CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE

Jason pushed his controls forward as fast as he could. Once again, the Red Minerva had fallen to the maximum speed four-legged gait. Just like before, he'd briefly jostled with the Knight before it took the lead.

The start of the race was identical to the last one. This was the one area where Jason couldn't think of any possible improvements. The race's rules had allowed him to fight for position, but he couldn't just body slam the slender centaur and call it a day.

The Knight continued furiously galloping forward. The white Mech left behind a trail of flame and smoke. Jason chased as hard as he could, but he knew he'd fall back. His plan was to reclaim the lead later on.

The Knight rounded the corner, sprinting past the first lap and heading up the hill right as Jason passed the eighty percent mark of the first lap. Just like before, Jason estimated a thirty or forty percent speed difference. Now that he was no longer encumbering his opponent, the Knight would establish a greater lead.

That was when the next phase of the battle would begin.

Indeed...

Jason's eyes flickered up to the top of the hill. A red spark briefly illuminated the faraway finish line. Although it was small, the sheer brightness made it look almost like a miniature sun.

The Knight's hooves continued thundering against the ground. As the lead grew larger, the Squire would feel increasingly comfortable devastating the terrain with its deadly area-of-effect attacks. Fortunately, Jason and Stephanie had an actual counter ready this time. They'd accounted for their opponent's strengths - and their own weaknesses - to develop an appropriate counterstrategy.

Clonk.

Clonk.

Clonk.

Clonk.

Stephanie's Mech deployed its caltrops. The anti-personnel weapons were dark gray with jagged and crooked spikes. The spheres had been enlarged to a Mech's proportions, and the finely honed edges would wreak havoc on any Mech that stepped into them. Explosive variants of the caltrops were available, but they cost far more Credits. Jason and Stephanie were banking on a quantity over quality approach.

Considering the circumstances, they wanted as many chances as possible to break the centaur's thick legs.

The machine tossed the sharply spiked balls all across the battlefield. Instead of tossing them anywhere near the Knight, she threw them at the upper rings. Her Mech spread traps all across the third and fourth laps.

After a brief pause to grab more caltrops, she started tossing them on the fifth and sixth laps.

Stephanie's portrait briefly flickered on the base of Jason's screen.

"You better get ahead of the Knight after all these changes...I'm not going to do shit in an actual battle."

Stephanie had dramatically changed her machine's equipment, removing the bazooka, the shield, and even the Urumi of Envy. Her Mech was instead focused entirely on deploying traps and transforming the terrain. As a result, her current build was strange and imbalanced. With very few weapons, it would be an exceptionally poor fit for battle, but it was an excellent support.

A large sack was slung over the former artillery machine's back. The enormous bag, which dragged all the way to the ground, reminded Jason of a cartoon picture of Santa Clause.

The other side was equally ludicrous. The Mech carried a gigantic water tank on its back which fed into a garden hose. Like the caltrops, these were cheap items that could be purchased virtually for free. The tank and hose were from a recent April's Fool Day event.

The machine's only weapons were its grenades. After the centaur was trapped, they would use the items as a killing blow. Like Owen, they wanted to deal with the Knight before the battle even started in earnest.

After further conversation, the two players had realized that their best chance for victory was to focus entirely on killing the Knight of Friendship during the race. After trapping the Knight, they would kill the centaur Mech in a firestorm. Jason's job wasn't to win the race - he just had to get ahead of the Knight and knock it into Stephanie's traps.

Due to the nature of the battle, the Knight and its Squire had to be built for two separate tasks. By specializing in the race portion, Jason and Stephanie could optimize their Credit cap in the most effective way possible.

The horse continued running at maximum speed, with Jason chasing behind it. As the gap between the two racers widened further, the Squire began its attacks. Once again, it furiously hurled its spear and blasted away with its Heavy Mortars.

In response, Jason ducked under the ground.

The movements slowed his pace, but he'd already realized that this was the most effective path.

The Squire adjusted instantly. It promptly started bombarding further down the path, thinning out the ground and setting a deadly trap for Jason's continued advance. If Jason had to guess, this Squire pilot was the same one he'd battled before - it'd be difficult for another pilot, even a fairly skilled one, to stumble on that solution instantly.

"Here!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

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Three pings appeared on Jason's screen as Stephanie marked out the areas with weakened terrain. Now that Stephanie was using a supportive trap-laying Mech, she didn't need to focus her attention on the horse. She could simply lay the traps ahead of time then act as Jason's eyes on the sky. Since she was standing right next to the Squire, she knew exactly where the other machine was attacking. This was a much less stressful situation for her than in the last match.

Even better, the rules of the race forbade the Squire from attacking Stephanie - she was basically the perfect source of insider information.

Before he reached the marked areas, Jason dove even deeper under the ground. He moved in a large swerving U-shape as he pursued even stronger cover. Although the Squire was strong, it couldn't demolish the entire mountain at once. So long as Jason hid deeper beneath the earth, he would be safe.

The Red Minerva lost speed via its detour, but Jason had already decided this was the best option. Considering his heavier Mech, it was best to preserve momentum. On top of that, he'd already proven to himself that he wasn't quite skilled enough to dodge the Squire's entire barrage.

This race was just a numbers game. The Squire's attack gave Jason no good option - he was slowing down no matter what. His only goal was to pick the strategy that slowed him down the least.

The Knight, which thus far had been unencumbered, crossed the third floor right as Jason finished forty percent of the second floor.

Once it reached the third floor, the pilot began making swift evasive maneuvers, darting from side to side as it avoided the traps laid through the ground. Once again, the centaur was able to use the wide lanes to maximum effect.

Stephanie cursed.

"Damn! He's good!"

The Knight's speed dropped due to the side-to-side movements, but not by much. The machine had still kept most of its momentum.

Jason shook his head.

"He won't be able to do that for long..."

It was of critical importance for Jason to catch up and jostle with his opponent. That was the only way to restrict the Knight's movements and force it into Stephanie's traps. Out of the two Mechs, Jason's was much tankier. He could afford to take a bit of damage from the caltrops if it meant forcing the Knight away.

But before long, the Knight finally made a critical mistake.

The white Mech jolted halfway through the third floor, then stumbled badly. The Mech almost crashed onto the ground. One of the caltrops had pierced through one of the machine's right legs. For a while, the other Mech tried to keep running, but it eventually had to stop. The upper human body bent over before removing the caltrop from the leg and tossing it aside.

Afterwards, the centaur continued, but its movements were slower than before.

Jason grinned.

Unlike a real horse, the centaur Mech would not bleed. It could continue operating even with a damaged limb, but that damage was a huge liability in a race. On top of that, Jason had now nearly caught up.

The big advantage of his underground racing was that he wasn't affected by his team's own traps - terrain warping items like the caltrops typically would affect both players. Due to the Red Minerva's burrowing, Jason was able to break the symmetry of the typically weak item.

He just had a bit more to go before he caught up...

Stephanie suddenly called out to him, right as the centaur's hoofbeats grew far louder and more powerful than before. The wounded Mech abruptly returned to maximum speed.

"Crap. It's using its Overdrive bonus!"

Jason nodded. He'd already expected something like this to happen - the Overdrive bonus for Paragons boosted all of their stats, allowing the centaur to keep running despite its injury. The increased power caused the very ground to rattle beneath the horse's steps. The Mech was moving so fast it left a trail of molten white liquid behind it.

Lightning suddenly burst through the earth. The high-powered blast once again sent Jason flying into the air. Now that the Knight's footsteps were weakening the ground, the other machine could attack him again. If he wanted to proceed, he'd have to dig deep through the earth for the rest of the race. Clawing through the thick terrain would slow his pace down further, right as he was about to catch up.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

"Jason! What should I do? It's just jumping over all the trapped areas! Should I fire out more?"

Jason shook his head. He could hear the same faint note of panic in her voice as before. The other Mech's Overdrive bonus had thrown their perfectly laid plans totally off balance.

"No, no."

Tossing caltrops at the horse wouldn't do anything. If Stephanie couldn't hit the horse with a bazooka, there was no way she could hit them with the spiked orbs. The caltrops were traps - they weren't meant to be tossed at enemies. They lacked any projectile force.

He quickly reminded Stephanie of their overall plan. They'd already anticipated the possible use of an Overdrive bonus. Although the two hadn't expected the centaur to be able to destroy the earth with its footsteps, their backup plan had still accounted for the Squire breaking through the terrain and hitting Jason.

"Use the hose instead! Turn the ramp to mud - fire it all at once. We won't be able to beat them otherwise."

The gap was only growing larger and larger, and Jason lacked any abilities that would increase his speed. They needed to go for broke here, but Jason knew his adjustment would work.

Stephanie fired her hose as Jason dug deep beneath the earth. She sprayed the water all over the ramp between the fourth and the fifth floor. The thick and sticky mud would slow down any machine that crossed it. Under normal circumstances, the mud was less of an issue than the caltrops. It would have slowed down the standard Knight of Friendship, but the Liquid State Eternium empowered version could charge right through it.

However, Stephanie had used the hose on a ramp. In addition, the high-powered hose was linked to a giant water tanker. Per Jason's call, she dumped the entire tank on the ramp.

The result was a deadly mudslide.

The entire mountain shifted right as the centaur was running forward. The machine stumbled back. The legs furiously fought against the downward flow, but to no avail. Soon, the whole thing was falling backwards.

Meanwhile, Jason was still proceeding steadily through the earth.

As the mud continued building up, it slid and covered up the cracks created by the Knight of Friendship. As a result, the Squire's attacks grew increasingly ineffective.

By the end...

CLANG!

Jason popped up right in front of the Knight. He shoved his arms wide, screening the other machine off and keeping it from escaping the mudslide. While he wasn't allowed to attack, he could defend his own territory and jostle with his opponent. Now that he'd finally overtaken his foe, he blocked them from making any progress.

In addition, Jason's frontal position - his first during either of the two races - provided an additional advantage. A centaur had an anatomical weakness compared to a horse - the man-like chest and arms imbalanced the machine. Now that it'd been put into a vulnerable position due to the mudslide, Jason's jostling knocked it completely off balance. The Mech sank into the mud puddle, then was injured even further when it collided with the caltrops buried inside the terrain.

Jason called out to Stephanie.

"Now!"

A storm of incendiary grenades fell from the sky. Now that the Knight of Friendship was trapped, Stephanie's mediocre accuracy was no longer a factor. The enormous firestorm engulfed the white Knight. Instead of running, Jason just stayed there and blocked. Once again, his flame immunity would be his greatest advantage and final win condition.

When the Knight finally regathered itself, it tried falling back, but Jason had already accounted for the possibility. He ducked beneath the earth, speeding through before blocking his opponent again on the other side. The former race had instead become a bizarre competition as Jason did his best to force his opponent into the fire.

After another two minutes of jostling, the Knight melted, and Jason finally saw the notification.

BATTLE WON