The Mech Touch

"Sir, we can't keep provoking more Swarmers! Our maneuvering space keeps getting smaller.  The enemy fish-whales aren't blindly chasing after the Everchanger anymore. They have begun to employ more sophisticated tactics such as trying to encircle us. The longer we stay here, the greater the chance we'll get surrounded!"

It did not take as long as Ves thought to rile up the Swarmers milling about on the Spiral Continent.

Large amounts of white fish-whales interspersed with the occasional elite fish-whales had entered into a rabid frenzy as soon as they discovered the presence of a foreign element that was definitely not on their side.

It was as if the Everchanger had killed their mother and taunted them by dangling her corpse in front of their eyes!

When Ves gazed at the projected map, he spotted so many red dots pressed together that they looked like a tide of red!

He grimaced a bit when he saw that they were still short of their target of attracting 500,000 Swarmer fish-whales. If they didn't lure enough cannon fodder to the Phase Kingdom, then the humans and the Evolver fish-whales would have to make up for the shortfall with their lives!

"Arlight, you can pull away from the Spiral Continent, but before you leave, expand the Everchanger's glow to the maximum possible range you can reach."

"What?! Didn't you theorize that this will attract the attention of the Hive King?!"

"Look at the increasing degree of coordination displayed by all of these Swarmers. I think it is safe to say that we have already attracted this powerful mastermind's attention!"

The original plan called for trying to provoke the Swarmers into chasing the Everchanger without alarming the Hive King, but Ves had already taken into account that they would fail in the latter goal.

The Swarm Kingdom may be big, but it was difficult to hide a disturbance affecting hundreds of thousands of fish-whales from a central leader.

The shift from instinctive reactions to purposeful maneuvers was not obvious at first, but when the fish-whales started to circle around instead of trying to chase after the Everchanger, even a fool could see that the Swarmers were being directed by an overarching leader!

A gigantic tide of fish-whales didn't necessarily pose a threat to Ves. No matter how numerous they became, as long as they only behaved instinctually, then how could they possibly stop any mech from coming and going?

It was unfortunate that the threat level of the Swarmers had reached an entirely new level now that the Hive King or another powerful Swarmer commander had taken charge of all of the riled-up troops.

Ves could even see that groups of fish-whales that the Everchanger had yet to provoke begin to stir as well. They moved up and spread themselves out in order to cast an increasingly wider net for the mech.

There was no way for the Everchanger to escape if the net closed. He knew his own work well. The expert hero mech he designed was a versatile machine but it did not excel in blockade running.

Sure, it was possible for the Everchanger to force its way through a dozen or so grunt fishes if Venerable Joshua tried his best, but there were way more Swarmers in the way than that! No matter what, even an expert mech could get trapped and exhausted to death if it ended up in the middle of a ball of thousands of rabid fish-whales!

"Pulling out now, sir!"

Venerable Joshua concentrated hard as the Everchanger squeezed more speed and acceleration out of its flight system in an attempt to escape the noose.

At the same time, the expert mech abruptly expanded its glow, causing it to rile up many more fish-whales in the surrounding environment.

The angry fish-whales didn't like this at all. Their fury became more intense as they tried to close in on the annoying mech that had trespassed on their territory!

"Haha, we're out!"

Fortunately, the Everchanger made its way out of the Spiral Continent well before the fish-whales could complete their envelopment. The grunt fishes and the elite fishes had no choice but to chase after the expert mech's wake in order to kill the enemy that dared to disturb them and provoke them into action.

When Venerable Joshua noticed that the tide of Swarmers were beginning to fall behind, he slowed down the Everchanger's advance in a gradual and controlled fashion. This made it seem as if it was getting tired and that it had lost a bit of steam.

The distance between the expert mech and the hundreds of thousands of angry fish-whales no longer widened.

As Ves kept studying the expressions of the fish-whales in order to see if he could gather more clues, he noticed that they were already beginning to calm down.

Most fish-whale varieties didn't excel at speed. The Swarmers did not even possess a single variant that was able to fly faster than the sergeant fish-whales, and that was mostly because the blue fishes needed to build up a large amount of momentum in order to deal a lot of damage when their skulls collided against their targets.

"Slow down a bit more, Joshua. Give the Swarmers the illusion that they can catch up to you if they chase long enough. Try and wobble your flight path a bit and make the Everchanger look less pristine in its performance. They can't give up this soon!"

"I will try, sir!"

The Everchanger soon made the adjustments. Venerable Joshua was skillfully pulled off the subterfuge and truly made the expert mech seem as if it had overloaded itself and was starting to reach the limits of its stamina.

If the Hive King and the Swarmer fish-whales were unfamiliar with the properties of mechanical constructs, then they should assume that the Everchanger behaved like an organic creature that could grow tired over time.

"Let's hope the Hive King isn't too smart or knowledgeable about mechs."

The chase continued for a couple of minutes. Over 400,000 fish-whales had joined the chase. Each of them crowded each other so much that Ves pretty much only saw white if he looked at the rear view!

Joshua also put up a better act of pretending that the Everchanger was on its last legs. The expert mech's surface fizzled as its thrust power dropped by more than 50 percent all of a sudden.

This stimulated the humongous amount of grunt fishes, causing them to see red and squeeze more speed out of their bodies!

When the distance between the Everchanger and the chasers kept shrinking, the yellow fish-whales took action.

Hundreds of spitter fish-whales launched globs of corrosive projectiles.

Although the Everchanger could have easily dodged or evaded the spit, Venerable Joshua deliberately downplayed the maneuverability and responsiveness of his machine and only made a lackluster attempt at evading the incoming projectiles.

While most of the spit projectiles missed anyway, half-a-dozen of them still managed to splatter onto the resonance shield of the expert mech.

This sight excited the Swarmers! The yellow fish-whales enthusiastically spit more projectiles towards the Everchanger.

With hundreds of them firing at the expert mech from different angles, it became more difficult for Joshua to evade the entire rain. More and more corrosive spit landed on the resonance shield, but the actual damage dealt to it was minimal due to its inherent resistance against normal attacks.

The shield kept going even after it got hit more than a hundred times!

As Ves kept observing the Swarmers, he frowned. The spitter fish-whales did not look like they were starting to run empty, but they were already slowing down.

"Drop the resonance shield. Let their attacks hit your frame."

Venerable Joshua did so even though he questioned the wisdom of this action. The Everchanger may be covered by Unending alloy, but the rear was always the most vulnerable portion of its frame. The corrosive spit had a chance of hampering the flight system's performance if they hit its more delicate subcomponents.

The expert pilot had to be a little more active at dodging the incoming spit volleys. Any globs of foul and corrosive liquid that reached the expert mech inevitably splashed on the arms, lower back or legs of the machine.

The Unending alloy did its job. It did a fine job at resisting the corrosive substance that kept accumulating over time.

Despite this success, the tide of Swarmer fish-whales slowed down after a few minutes.

"Slow down a bit further. Try and attack them with your rifle."

The Swarmer hordes did not speed up again despite these changes. They just slowed down more and more as if they were approaching a border that they did not dare to cross.

"Damnit. The Cerebral King was right. The Swarmers aren't so easy to fool after all." Ves cursed.

The fish-whale tide eventually came to a stop. No matter how many times the Everchanger fired at the Swarmers, they simply did not advance any further.

When Ves zoomed in so that he could see the expressions of the fish-whales, he saw that they were still angry and eager to continue the chase.

He could still feel the wave of anger and hatred of the Swarmers!

"They're not moving forward anymore."

Venerable Joshua tried a few more tricks up to and including swooping close to them, but it became clear that the Hive King probably smelled a trap!

Seeing that the Swarmers weren't cooperating as he wished, Ves let out a sigh.

"You can stop with your current attempts. The controller of these fish-whales isn't eager to sacrifice so many bodies. We need to employ another solution.

Ves thought about the situation. The influence of an intelligent controller caused him to doubt many of the other solutions that he and his staff had prepared.

Seeing that the Cerebral King was right about the behavior of the Swarmers so far, he figured that it might be wise to defer to the king fish's judgment on the only solution that should take effect.

"Bring up your resonance shield and other defenses." Ves instructed Venerable Joshua. "I'm not sure if this will work, but if it does, the Swarmers are liable to get truly angry."

Venerable Joshua's expression turned grave. "I understand. I think it will piss off the Swarmers as well since it touches their nerves."

The Everchanger approached the unmoving wall of Swarmer fish-whales. Although the spitter fish-whales kept trying to land their corrosive projectiles at the expert mech, the resonance shield easily resisted them without any issue.

"Are you ready, Joshua?"

"I am always ready."

"Then begin!"

Venerable Joshua concentrated and mentally turned the dial that allowed him to change the active design spirit of his battle partner once again. He stopped turning the dial when he found the right setting.

Soon, the aura of the Everchanger experienced another abrupt switch. Zeigra's aggressive feline glow disappeared.

In its place, an entirely different glow came into exchange. The mech began to take on a more ancient demeanor. Anyone looking at it would have the mistaken impression that the Everchanger was far larger and older than it appeared!

Hundreds of nearby fish-whales became agitated in a different way. As Ves studied their reactions, he grew hopeful.

"Expand the glow! Let as many of these fish-whales experience the Titania as possible! If we can't avoid the attention of the Hive King, then let's blow a horn in its face!"

Joshua resonated with a specific part within the Everchanger, causing its glow to stretch out across several kilometers around its frame!

As the Titania's influence suddenly reached out to thousands more Swarmers, it began to influence the unintelligent fish-whales in a specific manner.

The Titania attempted to take control over them! Even though its attempts to do so were relatively weak due to its relative weakness and being of a different species, the design spirit's actions definitely caught the attention of the existing controller of the fish-whales.

This was a different threat towards the Swarmers!

Of all of the enemies the Hive King might fear, a new and unexplainable opponent that was able to challenge its control over the Swarmer fish-whales was definitely at the top of its list!

It could not allow this existential threat to proceed with taking over the Swarm Kingdom!

"Run!" The Hive King has grown angry! I can feel its anger leaking from all of the fish-whales!"

The Everchanger fled just as the fish-whale hordes completely became subsumed by the Hive King's fury!