Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

[From the electrical trash yard and military orphanage of Zone 17, he’s been an expert at rapid repairs and explosives since his childhood! Being proficient in all sorts of weapons, give it up for CERES!]

The arena literally shook as half of the audience stood up in support of Ceres, clapping and screaming. They waved large projections and banners, setting off holographic fireworks to welcome him.

The other half of the audience booed and jeered, showing obviously deep-faked porn of Ceres. A few quick scuffles broke out at the edges between the two audiences, forcing the arena guards and enforcers to rapidly break up the fights.

There was a heavy police presence in the area both inside and outside, making sure no one tried anything funny. Henry Lesion was not taking any chance, with such a huge chance for disaster.

“No matter which side wins, there’s going to be a huge upheaval,” Henry muttered to himself.

Drones flew overhead the viewing parties in the middle of the city to scan for suspicious activities, while enforcer squads patrolled the streets in their dark black guard exosuits with armoured hovercars.

A few prototype Athen Defenders strolled throughout the known viewing parties, ensuring no one attempted anything funny. Their neon blue visors scanned every individual, marking them and logging them onto a central database.

Ceres stepped onto the stage, finally smiling during his entrance. He had been waiting for this. He could finally prove that he was better than Chad, who had previously claimed that he would steamroll the competition.

But yet Ceres survived a confrontation with Chad, even climbing to the same level as him now. Ceres didn’t care about what ‘divide’ or not, only knowing that he himself wanted to defeat Chad. No, he needed to - to make it up for all his friends who had lost along the way.

“I’ll make everyone in the damn orphanage proud, and I’m heading to the Dest Legion!” Ceres clenched his fist.

[And from the best of the best, the top participant that the planet Athen has to offer, the legend and the ‘King’ himself, its CHAAAAAAD ATHEN!]

Chad walked up the stage, his face stern, unlike the smiling Ceres. The crowd chanted his name with a deafening vibration, obviously marking Chad as the favourite.

Again, scuffles broke out between the two groups of supporters as they taunted each other.

“Look at your scrawny outer champion compared to the giant that is CHAD ATHEN! How are you ever going to cope?!”

“Hmph, you guys are just relying on sabotage to win the competition! How about you just confess you backstabbed Braton and Trissa!”

Enforcers and arena guards immediately dragged the violent members of the audience away. An Athen Defender towered over the defenceless audience, his rifle at the ready but aimed downwards. [This is your final warning – any more outbursts of violence and you will immediately be put in detention! Don’t test us.]

This scared the rest of the audience into submission, though there were a few angry individuals who tried their luck and verified his statement the hard way. No one wanted to get kicked out of the arena right before the exciting fight.

The two participants then headed to their starting point behind their workshop. As they waited for the three random exosuits to arrive, they stood opposite each other, somehow having a staring match. As their respective introduction videos played, the timer ticked, counting down to the start of the three-hour repair time.

“Don’t think I’m angry about what you did to Maddy.” Chad finally grunted after what seemed like an era of silent staring, stunning Ceres. “I never really liked Maddy and what he was doing. I don’t consider him part of the Five Families.”

“But you look down on others. Others like me. Didn’t know you were condescending to your allies too.” Ceres was confused by the sudden statements coming out of Chad’s mouth. He had never seen Chad talk about things like this during his other duels, always remaining silent and destroying the opponent.

“I now know what you said during the qualifiers was just trash talk to mess with my mind, but I’m better than before, you’re not going to get any emotions out from me again. You’re wrong about that though.” Chad crossed his arms, looking like a statue of a god with his defined muscles bulging as he gave a sort of indomitable presence around him. “I don’t look down on others.”

Ceres scoffed. How could Chad be so self-confident in his opinion?

“You don’t? You made that statement claiming no one else could win the competition but you. You’ve been ignoring every other fighter. If that’s not condescending, what is? This whole time you’ve been looking down on outers. Aren’t you the poster boy for the inners?”

The exosuits had finally arrived. The three-hour timer started, with Ceres immediately moving to the chip and metal printer again.

He was planning to build the dragonflies again, but he did not start, instead looking at Chad who didn’t even flinch, unworried about the timer starting. Chad stood his ground, snorting in response.

“You and I both know that we hardly care about the divide between outers and inners. Am I wrong? We both fight for our own personal interests and goals rather than trying to represent a group or a side. Unlike you, I don’t even stand up for my teammates or friends. Personal strength is the only currency here in the competition: if you fall, that’s on you.”

Ceres stared at him, pondering while choosing his exosuit. He did not disagree with what Chad said, he himself being hyper-focused on the competition. What grievances the outers and inners had with each other were nothing to him – mere distractions from the true goal of winning the competition.

So far Chad has not done anything out of the ordinary, unlike Ceres who went a bit too far for Maddy. Yet Chad did not make any statements or cursed Ceres and Trissa for attacking Maddy in such a way.

“Don’t you understand? Just like how you ignore others, I do the same to you! You and all the others, even those around me, are all beneath me! Why would I even take the time to look at ants?” Chad stated with such presence that it seemed to force itself into truth, his words stoking the fire in the audience.

The whole arena roared as he too started choosing his exosuit, but it wasn’t really a choice at all – he went straight for the same brawler exosuit.

[Chad is known for his continuous usage of a brawler exosuit, and the previous two duels have shown us how even long-range weaponry cannot easily take him down! He also has a decent amount of agility in him to go with his overwhelming strength! If Ceres lets Chad land a hit on him, I don’t think even his bones will continue to exist!]

Ceres snorted at Chad’s statement, continuing his work on the three dragonflies. There was no need for words – true exosuit repairers spoke through their skills.

The same process happened, but this time instead of choosing a ranged exosuit, he chose a spearman exosuit.

He had been practising this plan in the Thorn Chamber since the previous match against Maddy, throwing his all into the duel.

It was now or never, all or nothing.

[What’s this?! Ceres has chosen a similar type to the one he was using in the qualifiers! It looks like we’re getting a total one-on-one rematch as a sequel!]

A wave of shock rolled through the crowd as they broke out into more cheering. Ceres was the first person in the competition to try and duel him in melee combat. Every other fighter had tried to defeat Chad at range but ultimately failed.

The three dragonflies were completed within the hour, with Ceres focusing on finetuning the arms and legs. He needed the mobility and flexibility of the exosuit to be perfect to fight against Chad.

He also reduced the number of defensive plates while keeping the power and movement the same, allowing for higher agility. He can’t afford to go toe to toe with Chad in terms of armour and brute force, so why not invest everything into speed?

[Ceres is going for what may be the riskiest play of the competition! He’s forgoing almost every defensive plate in his exosuit in exchange for more speed, flexibility and precise power.]

[This looks to be a clash of exosuit types! Will pure agility and accuracy overcome the sheer strength and defence of Chad? Keep your eyes peeled!]

The exosuit Ceres repaired started to look more and more different from the original, with all its armour plates stripped off. It didn’t even have a centre chest piece armour, the components and wiring were all laid bare.

The defensive plates originally stuffed the messy wires between plates, but Ceres didn’t want any plates at all. He was risking everything he had on extreme manoeuvrability.

Instead, Ceres manufactured a cylindrical plastic tube around each of the ‘bones’ of the exosuit frame along the edges of his body, hiding the wires within. The number of wires was reduced heavily too to the point of having almost no redundancy.

He was walking an extremely fine line. A single hit on any of the parts of the exosuit and his own body will sustain the damage directly. One hit on his electronics would permanently knock out that system, with no hopes of redundancy or backups.

Usually, during the exosuit repair section, only the experts would be watching, but this time even the viewers couldn’t peel their eyes away from Ceres, who delivered such a ‘show’ of unorthodox exosuit modifications.

As the crowd quieten down over the course of the first hour, the announcers invited a few experts to give their thoughts.

Before this, no duel ever had experts commenting on the duel, but with such a high-level match, some of them from the nearby industrial firms and exosuit design companies even came down to witness the talents in action.

[This is a classic competition of viewpoints on what is the best way to fight. Humanity has been fighting ever since we were born on Earth – the ancient tradition of duels has stayed with us as a culture ever since.]

[In such one-on-one duels, it is commonly known that the strongest win – but what is the definition of strongest? If Ceres avoids every hit, can Chad exert any of his strength on him to win the duel?]

[I am a representative from Bee Strathon, and I will like to point out that in such a duel, Ceres has to leverage his advantages. This stems from his history of working with barebones and resilient exosuits during riots and other operations. The Bee Strathon Mining Suit line of products is one of the best for such duels. Don’t hesitate to contact me at our local branch office in Zone 3 for more information on how you too can place an order of exosuit for your own mining expedition!]

[While I am inclined to disagree with his… ‘statements’, commercial or not in nature, he is right in Ceres’s experience with lighter-weight exosuits. And when you’re using a lightweight exosuit to fight a larger exosuit, you never try to go toe to toe in power and defence! That’s just the difference in weight categories, but Ceres is really digging deep into the concept of minimal components here. At this rate he might as well not wear the exosuit at all!]

The three dragonflies swooped around the barebones exosuit, scanning it for defects while Ceres perfected his spear. The length of the spear was about 50% longer than his arm, which would give him enough of a range advantage over Chad.

He also fashioned a sword over the remaining hours, a short double-edged sword that would be his backup weapon, if the spear broke. This was one ‘system’ that he must have a backup for at least.

Ceres further modified the spear, adding electrical components inside the spear and attaching them via a long cable that snaked down the right arm of the exosuit. At the back of the exosuit, he added a thruster pack and a simple power pack, which was more than enough to power the bare frame.

He ran a system check on the exosuit, before fiddling with the processor and changing the limiters on the exosuit. The three dragonflies were then linked up to his processor, connected to the actions of the pilot.

He tested the hydraulic suspension and springs in his leg frames, ensuring that he could jump high and leap when needed.

His greatest advantage would be mobility. He had to dodge every potential attack coming from Chad while dealing damage from a favourable range.

As the three hours came to an end, the crowd didn’t know what to feel. Chad was in a brawler exosuit, with the emblem of the Athen family carved in the chest piece. He had full defensive plates around his whole body, having no thrusters. It was an all-out armoured boxer

The metal gauntlets featured sharp tips at the knuckles, while spikes were protruding out of each of Chad’s joints on his limbs as deterrence against flankers. They served as a potential danger to anyone trying to attack him from the side. It looked like a real knight, despite being in the middleweight category. He didn’t wear a helmet however, his face was exposed, showing a confident look.

On the other side, however, a relatively small human stood with a pitiful exoskeleton that had zero armour plates apart from the frame itself, as though he was wearing a second set of bones on each of his limbs and chest. The hydraulics and motors were clearly exposed for everyone to see.

He held a single short spear that had a cable attached to the back of the exosuit, while a short sword was stowed in his back, which also acted as a ‘defensive’ plate of sorts.

The only semblance of something useful was the thruster pack that was attached to the intersections of the frame, granting him four main thrusters that could accelerate him forward along with mini high-pressure thrusters embedded at his elbows and knees for sudden sideways erratic movements.

The difference in design was such a stark contrast, many almost lost all confidence in Ceres.

However, Chad’s face was noticeably worried after seeing Ceres’s exosuit instead of being proud. Ceres’ face, on the other hand, was all smiles.

“You better not look down on me this time, or this will be the most devastating loss of your life!” Ceres grinned, getting into an attacking posture. Chad put his hands up in a boxing stance, guarding his upper body, ready for the starting sound.

[The final grand duel... I mean the first semi-final duel of the exosuit repair category, Chad vs Ceres! The duel starts… NOW!]

The cheers of the crowd vibrated through the arena as both Ceres and Chad rushed at each other. Ceres had a head start while Chad was slower but built up more momentum.

As they reached each other, Ceres nocked back his short spear, aiming towards the enemy’s chest while Chad threw a right hook at Ceres’ head. Everyone watching was on the edge of their seat for the first clash.

Ceres suddenly jerked forwards, bending his head lower as his main thrusters activated for a split second, causing Chad to mistime his right hook and completely miss him.

The level of minute, accurate control shocked the crowd, causing the roars from the audience to rise even higher.

Ceres jabbed his short spear twice, not at the chest but right into the armpit of Chad’s wide swing of a right arm, before going past behind Chad, carried by the momentum. However, the stabs were not strong enough to break through the tough armour, causing almost no damage to the arm.

Gasps rippled through the crowd as close-up views of the match were played in detail all across the arena, allowing the viewers to see every single little aspect of the battle. This was what they paid for.

Chad stomped and swivelled around his right foot, using his immense body strength to change the previous forward momentum and force the exosuit to its turning limit, facing Ceres before throwing a left hook downwards at Ceres.

It barely missed the back of Ceres as he continued sliding past Chad with his exosuit grating against the ground, stopping a few meters away from Chad before turning around again and rushing him.

This time Chad didn’t throw a punch, keeping his arms close covering his upper body and face while he waited to see Ceres’s attack trajectory. Ceres kept the spear tight to his body as he ran forwards in a lancer fashion, almost intending to impale Chad.

Just as the spear was about to reach Chad’s arms, Ceres suddenly stomped hard on the ground, as though he was activating a jump attack and strike from above.

In response, Chad took a step back and pulled back his right arm, ready to hit Ceres in midair, but it never came as Ceres instead leapt horizontally straight into Chad’s chest with his spear.

The thrust was deep, penetrating the armour plate, while Ceres immediately boosted his main thrusters. The thrusters on the back of Ceres flared into life, blue flames pulsing outwards and allowing Ceres to slam the spear deeper.

Chad couldn’t handle the sudden acceleration in his chest, causing him to stagger back three steps.

However, he finally found his footing and threw a downward punch at Ceres who was still holding onto the spear right in front of him.

Ceres dodged, but the spear didn’t survive, its shaft breaking in half along with the cable as Chad snapped it.

The cable dangled in front of Chad’s chest, while Ceres immediately spun around Chad’s left, deftly unsheathing his short sword from his back and using it to slash downwards at Chad’s thigh.

The cut was deep as well, leaving a nasty gash through the armour plate, exposing the inner hydraulics and frame, but not affecting it.

Ceres barely dodged yet another right hook from Chad as he jumped backwards creating some distance between the two of them.

Chad grunted as he reached for the broken-off spearhead and dangling cable embedded in his chest, but he had no chance as Ceres immediately rushed him for the third attack with the short sword.

The sword could damage the armour plates, but it wasn’t deep enough to do significant damage. However, Ceres kept up the rapid slashes and stabs, continuously chipping away at Chad’s armour.

Ceres was fighting on a knife’s edge, barely dodging Chad’s counterattacks and punches. This miraculous evasion did not last forever.

As the fight went on, Chad was becoming more and more familiar with Ceres’ fighting style, able to predict the feints and attacks. “I got you now!” Chad roared as he swung in a wide arc, almost nailing Ceres in the arm.

Ceres started to be on the losing edge, but he was always trying to attack when Chad attempted to take the spearhead out of his chest.

The frustration welling up within him, Chad roared as he grabbed the sword with both his hands during one of the predicted downward slashes by Ceres. However, it was right at that critical moment that Ceres launched his secret attack.

Ceres let go of the sword that was being gripped by Chad, dropping low and closing the gap towards Chad’s chest.

He held his own cable that was disconnected from the spear previously and connected it back to the spearhead that was still embedded. The large current flow that ensued sent a surge of electromagnetic pulses through the exosuit of Chad, frying the wires and circuit boards that were vulnerable within.

The brawler exosuit started to malfunction, and Chad was unable to control the exosuit properly, forcing him to drop the sword.

Taking the opportunity, Ceres was able to retrieve both his half-broken spear into his left hand and his sword on the right, attacking rapidly while Chad stumbled around. He used the spearhead as a short dagger and stabbed into the left elbow joint, disabling the main and secondary motors.

The motors sputtered with sparks and bits of metal flying out as Ceres striked it a second time with his sword, causing the arm to begin to limp as the motors lost power. “I’m winning this duel, whether you like it or not!”

The crowd gasped in shock as they watched the arm get disabled.

[What a fight! Ceres now seems to have the upper hand! How is Chad going to fend him off with only one functional arm, and his thigh internals exposed?!]

The malfunction only lasted three seconds, which wasn’t enough time for Ceres to try to disable the last functional arm of Chad on the right. Before Ceres could attempt another attack, Chad suddenly launched a swing with his disabled left arm, catching Ceres off-guard and forcing him to dodge.

Jumping backwards and recovering his fighting stance, he watched as Chad still moved his left arm as though nothing was wrong. The motors were still flickering with sparks and fumes, but Chad merely grinned.

Ceres baulked: “That’s fucking insane! Didn’t I disable the motors on that arm? He’s moving the exosuit on pure strength alone.”

Chad let out a raw shout, focusing his strength on his left arm and keeping it in the game as he flexed it. “You think you can take me down this easily?!”

It was at this moment that despite the damage inflicted on Chad, Ceres’ face paled. He was fighting a true monster!