Chapter 17 Unforgiving Instructor

A common, and sometimes fatal misconception about white mechas is that because they are so supremely massive, they had to be slow as well. Much like how elephants are huge and slow creatures, lumbering everywhere in a stately fashion, arriving fashionably late to every elephant appointment in the elephant world.

The white mecha was not only fast in the sense that it had an insanely high top speed, it was also insanely explosive. It's acceleration from zero to a hundred kilometers per hour was below half a second.

Half a bloody second!

Many first time opponents of the white mecha, if they had not studied it beforehand or had never really believed the rumours of how powerful and deceptively quick the white mecha was, would usually be left confused or stunned by the white mecha's disappearing act.

One moment it was there, and the next moment it was gone. They would stare at the spot where the white mecha was in disbelief. And then they would be drawn by the sonic boom, and their heads would slowly swivel and THEN they would believe.

Fervently so, with a religious fervor that rivals the most devout follower of God.

Finally.

Most would die in the act of conversion, however, for the white mecha was an unforgiving instructor. Deadly quick to find fault, deadly quick to reprove, and altogether merciless in its correction.

In the same way, if it wasn't for my powerful red mecha core, my name would have been an inglorious addition to the list of zealots who died mid-conversion by a white mecha's heavy hand.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!

The four energy beams which I had fired off earlier struck the white mecha with surprising power.

It was probable that the white mecha swayed backwards a few inches. Probable.

But in any case, the surprising power my four red energy beams exhibited was a moot point. The white mecha was so superlatively powerful that it took the much stronger than expected blow in stride as if it was another insignificant blue mecha's attack.

BOOM! It disappeared from my sight like magic and before I could even frown in confusion, my enhanced senses began screaming out DANGER!

I instantly released all the red mecha energy that was lurking within me and burst forward with all my strength.

BOOM!!!

A massive crater appeared in the spot where I was mere milliseconds ago.

"DAMN IT!" I shouted half in panic, half in frustration, half in shock and half in anger. That's two, I know, but my emotions were truly overflowing at that moment.

I was elated at the fact that I had become vastly stronger than before after undergoing that hellish, excruciating pain, and was anticipating reaping the benefits of such an agonizing experience. Surely after going through all that, dealing with the white mecha would be a piece of cake, right?

Wrong!

And the fact that I was wrong, and that it would not be as easy as I thought it would be, caused me to feel frustrated. Disappointed too.

Plus I wasn't expecting the white mecha to be THAT fast, and for its attack to hit me THAT suddenly.

And of course add to the emotional soup a few large portions of panic due to the fact that if I take one wrong step, I could very well die in that place, and voila. You have my emotional state at that moment.

Half panic, half frustration, half shock and half anger.

And right there, ladies and gentlemen, is the key to all of my success.

The red mecha core's main trigger is my emotion.

Back in the helicopter wreckage, the excitement that I felt at sensing that the mecha core was within me triggered the painful experience that led it to fuse with my body.

A few minutes prior, my overwhelming anger at the Red Dragon gang caused the red energy to absorb the blue mecha cores and evolve once more.

And then of course, you have that emotional soup that I was in at that moment.

The red energy within me was stimulated very powerfully and I could sense it go into overdrive within me. An impossibly powerful surge of energy filled my body.

"GAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" I let out a powerful animalistic roar to vent a little bit of the power that was filling me to the very brim.

WIIIIIIII!!!!!!

All of a sudden, every single thing seemed to slow down in my perspective, and at the same time, everything came into startling focus and clarity.

My vision sharpened and my hearing became extremely acute. I turned my head around to look for the white mecha, and I quickly found it.

Among everything else in the area, only it was moving at normal speed.

And at normal speed, the white mecha was just another big, fat, juice slab of meat for me.

I remember that vicious exchange with the white mecha vividly.

I was still out of range for absorption, and I knew that I needed to close the distance. But for some reason, the white mecha refused to let me close.

I remember dashing forward toward the white mecha with my newfound strength.

BOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!

My feet stomped down upon the ground so powerfully and so rapidly that it sounded like one prolonged BOOM instead of multiple BOOMS.

But the white mecha moved backwards with equal speed and maintained the distance between us, firing its massive arsenal of weapons at me all the way. Energy beams, missiles, machine gun fire, and all sorts of projectiles blanketed the area between the white mecha and me.

PEW!! PEWWW!! PEWWWW!! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

I dodged, and ducked, and weaved through the firestorm released by the white mecha with amazing agility. Sharp energy beams that had the power to pierce through blue mechas like hot iron through butter missed me by the smallest of margins. And even so, somehow I knew the margins were enough.

My senses were well and truly in overdrive. To me, the barrage was nothing.

But for the rest of the fighters in that battlefield, it was a fearsome, fearsome scene.

Every single soldier caught in our crossfire probably disintegrated on the spot. The rest quickly scampered away and maintained their distance from the white mecha and the strange red-black mecha which was strangely pursuing the white mecha instead of the other way around.

In a way, I understood why Amelia Dragonos chose to maintain her distance between us that day. It was the only thing she could do.

Amelia Dragonos was a pretty good mecha pilot. She is awesome now, but back then, she was only pretty good. And she probably did not have much experience piloting a white mecha.