The Mech Touch

Ves smiled as he concluded that Tusa successfully absorbed the valuable Shadow Dance Dagger Style Fruit.

As the most valuable prize that he obtained from a golden lottery ticket, the fruit extensively set Venerable Tusa up to quickly utilize and master the new fighting style.

The expert pilot was so taken in by all of the new approach and techniques that he drew out his personal daggers and began to dance in the middle of the secure chamber!

Ves quickly took a few steps back as he saw that Tusa reenacted the new moves as if he was being possessed.

The charm of the Shadow Dance Style centered around how it was able to combine multiple different concepts into a cohesive fighting style.

As Tusa rapidly spun around while striking his daggers at multiple different angles, he managed to strike quickly while also being able to keep his body elusive and on the move.

Attacking Tusa was quite difficult when he was moving around a lot! His variable and disorienting movements made it a lot harder to predict his trajectory while his quick dagger attacks constantly approached from slightly different angles.

While it was easy for a practitioner to look like he was flailing around, Tusa managed to make his varied and intensive movement look both harmonious and elegant.

What surprised Ves quite a bit was how deceptively silent Tusa moved. It was as if he surrounded himself with a blanket of shadow that muffled all of his sounds and other exertions.

Venerable Tusa even managed to minimize his spiritual and willpower fluctuations by applying a special technique!

This was probably one of the most valuable components of the Shadow Dance Dance. As a method that was partially developed for assassination, it was of crucial importance that the practitioner set off the least alarms possible while pulling off these moves.

If Venerable Tusa ever fought in this fashion behind other people's backs, then the chance was great that no one would be the wiser!

"This is truly a fighting style that excels at assassinations and silent takedowns!"

Ves even guessed that if Tusa truly channeled the power of shadow while utilizing this new fighting style, he might even be able to sneak up on expert pilots in certain conditions.

Even if Tusa discarded everything else that the enlightenment fruit imparted to him, it was already worth it to retain this special dampening technique!

As time went by, Venerable Tusa began to experience a few difficulties. The enlightenment fruit might have given him the knowledge as well as the shadow energy needed to execute the Shadow Dance, but his lack of experience combined with his lack of physical training meant that his body could not keep up with his intentions.

He started to fumble when he wanted to perform the most intricate jumps and dances. It became so bad that he decided that this was enough for the time being.

"So what do you think of your new gift?" Ves asked as he approached the winded expert pilot.

"It's… something else." Tusa said between breaths. "It's a method of assassination, but it's a lot more blatant than that. It looks like it should make a lot of noise, but it is remarkably silent. Whoever invented this style clearly hasn't adapted it to mech combat at all, but I think I can make it work after making a lot of adjustments. The downside to fighting like this is that it is too exhausting. I also need to be able to develop a deeper understanding of shadow to pull off the most outrageous moves."

Ves also noted how much exertion it took to dance and fight like this. Translated to mech combat, that meant that the Dark Zephyr wouldn't be able to keep this up for long when locked into a duel against a powerful opponent.

This was quite bad because the Dark Zephyr's energy management was already strained at this state.

While Ves had made sure to equip the Dark Zephyr with much better energy cells that possessed much higher capacities, they were sorely needed as the Stiletto Drive expended a lot of power when it was being used!

The greater the warping effect, the more energy the Stiletto Drive demanded!

Nothing came for free. Even if the Stiletto Drive integrated a generous amount of phasewater, the entire module still needed to be powered by a lot of juice in order to keep working!

This meant that the staying power of the Dark Zephyr actually hadn't improved all of that much compared to its previous version.

If Tusa ever got the idea of starting to fight with the Shadow Dance Style, then the energy reserves of the Dark Zephyr would drain even faster!

"Utilize your new fighting skills carefully." Ves advised Tusa. "As much as I would like to upgrade your Dark Zephyr's energy capacity, I have already done the best I can for the time being. It is very difficult for me to give you more operating time because the internal volume of your light mech is already so small. The only way I can give you significantly more energy capacity is to pull out the emergency shield generator and put extra energy cells in its place. This will mean that your mech and especially your Stiletto Drive will become a lot more vulnerable to incoming damage."

"You think it's not worth it, then." Tusa concluded.

"I think the current configuration is enough for short but intensive operations. Just keep an eye on your energy expenditure and make sure to reserve enough of a buffer to return to the fleet for resupply."

Tusa did not like the sound of this, but there wasn't any way to solve this unless the Larkinson Clan was able to put much better energy cells into his expert mech.

Though Ves admittedly had access to ones that possessed even higher capacities, it would exceed the already-generous budget that he had set for the Dark Zephyr.

The Cross Clan may have been willing to pull out all of the stops to turn the Mars into a quasi-ace mech at the start, but Ves was not as willing to do the same for just one of the many expert mechs under his command!

Ves turned his attention to a more important topic.

"How will you proceed now that you have learned a powerful and extraordinary fighting style? Will you turn it into your main style and adapt it to your characteristics or will you break it up and use it to enrich your current combat approach?"

This was an important question and one that would have a lot of implications for Tusa's future development. The pilot had to pause and think about it for a dozen or so seconds.

"I think I will switch over to this new style and take it as the base of my new fighting approach." He eventually said. "While it has its flaws and shortcomings, it is just too powerful. I am a lot more confident in my ability to keep up in a duel against Venerable Dise if I am truly able to integrate the new techniques into my combat routine. That said, you're right that I should also change it up so that it better reflects my needs. There are movements and other parts about the Shadow Dance that need to be heavily modified in order to make it work for the Dark Zephyr."

"Well, you can do what you want. It's your choice, Tusa. All I want is to see you becoming stronger so that you will be able to save more lives in battle. How well are you able to pass on the new fighting techniques to other mech pilots?"

Tusa furrowed his brows. "That is difficult to say. This is not exactly a style for novices. Not every light mech is suitable to pull off the moves. I can say that the Ferocious Piranha will probably struggle with the more dance-like moves. The mech pilots also need to be proficient in a lot of skills before they can even get started."

That didn't sound too good, but Ves already came up with an idea that should make it easier.

"What if I design a stealthy light mech that is designed to pull off these moves to the greatest extent possible?" Ves proposed.

"That… sounds like it will help a lot." Tusa responded. "It will reduce the difficulty of adopting the Shadow Dance Style if the light mech is already set up to perform these techniques. You should pay close attention to the range of movement of the limbs and the ability to smoothly shift the direction of momentum. The new style also works a lot differently in space where the mech can't rely on the force exerted by its feet to spin around and such. I will probably have to work together with you in order to make sure you got everything right."

"I'll give you a summons as soon as we commence the next design round, then. I would like you to write down as much information and theory that you have obtained and pass on what you have learned to our other soldiers. The fruit I've given to you is the only one of its kind, you see. It would be a waste to keep all of the benefits to yourself."

Tusa was not a selfish expert pilot, so he easily agreed to this additional demand even though it added another burden on his shoulders.

"I will call up the current and former members of the Speed Demons to see which ones can take after this new style. If anyone is suitable to pull off the Shadow Dance, it will be among the premier light mech specialists in the Larkinson Army."

Ves smiled. "I will be expecting much from you in the upcoming Trailblazer Expedition. My clan and I have invested a lot of resources into you and your Dark Zephyr even though it was not necessary for us to do so. We did so because we believe in your ability to turn battles around and deal with difficult situations that other expert pilots cannot resolve. The trend in the mech industry has definitely shifted towards ranged mechs as of late, but I am still of the opinion that there is an indispensable place for melee mechs on the modern battlefield."

"I won't let down your expectations, Ves. I truly appreciate everything you have done for me. I will definitely show that you are not wrong in doing so much for me. Just wait until we get into a pinch again. My Dark Zephyr and I will show you that even the smallest expert mechs can turn the largest battle around!"

"That's the spirit!"

Once Ves finished his dealings with Venerable Tusa, he dismissed the expert pilot and quickly went through his next appointments.

He called in Venerable Isobel Kotin next in order to gift her the Alfari Corps Detonation Code Manual Fruit.

Just like Tusa, Isobel became so impressed by the Detonation Code that she was willing to work with it. The difference was that she was more inclined to treat it as an auxiliary method rather than the new foundation of her fighting style.

Isobel's primary means of dealing damage had always been to rely on spreading flames to engulf enemies in torment. Her domain was already based on burning and it made little sense to switch to a substantially different fighting approach that was not as aligned to her specialization.

Even so, learning how she could shape her energy attacks to unleash powerful explosions was definitely helpful in fighting against expert mechs and other difficult opponents!

"I will try my best to write down the details of the Detonation Code, but I don't think I can teach others to apply the same principles." Venerable Isobel said. "It's really complicated. If not for the fruit, I don't think I would have been able to make sense of it. Even if I explain everything, it takes a special mech pilot to be able to apply it in battle. I think that certain expert pilots such as Venerable Stark and Venerable Joshua might be able to learn a thing or two about the Detonation Code, but it might take months if not years to see a difference."

"Just do your best, Isobel. The Detonation Code is way too precious for you to keep for yourself."