“Behind!” Daiko called over Cenn’s coms as a meck barreled toward her while grappling with another opponent. Her reaction was swift.

  Instead of checking her rear feeds, Cenn grabbed the meck’s arm in front of her and twisted, hauling it broadside just as the second meck plowed through the space she’d vacated, dispersing shrapnel like confetti. She raised her other hand to shield herself and found three-quarters of her opponent’s arm still clutched in her grip. A laugh echoed into Hitori’s feed

  “And just like that, The Primera loses its first full team. Better luck next year, Napeskein. I’m sure your sponsors will stick around.”

  The replay showed Cenn’s narrow escape, followed by a streak of burnt orange obliterating Napeskein’s clash meck in a single blow.

  “That’s Team Volken’s third KO!”

  Mina eyed the replay, “You know, I think Volken might’ve been aiming for us.”

  Cenn hurled the dismembered arm at Volken as the two mecks maneuvered around each other, mindful to not engage lest they had a clear shot and could avoid getting blindsided or drawn into the brawl growing around them.

  Mina slid a map of the maze onto Daiko’s display.

  “They’re altering routes, closing exits, funneling the remaining clash mecks into a handful of kill boxes like this one.”

  Daiko nodded, “makes sense.”

  “Does it?”

  “Sure,” Daiko said, “think of the ratings.

  It was the third time Volken and Westwood Motors had met in a clash scenario this season. They’d split their encounters, and Cenn hated ties as much as Daiko did. It was inevitable that they’d find each other once again.

  The mass of mecks churned. Those along the inside spun like coins in a washing machine, while those on the outer edge struck with merciless precision at those trying to escape.

  Mina hissed and Daiko snapped back to Erin’s feed, where his meck wobbled before finding his feet, having narrowly dodged an oncoming clash meck.

  Daiko’s holo dinged as Erin collected his sixtieth lap point. With Cenn pinned in a chamber where KO adjudication was hardly reliable, she couldn’t score the points they would need to stay in the hunt; and with Erin unprotected, his chances of making it through the arena lessened with each lap as other clash mecks began to pour in from other outlets around the maze.

  “Screw it,” Cenn said suddenly.

  Daiko returned his attention to her feed, where she was approached Volken, who was engaged with an aqua colored meck. Cenn approached aqua from behind, and slipped her hands underneath its shoulders. As she leaned back, its legs kicked feebly trying to knock her off balance and keep Volken at bay. It didn’t work, Volken lunged and crushed the aqua meck’s joints at the hips. That done, Cenn discarded the meck before the rest of the field could jump them.

  Volken began to skate away, and Cenn met them stride for stride, waving her arms in the air. Volken tested her, and she backed off, but maintained speed. With Volken’s attention, Cenn banged her meck’s fist against her chest and Volken seemed to hesitate. Cenn did it again, then pointed at the exit.

  “Come on,” she said, “get the message.”

  Mina leaned over Daiko’s shoulder to get a better view of Cenn’s cockpit feed. External PAs and inter-team coms may be banned but that didn’t mean teams couldn’t communicate.

  Finally, Volken returned the gesture. After a surprising curse from Mina, the orange meck turned his back on Cenn and began circling the metal mosh pit. On the feed, Cenn’s grin widened as she tore after him.

  “My man.”

  Volken ducked a haymaker from a passing purple meck. It turned to pursue, but Cenn swept by, striking the back of its knee before it could take another step. If she’d been alone, she would’ve tried to finish it but instead, she stuck close to Volken, matching his brutal pace through the chamber.

  Volken angled them toward an escape route and right into view of a silver meck. It lunged at them, but Cenn made a good read and accelerated ahead, parrying the strike. Before the silver meck could think to counter, Takashi speared it from the side. Instead of going down to the ground, Volken lifted it high. As before, Cenn seized the opportunity and crushed its essential joints. They were moving toward the exit a moment later.

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  “I forget she can still surprise me,” Mina was likely more shocked Cenn thought of the tactic than by how well it worked.

  Whatever praise might’ve followed was cut short as Cenn was smashed between two mecks. A flash of red bloomed on her status rendering, right over her already weakened pauldron.

  “Pauldron, 15% capacity!” Val called over coms. “Her arm’s about to come off.” Val’s warning came through Daiko's direct line with the pit, but Cenn responded to the alert in her cockpit as well.

  “I got it,” she growled, trying to use her good arm to create space but the other mecks didn’t let her go, even as they were attacked from behind.

  “She’s getting dragged back in,” Minai muttered.

  From the bird’s-eye feed, Daiko could see the three mecks spiraling toward the center of the brawl where the destruction was thickest. He also saw Volken turn quick and dive back into the fray, he flipped open the coms.

  “Hang in there.”

  “I’m trying... Whoa!”

  Volken streaked behind the tightening knot of mecks, grabbing Cenn’s chassis at full speed. She was ripped free and the two of them spun haphazardly toward the exit. The doorway stood like a final sentinel—barely wide enough for one meck at a time, it was the final choke point few had breached.

  As they closed in, Mina sucked in a breath and turned away. Daiko was at the edge of his seat, locked in on Cenn’s forward-facing feed. At the last second, she wrestled control over Volken and drove them both into a dive, twisting in midair so they stacked atop each other and through with barely a scratch.

  They tumbled into the arena just as the dash mecks crossed the lap line. Cenn and Volken leapt to their feet at once, staring at one another, wondering if their truce had ended with their emancipation from the chamber.

  The tension broke as sparks flared from Cenn’s ruined shoulder. She held her defensive position without flinching despite the damage.

  “Get her out of there,” Mina started.

  “Just wait…”

  Volken reeled his fist back, and after a brief pause, banged it on his chest before shooting across the arena to find new prey. Mina exhaled audibly while Cenn went the opposite way, not waiting to cache her luck. Already other clash mecks were making it out of the maze. Soon the arena would be a killing field.

  “An unlikely team up keeps Westwood Motors alive!”

  The Regia press box appeared on the stadium holo, where the Imperio and Imperia sat stoic as ever. Daiko wondered if there was a shade of irritation on their faces to see Volken and Daiko’s team survive.

  Volken was composed of people from the Nordic Union, and Daiko—along with Mina—shared Nippon ancestry. Both Asparian provinces now but were once sovereign countries of their own, before Asparia’s Ascendency.

  “That was lucky,” Mina said, “how’d you know Volken wasn’t going to attack her?”

  “Just a hunch,” He flipped the coms, “Val, talk to me.”

  “We’re getting backfeed. As is, Snake can’t isolate it remotely.”

  “Copy. Link with Cenn, walk her through severance and diagnostics. Do it now.”

  Daiko switched to the pit PA. Below, he spotted Arthur hanging out of the portholes on the second floor.

  “Arthur, Roman, show’s still going. We’ll need the whole arm staged up to—” Mina slid a display onto Daiko’s holo, “E4 to E7. Register?”

  Arthur hobbled into the pit’s center so Daiko could see him, he left his crutch against the wall and nearly tripped in his excitement to respond.. He shouted something upward, but the stadium’s roar swallowed it. Roman’s voice materialized over the com.

  “It’ll be ready.”

  Daiko spotted the team’s forger near the wall on the first floor. It looked like he had a skiff already loaded with parts. Some days that martian is worth ten Dearthlings.

  Back on his screen, Daiko turned up Cenn’s cockpit feed as she replied back to Val.

  “Couplets locked. Confirm.”

  Down below, Val leaned over Snake’s shoulder as his fingers flew across the keys. He nodded, and Val relayed to Cenn.

  “You’re clear, all it needs is a soft tug—”

  Cenn gripped the dead arm by the bicep and tore it free like a weed from the dirt.

  The meter on Daiko’s holo flicked from yellow to green as the meck’s circulatory system stabilized. That done, he checked Erin’s track position before opening the coms to the full team.

  “Looks like we’ve all made it, people. I thought now would be a good time to remind you how badly the Primera Council tried to strip our invite from us. The invite we earned.

  “After our man-eating solicitor intimidated the APC into backing down, they likely thought an amateur team like us wouldn’t actually give their legacy teams any issues…big mistake.”

  There was chatter on the team chat where Joyce and Mark—their solicitor and the team’s owner, respectively—provided a string of emojis in solidarity.

  “Reminds me of a saying from back in the day: If you can’t be easy to love, then be hard to kill. And boy do they want to kill us now.”

  He expanded the immersion sync display to hoots and hollering.

  “This is where we test the P.I.S.”

  “The piss!” Cenn yelled.

  “The freaking piss!” Val roared up from the pit.

  Daiko traded an amused glance with Mina before continuing.

  “We’re running the script now. Erin, Cenn, register?”

  The whole crew chimed in—even Arthur, who’d found a com terminal down below. Roman could be heard calling him back to work in the background.

  “Copy that, everyone. Now let’s get to work.”

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