Almost every single person looking at him thought otherwise. With a massive gash down his torso, it looked like he wouldn’t be willing to continue.
Cael looked down with endearment for this strong will of his. It was clear that over in Zarcona, something had ignited the flame of willpower within him. A spark to turn the ember into a blazing inferno.
Blaine didn’t seem to care much for range of defence. Taking a slash to his abdomen, he just steeled through the pain and powered on.
This second slash had also broken skin, but didn’t faze Blaine.
VRRR-BAM! BAM! BAM!
Blaine fired off with a number of punches at the silver shield that LX-32 held. The bot fell into a crouched position to keep more of its body behind the security of this shield.
PANG! CLANK!
Blaine didn’t let up with his relentless assault. Each punch that followed seemed to be stronger than the last.
His powered gauntlets were granting his punches unparalleled levels of strength, that led him to beat LX-32 across the canvas. Aiming lower, for a punch at the lower area of the shield, LX-32 foolishly kept it down to catch the punch on the centre.
It nullified the force of the strike completely, but left its head totally open for the next attack. Whipping his right hand around with all of his weight, his hard, metal knuckles crashed straight into the bot’s face.
Just to add insult to injury, Blaine landed a clean energy blast to its head.
At such close range, half of the bot’s face melted and solidified, leaving its grotesque and deformed.
The tables of the battle had turned right away. Even with this lancer’s great technique and control, Blaine’s overall fighting skill allowed him to stay in the fight. Cael started to look upon the battle more intently.
He believed that the fight would be over now, but Blaine’s eyes exuded nothing but conviction and laser-sharp focus.
Blaine rushed right back into another few attacks, throwing all of his weight into his subsequent attacks. However, this lean fighter was still quicker than him. Before his fist could land on anything, LX-32 swiped its lance across Blaine’s body, cutting through his metal armour like it was butter.
With the great force behind the attack, along with the extreme heat, the sharp edge was able to cleave right through the metal shell to slash open his body.
Even if Blaine had the willpower to continue, Arlo did not want to see anymore.
Using his great speed, even without his exosuit, he arrived in between this bot and Blaine in a split-second. Many of those watching him couldn’t even perceive his swift movement.
“That’s enough, Blaine. LX-32, stand down for now.” Arlo ordered, as a medical drone flied right over to them.
A translucent cloud of nanobots flowed into his body, numbing the pain of these wounds whilst also sealing them quite quickly.
Blaine was then ushered out of the canvas, and the floating drone followed him there as he continued to be healed.
Many other students followed, also facing bots with their complementary styles. This was where the students’ hard work and conviction were revealed. Some were willing to fight through, like Blaine, and find a way out of the hard situation.
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Others simply didn’t have the same mentality. They folded under the pressure and couldn’t perform as they would need to.
Cael was next up on the floor, and he gave a swift look to his skills to see what was at hand.
[Skills]
[Skill: Power Surge]
[Skill: Mana Stream]
[Skill: Lv. 1 Rapid Update]
[Skill: Lv. 2 Script Sage]
[Skill: Lv. 1 Quick-Build]
[Skill: Lv. 3 Microscale Manipulation]
[Skill: Lv. 4 Internal Design]
[Skill: Lv. 3 Combat Specialist]
[Skill: Lv. 2 Alloy Mastery]
[Skill: Lv. 3 Compacting]
[Skill: Lv. 2 Scarcity Crafting]
[Skill: Lv. 2 Armour Fitting]
[Skill: Lv. 3 Circuit Routing Proficiency]
[Skill: Lv. 1 Gauntlet Overdrive]
[Skill: Lv. 1 Mana Shield]
His gauntlet overdrive would be quite useful when striking, but he was resorting to a baton and energy shield in this fight.
The bot that faced him was shorter than him, standing at 5’10, but had a rather stocky build. It wasn’t like the bot was built of muscles but had the general shape of a muscular person.
It was of a green hue, with silver finishes across its sleek, minimalistic design. It had glowing yellow-white eyes, and the title ‘SPD-11’ where one’s cheekbone would be.
Cael wielded his energy shield and baton, along with his dark golden exosuit. Tightening his grip on his baton, electricity began chaotically jumping between different parts of the weapon.
“A baton?” A student asked, chuckling right after.
Almost everyone that watched on contemptuously judged his choice of weaponry. Most exosuit cadets strived for a tool that was seen as flashy, and entertaining. A simple club-like weapon with a shield wasn’t going to excite or exhilarate anyone.
Hell, such a combo wasn’t even popular in the military; the disdain toward him was just as it always had been.
The match began, and Cael swiftly lifted his arm to create his energy shield. The golden, translucent sheet of energy projected out from his forearm, covering a decent portion of his body.
SPD-11 sprung right into action, running with great speed and light feet. Cael took the first punch from this bot onto the centre of his shield, stepping back as a number of attacks followed.
He remained vigilant and tried his best to analyse the timing of his opponent. Watching the bot cock back its fist for a punch, he revealed himself and swung his baton straight at its head.
Reaching close to its face, he could see a few crackles of lightning jump between the gap of his baton and SPD-11’s headpiece.
Nevertheless, it managed to pull its head and body back to remain practically untouched, ready to continue.
This game continued, with Cael catching most of the incoming attacks onto his shield and not landing many of his own. SPD-11 was not just fast but very, very agile.
It spent almost no time with a foot on the ground. Seemingly with infinite energy, it remained a moving target, hard for Cael to hit and to keep his shield in front of.
Cael watched the green bot charge at him, and leap ahead. Its mechanical knee was aimed forward, but Cael let the bot land its hit on his shield.
In quick succession, the bot landed back on the ground and explosively sidestepped to arrive right beside Cael’s shield. Even when he strugglingly managed to track the fighter, its speed eclipsed his own.
A strong punch landed on his flank, followed with a swinging kick to the same area. It was all fine and dandy being able to track the fighter, but his body almost felt unable to follow his eyes.
It was infuriating to watch SPD-11 enter a position that he couldn’t defend against; he felt like a statue when taking such swift hits like that.
Cael retreated for a brief period, and recalculated. With his mana shield skill, it could increase the durability of parts of his exosuit armour. That would be useful against slashing bots but SPD-11 was equipped with just powered gauntlets. Blunt trauma would be the least of his worries with his energy shield.
Gauntlet overdrive was pretty much off the table as long as he still used his shield and baton. The only option left for him was his mana surge skill.
VRR!!
The glowing parts of his exosuit started to shine more brightly, and the current in his baton intensified.
“What?” Blaine blurted out in a whisper, watching this happen.
“What is it?” Vannessa asked, confused about his sudden utterance.
“Nothing.” Blaine bluntly and sharply replied in a dismissive manner.
“He was holding back this whole time? Why would he do that?” Keagan asked.
“It’s like he’s been hiding his exosuit’s true power. Did Arlo make this bot too easy for him on purpose?” Friso furthered, also rather confused.
It was like his exosuit just seemed better; they could tell it was outputting more energy, and his weapons looked like they had been upgraded in an instant.
His energy shield grew as its component was receiving more energy; the fight was on now.
FWOOSH!!