Chapter 727: Juggernaut vs Bastion
A few moments ago, the courtyard of the Mech Division Hangar had been cleared as everyone wanted to see the battle.
Several engineers, guards, and staff were now crowding along the outer walls or watching from the upper gantries.
Word had spread quickly: Captain Garren, the battle-hardened mech pilot of New Genesis Shelter, had challenged the Commander’s authority in open combat.
Only a few, like Chief Rhona, understood the gravity of the situation—not because Garren was a threat, but because he didn’t yet know who he was picking a fight with.
“I wonder how Commander will fare against him…” Rhona muttered. Although Garren wasn’t their Ace Pilot, he was still an incredible close combat specialist.
The crowd was filled with anticipation as Garren stepped into the training field.
Only Shane was unaware that he would actually be dueling someone instead of just training his Mech Piloting Skills.
Nonetheless, Shane immediately accepted the situation and accepted the duel…
The battle quickly began, and as expected, Garren immediately showed his incredible Control Skills, hoping to overwhelm his opponent.
However, Shane remained calm and counterattacked calmly with his turret.
Soon, Garren charged with Kinetic Fist… the gauntlet’s shockwave hissed like compressed thunder.
Shane dodged effortlessly, sliding sideways and responding with a palm strike to Garren’s ribs—light, but it sent a concussive Energy Pulse through the man’s body, staggering him back a step.
Seeing such Skills, from a ‘newbie’pilot, Garren smiled. It was time to get serious…
His Juggernaut surged forward, its heavy frame starting to move faster as Garren gripped the twin control rods inside the cockpit.
“You seem confident,” he muttered. “Let’s see if this greenhorn can take this…”
Twin rotary cannons activated, unleashing a cascade of tracer rounds that lit up the air…
But the Bastion didn’t flinch.
Inside the cockpit, Shane’s eyes flicked calmly across his HUD. He engaged Bulwark Stance. Massive anchors slammed into the arena floor as the Bastion’s core braced itself.
“Deploying Barrier…” Shane whispered as he went into defense once again.
An energy dome shimmered to life in front of him, dispersing the hail of bullets like rain against tempered glass.
He didn’t receive any damage at all.
The twin auto-tracking sentries on Bastion’s pauldrons also locked on, returning fire in controlled, precise bursts.
Garren swerved, raising Juggernaut’s kinetic shield and charging forward behind it.
The two Mech Frames clashed.
A massive impact echoed through the arena as Juggernaut’s shield smashed into Bastion’s barrier.
Everyone felt the shockwave that followed as they excitedly watched the heated battle of machines.
The sheer pressure cracked the ground beneath them.
However, Garren didn’t stop… He activated the pile bunker on Juggernaut’s left arm and thrust.
But Shane anticipated it.
‘Sidestep, 3 degrees east. Parry angle 27—’
“Wait… Cloud, let me handle this…”
Shane immediately said as he realized that Cloud was slowly taking over, or perhaps, guiding him completely on his battle.
Although it was normal to use an AI Assistant in the other Apocalypse, it would be unfair for Garren to do that.
He also wanted to test his Piloting Skills. He didn’t really mind if he lost or not. What was important was to increase his Sync Rate!
Bastion then turned, deflecting the pile bunker’s devastating thrust with its integrated shield plating and responding with a precise elbow strike that sent Juggernaut staggering backward.
Using guns in such a close range could be dangerous to him as well, after all.
Garren grinned as he realized that his opponent was tough. Still, it wasn’t at the level where he would be defeated.
“You’re not half-bad,” he growled, flipping a red switch.
“But let’s see how long you can dance.”
The Juggernaut’s systems flared…
Rampage Mode: Engaged.
Hydraulic limbs overclocked.
The Mech’s movements became more efficient. Garren launched several attacks—hammer punches, bunker thrusts, shoulder charges—each one carrying the force to level a bunker wall.
Bastion Mech braced and took some of the attacks but Shane countered.
Inside his cockpit, Shane focused…
He realized that his opponent was indeed a great pilot. Still, his years of piloting Mech Frames started to come back to him…
As he continued to defend, his readouts warned him of stress points. Their shields cracking, servo joints overheating, but Shane’s Mech wasn’t built for speed anyway… He was built to outlast.
‘Let’s deploy sentry turrets… Full coverage. Engage point-defense…’
Suddenly, sentry guns emerged from his pauldrons, spinning and laying down suppressive fire. Juggernaut started evading—until one burst caught its shoulder joint, forcing a stagger.
Shane then took this chance…
Bastion moved in. It was not fast, but he was unstoppable, like a walking wall of death.
He grabbed Juggernaut’s extended arm, twisted, and slammed it downward into the arena floor.
Garren cursed. One rotary cannon failed to function from feedback damage. But he wasn’t done. Garren still activated the last charge on his pile bunker, aiming directly at Bastion’s cockpit core.
Even if Shane was hit, he wouldn’t die. The cockpit was protected with several enhancements and other Elven Magic. The most it could do was to create some malfunction and force the Mech to shut down and use all its energy to protect the pilot.
However, Shane didn’t let that happen. Similar to Garren’s move, he flipped a switch…
“Override: Root Lock.”
Bastion’s legs slammed deeper into the ground.
The entire Mech Frame braced as the pile bunker hit—and held. The impact cracked armor, dented plating, but it didn’t pierce.
Then Shane countered with a shield bash to Juggernaut’s torso, followed by a sword slash powered by hydraulic boosters.
The blade passed through the air, severing Juggernaut’s weapon arm in a burst of sparks.
The engineers were shocked as they didn’t realize that Shane would really go so far to do this… It was not easy to repair Mechs after all.
Thankfully, Shane had at least cut it cleanly in the part that could be easily replaced.
Anyway, Shane wasn’t worried about that as he saw the Juggernaut fall to one knee.
Breathing heavily, sweat trickling down his brow, Garren looked at his console. Systems offline. Weapon gone. Damage threshold critical.
It was already enough for the Combat Training Mode to stop the battle.
He laughed breathlessly, a mixture of disbelief and grudging respect.
“Who… who the hell are you?” Garren asked through the external audio.