CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINE

The reporters continued speaking with Spike for the next few minutes, asking him all the expected questions--what do you think about your past career, are you excited to return, what do you think about the current crop of players?

Spike's responses were all polite and generic.

Back in the day, Overdrive players hadn't been particularly polished. Jason had seen many players make funny social blunders, there were even several YouTube highlight reels of particularly awkward moments. Jason had always watched those videos with sympathy--he thought he'd be the same too in such a tense moment.

However, Spike had always been a gifted interviewee, and that skill hadn't gone away with time. Jason watched the man with jealousy. He wished he could do the same thing. Moreover, the media was interviewing Spike before the final round.

Normally, only the top eight players would get an interview, but Spike's fame meant he got one beforehand. Despite his nervousness, Jason wished he had a chance to shout out the Good Game Shoppe...

Then again, that was the natural way of the world.

Even though Jason wanted to compete against them on equal footing, he understood the media's decision. Spike was a returning star, and Jason had not proved himself yet.

The Hive's success and stream popularity had played a major role in encouraging a separate fanbase dedicated to following the best mappers. In the past, players had only watched mappers as a guide to understanding difficult stages. Unlike crafting or competitive 4v4 play, players would almost never watch just for entertainment purposes - they'd rather play through the guild themselves.

After a while, Jason stopped watching the interview and returned to looking through the room. In total, there were about fifty players in the room. Most of them were independent players, including the Top Mech Jason and Danny had battled earlier, but there were several prominent guilds in attendance.

Jason noticed several aquatic Mechs gathered in the far corner. The powerful seafaring guild, Navy United, made up for their lack of individual strength and ability with the sheer volume of members.

Normally, they would have taken up over half the players in the room. Like the Dragon Tamers, Navy United had a very broad umbrella, only they had a much higher level of coordination.

Their charismatic leader wasn't known as a battler. Instead, he used a Spell Titan which was capable of manipulating the terrain. He aimed to defeat opponents by putting his allies on a home-field advantage. Undersea Mechs would become far more powerful. Meanwhile, underwater combat was a very poor fit for plenty of machines. The sea severely weakened beam weaponry and rendered flame-based items like the Blazing Avarice almost completely useless.

Unfortunately, the Tournament of Assassins required a high level of individual skill. Even with many supporters, you still needed the skill to take out the target. Unfortunately for Navy United, their captain hadn't even qualified.

If Jason had to guess, those people probably weren't a major threat. He dismissed them out of hand and continued searching.

From the looks of it...

The BAG Guild might actually be one of the better-represented guilds at the event. Jason and Danny were only two players, but they were both very skilled. On top of that, they had strong trust in each other.

As Jason continued scanning, the upgraded Angry Duck started walking to the far side of the room, shifting away from Spike's Firefly.

"By the way, Jason, let's go hang out in the corner. I have a feeling the fight's going to start as soon as the interview ends."

Jason nodded and followed Danny into the corner.

"Good call."

Just like examining the pictures on the wall, positioning well before the fight started was another way to get a small advantage. There was no guarantee the fight would start once the interview ended, but there was no downside to planning ahead of time. In fact, Jason noticed other players, including the Top Mech pilot, taking a similarly defensive position.

In addition, Jason saw the players huddled around other unaffiliated pilots, doing their best to form impromptu alliances. Jason glanced through the loose huddles, spotting several talented unaffiliated players such as Kings22 and Grisly. Despite their talent and reputation as individual players, they were happily aligning with each other. With the upcoming chaos, players were keen to find friends.

Jason frowned.

Castor and Spike were bad enough. These temporary alliances would only make things even harder for him. Even though their coordination would likely be poor, their sheer strength made them formidable--nobody wanted to dismiss several talented players attacking at once.

He turned to Danny, but before he could say anything, a dangerous whisper reverberated through the room. The voice was low and menacing, and it emanated from the very walls of the building. Although Jason knew that it was probably some kind of effect from the stage, the hair still stood up on his elbows.

"The interview is over, and the melee begins. Everyone--fight now!"

Jason and Danny reacted immediately.

The two friends had already moved to the edge of the room, on the very far side of Spike's interview. They automatically stood back-to-back, drawing their weapons and covering all angles. Jason leaned backward with the Red Minerva, carefully wedging the Mana Gatherer Spikes so that they were blocked off by the Angry Duck--the highly vulnerable equipment was a weak spot, but he felt comfortable with Danny watching his back. He was ready to activate his ooze at any moment to wall off incoming strikes.

Both Mechs drew their weapons, simultaneously activating the Partner's Lance. Jason's version was a flaming weapon summoned from his palms via the Blazing Avarice, and Danny's was a physical weapon pulled from his back. For a moment, the red flame flickered alongside the pure white weapon, and then the items linked together, granting a twenty percent damage buff.

With how they were standing, they could push enemies away at all sides.

The first Mech to attack them was one of the Navy United machines, a mechanical shark that soared through the air as if it was the sea.

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Danny shifted to help, but Jason shook his head.

"No, I got it."

Jason couched his lance, then jabbed. The blazing weapon sheared straight through the enemy, leaving a neat circular hole in the other machine's body. The shark was almost dead, and Jason quickly finished it off with a wave of ooze. He didn't even bother killing it with a Biological Beast, he just dissolved the damaged Mech with the poisonous substance.

To Jason's surprise, no other Mechs attacked.

Instead, the majority of players had gathered around the two players from The Hive.

Twenty machines had gathered around them.

A mechanical kraken from Navy United scuttled at the very end of the pack of Mechs. The heavy artillery machine was incredibly swift beneath the sea, but it was practically a stationary artillery turret on the land. The heavy kraken's speed was the biggest limiting factor of the group. The machines inched forward at a snail's pace to keep the large Mech involved.

Several of the normally swift machines found themselves doubling back just to stay with the group. The silver Mech's face was just a plain and featureless oval, and it looked like a mannequin. The Mech carried a jet-boosted beam ax as its main weapon. It was normally a high-speed attacker, but it had to slow down to stick with the kraken.

The awkward coordination was very typical of these hastily put together teams. The machines simply weren't meant to work with each other. The mannequin was a solo raider type and the kraken was an underwater support unit.

Castor stood proudly, with all six of his revolvers drawn, but he was standing behind Spike's Firefly.

Jason frowned.

Just how good was Spike?

He hadn't played in a while...

On top of that, this was a bad fit for his fighting style.

An area-of-effect specialist focused on mowing down weak Grunts. The heavy Mech's big circular lights on its head - more reminiscent of a Volkswagen beetle than a humanoid machine - lit up as the machine activated.

Besides Jason, Danny had also turned to look. The two friends were ready to defend themselves, but it seemed like most of the hall was watching the battle. Players were either part of the assault or they wanted to get free information on the Hive's latest member.

With two enormous clanks, the Firefly pushed itself upright and the small wheels at the back rolled the machine forward. The machine slowly but steadily made its way forward. The armor plates rattled loudly as the wheels squeaked and squeaked.

The kraken immediately sprang into action. The mechanical beast's broad arrow-like head opened up, revealing a pair of missile launchers as the machine fired.

Spike immediately responded with equal firepower. A panel at his machine's enormous gauntlet opened, revealing his own missiles. The Firefly's missiles were very narrow - almost like darts - and they ended in a round spherical tip. The small weapon greatly resembled a lollypop.

Despite their strange appearance, the lollypop missiles did their job. They streaked through the air, quickly intercepting the kraken's barrage as the Firefly continued steadily rolling on.

The kraken raised its narrow tentacles. The kraken had two different kinds of tentacles. The main four were thick limbs used for a mixture of balance and swift propulsion in the water. Between the four main tentacles were over a dozen silver tendrils. The lengthy tentacles each ended in a beam cannon. The flexible and lengthy tentacles allowed the kraken to fire from a wide variety of angles. The tentacles could stretch high into the air or wrap around for a deadly surprise attack.

The mechanical sea monster fired three swift barrages, but once again, Spike countered them. The lollypop missiles intercepted the beam blasts with pinpoint precision.

Jason raised an eyebrow.

Spike hadn't missed a beat.

This overly dedicated Artillery Mech was meant to be used on a team--it wasn't an all-rounder like the Smoulderhulk. The Smoulderhulk had high defenses, so it could tank attacks before responding. This machine was solely designed for offense, so this pinpoint missile countering was the only defense they had.

Eventually, the enemy Mechs stopped waiting for the kraken to weapon its opponent, they realized that they had to join in. The mass of Mechs surged forth.

A tripod emerged from the Mech's chest, anchoring the machine in place in an upright position.

Then, to Jason's surprise, the Firefly's back opened up, revealing an unmistakable weapon - a tactical nuke. The deadly warhead was a short and squat rounded missile with a nuclear radiation warning symbol slapped on the side.

Danny scowled.

"Is he really going to do that? Won't that blow up Castor too?"

The tactical nuke was obviously powerful, but it was almost impossible for a Mech to use it and escape inside such a tiny room.

Jason frowned, then scanned the wall. As the edge of the terrain, it was indestructible--the battle had to take place inside this battlefield, and there was no way to escape.

"Man, we might need to worry about getting killed ourselves..."

On top of that, the weapon came with other downsides.

The weapon had a long charge-up time, an additional restriction added by the game balance team. After revealing the nuclear warhead, the player had to wait ten minutes to fire it, granting their opponents counterplay.

Ten minutes was an utter eternity in Overdrive.

However, the nuke caused the amassed team to panic. The formation instantly broke, and the auditorium thundered with the sound of rushing footsteps and explosive gunfire.

The Firefly raised its enormous hands.

Jason was surprised to see another familiar sight. The tip of every finger opened up, revealing hollow insides. A set of golden lights immediately emerged - tractor beams, just like the ones on the Smoulderhulk.

It had been years since Jason saw the weapon in battle. The heavy generators required to equip the weapons were simply too cumbersome to use on a conventional machine. In addition, almost every Mech could slip out of the golden beam's path just like the Red Minerva had. Tractor beams seemed useless - they were an on-hit weapon that was almost always too slow to apply the on-hit effect.

Jason had thought that the fists were a weapon depot, but that wasn't true. Both gloves were needed just to power the tractor beams.

Despite the weapon's innate weaknesses, Spike was skilled.

He fired the tractor beams at a spread-out angle, shooting carefully to split and divide the opponent's forces. Although the weapon was slow and easy to dodge, it was impossible for the charging Mechs to all successfully move out of the way in time. The uncoordinated machines got in each other's way. Some of the Mechs even bumped each other straight into the golden beams.

Once he brought the Mechs under his control, Spike yanked them forward. Sometimes, he used their bodies to block enemy missiles. Several Mechs burned to bits under allied gunfire.

Spike steadily moved his enormous gauntlet back and forth, sweeping his foes around and generating even further chaos on the enemy front lines.

With a particularly bold flourish, he slammed a swordsman Mech into an artillery unit, forcing the hapless close combat machine to skewer its own ally with its sword.

The artificial shoving match slowed the enemy's charge to a halt. The artillery machines stilled their gunfire in fear of blasting apart their own allies.

Jason grew even more impressed.

Using the tractor beams to yank opponents around was extremely risky. If Spike accidentally pulled the wrong target, like a projectile instead of a Mech, forward, he'd be doomed. Considering the storm of bullets, he was forced to activate and then reactivate the beams with incredible precision.

On top of that, he'd successfully deflected all incoming gunfire with his missiles.

His machine still hadn't been damaged at all.

Spike fired another salvo of darts, directly targeting his wheeling opponents.

The missiles ruthlessly hounded his foes. Sometimes, the darts even switched from one enemy to another. Spike was obviously controlling the missiles personally, selecting and inputting their targets over time instead of using the standard lock-on. It sounded simple, but just like manipulating the tractor beams, it was a difficult multi-tasking process. Spike had successfully thinned his opponent's numbers, but selecting and then re-selecting targets to lock onto out of a storm of twenty or so opponents was no easy feat.

Spike's gameplay suggested a great understanding of enemy movements and mental state. He wasn't just blasting away with overwhelming firepower. Instead, he carefully calculated his opponent's trajectory before destroying them.

Now that the enemy line had broken, they'd clearly lost.

United, they'd stood a decent chance. Alone, they could do nothing against a member of the legendary Hive. Spike casually picked off his fleeing opponents, ruthlessly hunting them down with his homing missiles as they fled for the hills.

At the end of the battle, Spike returned the tactical nuke to the inside of his machine.

He hadn't even primed it to fire - he'd just brought out the infamous weapon solely as a bluff.