The Mech Touch

Moments before the Trost decided to get rid of the annoying fly in front of its path, Ves looked befuddled as he saw the Adonis Colossus moving closer to an expert mech that was so much stronger that a comparison wasn't even meaningful.

"What is Vincent doing?" Ves frowned. "Major Verle, did you issue any orders to this idiot?"

Major Verle's projection looked just as confused. "No. The Adonis Colossus may be one of your most.. visually distinctive works, but it's effective as an unarmed shuttle against the Trost. I see no need to needlessly throw away another mech and mech pilot."

Both of them agreed with each other that the Adonis Colossus absolutely wasn't qualified to take part in a battle of this level. Unlike some of the other third-class mechs the Larkinsons fielded in desperation, at least the Desolate Soldier and the original Bright Warrior were able to contribute with their glows.

As for the Adonis Colossus? Other than instilling a bit of useless bravado, its glow was completely pointless. None of the Larkinsons ever saw a need to deploy the Adonis Colossus at the front.

Technically, the third-class hybrid mech was supposed to be on reserve.

The truth was that none of the mech commanders wanted to deal with the headache of trying to integrate a useless machine in their formations. Carelessly throwing in outsiders into the mix could lead to severe disruption.

It was better to keep this useless mech out of the way!

Ves narrowed his eyes at the Adonis Colossus. The mech was so pathetic that not even the enemy expert pilot was on guard against it. This amazingly allowed Vicent's mech to come quite close!

Unfortunately, the party was about to end. The Trost simply activated its most convenient weapon system at hand and fired a lethal laser at the annoying mech.

Yet just before the thin but very powerful laser beam struck the Adonis Colossus, Vincent had just put up a defense against the attack!

It may have been years since Vincent confronted the sandmen in battle, but he never forgot what it was like getting attacked by sandman lasers.

"Lasponge! Do your thing!"

The Lasponge module had become active!

In just a few eyeblinks, the Adonis Colossus released a liquid substance that quickly hardened into a giant crystal shield.

Yet the shield only had time to harden up before it was immediately struck with the most powerful laser that had ever targeted the Adonis Colossus!

Vincent had not held anything back. His mech dispensed its entire tank to form the thickest and most solid shield he could erect at this critical time.

Even though it was a long time since he fought in a true battle, he still kept his reflexes and instincts sharp by piloting his mech in competitive duels. This allowed them to react fast enough before it was too late.

"It worked!"

The crystal shield was just capable enough to block the laser attack. The story would have been different if the Trost fired another weapon or took the Adonis Colossus more seriously by empowering his attack with resonance.

Instead, the attack that should have pierced through the cockpit had instead fallen short of its goal.

"Damn! It's getting far too hot!"

The crystal shield absorbed so much heat from the single attack that it instantly blew up, flinging extremely hot shards in every direction!

Fortunately, the Adonis Colossus only suffered minimal surface damage. The mech was actually quite sturdy for a third-class mech.

While the mech remained intact, it was a different matter when it came to its mech pilot.

Vincent's courage and bravado had practically popped when the Trost fired at his mech.

He knew quite well that the attack was aimed straight at the cockpit of his mech!

If he hadn't activated his Lasponge module in time, he might not even be alive anymore!

It was all well and good to dream about putting up a valiant fight, but now that he had almost brushed past his own death, the reality of situation was so much worse than he could ever imagine.

Who could stay calm when they realized they were close to dying?

Who wouldn't cherish their life more after such a frightening moment?

His instincts warred against his thoughts. His body shook and began to release a copious amount of sweat. His vision blurred and his control over the Adonis Colossus wavered. He audibly gulped.

The only reason why he hadn't turned around his mech and flew away was because Raella's words were still ringing in his ears.

She would never forgive him if he turned away like a coward! The Larkinson Clan would never acknowledge him as their own even though it was completely unfair to expect him to make a move against a powerful expert mech!

He simply couldn't make a decision on what he should do. Fortunately, the Trost did not seem to take much notice of his mech's continued existence.

As far as Venerable Kelvin Praetor was concerned, he needed to keep drilling into the stern of the Spirit of Bentheim. His expert mech was already moving away in order to reach the next coordinates that allowed it to fire into the heavily-damaged thruster system.

The Amphis suddenly flew past the immobile Adonis Colossus!

"Either do something or get out of the way!" Venerable Linda Cross contemptuously barked on the local channel.

That caused Vincent to lose even more confidence. Yet another woman thought he was a good-for-nothing. Would it even make a difference if he piloted one of the new-fangled second-class mechs designed by Ves?

Perhaps he would be just as useless as now!

"Damnit, what am I thinking?! Why have I become such a coward?!"

He still remembered the glory days of the past. Back when he was a member of the Bentheim Liberation Movement, he mingled with the worst while fighting against the entire Bright Republic.

He fought and survived through many battles against both humans and sandmen. He had lived through family plots, a war between states and an alien invasion.

"I'm just as much of a warrior as any other Larkinson mech pilot!" Vincent indignantly roared!

His heart longed for him to prove himself!

"I am a real man! I don't hide behind women!"

His mind echoed with his mech once again!

"Who cares about fighting an expert mech? I will make its pilot pay!"

The Adonis Colossus flew forward once again. It circled around the Spirit of Bentheim for a moment and was finally able to approach the Trost once again.

The enemy expert mech was still firing its ranged weapons at the Spirit of Bentheim. Further behind, the Amphis attempted to launch its chainsword at the Trost, only to fall short as the distance between the two machines was never getting shorter.

Due to the track that the Adonis Colossus had taken, Vincent was again in a position to intercept the Trost. His mech was already firing another volley of missiles, nails and laser beams.

The Trost didn't bother to defend against the harmless attacks. While it tried to alter its course to go around the obstacle in front, it did not really try that hard, allowing Vincent to make sure his mech was on a collision course.

If the Adonis Colossus wouldn't get out of the way, then it would quickly collide against the expert mech, causing it to shatter or bounce aside!

There was no way that Vincent would be able to survive such a violent collision!

However, the mech pilot strangely did not move his mech away. Instead, he dared himself to stay right in front of the Trost, forcing the expert mech to make a more proactive move that would force it to waste some of its resources.

At this time, the Trost decided to cut the Adonis Colossus in half. It raised its halberd and was prepared to chop its target down.

As the intimidating blade of the polearm began to hack down, Vincent's heart was pumping faster than ever before.

"MOVE ASIDE, VINCENT!" Raella screamed over the channel.

Her words didn't register in his ears. Instead, as the halberd was about to cut into his mech, his mind had become unprecedentedly close to his mech.

He felt as if the mech that Ves had designed and made for him was truly an extension of himself during this life-threatening moment.

The Adonis Colossus was not the strongest mech by far, but it was the manliest one, and that was enough.

The mech seemed to sense its own impending destruction. It too was unwilling to perish without putting up a decent fight!

Two brave and foolish souls seemed to meld into one. An invisible barrier broke and a will that carried forth the desires of Vincent, the Adonis Colossus and Bravo flooded out of Vincent's mind!

"I AM A MAN!"

The Adonis Colossus, which had already been spiritually enhanced by Ves a some time ago, had actually nurtured itself and Vincent for many months.

Together, they quietly developed as Vincent fought every space duel with his trusty custom mech.

Even though the fights weren't as real, the mech pilot had unquestionably developed a deeper bond with his machine.

Now, all of this accumulation set the conditions for an improbable breakthrough.

When Ves realized what was happening, his mouth practically gaped.

As far as he could recall, Vincent didn't possess any spiritual potential. The likelihood of him going through this event should have been minimal!

Yet during this critical life-and-death moment, the Adonis Colossus became surrounded in a radiant golden corona!

The resonance shield that formed around the mech actually managed to block the halberd strike of the Trost!

Not only that, but the unanticipated failure to cut apart the Adonis Colossus immediately resulted in a very different collision than Venerable Kelvin had anticipated!

The Trost collided against the newly-formed resonance shield!

Already weakened by the failed halberd strike, the resonance shield instantly popped. The forced resonance generated by Vincent may be powerful, but it was still too weak to stop an entire mech in its tracks!

A violet but soundless crash occurred as both mechs bounced away from each other!

Vincent's heroic moment already came to an end!

He lasted less than a second!

The entire front surface of the Adonis Colossus had been crushed! Not a single portion of its front looked intact as the collision had flattened and ruined the muscle definition of its chest!

The damage would have been worse if the resonance shield hadn't absorbed much of the incoming force, but the Adonis Colossus still turned into a wreck!

"VINCENT!"

"Ahh.. Raella.. I'm still there." Vincent weakly said. "Ahh! My cockpit is crushed! Call for help! I think my legs are gone!"

"Help is on the way! Don't worry about your legs. We can just grow them back!"

"Wait.. is my little brother still there?! It can't be, right? I NEED HELP!"

While the ruined Adonis Colossus was flung away, the Trost had also become affected.

Even though its excellent armor caused the mech to remain undamaged, its forward progress had abruptly stalled.

After impacting the resonance shield and the surface of the opposing mech, the Trost had actually bounced back uncontrollably.

Even though Venerable Kelvin Praetor quickly tried to move his mech forward again, the small delay was enough for the Amphis to get closer!

If that wasn't bad enough, the Trost actually flew back at an angle, causing it to angle into a posture that made it seem as if it was reclining on an invisible couch.

This change in angle just happened to be captured by Venerable Davia Stark. Her eyes glinted as her Bright Beam Prime spat out a full-powered energy beam that struck one of the most sensitive exterior components of the enemy expert mech's flight system!

The blindingly powerful beam hit its mark!

Even though the attack failed to deal any further damage, a portion of the flight system fizzled out as the damaged section no longer provided any propulsion power!

The Trost had become slower!

The reduction in acceleration effectively meant that it was barely able to keep ahead of the Amphis!

As long as the space knight was able to reduce the distance a bit more, it would definitely be able to catch the Trost!

"I need one last nudge!" Venerable Linda Cross excitedly exclaimed. "The Trost is almost in my range!"

Venerable Davia quickly contemplated her options. The Trost may have slowed down, but it was still a threat. It had also oriented itself so that she would never be able to shoot its flight system again.

With the Spirit of Bentheim's stern in awful shape, she couldn't afford to wait patiently anymore.

The Trost only needed to make one more attack pass to breach the primary engineering bay and inflict untold destruction to the capital ship!

She took a deep breath and waited until the Trost circled around and came back in the Bright Beam Prime's sights.

"Get ready, Linda!"

Davia pulled the trigger, causing the Bright Beam Prime unleash a final full-powered shot! The resonance-empowered beam struck the Trost head-on, inflicting little actual damage but causing substantially more psychological damage!

When Venerable Kelvin Praetor noticed that the Bright Beam Prime was about to fire, his willpower quivered a bit. Even though expert pilots felt no fear, he still remembered how he suffered the earlier attack.

Perhaps the ranged mech wasn't able to harm his Trost. Perhaps the enemy mech had been holding back until now. Kelvin was stuck in a very difficult dilemma and had no time to think the situation through.

In the end, he flinched, and so did the Trost.

The expert hybrid mech crossed its arms, causing the attack to strike against its already-ruined wrist-mounted flamethrowers.

The damage was actually a bit serious. One of the hands of the Trost had become unresponsive.

"Is that all?"

The damage actually wasn't a big deal. The Trost was still able to wield its energy rifle with a single hand.

Just as Kelvin contemplated the purpose of this ineffective shot, a powerful volley of attacks actually came from a completely unexpected angle.

His instincts warned him of a threat from below, but due to the earlier incident, he wasn't able to orient the Trost fast enough!

A pair of searing white positron beams struck the mech's flight system from below, dealing actual, material damage to it! The strikes were so precise that the Trost completely spun out of control as its thrust had become uneven.

Just half a second later, a pair of glowing gauss rounds struck the already-damaged flight system just as it exposed its rear towards the Spirit of Bentheim.

The Trost's entire flight system shattered into pieces as the enhanced kinetic impacts completely crippled its flight abilities!

"You're finished!" Linda exulted as her Amphis finally caught up with the final traitor expert pilot!

A chainsword wrapped around Trost's torso. The Amphis yanked on the chain, causing it and its target to converge.

What followed next didn't need to be said. Suffice to say, the Trost had been completely neutralized!

Everyone quickly noticed who was responsible for sealing the Trost's fate. A glowing white corona leaked out of one of the bunkers on the surface of the Spirit of Bentheim.

Ves almost shot out of his observer's seat.

"Whose mech is in that bunker?!"

"It's.. Taon Melin, sir. The Prophet's Fist is stationed inside that specific bunker!"

Realization had finally set in for the Larkinsons. The final threat to the Spirit of Bentheim was taken care of. In the final moments, two new expert candidates had broken through and prevented the Trost from breaching the primary engineering bay.

"We're.. saved? We're saved!"

Victory never tasted sweeter.