The Undying Mecha Emperor

Chapter 18 PUTT PUTT PUTT

Piloting a massive mecha is not an easy task.

For you people who are merely watching the battles, you have no idea just how difficult it is to pilot a huge mecha such as the white mecha. The biggest challenge for the white mecha pilot is to apply the right amount of force to achieve the right amount of mecha movement to achieve the right amount of results.

Just imagine a little toddler suddenly becoming a two hundred kilogram heavyweight boxing champion, and then asking him to beat up a small but vicious dog. It would be incredibly difficult. The baby would not be able to wield the boxer's strength, agility and instincts efficiently, and would end up squandering much of his advantages against the dog. In fact, the giant toddler might end up losing entirely.

In the same way, Amelia had to adjust the way she looked at the world around her to take on the perspective and relativity of a hundred meter tall giant with the power to go from zero to a hundred kilometers per hour in HALF a second.

Moving it around slowly is easy. Using it as an overpowered weapon to bully little blue mechas is easy.

But piloting it with efficiency to achieve specific battlefield objectives? Not so easy.

And that was probably exactly why Amelia Dragonos did not want to get into a melee battle with a strange mecha which somehow resisted its initial attack like it was nothing. Plus the fact that I was a much smaller mecha probably added much to her reluctance to fight with me head on. It would be like a clumsy, lumbering bear going against a mongoose armed with a lightsaber!

Superlatively powerful or not, underestimating an unknown enemy in a mecha you're not familiar with is the fastest way to die. Young pilots should learn from Amelia Dragonos on this point.

Secondly, and more pragmatically as to why she was maintaining her distance, Amelia was probably afraid of the repair bill. That's right.The repair bill.

A white mecha is a strategic weapon for most countries lucky enough to be gifted one from a superpower. And being a gift, the country obviously had no way to fix it should it get damaged. Any repairs had to be done by the superpower, and the superpowers, being superpowers, had no qualms charging absurdly high prices for their services.

In Amelia's eyes, even the tiniest scratch on the white mecha's coat of external paint would be like a stab into her heart. And wallet.

Anyway, whatever her reasons were, it resulted in the strange situation which we were in. A white mecha attempting with everything it had, to maintain a respectable distance between itself and a much smaller mecha.

In a regular fight against a strangely powerful smaller mecha, it would be the most logical choice, and one that would probably allow her to gain a cheap victory.

But I was not a regular strange-but-powerful smaller mecha.

I didn't even need to get to melee range, I only needed to get her within range of my red energy.

I adjusted my hand cannons firing mode to 'rapid-fire' and released two volleys on her left flank.

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

My hand cannons may be on rapid-fire mode, but because I had grown much stronger somehow, each of the blasts of red energy streaking towards the white mecha was markedly much stronger than the ones before.

I imagine at that moment, her danger sensors must be blaring loudly within her cockpit.

The white mecha dodged slightly to the right. Even though her armor had proven to be rather resilient against my red beams of energy, Amelia Dragonos exercised an abundance of caution in the face of a strange mecha that had obviously and very abnormally powered up mid-battle and worked really hard to dodge my attacks.

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

I kept on pressuring her left flank, forcing her to keep dodging to her right.

I knew that there was a steep ravine somewhere within this forest, and I was trying to 'herd' the white mecha in that ravine's direction.

"She definitely just got her hands on the white mecha." I commented to Emma. "Look at how clumsy she is! AND just how unwilling she is to even get hit by a harmless energy beam like mine!"

"Be very careful. She may have very legitimate reasons to keep her distance. But she is, afterall, a highly trained soldier, and the mecha she is on is still, afterall, a white mecha. We should be suspicious as to why she is so unwilling to engage us. She might be leading us into a trap." Emma cautioned.

"Good point!" I said as I powered on forward, all the while firing my hand cannons liberally in the general direction of the white mecha's left flank.

PEW! PEW! PEW!

The white mecha returned fire as well, but it felt rather half-hearted on her part, considering that her shots missed me completely, some even missing me by such a wide margin that I wondered if she even aimed her energy weapon in my direction.

"The white mecha must be giving her much more trouble than I had estimated." I commented. "She seems to be losing control!"

"Watch out!" Emma shouted.

BOOM!!!!

I plowed into a shrewdly placed bomb, half hidden behind a large tree. Amelia Dragonos must have hastily slapped it on the tree as she 'retreated'. However, Emma's warning had come on time and I managed to lift my arms and conjure up a powerful shield to resist the explosion.

I stumbled clumsily to my right as I reeled from the blast. However, I did not slow down much.

"Sneaky little b***h!" I cursed as I released several more volleys of my own.

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!!!

I smirked lightly when I saw her slowly and inadvertently position herself before a steep ravine. The white mecha had no problems traversing the steep ravine, of course, but it would slow her down.

I was sure Amelia Dragonos knew exactly what I was trying to do and knew that she would have no problems keeping me beyond melee range even as she leapt across the ravine. That was the only reason why she would let me 'herd' her towards the ravine. That, and the fact that she probably thought I was making a fatal mistake.

As a white mecha, leaping over a ravine the size of the one before her would be a piece of cake. She could simply power up her boosters and cross the ravine in one giant leap. But as a much smaller blue mecha? It would take me much longer. Much, much longer.

That 'mistake' of mine would give her plenty of time to aim and fire at me using her powerful long distance weapons.

"Gotcha!" I whispered as I saw the white mecha pause to stabilize itself and ignite her rear boosters in preparation for a powerful jump.

BOOMM!! My own powerful booster rockets ignited first and propelled me rapidly towards the white mecha, the distance between us disappearing by a significant amount even in just the first second.

BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!! The white mecha's much larger boosters erupted with much greater force and power. However, before the physics could kick in and lift the white mecha up and across the ravine....

PUTT!! PUTPUTPUT!!!!! Jsssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

The white mecha's boosters sputtered and died.

I had gotten within range.

As soon as I did, I shut down her white mecha core.

CRASH!!!

The white mecha lost its balance and fell head first into the steep ravine!