She disengaged the air gun from the grappler and turned as the blades thrust toward them and stopped barely a couple of centimeters away from the cockpit.
Only a little closer, and the vibroblades the mech carried would have cut into her suit like a hot knife through a protein patty, and her along with it.
"Not bad," Windchime said. "You displayed quick reactions and good instincts. The only problem I see is that you still choose to fight rather than run."
"Sorry," Jessica13 said. "It's kind of an instinct. Simply running away without making an attempt to deal even a little damage doesn't feel natural."
"Well, I hope that changes before you're engaged in an actual fight again," he said and turned the blades off.
Their humming—from which his nickname was derived—ceased immediately as the hands sheathed the blades behind his mech. The second pair of arms quickly did the same with the assault rifles.
She still wasn't sure how he'd managed to do it. While the Balthazars’ reputation was that they could be adapted to fit the parts of virtually any mech ever made, this had taken it to a whole new level. He had managed to connect the arms and swords from a couple of Difur Design Lab Predator V2s to the back and, perhaps most impressively, had written the code for the AI that operated his mech to take control of them whenever he was in combat.
Of course, it immediately made her curious as to how he had managed that. Most AIs were only designed to operate four limbs and adding a new one made the process that much more complicated, much less two.
The man had steadfastly preserved his secrets, though. He wasn't a new arrival to the Knights Mechanica, and the combat abilities of the hybrid mech he'd created were legendary to the point where they almost rivaled Hammerhand's.
With six limbs, the damn mech resembled an insect and sent an uncomfortable shiver down her spine every time she looked at it.
Still, it looked like most of the others in that it was painted green, although the color had chipped here and there. The closer she got, the more she realized that he had adapted the paint to blend with his surroundings a little better. The coating had a sticky quality to it that made the dust adhere more than normal to tint it to match the area he stood in.
Instead of banners over his pauldrons, he wore his like a cape hanging down his back, which served to hide the extra weapons and arms when they weren’t in use. Although ragged and almost falling apart, it added to the camouflage. The flutter of fabric could be mistaken for vegetation moving in the wind.
"You need to keep your eyes open all around you," Windchime continued, pulled himself free of the cockpit, and climbed to the shoulder of his mech and tugged a couple of tools out. "Not only above the ground but below it too. Many pirates who use Balthazars like to bury themselves and use the rockets to launch out and surprise unwary travelers. You can usually locate one if you see a conical indentation in the ground."
"And if I see one?"
"In your case, don't engage," he said quickly. "Even if you manage to get in close enough to use that grappler of yours, you'll still be picked off by the assault rifles. You might want to think about adding weapons to that Minato of yours, though. Maybe put a couple of guns on the back that can be operated while you still run on all fours."
"That is not a terrible idea," Mini admitted. "Although some kind of arrangement would need to be made if you wish to use the mag clamps for conventional purposes."
It was certainly not a bad idea and would give her a way to fight back while they ran away, but as Windchime had said, her focus needed to be on the running. The Minato was unique in many ways, but she wouldn’t be able to stand her ground against a combat mech without help.
Especially not the Balthazar-Predator V2 hybrid.
"Are we done with the training for now?" Jessica13 asked as they began to climb the hill again. "Or do you have more lessons to impart to me?"
Windchime looked at her and a deep scowl touched his features as he continued to repair whatever had been jolted free during his landing.
She knew what he would say. He and Hammerhand would never see eye to eye on every issue, but there were many things they agreed on. One of them was also one of Hammerhand's favorite quotes.
"The day we stop learning is the day we die," Windchime said as if on cue, and Jessica13 mouthed the words as he said them. "Whether it's because we stop learning and are killed as a result of the mistake, or because we die and therefore cannot learn anymore. One thing you need to learn more of is to improve your tracking skills. You should have been able to keep your eyes on the tracks I left."
"This soil doesn't keep tracks very well," she pointed out, took a step into the sandy soil of the hill, and lifted her foot only for it to come down and cover her tracks.
"It's still visible," he replied, "and you can see it. With that said, yes, this soil isn't good for much. Even the tough plants that are able to grow in this land are struggling. I doubt it was ever used for anything like farming. Nothing would grow here."
"Would the humans in the past have ever lived in this area?" she asked curiously.
The man shrugged and returned to his work, but Mini began to pull up relevant data from where he had it stored.
"A great many human civilizations were centered in locations with little merit if one only considered the fertility of the soil," he pointed out in his soft, feminine voice which was still
