The Mech Touch

echs flanking the knight mech charged forward and rammed their weapons through the thick hide of the huge cat!

”AOOOOOWW! ”

The huge roar emanating from the injured creature was so forceful that Ves had the illusion that it rattled his bones!

He picked up Lucky and hugged his cat close to his chest.

”Look, Lucky! That ’s what happens to big, dumb cats! I better hope you don ’t grow up as large and stupid like this genetic failure! ”

”Meow! ”

”Just look at the awful coloring of its coat! The biotech researchers who cooked up its genes have no artistic sense at all! Anyone who takes a look at it will immediately develop the impression that it ’s a clown! Considering its idiotic decision to ambush a hunting team, I ’m not surprised it ’s lacking in the intelligence department! ”

Once the cat suffered two deep puncture wounds, the hunting team adopted a conservative and vigilant posture.

Only the knight mech and the two spearman mechs sparred with the bleeding panther.
The other mechs including the Kinslayer vigilantly faced every other direction in case any other hidden cats lay in wait to pounce!

Just because some huge cats were stupid didn ’t mean every specimen charged at their deaths!

Most cats, especially the more mature and older ones, developed sentient or near-sentient intelligence.
This made them especially dangerous as their planning and cooperation exceeded the norm of regular exobeasts.

Perhaps the most fearsome disaster that could befell a hunting team was being ambushed by a pride of multiple huge cats!

When each of these massive creatures consciously and proactively hunted together, then the battle power they could exert increased exponentially!

Fortunately, it appeared that the colorful panther brought no friends and backup.
The knight mech easily fended off the weakening panther ’s instinctive attacks while the spearman mechs continued to poke more holes into its flanks and rear.

After eight minutes of steady dancing, the panther finally developed second thoughts.
Though it attempted to escape multiple times, the hunting mechs did not allow it to escape with its life intact.

The green-and-orange panther might develop a grudge against the Felixia Catstrikers or other hunting teams! To prevent the resentful cat from taking revenge in the future, the Catstrikers had to nip the attacker in the bud!

”It can ’t run! ”

Stabbed by spears from both flanks, the huge cat had bled out so much from its puncture wounds that it could no longer summon up the strength to stop the knight mech from stabbing through one of its eyes with a sword!

”It ’s dead! ”

Despite this small accomplishment, none of the hunters expressed any excitement.

In fact, the hunting team outright ignored the carcass of the panther and quickly started to get back on the move!

”Why are we leaving the carcass behind? ” Ves frowned.

”The huge cat is only an adolescent of its species. ” The hunting consultant shook his head.
”Lady Miralix won ’t earn any prestige for hunting such a weak prey.
Zeigra is our only target.
We are to avoid any lesser huge cat as hunting them down provides no benefit to our hunting team! ”

The cat that pounced on them just a moment ago turned out to be young, inexperienced and weak!

The fury and combat prowess of a Crown Cat definitely surpassed that of this trivial panther!

What they encountered was just a taste of what was about to come!

”Is it unusual to face a lot of ambushes by other huge cats? ”

”It ’s as normal as any other hunting environment. ” The hunter smiled.
”Many times, hunting teams that set out to hunt down a specific cat will return with the carcass of another cat on their transports.
Every cat in every hunting zone is our enemy.
Some are clever and know better than to confront a team of mechs, but other cats like the panther just then are compelled to attack anything big that moves! ”

”Even if they face a bunch of mechs that they can ’t eat? ” Ves scratched his head.

The hunter ’s smile turned into a grin.
”There ’s us humans inside those mechs, you know? The transports like the ones we are on right now carries a lot more humans.
Some cats are really hungry for human flesh.
Others deliberately target us because they ’re smart enough to realize that they ’re nothing but prey that exists solely for our amusement! ”

Now that he thought about it, the fate of most huge cats on the Asco Continent was kind of tragic.
A lot of huge cats emerged from test tubes instead of born from actual mother cats.

Knowing no love, they grew rapidly as their genes compelled them to eat and eat until they grew to an immense size.
This hastened and industrial-like upbringing did the mental states of the cats no favor.

”The smarter the cats, the more they comprehend the nihility of their existence! Their entire lives came into being for the sole purpose of giving us humans some feisty prey to hunt! ”

The way the hunter gleefully talked down on the huge cats made it clear to Ves that some hunters were in it to satisfy their need to take down something bigger and stronger than them.
Humans were so small compared to the size of the huge cats that it gave the former a power rush whenever they took down something so enormous!

”Don ’t you think that some of these cats deserve better? ” Ves cautiously asked.

The hunting consultant threw an ugly look at him.
”Prey is prey.
No matter how deadly they are and how smart they grow, the cats are always destined to turn into our fur coats and hunting trophies mounted on our walls.
In the parlance of mech designers like you, they are prey by design! ”

House Laterna designed the vast majority of the huge cats on the Asco Continent to serve as hunting fodder!

In no instance did the biotech researchers and the hunters ever think that the huge cats deserved any chance of escaping this fate!

For some reason, Ves felt inordinately sad for the huge cats.

”Meow! ”

Of course, Lucky didn ’t see it that way.
To him, the huge cats were merely mutations that deviated enormously from the ideal cat!

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