The Mech Touch

From the moment the Everchanger lit up in a different fashion than before, the course of the battle had completely changed!

Up until this point, the elite Phaser fish-whales utilized their various advantages to steadily gain the upper hand in this battle.

With both the future of the Phase Kingdom and their personal stashes of phasewater at risk, the Phasers had every reason to fight as ferociously and with as much desperation as possible!

Retreat wasn't in their consideration as they utilized their rich phasewater abilities and good coordination to defeat the thieves that stole their bounty.

With the advantage of numbers, these motivated Phasers were beating the coalition of mechs and Evolvers at a steady rate.

The casualties that had fallen were littering the space between landmasses. Bloody chunks of fish-whale flesh along with broken pieces of metal from fallen mechs continued to fling out into every direction.

Many of them would float for years before eventually getting attracted by the low gravity of the various asteroids.

If the battle proceeded normally without any unforeseen mutations, then there was little that the Evolvers and the human forces could do to stop their defeat!

Perhaps Ves and a number of men could still escape and return to Fort Fishblood if they all retreated while leaving behind their stolen prizes.

The Phasers cared the most about getting back their phasewater, after all. The containers that held them needed to be secured at all costs.

However, the phasewater trapped in the containers only constituted a part of the stolen treasure. The Cerebral King along with many other Evolver fish-whales had observed many kilograms of the substance, and each of them had to be defeated before the Phasers could retrieve their original belongings!

This was also why the Phasers exhibited so much brutality towards their old enemies. Each and every Evolver fish-whale that fell at their hands inevitably got torn to pieces by the vengeful and voracious beasts.

The other fish-whale subspecies did not shy away from the cannibalism that the Swarmers showcased most prominently. A bloody feast occurred whenever another giant body had fallen.

A number of Phasers even mistook mechs as viable meals!

A lot of mech pilots grew sick as they saw their enemies devouring the machines piloted by their fellow comrades.

So seeing the Phasers chew and swallow mechs as if they were snacks roiled everyone's imagination.

No one wanted to die in this fashion!

Fortunately, the Phaser fish-whales did not enjoy the taste of metal machinery, but that did not stop them from demolishing mechs in other ways!

A lot of mechs had already fallen, and there were many instances where the powerful and brutal Phasers did not even give the pilots the opportunity to eject from their cockpits!

As the conflict slowly went from bad to worse for the humans, the Everchanger's light produced a change that completely changed the game!

As the Aspect of Transcendence's glow affected every mech pilot in the light, those that had already come close to greatness in their own way had finally made the leap that they had been hoping to make for many years!

"What is happening?! Why are there so many breakthroughs?!"

"Hahahaha! I have become stronger than ever before! I'm going to be the next Venerable Joshua!"

"I can finally teach these Phasers a lesson!"

The mech pilots displayed a multitude of reactions towards the incredible phenomenon that they were witnessing.

No one had ever seen so many mech pilots break through their limits at once!

With around 500 mech pilots active in the fight, a whopping 27 of them had advanced from their previous stages!

Of the 27 mech pilots that succeeded in unlocking their hidden and normally-inaccessible potential, 22 of them had pierced the extraordinary threshold for the first time while 5 of them turned into full-blown expert pilots!

This translated to an effective breakthrough rate of around 5 percent, which was ridiculously high since most people put a lot of zeros in between the numbers for ordinary battles.

If any ordinary mech pilot learned that they had a 1 in 20 chance of advancing to expert candidate during every battle, then they would surely break down the Larkinson Clan's doors in an attempt to enter its ranks!

Although the amount of breakthroughs only consisted of a small proportion of the total number of mechs in battle, the explosive strength they demonstrated completely changed the momentum of the surviving elements of Task Force Fisherman!

The battle turned from a dangerous struggle for escape and survival into a bloody canvas that allowed for every mech pilot that had broken through to showcase their blooming potential!

No one appreciated and exulted in this opportunity more than Jessica Quentin and four of her comrades that had managed to fulfill the goal that they had set out to accomplish by participating in this crazy journey!

The heavy decision to leave the comfortable and protected ranks of the MTA and join an upstart second-class power was a desperate attempt to change their fate.

Unlike many other mech pilots, the twenty mechers were not resigned to living the rest of their lives as ordinary mech pilots.

Well-trained as they may be, they were not satisfied with piloting the best standard mechs that humanity had developed.

They wished to attain more strength! So much so that they had actively agreed to risk their lives in causes that were ordinarily beneath their notice.

Previously, Jessica and her colleagues entertained frequent doubts whether they had made the correct choice in agreeing to this odd arrangement.

The Larkinson Clan, though exceptional in many ways, were no closer to unlocking the secret to induce advancement than anyone else working on this problem.

For years, she had tolerated all of the inadequacies around her, from the relative lack of professionalism from the Larkinson mech pilots to the incomparably weak second-class mechs they relied upon to fight their battles.

It was only recently that they received a bit of attention, but up until now the Enlightened Warrior mechs did not impress her too much.

After all, the Quint or whatever was responsible for instructing her while piloting the mech constantly berated her and questioned her. If not for the promise of helping her achieve her breakthrough, she would have long ditched this annoying mech for a more normal one instead!

It was only now that she fully appreciated her mech.

As power began to explode from her very being, she became more closer to the Enlightened Warrior mech than ever before!

This close connection along with many other realizations had made her more aware of how much the Enlightened Warrior had always supported her in various ways.

It has listened to her desire and desperation to advance and did its utmost into bringing her closer to fulfilling her dream.

She became touched by the care and attention given to her by a mech that she had only reluctantly valued.

As her bond with her current mech grew deeper, the forced resonance between them grew stronger!

A bright silvery corona radiated from her Enlightened Warrior as it temporarily gained the power of an expert mech!

Even if the forced resonance manifestation of an expert candidate was weaker than that of an actual expert pilot, it still turned the Enlightened Warrior into a force to be reckoned with for the short time it lasted!

As a studious mech pilot who crammed an incredible amount of knowledge on mech piloting in her head, Jessica was highly aware that she only had a brief window of opportunity to make the most of her enhanced power.

Her glowing eyes grew more intense as the sensors of her mech locked on to a nearby Phaser fish-whale!

"Avenge the fallen! Tear these fish-whales apart! Let none survive this battle!"

Jessica drove her mech forward with greater speed than ever before. She had often read about the amplification produced by different forms of resonance, but never imagined that the actual experience would be so wonderful!

Her exploding willpower naturally embraced her mech, improving its performance in ways that she couldn't even explain.

Nonetheless, Jessica had the feeling that she could amplify the performance of any aspect of her mech without limit as long as her will became strong enough!

This was an intoxicating amount of power, and one that had come a lot closer to her than she had previously dared to dream!

Her desire to kill the fish-whales and her yearning to attain greater power caused her to focus her efforts on the weapons of her mech.

The twin swords in the hands of her Enlightened Warrior glowed brighter as the forced resonance affecting them became saturated with power!

She wanted to pump even more of her willpower into them, but faintly became aware of numerous limitations.

She only had so much willpower and resonance strength at her disposal, and the physical construction of her mech and its swords also weren't able to cope with all of the forces.

Even now, she could feel that the Enlightened Warrior could easily break if she pushed its performance too far!

While she was incredibly jubilant about fulfilling her dream, she would never want to break the mech that had provided her so much help.

"I will kill these fish-whales without relying too much on brute force!"

She saw it as an interesting challenge and a rare opportunity to exercise extraordinary power. She tweaked how much power she was channeling in certain parts of her machine, making sure not to invest too much in any single one of them for fear of unbalancing and breaking her battle partner.

With that, Jessica began her killing spree!

The bloodied Phaser fish-whale that she had targeted already saw her coming and tried to fend off the Evolver fish-whale in front.

However, its attempts to intercept her completely failed as her forced resonance completely resisted the spatial warping!

When that didn't work, the Phaser opted for violently thrashing its body, making it unwise for any mech to get too close!

Jessica was unimpressed by this defensive measure. Her mech easily swung around chopped down with both of its swords with plenty of distance in between!

Despite the obvious gap, the twin swords nonetheless managed to strike the fish-whale's body because glowing silvery energy blades extended from their blades!

This was a trick that Jessica had witnessed from Venerable Dise whenever she piloted the First sword.

Now, Jessica found it unprecedentedly easy to perform an imitation of this technique!

The overflowing energy gushing from her mind added so much power to the energy blades that they tore massive wounds on the fish-whale in question.

Blood gushed out like fountains as the cut was apparently deeper and more destructive than Jessica expected!

When her Enlightened Warrior mech slashed a few more times, the Phaser had already come close to death!

"This power… is intoxicating!"

Jessica had become completely addicted to the power of an extraordinary mech pilot that she had completely lost her decorum!

The Quint's earlier words caused her to drop her various acts, allowing her to embrace her true self!

"I want more! More power! More killing! More freedom!"

With this power, her life in the MTA once she returned would become completely different!

In order to attain this dream of a better life, Jessica aimed to turn the tide of this battle by herself!

"More!"

The Enlightened Warrior mech became the vessel of her blooming ambition. The machine darted to another Phaser and chopped the end of its body, causing the powerful twin blades to cut off the fish-whale's tail in a single motion!

The Phaser reared back in pain only for the Enlightened Warrior to slam onto its head and sink its swords deep through the hard skull and destroy the brain!

Not just Jessica, but all of the other mechers that had broken through were putting their newfound power to good use in the same way.

The elite Phasers that had previously shown a lot of resistance had suddenly become as weak as putty in their hands!