The Undying Mecha Emperor

"Begin!" Grand Elder Shella's voice sounded loudly across the entire arena.

As soon as the words left her mouth, the entire arena rumbled into life like a horrifying giant colossus coming to life.

Raaaaaawwmmmm!!!!

Vrrrrrrmmmmmmmm!!!!

Shreeeeeeeeeeekkkkk!!!

All sorts of mecha engines and weapons growled and shrieked and wailed their way to life. Some light mechas had immediately fired their flight boosters and started to rise to the sky.

Others diverted power to their feet to begin dashing away to safety or dashing forward to attack others while they were still not ready.

And still others immediately powered up their rifles to strive for first blood.

If you've never heard the sound of thousands of mecha powering up together and the collective roar of a few hundred thousand spectators, then you'll never understand the thick, roiling fire that coursed through my veins.

Pure exhilaration!!

It was a soul-stirring moment for me.

BA-DUMP!

BA-DUMP!

BA-DUMP!

My heart pounded with extreme excitement and my red energy began to stir powerfully within me.

Very slowly but also undeniably surely, the red energy began to duplicate itself and move towards filling my entire body with it.

Whatever the ending of the Grand Melee, the gains I had just from participating in it were already mind-blowingly rich!

After the Grand Melee, my ability to break down white mechas and absorb them would have definitely increased by a huge margin.

At first, the only sounds that could be heard were the mechas powering up. But very, very quickly, the first blow landed.

BAM!!

And like the explosion of a dam holding back the largest river you could imagine, the entire arena erupted in sounds of messy, chaotic battle!

Four thousand mechas had began their wild Grand Melee!!

The roar from the spectators intensified and rose to a fever pitch as the first casualties began to appear!

"And here we go! The first mecha casualty had already appeared!" An excited voice boomed loudly. "Ah yes, let me introduce myself. I am Elder Galtro and I will be your MC for today!"

It was incredible. Just a few seconds in and a mecha had already received critical damage!

However, the happenings of the rest of the massive arena seemed like a world away.

For me, the battle that took all of my attention was much smaller in scale.

Twenty something mechas piloted by angry little kids.

These little kids were the type that you definitely wouldn't want to cross. They were extremely low-profile, considering that they didn't cause a single ripple in the entrance tests.

But judging from how obedient they were to their leader as well as how powerful they were physically, they were definitely very well trained and well invested in.

My first mecha fight in the Grand Melee would be a 25 versus 1 fight.

Not the best situation for me, but I've been through worse.

Much, much worse.

"Haiyaaa!!" Four heavy mechas armed with heavy melee weapons stomped out of the group to surround me from all four directions.

Six light mechas had taken to the skies and ten medium mechas had their rifles trained at me and were all awaiting instructions to fire.

"Attack." A calm voice sounded from one medium mecha armed with a massive greatsword said. It was the leader that had appeared earlier.

B-b-b-b-b-b-boooom!!! The light and medium mechas fired at me together and the heavy mechas stepped in to finish the job cleanly.

Pew! Pew! Crash! Crash! Crash!! I was literally drowning in powerful long and medium range attacks.

But I had reinforced my mecha with high grade white mecha armor and although the impact of their attacks made me lose my balance a little bit, I was absolutely unharmed.

What a joke.

Battle grade white mecha armor against ten light and medium rifles?

Still, I had to commend that Golden Bear Squad. Their heavy mechas still advanced in perfect precision to unleash powerful sword slashes and thrusts.

Against any other heavy mecha, their attacks were completely overdoing it, but they still did it seriously anyway.

For well trained soldiers, it was never about what their orders were, but always about how well they obeyed them.

And these kids showed incredible training. It was extremely impressive.

"Who are these kids?" I thought while feeling suitably impressed.

I ignored the heavy strikes from my sides and my back, and stepped forward to attack the first heavy mecha that appeared before me. His greatsword was raised high in a flamboyant overhead swing that would definitely inflict heavy damage if he managed to land the attack… on a regular heavy mecha.

Against me, his attack would have dealt close to no damage. But still, it wasn't good for my training if I merely bulled my way through the Grand Melee, so I sidestepped his powerful slash and rapidly flicked my spear forward to strike its head.

Crash!!

My powerful spear thrust completely smashed its head and the heavy mecha powered down instantly. The mecha turned black as its reactive armor activated to protect the cockpit and the pilot.

I reversed my spear thurst and sent its rounded rear smashing into the head of the mecha that was trying to attack me from the back!

Crash!

It turned black and powered down instantly.

I drew back my spear and swung it towards the third heavy mecha.

BAM!!!

My spear smashed into his shield and sent him flying back a few meters!!

I had infused my mecha's engine with a tiny bit of white mecha core energy and had tripled its power output which resulted in the ridiculous scene of a heavy mecha flying away with but a single swing of my spear.

"Waterfall Formation." The leader's voice rang out clearly and calmly.

Immediately, the mechas reacted and began to regroup.

The remaining heavy mecha began to retreat towards his buddies.

"I'll be damned if I let you join your buddies." I chuckled loudly and started to charge at him.

"I am your enemy." A girl's voice rang out from behind me as my instincts started to tingle lightly.

I whirled around and raised an arm by reflex to parry what I imagined would be a wild overhead swing like the mecha earlier.

But I had vastly underestimated my enemy.

She wasn't intending to attack me at all.

Crash!!!

Her massive mecha crashed into me and sent both of us tumbling down to the ground!

"Initiate Waterfall." The leader's voice rang out again.

Holy smokes.

What a ruthless strategy!