With that, the first instructor in a standard grade light blue mecha dived down from the sky where all fifty of them who would be participating were gathered.
"What the hell?? I am starting to get extremely pissed!"
"Yes! This isn't fair! We are being bullied! My mommy will hear of this!"
"Damn right! Just so you know, my aunty works for the Ministry of Defense!"
"This is bad! Even the instructors are joi-"
"Shut up and get to defensive formation!" Sherry Lin shouted loudly.
"Justin and Sherry, kill that mecha within one minute. The rest of you, fifty men circle formation. Rifles inside, melee outside!" Sheera Lin ordered calmly. "Aim for the instructors, fire only when you are confident, fire at will."
"Back up hit squad, Victor Long and Hailey Long. Wang twins. Tes and Olivia. On me, and get ready to move on my command. Two flags on me, the other four to be held by Roland, Barrick, John and Gerald." Sheera Lin continued giving orders even as Sherry and I started to attack the heavy mecha.
My big bro was not pulling his punches in today's lesson at all. I mean, yes he did stagger the participation of the instructors into fifty one minute intervals.
But that's hardly being generous.
Those instructors were in standard battle grade blue mechas!
And if he wasn't pulling his punches, then neither would I.
With a ferocious roar, I charged in and swung my massive scythe towards the light mecha!
But the instructors weren't dumb.
They knew that the we are all depending on me and Sherry to quickly defeat them, so that first light mecha was completely geared to waste my time!
Vroo!!!
Its heavy thrusters exploded to life and flung the light mecha away at high speed!
But by that time, I had finally devoured all of Deathscythe and replicated it without anybody noticing.
I had come into contact with the strange Dark Energy based material that ran through its mecha core, and had mastered the unique skill it provided.
"Hmph. I bet you didn't think I would be able to master Deathscythe's signature skills so quickly. Well my high profile big bro, I will show you just what I am truly capable of. Dark Requiem - Zombie Hands!"
Within a kilometer radius around me, the ground turned slightly darker in color and then near invisible dark energy shot out from the ground where the light mecha was and grabbed hold of it!
Crash!!
The light mecha hit the ground heavily and immediately sustained heavy damage.
Not one to dally, Sheera Lin ordered the nearest mechas in their circle formation to open fire.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
And just like that, the first instructor fell.
"ALL HAIL JUSTIN! ALL HAIL SHERRY! BANE OF INSTRUCTORS! HORAAAAHHH!!" A high pitched hyper excited voice which I was almost a hundred percent sure was Roland Hu rang out from the distance and triggered a massive cheer to rise from the first graders.
"HOORAAAAAHHH!!! THE INSTRUCTORS AINT SHIT! THE INSTRUCTORS AINT SHIT!!! WE RULE! WE RULE!!" A particularly excited boy got carried away and shouted extremely loudly.
I could already imagine the faces of some of the instructors at that moment.
The instructors of the National Mecha Pilot Academy were all ferocious fighters and prestigious researchers who were leaders in their fields.
Being insulted by first graders who still wet their beds sometimes at night probably made even the most stoic hearted of them all burn slightly with zeal.
Zeal to completely destroy us, that is.
Zeal to teach us a good, good lesson that would put the fear of God in our hearts.
But to do that, they needed to take me down first, the shameless, cheating first grade version of their own leader Bruce Pang.
And as if choreographed, all remaining forty nine pairs of eyes swiveled towards me in unison, and stared daggers at me.
"Oh great. Just great." I muttered as I readied myself to greet the second instructor. "As if they weren't strong enough already. Now they will just be royally pissed off and bloodthirsty instead of just being their usual fatally competent selves."
Very soon, the second instructor dived down from the airborne group.
It was a medium mecha wielding a massive overlord spear that I found extremely familiar.
"I know that spear. I've seen an instructor wie- oh shit. That's Black Kong!" I gasped in slight horror.
Very slight, of course. I was in Deathscythe which was already a peak white mecha prior to my power enhancement.
"What do I have to fear from a mere blue mecha?" I grinned to myself and prepared to attack using my scythe.
However, a split second before Black Kong reached my position, I realized that the resonance which his mecha was giving off was definitely not a blue mecha's!
Black Kong was in a white mecha!
And not just any white mecha, it was a peak white mecha!!
"What the hell????" I shouted in real horror as Black Kong's ridiculously massive overlord spear smashed down towards me in even more ridiculous speed.
BANG!!
I did not manage to position my scythe in a proper parrying position. But it was fine, because I was an overpowered shameless bastard.
The overlord spear recoiled from my poorly positioned scythe like a bouncing ball.
"Ha! You think you're shameless? I am the king of shameless bas-"
Bang!!!
Before I could finish my taunt, Black Kong had utilized the momentum generated from his massive recoil to swing his spear and smash it accurately on my left knee!!
It was a ferocious strike that pushed me to utilize the full power of my triple peak white mecha grade Deathscythe just to remain on my feet!
Bang!!!
While I was busy focusing on maintaining my balance, Black Kong smashed his armored head onto my chest, causing me to finally lose my balance and start to fall backwards!
Bang!!
Black Kong whirled his overlord spear and smashed in on my chest powerfully, to accelerate my fall to the ground!
BAM!!!
I fell bodily to the ground in a situation that reminded me a lot of my recent experience fighting with Sherry Lin in the Grand Melee.
However, very much unlike the situation in the Grand Melee, I was under no compulsion to limit my power. Plus, I also had Deathscythe's ultra powerful Dark Requiem - Zombie Hands.
So I did exactly that and allowed my power to spike all the way up to a golden mecha's! And at the same time, I unleashed Dark Requiem - Zombie Hands on Black Kong to stop his ferocious attacks on me.
However, to my surprise...
Crackkk!!!
The Zombie Hands I unleashed on Black Kong actually cracked and broke into pieces!
"This Black Kong's mecha is no ordinary mecha! Is he part of the Blood Moon? But I do not remember seeing this particular mecha in the Blood Moon hangar." I thought to myself.
Black Kong was barely slowed for a split second by the Zombie Hands!
Bam! Bam! Bam!
His flurry of attacks continued to rain down on me.
But I was completely unflustered.
At my level, I was able to ignore such low power attacks.
I brushed his spear strikes aside and slowly stood up. Like a God of Death, I gripped my Scythe lightly in my right hand and then casually swung it towards Black Kong.
Whoosh.
Black Kong leapt back an avoided my sledgehammer of an attack easily.
I was slightly overly cautious with my attack. Being a golden mecha, killing Black Kong was as easy as killing an ant. And unlike Quesera who had a supremely powerful flight system which allowed her to fully avoid every single one of my attack while accurately launching hundreds of her own, Black Kong's peak medium mecha was a normal peak white mecha.
I was both faster and stronger than Black Kong.
But who was Black Kong? He was one of the strongest fighters in the Federation! It was not his style to receive pity nor special consideration fron first graders, no matter how stellar they were!
"You are too soft hearted, kid." Black Kong's voice came from his mecha. "If you have an advantage, use it to the full. Stop being a wuss and attack me properly!"
I was not a wuss, of course. And after receiving such a warm invitation, I went from a casual ten percent exertion to a hundred percent in an instant.
Slice! Slice! Slice!
I whirled my scythe and aimed to slice off Black Kong's limbs!
But he was still slightly too fast and too cunning for me.
The easiest attack to dodge and counter was the one you knew coming.
He dodged my attack by the barest of margins and unleashed a ferocious counter attack on me!
Wham!!
His overlord spear smashed onto my head with all of his tremedous power!
But alas, his strongest attack barely made a scratch on my head! I was much, much too strong for him!
Bam!!!
I continued to act on his advice and smashed my left fist into his belly where it promtply disintegrated under my savage attack.
His peak white mecha crumpled down to the ground just as my comms burst into life.
"GOD DAMN IT JUSTIN! DO YOU THINK WE HAVE INFINITE RESOURCES? BE GENTLE WITH THOSE PEAK WHITE MECHAS!! YOU BASTARD!! BRUCE FREAKING PANG! ABORT THIS FARCE AT ONCE!! EITHER SEND THE WHOLE BLOOD MOON AGAINST HIM OR ABORT! DAMN IT! WE HAVE A WAR TO PREPARE!!" Came the Old Ancestor's furious voice.
A second later, Bruce Pang's voice came through the comms as well.
"Blood Moon. You heard the old man. Get your asses down there and give that little boy a spanking."