The Mech Touch

Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

The quantity of lightning birds that comprised the 26th wave was already overwhelming!

Energy beams and gauss rounds sought to whittle down their numbers, but these inefficient attacks did not make any significant changes to the threat posed by the attack wave.

Thousands of lightning birds descended upon the fleeing Elemental Lord without mercy!

"Yet just as the momentous and oppressive swarm of birds managed to get close enough, a much larger and more violent phoenix crashed into their midst and began to disperse hundreds of tribulation manifestations with sweeping flames!

"Burn them all! Let your phoenix sweep these birds!"

A lot of observers were surprised by how much stronger the purple phoenix had become.

Though the strengthened energy construct had not grown strong enough to crush this attack wave entirely, it had abruptly grown large and powerful enough to reduce the formidable threat posed by the 26th strike to a manageable level!

The remaining lightning birds that managed to get past this powerful phoenix struck the prepared drone mech and the accompanying fey with slightly greater violence than before, but somehow inflicted less damage per attack.

The metallic reinforcement of the mech frame had grown stronger!

The first brother managed to capture and utilize a greater quantity of metal E energy than before. With all of this extra strength, the internals of the mech had received a crucial boost in strength, enabling the components to weather this tide a lot better than last time!

What was remarkable was that the Elemental Lord maintained a domineering appearance throughout this painful moment.

The mech's aura and demeanor had changed significantly just a short moment ago. It previously gave off the impression as if it was a machine that was constantly on the verge of losing control.

Now, the Elemental Lord had abruptly begun to live up to its name by exerting a lot more control over the elemental energies in the environment.

Its ability to control the forces of nature had improved in a way that made it seem as if the living mech commanded the elements as if there was no reason for the latter to disobey!

The differences were massive.

Not only had the main body and the four fey gained stronger individual control over their elements, but they had found that it became much easier for them to combine their elements together!

Although their ability to merge three elements at the same time was still a distance away from perfection, their chances of producing backlashes had dropped to a massive extent!

All of this was because Ves had secretly embedded one of his gems onto his work.

To be honest, a part of him questioned whether he had picked the right one. There was another gem that also sounded suitable for the occasion.

[RETRIBUTION OF MAKOWOL THE LOST!

A semi-processed gem that contains the irreconcilable soul of a rebel leader who disappeared on the eve of victory. Will impart greater damage resistance from any attacks launched by figures of authority and their oppressed subjects.

Ves released a small sigh. He instinctively felt that this oddly-named gem would have been able to help the Elemental Lord resist the lightning tribulation in a more direct fashion.

However, Ves ultimately concluded that it was a lot more important to increase his powerful mech's mastery over the five elements.

He did not see any reason to regret his choice so far. Harnessing the power of three elements instead of two made such an immediate difference that his mech was in a much better shape than he initially expected!

"Be careful." Ves warned as he was shaking off the lingering shocks from his earlier lightning bath. "The end of the 3rd round is at hand. The 27th wave will stress our defenses like nothing else. Can the fire fey produce another phoenix?"

Major Jankowski shook his head. "I have already made this suggestion, it is not possible. The burden of control is too great."

That was bad news. The fire phoenix had become a lot stronger alright, but there were limits to how extensively a single construct could overcome an entire swarm of lightning birds!

"The only other measure we can take is to pull the fire phoenix closer." The mech officer said. "That will allow us to burn more lightning birds, but it will test the control of all five brothers a lot more."

"This is a matter of life and death for them. They need to take risks."

The two occupants fell silent when the last and most dreaded wave of lightning attacks had emerged from the dark and gloomy clouds.

Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

Lightning bird upon lightning bird descended from above, each carrying a significantly greater charge than before!

The quantity of birds that descended from above had grown so much that they briefly outshone the dark storm that had spawned them in the first place!

As the lightning birds began to dive and converge upon the Elemental Lord that had begun to move again, they showed remarkably greater intelligence and coordination than before.

"Damnit, they are no longer stupidly trying to chase after our mech in the straightest possible trajectory anymore."

The birds had actively split up into multiple pincers in an attempt to attack the Elemental Lord from opposing angles!

Energy beams and gauss rounds constantly sought to whittle down the great swarm, but its momentum had not dropped in the slightest.

Ves began to have a very bad feeling about this wave of lightning attacks. He made a few quick changes to the settings of his lightning rods to reduce their exposure to external lightning discharges.

He briefly thought for a moment before he made another decision.

He had been testing the boundaries of the lightning tribulation for a while now. Ancient wisdom claimed that any attempts to help the subject survive would provoke a heavier punishment, but so far that did not appear to be the case.

Either the lightning tribulation was not as discerning as he feared, or a creator was allowed to take a few liberties in helping his own work pass this crucial test.

Whatever the case, Ves gained enough courage to intervene in a more direct manner!

"Blinky."

"Mrow!"

His companion spirit emerged from his head and phased through the mech frame before entering the nearby fire fey!

Naturally, the fourth brother did not resist the arrival of the companion spirit of his progenitor.

The fire fey gained a bit more strength once Blinky started to discharge a part of the fire energies that he had accumulated in his Blinkyverse!

"Mrow!"

The fire phoenix grew even larger and gained a more commanding aura, yet whether this made any substantial difference remained to be seen.

"They're coming!"

When the flood of lightning birds had begun to come close enough to make their attack runs, the fire phoenix could only attack two of the four pincers that were descending onto the Elemental Lord at most.

As the fire phoenix stuck close to the living mech and flew back and forth, it managed to capture most of the lightning birds that approached from two different angles!

However, that left the other two pincers of lightning birds free to collide against the vulnerable mech and the fey.

Yet just before these unattended lightning birds completed their mission, the temperature in the immediate area rapidly rose!

"BURN THEM ALL!"

The fire phoenix had turned around its majestic head and unleashed a spray of purple flame that not only washed over the Elemental Lord, but also struck many of the lightning birds that were on the cusp of transferring their damaging charge to the mech frame!

By the time the most intimidating wave of lightning birds had come to an end, the Elemental Lord emerged from this incident with a scorched but still relatively intact appearance!

"We did it!" Ves jubilantly cheered inside the cockpit. "Although that last move has caused our mech's exterior to sustain a bit of damage, the internals are still in a good enough shape to proceed. We have successfully managed to complete a third of this lightning tribulation."

"Meow meow!"

Even Lucky felt happy that they managed to resist the huge amount of lightning birds with only a small proportion of them getting through. The gem cat previously thought there was no way they would even last long enough to witness the 27th wave.

However, Ves and Major Jankowski suddenly lost their joy as the thunderstorm above began to release more crackling sounds.

It was as if the tribulation had grown furious at the fact that its target had managed to survive for so long!

"The fourth round of strikes is about to begin." Ves spoke. "Be prepared for anything."

As a part of the clouds glowed brighter and brighter, a large ball of golden lightning eventually descended from the skies!

This lighting ball was much larger, faster and more intimidating than the previous swarms of lightning birds!

"Damn!"

While Ves was happy that this powerful lightning ball did not strike the Elemental Lord all at once in a single instant lightning bolt, that did not change the fact that it would probably fry the drone mech from within if it got too close!

The luminar crystal rifle along with the two offensive fey immediately began to pepper the lightning ball with ranged attacks.

This time, the energy beams and gauss rounds produced significantly greater results than before.

Unlike the thousands of lightning birds of before, the opposition consisted of a single target this time.

However, Ves noticed that the repeated ranged attacks were not having that much of an effect. They were only being empowered by three separate elements, which meant that they did not gain any additional power derived from synergy.

By the time the large lightning ball had come very close, it had hardly diminished in size due to the low threat posed by the Elemental Lord.

Fortunately, the living mech still had a fire phoenix under control. The second, fourth and fifth brothers had made good use of the available time to strengthen their cooperation.

"Release the fire breath!"

Just as the fire phoenix was about to bathe the large lighting ball into a torrent of flames, the latter suddenly crackled and changed in form!

Within a short amount of time, the giant lightning ball turned into a strange bipedal alien that belonged to a species that Ves and Major Jankowski did not recognize!

The powerful alien form manifested by the golden lightning ball was relatively short, stocky and was covered by scales.

Its three compound eyes radiated pure menace while its two sets of arms made it look even more inhuman!

The smaller and weaker pair of arms lacked a lot of muscle mass and only appeared to be good for fine manipulation.

That was not the case for the larger and much more bulky set of arms. It not only looked strong enough to crush a human skull, but also happened to wield a broad and thick blade of golden lightning.

Supported by a pair of digitigrade that was standing in the air, the massive alien made out of tribulation energy looked like the personification of a completely unfamiliar alien warrior race!

Ves had a feeling that the lightning tribulation had produced a powerful sentient life form that was native to Messier 87!

What happened next surprised everyone.

When the fire breath unleashed by the purple phoenix was on the verge of engulfing its target, the four-armed alien manifestation swung its sword in a single powerful movement!

The tribulation manifestation released a wave of lightning energy that not only overpowered the flames, but also struck a deadly blow against the fire phoenix!

"What?!"

"Meeow!"

The water, fire and wood fey momentarily lost control as the powerful lightning strike had completely disrupted their control over their own energies!

While the affected fey hurriedly tried to recover and condense another phoenix, the large tribulation manifestation had already begun to lift its lightning sword in preparation to unleash a second lightning strike.

"Don't let it pull off that move again!" Ves urgently warned Major Jankowski.