No matter how strong you are, skill always, always trumps brute strength.
There are no shortage of stories where skillful and experienced old fighters, probably even while dealing with acute back pain, could easily defeat muscular young men who are at the peak of their physical fitness.
It was exactly like that in my fight with Sherry Lin. Even with a smashed up right foot, I was still unable to land a single good hit on her!
Compared to mine, her skill level was like the tallest tree in the world to my cute little three-day-old green bean seedling.
However, very thankfully, her smashed up right foot also gave her just enough handicap to prevent her from tripping me up like before.
And so, our fight was surprisingly even.
Surprising in the sense that I was able to avoid getting knocked off my feet, of course.
It was definitely not surprising in the sense that Sherry Lin could still fight with only one good foot.
Her skill was beyondly godly at that point in time.
"Hey! Seriously, you're wasting time and energy. Let's truce for a bit and do our own stuff!" I yelled at her even as I swung my right arm in a vicious hook that would have sent her flying a few hundred meters if it had connected.
Sherry Lin ignored me completely and dodged my right hook with a super cool movement that left me sighing in jealousy, and launched a useless counter attack that sent her hammer smashing on my head.
WHAM!!
I had leapt back as soon as I felt my attack miss and that momentum backwards helped reduce the impact of her hammer attack on my head.
Not that it mattered.
I would be completely unharmed even if I stood there and took her hit like a wooden log.
But I did so because, although her physical attack had no effect on me, my reputation was about to die a horrible death.
I needed to save it!
I had to.
If I didn't, and the Whitefrost Clan name became a laughing stock because of me, the damned old man might reduce the amount of bacon for my breakfast! Heck, he might even take it out of the menu completely!
And to save it, I had to show a little bit of skill!
But alas, I was too late.
I didn't know it then, but everybody in the crowd and those watching on TV had probably already come to a single clear conclusion about me at that point in time.
Strong, with a secret tech that could strengthen armor, but totally without fighting skills.
Totally as in, totally.
Zero.
WHAMM!
Sherry Lin landed another hit on me as she somehow reversed the movement of her hammer swing and smashed my chest with it.
I finally had enough of the fight.
She wasn't strong enough to defeat me, and I didn't have the physical skills to take her down.
But I did have other skills which could take her down. So I used them.
Shamelessly, yes.
But then again, all is fair in love and war.
As she lunged forward towards me on her good foot, I weakened the structural integrity of a critical component of that foot, caused it to break on the spot!
Her mecha immediately fell to the ground with what must be for her many supporters and fans, a heartbreaking crash.
Crash!!
I was no saint.
I immediately kicked her right shoulder and smashed it to pieces!
The massive damage triggered her damage threshold and her mecha immediately powered down as its reactive armor darkened.
Sherry Lin!
Defeated!!!
A huge roar of indignance and exhilaration erupted from the crowd!!
"What the hell? How the heck did the National Mecha Pilot Academy do its maintenance work on the practice mechas! Why is her mecha leg so bloody weak! Foul play! Foul play I say!"
"Nooooo!! The swan had been defeated by the ugly frog! This can't be! This can't be!"
"I told you, skill cannot overcome brute strength. Watch and learn. My words are never wrong!"
I ignored the crowd completely and eyed the Lin Family mechas who had surged ahead to surround me.
"You guys want to throw away the entire event now that your superstar is "dead"?" I asked them with the most badass voice I could muster. "Come at me then! I will give you all a glorious death!"
"We are here for Sherry." Sheera Lin said quietly. "You've done enough. Let us have her mecha, and let's have that truce you mentioned."
Sheera Lin was just too ridiculous.
Thinking back on that moment, it was startlingly clear to me that she was gambling to make the best out of a bad situation.
Sherry had lost the mecha fight, but Sheera wanted to win the psychological battle by claiming Sherry's "corpse"!
She was risking getting her entire group completely annihilated by me just to get to a psychological victory that would give her group a powerful mental edge.
She wanted to send a clear message to them.
Fight! Fight to the death like Sherry! If you fall, your brothers and sisters will honor you and your sacrifice by making sure we secure your "corpse" and not leave you alone in this vast battlefield!
And we will do so even if it means going up against the devil (me) himself!
Of course I had no idea what she was doing at that time.
And so I naively and grandly (or so I thought at that moment) agreed to her request.
"It was a glorious fight. Take her body and stay away from me. When I meet you next, I will annihilate all of you!" I proclaimed magnanimously and dashed away.
I had absolutely no idea that in the eyes of the audience and the viewers, it looked like I was running away from the group of valiant Lin Family kids who had bravely charged at me to secure their fallen comrade!
I ignorantly went on to continue on my massacre of the many mechas around me.
Very soon, the voice I had been waiting to hear finally sounded in my ear.
"So, top scorer. Let's see how strong you are in a mecha!"
I smiled widely at those words.
It was the Longs.
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