Unlike the previous heavy flail or hammer, the Fallen Retribution’s weapon was no longer as unstoppable as before. Parrying the staff would not break the Heart of Victor’s chainsword!
Now that the Fallen Retribution had turned itself into a light mech with drastically different performance parameters, it utilized its exceptional speed and agility to take advantage of the damage inflicted on the Heart of Victor and finish off the swordsman mech in a frenzy of staff strikes!
Although the staff weapon did not seem dangerous at first, its true lethality became apparent when it was used to attack.
Sharp blades extended along its shaft or from its ends whenever the staff was close to striking its target. This extra feature added a lot of penetration power to an otherwise plain weapon.
The bladed staff posed enough of a threat to the Heart of Victor that Lyain Kepper did not dare to let the Fallen Retribution succeed in its attacks.
The battered Heart of Victor exhibited a lot of strain in its attempts to keep up with the dwarven mech’s constant circling maneuvers. Lyain had to prevent his opponent from targeting his mech’s undefended rear at all cost!
Fortunately, the Heart of Victor’s turning speed was not shabby. The only downside was that it could not turn as quickly when it was moving forward.
The Fallen Retribution possessed all of the initiative at the moment. Though its physical strength and defenses were much weaker than before, it made up for it with mobility!
It could compensate for its lack of strength by building up momentum and using its movements to enhance all of its attacks.
It could make up for its lack of defenses by moving as quickly as possible while using its fairly long staff as a defensive tool.
The latter became quite handy whenever the Heart of Victor threw its chainsword at the slimmed-down dwarven mech!
Now that the staff was no longer burdened by a hefty hammerhead, the Fallen Retribution easily moved its weapons in place to block the incoming threat.
Though not all of its defensive attempts succeeded, the Fallen Retribution nonetheless moved quickly enough to punish the Heart of Victor with a rapid strike before the latter could retrieve its chainsword!
[The Heart of Victor is in quite a bit of trouble again! It doesn’t appear to be equipped to handle fast and agile opponents, especially now that it has sustained damage.]
[At the start the Fallen Retribution managed to gain the upper hand by virtue of its superior mechanical strength and thicker armor plating. Now, the dwarven mech has managed to regain control of this duel by relying on its crushing mobility advantage!]
Lyain Kepper tried his best to fend off the Fallen Retribution’s constant harassment. Unfortunately, the Heart of Victor was just a little bit too slow and sluggish to defend against the constant staff attacks.
Even if he was able to read his opponent’s movements in advance, the Heart of Victor was unable to move as he intended to in a few instances.
Each time the Heart of Victor put up its guard too late, the Fallen Retribution’s bladed staff already punctured another shallow hole in the swordsman mech’s exterior!
Lyain even commanded the Heart of Victor to swing its chainsword like a whip. He hoped to capture the fast-moving mech with this move, but his opponent was being way too careful to fall for such a gambit.
“If this goes on, my mech will be stung to death!”
The main reason why the Heart of Victor was able to hold out for now was because its substantial armor was still largely intact.
As long as the swordsman mech prevented the Fallen Retribution from striking its rear, it could still hold out for a time!
Lyain also made sure to move his swordsman mech in a way that prevented his opponent from concentrating its bladed staff attacks on the same damaged sections. This considerably increased the longevity of his mech.
Many people began to assume that this match would turn into an attrition battle.
Would the fast and unburdened Fallen Retribution be able to gnaw the Heart of Victor before it ran out of energy?
Would the Heart of Victor’s defenses hold out long enough before the dwarven mech ran out of steam?
Nobody knew, but the match became more tense than ever! Fans who were rooting for either side became more nervous than ever as they waited for one of the mechs to show weakness first.
While all of this took place, Ketis began to sweat as she exerted her willpower with great effort. Sharpie had been inhabiting the Heart of Victor’s chainsword for over ten minutes now and this imposed an increasingly larger burden on her mental strength!
She did not yet put in her full effort, though. She was still able to play one more card that could achieve a wonderful effect in this match.
She hesitated. Was it worth it to make this move? The consequences of pulling it off in public were quite severe.
Her head turned to Ves.
“Do it.” He said. “It’s too risky for us to gamble on the Heart of Victor’s staying power. Whatever price we must pay is worth it as long as we can add an extra fleet carrier to our fleet.”
Ketis closed her eyes. Her concentration reached another level as she leveraged her full willpower to power her next move!
The tip of the chainsword wielded by the Heart of Victor gained a faint glow as Sharpie became more active than ever!
In fact, Sharpie wished it could do more, but augmenting the very tip of the weapon was the limit of what it could do at the moment. The companion spirit wasn’t able to sustain this state for long, so it was crucial that the swordsman mech made its move at this time!
Lyain already knew what to do after being informed by his mech. The Heart of Victor tossed its chainsword straight towards the sprinting Fallen Retribution with uncanny accuracy!
Zirine Fessel could already tell that her mech couldn’t dodge the incoming weapon, but so what? The Fallen Retribution quickly moved its staff into place in order to block this futile attack.
Yet when the tip of the chainsword struck the middle of the shaft, the staff neatly parted in two as the chainsword unexpectedly cut through the sturdy material.
“What?” Zirine Fessel uttered as the chainsword merrily pierced through her mech’s guard before it plunged straight into the thin and fragile structure of the Fallen Retribution!
Time in the arena seemed to freeze for an instant before the damaged dwarven mech lost control of its frame and tripped onto the arena floor!
Since it was in the middle of a run, the Fallen Retribution continued to slide forward for a few seconds before it finally came to a stop.
The fallen mech, which was still impaled by a chainsword, did not move.
Seconds passed by as the mostly dwarven supporters of Team Hammerfall waited for it to pick itself up again, but nothing of the sort had happened.
[Team Larkinson… has won this match. Team Larkinson… has defeated Team Hammerfall. Team Larkinson… has become the champion of the Wild Brawl Bowl!]
As soon as the announcer’s words sunk in, over half of the audience in the venue erupted into cheers!