Chapter 4: Meeting the Professor

The map finished spawning, and the controls unlocked. The map was pretty standard as Arena maps went, a cluster of buildings made what appeared to be a derelict town in the center, with large forests around the clear space of the town.

Adrian took a couple seconds to study the randomly generated map. First order of business was identifying entrances and exits that would let the WarMaster move quickly through the woods. That wasn’t his only goal. The system had not created any large bodies of water, which made his Hellspawn rounds a better investment.

Landmarks, points of interest, and elevation changes were all visible on the giant map projected across his screen. Together, they formed the chessboard where battles were fought.

Only when his study was complete did he minimize the map to one corner of his screen and check his mech’s readouts to find out what he was facing. He had judged his opponent correctly. Again.

Good.

BiggxBee was piloting a Solar Flare class WarMAC, a chassis bordering on the Assault Weight Class, the frame bristling with energy weapon barrels protruding from armored ports.

It was able to output a frightening barrage of lasers. The light show it generated whenever it fired them all had earned it the somewhat disparaging nickname, “the Shiny Disco Ball.”

Adrian guided his WarMAC forward at a measured pace, soon entering the first line of the trees that made up the battle’s biosphere. He made sure not to bump into ones that might do anything more than scratch the digital paint on his WarMAC. He figured that even if all his plans worked, the WarMaster would have more honorable scars to join the legion it had earned in its existence by the end of the fight. He preferred that he not have to point to a scar and say. “This was created by a 60-foot-tall tree I didn’t see until it was too late.”

BiggxBee wasted no time trying to force the fight onto his terms as he pushed his machine to just short of maximum speed. Adrian only wished Bigg were a little more reckless. At full speed, the jostling impacts of a WarMAC’s ungainly stride would make it impossible for its electronics to maintain a steady weapons lock. Apparently, Bigg wasn’t completely lost to strategy.

He’d settle for almost reckless.

As Bigg reached the center of the clearing and made his way through the town, taking the expedient route of running through the dilapidated structures rather than around them, heedless of the destruction underneath his feet. Adrian found his hands on the controls twitch once and settled into stillness.

He moved through three actions with metronomic precision.

First, he raised his right arm and fired his laser. The glancing hit scored a shallow groove across the Solar Flare’s center armor.

Then, after waiting just long enough for the weapon to complete its firing cycle, he launched a full light of missiles. Firing them any sooner risked the laser’s interference disrupting their targeting systems

As it was, most of them went wide, as the guidance systems were unable to achieve full lock on the running target, but enough hit that splashes of crimson fire lit up both shoulders of the Solar Flare as the gel ignited.