BOOM! Another mech shattered like porcelain under Lian’s charge, but her own frame was fraying at the seams, armor peeling like flaking bark.

Her sniper cannon had only one barrel left, a lone fang glinting, while two grenade launchers still clung on like stubborn horns.

The arena lay empty as a dried riverbed; no mechs moved in the dust, as if her storm had blown them all away.

She didn’t relax; steel tightened in her chest before her hands moved. She’d only killed eighteen. One was still out there like a hidden wolf.

That last one had to be Alicia. None of the screams she’d heard carried Alicia’s voice, so Alicia was crouched in the reeds, watching.

A prickling chill crawled up Lian’s neck like frost.

She snapped the launchers backward and fired a grenade with a thunderclap.

Boom! The round slammed into something and blossomed into fire like a red flower.

She spun on a jetburst; a long blade lay moon-pale on the ground, a fallen crescent.

But where was the hand that threw it, the shadow behind the steel?

Three long blades whistled in from three angles like hunting swallows; Lian stitched the air with Vulcan fire and swatted them down like sparks.

“Whoever you are, face me head-on!” Her voice hit like a drumbeat across the empty field.

A puzzled girl’s voice floated back, light as a breeze. “Oh? It’s Ling? I wondered who it was.”

Alicia’s mech slid out of nowhere like a ghost stepping from fog; Lian’s mind clicked—Alicia had stealth cloaked around her like night.

Lian gave a helpless, wry smile; the expression sat on her face like a thin blade. Alicia really loved knives; even inside a mech she wore dozens on her back like a steel garden.

What on earth was she planning, stacking blades like leaves on a winter tree?

Alicia glanced around at the bare field, confusion written on her face like mist. “Ling, why’s nobody here? I only took a moment to assemble, and they stopped playing?”

“Yeah, Alicia-sis, they left,” Lian answered, calm as a still pond. “Just us now.”

Alicia’s eyes sparked like flint; battle heat rose in her like a sunrise. A rare chance had opened like a gate.

If she couldn’t beat Ling in reality, she’d show big-sister’s authority here, where steel sang.

“Hey, Ling, let’s fight.” Her words dropped like a gauntlet.

Lian had been wrestling for an excuse to fight; joy hit first, then motion. “All right! Yes!”

With Lian’s consent, Alicia scooped up the four fallen blades like a magpie, then lifted her chin toward Lian like a challenge flag.

“Then, betting my sister’s pride—today I have to beat you! Asura Mode!”

In an instant, dozens of arms unfurled from Alicia’s mech’s back like a blooming demon-tree, each hand gripping a blade like a warning fang.

Danger radiated from her like heat haze; the air around her hummed.

Lian flinched, then laughed, a bright line cutting the tension; now this felt like a fight.

“Then… I’m coming!” Alicia’s rear thrusters flared like comet tails, and her whole frame shot forward like a launched spear.

As she closed, a bouquet of swords fell in a silver rain; to most eyes it was a blur, but to Lian each arc was sharp as frost.

Her lips curled into a smile like a knife’s edge. Smart. You know my mobility’s trash. Fine—if I can’t dodge, I’ll make sure you can’t attack.

The head-mounted sniper cannon began to glow, heat blooming like a forge; terrible energy pooled in it like a storm gathering sea-light.

Alicia saw the glow and felt the threat like a hand on her spine; her light armor bought speed, not mercy. One hit would cripple her like a wing torn off mid-flight.

She cut the attack, chest jets vomiting flame; recoil yanked her away like a hooked fish.

Boom! A purple pillar drilled through the spot she’d vacated, a thunderbolt that would have erased her like chalk under rain.

In the real world, people swarmed to watch like a tide, and the earlier players roared, venting their anger like steam from a cracked pipe.

“Look! That big mech! With defense and firepower like that, it’s gotta be an official account! It’s finally getting judged!”

“Yeah! Assembling a mech in minutes? That’s a scam! A normal player’s like that blade mech—only just showing up! We got killed by an official account!”

Seeing the crowd smear the company like mud, the official host bowed and apologized like a bobbing reed, and compensation packs poured down like rain.

He must’ve hated Lian’s mech to the bone, like a thorn under a nail; who knew someone could wring a monster from loose parts in minutes?

But that was noise for the few; the true gamers watched the two mechs trading heat like dueling volcanos, not the shower of gifts.

Like salted fish and cured meat (what a crappy comparison), they weren’t the same breed.

Enough chatter; outside was a storm, but inside the arena, the duel kept burning like a brazier.

Alicia eyed the sniper barrel, red as a coal; overheat caged it like iron. A rare opening glittered; she fired her back thrusters and darted for Lian like a hawk.

This time she came from the flank, sliding in like a shadow. If she went straight-on, who knew what nasty surprises would break her strike; the side was the soft underbelly.

Her idea worked. Lian had assumed a bruiser like Alicia would bulldoze from the front; her grenade launchers pointed dead ahead like twin tusks.

The sudden angle caught Lian off-guard; her heavy frame fought the turn like a stubborn ox mired in clay.

Alicia’s hit landed in a blink; her blade bit into Lian’s battered hull like it was paper, slicing clean like silk under steel.

Thanks to a side thruster, Lian slid the cut off the vitals like rain off a leaf; she only lost an arm, a single limb clattering like a felled branch.

Seeing it wasn’t a one-hit kill, Alicia chained the next motions like beads on a string.

This time her target was Lian’s rear thruster array, the heart of motion. Kill the drive, and the third strike ends it like a final gong.

In Alicia’s mind, Lian had no way out, fate sealed like wax.

Her blade swept sideways and wrecked the thrusters, sparks fountaining like fireflies; Lian’s whole frame toppled like a felled tree.

To the crowd, there was zero chance to turn it around, hope blown out like a candle.

Alicia backed off to the side, smoke trailing like gauze, both to avoid a trap and to cool her engines like iron in a trough.

If Lian chose self-destruct, overheated thrusters might choke her escape, and they’d die together like twin stars colliding.

Lian braced her mech with the one remaining arm and sat cross-legged on the ground like a mountain monk, her gaze steady on Alicia.

“Alicia-sis, mechs have limits.” Her voice carried like a bell in fog. “From this short game, I learned one thing: the more enemies you kill, the more you feel the ceiling—like a sky pressing down.

“Unless… you go beyond the mech.”

A bad wind rose in Alicia’s chest like storm smell. “What are you talking about?”

Lian reached to her waist and drew out the mask that had hung there like a hidden moon, lifting it high with one hand like an oath.

“I’m done piloting this kind of mech, Alicia.”

She set the mask on the mech’s face; a red light flashed in its eyes like a spark waking in the dark.