The Mech Touch

The Swordmaidens shouldered the burden of defending the Larkinson Clan once again.

It was a tired refrain and one that Venerable Dise was becoming increasingly weary of. She did not fear battle. She understood why Ves was taking risks. Greatness could not be achieved without making bold decisions.

The success of Ves and his clan stood as a testament of his approach. Each time he brought the Larkinson Clan to the edge and overcame a challenge, the survivors all benefited massively. The rapid growth that ensued soon enchanted many clansmen to the point where they no longer thought about the costs the clan had paid to get to this point.

Venerable Dise did not forget. From Commander Lydia to Mayra, she had lost many sisters along the way. The original band of sisters who originated from the Faris Star Region had been reduced to a fraction of its former glory.

Though Dise was glad that many talented young women had joined the ranks of the Swordmaidens as of late, it wasn't the same. The aspirants who came from the Heavensword Association possessed excellent qualifications and far more talent than the women who originated outside human space, but they lacked a ferocious and desperate quality that only children of the frontier possessed.

The Heavensword Association was a second-rate state after all. The conditions over there were paradise for swordsmen and swordswomen. No one in the state grew up cold, hungry and orphaned. The streets were clean and no one threw their waste buckets onto the mud-ridden paths.

Glimpses of her childhood flashed through her mind before Dise reasserted her will.

"I'm not that little girl anymore…"

She was an expert pilot now. She survived everything Aeon Corona VII could throw at her and managed to survive and thrive through a combination of skill, luck and happenstance. Her inexplicable bond with Qilanxo as well as a couple of her fellow expert pilots added a lot of color in her life.

"Thank you for your well wishes." She replied to no one.

Still, it wasn't the same. She still yearned to go back to the old days where she roamed the frontier piloting a third-class mech under the leadership of Commander Lydia. Though her life and the life of her fellow Swordmaidens was much more difficult and bereft of comfort, it was the habitat that Dise called home.

The Larkinson Clan was rich but far too soft in comparison. She never fully felt at ease with the long periods of peace and quiet. The lack of risk in most regions of space had caused her to feel more and more lethargic.

This was why she was looking forward to entering the Red Ocean. Only in a region that was more dangerous than the Faris Star Region could reignite her battle thirst.

Battles like these also brought her back to her greatest days. She felt guilty for enjoying battle. After all, she cared a lot for her fellow Swordmaidens and did not wish to drive them to their deaths.

Fortunately, she was an expert pilot. She had already condensed her will and resolved the dilemmas in her heart. She had made peace with the fact that she was a warrior and that her fellow Swordmaidens also needed to hone themselves in battle. Only blood could make them stronger!

"How many sisters will die this time?"

In previous battles, Ves and General Verle tried their best to preserve the old guard of the Swordmaidens. This time, that wasn't easy to accomplish anymore because their current opponents were too overwhelming.

With the quality of their mechs and their quantity advantage, the dwarves could very well sweep through the entire expeditionary fleet if the Swordmaidens did not give their all in this fight!

Venerable Dise did not want her closest and most familiar comrades to come to harm. She needed to fight with all of her will and effort if she wanted to keep the Swordmaiden mech pilots by her side alive!

"Let's go, First Sword. Get ready for your baptism in blood!"

She received a positive vibe from her expert mech. As a machine designed primarily by Ketis and tailored for her use, the First Sword had become a powerful extension of her body and will.

In fact, she somehow suspected that the last-minute tune-ups had somehow boosted her expert swordsman mech even further. From the moment her mech unsheathed the Decapitator, she strangely felt more in tune with the mech-sized greatsword than before.

Whenever she resonated with it a little, she could sense a sharpened edge that yearned to cut through mechs.

Was this an effect of the masterwork properties of her mech sword?

She shook her head. "I don't need to think so much. I just need to fight."

As an expert pilot and swordswoman, she was meant to fight whoever opposed her and her fellow comrades. She fought not just for the Swordmaidens but also the clan that gave them a new home and future. That was her role. She could leave the other matters to other Larkinsons.

Now that she had finally received the command to go on the attack, she focused on her immediate task.

Her will grew more solid as it swept across her entire mech. A faint corona surrounded the First Sword as the expert mech easily accepted her influence.

She always wondered how mech designers made that possible. Resonating with the First Sword was an entirely different experience from the Bright Sword Prime.

As for the Decapitator, she did not resonate with it yet. It was a powerful weapon and a masterpiece in its own right. Dise did not want to draw upon it unless it was necessary.

As the First Sword and a mech company of Bright Warriors piloted by Swordmaidens, swung around to approach the Hivar Roarers, she quickly swept through the summary of the data on the enemy mechs.

Since their appearance, the Larkinsons failed to take down more than a handful of Crumbleshells. The turtle mechs with their odd rotations and alternating cannon fire looked like something out of a cartoon, but their effectiveness in battle was undeniable.

Taking them down was her highest priority, but when she looked at the spread formation of the dwarven mechs, she did not have much hope of finishing them in a single blow.

"They're too dispersed."

Sure, the Glory Seekers along with the Flagrant Vandals and other units were doing their best to pressure the enemy's sides. However, the Hivar Roarer mechs fought with different mech doctrines that put a greater emphasis on maneuver warfare. Their mechs did not have shields for the most part and their highly maneuverable avian mechs performed best if they could leverage their full mobility.

Through their constant movements and harassments, any human mech that attempted to get close to the crucial Crumbleshells would get torn apart from all sides!

Venerable Dise already made a judgement in her mind. The lighter bestial mechs had to go. If she was able to remove them from the board, then even if she wasn't able to inflict any serious damage to the Crumbleshells, the turtle mechs could easily be cleaned up once they lost their abundant bodyguards.

Her grin turned increasingly more bloodthirsty. She was glad the Hivar Roarers mechs were less well-armored than the other dwarven mechs. They would serve as excellent practice targets for one of her latest sword techniques.

"Sisters!" She called out to her fellow Swordmaidens.

Venerable Dise didn't need Ves explaining to her that the alignment between herself and her fellow Swordmaidens was crucial to empowering a battle formation. As the living nexus of the Swordmaiden battle network, she understood these nuances instinctively!

She glanced at the mechs piloted by her closest sisters. As Dise began to arouse the battle network, she sensed the invisible bonds between herself and her sisters becoming more apparent.

"You know what we must do. The dwarves in front of us threaten our home and wish to end our sisterhood. They know nothing about what they are facing! We have fought gods, warships and expert mechs without turning our tails. Compared to the monsters that we have vanquished, these bands of dwarves are unworthy to take our lives! Let us show them the might of the Swordmaidens and show them the folly of challenging our blades!"

"FOR LYDIA!"

"FOR THE SISTERHOOD!"

"FOR THE CLAN!"

The Swordmaiden mechs began to accelerate! At the same time, the mech pilots all channeled their minds in a way that brought them closer to Venerable Dise. As sisters who fought, trained and grew up together in the frontier, their compatibility and familiarity with each other was exceptional, so the battle formation quickly took hold!

This time, the Swordmaidens adopted a swarm formation. The mechs all buzzed around in random patterns that did not seem to make any sense. It made the formation look like anything but. Even pirate mechs displayed more order than the chaotic movement of the Swordmaiden mechs!

Yet as Venerable Dise expanded her will and resonance to encompass these machines, the randomized movements took on an inexplicable charm that started off subtle but steadily rose to a crescendo.

Anyone looking at the buzzing formation would begin to feel increasingly dizzy. The Hivar Roarers who glimpsed the approaching Swordmaidens began to feel as if their senses were cut by a thousand blades!

Horror began to well up in them as the space around the Swordmaiden mechs began to get filled with countless apparitions of swords. It was as if their formation had been swept by a space storm!

"Form up! Repel the incoming enemy swordsman mechs at all costs!"

The Hivar Roarers did not choose to respond in the same way as the Molten Hammers. They were attackers by nature and most of their bestial mechs lacked the defenses to withstand heavy blows.

Therefore, they fell back to their training and initiated a counter attack! By making proactive decisions, the dwarves hoped to regain the initiative and spoil whatever plan the enemy had in mind!

"Feast for Ferril!"

"Glory to the dwarves!"

"Victory for Vulcan!"

"ATTACK!"

Though Venerable Dise was slightly caught off-guard at the enemy's response, it did not interrupt her own arrangements. As soon as she and her battle formation reached the right distance, she resonated with the sword of her expert mech with all of her will!

"Decapitator!" She roared as the masterwork sword began to glow and pulse in blue. "Guide my wrath and unleash my fury!

At the same time, the blade illusions within the battle formation also began to glow in blue! A huge amount of energy began to channel from the Swordmaiden mechs, Venerable Dise, the First Sword and the Decapitator!

All of these elements had aligned closer than they had ever been, causing them to resonate with each other with unprecedented intensity!

In fact, the extraordinary Decapitator began to glow and buzz with so much disturbance that its blade had seemingly merged with the escalating energy manifestation!

For a single moment, the entire right flank seemed to have become frozen in time. Venerable Dise was channeling so much power that it was as if she had become a god of this entire domain!

"Bladestorm." She whispered.

With a mighty horizontal swing, the First Sword swung its Decapitator in a mighty sweep!

At the same time, the storm of illusionary blades surged forth like a storm too great to be stopped by any man, dwarf or mech!

To their credit, the charging Hivar Roarers did not collapse or lose their confidence. They charged fearlessly into the extraordinary energy storm as if their courage and valor was the key to withstand this attack!

"Charge forward!"

"Vulcan always protects!"

"Don't be fooled! This is a mere parlor trick!"

The fanatical believers invoked their faith in Vulcan as they believed that he would never fail to protect them in battle.

Unfortunately, their god did not help them this time.

A grand, supernatural storm that stretched across a surprisingly wide area despite being generated by a limited amount of mechs swept across more than a third of the Hivar Roarer mechs on this side of the battlefield!

Thousands of mechs incurred continuous attacks from the front! Each and every blow hit as hard as the swing of a greatsword. Though many bestial mechs were able to withstand numerous direct hits of this strength level, the problem with the energy bladestorm was that every machine sustained at least two-dozen attacks!

If not for the fact that the successive blade attacks weren't concentrated and hit randomly across the entire frames of the Hivar Roarer mechs, they would have all been sliced to pieces by now!

Still, the sharpness of the blade attacks were not to be underestimated. Thick armor plating bore many deep scars. Many vulnerable modules and parts had either been cut to pieces or crippled to the extent that they had become burdens to their mechs.

As the bladestorm quickly swept across the entire length of the Hivar Roarers at this flank, the blades soon lost cohesion and disappeared.

In the end, many broken and heavily damaged mechs floated in space. Their dwarven mech pilots had not lost their lives for the most part, as unlike the Penitent Sister battle formation the bladestorm only inflicted material damage.

That did not make it any less deadly. With so many avian mechs losing their wings and other limbs, these flightless birds had turned from predator into prey!