The Mech Touch

Venerable Tusa was quite disappointed by Jessica Quentin's lack of adjustment. The point of hosting them was to subject them to alternative training methods. Jessica was supposed to be one of the mech pilots who agreed to allow the Larkinsons to dictate her training program.

Yet despite instructing her for a few months, Jessica never blended in to the extent the Larkinson instructors desired.

She was hardly different as the other MTA mech pilots also exhibited varying degrees of resistance to the lessons taught by the Larkinson instructors.

This was not a difference that could easily be bridged. To the superior mech pilots who worked hard to become proficient at piloting an entirely different class of mechs, the machines utilized by the Larkinsons looked like toys in comparison.

Even though the second-class mechs employed by the Larkinson Clan were actually quite fantastic by the standards of the current region, they were as responsive as elephants and as sluggish as whales to those who once had the privilege of piloting real first-class mechs.

The mechs employed by the Big Two as well as every first-rate state were powerful works that were packed with so much high technology that not even Ves would be able to comprehend their full designs!

The latest advancements in neural interface, power transmission systems, processing capabilities, armor toughness, attack power and so on all conveyed so many advantages that first-class mech pilots had to learn an enormous amount of theory in order to be able to effectively pilot these beasts!

It was practically impossible for unaugmented humans to pilot a first-class mech. The prerequisites were so overwhelming that only superhumans were able to pilot them. That included both augmented mech pilots and extraordinary mech pilots such as Venerable Tusa.

As someone who received a robust suite of augments, Jessica Quentin's skill and knowledge exceeded that of pretty much every other mech pilot.

Even Tusa admired some of Jessica's knowledge and capabilities.

Yet it was exactly because of her amazing skills and powerful augments that he regretted her inability to adapt to piloting a living mech.

On the surface, there was no problem with the way she handled her Ferocious Piranha. She probably downloaded the entire manual in her fancy implant and memorized all of the instructions and specifications. She knew exactly how much she needed to push a system in order to achieve her desired result with less wasted energy and movements than others.

She even exhibited her unique flair by excelling in close-ranged duels. Her knife fighting skills were so good that she regularly kicked the butts of expert candidates in simulation battles!

"That makes it even worse."

From his understanding of the MTA mech pilot, Jessica was so confident in her own acquired skills and abilities that she fundamentally looked down on the methods taught by the Larkinsons.

Though Venerable Tusa didn't necessarily think it was wrong for mech pilots to stick to their own courses and try to achieve success in the manner that aligned with them best, the expert pilot nonetheless thought that Jessica could at least take over a bit of advice.

Her continual disdain and lack of appreciation of her Ferocious Piranha and any other mech fielded by the Larkinson Army were extremely regretful in his eyes. If the opposite was the case, then even if her chances of breaking through had hardly changed, she would at least be able to perform a lot better in some of the training sessions!

"She'll be able to dodge more attacks at the very least!"

The practice sessions with the ranged bots was one of his favorite moments. He not only got to exercise the skills that he valued most, but also made slow and steady progress in improving his extraordinary intuition. Even though facing an arsenal of harmless bots was not as stimulating as enduring actual enemy fire, the challenge of trying to anticipate and evade attacks before they even happened never got tiresome!

It was because he worked so hard to improve this aspect of his piloting abilities that he felt so bad about Jessica Quentin.

Unlike the close-minded MTA mech pilot, Venerable Tusa fully embraced what he said. He treated the Dark Zephyr like his partner and perhaps even his soulmate. He frequently slept inside its cockpit and constantly tried to convey his sentiments to the machine.

Whether his mech understood his words or not, he sincerely believed there was something inside of the Dark Zephyr that opened up to him. He could feel it in his bones. Already, the mech had become even more responsive to him despite already scoring high in this category. He also derived other benefits that were difficult to describe but should definitely make a difference in battle!

"What's even better is that there are two additional somethings inside my mech." He smiled.

He piloted and bonded with the Dark Zephyr long enough to understand most of its nuances. He was able to distinguish the sources of two different glows.

Tusa had mixed feelings about the stronger source. Its character was… different. It mostly came to play when he activated the Perception Distortion resonance ability. The stronger he channeled this ability, the more he felt as if he could mislead his attackers even more if he coordinated with this mysterious presence.

He never really managed to do so. He didn't have much in common with this meek and humble presence. Though he felt tempted to dismiss this presence entirely, it was part of his Dark Zephyr for a reason. If Venerable Tusa truly wanted to master his expert mech in its entirety, he had to find a way to work with all of its facets, including the ones he liked the least.

Compared to this obvious presence, Tusa much preferred to become attuned with the second presence.

Though it was weak to the point where he could easily miss it, this smaller influence sang to him to a much greater degree. From the first time he piloted the Dark Zephyr, he made an immediate connection to what he felt was some kind of young and innocent bird.

This little chick might not be as impressive as all of the other influences he managed to get in touch with, but none of them resonated with him quite as much as this humble little bird.

Tusa had already forged a solid connection with the bird after piloting his Dark Zephyr just a few more times. He could still feel him or her even when he left the cockpit.

"Trisk. Is that what you're called?"

Chirrup!

The little bird was like his muse. Even though he wasn't really sure how Trisk could help him out in battle, he never looked down on him or her because of that.

He knew that Trisk was still young and just beginning to develop his or her powers. Each time he started a new session, he sensed that he or she had become a bit stronger, a bit more mature and a bit more expressive.

The only irritation that nagged him was that he couldn't quite tell the gender of what he was bonding to. In one moment, Trisk showed tendencies that Tusa associates with males. In the other moment, Trisk became a lot more feminine for some reason!

The bird never remained static. He or she was constantly changing into different forms.

"Are you a boy bird or a girl bird?"

Chirrup?

"...Forget I asked anything."

This little confusion didn't affect his closeness to Trisk. Developing greater bonds with his expert mech and the additional presences watching over it not only made him feel more comfortable when piloting the Dark Zephyr, but also deepened his resonance!

The fruits of all of this progress started to become increasingly more clear.

As Tusa quietly attuned himself to his expert mech while it floated in open space, three distant mechs steadily approached the interference zone and came close.

Three prime mechs stopped a short distance away from the Dark Zephyr. Their forceful auras were quite powerful in their own right, but the Dark Zephyr's active resonance practically turned the zone around it into a territory where only Tusa and his expert mech reigned.

"Joshua. Dise. I see you've brought a third partner this time."

"We're tired of getting beat up by you all of the time. You've improved so much lately that we can't keep up with your performance anymore." Venerable Joshua helplessly transmitted over the short-ranged communication channel.

"Heh, I've heard so much about these little practice duels of yours." Venerable Orfan chuckled. "My prime mech might not be as quick and agile as the others, but don't underestimate my spear."

Tusa curled his lips into a grin. "I'll be sure to take that into account. Now, let us check our practice weapons. I'll need to apply the right settings to my expert mech before we can begin."

There was always a considerable risk whenever mech pilots sparred against each other with real combat machines. Even with lots of precautions, there were still ways for mechs to collide against each other with such great force that mech pilots could lose their lives!

The expert pilots in question were not regular pilots, however. They were able to control their machines a lot better. Their mechs were also covered with solid Unending alloy plating, which was extremely difficult to break through incidental attacks.

Still, just to be sure, the mechs did not employ their standard armaments that were also made of Unending alloy. Instead, they wielded custom practice weapons made out of softer and weaker materials.

Such weapons did not provide them with an authentic dueling experience, but safety came first.

"You're lucky that you don't have to face my sharper pair of knives." Tusa said as his Dark Zephyr wielded a pair of weapons that were purposefully coated in red. "My real weapons could cut right through the weaker parts of your prime mechs!"

"Heh, let's see if you are still able to boast after we gang up on you, Tusa!" Orfan replied as her prime spearman mech wielded another brightly-colored weapon.

The four mechs all charged at each other without exchanging any more nonsense.

Though the Dark Zephyr should have easily been able to outpace and outmaneuver the three prime mechs by a huge margin, the expert mech was actually performing well below its previous standards.

In order to make this practice session fairer, Tusa had voluntarily activated a custom setting that artificially reduced the maximum performance of many of the Dark Zephyr's parameters so that it performed nearly identical to the now-defunct Piranha Prime!

This put all of the mechs on even ground in theory.

Though the handicap still left the Dark Zephyr with a distinct mobility advantage, Tusa's three opponents had already moved to surround the expert mech.

Though Venerable Tusa was sure that he could slip out from this cage, he deliberately allowed his foes to box him in. The point of this practice session was to test and exercise his close combat fighting capabilities.

"Come!"

Two spears and a swords closed in on the Dark Zephyr with impeccable timing and coordination that only expert pilots could accomplish.

Yet before they could strike their targets, the Dark Zephyr raised its weapons to deflect the two spear thrusts while easily moving out of the way to evade the sword strike.

"Not enough!"

After parrying a few more attacks that came from multiple directions, Tusa finally decided to go on the attack.

"It's my turn now!"

The Dark Zephyr, which still performanced a lot worse than normal, was easily able to weave through the different attacks and somehow managed to reach the rear of the Valkyrie Prime.

Though Venerable Joshua responded remarkably quickly by reversing the Valkyrie Prime's spear and stabbing towards the back all the while moving away, the Dark Zephyr easily avoided the hasty defensive stab before striking lightly at the flight system of the Valkyrie Prime.

"Damn! Help me get this guy off my back!"

The Dark Zephyr was already long gone by the time the Bright Sword Prime and the Bright Spear Prime had caught up. In fact, the expert mech had already circled around and managed to strike the rear of Venerable Dise's expert mech before the Swordmaiden expert pilot could move her sword around in time!

"You're in my way!"

"We'll never catch him at this rate."

"Damn, ganging up on Tusa is harder than it looks. He keeps circling around and forcing us to move around each other."

Though the Dark Zephyr operated at reduced strength and did not employ any of its resonance abilities, the gap in performance was still evident.

In just a couple of months, Venerable Tusa's growth had already outpaced the other expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan!