The Mech Touch

All 32 mech designer pairs worked intensely to design and fabricate a mech in 3 days.

To Ves, the Wild Brawl Bowl's design phase was almost like a vacation. Though he still experienced considerable pressure, it was practically a massage compared to the pressure he endured when he competed in the High Tide Tournament.

The biggest complication was that he needed to work together with another mech designer.

Though Ketis was a highly-regarded swordmaster in the personal combat community, she was not a stellar mech designer.

If anyone only looked at her meager design accomplishments, she was by far the worst Journeyman in the competition!

Every other mech designer published a lot more mech designs and participated in many more design duels or design tournaments. Their knowledge bases were often broader and more comprehensive.

To be fair, Ketis was also a lot younger than the majority of the competitors. This was one of the reasons why she was able to gain the services of a mech pilot as good as Lyain Kepper.

When Team Larkinson began to design their mech in earnest, they chose to focus on realizing a fairly restrained machine.

It was quite difficult to design a more adventurous mech this time. Despite the longer time limit, the availability of materials and component designs were not as good as those in the High Tide Tournament.

Ves understood that the Wild Fighter Association wanted the mech designers to win by relying on their ability to design a solid fighter mech.

The restrictive conditions left less room for gimmicks and solutions derived from high technology. Hardly any mech designer would be able to develop a mech that was absolutely superior to any other machine in the tournament.

In theory, every competition mech should be able to defeat any other machine in the tournament. The materials and component designs were simpler and easier to work with, but that also meant that it was hard to leverage too much power from them. Even the most ingenious mech designer could only accomplish so much when he could only make use of low-grade exotics at most.

Ves could already imagine the kind of mechs that would result from everyone's efforts. The relatively low-budget competition mechs they would produce at the end would probably resemble third-class mechs in many ways.

As someone who used to be a third-class mech designer himself, he only needed a short moment of adjustment to get back in the mindset of someone who had to design a mech under so many constraints.

Third-class mech designers were a lot more basic and less varied because there simply wasn't enough room for advanced solutions.

While the circumstances for the Wild Brawl Bowl diverged in numerous ways, the similarities were still great. This was why Ves favored a more conservative approach that focused on designing a mech with good basic parameters and enough reliability to remain in peak condition for half-a-dozen mech duels.

Of course, that wasn't enough to win the tournament. Many other design teams were probably designing their mechs along the same lines.

What would truly distinguish the competition mechs from each other were the specialties that the mech designers incorporated in their design.

Ves and Ketis both emphasized their respective specialties from the beginning of the design phase.

Their swordsman mech was not only going to be alive, but also put together in a way that also amplified Lyain Kepper's swordsmanship!

Ves didn't think his contributions would be able to exceed that of Ketis this time. Though he could still add a couple of useful functions related to living mechs to his work, his design partner was the definite authority when it came to swordsman mechs in the clan!

That didn't mean he was content to play second fiddle, though.

Based on his performance in the High Tide Tournament, Ves was still able to affect the success of his competition mech by emphasizing the short-term advantages of his design philosophy.

He had two ways to do that. The first one was to focus on improving the man-machine relationship. This was fairly standard for Ves, but what was different from last time was that he knew the mech pilot in advance.

This made his job a lot easier this time. Together with adopting some of Gloriana's design methods, he was able to align the technical and spiritual design of his competition much more closely to its user this time!

"The mech you'll be piloting in the next phase of this tournament will be a lot more different from what you are accustomed to." Ves already began to explain his distinctive work to Lyain. "It will be hard for me to explain all of the nuances about my living mechs without letting you have a chance to pilot them first, but you'll just have to take my word for it. Some of what I'll say will be hard for you to believe, but know that millions of mech pilots have already sworn by my products."

Ketis added her support for her mentor. "Ves doesn't lie when it comes to his work. I know he'll say stuff that will make you think he's gone mad, but living mechs are truly special."

It was quite helpful for Ves to explain the essence of his work and how it affected the interfacing experience to the mech pilot in advance.

Previously, Ves only met up with his mech pilot after he designed his mech. The highly compressed timetable hardly left any time for him to explain the qualities of a living mech to Gregory Haloscar before the pilot had to fight his first match.

Although Gregory eventually managed to get into tune with the Pontifical Lance and its design spirit, that was only after he lost one match and barely managed to overcome the last and most difficult opponent in the High Tide Tournament.

With all of that hardship in mind, Ves was determined to lower the learning curve and prep Lyain Kepper as much as possible!

It was extremely helpful for Lyain to witness the process of designing his swordsman mech from the ground up. Already he had built up a good idea of what he was about to pilot in a couple of days.

Hopefully, all of this exposure would make Lyain so prepared that he would immediately be able to leverage most of the qualities of his swordsman mech at the start of his first match!

Ves cared a lot about his mech pilot starting off on a stronger footing this time because there was no safety cushion in the fighting phase.

If Lyain Kepper failed to win his first match due to lack of adaptation, then Team Larkinson would immediately have to say goodbye to their tournament run!

"We can't lose the first match like I did in the last tournament." Ves insisted. "This time, we can do better!"

He was already confident that the other mech designer teams were trying to accommodate their chosen mech pilots in their own ways. It would be stupid for him to ignore this factor.

At the same time he was trying to deepen the man-machine relationship between Lyain and his swordsman mech, Ves also worked towards leveraging a design spirit in his work.

He didn't intend to rely on Ylvaine this time. Prediction and forewarning were less useful in intensive melee matches. Even if the mech pilot received a hint, the pace of a fight was so fast that a mech was too slow to make the right response!

When Ves considered the other design spirits at his disposal, he lamented once again that his collection was not diverse enough. He lacked a strong offensive choice that was fit to be paired with his upcoming swordsman mech.

Zeigra would have been a great choice if Ketis did not insist in designing a mech that also emphasized control. She wanted Mr. Kepper to be in full control over the mech at all times. This was the key to performing deliberate sword moves and techniques.

It was a lot harder for a mech pilot to channel powerful sword moves when he was impaired!

If Mr. Kepper was a more emotional and enthusiastic mech pilot, then it might be more viable for Ves to employ Zeigra.

The mech pilot's rookie days were long past, though. He had already reached an age where he had to think more about having kids and accepting an easier assignment.

While Ves was able to sense that Lyain Kepper still managed to maintain his fire, the mech pilot probably relied more on brain rather than brawn in order to defeat his opponents.

This considerably limited the design spirits that Ves could call upon. There were too many viable choices even after Ves ruled out the usual suspects such as the Superior Mother.

"Damn, I really need to expand my collection when I get back to my ship." He muttered under his breath.

He already collected three impressive spiritual fragments from a number of masterwork mechs. He had refrained from creating any new design spirits because he didn't want to work on something so sensitive in one of the strongholds of the Big Two.

Ketis already had an opinion about this matter.

"Go for Bravo."

"What?"

"You heard me." She said. "I know you don't like Bravo very much, but he is truly what Lyain needs."

"But…"

"It doesn't matter if Bravo isn't as strong. In fact, I prefer it that way. A swordsman mech pilot like Mr. Kepper shouldn't rely too much on external assistance. He must achieve victory in the arena by relying on his mech and his skills. Everything else shouldn't get in the way of that. Bravo is just right in that aspect."

Ves still found it difficult to accept her proposal. "Bravo doesn't have a lot of extra qualities compared to some of the alternatives. The glow of the mech won't do much aside from giving Lyain a shot of manly courage."

"That's already sufficient. Don't forget that I am contributing to the mech as well. I'll give Lyain plenty to think about when my work takes effect.

In the end, he followed her lead. Bravo might not be a powerful or versatile design spirit, but he was good morale and confidence booster to certain mech pilots.

Lyain Kepper was a lot different from Vincent Ricklin, though. Ves was afraid that Bravo's exaggerated persona might rub the mech pilot the wrong way.

He had a potential solution for that, though. He quickly stopped by the superfab in order to fabricate a rudimentary statuette based on Bravo.

"What's this, sir?"

"This is a representation of what you might encounter in your mech. I suggest you familiarize yourself and find a way to get along with it. The more comfortable you are in its presence, the more you'll be able to sync with your upcoming mech."

The mech pilot didn't fully understand what Ves was talking about, but he did what he was told.

Lyain slowly attempted to build up a rapport with Bravo through the little totem. Even if his progress was slow and halting, he still had several days to develop a more intimate relationship with the design spirit.

The more Lyain became comfortable with the statuette, the more Ves began to accept Ketis' judgment.

While the mech pilot did not need any help when it came to enhancing his masculinity, Bravo was able to stimulate his competitive drive!

Not only did Lyain become more eager than ever to win the upcoming matches, he also rekindled his love for swordsmanship. He spontaneously pulled out his chainsword and began to practice his moves again.

Ves found out that he was wrong about Bravo. There was more to the masculine design spirit than he thought. Just because Vincent was its greatest influence didn't mean that the entity was just as useless!

He even became more eager to align his mech design with Bravo! Perhaps he might be able to deliver a surprising result!