The Mech Touch

Venerable Dise managed to outmaneuver the Hivar Roarer expert pilots!

With the Paravad and the Morko Mark II constantly on the First Sword's back, the Larkinson expert mech not only managed to avoid their blockade, but also strike a pair of blows onto the Domingo Daren, the expert mech version of the Crumbleshell!

As the powerful ranged support component of the trio of dwarven expert mechs, the Domingo Daren played a crucial role in the team.

Just like their regular mech counterparts, the Domingo Daren was responsible for providing ranged fire support. This crucial expert mech compensated for the lack of offensive power of the avian expert mechs and worked great at putting an opponent in its sight under constant pressure.

Indeed, Venerable Dise had long built up quite a lot of resentment for the damned Domingo Daren. Her sentiments were similar to the friendly mech pilots who had sought to destroy the spinning Crumbleshells only to get intercepted and blocked by the multitude of other Hivar Roarer mechs.

Now that she managed to disable a fourth of the weapon systems of the expert turtle mech and shove her blade through its thick shell shortly afterwards, the sudden expert mech fight took an abrupt turn in the other direction!

Despite being outnumbered by three-to-one, the three dwarven expert pilots had the illusion that they were the ones who were in trouble!

They had already fought against the human expert mech enough times to learn how frightening it truly was. The First Sword couldn't be measured against other second-class mechs. Its armor system not only provided it with a huge buffer, but its extremely sharp and hefty blade gave it as much teeth as a high-tier expert mech!

Though the dwarves believed that Venerable Orthox De Massie should be able overpower the First Sword, there was only one high-tier expert pilot in the Ferril punitive fleet, and he was currently fighting for his life against a human high-tier expert pilot!

"This can't be happening!" Venerable Merek uttered in disbelief even as he resonated with the flight system of his Paravad in order to reach his beleaguered battle comrade faster. "Why is this demonic human mech so strong!?"

For a moment, he thought that Vulcan had forsaken him and his fellow dwarves, that the great dwarven god had found the Ferrils unworthy.

That doubt came and went in an instant. Merek's will was not so easily shaken. His belief in dwarven supremacy was ironclad and his faith in Vulcan was absolute!

No matter what the evil human gods had sacrificed to create this unholy monster of an expert mech, the sword-wielding abomination wielding a stolen dwarven masterwork weapon must be slain in order to make everything right and prevent the tall folk from destroying the dream of freeing dwarvenkind across the galaxy!

An overwhelming urgency swept across Venerable Merek's body. His entire will burst out, causing his entire expert mech to glow bright with power!

"FASTER! I MUST GO FASTER!"

The Paravad rushed forth at an even greater pace as Merek did not hesitate to burn his will to give his expert mech a greater acceleration boost than it had ever achieved!

Merek did not even realize that his resonance strength had reached a new record. It was only now that he no longer looked down on his opponent and truly recognized the threat of his enemy that he felt pressured to draw on his unused potential!

This was not an odd phenomenon in expert pilots. They were highly talented individuals who possessed the potential to gain infinite power. However, it was rare for expert pilots to be able to stimulate their drive and yearning for greater strength in times of peace.

Only a hard-fought battle was able to force both regular mech pilots and expert pilots to activate their unused potential. When their lives and the lives of their comrades were on the line and when their causes and convictions were at stake, that was when heroes stood out from the rank and file!

Now, Venerable Merek was one of many expert pilots in this battle that had grown in power if not always in mentality. Under his control, the Paravad became the incarnation of a predator bird as it rushed forward with great momentum!

Different from before, the avian expert medium mech did not lead with its razor-sharp claws. Though their underside mounting provided the Paravad with a large measure of safety when it performed its attack runs, it was insufficient in applying a high amount of physical force. They were most suited to perform hit-and-run attacks which had only yielded marginal results so far.

Against an expert mech with cheat-like armor, such attacks no longer sufficed for Venerable Merek.

It was for this reason that he decided to lead with its sharp and pointy beak first.

The strongest weapon system on the Paravad was not its claws, nor its wing-mounted positron cannons.

Its actual killer weapon was its beak which was not only made out of extremely dense and hard alloys, but also contained a special resonating material that provided this weapon system with a lot of punch!

The only downside of employing this weapon system was that Venerable Merek had to build up a lot of momentum in order to charge against his opponent with as much physical force as possible!

The greater the speed, the greater the collision. The greater the collision, the more devastating the Paravad's beak became!

As the avian mech raced forth with its wings folded to a narrower profile and its forward-pointed beak glowing in a bright silvery corona, Venerable Merek truly felt that he had become the Paravad for a moment!

"Hold the enemy in place! Don't let him escape!" Venerable Merek urged his comrades.

This was one of the weaknesses of the Paravad's all-out charge. When it sped forward with such great momentum, it lost nearly all of its maneuverability. Similar to the Valkyrie Redeemer, the Paravad was a marauder mech that possessed a versatile fighting style. It could adopt a cautious and elusive approach if Merek wanted to remain cautious but it could also go all-out and perform a high-risk maneuver that yielded an incredible payoff if it succeeded!

Venerable Dise wasn't blind. Even though she invested most of her attention towards hacking through the shell of the Domingo Daren, she already accounted for the quick reprisal of the avian expert mechs.

She didn't expect the Paravad to advance with such an exaggerated degree of speed and momentum! The enemy expert mech's will-infused beak exuded a particular sense of danger.

Her expression turned sour. Though she had already driven her sword through the Domingo Daren's turtle shell several times, she could tell that none of her attacks dealt fatal damage to the expert turtle mech.

Its defenses were high and its internals were more robust than she thought! It didn't help that he internal architecture of this turtle mech deviated a lot from a general mech. Dise though that she had driven the Decapitator through the cockpit or the power reactor with every deep stab, but it turned out that the blade damaged nothing except some structural components, ammunition belts and other secondary components.

"These blasted turtle mechs!"

The designers of the Domingo Daren had taken full advantage of the unique properties that turtle mechs possessed. Unlike a regular human expert mech, there was no particular reason why the power reactor and cockpit needed to be mounted on the upper torso and why the mech engine should be placed around the pelvis section.

Its internal space was just one spacious bowl which could fit any kind of configuration. The turtle mech's relatively simple physical requirements provided mech designers with all kinds of choices that they would never be able to make if they designed a more restrictive humanoid mech!

When Ves paid attention to this fight, even he became impressed by the Domingo Daren's design concept.

"These turtle mechs look stupid but they're actually powerful and tricky to fight against. It's no wonder that the Hivar Roarers have turned them into a core part of their mech roster and combined arms approach."

Ves was so taken by the possibilities that turtle mech opened up that he developed a desire to design one himself. Compared to other bestial mechs such as tiger mechs, Ves did not need to study any non-human physiology and mechatronic theory. They were highly analogous to shuttles but were far better armored and controlled.

Like her husband, Gloriana studied the expert turtle mech as well, but was not as charmed by it. The lazy design offended her sensibilities. Its ungainly bulbous shape possessed no hint of femininity.

She didn't pay much attention to this at the moment. Instead, she narrowed her eyes at the footage and sensor readings of the Domingo Daren.

At first glance, she assumed the Domingo Daren was just a direct expert mech upgrade from the Crumbleshell. However, when the First Sword breached its armor and exposed some of its internals, she began to spot parts and systems that should not belong to a defensive ranged mech.

After spending a few more seconds on analyzing the new data, her eyes widened. She activated an emergency command that directly connected her to Venerable Dise.

"Get away from the Domingo Daren's shell! Its a trap that can entangle your mech!"

The dwarven expert mech had already revealed its true nature halfway through her explanation!

The bulbous turtleshell split apart into segments that extended outward in an attempt to grapple and clamp down the First Sword!

Venerable Dise had never lowered her vigilance, though. She always maintained respect for her opponents and already remained on guard against unexpected surprises.

The Domingo Daren had always appeared too one dimensional for an expert mech. Seeing its shell unfold into a giant clamp only mildly took her by surprise.

With the instincts honed through many hunts against dangerous organisms. Venerable Dise already commanded her expert mech to blast off and escape whatever trap the dwarves were trying to pull!

Her quick thinking allowed the First Sword to distance itself from the Domingo Daren with plenty of time to spare, but her sense of threat never subsided.

The First Sword was still in the danger zone!

"What?!"

When the Domingo Daren's segmented shell failed to chomp its prey, its dwarven expert pilot did not show any disappointment.

"You can't get away!"

Numerous large modules in the inner structure of the Domingo Daren began to glow while consuming enormous amounts of power. A huge magnetic attraction force came to life that acted onto the First Sword's metallic frame!

The Larkinson expert mech's flight slowed down several times, but this wasn't all. The Domingo Daren detached its huge clamping mechanism and launched it forward!

This time, the clamp successfully trapped the expert swordsman mech in its jaws!

Though the First Sword attempted to cut at its bonds, it had only been able to cut off a single 'tooth' before the clamp immobilized its arms.

The humanoid expert mech possessed no leverage to wield its enormous sword!

The weakness of the humanoid mech form became very evident now. The First Sword was designed as a pure expert swordsman mech and possessed no integrated weapon modules. It possessed no tools at all to destroy the clamping mechanism that prevented its frame from flying away and kept its limbs immobilized.

"No!" Ves shouted in alarm as this drastic turn of events took place. "The First Sword needs help! Where's the Dark Zephyr!?"

"Venerable Tusa is currently supporting the opposite flank, sir!"

"What about the Amaranto!?"

"Venerable Stark is still locked in a firefight against the Slug Rider expert mechs!"

"Damnit, why haven't we sent the Shield of Samar or other mechs to free up the Amaranto!?" Ves demanded.

"We tried and it didn't work! The other Slug Ranger mechs are constantly supporting their own expert mechs. Our ranged contingent has no choice but to fight back against them in order to prevent a wipeout."

"Then what else is left?!"

"…"