CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TEN

Castor sprinted forward, once again pushing Spike's Mech forward like a shopping cart. The spider's two mechanical legs were bent and hunched over, focused on gathering as much power as possible. Meanwhile, the spider's first two legs gripped the top of the Firefly and the next two gripped the side. The fifth and sixth legs had their pistol mode activated, and the Golden Caliber weapons were blasting away at any opponent that looked towards them. Just like before, the famed duo easily cleared a path forward.

Red missiles spiraled through the ear. It seemed like the massive rickety Mech had an almost unlimited supply of those darts. To Jason's surprise, Spike's somewhat warbly voice also shouted excitedly through the battlefield. The veteran pilot had never sounded so excited during his first run at professional Overdrive, but it seemed like Castor's excitement and his joy at returning to the game had gotten to him. He was soon cheering and shouting just as loudly as his teammate.

By then, Larten had recovered. The orange gorilla-like Mech scrambled back to its feet and its backpack opened up, revealing yet another preprepared item. This one was much more simple and direct--a gigantic can of bug spray. The fine mist surged across the battlefield. Although it didn't have any effect on Spike's purely mechanical Firefly, Castor's spider fell to the ground as soon as the mist touched it. The spider promptly began writhing in pain, twisting back and forth on its back. From the looks of it, the item had been specially calculated to damage Castor's machine.

Loud clanks echoed through the room as Spike once again anchored himself to the ground and the Firefly turned towards the machine that'd downed its teammate.

Before Larten could use the weapon again, an orange beam of light surged from Spike's fist. The tractor beam jerked the can away, pulling so forcibly that it yanked off one of Larten's arms. Spike threw the can across the room before safely destroying it with a stray missile. Moments later, he blasted Larten with his main cannon, hitting the orange gorilla dead-on in the cockpit. The Mech crashed to the ground, dead.

Meanwhile, green light surged across Castor's Mech as it got back to its feet. The spray had inflicted severe internal damage, forcing the pilot to activate his Overdrive bonus as soon as possible--he would not have it available for the rest of the melee.

Despite the appearance of two famous pros, the Top Mech was still undaunted in its quest for revenge. It spun at Danny, who twisted the Angry Duck at the very last second. The Top Mech struggled to adjust from its heavy momentum, and the strike missed. For a while, Jason breathed a sigh of relief.

But then, a thruster emerged from the Top Mech's side. The tiny thruster flared, rapidly twisting the machine's direction. The Top slammed into Danny's back, sending him whirling through the air. The blow was so powerful that it completely crushed the slot machine weapons system on his right hand, leaving him only with the red blade. The weapon glowed brightest crimson, flaring like the sun had suddenly appeared in the room, but Jason already knew that it couldn't be used against the Top Mech.

Without any obvious avenue of attack, Danny faded off into the distance, nursing his wounds and waiting for the perfect time to strike.

With Danny temporarily dealt with, the Top Mech finally turned its attention to The Hive. The black sphere whirled across the room, its blades screeching loudly as it bore down on Spike and Castor.

The Firefly's main cannon emerged from its back as it began firing at the top, but the bullets once again dissipated against the machine. Jason raised an eyebrow as he saw the highly durable Mech temporarily stop switching. Quick lights flared across its surface as it somehow parried the attacks.

There was a trick to its seeming immortality, Jason just needed to see it in action more to figure it out.

Castor leapt forward, striking with all six hands at the Top Mech. The plinks of metal against metal reverberated through the room, but then one hit went through. One of the spider's blade-like hands gouged a hole at the Top's side before sending it crashing back to the floor.

The Hive temporarily switched their focus back to Jason, and that was when Danny took the perfect time to strike. The red Angry Duck put everything into the attack, and Danny activated his Overdrive bonus to further increase the damage.

His Mech dashed straight through the Firefly, slicing off the uppermost forty percent of the machine. Its gun battery, missile pods, and even the nuclear bomb were completely obliterated in a single deadly strike. Not even the bomb had enough time to detonate--the strength of the Searing Anger's sword was so great that it just erased the whole thing from the face of existence.

The Firefly stumbled, then crashed to the ground. The cockpit was still intact, but sparks flew all across the machine.

Danny barely caught himself before slamming into the wall. His machine was also badly damaged--it was missing a whole arm, and its remaining shoulder had been crushed. On top of that, the Angry Duck had taken additional damage simply from the reverberation of its all-mighty strike. It started with a faint tinkling, but then the Angry Duck's sword shattered to pieces. Danny drew his only remaining weapon, the Partner's Lance.

By itself, the weapon couldn't do much damage, so Jason clasped his hands together and summoned the same item.

Meanwhile, the Top Mech whirled back to its feet, rising from its prone position on the floor. To Jason's surprise, the Top had seemingly completely forgotten about the Red Minerva or the Angry Duck. It was now focused entirely on Castor's spider martial artist. Even though it could have finished off the Angry Duck with a single collision, it whirled towards the spider instead. It was strange, but in a tense time like this, Jason couldn't afford to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The three machines charged, all from different angles. The two Partner's Lances glowed bright white as they resonated with each other. In addition, Jason swept his hand, covering Danny's Mech with a wide layer of ooze.

Castor stood beside his badly wounded ally.

His first instinct was to break through at the weakest point, so he charged at Danny's damaged machine. Jason then activated the Mana Gatherer Spikes, sending a surge of ooze at Castor's spider, temporarily blinding him and allowing Danny to fall back.

By then, Jason and the Top Mech were both in melee range.

Out of the two, Castor was more worried about the Top Mech. He leapt over the top, but that left him vulnerable to Jason's lance. The Red Minerva struck, searing off a leg, but then the spider activated its Finisher.

It clasped its palms together, and the bricks emerged from thin air, locking themselves around Jason. Jason turned towards Castor, but to his surprise, the spider-like Mech was getting sealed away by the bricks.

What the hell?

The room continued forming, crossing across the grand hall in a crooked and jagged line that sealed away its two targets before it gradually transformed back into a cube.

Jason gaped at the sight in front of him.

Castor had leveled up his Finisher. He hadn't sealed away Jason with himself. Instead, he'd sealed Jason away with the Top Mech, which whirled back and forth in the corner of the room.

Even worse, sealing away Jason removed the abilities of the Partner's Lance. The item was dead and dull in his hands.

For a while, the two machines stared at each other, totally confused, but then Jason moved into action. Normally, he'd like to take his time and figure out the Top Mech's abilities, but he just didn't have the time. The longer he stayed in here, the longer Danny had to fight on his own.

For now, Jason did the first thing that came to mind. Thus far, the top had prevented all incoming attacks, but clearly Castor had landed a hit. The experienced brawler had seen the trick...

Now it was up to Jason to figure it out himself.

The force of the spin and the sheer strength of the blade meant that no opponents could meet him in a head-on battle, but there was an obvious weakness - an attack directly from above.

Jason leaped into the air, setting the thrusters of the Red Minerva to maximum and striking with his tail against the ground to further increase the height of his jump. The abrupt leap was a move he'd practiced many times before and the sudden speed of his ascent always caught his opponents off guard.

In addition, he summoned his new item, the Triple-Gravity Staff.

Flames burst from his palm as the legendary martial arts tool appeared in his hand. Although he'd only owned the weapon for a month, Jason was already very comfortable with its weight. That was the greatest benefit of concentrated practice. As he fell, Jason activated the gravity cores inside the staff, emulating the move that his opponent had used on the map. The Staff's true power involved activating the gravity cores ahead of the jump to further increase the speed of the blow.

He carefully timed the core activations with his descent, activating them first in the third core and then the second as he swung the weapon like a vicious whip. He kept the first core, the one in his hand, unmodified to minimize the damage. By the end, both the Red Minerva and the Staff were just red blurs.

Jason allowed himself a thin smile of satisfaction. His opponent almost certainly had no idea what was coming--he'd added this item in the interim of the two matches.

He could almost hear the sound of his staff smashing into the top of the machine.

Wha…

Huh?

Clang.

All he heard was a dim snick.

The staff snapped in half as a new blade emerged from the spinning Top Mech, perfectly cutting away the Gravity Staff at the precise point where one link joined one piece to another.

The second and third segments spun uselessly through the air, leaving Jason holding a stump in his hands. Unfortunately, the disconnected segments immediately vanished. Had Jason been using the real Triple Gravity Staff, the remaining two segments would have still crashed into the enemy machine, inflicting damage due to their sheer weight.

However, this was a negative of the Blazing Avarice. His weapons were just projections. As soon as opponents severed them from his palm, the weapon would immediately disappear.

The item flickered, then vanished in his hands.

Even worse, his gravity core manipulation had also vastly increased his fall speed.

If he didn't do something, he'd skewer himself against the glowing pink blade.