The Power of Nine: A Mecha LitRPG Adventure (Overdrive Book 2)

by R. H. Tang

  - Abilities -

  N/A [Kingbreaker Class]

  The Mech was an older version of the one from the Selection. The high-quality weapons still gave it decent statistics, but the base frame lacked the durability of the state-of-the-art Guardian X.

  Diamantic's deep voice resonated in Julian's head.

  "Alright. Let's begin."

  Julian hit the push to talk.

  It was important to play it safe and say his lines. Any beginner would be surprised to see Liefield suddenly disappear.

  "What happened to that Liefield guy? I thought we had a group of four."

  Diamantic stumbled with his words for a moment. Perhaps because Julian already knew to be suspicious, Diamantic's lie sounded utterly unconvincing.

  "Uhhh….I think he might have disconnected. Not that I know him or anything. But people disconnect sometimes. Hopefully, he'll come back."

  The lie only would have worked on a new player. Normally, disconnected pilots just stood still. Their Mechs didn't vanish.

  Tigger did his best to play the panicking beginner.

  "What should we do? Can we win this with just three people?"

  "Yes, of course. I'll tell you guys what to do."

  "Step aside for this."

  This time, it was Tigger's voice, not his friend's.

  He was speaking only to Julian. Julian walked to the very edge of the hill as Tigger went to the other side. Then the big man activated his gravity core.

  There was a horrific screech, and then the gravity field instantly crushed a row of would-be enemies, obliterating half the wall on the far side. All the Mech corpses were immediately smashed into a worthless steel line—useless for the Mandate System but perfect for the Traitor's Blade.

  Tigger's seemingly false move had been carefully calculated. After re-watching the film and mapping out the Scrapyard, Tigger knew which of the decorative walls contained ranged machines and which held melee units.

  Julian lifted his basic rifle. With his skills, the Grunts in the first two to three stages of March of Grunts didn't prove a problem. They were designed to train beginners. The most important thing was destroying the walls and setting themselves up for a later victory.

  Julian started blasting away, hitting an enemy Mech only about a third of the time. Instead, he focused his shots onto the walls, destroying the inert ranged units as Tigger did.

  The shots looked exactly like the inexperienced attacks of a beginner.

  Tigger kept blundering around.

  "It's a lot harder without my friends! Normally they keep them down for me! What should I do?"

  The person interpreting his voice was a great actor. He sounded like a completely confused pilot.

  Liefield's accomplice stumbled on his words. Diamantic's primary focus was keeping his Mech safe from Tigger's bumbling. The gravity Mech was a menace to both friends and allies. Diamantic's Guardian VII floated high in the air, doing its best to stay out of the passive range.

  It swerved over to Julian's side of the hill in a panicked bid to escape.

  The pile of Mechs slowly sank lower and lower as the hill was crushed further and further.

  Julian unleashed another streak of blasts, downing more of the charging Grunts. Unlike his bursts into the walls, his attacks on the surging Grunts were directed exclusively at the cockpits. He had to keep as many thrusters alive as possible. That was how he'd power his enormous sword.

  Tigger suddenly lurched towards Julian and Diamantic's side of the map. He wanted to destroy the wall on that side too, but Diamantic didn't realize it. He just saw a threat bumbling towards him.

  "Wait! Get away! Your gravity field has friendly fire!"

  Tigger stumbled over as Diamantic and Julian fled.

  "Friendly fire? What do you mean? What should I do?"

  Julian couldn't help but laugh. Tigger was trolling so hard.

  "Wait! Cover me! Help me out!"

  After about two minutes of fleeing from Tigger, by which time more and more of the walls had collapsed, Diamantic finally came up with a suggestion.

  "It sounds like your Mech is best in close combat. Why don't you run off the hill and attack?"

  It was horrible advice. Leaving the mountain was usually a game-losing mistake. Once you landed, you were susceptible to all kinds of attacks.

  But in this case, it was exactly what Julian and Tigger wanted to do anyways.

  The veteran pilot knew his job—he just had to set up as much scrap for the Traitor's Blade as possible. The gravity-focused Mech was utterly useless in a battle against Liefield. It didn't matter a bit if he got destroyed.

  Tigger grinned as he spoke to Julian on their exclusive communication channel.

  "Looks like this is working perfectly."

  "Yeah, this is great."

  Tigger charged forward.

  "Sounds good. I'm going in!"

  He was careful to run at the edge of the wall, crumpling more and more of their future opponents.

  After a while, Diamantic tried to stop him.

  "Hey, you shouldn't destroy the environment."

  Julian vaporized another wall.

  "Me? Or him?"

  It was a good thing Julian also had a good voice actor. He was laughing way too hard to sound convincing.

  "Both you guys!"

  "Sorry, it's a lot harder to hit them when they're moving. Sorry. It's tough."

  "What should I do? My Mech automatically destroys the environment?"

  Diamantic tsked.

  "Just try to run down the middle of the map."

  That advice was even worse—Tigger would just end up surrounded and destroyed. As soon as he stepped towards the center, the other Mechs surged towards him. It was only Tigger's skill that let him survive. He waved his sword around in a seemingly wild fashion, but each slice was targeted at the cockpit.

  It was truly incredible.

  Only an absolute master of the game could have done something like this. It was almost like seeing the drunken fist.

  Diamantic wasn't suspicious at all. Instead, he started lecturing them.

  "The game developers put a lot of time into Scrapyard. It's disrespectful for you to destroy their work."

  It was a lame and idiotic excuse. The game developers had built Scrapyard so you could interact with the walls. If anything, not interacting with it was far more disrespectful than destroying it.

  Besides, if anyone was being disrespectful, it was the losers using the map to beat down on new players.

  But just to be safe, Julian stopped firing at the walls. He should have had enough metal anyways. He just needed to make sure that the absorption process was continuous.

  Tigger's voice actor hit just the right tone of confused and scandalized.

  "But what about me? My Mech naturally destroys the environment!"

  Diamantic dismissed his explanation.

  "Yeah, that's great. Look. Just stop destroying the environment, okay. You're spitting on everyone who built this game."

  Tigger chuckled dryly.

  "Oh man, can you believe this guy?"

  Both of them were furious. Someone who got their first lessons from Diamantic would have no idea how to play.

  "You need to treat the environment as if they were people. Never shoot when you have a chance to destroy them. Never! Never! Never! If you have a choice to shoot someone, don't take it if you might miss and destroy a building."

  Perhaps realizing how ridiculous he sounded, he added a rushed addendum.

  "There's a big bonus prize at the end! You get paid extra if you don't destroy the terrain!"

  Tigger's voice actor did his best to sound like an eager high school kid.

  "Wait, what? Is there any way to turn off my gravity field?"

  "Sadly not. But just stay careful! It'll all be over soon."

  Of course, Tigger had only asked that question because he knew there was no way to turn off the gravity field once you activated.

  Julia
n shook his head.

  "It'll all be over soon. God. Diamantic is such an idiot."

  Tigger laughed as his Mech continued brawling with the swarming army. Despite his skills, his health and armor were dropping rapidly. There was little even a World Championship pilot could do when he was completely surrounded.

  As they saw in the video, Diamantic did nothing. He just stood back and gave terrible directions.

  Eventually, Tigger suffered near-critical damage on the ninth round.

  All his parts were below the 20% mark, but Julian was still fine. He only had a second to wonder what would happen when Diamantic started shooting him from behind. Julian's Mech crashed to the ground.

  Diamantic ruthlessly blitzed Julian's various parts, bringing him down to the 20% mark.

  Julian only barely remembered to sound surprised.

  "Wait. What are you doing?!"

  "What's going on?!"

  Diamantic didn't even deign to respond.

  Julian carefully fell so that he landed on top of the Traitor's Blade. So long as he was in contact with it, he'd be fine, even if he lost his arms. There were plenty of limbs for him to reabsorb now.

  Between him and Tigger, they'd destroyed hundreds of machines from the main map. Once the Mandate System activated and the walls formed, that number would skyrocket over a thousand. He was literally lying on the perfect counter.

  The Heaven's Boxer soared onto the stage. Julian's eyes widened. The machine had grown far stronger since the last time he'd seen it. Despite his confidence in his preparation, he felt an inadvertent spark of fear.

  Bright red lights flashed across the screen.

  FORCED BATTLE SYSTEM ACTIVATED.

  32

  "What's going on?"

  "Why are we in this lobby?"

  After shooting Julian in the back to bring him beneath the 20% health mark, Diamantic was still shameless enough to keep giving suggestions.

  "We need to battle."

  The terms of the battle flashed across the screen. Liefield was challenging them to a bet battle, wagering the Heaven's Boxer and Diamantic's Guardian X against Tigger and Julian's machines.

  Julian and Tigger had their voice actors make more surprised noises just to have everything sound reasonable.

  Tigger started.

  "Hey, are you seeing this?"

  "Yeah."

  For some reason, they could see the Heaven's Boxer's details even though the battle had just started. That hadn't happened last time.

  - General Data -

  Pilot: Liefield

  Machine: Reality Shaper—Heaven's Boxer

  Class: Paragon

  Sub-class: Attacker

  Designation: Ace Unit

  - Statistics -

  Melee: S-tier

  Shooting: D-tier

  Speed: S-tier

  Maneuverability: S-tier

  Defense: S-tier

  Cohesion: S-tier

  Special: S-tier

  - Parts -

  Close Combat Visor Type-C (Full Custom) [x1]

  Demonic Wings (Full Custom) [x4]

  Heaven's Gauntlet (Full Custom) [x2]

  Heaven's Boots (Full Custom) [x2]

  Liquid State Capacitator (Full Custom) [x4]

  - Abilities -

  Liquid State Eternium

  Forced Battle System

  Reality Step

  Mandate System

  When Julian first encountered the golden Mech in its base state, it'd resembled a Chinese martial artist writ large. Liefield's changes had brought out a darker side. Now the Boxer looked like a dirty fighter, the villainous master who'd lost a step and compensated for it with evil tricks.

  It was a good fit for Liefield's duplicitous nature.

  The most obvious change was the four demonic wings at the back, which resembled enormous shrouds. The Heaven's Boxer glowed like the sun, but the wings remained black as night even as they beat and forth.

  A new visor slid down above the machine's eyes, protecting the sensitive sensors in the event of a brawl. Julian used a similar version on the Starlight R, but he'd never seen one like the Type-C. Instead of sliding down from above the head, it slid up from the neck. The mask covered the whole face, granting the machine a dark and faceless appearance.

  The arms had been significantly enhanced, with brightly burning thrusters installed throughout. The purple flames eagerly licked the air. Vicious claw-like gauntlets covered the hands. The legs had undergone a similar transformation—thrusters lined the entire limb, and glowing talons covered the feet.

  The most significant change was the Liquid State Capacitators in the arms and feet. The needles jutted out like daggers. If stabbed into an opponent, they could absorb their metal and extend the Boxer's Overdrive operation time.

  Liefield had almost certainly hired someone to craft the Mech for him. The complex parts would have been impossible for the average player to install.

  Tigger called out to Julian on the private line, a frown in his voice.

  "I don't see any reason why your strategy wouldn't work, but do you know why we can see the info? Is that something to do with Donate?"

  "Maybe? I'm not sure. This is my first time using the item. I don't see why it would though—my sword is on their team, but not my machine."

  Although you normally saw the information of enemy Ace units, that was only possible if you'd already encountered the item in the shop. The Boxer was an all-new machine. They should have had to use the scouter.

  "You know what it might be? Drake is probably going to release the Reality Shapers soon. It sounds like we were right in the nick of time."

  Right.

  For all Julian knew, they could have narrowly missed their chance. If they lost, they might not get another opportunity. Julian gulped and reminded himself that it didn't matter. He was confident in his strategy.

  The Boxer was a truly beautiful machine, but that didn't matter.

  The match began.

  Liefield soared onto the stage, posing his beautiful new Mech.

  As always, the villainous pilot went on a tirade speech as soon as the battle started, going on and on about how important it was to only battle opponents you could beat. It was just his typical bullying bluster.

  "You'll learn better. Based on my business experience, defeat is the greatest teacher!"

  Julian smirked. Liefield had no idea what was about to hit him. Strangely enough, hearing his opponent's whiny voice evaporated Julian's fear.

  Liefield was an arrogant idiot. And despite his upgrades, the new Boxer didn't have anything that would counter Julian's strategy. The Liquid State Capacitators came the closest, but even all of them operating at full force wouldn't let him survive being crushed by a thousand machines.

  Julian activated the Souls of the Fallen ability.

  His Mech was lying flat on the sword. The blade immediately magnetized all the destroyed Mechs beneath them—the crushed pillars that Tigger had created with his gravity field. The transformation pushed Julian back up onto his feet as the sword grew larger and larger. The destroyed Mechs spiraled towards him. The crushed parts joined into his enormous blade powered by the surviving thrusters.

  Liefield didn't even realize what was happening. The idiotic pilot continued his stupid monologue.

  "And now, I'll show you just how important it is to know your limits! You'll thank me for this when you get older."

  The broken parts continued merging together. An enormous handguard made of twisted shields enveloped his entire machine like a cocoon, keeping it completely safe from harm.

  Tigger streaked forward, destroying as many additional machines as he could.

  If another Mech was destroyed while Souls of the Fallen was still active, it would be added to the combination. Right now, Tigger's goal was to kill as many enemies as possible before going down.

  Julian typed furiously away at his controls, shaping the storm of parts into the largest sword anyone had ever seen.
Soon, the blade was larger than a battleship. Every part he didn't know how to use, he simply added it to the edge, which soon resembled a club. Loose arms, legs, and even heads jutted out of the rapidly growing blunt trauma weapon.

  Like all Mechs built with Souls of the Fallen, Julian's new creation looked downright freaky, but it'd get the job done.

  "Sir! Sir!"

  Diamantic, seemingly the brains of the operation, was completely freaking out. Liefield wasn't even looking at the stage. For some reason, he'd moved onto talking about best accounting practices.

  "I told you not to interrupt me when I'm teach—eeeek!"

  Liefield broke off and started gibbering with fear.

  "What is that! What is that!"

  "How did you do that? What Ability is that?"

  Diamantic cried out.

  "You need to get him! You need to get him now!"

  Liefield smirked.

  "Eat this!"

  He snapped his fingers, summoning a storm of Grunts. The Mechs were the strongest the stage had to offer—elite defensive guard units, high-powered snipers, and speedy bombers. Tigger was instantly destroyed, but Julian's enormous machine fared much better.

  Their attacks devastated his sword, but there was plenty more where that came from. For every part that was destroyed, three more replaced it.

  Julian swung once and destroyed all his enemies without any effort whatsoever. Countless COMBO KILL messages flashed across his screen. Diamantic tried sneaking from the back, but a mass of arms enveloped the screaming pilot before crushing his machine into scrap metal.

  Julian smiled.

  He felt a little light-headed.

  This was actually fun.

  There was a reason why enormous Mechs were banned from competitive play. No matter how strong a machine was, it could always just be broken with sheer weight. The Moby Dick had won Vile countless battles simply by tanking attacks and then retaliating.

  Julian's enormous Traitor Sword worked the exact same way.

  Souls of the Fallen still hadn't ended.

  After all, the Traitor's Blade was trying to absorb over a thousand Mechs. Liefield summoned storm after storm of allied Grunts, but it was no use. The destroyed parts joined his machine, granting the new sword the bomber's incredible speed and the guard unit's durability.