The Mech Touch

The extraordinary attacks on both the Molten Hammers and the Hivar Roarers had completely changed the balance of this engagement!

Before the Penitent Sisters and the Swordmaidens employed their most powerful trump cards, the military mech divisions of the Ferril Provincial Army had firmly gained the upper hand.

Their solid mechs, their powerful ranged support and above all else their superiority in numbers had conflated the confidence of the dwarves to the point where they already assumed they had earned their glorious victory.

This sudden reversal completely shattered their overblown expectations.

On two different occasions, the Larkinson Clan unleashed two powerful area attacks that had ravaged the dwarven lines.

The Molten Hammers did not incur any damage to their mechs, but the same could not be said for their mech pilots. Regardless of how much effort the dwarves back in their fleet attempted to wake up the affected victims, not a single measure succeeded in pulling them back from their brain dead state!

"Three-thousand lives…"

This was just a fraction of the amount of dwarves in the Ferril punitive fleet. However, the life of a mech pilot was vastly more significant than the life of a ship crewmember. The former played a crucial role in piloting the weapons of war employed by the dwarves.

Without conscious, living mech pilots, all of those tough and expensive mechs had been rendered useless!

It didn't matter that the mechs hadn't incurred any scratches. It was even less consequential that the dwarves who had 'died' from the death attack were still physically healthy and functional.

As long as the Superior Mother's manifestation had suffocated their spirits, there was no chance at all for the dwarves to cling to their feeble lives.

Only a single dwarf who had far exceeded his mortal limitations had managed to survive.

Venerable Orthox De Massie's body was not necessarily stronger or tougher than that of any other dwarven soldier. Aside from the standard suite of augments that honorable expert pilots like him received from the state, he did not gain any extra protection against ordinary attacks.

Even so, not only did Venerable Orthox and the Gatecrasher survive the death wave attack, he also managed to block its passage to the best of their ability!

Ves had been shocked when he saw what the dwarven expert pilot managed to accomplish. Was this the true power of a defensive expert pilot?

He gained an entirely new appreciation of expert pilots who chose to dedicate their lives to defend their people.

"Venerable Jannzi can become strong like this as well one day." He realized.

It might not take too long for her to be able to summon a shield that could block a massive attack.

Though her future expert mech would certainly not be as fast or proficient in attacking as the Gatecrasher, it shouldn't be much of a problem for the expert mech version of the Shield of Samar to project a massive resonance barrier.

This was its specialty, after all! There was little meaning in fielding a heavy space knight if its defenses could easily be bypassed.

Ves did not dare to assume that a defensive expert mech was redundant. Though he did not believe that other forces were capable of unleashing area attacks like his battle formations, it was best to assume that his future enemies would have at least something up their sleeves.

Whether it was warship-grade weapons or ultimate attacks released by powerful expert mechs, it was always prudent to have an extra safeguard on hand.

"I just need to make sure that Venerable Jannzi doesn't get in my way all the time." He muttered.

Many surviving Molten Hammer mech pilots were grateful for what their hero had done. To them, the appearance of the Gatecrasher and its attempt to block the supernatural energy attack was nothing less than magical!

Though Venerable Orthox's heroic efforts only managed to shield several hundred Molten Hammer mech pilots from instant death, these dwarves could still play a crucial role in the ongoing battle.

That was because the loss of over three-thousand mechs had wiped out half of their advantage in numbers!

To be more specific, the battle in the center had evened up as a result of all of the sudden losses. The Larkinson and Crosser mechs had a lot more room to breathe and would no longer feel as suffocated as before.

"The Forgehammers… they're gone…"

Since the death energy attack mostly swept the center of the Molten Hammer line, the losses disproportionately affected the mech pilots of the Iron Crusher mechs.

The powerful heavy melee mechs that seemed so powerful and unstoppable earlier had lost all of their sheen of invincibility.

Their illustrious mechs had turned into nothing else but scrap as far as the remainder of the battle was concerned. Even if the dwarves somehow managed to tow them back to their carriers, the Ferrils hadn't brought any spare mech pilots to replace the dead!

After all, not every mech force was like the Larkinson Army which was suffering from a surplus of thousands of mech pilots. The Ferril punitive fleet had left out its entire support train and any other resources and personnel that weren't critical.

The mech divisions did not retain that much excess mech pilots to begin with anyway. They were already under a considerable financial burden due to the need to purchase and service all of their expensive mechs and ships. Personnel expenditures were usually lower on the list of priorities.

The expressions of many dwarves, not just from the Molten Hammers, turned gloomy from this realization.

Many of them had become frightened, shocked, sad or angry at all of the sudden losses. Yet at the end of the day, they still had to fight a battle they started. It was too late for them to regret their decisions and their support for this action.

The Hivar Roarers were just as hard hit as well. While their other flanking units had remained unscathed, the side where Venerable Dise and the Swordmaidens had unleashed a bladestorm had become utterly ravaged.

The only mechs that had managed to make it through this extraordinary attack was the Crumbleshells. Their mech pilots had retracted all of their cannons before closing their gun ports. They also angled their relative flat mechs so that they exposed as little of their surface to the bladestorm as possible.

Though their mechs all bore marks of damage, none of the mystical sword slashes managed to penetrate through their thick armor.

That didn't mean that all was well, though.

With all of their escort mechs in bad shape, the crucial Crumbleshells had become a lot more exposed!

The state of the right flank had become a lot more optimistic as a result! As soon as the Larkinsons and Glory seekers on this side of the battlefield advanced forward, they could easily roll up thousands of Hivar Roarer mechs with ease.

General Verle's eyes already lit up. The Swordmaiden battle formation exceeded his expectations. The power boost provided by the expert mech as well as its masterwork sword had made such a substantial difference that the victims had lost their will to battle!

"We need to strike while the iron is hot!"

Just as the Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers were moving in to take advantage of the opening, Ves decided that the time was right to pull off his own stratagem!

He took one more look at his own appearance. He did not look like much of a god or anything like the traditional depictions of Vulcan. His Unending Regalia possessed impressive defenses but was merely a good piece of craftsmanship that was predominantly in black.

Would the dwarves care? Probably. Was it a fatal flaw? Probably not. Ves just had to tweak his story a little in order to sell his story to a greater extent.

"Hmm, maybe it's not a good idea to pretend I'm Vulcan." He hummed as he gripped the Hammer of Brilliance.

He was starting to have second thoughts about the wisdom of this move. However, the thought of being able to employ his rhetoric to confuse and divide the dwarves was too attractive to pass up. He had to give it a try!

Ves decided to stop overthinking the matter. He decisively pulled the trigger by donning a pre-prepared mask that instantly caused his demeanor to undergo a radical shift.

He had become more severe, grand and inviolable with the help of his Vulcan mask! At the same time, he became a lot more in tune with the Hammer of Brilliance that embodied all of the domains associated with Vulcan.

The luminar crystal pommel lit up in a soft and shifting light pattern that added a lot of extra mystique to the asymmetrical artifact.

He transmitted a silent signal that caused the Spirit of Bentheim and many other Larkinson ships to project an enormous image of himself in front of the expeditionary fleet!

Not only that, but the starships all transmitted an open feed that anyone on the battlefield could tune in. Ves didn't worry about the dwarves refusing to listen to his words because his projected image was simply too shocking!

"Who is that armored figure?!"

"That's their patriarch, I think!"

"How can he be a human?"

"That hammer! What is that hammer?!"

As Ves began to channel his spiritual energy in his mask in order to amplify his presence and strengthen his current persona, the giant projection that stretched across kilometers had become irresistible to the Vulcanites!

Even though they hated the tall folk with a vengeance, the presence exuded by Ves made them feel highly contradictory.

It was… as if they were looking at the idols of Vulcan that were dotted throughout the Vulcan Empire. In fact, those empty, lifeless statues were incomparable to the living figure that had presented himself to the dwarves!

"Children of Vulcan." Ves slowly began as he swept his gaze from left and right. "It is I, Vulcan."

In the end, he decided to go for broke.

For a moment, many dwarves stagnated as they were doing their best to repel the advancing human mechs.

Of all of the indignities that the tall folk had committed to the dwarven people, none of them had been audacious enough to pretend to be a god!

Yet all thoughts of objecting to this ludicrous statement had stalled when the furious dwarves beheld the enormous projection.

A part of them felt that this supposed Vulcan did not lie to them. The man's presence resonated with their faith so much that many of them fell into doubt.

Ves was able to sense the effect he had. He inwardly smiled as he recognized that he had commanded their attention.

"You have made a grave mistake, my children." He sincerely said in a sad tone. It helped a lot that he truly considered the Vulcanites to be his children in a sense. "Your devotion to me is admirable but your leaders have led you astray. Just because I watch over you doesn't mean that I am a dwarf. I am a human, one who has taught and guided your people out of my sincere appreciation for your kind."

"Lies!"

"Don't believe in this nonsense!"

Ves held up his tool and channeled his spiritual energy into the totem. The Hammer of Brilliance flared in a way that caused everyone to feel as if they could create the most perfect works if they used this amazing artifact!

"Your beliefs have led you astray. Your leaders seek to pervert and usurp my authority by replacing me with a false version of myself. From the moment you have turned away from the truth about my existence, you have fallen into a trap that seeks to weaken dwarvenkind by stripping it of my protection!"

Shock, outrage, doubt and many other turbulent emotions welled inside the Vulcanites. They so badly wanted to denounce the human as a fraud and a liar, but the persuasiveness of the figure who claimed to be Vulcan was too great!