The Mech Touch

The expert pilots connected to the Larkinson Network were blazing stars compared to all of the dim lights of other clansmen. Ves easily recalled Tusa's light and ephemeral aura and noticed that the connection leading to such a presence was still intact!

"Tusa…"

The Dark Zephyr appeared just seconds later and a short distance away from the Lemogo Distat! Though the Unending alloy exterior actually looked dented and a bit burned in many places, the expert mech had still managed to survive the explosion at close range!

The data feeds came back online as well, providing the command center with solid data that the internals of the Dark Zephyr were still in a working shape, if only reluctantly.

The only matter of concern was that the mental indicators of the mech pilots had dropped to a low point. The Dark Zephyr's resonance strength had deteriorated to the point it wasn't able to form any true resonance anymore.

"I… made it." Tusa tiredly said over the communication channel.

"How?" Ves softly asked.

"I discovered the true meaning of my expert mech, that's all…"

"Well, you've done your job. Please distance yourself from the dwarven fleet and return to safety. You're not in shape to fight anymore. I'll be sure to order the Eye of Ylvaine to cover your retreat."

"No need, Ves. I can get back by relying on my own skill. I can still do that, at least."

Indeed, even though Venerable Tusa was no longer able to resonate with Perfidious Steel, the Dark Zephyr's mobility was still working fine enough to dodge and weave through all of the retaliation fire unleashed by the vengeful and griefing Slug Rangers!

"Venerable Leiva!"

"You must pay for destroying our Gauss Baron!"

"The cult is right! Humans are all murderers! We need to step them before they kill off our entire race!"

A lot of younger and inexperienced Slug Rangers lost control of themselves. They became beset with frenzy as they thought about the huge loss their mech division had suffered. Even the elite Steel Rain mech pilots became furious as one of their own had been forced to self-destruct her own expert mech to repel an enemy that was never supposed to get that close!

To see the Dark Zephyr escaping from the powerful explosion with hardly any serious damage on its surface was galling to the dwarves!

Venerable Leiva's heroic sacrifice would have been in vain if the Slug Rangers failed to finish the job she started!

With cries and roars, A lot of Slug Ranger mech pilots disregarded their orders and unloaded their firepower onto the fleeing Dark Zephyr.

However, once the expert light skirmisher built up a respectable amount of distance, it became increasingly harder to hit the evading mech, especially considering that almost every ranged mech in the dwarven mech force was armed with physical weapons.

Only the Mech Crackers with their fracturing projectiles managed to ding the rear surface of the Dark Zephyr in a reliable fashion, but the expert mech incurred negligible damage. Even its rear was covered with a layer of Unending alloy. Light shards that shred forward posed no substantial threat to the powerful expert mech.

"He's coming back!"

Ves and many other Larkinsons quietly sighed in relief as they saw that Venerable Tusa was still able to take care of himself despite losing access to many of the expert mech's advantages. Even when his mental state reached near-complete exhaustion, he was still able to power through by relying on sheer willpower.

An expert pilot never gave up! They fought until they truly had nothing else left to give!

This was why Venerable Leiva decisively self-destructed her own mech. When escape was no longer possible, she took the best course of action available that still allowed her to serve her duty and fulfill her conviction without any hesitation.

"How scary." Ves whispered.

The determination of expert pilots was on display in other parts of the battlefield.

For example, Patriarch Reginald's immense hunger to advance to ace pilot drove him to ignore every other consideration of this battle so that he could throw himself onto the strongest enemy expert pilot without reservations!

The leader threw aside all matters concerning strategy, the preservation of Crosser lives and the survival of his capital ships. His perspective narrowed to such a great extent that he no longer even acknowledged every other mech around him aside from the Gatecrasher!

Massive resonance-fueled explosions and other violent outbursts regularly erupted from the center of the battlefield! Any mech that strayed into their exclusive fighting zone inevitably got demolished with disgusting ease.

The Gatecrasher rammed into the human mechs, causing them to shatter as if they were a loose collection of parts. The Bolvos Rage automatically directed a shoulder-mounted positron beam turret to disable any dwarven mechs with pinpoint precision.

No one was able to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing duel! Perhaps the only form of assistance that would help was to bombard the enemy expert mech from a distance, but that was difficult because both machines were extremely well-protected and much faster than their mech types suggested.

The same amount of firepower that was enough to slightly suppress one of the high-tier expert mechs could have been better spent on bombarding a couple of enemy mech companies to pieces!

That was also exactly what the artillery mechs of both sides were doing, alongside terrorizing each other. The Eye of Ylvaine and the Steel Rain had been going at each other's throats for a long time. Many bunkers and enormous hull surfaces had been torn to pieces due to all of the ordnance impacting on each other vessels.

The Golden Skull Alliance already lost more than seventy sub-capital ships and the count kept rising.

Most of them consisted of lightly-armored sub-capital ships that were of little consequence. At this stage of their journey to the beyonder gate, it was fine if they got blown to pieces as long as they bought enough time for the expeditionary fleet.

What worried Ves a bit more was the damage done to the capital ships. Though he didn't experience it on the bridge, the Spirit of Bentheim had been the target of sustained bombardment. This was because her bunkers housed the most effective bunker mechs of the Larkinson Clan!

Combined with her importance as the flagship of the Larkinson Clan and the heart of all of its design activity, the Vulcanites were eager to pound the factory ship into scrap!

"Our cat head prow is taking an awful beating!"

"Better that than the rest of our hull!"

Due to the orientation of the Spirit of Bentheim, a lot of incoming artillery struck the giant animal head, causing its beauty and majesty to crumble with every minute that passed.

However, because the Spirit of Bentheim's bow was made of so many thick layers of Breyer alloy, the dwarves made little progress in actually drilling through the inner structure. Though it hurt to see this section being used as a damage sponge, it was truly the best possible way to preserve the integrity of the factory ship!

"Repairing and rebuilding the prow back to new is going to be a troublesome endeavor." Ves frowned.

So many chunks of valuable Breyer alloy had shattered and flung away from his capital ship. The valuable debris had gone on to join the increasingly more massive debris field that this battle was still in the process of expanding.

Anyone could easily get rich if they just picked up a few random pieces of space junk from this expanding field!

Ves shook his head and stopped thinking about that. There was no way that he would want to stick around long enough to salvage all of the valuable scrap when he was in the middle of enemy territory. He would just have to say goodbye to those treasures.

The overall state of the battle had turned into a messy slugfest at every corner. The stellar organization and clean lines of before were gone now that a couple of major incidents occurred.

The dwarves had become especially more disordered, but their aggression made up for it. They no longer exhibited the patience they showed before.

A lot of Ferril mech pilots had become furious after losing thousands of comrades and one of their great heroes in a relatively short interval of time.

Many more Vulcanite mech pilots fought worse than before. These were the individuals who questioned their lives after witnessing or living through the reality-defying battle formations employed by the Larkinson Clan. Hundreds more still maintained doubts about the righteousness of their cause.

Was the Larkinson Clan truly blessed by Vulcan? Even though most dwarves thought that this was a ridiculous question, the Ves' performance wasn't ordinary and those who fell for his story for various reasons began to question whether they were following the right version of Vulcan.

Then there were the berserkers. Any dwarven mech pilot who lost their confidence or willingness to fight for any reason quickly got injected with war stimulants. This cocktail of chemicals manipulated their physiology in ways that increased their hatred, raised their fighting instincts and reduced their rationality.

Though these drugged-up dwarves lost their discipline and their ability to work as a team, they had become frighteningly effective warriors who could outfight nearly any human opponent! Their unrelenting aggression and their lack of regard for their own lives caused them to make suicidal moves that also put their opponents in great danger!

"They're mere beasts, though. Between disciplined soldiers and feral beasts, it's much easier to deal with the latter!"

The mech units of the Golden Skull Alliance had not been adversely swayed by the dramatic turn of events. Instead, their morale and confidence had risen! The removal of thousands of dwarven mechs and the elimination of the Gauss Baron had wiped out a lot of threats that tilted the scales against the expeditionary fleet's favor.

The only concern was that the enemy dwarves still fielded a lot more expert mechs than the expeditionary fleet!

"In a way, the odds are even worse than before." Ves frowned. "Previously, we were able to deploy 7 expert mechs against 13 hostile expert mechs. Now, the ratio has turned into 6 friendly expert mechs to 12 enemy counterparts."

This was a less favorable ratio than before, but the numbers didn't tell the whole story. It was absolutely worth it to trade away the Dark Zephyr for the elimination of the Gauss Baron. The latter's powerful artillery capabilities could have profoundly affected the other expert mech duels, thereby giving the numerically-superior dwarven expert mechs an even greater advantage!

"The Dark Zephyr is a short-lasting expert mech anyway. It's not suitable for extended clashes so it is highly doubtful that it could defeat successive expert mechs."

Venerable Tusa was still a low-tier expert pilot who was just in the beginning stages of building up his resonance strength. He was far from comparable to the likes of Venerable Stark who held a much greater advantage in this area.

However, that did not make the guest expert pilot inexhaustible. In order to ensure the quick destruction of the Gauss Baron, the Amaranto briefly interrupted its duel against the enemy expert rifleman mechs and expended a hefty amount of effort to strip the Gauss Baron of its various defensive layers.

The masterwork expert mech's full-powered shot that tore apart the reinforced bunker layers sapped a hefty amount of energy from Venerable Stark!

Combined with all of the fighting she had done up until now, Venerable Stark's endurance had already reached the half-way point.

"She also exposed her full power." Ves reminded himself.

Shortly after she showed how much firepower her masterwork expert mech with its newfangled luminar crystal rifle truly possessed, the enemy expert pilots had become a lot more cautious in their fighting.

Aside from Venerable Orthox who was confident enough to block any blow, all of the other dwarven expert pilots maintained at least some vigilance towards the Amaranto. As soon as the deadly expert rifleman mech attempted to pick any of them off, they would be ready to dodge or employ other defensive measures!

"This is not going to end anytime soon…"