The Mech Touch

Chapter 6111  Wooden Treasures

Fighting against the ebony mechs was like fighting against the Emperor Tree directly.

The purple wooden mechs already possessed a shadow of the calamity plantʼs power, but the ebony wooden mechs were much more exaggerated in their performance!

The ebony mechs were much more powerful, much better controlled and possessed a frighteningly fast learning capacity.

Two of the expert mechs found themselves stuck in confrontations against ebony mirrors of themselves.

The Everchanger shot energy beams and locked blades against an ebony copy that was almost just as versatile while also able to regenerate any damage in an instant.

The First Sword continually swung her Decapitator at an ebony parody of a swordsman mech that was slowly beginning to resemble the real deal!

Venerable Dise had shoved aside her contempt towards her ebony wooden adversary a long time ago. The fact that it became progressively harder to outfight her regenerating opponent was proof that the Ebony First Sword was in the process of emulating her updated swordsmanship in real time!

That shouldnʼt have been enough to give the melee ebony mech a fighting chance.

”This wooden machine is too hard to read.” Dise spoke in a frustrated tone.

Due to the extreme integration of Solus Gas particles in the ebony wood, the plagiarized version of the First Sword was able to neutralize the powerful intuition of an expert pilot.

This was one of Venerable Diseʼs strongest advantages!

The combat intuition honed over many battles at close range set most melee mech specialists apart from their ranged counterparts.

Though Venerable Dise tried to make the best out of the situation by treating it as a challenge that must be overcome, she clearly felt disappointed in herself by failing to overpower the Ebony First Sword within a minute.

She was confident that even if her ebony wooden adversary matched her in skill, the lack of true heart and comprehension should have given her a slight edge. Combined with her strong intuition, she should have been able to overpower her opponent 10 out of 10 times.

To be forced into a fight against an enemy melee ʼmechʼ without being able to utilize one of her mainstays was a frustrating experience.

Though Venerable Dise tried to make the best out of the situation by treating it as a challenge that must be overcome, she clearly felt disappointed in herself by failing to overpower the Ebony First Sword within a minute.

She was confident that even if her ebony wooden adversary matched her in skill, the lack of true heart and comprehension should have given her a slight edge. Combined with her strong intuition, she should have been able to overpower her opponent 10 out of 10 times.

This was not the case at the moment. Venerable Dise found that her recent improvements in her swordsmanship had not given her the edge she needed to defeat an increasingly more competent mirror of herself.

”Am I truly that much worse without the advantage of my intuition?”

If possible, Venerable Dise wanted to spend hours honing herself against the Ebony First Sword. It was able to replicate the form of her moves quite well, and its high regeneration factor meant that Dise did not have to hold back in landing her more damaging attacks.

Unfortunately, this was not the time for her to indulge in herself!

The Everchanger and the Promethea were both locked in their own struggles. The Emperor Tree was also taking advantage of the diversions to recover itself and prepare other countermeasures.

The longer the fight went on, the more the three expert pilots felt as if they were getting stalled by the Emperor Tree!

”This canʼt go on! We need to unite somehow.” Joshua said.

”How?” Isobel questioned. ”If we donʼt press these ebony mechs, they will join forces as well. They will become much harder to deal with if that is the case.”

Her Promethea continually launched one purple fire beam after another at the ebony version of the Zeal.

The wooden mech that dared to integrate components of the original Zeal straightforwardly resisted the incoming attacks with its more powerful wood energy shield and its thick ebony frame. It instead focused much of its efforts into firing its explosive and kinetic seed cannons at the Promethea.

The expert rifleman mech was not able to keep up with its adversary!

The differences in consumption were too great. The Ebony Zeal was virtually inexhaustible and could easily absorb pieces of wood from the Emperor Tree to replenish its seed reserves.

The Promethea on the other hand had already lost her resonance shield. Venerable Isobel was forced to put her survival skills to the test and focus a lot more on evasion in order to avoid the incoming attacks.

While the expert rifleman mech had been able to avoid any direct hits from the Ebony Zealʼs kinetic cannon, she was not able to avoid all of the seed shards that spread in every direction when the fragmentation seeds exploded in mid-air.

The Emperor Tree had managed to do a good job at replicating the functions of the original Zeal!

It was absurd that a manufactured minion of a calamity plant was able to push the Promethea to this extent.

The difference in support was simply too great.

The three expert mechs only received very feeble remote fire support that only tickled the Emperor Tree at best.

The three ebony mechs received constant energy and material infusions from the Emperor Tree!

If the ebony mechs did not fight so close to their creator, then pershaps they wouldnʼt be able to regenerate so quickly.

Sadly, luring the ebony mechs away did not work. The three expert mechs briefly attempted to do this, but that would only cause the Ebony Everchanger and the Ebony First Sword to cover the Ebony Zeal.

”We have no choice but to team up.” Venerable Dise concluded. ”We need to go all out and make use of our strongest means regardless of how much it will cost us. The Zeal needs to go first. Without this enormous ebony ranged mech, it will be much easier to mop up the remainder.”

Isobel nodded in agreement. ”I agree, but we must maneuver carefully in order to avoid letting the ebony melee mechs land too many attacks on us. The Prometheaʼs resonance shield is still trying to reform, so I cannot adequately defend myself against their aggression.”

”Do the best you can. Call us for help if you canʼt take it any longer. Otherwise, focus on going all-out against the Ebony Zeal. Its continued existence is a desecration of the original Zeal.”

”Ah.” Venerable Joshua said in surprise. ”I… ehh… just received a message from Ketis.”

”What did she convey?”

”The clan… has analyzed the ebony wooden mechs and formed a surprising conclusion. In addition, we have received an additional objective.”

”Tell.”

”Well, according to biotech researchers and other experts, the ebony wooden mechs are likely molded from the calamity plantʼs tree heart.”

”Really?!”

This was a shocking revelation!

”Yeah. It explains why the ebony mechs are so tough and powerful. Their regeneration speeds are also insanely high because they are literally extensions of the Emperor Treeʼs most essential core. The tree somehow figured out how to make avatars of itself!”

This was an extremely dangerous operation that could easily kill or cripple the individual making the attempt.

It was rather amazing that the Emperor Tree not only succeeded once, but thrice!

Perhaps its monstrous vitality and huge size may have helped. The ebony mechs probably werenʼt all that big compared to the true size of the tree heart.

Nonetheless, the three expert pilots gained a lot more respect towards these ebony mechs.

Fighting against them was no different from fighting against the Emperor Tree directly!

”What orders did we receive?” Dise asked. ”Let me guess. The clan wants us to capture one of them intact.”

Venerable Joshua ruefully smiled. ”Good guess. Apparently, the patriarch himself has insisted on it. We donʼt need to kill the Emperor Tree ourselves. We can still resort to other measures to take it down. What we have to do instead is to capture and bring back one of the three ebony mechs as intact as possible. The research value of a wooden mech made from a piece of the tree heart is incredibly valuable to our clan.”

Their burdens had increased. It was a lot more difficult to capture one of the ebony mechs that were effectively able to fight an expert mech into a standstill under the current conditions.

”Let us preserve the Ebony Everchanger.” Venerable Dise proposed. ”It is not as big and heavy as the Ebony Zeal. It also doesnʼt have any outstanding strengths aside from possessing the best regeneration, but that is a boon for us as we donʼt need to handle it with care.”

Venerable Joshua and his battle partner felt insulted somehow.

”I guess you are right. We must completely eliminate the other two ebony mechs. I am not confident we can control additional enemy creations.”

”What about the Emperor Tree itself? Are we still supposed to burn it down?” Venerable Isobel asked.

”...Let us make that judgment after we have subdued the ebony mechs.” Joshua decided. ”If you are still unable to burn down the tree without the interference of all of those wooden mechs, then it may be time for us to call it quits.”

Venerable Isobel did not want that to happen. She would consider it a personal failure if she returned to Chimera Base with a tree left unburned.

Her King Killer Flames needed to be stronger! She couldnʼt rely on her existing tricks and techniques anymore. She needed to figure out a way to amplify the burning properties of her flames and render them impossible to douse by the Emperor Treeʼs best means!

For now, her expert mech needed to cooperate with the other two to defeat the more immediate obstacles.

A three-on-three deathmatch ensued in front of the Emperor Tree.

Even as the giant calamity plant never interrupted its attempts to swat the Larkinson expert mechs with its branches, the machines in question deftly maneuvered across the battlefield and employed cooperative tactics to dismantle their opponents!

None of the three expert pilots were accustomed to working together to this degree.

However, as veterans, they were more than capable of displaying teamwork without needing to communicate too many words.

The Promethea ignored the Zeal and focused the firepower of her Ignitron rifle at the Ebony First Sword.

The powerful wooden copy of the expert swordsman mech did not even bother to evade or block the incoming purple fire beams. Its ebony surface was incredibly resilient towards damage and also fireproof to boot.

The Ebony First Sword instead launched aggressive attacks at the original First Sword.

Venerable Dise did not straightforwardly block the attacks of the enemy wooden constructs.

Instead, she adjusted her sword technique and sought to entangle the Ebony First Sword as much as possible.

Dise did not like to employ this defensive and stalling approach, but she purposely went against her true nature because she understood she needed to take on an assisting role this time.

The Ebony First Sword started to strain. Its defenses was slowly crumbling while it was unable to land any effective attacks due to getting entangled.

The Everchanger tried his best to push back his wooden counterpart. The expert hero mech sheathed his Heartsword and began to pull out his much more effective Scarlet Ember.

Heat and light radiated from the blade as the plasma sword came online!

”Back off, you stupid copy!” Venerable Joshua barked as the Scarlet Ember successfully forced the Ebony Everchanger back!

The real Everchanger subsequently turned around and dove straight at the Ebony First Swordʼs flank!

”Now!” Joshua roared!

The three expert mechs simultaneously burst out more power than before!

”Explode!”

The Promethea fired an energy beam that did not spread any purple flames, but instead produced a powerful detonation that briefly cracked the upper chest of the ebony mech!

Venerable Isobel executed one of the techniques that she had adapted from the Alfari Corps Detonation Code!

The real First Swordʼs Decapitator glowed with a bright corona that seemed unstoppable, especially now that Respa actively empowered the blade!

”Decapitation Strike!”

The First Sword overpowered the ebony mechʼs attempts to block the special technique and swung her greatsword straight through the damaged neck of her ebony copy!

The head of the Ebony First Sword flew high into the mist-filled sky!

Although the powerful wooden mech still preserved most of its functionality, the loss of the head caused the ebony machine to freeze for a moment.

This provided Venerable Joshua with a fantastic opening!

”Cʼmon, Willy!”

”Mraaw!”

The green companion spirit entered the Scarlet Ember and did his best to increase the lethality of the plasma sword by imitating the Phase King!

The real Everchanger held his Scarlet Ember with a firm grip and swung it straight down the exposed neck of the Ebony First Sword!

”Chop!”

The Scarlet Ember managed to tear and burn straight to the center of the ebony mechʼs torso!