As she laid on her bed, Xiao didn’t feel tired at all. The adrenaline she got from her victory was still pumping through her system. The moment felt so unreal that she remembered very little of what happened after her match and before she returned to her room. Everything went by as a blur and only on her bed did her mind have a chance to process all that has happened.

You are the first pilot to take it out for actual combat…

The words reverberated in her mind as she tried to grasp the significance of them. A pilot with any mech knowledge would know that cattlemech was special in its right. It didn’t follow any standard template and, should it make the tournament scene, might join the short list of banned mechs. Xiao used might because banned mechs took time to make the list. Only after countless battles would a mech be gauged as too powerful to be allowed in a tournament setting. If the cattlemech relied solely on its armor, there had to be a limit before an opposing light mech packing sufficient firepower could come out on top.

For the fighting ring, are there any light mechs packing so much firepower?

As soon as she returned to her room, Xiao checked the academy database until she came across the pitchfork weapon. Initially, she thought the weapon was just modeled after the farming tool and was meant to make the cattlemech look slightly more intimidating, if that was possible. However, she was surprised to see pitchfork as a proper weapon. This weapon didn’t pack as much of a punch as the sword but it allowed the user to have more reach, similar to how a spear had its advantages over a sword. In addition to more reach, the pitchfork could be wielded with more accuracy, allowing it to better target certain areas like joints than a sword.

Tomorrow, I need to sort out a schedule with the fighting ring organizers. I wonder if my actual matches might get in the way.

Due to some of Xiao’s matches taking her to other cities and planets, it wasn’t always possible to return by nighttime for her fighting ring matches. She had to emphasize that point because she didn’t want to give up her mech already, especially after getting a taste of what it could do. There was something about shaking off all attacks like they were nothing that made the match and victory satisfying.

Even the slug ammo would do little.

After some thinking, Xiao realized that she was wrong. For bigger mechs, the slug ammo could halt a charge or even knock a mech backwards. Against a foe with slug ammo, she had to be careful. Sadly, she wouldn’t find out until her mech was hit by the ammo.

Better get some sleep then.

After lots of tossing and turning, the young woman sat up on her bed. To help distract her until she could fall asleep again, Xiao turned her attention to the latest book Vivian handed her. She turned to the Ironclad Beetle section to see how an ant mech would deal with a seemingly invincible opponent. The diabolical ironclad beetle or ironclad beetle for short was the toughest light mech out there. It boasted incredible amounts of armor in addition to a gyro (advanced) which made it nearly impossible to knock the mech down. Comparing the numbers, the cattlemech had a bit more armor but the amount wasn’t significant enough between the two.

Let's see how an ant mech would take on the ironclad beetle then.

For the next hour, Xiao read through the section three times. By the end of her reading session, the young woman understood that, with the pathetic arsenal possessed by the ant mech, it was a slow grind. First, she would have to remain behind the ironclad beetle to avoid its weapons. This mech possessed small lasers and light machine guns, giving it more range than her cattlemech. Yet, both mechs had terribly slow turning speed, making speedy mechs a nightmare for them to face. If her mech could stay in the rear, then there was no chance of the ironclad beetle retaliating.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

If they make a fast mech, won’t that neutralize my cattlemech’s advantage? Maybe not…

If her opponent used light machine guns or any weapons with ammo, they would no doubt run out of ammo before they could get through the thick armor. With weapons like small lasers, the heat limitation would slow down their ability to burn through the armor. One fact that Xiao wasn’t aware of before and read in the book was that mechs could run out of power. This wasn’t common in tournament settings when a victor was usually decided much earlier. If a mech repeatedly used energy weapons like lasers, the battery of the mech would eventually run out, rendering the mech out of commission.

This would take a very long time which would bore the crowd. Maybe that’s why no one built a mech like that and the ironclad beetle is among the rarest mechs in tournament settings.

Boring matches meant less sponsorships and that could be the deal breaker on whether or not a mech organization was willing to field such a mech. From a financial aspect, no mech organization would field such a mech unless there were incentives or specific rules. For instance, Xiao really enjoyed festival matches where mechs above a certain weight raced around a track to see which one was the fastest. The fighting ring was anything but that so Xiao wondered why the cattlemech was selected. The risks were too high in term of lost revenue due to boring matches.

What could the organization be planning? Is there something about the mech that I missed?

For the next thirty minutes, Xiao watched videos of the cattlemechs on popular streaming sites. The young woman was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of content online regarding this seemingly ordinary mech. After this session, she was convinced that hers was different somehow. While the fighting ring matches weren’t streamed anywhere, the young woman could recall more accurately how her mech moved. The cattlemechs in the videos were slow and clumsy, despite boasting far less armor than hers. Yet, hers moved with a lot more ease and that was how she landed her pitchforks where she aimed. Slower responses from the mech would have given her opponent a chance to angle in a way to use the ant armor against the weapon.

There must be upgrades. Upgrades were not easily seen but made a big difference in the mech’s performance. If I was in an ant mech, how do I face such a monster?

Now Xiao envisioned a mech with the armor of an ironclad beetle and the agility of an ant mech. The concept was terrifying because the combination eliminated the weaknesses of the two mechs. An ant mech was considered weak because it couldn’t take many hits before it lost a torso or two. Extra armor gave it the ability to disregard its foes, much like how she didn’t even care about the incoming fire during her match. Meanwhile, a tanky mech with more agility made it harder or impossible for a faster mech to get good positioning consistently. Faced with a pilot of similar experience, Xiao literally couldn’t see a way she could win against the cattlemech.

Is that why the individual was confident in seeing it fight medium mechs?

The fight against medium mechs would put her at a disadvantage. Not only did medium mechs have more slots but they also had access to harder hitting weapons. They would render the armor advantage of the cattlemech useless since they would be capable of blasting through the defense until they could hit the mech’s structure.

Still, it’s not a bad move since people are more likely to bet on the underdog. Nothing screams that more than a light mech daring to take on the big scary medium mechs.

Except for certain matches where pilots of lower mech weight classes wanted to challenge themselves, there were no tournament matches that would allow different weight classes to face one another. The differences were often too great for the match to be entertaining. If a cattlemech was given certain upgrades to make the matches close, then the fighting ring organizers had a real jackpot in their hands. They didn’t need guaranteed victory but the chance of an underdog winning would have gamblers drooling over the prospect. The idea of her piloting such a mech was exhilarating, nearly on the same level as her trying out the ant specific subcomponents for the first time.

I have a match with the cattlemech tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes. The individual said that he wanted a few more decisive wins against light mechs before changing the format regarding the cattlemech and medium mechs.

This time, Xiao fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.