves on its hands. Red electricity crackled at its palms. The gloves seemed similar to the ones worn by the Red Minerva. The item likely allowed the Squire to manifest some sort of beam weapon.

The Overdrive Corporation was always adapting successful designs and using them on different machines. Like the old Red Lamia, this Squire was a high-powered machine on an exclusive map. That suggested a similarly high level of power.

The timer counted down.

Jason knelt, pushing the Red Minerva down to the ground just like an Olympic sprinter. Meanwhile, the Knight of Friendship just stood at its loose default stance. The pilot briefly turned the machine's head. The masked head seemed like it was looking down on him. The lack of preparation screamed confidence and arrogance.

The countdown finished.

The empowered Knight of Friendship promptly started sprinting. The machine moved from a stationary start, but it had no issue promptly hitting top speed.

Jason's initial strategy was to imitate the moves he'd seen during the Olympics. However, this Mech race allowed for a bit more force. Jason aggressively leaned into the other machine, cutting low and trying to undercut the fused Knight's slender legs.

At first, the Knight met him head-on. The machine tried charging right past him, but Jason continued bumping and nudging. The Red Minerva was lighter than the horse, but he was lower to the ground.

As a result, he was able to rock his opponent and keep them behind.

If he could only knock the other Mech off balance...

The other machine might be faster, but if Jason could cut ahead and continue shoving it back, he'd win the race.

Suddenly, Jason's swinging elbow went through thin air.

He frowned.

The Knight of Friendship had stumbled back on purpose.

Jason continued charging up down the inside track, but he soon discovered why the centaur had retreated.

Just as Jason had expected, the machine was custom-built for the course. It circled aggressively on the outside track, dashing around the Red Minerva in a wide arc. Its thundering footsteps echoed loudly against the ground.

Jason tried moving in an aggressive diagonal to cut his opponent off again, but to no avail.

Flame burst from the thrusters at the end of the machine's hooves, and it soon left Jason behind in a cloud of dust.

Shit.

The Red Minerva was fast, but the other machine's speed was on a totally different level.

Stephanie cursed loudly on the communications wire.

"Crap! Crap! I can't hit this thing! Shit!"

The bazooka thumped repeatedly, but the centaur had no problems dodging. The Mech shifted effortlessly across the battlefield, swerving smoothly from side to side. Since the other machine was so far ahead of Jason, it had no problem moving his lane to dodge his attacks. Stephanie's attacks obliterated the floor but accomplished little else.

Jason's partner pumped her limbs as she sprinted in a compact and hunched-over stance, but to no avail. The gap quickly grew larger and larger.

The Knight of Friendship finished the first lap, advancing upwards the mountain on the spiral racecourse as it reached the second lap. Meanwhile, Jason was forced to run past the damaged terrain created by Stephanie's missed attacks. The Red Minerva's extremely high traction nullified most of the disadvantage, but any slight change in his speed widened the gap.

Per Jason's rough calculations, the other machine was about thirty-five percent faster than him, even accounting for the Red Minerva's mild terrain bonus. The Knight of Friendship's aura was always active on its map. The "Partners" ability increased a machine's base stats by twenty percent if its designated ally - in this case, the Squire - was fighting alongside it on the stage.

Jason scowled.

By the time he crossed the damaged terrain and made it to the second lap, the Knight of Friendship was already halfway past the second ring.

The terrain was a good fit for the Red Minerva's digging skills, but running was still faster than digging - the lack of resistance from the air outweighed the added speed from the increased terrain bonus.

Jason quickly realized that his best hope was to start cheating.

He shifted his position, tensing his partner's legs against the ground.

Once he'd gathered appropriate strength, Jason released his control board thrusters, commanding his partner to leap into the air. If he could climb onto the third track, he'd be ahead of his opponent.

At the last second, Jason flicked his heavy tail against the ground, adding additional force to his jump. The process was similar to how kangaroos increased their speed with their tails.

If he couldn't beat his opponent by running, Jason would beat the Knight of Friendship by jumping and climbing.

The Red Minerva soared into the air.

Jason reached out with his lengthy claws, but then...

BANG

The Red Minerva promptly slammed into an invisible barrier. The cave dragon got spiked straight back to the ground. Jason's partner rebounded against the lower track so hard that it bounced.

A notification appeared on his screen.

WARNING: NO CHEATING - THIS IS A FOOTRACE

Jason winced.

It would have been nice to know that ahead of time...

To Jason's surprise, the Knight of Friendship briefly slowed down. It stopped in place on the third track before tilting its head in a mocking gesture. It raised its lance and waggled it tauntingly a few times.

"Take this!"

Stephanie wisely took advantage of the distraction to attack, but the Knight promptly recovered and dodged the attack.

Jason's teammate cursed.

"I thought I'd have it there!"

Jason shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. That start-stop time is insane!"

The enemy Mech could seemingly return to top speed at any time. Its traction was ridiculous.

By now, Jason had recovered. He tried taking advantage of his opponent's brief pause by sprinting at top speed, but the gap quickly returned after the Knight started galloping again.

For a moment, Jason considered attacking his opponent. It was probably too fast to try and skewer it with the Titan's Macuahuitl, but he could transform into the Red Lamia to shoot them...

Then he shook his head.

The other machine could have shot him at any time - the Lance of Friendship's ranged mode would no longer be accessible once Jason absorbed it with the Blazing Avarice, but it was definitely a powerful weapon. Shooting and killing your opponent hypothetically was one of the easiest ways to win the race.

The other machine had probably avoided shooting because of a rules restriction. Jostling physically was okay, but players probably weren't allowed to try and kill the other racer.

Unfortunately for Jason, experimenting and trying to game the system slowed down your machine.

He'd discovered that penalty after trying to jump to the next floor.

Because of the other Mech's home field advantage, Jason knew he needed to get creative. However, he could filter out the sub-optimal ideas with context clues as he gradually figured out the stage's hidden rules.

Bzzzzt...

A long droning buzz echoed through the room, and then a bright red light lit up the battlefield. Jason jerked upwards towards the jousting grounds and the finish line. The Squire leaned over the side of the mountain.

In the crimson light, the strange smile drawn on the Mech's face looked more like a malignant leer than any remotely friendly expression.

The machine's hands were stretched out wide, and a red electrical pillar had emerged between the machine's palms. At the very end of the crimson staff was a deadly barbed point. The frightening item was half a spear and half a lightning bolt.

Jason cursed.

This wasn't a mere statistical competition. The key wasn't just outrunning the other Mech. It was coordinating with your teammate to bring down the other machine. Unfortunately, Stephanie lacked the skills to hit the highly mobile horse.

The same couldn't be said for the Squire's pilot. The Mech threw the deadly energy item right at the Red Minerva.

"Jason! Watch out!"

Stephanie called out, warning Jason to dodge, but just a simple look at the deadly projectile told him everything he needed to know.

Simultaneously, the Squire fired its Heavy Mortars. A pair of explosive cannonballs thudded down from the side of the mountain.

Jason winced.

Now that the Knight had a big lead, the Squire was unafraid to use its heavy weaponry. Even worse, they were using the projectiles to zone him off from the path.

The skilled pilot calculated, then nodded grimly. He couldn't afford to duck back.

He had to go for it.

He charged straight forward, pushing his partner for every little bit of speed.

The lithe cave dragon twisted and ducked past the red spear, then leaped forward to try and clear the territory before the Heavy Mortars landed.

Unfortunately, he couldn't clear the blast radius in time. He'd dodged past the Heavy Mortars, but the spear had a secondary explosive effect.

A tremendous explosion knocked Jason cleanly off his feet.

He wound up going forwards, but only because of the sheer concussive power of the explosive energy spear. As he fell, Jason went flying off the track. He cursed, twisting around before lashing out with his arms and legs to avoid crashing to the bottom of the mountain.

Clink.

Whew...

At the last second, the Red Minerva anchored itself onto the side of the track. The cave dragon's tail dangled as it gripped onto the very edge of the second ring.

Moments later, Jason scrabbled back onto the track, rolling awkwardly as he crossed past the enormous impact created by the Squire's explosive attacks.

He glanced ahead of him and winced.

He hadn't fallen back, but his opponent had advanced even further.

By now, the Knight of Friendship had already crossed the fourth round of the spiral track. Jason was just on the second level. He'd effectively been lapped twice.

He and Stephanie needed to turn this race around. Otherwise, they'd be at a serious disadvantage at the start of the second-stage battle.