The Mech Touch

Fighting against Patriarch Reginald up close exerted great pressure against Venerable Orfan!

The two weren’t close when it came to their resonance strengths.

One of them was a high-tier expert pilot who lived through many different tribulations!

The other was a late bloomer who originally shouldn’t have the qualifications of an expert pilot!

Reginald’s willpower was not only refined until it had become as solid as an iron dome, it also conveyed all of his hatred, his pride and his lust for glory!

Before Venerable Orfan could concentrate on fighting against the Bolvos Rage, she had to make sure her own willpower was able to stand firm in the face of this strong pressure!

“Ugh!” She grunted. “You’re dreaming if you expect me to kneel in front of you! Our clan is growing stronger and must I! How can I keep my chin up if I let myself fall behind? Beating you shall be the first step to my rise to greatness!”

The suppression from the high-tier expert pilot still affected her judgment and combat efficiency, but she was gradually learning how to cope against this influence!

Patriarch Reginald’s eyes glinted as he sensed the rising resistance from his most direct adversary.

It was not easy for a weaker expert pilot to gain momentum in front of his daunting presence!

Yet the scrappy expert spearman mech unceasingly put up a greater fight.

“It looks like I can’t take it easy anymore.”

Patriarch Reginald gradually ramped up his effort. His Bolvos Rage’s axe struck with greater speed and force than before, though the expert mech held back its shotgun for the moment.

A couple of resonance-empowered laser beams struck the Bolvos Rage’s resonance shield!

The shots came from different directions as the Amaranto and the Everchanger had taken up opposite positions!

The pressure they exerted on the Bolvos Rage was quite difficult to deal with. Although Patriarch Reginald had plenty of ranged weapons at his disposal, his expert mech could not effectively suppress enemies from every direction.

The only weapon system of the Bolvos Rage that did not pay attention to direction was its back-mounted missile launcher.

However, every expert mech-grade missile was precious. It was too much of a waste to squander them in a sparring match!

For this reason, Patriarch Reginald had opted to remove the module from his expert mech in order to reduce the encumbrance and freedom of motion of his machine.

While his Bolvos Rage was able to put up a better fight against the Riot, his expert mech possessed less means to pressure his other two opponents!

“It looks like I need to get closer!”

The Bolvos Rage no longer remained in place. The mech slowly accelerated forward.

Between the Amaranto and the Everchanger, Patriarch Reginald decisively chose to chase after the former!

The Amaranto was the definition of a glass cannon. The expert rifleman mech’s offensive threat was the highest but its other parameters were all low.

In comparison, the Everchanger was a lot more balanced. Its offensive threat wasn’t as high but it was more than capable of defending itself against a variety of attacks.

In particular, its regenerative properties made it a lot harder to defeat than usual!

“Rosa, do your best to halt the Bolvos Rage!” Joshua called.

“I’m trying, but this damned Crosser mech is as tough as a juggernaut! Hit it harder, goddamnit!”

Even though the Riot was putting up a good fight, it was unable to stall the forward momentum of the Bolvos Rage. If the expert spearman mech forcefully tried to stand in the way, then it would just get shoved aside by the opposing mech’s unreasonably powerful resonance shield!

Seeing that the empowered laser beam attacks weren’t making any apparent progress in draining the Bolvos Rage’s first defensive layer, Venerable Joshua was no longer satisfied with firing laser beams from his Vitalus rifle.

“Stark! This guy’s resonance shield is too powerful. Let’s switch to light beams!”

Both ranged mechs simultaneously changed the attack modes of their high-end luminar crystal rifles.

The Vitalus rifle held by one of the hands of the Everchanger soon began to bark out accurate light beams that impacted the rear of the Bolvos Rage resonance shield.

This time, the attacks seriously stung the powerful expert mech’s resonance shield.

There was an element in the bright white light beam attacks that actually stung Patriarch’s force of will. The Crosser expert pilot furrowed his brows as he began to experience significantly greater discomfort.

Although his expert mech’s resonance shield was powerful enough to endure these attacks for the moment, he could sense that his protective layer was growing unstable at a disconcertingly higher rate than before.

The Amaranto did not sit still either!

The Instrument of Vengeance in its hands barked out bigger and more powerful beams. As a two-handed weapon that was expressly designed to take out powerful threats from a distance, its ranged damage output was considerably higher!

When the light beams struck from both sides of the Bolvos Rage, its resonance shield became even more unstable. The stress it endured from two different directions forced Patriarch Reginald to put significantly more effort into sustaining his protective measure.

“Not enough!” Venerable Joshua. “We need more power!”

The Larkinson mech pilots had already realized that they didn’t need to withhold their power that much. The Bolvos Rage was too powerful and was still able to endure more attacks. Holding back to this extent was sheer folly!

Joshua resonated with his expert mech and its rifle to a greater degree than before. Not only that, but he explicitly instructed his expert mech to switch its glow to that of the Illustrious One!

Once the Everchanger gained a brighter and more mysterious aura, the way its Vitalus output damage had changed.

“Illustrious One! Bless my weapon!”

The crystal weapon shimmered with different lights.

A rainbow light from a mysterious source seemed to unlock more of its latent potential. Aroused by Venerable Joshua’s extensive familiarity with the luminar crystal design spirit, the design spirit channeled a greater portion of his power into the weapon than ever before!

A green light from Venerable Joshua’s manifestation of power fed the weapon with the power of life, causing its light beam attacks to become infused with a greater proportion of his willpower!

Venerable Joshua evoked the power of both true resonance and prime resonance at the same time!

At this time, Joshua, the Everchanger and the Illustrious One had become highly aligned with each other. Each of them resonated with each other and added their respective strengths to the bright and shimmering light beam attacks that destabilized the Bolvos Rage’s resonance shield to a greater degree.

What was remarkable was that a portion of the destructive light beam energies actually persisted!

For an instant, it was as if the rainbow attack had actually turned into acid that had been flung onto the surface of the Crosser expert mech’s resonance shield.

Although Joshua’s attempt to make them stick only kept them active for a brief interval, this was still a completely new application of his domain that added to his versatility!

“What?” Patriarch Reginald became distracted by this new development.

He did not expect that the Everchanger could launch such a tricky attack!

The fact that his expert mech was able to ‘wipe’ away the sticky light beam energy so quickly did not mean it was a weak attack.

If Patriarch Reginald did not actively divert a portion of his formidable willpower to grind away the sticky attack, it would likely persist and wear out his expert mech’s resonance shield faster!

All of this meant that the high-tier expert pilot had to make a difficult choice.

He could save up his willpower so that he could direct all of his power to his primary targets at the cost of depleting his expert mech’s resonance shield faster. The sticky light beam energies had the potential to deal two to four times as much damage if left unattended!

He could also opt to constantly expend his willpower to grind down the sticky energy residue as soon as they appeared. The effort required to do so was not great but Patriarch Reginald would inevitably have to split his focus and strength exertion if he chose this course of action!

This wasn’t the extent of his troubles.

Even as his Bolvos Rage continued to advance towards the Amaranto, Venerable Stark launched her own form of counterattack.

Even though the Amaranto was bound to the same design spirit that currently empowered the Everchanger, Venerable Stark possessed a substantially different relationship with the Illustrious One.

The Instrument of Vengeance glowed with a combination of Venerable Stark’s rage against the forces beyond her power she condemned and the Illustrious One’s loneliness.

Both of them were survivors in a sense!

Their commonalities caused them to develop a special relationship that was based on different values and feelings.

With the addition of the Amaranto, a masterwork expert mech that had been shaped by both influences, the combination of the three fully empowered the Instrument of Vengeance beyond the norm!

The large crystal weapon evoked a sense of retribution! Anything that stood in Venerable Stark’s way must get struck down!

The older exper pilot’s eyes flashed with hellfire red.

“Passing Light!”

The high-powered beam fired by the Amaranto lit up the surrounding space with pure red destructive power!

Patriarch Reginald only had an instant to reinforce the forward side of his expert mech’s resonance shield before it got struck by the nakedly powerful attack!

A bright explosion of red light occurred upon impact!

Although the Bolvos Rage’s resonance shield still managed to hold, the surprising part of this attack was that the surface of the expert mech’s armor had actually been scorched!

“You punched through my resonance shield! No, not exactly. It was as if a part of your beam attack phased through my first line of defense!”

Patriarch Reginald did not expect that a mid-tier expert pilot like Venerable Stark could develop such a useful ability at her stage.

Being able to penetrate through the resonance shields of expert pilots was an extremely desirable ability. As far as he knew, only high-tier expert pilots and high-tier expert mechs were able to accomplish this. The only other way to pull it off was by utilizing the corresponding resonating exotics, but the Amaranto did not incorporate any such materials.

This was a capability that Venerable Stark could only pull off with a powerful living mech and the help of the Illustrious One.

It was the design spirit that was responsible for altering the properties of the empowered light beam with partial phasing properties!

The Amaranto fired the same attack yet again, causing the Bolvos Rage to acquire another scorch mark!

However, Patriarch Reginald slowly calmed down when he realized that this attack was not as threatening as he thought.

“I see. Your mastery of this ability is still too rudimentary. Not enough energy is passing through my resonance shield.”

Perhaps her new Passing Light resonance ability might grant Venerable Stark the ability to cripple completely intact expert mechs in the future, but for now her power and her proficiency in this highly complicated technique were still up to standard!

? ?? ??-??? ??, ??? Venerable Stark halted her efforts. She had gotten what she wanted and confirmed her new ability’s effects against a real expert mech.

If the Passing Light ability didn’t consume so much energy and strained her mind and will so much with every attack, she would have preferred to fire a few more times.

“It should have more effect against a weaker expert mech.” She consoled herself as her expert mech fired more sustainable attacks.

The Amaranto’s regular attacks weren’t weak!

The fact that the Bolvos Rage was able to keep its resonance shield intact after enduring so much punishment was not because its enemies were weak, but more because its expert pilot was so unreasonably strong!

The extra pressure only further enflamed Patriarch Reginald’s battlelust!

“Keep firing! Keep attacking! You Larkinsons may possess a lot of toys, but they are no match for my indomitable fighting spirit!”