The Mech Touch

Breakthroughs could happen in every battle.

It was a phenomenon that frequently delighted one side but also frustrated the opposite side.

Breakthroughs couldn't be controlled and predicted with certainty.

There were so many variables involved in this process that no one could guarantee that it might happen.

It just so happened that the circumstances surrounding the fight against the Shockshell were just right to allow Venerable Rebecca Andus to take the step that countless expert pilots dreamed about!

The high pressure exerted by the Riot and the First Sword played an indispensable role in pushing her to this extent.

It couldn't be helped. Venerable Orfan and Venerable Dise may have entered into battle with a plan in mind, but Venerable Rebecca's enormous will and the Shellshock's incredible performance were so threatening that the Larkinson expert pilots had to fight with all of their strength just to hang onto the battle.

The pair had no choice but to do their best and exert maximum pressure onto the Shockshell into order to defeat the powerful expert hybrid mech!

The Riot and the First Sword were not in a good condition at the moment. Their mechs had not just been flung away by force, but they also became exposed by the powerful electrical storms fueled by Venerable Rebecca's powerful outburst of forced resonance.

Both expert mechs lost a lot of control as arcs of powerful electricity continued to course through their frames!

Delicate components that were never designed to endure so much current began to fry and melt while other parts experienced so much stress that they froze up completely.

Though the expert pilots tried their best to resonate with their expert mechs to suppress and remove the persistent electrical bolts, the extraordinary energies were driven by qualitatively stronger willpower and could not be removed so easily!

"Shoot them down! There is no better chance than to eliminate the two Larkinson expert mechs than now!"

Several mech units hailing from the Blackened Reapers directed their accurate firepower towards the Riot and the First Sword!

Though the powerful armor of the two Larkinson expert mechs were still strong enough to withstand a lot of mundane firepower, their condition was anything but perfect at the moment.

Not only were their expert pilots unable to resonate with their expert mechs as much as before, but the cracks and holes generated by the Shockshell's earlier attacks also represented dangerous vulnerabilities that could more easily be exploited by other Fridayman mechs!

As Ves glanced at the telemetry that the two expert mechs were still able to transmit back to the main fleet, he grew increasingly more distressed at their conditions.

Ves didn't worry too much about the condition of the expert mechs. Though it was not pleasant to see them get fried before his eyes, at worst he and his fellow mech designers would just fix them back together after the battle.

What he was truly concerned about was the state of their expert pilots!

If any of those powerful electrical currents penetrated through the reinforced cockpits and fried the fragile organic bodies of the expert pilots inside, then the Larkinson Clan would suffer a serious loss!

"Evacuate the Riot and the First Sword! The Fridaymen are already beginning to attack their frames, so pull away quickly and bring them to the rear!"

Fortunately, the Larkinson Army had already been preparing for an emergency like this. Several Swordmaiden mechs that had been hovering in the vicinity flew forward and quickly shielded the paralyzed expert mechs from further ranged attacks.

The Second Swords and other mechs that held onto the limbs of the disabled expert mechs began to suffer considerable shocks as the electrical currents passed on from their initial targets.

Unlike the Riot and the First Sword, the ordinary mechs of the Larkinson Clan were not able to withstand these attacks!

Several mech pilots got electrocuted within seconds after the dangerous current had transferred to their machines!

"Eject from your mechs as soon as you grab hold of the Riot and the First Sword!" Legion Commander Sendra instructed. "Saving our expert pilots is our highest priority! Use your mechs to hold onto the expert mechs in order to drain away the electrical current."

A succession of Swordmaiden mechs did not flinch and held onto the Riot and the First Sword in quick succession.

As soon as an electrical current flowed away from one of the expert mechs, the Swordmaiden pilot did not hesitate and ejected from their doomed machine.

The Swordmaidens ultimately paid the price of around 16 quality Swordmaiden mechs in order to completely neutralize Venerable Rebecca's horrible resonance-empowered electric current.

Ves briefly sighed in relief when he confirmed that the two expert mechs held up to an extent. Much of their internal systems may have been fried, but the Swordmaidens intervened as fast as they could.

Though the two disabled expert mechs no longer transmitted any data about the condition of Venerable Orfan and Venerable Dise, Ves simply called up the Larkinson Mandate and concentrated for a moment to confirm their conditions through the turbulent Larkinson Network.

"There's a greater problem at hand."

The outcome of the battle between the three expert mechs was extremely unfavorable to the attacking side.

Two powerful expert mechs of the Larkinson Clan had been put out of play.

Meanwhile, the Sundered Phalanx had not only gained an extremely powerful ace pilot, but also one that could change the entire trend of the ongoing battle with her newfound strength!

Everyone became shocked when the Shockshell exploded with so much energy.

Hundreds of meters of space became engulfed in lightning and stormclouds as Rebecca's potential became fully unleashed!

A grand transformation took place inside Rebecca's mind as the critical situation had finally pushed her past her bottleneck and initiated her transition to an energy-based lifeform!

A sense of nirvana overcame her mind as the old but dogged woman finally felt rewarded for all of her diligent efforts and service towards the Gauge Dynasty.

As her life phase evolved to a higher state, Saint Rebecca spontaneously became exposed to a deeper and stronger form of power. Her willpower underwent such a powerful transformation that it not only became a lot more solid, but was also able to propagate at much larger distances than before!

"I… have become the storm!"

Venerable Rebecca's affinity with electromagnetism had reached a higher level!

Of course, an expert pilot such as herself possessed a relatively limited understanding of the scientific concept of electromagnetism. She mostly focused her attention on electricity and barely paid any attention to magnetism.

Regardless, Rebecca's choice meant that her unfolding and solidifying domain field became so infused with lightning bolts that it looked as if the entire space around the Shockshell had turned into a miniature storm-covered planet!

Just as Saint Rebecca was about to complete her rapid transformation, a thick and arcing energy beam abruptly pierced through the Shellshock's evolving Saint Kingdom and accurately punched through the side of the Shellshock's frame!

The bent energy beam may have lost a bit of power after cutting through the extraordinary lightning storm, but it still possessed enough power to accurately pierce through one of the cracks in the armor and destroy a whole host of internal components!

The Shellshock abruptly seemed to freeze after getting struck.

The storm around it began to flicker and fade as if someone had just poked a hole in a balloon.

The extremely powerful ranged attack had not only managed to overcome the Shellshock's nascent domain field, but also broke through the high-tier expert mech's damaged but still intact transphasic armor plating in a single strike!

"Venerable Stark… has saved us! The Shellshock is broken!"

"The Amaranto is too powerful!"

"The Fridaymen will be angry after we ruined Rebecca's moment."

This was an unimaginable setback to the Fridaymen who were hoping that their new ace pilot would reverse the tide of the battle.

It turned out that Venerable Stark had already been waiting to take action all this time.

Both Ves and General Verle had given her instructions in advance. Though it would have been best if the Amaranto could save its strongest shot for later, if Venerable Rebecca truly broke through, then she had to be stopped at all cost!

From the moment the Shellshock unleashed a storm of massive proportions, Venerable Stark already received the greenlight.

"Jannzi!"

"I'm here!"

The Shield of Samar had already been moving away from the Spirit of Bentheim and hovered near the Gorgoneion that the Amaranto had been using as its trench.

Up until this point, the Amaranto and the Star of Liberation had been pinning each other down, restraining both of them from directing their firepower to other expert mechs.

This status quo abruptly collapsed from the moment the Shield of Samar flew forward and utilized its massive defenses to shield the Amaranto from incoming attacks!

No matter what kind of powerful dual energy beams the Star of Liberation fired with its custom Slipdream rifle, the Shield of Samar's strained but intact defenses forcefully withstood the attacks.

"Take as much time as you need, Stark." Venerable Jannzi said as she gritted her teeth. "My Shield of Samar will do whatever it takes to give you the opportunity to launch your strike."

The expert heavy space knight also convened the same sentiment to Venerable Stark and the Amaranto.

"I don't need that much time."

What Venerable Stark needed was just a brief moment that was free of interruption to charge her next attack.

She fully resonated with her Instrument of Vengeance and pumped as much conventional energy and true resonance into the weapon as possible in order to accumulate as much power as possible.

She made sure to switch the powerful luminar crystal rifle's attack pattern to a light beam in order to better resist Saint Rebecca's extremely powerful forced resonance.

On top of that, Venerable Stark also resonated with the Illustrious One in order to gain the design spirit's blessing and power.

The Amaranto's luminar crystal rifle began to glow in rainbow colors after Venerable Stark activated a prime ability that was meant to utilize the Illustrious One's power to bypass resonance shields and other defenses!

Venerable Stark soon locked onto her target and estimated her chances of inflicting a crippling or fatal blow.

She shook her head a second later.

"This isn't enough. I need more."

Fortunately, Ves already anticipated this need.

Though he was situated all of the way inside the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves still possessed a small but intimate bond with all of his masterwork mechs, which also included the Amaranto!

Ves began to employ a rare self-developed technique that he had taken to calling Remote Energy Channeling to activate his connection to the Amaranto!

Once he opened up this channel, he immediately shoved Blinky through connection and forced him to appear inside the Amaranto.

Ves experienced a huge amount of strain after doing this, but he gritted his teeth and commanded Blinky to infuse the Instrument of Vengeance with almost all of the Worclaw energy that the companion spirit had accumulated inside the crystal embedded into his forehead.

Mrow!

Blinky did not hesitate to do as instructed. The mystical Worclaw energy that served as the greatest source of strength of the Alshyr race now infused the Amaranto's luminar crystal rifle with an additional type of energy!

Once the Instrument of Vengeance became so overloaded by several different kinds of energy that its internals were beginning to suffer from the strain, Venerable Stark finally pulled the trigger!

The combined efforts of Venerable Stark, the Amaranto, the Illustrious One and Blinky produced such an awe-inspiringly powerful light beam that it soared across the battlefield like a ray of destruction and overcame the strong but not entirely Saint Kingdom surrounding the Shellshock!

In fact, from the moment that Venerable Stark went all-out and leveraged every possible source of empowerment, the outcome had already been doomed.

If Venerable Rebecca had stabilized her breakthrough to ace pilot and had a proper ace mech at her disposal, the Amaranto probably wouldn't have succeeded.

Unfortunately, the new ace pilot's circumstances were anything but ideal. The high-tier expert mech that she used to be so proud of had turned into a liability that held her back from exerting greater strength!

As the lightning storm surrounding the Shellshock faded completely, it became clear that while the expert mech may have lost functionality, its new ace pilot was probably still alive!

"Save Saint Rebecca!"

"Don't let the Larkinsons or Hexers finish the job!"

This time, it was the turn of the Fridaymen to make a sacrificial play to save their incapacitated pilot!

The Medallion Guards did not hesitate at all and surged forward by the hundreds, not caring that they were breaking up their formations or messing up the Sundered Phalanx's battle plans.

In fact, the commanding officers had already issued priority orders to save Saint Rebecca's life and bring her back at any cost!

"Don't let the Fridaymen take her away!"

The extremely vengeful and concerned Hexers attempted to stop the Medallion Guards from rescuing their new ace pilot, but the Fridaymen mechs fought with such frenzy that none of the efforts succeeded!

The faces of many Hexer officers turned ugly.

"This is a disaster. If the Gauge Dynasty gains another ace pilot, then we will gain an extremely powerful enemy in the future!"