Lanie Larkinson gritted her virtual teeth as her body slammed in the cockpit of her virtual mech. "This stupid competition mech is holding me back!" Despite the fact that she trained with the generic mech models within the MSTS for several weeks, she could never quite get used to average performance of these machines. Each of them were designed to the standard of a second-class budget mech. That was already bad enough for a Larkinson mech pilot that had long been accustomed to piloting premium mechs designed in-house. What was worse was that the mechs seemed to be deliberately designed to hinder skilled mech pilots. Their reaction speed was lower than average and their range of motion was… disappointing. In case of the swordsman mech model that she currently made use of, the high mobility and high skill-based swordsmanship that the Swordmaidens and the Heavensworders favored became a lot more constrained. Lanie had tried to adapt to these limitations during the simulation training by imagining that she was piloting a mech that was weighed down by a lot of extra mass, but trying to fight like this in a chaotic free-for-all was much more difficult than she expected. Not only did she have to take weird terrain changes into account, she also had to be on guard against many different attackers! "Ahhhh! Just die!" The young Larkinson mech pilot roared! The sword in the hand of her generic swordsman mech model finally struck the spearman mech that tried to entangle her own machine. The blade sliced through the damaged frontal armor of the opposing machine and breached the cockpit, thereby killing the virtual mech pilot residing within! Boom! Unfortunately, Lanie's damaged and weakened swordsman mech had no means to defend against the attacks from an opportunistic rifleman mech. Boom! Her second opponent did not give Lanie the decency of fighting a fair duel and readily took advantage of her swordsman mech's preoccupation to strike at its vulnerable rear armor! BOOM! After beating numerous mechs and fending off multiple strong attacks, the swordsman mech truly couldn't take much more damage. The mediocre design of the tournament mechs also extended to their internal architecture. So long as the mechs suffered any significant internal damage, their performance almost always dropped as a result! "Move, damnit!" Lanie didn't even have the luxury of working together with a living mech. She along with many other Larkinsons had been spoiled by living mechs and the ability to continue to train with their battle partners through the MSTS rather than a conventional virtual training program. Although Lanie had spent the previous weeks reacclimating herself to piloting lifeless mechs, it was only when she was put in a battle with real stakes that she truly became frustrated by the absence of a second opinion! BOOOM! Her crippled swordsman mech finally couldn't take it any longer. The final ranged attack had burst too many critical components and caused her virtual mech to finally lose all of its power! Lanie's mind blanked out for a bit as darkness surrounded her senses. [Points: 3 Deaths: 2 Rank: 87,534] "Ugh. Forget about getting into the top 1000. I won't be able to qualify for the next round at this rate!" She regretted her decision to accept Commander Melkor's suggestion by signing up for the Davute Star Tournament. The Rising Prodigy Tournament that she previously considered was much more friendly towards younger mech pilots. The competition format was more structured and depended a lot less on luck and other skills. The first round of the current tournament was much different! Lanie along with every other participant had been thrown into a giant sandbox where they had to fight under rules that no ordinary mech pilot had ever trained in beforehand! The battles here were much different from the more formal military engagements that she was accustomed to. Without any solid friendlies or support from the rear to back her up, she had no choice but to fend for herself, not even being able to trust any of the temporary allies that she might find! Her swordsman mech finally respawned. One mercy granted by the tournament was that the newly emerged mechs never showed up in close proximity to other competitors. That might change in any minute, so Lanie immediately urged her swordsman mech to move away. Her expression darkened. "Ten percent drop…" The difference in performance compared to when she just started out was not that obvious at this time. Her swordsman mech moved just as fast as before, but as it began to draw out its blade and swung the weapon in different ways, the sword techniques no longer possessed the fluidity of before. The swordsman mech fought as if it hadn't been adequately maintained. Rust and other marks of corrosion had not yet overtly ruined its appearance, but it definitely looked a lot more tired than before! Lanie snarled. "This is getting dangerous. I need to team up with another friendly pilot." She wished that she could meet with another competitor from the Larkinson Clan, but the chances that she could meet with fellow clansmen during these gigantic qualifying rounds was miniscule! Since linking up with friendly Larkinsons was out of the question, she instead sought to make friends with another participant. After trudging through a desert-like landscape that played hell with the footing of her machine, the swordsman mech finally detected the approach of another mech. The new machine turned out to be a swordsman mech like her own! Unlike the red coating that Lanie had selected for her own machine, the opposing swordsman mech was coated in pristine white. "Hey!" Lanie broadcasted in the open. "Truce, please! Can we stop and explore the possibility of teaming up? We can earn a lot more points by joining forces." "I don't need to team up with a loser!" An older female mech pilot angrily responded. "Give me a point!" The white swordsman mech continued to charge forward while raising its sword to launch a devastating strike! Lanie snarled and cursed her opponent's unreasonable conduct. Her red swordsman mech barely managed to jump out of the way of the sword attack! "Fine! If a fight is what you want, then bring it on, woman!" Red and white clashed against each other as the two swordsman mech entered a classic sword duel. While Lanie and the unfamiliar female mech pilot both had to keep their eyes open for unexpected terrain changes and ambush attacks from third parties, they still put most of their focus on winning their duel! Lanie couldn't help but adopt a savage grin as she was able to experience a real sword duel against a competent but unknown mech pilot. "Fall already!" "Hah! Keep dreaming, granny!" "I'm not that old!" Her opponent was good. Lanie had fought and sparred against plenty of veterans and could immediately recognize that her current adversary had been piloting mechs for several decades. Even though the enemy veteran mech pilot clearly possessed much less practice and familiarity with this specific swordsman mech model, her rich experience and solid repertoire of sword techniques made it difficult to break her guard. It was because of this foundation that the older female mech pilot had yet to suffer a loss! That was bad news for Lanie because her swordsman mech performed 10 percent worse in almost every aspect. This difference sounded marginal, but in a duel between two skilled mech pilots, Lanie's chances of winning this bout had dropped to just 20 percent or less because of this disparity! "Haha! Go to sleep, young lady. This tournament is not for you!" The older pilot taunted as her assault became more ferocious! Lanie felt more aggrieved as her swordsman mech incurred more cut marks on its exterior. Its lower reaction speed and inferior mechanical strength caused the red machine to fail in blocking every incoming attack. Her mech also couldn't retaliate as effectively as the opposing machine was simply strong and fast enough to prevent these counterattacks from producing any useful results. Though Lanie tried to compensate for the differences in performance by relying on the skills she practiced and honed through her training in the mech academy and subsequently her service in the Larkinson Army, all of the fancy swordsmanship techniques she learned or developed on her own turned out to be invalid or ineffective! Instead, the more basic but unpretentious sword style mastered by her opponent produced consistently better results! Lanie already understood that while a basic sword style might not be able to produce miracles on the battlefield, it fit remarkably well with the characteristics of a lower-performing mech! Once Lanie accepted the fact that more elaborate sword styles could not help her make the most out of her inferior swordsman mech, she reverted to a basic sword style that she learned in her academy days and tried to beat her opponent at her own game. It was a pity that her youthful reflexes and greater gumption did not grant her any advantages against a seasoned veteran that also possessed a bit of talent herself! Slice! One of the arms of Lanie's swordsman mech suffered a nasty blow as the white swordsman mech succeeded in its strike! In turn, Lanie's swordsman mech managed to thrust its own sword into the armor of the opposing machine, but the abrupt loss of a limb had reduced more of the force behind this blow! Bang! Lanie grunted in surprise as the enemy machine had lashed out with a foot and kicked her own mech away! 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶 "Hah! You're too young to beat me in a brawl!" The veteran mech pilot chuckled in amusement. "Now give me your point so that I can move on. This duel has gone long enough!" Yet just before the white swordsman mech could take advantage of the red machine's unbalanced state, the environment around them abruptly changed! Lanie desperately sought to stabilize the footing of her staggered machine. Her awareness immediately focused on observing what had changed. The desert, the sand and the scorching sun had disappeared. A lifeless rocky landscape took its place. Not only had the footing become more solid, but the gravity had increased to 3.4 g! "Agh! What is this?!" The pressure exerted onto the virtual swordsman mechs as well as the virtual pilots had multiplied by several times! Not only had the two machines slowed down to a crawl, but the pilots themselves experienced considerable physical discomfort that the cockpits of their mechs belatedly compensated. Once pilots no longer experienced the increased weight that only dwarves could comfortably endure, both women scrambled to defeat each other! "I don't have time to play with you anymore!" The white swordsman mech attempted to land a chop that took advantage of the heavy gravity, but the veteran mech pilot clearly did not have much experience in fighting under these circumstances. Not only did her mech miss her strike, the machine also overshot its attack and caused it to lean forward a bit further than was wise. Lanie meanwhile adapted better to the new circumstances. She pulled her mech aside as much as possible and waited until her opponent overextended. Once this happened, her red swordsman mech stepped forward and dropped its weapon to free both arms! "Fall!" The young Larkinson mech pilot utilized her varied training and employed a basic wrestling technique to force the unbalanced enemy mech into tipping over! Thud! The fall inflicted extra damage to the white swordsman mech due to the heavy gravity. What was even better was that it struggled to get back up to its feet! In the end, Lanie grinned as her swordsman mech stepped onto the opposing machine and crushed enough important components to earn herself another point! "You don't deserve to get beaten by my sword." She grumbled. Her red swordsman mech carefully bent down to pick up the intact sword of her defeated foe. Having piloted Lucid Rage before, Lanie had become highly proficient in the art of dual wielding. "Two swords should do the trick." She affirmed.