BATTLE FOR STARS

To get past the post-match inspections, the pill only lasted ten minutes. After that, Julia would suffer intense exhaustion, and her reactions would become noticeably slower than normal.

But Julia believed ten minutes was more than enough to kill Lina.

Julia’s mech was built in the same style as Lina’s—lightweight, agile, and focused on speed. According to the Central Computer’s analysis, the two had nearly identical probability of victory. Lina had defeated Julia once two years ago, but over the last two years, Julia had participated in more matches and maintained a higher win rate.

Overall, this was supposed to be an evenly matched fight.

Lina had also studied many of Julia’s matches. The computer had analyzed her opponent’s combat habits in detail, but in the end, there was no especially effective strategy.

The two were simply too similar.

It was like fighting another version of yourself. Any attack pattern you could think of, the other side could think of as well. In a battle like this, victory depended entirely on who performed better in the moment.

Of course, Balk didn’t believe in an even match at all.

Using his privileges, he had secretly given Julia a pill.

He was an extremely vindictive man. There was no way he would accept defeat so easily.

He still didn’t dare make any major moves against Belina directly, but dealing with a mech fighter was effortless. If not for the finals, he would have already gone after Lina personally.

Balk knew the inspections were strict. Still, as one of the Emperor’s sons, he naturally had privileges. Asking people to handle a little private business was hardly difficult for him.

He hadn’t sabotaged Lina directly because he worried it might alert Belina. Strengthening Lina’s opponent, however, could achieve the same result.

The entire time, Balk stood behind Emperor Hogan calmly watching the match.

Although he had greeted Belina earlier, he never showed the slightest abnormality. He didn’t want Belina noticing anything. And if the Emperor ever found out about this, the consequences would definitely be unpleasant.

After all, this match involved an enormous amount of gambling money.

If the guests suspected the tournament was being manipulated behind the scenes, it would deal a major blow to the entertainment industry of the Resk Empire.

Still, Balk was convinced nobody would see through his methods.

And he had no intention of letting Lina off.

He remembered that day clearly. Not only had Lina personally thrown down a rescue device, she had also stood together with Belina.

To him, that had been an obvious provocation.

So he gave Julia only one order—

Kill Lina in the arena.

It would serve as revenge against Lina and the perfect humiliation for Belina, all while leaving behind no evidence whatsoever.

Julia naturally had no objections.

High mortality rates were completely normal in mech fighter tournaments to begin with. Besides, their masters had old grudges between them. To her, this was merely taking care of something along the way.

Ever since entering the room, Belina had been quietly observing Balk.

But she saw no trace of unease or suspicious behavior on his face.

Now, both she and Ding Yufei had turned their attention fully toward the arena.

The match had officially begun.

Julia’s mech launched the first attack immediately.

Although both mechs shared nearly identical characteristics, Julia was far more aggressive than Lina.

Lina usually spent some time probing her opponents, searching for weaknesses before delivering a fatal strike.

Julia was the exact opposite.

She attacked from the very beginning.

Most of her matches ended within the first ten minutes. She liked using relentless offense to drag opponents into her rhythm and completely control the pace of battle.

Clang!

The high-frequency blades of the two mechs collided for the first time.

Only ten seconds had passed since the start of the match, yet Julia had already charged straight in. During her assault, she used engine bursts twice in succession. Lina also used two engine bursts to evade the attacks, but in the end, the two mechs still crashed into unavoidable close-quarters combat with their short blades.

There was no warm-up.

No probing.

The fight exploded into full intensity from the very first second.

Both sides were fighting at full power immediately. Lina might have been forced into it, but the battle had already entered a white-hot state.

After the first exchange, the two mechs separated again.

Lina’s expression darkened slightly.

Something felt wrong.

Julia’s speed and strength seemed to suppress her in every aspect. During that exchange, Lina had gained no advantage whatsoever. She had spent almost the entire time defending passively against Julia’s assault.

And Lina had already noticed something else—

Julia was fully capable of attacking independently while using engine bursts.

Normally, that level of control was extremely difficult.

By all logic, Julia should have been roughly equal to her. According to the Central Computer’s analysis, Julia wasn’t superior in any major category.

Yet after actually crossing blades, Julia seemed faintly stronger.

Lina knew exactly where her own limits were.

In many previous matches, she had never truly gone all out. If the computer’s analysis was correct, then she should actually be stronger than Julia.

But the current result clearly didn’t match that conclusion.

There was only one explanation.

Julia had also been hiding her true strength.

Meanwhile, Julia was very satisfied with the opening exchange.

Although she hadn’t achieved any decisive results, everything felt unusually smooth. Her reactions were faster than usual, and Lina had been forced entirely onto the defensive, barely able to launch a meaningful counterattack.

Looks like the pill works perfectly.

If an opponent could only defend without attacking, there was no way they could win.

Julia refused to believe Lina could hold out like this for ten full minutes.

After making a slight adjustment, Julia launched another assault immediately.

This had always been her style—continuous, rapid attacks that gave the opponent no chance to breathe or recover. One mistake was enough to lose the entire match.

Normally, this strategy wasn’t especially effective against Lina, because Lina possessed the same strengths: speed, agility, and lethal finishing strikes.

But with the pill enhancing her abilities, Julia had effectively turned the battle into fast versus slow.

That made Lina extremely dangerous.

Sure enough, the two mechs collided once more.

Another contest of ultimate speed and reaction.

Both sides attacked and defended with astonishing reflexes as the mechs darted and twisted nonstop across the arena.

Many spectators watching live from above couldn’t even follow their movements without using slow-motion playback.

Among everyone present, Ding Yufei—watching from the VIP room—was the first to realize something was wrong.

Lina had been stuck on the defensive the entire time.

She was constantly being pursued and rarely managed to counterattack.

That meant the initiative was completely in Julia’s hands, and Lina was struggling badly to keep up.

Ding Yufei had not only watched Lina’s first mech fighter tournament match in person, he had also fought her himself afterward.

He understood Lina’s fighting style very well.

This kind of abnormal situation had never happened before.

Even when Lina chose to retreat, it was usually part of a tactical decision. She would quickly stabilize the situation and launch a counterattack soon after.

Not like today.

Today, she just kept retreating.