A shotgun slug impacted the damaged, burned and dented frontal armor of the Lancernaut. Compared to how it looked at the start of the match, the centaur mech with a lance looked a lot worse than before! Its large frame and its inability to evade ranged attacks had forced it to resist attack after attack with its armor alone. Although the centaur mech was able to endure a lot of punishment, the Furia's previous attacks had not been completely useless. Its frontal armor had weakened to the point where Bobby Orwell was able to inflict real damage onto the Lancernaut! As the centaur mech swept forward with the intention of finishing off the most powerful mech fighting on behalf of Team Larkinson, its own mech pilot knew that there was no other choice but to take the attacks head-on and hope that the machine was sturdy enough to withstand the barrage! [What a courageous mech pilot! That is exactly what we want to see from a lancer mech pilot. Just as with light skirmishers, mech pilots who have chosen to pilot lancer mechs must be ready and willing to gamble with their lives each time they deploy into battle. Their capacity to destroy the toughest and heaviest mechs is unrivaled, but the danger they incur is also formidable. The few that manage to survive the journey to godhood are all legends who can pose the greatest threat against their peers. Anyone who wants to reach this level of strength one day must possess the recklessness to pilot a machine as dangerous as a lancer mech.] [Will the Lancernaut be able to last or not? I cannot say. It depends on the marksmanship and firepower of the Furia and its pilot. Both sides only have a single chance left to finish their opponents and advance to the next round. Let us see how this match shall end!] The metal hooves of the Lancernaut thundered across the arena space of Spencer Hall. Many people in the audience had stood up and cheered for their favorite mechs and teams! The distinguished mech designers and officials who had come to observe Ves Larkinson in action paid close attention to how the Furia would handle this situation. Could the hybrid mech successfully fell its opponent when it had lost an entire arm and more? Boom! The shotgun of the Furia fired the last slug on hand. This crucial attack almost managed to slam into one of the damaged and exposed breaches in the Lancernaut's frontal armor. However, the pilot of the centaur mech purposefully commanded the four-legged machine to interrupt its forward motion. The Lancernaut jerked and almost fell, only to pick itself up again before it was too late! This rapid move had altered the centaur mech's trajectory just enough to prevent the shotgun slug from slamming deep into the machine's internals. Instead, it slammed against a thick but heavily damaged armor plate that ultimately broke under impact! Plenty of internal components soon broke as the kinetic forces unleashed by the impact continued to run their course. The Lancernaut slowed down to a small extent as the closest leg exhibited several problems due to this attack. However, the mech was still cantering forward with dogged persistence! Two of its legs no longer functioned as well as before, but that didn't seem to bother the Lancernaut all that much. The pilot had become completely obsessed with finishing the job! Those who were more sensitive could detect that the mech pilot had tried to channel his will and obsession onto his lancer mech. A pale form of resonance had formed between the two that seemed to cut through the air in an attempt to drive the lance as fast and deep into the center of the Furia's torso as much as possible! "Bring it on!" Bobby Orwell hissed as his blood burned with the heat of excitement! As its name suggested, the Furia was a hot and offensive mech. It was not never content with staying on the defense. Though Bobby already formed a decent relationship with the Furia during the previous matches, now that the mech had lost an arm, the two had become more desperate to secure a win. They could not afford to disappoint the maker of the Twin Souls! Bobby started to roar for no reason aside from feeling that it would help him attune to the Furia! This had been the right move because he could feel the line between himself and his living mech blur. The Furia had been at the enemy as well! With shotgun pellets and laser beams, the hybrid mech continued to fulfill its role to the best of its abilities. The Lancernaut kept getting struck again and again to the point where parts visibly broke with every strike! Nonetheless, the Lancernaut still refused to be stopped. Its speed may have dropped to 70 percent of its peak and its ability to control its own mass and direction had worsened considerably, but as long as it could still grip a lance while running forward, the centaur mech would always remain deadly! [The Furia has failed to take down the Lancernaut fast enough!] As the centaur mech finally came close enough, the Furia made two surprising moves. First, it threw its shotgun in the direction of the charging mech! The weapon smacked almost uselessly against the charging mech, but the action itself had broken the strange state of concentration of its pilot. The disruption was not too significant, but the disrupted rhythm still caused the Lancernaut to slow down to a minute extent. Second, the Furia threw itself to the side with such desperation that it did not even bother to maintain its balance! Just like a goalkeeper of an ancient sport, the one-armed mech dove in the completely wrong direction to catch the 'ball', except this time intercepting it was suicide! Crack! "Ahhh!" Not all of the Furia managed to come out unscathed this time. One of the feet of the hybrid mech failed to get out of the way of the speeding machine. It cracked and broke after colliding against the front of the Lancernaut. However, even as the Furia lost one of its feet, the centaur mech had incurred even more damage to internals due to getting 'kicked' during its failed charge! The Lancernaut almost stumbled once again. As it continued to move forward in order to distance itself from the Furia, the centaur lancer mech lost even more mobility! It turned out that the accidental 'kick' had caused a number of crucial parts supporting the other foreleg to malfunction. The centaur mech was only down to a single healthy leg at this time! The impact of all of this accumulated battle damage on the Lancernaut was not light. Whether it was the load-bearing capacity of the energy channeled to the legs, the problems afflicting the different limbs were chaotic to the point where they could not entirely coordinate with each other anymore! As the pilot and the automated systems of the centaur mech desperately tried to compensate for these changes, the Lancernaut had slowed down to the point where it could not build up another charge for the time being! The fallen Furia could no longer stand back up on its feet. The role played by the thick and sturdy feet of a mech was extremely crucial. The loss of one practically immobilized a mech! This time was no different. Bobby Orwell deeply understood the pain and loss of the Furia and became even more heated. He merely lifted the Furia to a kneeling position before opening fire with its single, intact integrated luminar crystal gun. The laser beams it fired were weak and not that good at penetrating through armor. However, the stationary stance of the Furia along with the heavy focus that Bobby directed towards aiming the single intact weapon left at his disposal, the laser beams struck with remarkably high accuracy! Multiple exposed weak points at the flanks and rear got struck, causing the Lancernaut to deteriorate step by step. Naturally, the centaur mech could not let the hybrid mech get away with shooting at its damaged frame! The pilot of the Lancernaut evaluated the condition of the machine and promptly judged that it still had enough strength left to finish off a single crippled and immobilized mech. The four-legged mech no longer advanced as quickly or as indubitably as before. Its damage was too great for that. Yet the way in which the centaur mech continually managed to resist so many attacks without getting crippled or shut down entirely was admirable! With only a single energy weapon left, the chances that the Furia could finish off the Lancernaut entirely was slim! Even so, neither Bobby Orwell nor the Furia wanted to give up. They continued to work together to strike one weak point after another. Just as the Lancernaut half-ran and half-dragged its heavy and damaged frame closer to the Furia, the pilot considered whether it was better to impale the hybrid mech with its spear or trample over it with its hooves. Yet before a decision could be made, a surprising element advanced towards the centaur mech from the rear! [The Sensia has abandoned its duel against the Killer Kitty and is seeking to finish off the Lancernaut!] [The centaur mech is desperately trying to turn around to face the light skirmisher head-on, but the Sensia has already started to circle around. Look! The turning speeds of centaur mechs are inherently bad. It is no trouble at all for the Sensia to gain an angle on its adversaries side and rear.] [The Killer Kitty is approaching as well! Its twin laser guns are continually trying to strike the Sensia, but its attacks are not threatening enough to take down a well-designed such as the Sensia in a short amount of time.] Lizzie Cado had sparred against the Kiler Kitty and largely dismissed the threat of the light tiger gun mech. Its mobility was excellent and its energized armor had frustrated the Sensia's attempts to cut it open several times. However, its offensive ability was so abysmal that ignoring it was a valid strategy. The Sensia had been deliberately staying away from the confrontation between the larger and heavier mechs just so that it could make a sudden impact during the right time! A lot of spectators were skeptical on whether a light skirmisher could pin down the centaur mech long enough to inflict serious damage. Lizzie never intended for her Sensia to buzz around the Lancernaut like an annoying fly. She had another idea in mind! "Since you look like a horse, let me ride on your back!" It was easy for the light mech to catch up to the partially crippled centaur mech. It was also easy for Lizzie to take advantage of the Sensia's agile and well-designed frame to jump onto the empty back of the Lancernaut and secure its hold by using its legs to squeeze against the flank! "What?!" [What?!] [This is improper!] This was hardly the first time a humanoid mech attempted to 'ride' a centaur mech, but it was far harder to pull off in practice. Nonetheless, the surprising maneuver had been the best way for the Sensia to get close to its new target. The Lancernaut had no means to attack enemies mounted onto its rear! While real and properly designed centaur mechs incorporated plenty of countermeasures to prevent this from happening, the competition mech did not include any of these safeguards! This left the Sensia completely free to cut and stab into the rear of the 'human' upper half of the Lancernaut! The larger and heavier mech immediately faltered. Too many parts and systems malfunctioned in a short amount of time and even the arm that held the lance began to fail! Before the pilot of the Lancernaut could make any moves to dislodge its 'rider', he had already lost control over his machine! Once the centaur mech finally collapsed, the Sensia hopped off its back in a single agile jump. The Lancernaut had fallen!