The Mech Touch

The tentacles of the massive unclean whale were no ordinary limbs.

As one of the rare products researched and developed by the cannibalistic phase whale himself, the tentacles possessed great strength and were long enough to envelop and restrain his preferred 'prey'.

The unclean whale obviously cared a lot about the prowess of his main capture tools. From the moment he grew them out of his body, he consistently used what little science and biotechnology he mastered to increase the length and toughness of his tentacles in order to ensure they could entangle more formidable targets.

Right now, over two-dozen ferocious-looking tentacles swayed across the vacuum of space!

Fortunately, their thick girths and exaggerated lengths made it awkward for them to attack comparatively tiny parasites that were sticking close to the unclean whale's hide.

The fleshy and disgusting limbs curled around so that they could sweep throughout the bubble of space between the unclean whale and his recently restored spatial barrier.

The six ace mechs that had managed to sneak through the gap created by the cyborg cat's passage knew that they were locked in a fight where retreat was out of the question!

Patriarch Reginald succinctly described their current situation as his ace hybrid mech's ARCEUS System blasted another salvo of powerful positron beams at his enormous adversary.

"We either defeat this accursed whale or die from getting crushed by his tentacles. None of us can back off at this point." The aggressive ace pilot grinned. "That's just the way I like it! Let us lift up our weapons and carve out the heart of this monstrous foe!"

His awesome fighting intent propelled him to weave through the forest of tentacles and continuously launch as many attacks against the massive unclean whale as possible!

However, despite the potency of the attacks launched by the Mars, every resonance-empowered strike only inflicted minute damage to the indigenous beast's surface.

Patriarch Reginald quickly frowned as he saw the results of his effort. His masterwork ace mech's firepower was prodigious, but the problem was that he wasn't fighting an opponent of comparable size.

He was fighting against an aquatic beast that was comparable in size to that of a warship but possessed a density that surpassed that of a well-made biomech!

What the unclean whale lacked in subtlety and finesse, he made up for his shortcomings with raw power and resilient flesh.

It took quite a bit of effort for the Mars to create a new crater on the surface of the unclean whale. Even then, the damage did not impair the massive beast that much since the outermost layer of his body consisted almost entirely out of blubber!

"This phase whale did not starve that much during the centuries of his captivity." Saint Kalasandra Boojay keenly observed as her Royal Jeem maintained a respectful distance while shooting at the target with a powerful plasma pistol. "All of this blubber is acting as a giant damage buffer. What is worse is that the whale has enough control over his body to move this fatty tissue around to plug the gaps that we have made."

This was a primitive but effective organic defensive measure for a creature of this size!

As long as the unclean whale was able to use spare blubber to fill up any potential breaches the ace mechs had made, the whale could resist the attacks of the six human ace mechs for a long time!

None of the ace pilots were unfamiliar with this scenario. It was similar to how starships and warships could resist extreme bombardment by rotating their hulls so that they always presented their most intact sides to the incoming attacks.

Suffice to say, none of the ace mechs wanted to fight for such an extended period. They weren't even certain that they would be able to outlast a phase whale that outmassed them by so many times!

"We cannot allow ourselves to get embroiled in a contest of attrition." Saint Sandro Gemini and Saint Kaia Gemini spoke at the same time in eerily perfect coordination over the communication channel. "We must land a killing blow on the heart or the brain of this monster to vanquish the final remaining threat on the battlefield."

"I agree." Saint Kalasandra Boojay concurred. "Don't forget what this creature tried to do earlier. If we continue to get locked in a stalemate, he might decide to initiate a smaller but faster displacement technique... taking us all with him in the process."

Ace pilots no longer experienced fear, but that did not mean they had lost the ability to feel concern.

If the damned tentacled phase whale managed to teleport himself and everything within the immediate vicinity away, then all six nearby ace mechs would get separated from their fleet and become stranded in an unknown star system that was far away from friendly support!

Although every ace mech possessed transphasic mobility systems, not all of them were equipped for interstellar travel.

There was a large chance that they would all remain stuck in an isolated star system and die after running out of food and having their machines fall apart from lack of long-term maintenance.

"Avoid those tentacles! Don't get hit by them. They may be slow, but they're covered in weird slime that can inflict serious damage against our mechs!"

When one of the ace mechs experimentally tossed an object at a tentacle, the ace pilots all saw that the acidic slime dissolved the metal in a matter of seconds!

Though none of the ace mechs were as fragile as they looked, they could not afford to remain within contact with this powerful transphasic slime.

As the ace mechs continued to circle around while trying to avoid getting hit by the slow but numerous tentacles, the ace pilots found that the unclean whale was not entirely unaccustomed to fighting off small enemies that were close to his body.

"Most of these tentacles are placed at the front half of the body." Saint Kalasandra Boojay remarked as her Royal Jeem continually tried and failed to get past the forest of tentacles. "They're all placed in an array that makes it dangerous for us to get close to the cranium of the beast."

"That is not all." Patriarch Reginald Cross spoke as his Mars continually struck the tentacles that were doing a good job at blocking its attacks. "These tentacles are forming makeshift flesh shields that are hindering my attempts to attack the skull."

None of the ace mechs had the firepower pierce through all of this raw flesh. Any wound they inflicted on a tentacle or a piece of blubber soon filled up as the unclean whale's remarkable body control allowed him to sacrifice other flesh to remedy his injuries.

"This is ten times worse than fighting a biomech!" Saint Marissa Lewandowski complained as her Jedda Sandivar was reduced to blinding the unclean whale's massive eyes with its smokey domain field. "We need to find a way to stop this whale from regenerating its wounds. Ordinary attacks won't cut it anymore!"

The ace mechs tried to concentrate their attacks as much as possible in an attempt to drill through the unclean whale's blubber at the rear, but that just made it easier for the massive beast to redirect spare biomass to fill up the gap again!

All the while, the creature also became more proficient in his attempts to smack the ace pilots that were circling around his body.

"Watch out! Those tentacles are splitting!"

The amount of tentacles swinging around suddenly doubled as the unclean whale made a costly but effective modification to his own body.

By splitting up the tentacles, they not only became a lot lighter and more agile, but also made it possible to form fleshy nets that were much more difficult to avoid!

At one point, the Royal Jeem found itself in a situation where it was surrounded by tentacles from every direction.

As soon as one of the tentacle nets entered the ace spearman mech's Saint Kingdom, the fleshy trap slowed to an extent as Saint Kalasandra Boojay exerted a portion of her massive willpower and strength.

"I decree that you are slow!"

Though the tentacles within range had slowed, they soon sped up again as the unclean whale's extremely resilient flesh resisted the extraordinary effect!

Saint Kalasandra Boojay almost miscalculated due to this. Her Royal Jeem had sped up and just managed to squeeze through a gap between the tentacles before the closest fleshy tendrils abruptly began to spawn a row of giant bony teeth!

The Royal Jeem's Saint Kingdom was hardly able to stop these teeth from crunching against the ace mech's armor!

"Uff."

The older ace pilot repressed a painful grunt as her Royal Jeem finally managed to escape the net of tentacles with a noticeable dent in its armor.

"Watch out for those teeth." The ace pilot of the Boojay Family warned as she analyzed her earlier experience. "The tip of those teeth are infused with a surprising concentration of phasewater. They can cut through your transphasic armor systems as if they are made of mundane metals. It's likely that these teeth are used to ensure that this cannibal whale can keep hold of his prey."

Saint Marissa Lewandowski added her own observations. "That's not all. This phase whale is barely getting affected by my Saint Kingdom. I can feel that my influence is getting blocked shortly after sinking below the surface. This guy's mind is too vast for us to manipulate while his body is like an impenetrable fortress that resists every foreign incursion. Our Saint Kingdoms cannot shake this beast!"

From the standards of the indigenous alien community, the unclean whale was a god or at least a being that was transitioning into a god. The light but noticeable concentration of phasewater along with the corrupted whale's immense mass had turned it into a formidable foe that could put up a decent against any other god-like entities.

That included ace mechs piloted by the Saints of the human race!

Patriarch Reginald and all of the other ace pilots took in these revelations and continued their efforts. They concentrated their attacks towards the rear of the unclean whale because that was where the density of tentacles was the lowest.

They had little chance of damaging any vital organs in this area, but few of them thought it was wise to fight around the front half of the unclean whale.

The tentacles became much more difficult to evade now that they had multiplied their numbers. It also didn't help that they all spawned teeth that could crush an ace mech should they be able to envelop one of the machines!

The Jedda Sandivar was the only light mech that dared to pressure the front of the unclean whale. It was the only light mech among them and possessed the greatest chance of evading the forest of tentacles that were concentrated around the massive head of the creature.

Though the ace light skirmisher was doing a good job of keeping many of the tentacles busy, it was tempting fate as the unclean whale became increasingly better at anticipating the elusive machine's evasion patterns!

Fortunately, the Jedda Sandivar's distraction paid off as the remaining ace mechs concentrated their attacks on the base of one of the tentacles at the rear.

After launching successive attacks in an extremely short interval like they did with their attempts to punch through the segmented energy shield layerse of the orven battleship, the powerful machines managed to sever one of the disgusting fleshy limbs.

Only for them to unleash a new monster.

"Watch out! That severed tentacle is coming to life!"

"That's ridiculous! It's no wonder the phase whales tried to lock this monster in a place called the Palace of Shame."

The severed tentacle parted into several sections before each of them morphed into smaller versions of phase whales. Each of them began to chase after the ace mechs as if they were eager to please their progenitor!