Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"Who do you think will win?"

Grace nudged Dick with her elbow, forgetting he was still inside his mecha. With a jolt, Dick stumbled, then, like a chain of dominoes, crashed into a startled Luo Lin, who staggered and fell to the ground.

Luo Lin, expressionless: "..."

Dick, accustomed to such mishaps, reached out to help Luo Lin up, saying casually, "The young master, probably. He seems to have some real skill, and his mecha is Apollo—the hardware advantage is just too much."

Grace nodded grudgingly; she largely agreed but was reluctant to admit it.

"Not necessarily," Luo Lin, usually quiet, suddenly interjected, her gaze fixed on the two combatants. "Brother has disabled all of Apollo’s high-damage weapons and hasn’t activated any alchemy effects. That’s already a significant concession."

As another Mythological Mecha owner, Luo Lin’s words carried considerable weight. Dick exclaimed in surprise, "The young master is being so fair?"

Luo Lin: "I think he’s just afraid of causing too much damage and getting punished by Dad."

"Whatever the reason, by turning off his hardware advantages, Cecil has essentially closed his own 'God’s window'," Grace said with a light laugh, arms crossed. "Even though both their Spiritual States aren’t attack-oriented, Eve’s Luna Butterfly is far more effective in a one-on-one fight than the Silver Moon Clematis."

Moreover, Eve had already mastered channeling her psychic energy into her weapons, and with the Luna Butterfly’s enhancement, the outcome was still uncertain.

Grace and Dick exchanged a look, their unspoken thoughts conveyed in that silent communication. They ceased their chatter and quietly retreated beyond the observation line, watching the duel between these two S-class Spiritual State users while awaiting the final result.

On the other side, Cecil no longer held back as he had at the start. The moment the Silver Moon Clematis appeared, it visibly bloomed, its silvery light flowing from the gradually unfolding lotus heart to envelop the Apollo mecha, forming an intangible, silvery defensive shield. He deftly angled his light sword, creating distance from Eve, seizing the Luna Butterfly’s preparation time to rapidly recover his psychic energy.

As a top-tier mecha, Apollo’s performance was undeniably powerful, but its psychic energy consumption was astonishingly high. In his duel with Eve, both were natural combat geniuses with equally swift reactions. Cecil dared not relax for a second, and his psychic energy was depleting at an accelerated rate.

Though outwardly composed, inside the cockpit, Cecil’s forehead was beaded with large drops of sweat. Every blink sent a faint, throbbing pain deep into his brow and brain.

If this continued, he’d be worn out by attrition alone.

Eve was considerably more relaxed, yet her slender brows were slightly furrowed in thought. Apollo’s defense was simply too strong. Though their exchanges seemed evenly matched, Cecil’s attacks had only been dodged thanks to her smaller mecha’s agility, narrowly escaping danger. In contrast, her own strikes, even when they landed on Apollo’s chassis, were like scratching an itch—not even leaving a visible mark.

The luminous moon rising behind her provided constant boosts, while the Luna Butterfly transformed into its half-human-sized true form, gracefully alighting on the mecha’s broad, iron-gray mechanical arm. The mecha’s outline became semi-transparent, but due to its large size, the Luna Butterfly could only achieve so much for now, still falling short of the complete conceptual stealth Eve had envisioned.

This couldn’t continue. They had to go all out and end it quickly.

—This thought flashed through the minds of both combatants simultaneously.

In the fully enclosed arena, there should have been no wind, but as they slowly raised their light swords, those around began to feel a breeze.

This wasn’t actual air movement; even if there were wind, it couldn’t penetrate the steel barriers to reach those seated in the cockpits.

The teacher looked on in amazement, murmuring, "Energy vortex."

Two pale white energy streams, seemingly from the same source, appeared centered around Eve and Cecil. On closer inspection, Eve’s leaned towards a white-gold hue, while Cecil’s was pure silver-white. These energy bands rotated slowly, repelling yet colliding and merging like opposing forces, mysterious like the Taiji symbol, endlessly cycling while attempting to absorb each other’s energy for their own use.

Eve gripped her sword with both hands. As she poured her psychic energy into it without reserve, the light sword grew brighter and more solid, beginning to resemble a real, tangible drawn blade. The moon behind her spun faster, and in an instant, the entire X-101 mecha vanished from sight. This wasn’t due to speed; from Cecil’s perspective, he saw the white-gold energy vortex approaching him, seemingly slow but unstoppable. Though he couldn’t make out its exact shape, an overwhelming sense of crisis filled him, urging him to maximize the Silver Moon Clematis’s protection, even at the cost of reducing the feedback to his own psychic energy.

This decision quickly brought back the sweat of overload-induced pain to his forehead, but soon Cecil felt grateful for his sharp crisis intuition.

The moment the two energy vortices overlapped centered on Apollo, countless narrow beams of light enveloped him like the finest spiderweb. Though each individual beam didn’t deal much damage, every flicker of these fine edges was caused by the sparks from Eve’s light sword striking and impacting the shield. A tug on one affected the whole; countless ordinary attacks, enhanced by psychic energy and moving at speeds difficult for the naked eye to track, came down in overlapping slashes. Every point, every strike—not a single attack was wasted, each perfectly following the trajectory of the previous one.

This was the terrifying computational power and perfect self-control of Class A psychic energy. Under such an assault, the energy shield granted by the Silver Moon Clematis soon began to fracture and crumble, on the verge of collapse.

"What the hell?!"

Cecil’s eyes were dazzled; he couldn’t block such an intense offensive. Logically, such a meticulous attack style shouldn’t appear in mecha combat, but in the heat of the moment, Cecil didn’t have time to ponder.

He forcibly activated Apollo, using a shockwave to send Eve’s small mecha flying back a good distance. Soaring into the air to catch his breath, he tried to get a clear view of Eve’s movements, but she didn’t give him the chance. The moon behind her spun increasingly faster, almost becoming a sharp, wheel-like form, while the Luna Butterfly nearly abandoned its stealth function, dedicating all its power to speed.

In all martial arts, speed is paramount.

Under thousands of blades, an inescapable net—who could escape?

The X-101 mecha lacked hover capabilities. Eve piloted it, pushing off the ground with a powerful kick, using the rebound to shoot into the sky, then maintaining altitude with the residual force from clashes. She twisted her wrist, instantly maximizing her control over the mecha. As she raised her light sword, her mind kept replaying how Maria had used the same inescapable net move against her last night.

Maria had stood firm, unmoving, forming an impervious kill zone around herself, turning defense into active offense.

Eve, however, charged forward relentlessly, maximizing the advantage of attack, seizing the initiative to trap her opponent.

Eve’s swordsmanship was far from that of an imperial commander tempered on life-and-death battlefields, but she was determined enough, and her hands were steady enough. As long as her attacks were fast and accurate, with each successive layer, she was confident that if she could create something even she couldn’t counter, then Cecil, standing opposite her now, would have no chance to fight back.

Shallow scratches finally began to appear on Apollo, deepening and widening continuously. Inside the cockpit, Cecil was in a frantic mess; even if he managed to block one or two strikes, he couldn’t stop the countless others right behind them. Just as he grew increasingly overwhelmed, the outcome was decided. The mecha combat teacher blew a sharp whistle announcing the cease-fire. A purplish-red mecha, more elegantly designed, suddenly appeared between the two, kicking Apollo away and blocking the remaining strikes Eve couldn’t retract in time.

This was the Mythological Mecha, Aphrodite.

After delivering the final few blows, Eve was completely drained. As she was about to crash to the ground, Aphrodite grabbed her mechanical arm, steadily bringing her down to land safely. Meanwhile, Apollo, after being knocked away, adjusted its posture and managed a barely stable landing.

"... Luo Lin?" Eve, having exhausted her psychic energy, felt dizzy and spoke softly and slowly.

Luo Lin gave an "Mmm," retracting her Mythological Mecha the moment they landed. Aphrodite transformed into a purplish-red light and withdrew into the ring on her middle finger, as if displaying it for even two more seconds would incur a charge. Perhaps thinking Eve’s call was to ask why she had helped block the attack for Cecil, she proactively explained, "Once the damage rate reaches a certain level, the repair costs for a Mythological Mecha become very expensive."

Implied meaning: a few scratches were fine, but don’t actually damage Apollo badly, as it would cost a lot later.

Despite the family not treating her particularly well, Luo Lin was still a good child who considered the family’s interests.

Eve: "... I understand."

Fortunately, the teacher eased the slightly awkward atmosphere. She clapped her hands and announced before all the children, "This round goes to Eve."

Cecil retracted Apollo looking in disarray. Clearly drained of psychic energy, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and walked up to Eve, full of frustration. "This is too strange. Where did you learn that last move?"

Eve glanced at him. "Learned it online."

Which was technically true—the holographic combat system counted as online, didn’t it?

Cecil probably didn’t believe one could learn something of that level online and eyed her suspiciously. Suddenly, he reached out and grabbed Eve’s left hand, raising it high and announcing on his own, "Fine, I lost to you today. But next time, and the time after that, I’ll still seek you out for practice, until I defeat you."

"Whatever," Eve replied. "But don’t bring out Apollo again."

"Why?" Cecil knew deep down that using a Mythological Mecha and still losing was disgraceful, but he reflexively retorted, raising an eyebrow rebelliously. "Why should I listen to you?"

Eve shook off the hand gripping hers, looking at Cecil with extreme contempt. "Didn’t you hear your sister? The repair costs for Mythological Mechas are very expensive."

She hadn’t even used a Mythological Mecha herself, yet Cecil was treating Apollo like an everyday consumable.

... This wasteful guy.