The Mech Touch

The Shockshellʼs entry onto the battlefield attracted a lot of attention.

The flagging morale of the Medallion Guard mech pilots instantly revived once their powerful hero had come forth to protect them against their evil opponents.

”Venerable Rebecca has finally come!”

”Shockshell!”

”Shockshell!”

”Shockshell!”

It was odd to see so much enthusiasm and fanaticism bursting from the Fridayman mech pilots. The Shockshell hadnʼt even launched a proper attack as of yet, but the Medallion Guards already believed that their hero would lead them to victory.

The status that Venerable Rebecca Andus had built up within the Medallion Guards and the rest of the Sundered Phalanx for that matter was comparable to that of Patriarch Reginald Cross before his second major breakthrough!

This was because ace pilots were so rare and difficult to reach that the soldiers flocked to expert pilots instead.

The Medallion Guards revered Venerable Rebecca to such a degree that the powerful expert pilot might as well be a god in their eyes!

From the moment the Shockshell burst onto the forefront, the high-tier expert mech seemed to have stopped most of the fighting through its presence alone.

Aside from the enormous awe and respect the Sundered Phalanx mech pilots directed towards Venerable Rebecca, the other reason why so many individuals at this section of the battlefield held their fire was because of the incredibly destructive fight that was about to commence!

The Medallion Guard mechs did not stupidly freeze in place. They instead pushed their current orders aside and did their best to open up a lot of distance from the the Shockshell.

Just because they revered Venerable Rebecca didnʼt meant that they were eager to commit suicide!

Expert hybrid mechs possessed a lot of firepower. Even if their pilots tried their best not to commit friendly fire, it was too difficult to ensure the Shockshell wouldnʼt affect its own side!

The Medallion Guards were not alone in their risk assessment.

All of the nearby Hexer mech units did not seek to press their advantages but instead flew back in order to avoid getting attacked by mistake.

A strange lull had descended on this part of the battlefield as the Riot and the First Sword suspended their attacks and distanced themselves from the enemy battle line.

It was as if the entire section of space had turned into an invisible mech arena!

The Medallion Guards clearly served as the spectators of the home team. Their strong support and belief in Venerable Rebecca Andus and her Shockshell seemed to generate a wave of human energy that charged the surrounding air with an atmosphere of victory!

Venerable Orfan and Venerable Dise were sensitive enough to notice the differences. The swing in momentum was so great that they found it difficult to maintain their previous high spirits.

”The rumors truly werenʼt overblown.” Orfan said. ”Rebecca Andus has honed and refined her willpower to the same degree as Patriarch Reginald back then. I feel like she can break through so long as I sneeze in the wrong direction.”

Dise wasnʼt as intimated, though. ”Donʼt overestimate her too much. How can it be easy to push through the bottleneck to ace pilot? She is just an older and more developed expert pilot than us. We can neutralize her step-by-step as long as we follow the plan.”

It was easy to talk about executing plans when they were theorizing about how to tackle a high-tier expert mech.

It was a lot harder to put their plan into action!

While Venerable Orfan and Venerable Dise werenʼt rookies among expert pilots, it was undeniable that they lacked decades of steady growth and precipitation.

Compared to an old expert pilot who had lived almost thrice as many years as two Larkinson expert pilots, the difference in accumulation was too great!

If Venerable Orfan and Venerable Dise could be compared to moons, then Venerable Rebecca clearly showed the momentum of a star!

Both Larkinson expert pilots understood that fixating on this image would cause them to lose this clash before they even launched an attack against the Shockshell.

If they wanted to fight against Venerable Rebecca Andus without getting suppressed by her overwhelming confidence, then they needed to rebuild their mental edge in this confrontation!

Fortunately, neither Larkinson expert pilots were weak when it came to their willingness to challenge powerful foes.

”Tch! Are you done posturing, you woman?!” Venerable Orfan irreverently broadcasted on an open channel.

Though Venerable Dise did not bother to join in the banter, she was ready to move from the moment that one of the expert mechs made an aggressive move.

In response to the words spoken by Orfan, the expert pilot of the Medallion Guards shot back her own question.

”Why do you fight us, Larkinsons? We have no direct quarrel with you anymore. The Komodo War has ended years ago. Whatever grievances have built up between us should have been buried after the end of the war.”

”No one has buried the hatchet and you know it.” Venerable Orfan sneered. ”The Komodo War in the old galaxy may have ended, but the fighting has never stopped. In fact, what weʼre doing here is nothing but the second or third act of that war.”

”Your arguments are spurious and inaccurate. You Larkinsons are just warmongers who have never had to face the consequences of their own action. From the moment I asked you why you have taken up the piloting profession, neither of the two of you have volunteered an answer. It seems you still have far to go before becoming qualified to challenge my expert mech and I. My Shockshell does not exist to get beaten by your trashy expert mechs.”

Venerable Orfanʼs eyes widened. ”What did you say?! Who are you calling trash?! My Riot is one of the best mechs on this battlefield! High-tier expert pilot or not, I will not allow you to insult my battle partner! Let me show you which mech is the real piece of trash in the field!”

She became so stimulated by Venerable Rebeccaʼs demeaning and dismissive words that her anger exploded!

All thoughts of holding back and trying to contain her opponents got dumped through the airlock.

The only overpowering thought and desire in her mind was to beat up this arrogant Fridayman expert pilot to the point where her enemy had no other choice than to admit that the Riot was a great mech!

Perhaps the expert spearman mech strongly agreed with Venerable Orfanʼs ideas, because the Riot actively played along to the best of its ability, thereby deepening the resonance between each other!

Due to its recent upgrade, the Riotʼs charging ability had become better than ever. It could even perform as a discounted version of an expert lancer mech if it was allowed to build up enough momentum!

Though the people who were viewing this battle from afar only saw that the Riot had launched an impulsive charge against a considerably stronger opponent, the mech pilots viewing this upcoming confrontation saw it much differently!

The fighting intent amplified by the true resonance emanating from the expert mech radiated through the surrounding space, causing many nearby Fridayman and Hexer mech pilots to have the illusion that the Riot had grown into a raging exobeast over the course of its charge!

Such a powerful outburst of fighting intent could instantly sap the courage of those who had the misfortune of becoming her targets, but Venerable Rebecca was different!

Her powerful willpower only condensed even more, causing the true resonance around the Shockshell to expand into a prototypical domain field.

”Beast.” Venerable Rebeccaʼs contempt had never faded. ”An expert pilot that has descended into savagery is no soldier at all. You are just a barbarian that has given in to the most primitive parts of your immature mind. Putting down feral beasts like you is exactly what I am meant to do. Let me show you what real power looks like!”

Blessed by her powerful resonance strength and willpower tempered over the course of many decades, the aura she generated with her Shockshell was incomparably greater than that of her opponent!

Venerable Rebeccaʼs domain was clearly biased towards shock, electricity and other related means of debilitation.

This caused the blue corona around her expert mech to crackle and sizzle as if it had become charged with electrical energy.

Not only that, but a good amount of space around the Shockshell seemed to turn into an artificial thunderstorm!

Venerable Rebeccas was imposing her entire force of will in the immediate area!

It was as if she was wordlessly declaring that every enemy that dared to trespass her territory would get struck by a thunderous rebuke!

Though Venerable Orfan came under vastly more pressure, she did not show any timidity or signs of inferiority.

Combat at this level was no longer solely about possessing the strongest mechs or having the best technical skills.

As expert pilots became increasingly more detached from their mortal roots, the elements of willpower and mentality played an increasingly more important role.

This was why it was always possible for those paired with weaker expert mechs to defeat those who utilized stronger ones!

A technical advantage might raise the threshold of getting defeated, but if the pilot itself did not possess a sufficient amount of courage and intent, then such a powerful machine was wasted in his or her hands!

This was also why large mech organizations refrained from providing powerful expert mechs to their younger and more inexperienced low-tier expert pilots.

Economics played one part of the decision to hold back. Another part was that starting off with a more basic expert mech was an important tempering process for newly advanced expert pilots.

While Venerable Orfan did not go through this process, she was anything but a fragile warrior.

In response to the obvious contempt shown by her opponent, she became even more determined to beat the Shockshell!

”BREAK FOR ME!” She roared as her Riot was about to slam into the Shockshell!

From the start of the Riotʼs charge, the Shockshell had yet to launch any attack. The naked contempt emanating from the expert hybrid mech was extremely insulting, but there was a reason why Venerable Rebecca was confident!

Just as the Riot entered the vague boundary that Venerable Rebecca had marked as her territory, the Shockshell finally exploded into action!

First, the powerful presence emanating from the Shockshell surged and solidified a bit, causing the space around the machine to turn into an illusionary storm cloud!

The powerful determination from a high-tier expert pilot pressed onto the Riot directly pressed onto Venerable Orfanʼs willpower, causing her mind to get jolted to the point where her concentration got interrupted!

”Ah!”

Concurrently, the Shockshell finally opened fire with all of its ranged weapons!

First, it raised its wrists and fired a pair of resonance-empowered positron beams that not only damaged the Riotʼs resonance shield, but also imparted a disrupting force to it that destabilized it even further.

Second, the shoulder-mounted gauss cannons fired a small but surprisingly powerful salvo that thundered against the Riotʼs first layer of defense.

The twin blows pounded the Riot like hammers, which visibly caused the expert spearman mech to falter in its charge!

Third and most devastatingly, the electrorods that minutely stuck out of the torso of the Shockshell began to unleash several streams of thick blue arcs of lightning that directly struck the incoming Riot, causing its entire resonance shield to wobble and strain as if it was being tortured!

Enhanced by Venerable Rebeccaʼs highly refined will and resonance strength, these material attacks were also accompanied by metaphysical attacks, which interrupted Venerable Orfanʼs focus to such a degree that she had lost her earlier momentum!

In the brief time that Venerable Orfan became debilitated, the Shockshell had smoothly flown to the side, allowing it to evade the Riotʼs faltering charge with surprising ease!

Of course, the Shockshell did not forget to strike the vulnerable Riot with its shock hammer while it passed through.

”Thunder Strike!”

A blinding electrical explosion erupted from the Riotʼs resonance shield as the shock hammer struck!

Even though Venerable Rebecca hadnʼt activated any of the transphasic functions of the weapons at her disposal, her Shockshell already showcased a hint of the power of an ace pilot!

😉