Claire's claim was, realistically, undeniably accurate. However, firstly, I didn't come up with it by myself, and secondly, gigantomania is more than commonplace in science fiction. She should be grateful I didn't portray the Death Star! In actuality, the term 'lightweight' in relation to military equipment is pretty relative. A "light" tank could weigh twenty-five or even thirty tons. Of course, I didn't correct Claire and there was no time for such debates. The drop pods were already in the final stage of their descent. With a thunderous roar, their solid-fuel boosters ignited, tasked with the final deceleration of the descent vessel.

"Watch out! Mech vulnerabilities: servos, hydraulics, and cooling systems!" I quickly instructed, providing the bare minimum of necessary information.

"Don't bother trying to get to the pilots!" Maya echoed. "The armored capsules are extremely secure, and it would take forever to extract pilots from the mechs with swords!"

"Never stop, always keep moving!" To my surprise, it was Claire who shouted this.

But there should've been no surprise; she had recognized the work and had obviously read it thoroughly.

"High-speed, highly maneuverable targets are the Achilles' heel of robotic guidance systems!" Kael continued.

It was strangely surreal to see what I had described and, in many ways invented, suddenly materializing before my eyes.

"Don't stand under the landing sites!" I barely managed to yell in time.

I did so as cluster munitions, at a height of a hundred meters, detached from the drop pods and plummeted downward in a fan formation. The deafening roar from the simultaneous explosion of hundreds of grenades temporarily impaired our hearing. Clearing the landing zone - that's how I depicted this element in the comic. None of the Knights were harmed by this initial strike, though the same could not be said about the rapeseed fields. Wilflaes was fortunate that this Breakthrough was not occurring within city limits, as it seemed the mechs' weaponry fully impacted reality.

"Halley!" I shouted. "Warn the military to keep out of this area!"

My command came at a less than ideal moment - just as the landing modules made contact with the ground. The timing was off, but if the mechs' weaponry affects the ordinary world, then no one aside from the raigs should be anywhere near the Breakthrough site.

My initial order was for each Mech to be attacked by two pairs of Knights, thus in groups of four, but we didn't have enough raigs to fully carry this out. So, I assigned a dozen of the most experienced Knights, myself included, to distract half of the war machines while the main battle group executed the initial order.

The precision of their landing was eerily synchronized, an impossibility in reality, but a detail I had insisted on. Instantly, they shed their protective side panels, and machines foreign to this world leaped off the platforms. Despite each machine weighing a hefty twenty-five tons, they all moved with the speed and agility of predators.

I executed a high jump, taking in my surroundings and imprinting them into my memory. The first wave consisted of eight Locusts, six Pumas, four Cloud Cobras, an equal number of Kit Foxes, and two Icestorms. At the peak of my jump, I was forced to use my Push ability to propel myself back to the ground. If I hadn't, a barrage of small lasers from various directions would have simultaneously pierced my Projection.

When I had envisioned the comic, I imagined battles between mechs and raigs to be relatively straightforward and one-sided. Unfortunately, I had also portrayed the pilots of these combat vehicles as nearly superhuman. Now we were dealing with the repercussions of my oversight. Light mechs were designed to be rapid, mobile machines, but the agility and speed they demonstrated "in the flesh" astonished even me, their creator.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

In Sliding, I darted toward the closest Locust. Of course, I was well aware of this mech's vulnerabilities. Ideally, it would take merely a couple of sword blows to debilitate the servos in its "legs", rendering it a sitting duck for a swift finish. However, reality proved different. Despite my speed in Sliding, the Locust managed to activate its jump boosters. Not only did it evade my line of attack, it also attempted to incinerate me with the exhaust of its jet engines! The clan pilot, realizing the exhaust had failed to eliminate me, spun the mech mid-air and unleashed a barrage from its machine guns. Tracer rounds shot towards my Projection, but they fell short, as the mechanics of the machine gun drives simply couldn't keep up with a raig's speed.

I was a good twenty meters from the mech when I had to suddenly alter my course and sprint away from the searing flames. My adversary was a flamethrower-equipped Locust. Beyond reconnaissance, these machines were primarily tasked with flushing out enemy infantry and causing overheating in the more formidable enemy robots. As my recent encounter had demonstrated, this foe, operated by a seasoned clan pilot, was far from the walkover I had initially perceived. The Locust used its jets of fire to keep me at bay, preventing me from getting too close. Simultaneously, it was constantly attempting to target me with its machine guns or bring me within the firing line of its allies.

It was our good fortune that there were twice as many raigs as there were mechs that had landed. Considering the significant challenge I faced in taking down my opponent, things would have been difficult if the numbers had been evenly matched!

When I first designed these war machines, I intentionally incorporated critical vulnerabilities that the Break Knights could exploit. However, the human element, specifically the clan pilots, hindered our efforts to swiftly obliterate the mechs as I had planned.

For almost two minutes, the Locust and I engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse, where any misstep could result in catastrophe for either one of us. Like me, the light reconnaissance machine didn't stand still for a split second. It jerked sideways, leaped with its jets, all the while maintaining a constant barrage of fire from its arsenal. But the unforgiving physics of Batletech proved too much for the Locust. It didn't fail because it tripped up somewhere, or its pilot made an incorrect maneuver. It fell victim to the primary bane of these mechs - overheating! After its latest jetpack leap, the Locust became so heated that its automation system shut down the robot's reactor due to the risk of explosion from overheating. In that exact moment, "Word" severed the servos, and "Purity" disconnected the wiring that linked the cockpit to the propulsion segment. A dozen more swift strikes and the mech, while not destroyed, posed no more threat than a bronze statue. Still, it was best to avoid touching it, as the risk of severe burns was high. The machine had overheated to such an extent that the armor plating on its frame was practically glowing.

However, I didn't have the luxury of time to stand still and admire my handiwork. I darted to the side, used Sliding, then Push, and the blue steel of my sword slashed through the hydraulics of the Cloud Cobra's weapon systems. This machine was also equipped with flamethrowers, and its cooling units were more advanced than those of the Locust. Maya had held back this mech. Unlike me, she had taken a hit... Her prana dropped by almost a third, while the Cobra was left nearly untouched! Yet, my intervention significantly tipped the scales in this confrontation. Stripped of its flamethrower, the mech quickly became an easy target and Maya dispatched it within seconds.

"I only have myself to blame for allowing your comic to be printed!" She rolled her eyes as she said this.

"It's not that bad!" I retorted, grinning, and gestured towards the battlefield.

Indeed, the deliberately placed weak points had played their part. We only faced difficulties with flamethrower machines, but all the others - rocket, laser, cannon, and machine gun mechs - were no match for the Break Knights. Especially when two pairs of raigs attacked a single mech simultaneously.

The Cloud Cobra that Maya took down was the second last functioning machine. The final operational Icestorm, marked with the platoon leader's colors, was being dealt with by the twins at that moment. However, we didn't have time to revel in our victory.

"Air!" Dobrynya hollered.

I looked up and saw that while we were busy annihilating the first wave, the orbital clan shuttles had continued their landing unhindered.