Battlebots Fight
The fight we were witnessing now was apparently between a bot named 'Patrick The Patter' and 'Liquifier Loch'.
Don't ask me about the names, I'm just repeating what was shown, ok? Even I think it's a bit ridiculous…
Ironically, when the bots appeared from both sides of the arena, I realised why they were given those names.
The robot named Patrick had fists that were almost half the size of its body which I guess must be what it uses to 'pat' its opponents.
As for the other one… The one named Loch seemed to have a layer of liquid over its body that wobbled each time it took a step forward.
Both of them look humanoid with two arms and two legs though, which was different from the ones that I saw at the gambling district where they had robots on wheels and caterpillar threads.
Cheers rang out from around us and the group of young men were especially loud in their cheering. From what I could hear, it seemed like they were supporting Patrick in this match.
On the other hand, the odd couple beside us was oddly silent and simply watched the entrance silently.
Well… Not that we were any better since Ries and I didn't cheer either, although it was clear that Ries was really excited with how she was watching them with sparkles in her eyes.
The ropes around the boxing ring were lowered, allowing both robots to step onto the stage.
Both of them were at least twice as tall as a normal human which I could estimate thanks to the fact that a human occupied them onto the ring to stand beside them.
I'm going to guess that they were the Roboteers of each of those two battle robots.
The both of them seemed to be exchanging words on stage while the emcee was hyping the crowd up by listing the battle robots' specs.
I didn't really understand any of what was being said since it was all technical stuff like Patrick using some kind of T-something engine and then using something, something parts for its chassis.
On the other hand, Ries was definitely enjoying it as she was oohing and aahing at each of the parts that the emcee had listed out.
One thing I did understand though, was the fact that Patrick was announced to be controlled manually by the Roboteer while Loch had a 'Class Two AI Core', which I assumed it meant that it was controlled by an AI.
The two Roboteers then started walking off the stage and the emcee quickly finished off his introductions.
"Now without further ado, let the match begin!"
The ropes came up and a bell was rung, prompting both battlebots to raise their fists to bump them against each other before taking a step back.
Wow, they even did that? That's pretty cool.
The two bots started circling each other, testing each other out.
Patrick was the first one to move, the bot taking a step forward and using its larger hand to close the distance and swinging its arm at Loch.
Instead of punching the other bot, it seemed like it was attempting to slap it since all its fingers were outstretched.
The attack was quite telegraphed so I thought Loch would try to move out of the way to avoid it. Instead, it stood there and raised its arm up to block it.
That was when I realised that part of the liquid around its legs seemed to flow upwards towards the raised arm which thickened the liquid gathered there.
Patrick's hand slapped against the liquid around the arm, the impact sending ripples through the liquid around Loch's body, nullifying the blow.
It didn't even take a step back or recoil from the slap.
The liquid on its arm then rapidly shifted from the raised arm to the other hand, gathering it at the fist before Loch delivered an uppercut into Patrick's jaw.
The blow was enough to send the other robot flying up into the air for a good distance before it came crashing back down onto the stage with a thunderous 'boom'.
Loch wasn't even done yet as it stepped forward to try and punch the fallen Patrick.
It stood astride the fallen opponent, its enlarged fist punching downwards at its head with enough force to break off some of its armour plating from its face.
One of the broken parts actually flew through the air and shot out of the arena, only to bounce off the transparent box around the boxing ring, leaving the audience unharmed.
Patrick tried to smack Loch away but the AI controlled robot quickly raised its foot to stomp on its wrist, pinning its arm below its foot.
Loch then quickly did the same thing to the other hand as well, effectively rendering the other battlebot helpless.
I realised that the liquid around its feet also spread itself out to stick to the ground, completely preventing it from being lifted by Patrick.
At this point, the boys beside us were wailing at Patrick to get out from under Loch but no matter what The Patter tried, its opponent just refused to budge from on top of it.
Loch then raised its fist once again, gathering all the liquid from its upper body to concentrate into the raised fist, revealing its metallic skeleton underneath the viscous liquid.
The fist slowly got bigger until it was twice as big as Patrick's hands, solidifying into a giant spiked ball that could no doubt smash Patrick into pieces once it brought the fist down.
At this point, I was already expecting Patrick to lose since there was clearly nothing it could do.
But then, the pinned robot lifted its lower body to wrap its legs around Loch's exposed waist.
In a surprising reversal, Patrick squeezed the exposed skeleton between its robotic legs, completely crushing the battlebot's 'abdomen' and cutting it into two pieces.
The upper torso fell backwards to crash onto the ground, right before the liquid on its lower body lost its viscosity to stick to the ground and also fell back to join the other half, freeing Patrick from its confines.
"In a great reversal!! Patrick The Patter has completely turned what seems like defeat into victory! Everyone! Give it up for Patrick The Patter!!"
The young men beside us cheered so loudly that their voices actually turned into high pitched squeals.
"We're rich! We're rich!!"
"We fucking won!! Yaahhhhh!!"
"A million Credits! Oh my god!!!"
Ah, I thought they were fans of the robot at first… But it just turns out that they were only cheering it on because they bet on it.
I then noticed the couple beside us eyeing the group of young men now and the woman leaned over to whisper to her partner.
He then nodded at her and the two of them went back to watching the group of young men hug each other to celebrate their winnings.
I can't even tell if they were planning to rob them or take advantage of them…
Well, none of my business anyway.
I felt a tug on my arm and I turned to see Ries looking up at me with sparkly eyes, her feline ears visibly twitching in excitement under the hood.
"What do you think, Boss?! Wasn't that really awesome?!"
"It certainly is, though I thought that the match would last longer than that."
She nodded her head quickly, "Normally that would be the case too! There's matches that could last as short as ten seconds and matches that might even go on for an hour!"
"And what happens if there's no winner after an hour?"
"Oh, that's the limit. Once it reaches an hour and no clear winner could be determined, then there would be a sudden death round where the first one to be knocked down would be declared the loser."
"There's no judges or anything to determine the winner?"
Ries stuck out her tongue, "They tried doing that at first… But then that made Roboteers hold back on their battle robots to avoid taking too much damage to try and outlast their opponents since repairs were expensive. And you know crowds are here to watch robots destroying each other… It became quite unpopular. Thus that sudden death round was implemented."
That's cool. I mean, I definitely came here to watch robots beating the crap out of each other so if they aren't doing that, I would feel like I wasted my time.
The group of young men then stood up from their seats and left the arena, which was promptly followed by the couple beside us as they stalked after them.
I waited until they were out of earshot before I leaned over to Ries, "Are they going to rob them or something?"
She shrugged, "I wouldn't be surprised if they were, Boss. But might just be some scammers where the woman seduces one of the young men then the guy catches them in the act before demanding compensation from him."
Ah damn… So it's that kind of people huh… Good thing we're not involved then…
Anyway, the next round would be the match that we bet on so this is definitely more important!