Not that there was room for recovery when there were still other blows to be had.
The shield had gone to the mecha masters, who looked like rabid dogs foaming at the mouth every time someone else dared to lift a hand. It had taken seventy-two billion to pocket it. And while the price could have gone much higher, no one was foolish enough to keep bidding against them. To do so was practically signing up for a lifetime of sabotage and broken machines.
Therefore, everyone simply prayed. They prayed that the Master of Ceremonies would not, by some twist of cruelty, suddenly announce the end of the auction.
And sure enough, he didn't. Instead, he announced another item.
An S-grade Kite Wing.
A retractable blade-wing hybrid, designed for both offense and defense.
It was one of the prototype iterations Luca had once created for Sid's wings. Luca himself found no end of faults in it, dismissing it as imperfect, but clearly, the rest of the Empire did not share the same view.
