The Mech Touch

Who was the hunter and who was the hunted?

For a long time, Venerable Merek and his fellow Hivar Roarer expert pilots thought that they held the upper hand.

Sure, the infernal human expert mech possessed nigh-unbreakable armor, but by Vulcan's will the dwarven expert mechs were sure to vanquish this evil foe!

"It's just like playing those virtual games back when we were young." Venerable Merek told his teammates. "The boss fights aren't actually that hard. They just take so long because the bosses we're trying to kill are too tough compared to regular enemies."

This might be true, but the battle taking place at the moment was no game and Venerable Dise was not a rigid, AI-controlled character who attacked according to strict instructions.

She was an expert pilot as well, and she was more than tired of depending on Unending armor to keep her in the fight.

The essence of her fighting style was never about tanking damage! It was about evading attacks, outmaneuvering her opposition and relying on skill to gain advantages during violent exchanges!

The bestial mechs she was fighting against initially threw off her fighting rhythm. She trained and fought a lot against other human and humanoid opponents. Whether it was trying to outduel a fellow Swordmaiden in the sparring ring or trying to gain the better of Venerable Orfan in the few times they had the opportunity to cross weapons at each other in their expert mechs, Venerable Dise always associated mech piloting with human-like opponents.

Bestial mechs did not wield traditional weapons such as swords and spears. Instead, their weapons were inbuilt and came in the form of claws, teeth and other 'natural' armaments.

The only times Dise fought against opponents who utilized this kind of weaponry was when she was on the hunt. She never thought about matching blow for blow against exobeasts who relied on the lethality of their body to win because the difference in physical might was far too great!

It was different now. After getting attacked by the Paravad and the Morko Mark II too many times to count, she thoroughly understood their attack and movement patterns along with the habits of their expert pilots.

Though it was nearly impossible to regain the initiative in the face of constant attacks, a chance still existed.

This was how she managed to pull off her first proper counter-attack against the Paravad!

Just as Venerable Merek was shocked by the sudden explosion of aggression from the human expert mech, the First Sword did not let this successful attack become the extent of its turnaround.

"I smell weakness!"

The First Sword did not pursue the Paravad that had momentarily backed off after incurring a hit on its wings. Instead, it rapidly rotated along its axis and launched towards the Morko Mark II!

The other dwarven expert pilot expected the First Sword to follow-up on its initial assault on the Paravad. The avian expert light skirmisher therefore swept closer in the hopes of assailing the expert swordsman mech from behind.

Though the sudden turnaround was not within expectation, the Morko Mark II was not a light mech for nothing. It slowed down and veered to the side in order to stay out of the reach of the human expert mech's big and deadly-looking sword.

The pilot of the Morko Mark II did not expect the First Sword to charge up its masterwork sword with energy within a second and swing its blade, causing the surprisingly long and cohesive energy blade that extended out of its tip to cut off one of its claws!

"What technique is this?!"

The Morko Mark II hastily flew away while leaving one of its claws behind. This was a significant loss because unlike the larger and heavier Paravad, the Morko Mark II did not carry a lot of weapon systems.

For a time, the injured avian expert mech kept its distance and harassed the First Sword by firing its wing-mounted light positron cannons onto its surface, paying special attention to the armor sections that had already been damaged by previous attacks.

It was not a quick way to take down an Unending alloy expert mech, but the dwarven expert pilot did not want to get close to a frighteningly powerful opponent who could potentially chop his lightly-armored expert mech in half with a single blow!

"Watch out for this expert mech! It's not only insanely tough, but its attack power is also high."

The realization that the First Sword was able to launch highly damaging counterattacks caused the dwarven expert pilots to adjust their approach yet again. They were not stupid beasts who fought purely on instinct after all. Their dwarven heads heated up as they all did their best to figure out a new winning formula to this fight.

Venerable Dise did not intend to wait until they finished their thoughts. She was a woman of action and took advantage of the breathing room she gained for herself to hunt down her first expert bestial mech!

After briefly surveying the condition of the Paravad and the Morko Mark II, she opted against pursuing the two injured avian expert mechs.

Even though their armor was inadequate against the Decapitator's unnaturally sharp blade, they were too fast and mobile for the First Sword to catch up. Instead of wasting her time by futilely trying to play cat and mouse with them, she opted to go for a different prey!

The First Sword adjusted its course and and blasted off towards a bestial expert mech, but it wasn't one of the two that had been occupying most of Venerable Dise's attention.

Her expert mech was flying straight towards the Domingo Daren, the spinning expert turtle mech that had constantly been bombarding the First Sword with hard-hitting gauss rounds!

Most of the internal damage that the expert swordsman mech incurred was due to getting hammered from a distance all the time. Unending alloy was much more able to cope with the positron beam weapons employed by the Paravad and Morko Mark II, so they were not as threatening at the moment.

Previously, Venerable Dise never saw an opportunity to get close to the annoying Domingo Daren, but now that both of the avian expert mechs had backed off, she possessed a small but crucial window of opportunity to make her attempt!

"Get after the human expert mech! Don't let it get close to the Domingo!"

The Domingo Daren already noticed the threat and started to fly backwards while continuing its rotation. Its gauss cannons continued to spit out fire, both so that the reaction force could push it away even further and also so that the gauss rounds impacting on the First Sword would slow its advance!

In practice, the difference it made was marginal. Venerable Dise smelled blood and would not give up until she paid back the Domingo Daren for all of the knocks it inflicted on her new expert mech!

Venerable Merek and his colleague urged their avian expert mechs to catch up to the First Sword in order to dissuade it from attacking the Domingo Daren.

Though the expert turtle mech was not as helpless against melee attackers as the Crumbleshells, close quarters combat was not its home ground. Merek did not want to take any risks when it came to an abnormal expert mech that punched way above its class.

Since both the Paravad and the Morko Mark II were mobility-oriented expert mechs, they caught up well in time. The Morko Mark II could have launched its attack faster, but it was too risky to approach the First Sword by itself, so it took the time to circle around and time its attack with the Paravad.

"Go! It only has one sword!"

The two damaged but still operational bird mechs launched their attack runs at the same time, thereby putting Venerable Dise under quite a bind, but only for a moment.

Even before the two avian expert mechs began their simultaneous attack runs, she had already been trying to connect and resonate with the Decapitator.

She was not a mech technician so she did not understand the finer mechanics of what a masterwork weapon could do. However, she was a swordswoman and she knew a good sword when she saw one. She had already fallen in love with the lovely blade created by Ketis even before it was finished.

With all of the time she spent on practicing with the First Sword, she had already developed a good bond with the Decapitator. Now that she needed its power the most, she urged herself to go deeper and resonated with it at the same time she began to accumulate power for one of her sword techniques.

The Decapitator responded eagerly to her outreach and resonated with her will. Both of them wanted to destroy the bestial mechs that sought to rob the mech sword from Dise's hand and give it to the dwarves.

Just the thought that some dwarven expert mech would defile the Decapitator by holding it in its grubby hands was intolerable to Dise, the First Sword and the Decapitator!

The three elements united together and resonated as a single whole, causing not just the sword but also the expert mech itself to glow with power!

"Stop that human expert mech now!" Venerable Merek shouted as he sensed that the threat level of the First Sword had doubled!

Venerable Dise smirked. "Too late."

By pouring more power into her mech and its sword, Dise became so energised that her entire body felt electrified. The only thing that could have made this moment better was if her physical body was able to wield a sword as well!

Her sights along with the sights of her expert mech focused squarely on the Domingo Daren that was still attempting to create more distance while flying like a spinning saucer.

"MY SWORD HUNGERS FOR PREY! LET YOUR MECH BECOME THE FIRST BEAST IT SLAYS! SWORD OF LYDIA!"

Upon finishing this cry, the glow around the First Sword and its weapon expanded into a giant greatsword. At the same time, the expert mech gained a sudden boost of speed towards the Domingo Daren.

After overloading the flight system for a few seconds, Venerable Dise exerted her will once more, causing the resonance energy that took the shape of a giant glowing greatsword to propel forward at a much greater speed than the First Sword itself!

"What?!? That's the same sword energy that previously ravaged our ranks!"

This was a big and costly sword energy attack that not just any expert mech could unleash. It was incredibly strange that the First Sword was able to launch such a powerful energy attack without relying on the appropriate resonating materials.

Venerable Dise couldn't have channeled it properly with just her expert mech if not for her increased mastery in piloting her new machine.

The new sword style she developed after absorbing the systematic swordsmanship tradition from the Heavensword Association was also important.

The third reason why she was able to launch such an awe inspiring attack at such strength was because the First Sword was also a prime mech! Though its Unending alloy plating had not absorbed much energy from Dise, she always deposited a little bit of herself during every practice attempt.

Though the energy only amounted to a couple of Ves worth of spiritual energy, it was enough for Venerable Dise to successfully execute one of her personal sword styles through the medium of her expert mech!

The giant blade remained surprisingly cohesive even as it traversed a hefty distance. Though the Domingo Daren did not blindly fly straight but also attempted to evade to the side, the Sword of Lydia energy attack advanced far too quickly and managed to pierce through the right side of the expert turtle mech!

A large amount of metal shards flung into space as the glowing sword had punched through the resilient exterior armor of the Domingo Daren and destroyed the twin short-barreled gauss cannon systems that was situated on this side!

The expert turtle mech's spin immediately grew unstable as it suffered significant structural damage.

Though Venerable Dise had exhausted much of her remaining energy in order to launch this intensive sword technique, she did not intend to leave her job half-finished.

"You're mine!"

The Paravad and the Morko Mark II launched bold and risky attacks in order to buy time for the Domingo Daren to retreat, but Venerable Dise squeezed all of the swordsmanship she had in her body to cope with the distractions.

She skillfully utilized the Decapitator to parry the claw attacks from the Paravad while ignoring the scratches inflicted by the single bird claw of the Morko Mark II.

Eventually, the First Sword caught up with the Domingo Daren which was just starting to gain control over its trajectory. Unfortunately for the dwarven expert mech, it had lost crucial time in which it could have used to maintain a distance to the enemy machine!

"My sword will not be stopped by a shell!"

With a single chop of the glowing Decapitator, the weapon's extremely sharp blade cut straight through the top of the Domingo Daren's armor!