"They''re all "dead". I only left one standing, and you''re standing on him" Tes said with a slight chuckle.


    "Ah?" I quickly nced down and noticed that in my hurry to reach Tes, I had identally stepped on another mecha!


    "He tortured you this way?" I could feel a massive wave of anger starting to bubble from deep within my heart.


    "Of course not. How could he torture me? This may be a practice mecha, but its reactive armor isn''t something that other practice mechas could deal with." Tes replied as I grabbed her with my other hand and easily ced her on my shoulder.


    "Oh." I nodded in understanding and immediately felt rather stupid.


    I should have known.


    "Well, dude, since you didn''t torture my friend, it''s your lucky day. I''ll bring you along with me." I said to the mecha whom I had identally stepped on earlier.


    "Uh. Thanks?" A little boy''s voice sounded reluctantly. He probably still hadn''t forgiven me about the things I said about his mom''s titties.


    I sighed deeply and grabbed him with my free hand.


    Boom. Boom. Boom.


    I made for a striking sight as I made my way across the arena with three destroyed mechas on me.


    By that time, I was the only one moving in the arena.


    Those who were able to move had made their way to the line that Bruce had demanded to be formed, and those that weren''t able to move were strewn all messily everywhere.


    "Lin Family members. Move out and help the other fallen mechas." Sheera Lin''s voice rang out quietly.


    At once, all surviving Lin mechas leapt ahead and started to help the other fallen mechas.


    "Wang Family. Help them." Eliana Wang''s voice rang out as well.


    Like the Lins, the Wang mechas also started to make their way to the nearest fallen mechas.


    The Longs remained silent and watched them coldly.


    A few seconds passed as the rest of the mechas hesitated. Should they follow the Lins and the Wangs, or emte the Longs?


    However, before the other mechas coulde to a decision, Bruce Pang''s voice suddenly sounded loudly from behind them.


    "Attack." He said coldly.


    Instantly, hundreds of practice mechas appeared from all directions and started to attack all of us mercilessly!


    Hundreds of rifle beams started to fall upon us like a hailstorm.


    I nced at them and winced.


    "The kids would be "massacred". Again." I thought grimly as I dodged the rifle beams as well as I could.


    VROOOOO!! VROOOOO!!


    The new practice mechas which were all yellow painted with ck stripes, descended like so many fearsome tigers upon the arena to finish us all off!!


    "Defensive formation. Use the fallen mechas." Sheera Lin''s calm voice rang out as she ruthlesslymanded her Lin Family to grab the fallen mechas and use them as shields.


    "Wangs. Join me, or we''ll all die." She added.


    Elise and Eliana Wang weren''t one to dawdle, and they immediately instructed their family members to join the Lin Family.


    "Obey Sheera Lin as you would me." Eliana Wang had instantly decreed.


    "Acknowledged!" Her family members responded.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Elsewhere, within the Lin family circle.


    "Give me your mecha." Sherry Lin instructed a Lin family medium mecha, and within a few seconds, they had swapped mechas and Sherry Lin, the Eternal Warrior, was back in a fully functioning practice mecha.


    The group of forty something mechas led by Sheera Lin was by far the most cohesive and most intact group.


    The Longs were the second most intact group.


    And as such, the hundreds of mechas focused their fire upon them.


    A hundred mechas peeled off from the main group and surged towards the Longs while two hundred mechas charged towards the Lin-Wang coalition.


    Another hundred circled around me. They were there not to "kill" me, but to tie me down and prevent me from impacting the rest of the battle.


    The rest charged at the line of functioning mechas and immediately started to finish them off.


    It was an incredibly crazy move by Bruce Pang, and the lessons we learnt that day were allpletely unforgettable.


    He truly was a Master Teacher.


    The crowd, which were about to disperse, had all eximed in shock, went back to their seats and resumed eating their popcorns.


    The show was not over!!


    "This year''s Grand Melee is incredible!!" They all shouted with words to that effect.


    All eyes were upon us, and deeply calctive minds continued to analyze our actions, picking out seeds for future leadership.


    In that chaos, not many of us shined.


    But those that did, shone brighter than the stars, like a daybreak of multiple suns.


    I wish I could say that I was one of them, but my moment of fame that day was over.


    Bruce Pang had shrewdly shown me that in a real battle, brute strength may be incredible, but real leadership would be required to win...


    And to save the lives of mypanions.


    I was humbled that day by my sheer inability to save those I wanted to.


    What Bruce Pang had created was, in effect, an ambush situation.


    A bunch of 10 year olds, being taught how to respond to an ambush in real time,plete with the shock, injuries and fatigue of a long battle.


    If it wasn''t teaching at its finest, then I have no idea what is.


    "Firstw of ambushes. Stay calm and listen to instructions.


    Secondw of ambushes. Those within the kill zone, return fire and take cover. All at the same time." Bruce Pang''s voice rumbled out loudly above the din. "Those outside the kill zone, locate and ce suppressive fire on the enemy."


    I had no idea how many of us responded to his words, but apparently, not many did so in the first few minutes.


    There were four thousand of us and only a few hundred of the ambushers, probably around six hundred or so.


    If we all responded perfectly, we would have massacred all six hundred ambushers within seconds, considering that they were all light mechas.


    But of course we didn''t.


    A thousand of us died a second time within the first minute of the ambush!