The Mech Touch

Ves could not guarantee that he possessed the ability to induce a breakthrough on demand.

He had taken a major gamble by employing his transcendence glow on Major Jankowski.

Though the mech officer was in a better condition to accomplish a breakthrough due to the fact that he was fully invested in a battle against a superior opponent, his talent and mentality were not that great!

Simon Jankowski had much better chances of breaking through when he was decades younger and still retained a lot of confidence and optimism in himself.

This was the prime age bracket for any breakthroughs!

Any mech pilot that failed to break past their mortal limits in their twenties and thirties usually had no chance of defying their fates in the remainder of their careers.

The proportion of mech pilots breaking through when they were in their 50's, 6o's and older was depressingly miniscule!

To be honest, there was no reason anymore for Major Jankowski to expect any drastic increases in strength anymore. His excellent education made it abundantly clear that his chances of becoming an expert pilot had dropped so much that his confidence in this area had dropped to the bottom.

That changed today.

Somehow, Major Jankowski had dug up many of the ambitions and regrets that he had buried in his mind.

He thought back on the high-spirited dreams of his youth and reflected on the failures that scarred his confidence.

Why was this future denied to him? How was it possible for his other colleagues to progress by leaps and bounds while Simon himself remained stuck at the ordinary limit?

It was not fair!

Perhaps many other mech pilots would already remain content with becoming a part of the most powerful mech organization in human civilization, but Jankowski had always set his sights on becoming one of the many god pilots that protected the human race!

Now, those dreams that he had buried a long time ago suddenly came up in his mind again.

Unlike the darkest moments of his past, Jankowski no longer thought that his ambitions were unattainable anymore.

Anything was possible as long as he worked hard enough to attain greater power!

Under the high pressure of the current battle and the comprehensive influence of the transcendence glow, Major Jankowski suddenly received a powerful impulse that merged his various thoughts and emotions together.

A critical mass had formed in his mind that exploded into a power that activated his spiritual potential and transformed his willpower!

At the same time as Major Jankowski broke through to the rank of expert candidate, a massive surge of power exploded from his depths.

It was as if all of those decades of quiet accumulation suddenly came loose, causing his rapidly expanding willpower to abruptly resonate with the mech that he was currently piloting!

The Elemental Lord gained a massive and violent infusion of strength that transformed its effective performance and elevated its performance in the most direct ways possible!

Though there was a massive lack of control and finesse to this temporary empowerment, it was more than enough to give the struggling drone mech the strength it needed to close the gap!

The exterior of the mech glowed with the power of forced resonance!

Not only that, but the accompanying fey that had been utilizing their own structures as physical shields to block some of the wind swordsman's attacks began to glow as well!

The power of forced resonance was magical and mysterious. It followed the purest intention of the mech pilot and not only simulated the power of true resonance, but also injected a lot of power into the machine, thereby causing it to perform way above its normal limits!

At this instance, the Elemental Lord's effective performance had temporarily reached the level of a low-tier expert pilot!

This made an immediate difference in battle. The empowered mech not only kept up with the speedy rhythm of the fast-moving tribulation manifestation, but also began to land successful attacks against the four-armed alien!

CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

Major Jankowski had practically been reborn at this moment!

Although there was still a long distance away from undergoing actual apotheosis, breaking the mortal limit and becoming an expert candidate already signified that he had stepped onto the road of ascension!

Major Jankowski felt invincible at the moment! He wanted to shout out all of the frustrations that had been welling up in his heart all of this time.

Today, he had completely turned his life around and finally managed to unlock his hidden potential!

As a veteran mech officer of the Red Association, Simon Jankowski understood much better what his breakthrough signified!

It wasn't just the mech pilot that received a substantial boost. As his forced resonance flooded throughout the entire mech frame and the fey, the five brothers received a massive amount of feedback that rapidly enabled them to explode in strength!

The E energy vortex surrounding the Elemental Lord became a lot stronger as the five brothers were able to exert much stronger control over their respective elements!

Although they were still unable to combine four elements at once, they were able to leverage their current advantages a lot more extensively!

This had many different consequences to the current fight!

Just as the wind warrior sought to evade one of the Elemental Lord's sword strikes, the wood fey worked hard to utilize his elements to constrict the movements of the lightning tribulation.

Unlike before, the energy field produced by the metal-water-wood chain caused the entire surroundings to glow in green.

The strong artistic conception created by the fifth brother even started to take on a more physical shape due to the blessing of forced resonance, giving observers the illusion that a vague forest had formed around the Elemental Lord!

The wind warrior visibly slowed down even as its wind shield flared.

Illusionary tree branches started to surround and envelop the tribulation manifestation. Even if they failed to immobilize the wind warrior entirely, the wood energies still managed to wear down the wind energies and counteract the speed boost!

Now that the speed differential between the two had shrunk, the empowered Elemental Lord was able to confront the wind warrior a lot more directly!

The resonance-empowered fire fey unleashed blasts of purple fire that penetrated the fragile wind shield and burned a surprisingly large chunk of the wind warrior!

The earth fey on the other hand managed to fire an extraordinary heavy slug that penetrated through every barrier and obstacle and severed one of the major limbs of the wind warrior, causing it to lose control over one of its swords!

The wind warrior visibly winced from these twin blows, but it quickly used one its lesser arms to pick up the sword that was just about to drop to the ground.

Major Jankowski was not willing to waste the precious time while he was performing at his peak.

Under his growing willpower, the Elemental Lord blasted forward with an explosion of fire energy and charged straight towards the wind warrior!

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

The Elemental Lord skillfully managed to read the wind warrior's reluctant attempt to evade and managed to lock one of the giant alien's sword while wrenching away the other one! Compared to a greater arm, the lesser arm of this alien species was obviously less suited to exert any significant force!

After the injured lightning manifestation lost a sword, the Elemental Lord took full advantage of the opening and unleashed a rapid series of slashes that tore into the wind warrior's torso and head!

Shortly after Major Jankowski had vented his anger at this astounding opponent, he commanded his Elemental Lord to pull back.

CRACKLE-BOOOOOM!

An explosion of tribulation lightning and tribulation wind engulfed the position of the defeated tribulation warrior!

The uncontrolled release of energies was so violent this time that the Elemental Lord had to rely on its forced resonance shield to prevent its mech frame from incurring significant damage.

"We won!"

"Meow!"

Ves let out a huge breath in relief. Not only did they manage to overcome the 30th wave, but the Elemental Lord also experienced a surge in growth.

The five brothers took full advantage of Jankowski's breakthrough and absorbed a lot of spiritual feedback.

However, their jubilation was short-lived when the 31st wave commenced a short moment later.

The oppression generated by angry storm clouds had grown a lot stronger. It was as if Major Jankowski's abrupt breakthrough broke their calculations!

The fourth tribulation warrior that descended from the clouds was yet another simulated copy of a four-armed alien swordsman.

This one wielded a radically different weapon. It held a thick and long slab of metal that looked even more exaggerated than the style of greatswords favored by the Swordmaidens!

The new alien swordsman clearly excelled in powerful strikes. Not only did the tribulation manifestation exude a deep sense of control over the element of earth, but its aura also radiated an air of force!

Combined with the tribulation lightning that made up its form, this supremely powerful tribulation manifestation could probably crush the Elemental Lord in a single blow as long as it managed to land a direct blow!

Major Jankowski and the five brothers did not need any guidance from Ves to figure out how to deal with such an opponent.

They were fully prepared to play hard-to-get and rely on their mobility advantage to avoid the heavy blade of the earth warrior.

In the meantime, the fire fey and the earth fey began to unleash much more powerful attacks than before.

Their abrupt growth had given them a greater ability to shape and control the energies at their disposal.

The fire fey for example began to compress its fire beam attacks into a pulse that compressed all of the destructive fire energies in a much shorter time interval!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Violent purple explosions rocked the exterior of the earth warrior. Each of them possessed enough power to shatter the frame of a quasi-first-class mech.

Meanwhile, the earth fey did not let up and infused so much earth energy into its gauss rounds that their mass and force reached unreal proportions.

Every attack produced loud collision noises as the resonance-empowered gauss rounds sought to penetrate and annihilate anything in their path!

Yet much to the surprise of the five brothers, the earth swordsman showed no visible signs of damage.

With its much stronger and deeper mastery over the earth element, the new tribulation manifestation formed a defense that was as impenetrable as an ultradense rock!

No matter whether it was the explosive energy attacks of the fire fey or the heavy kinetic impacts of the earth fey, neither of the two empowered spurs managed to inflict any damage!

The only consolation was that the earth swordsman was nowhere near as fast as its predecessor.

The Elemental Lord was able to maintain its distance from the powerful tribulation manifestation and its exaggeratingly heavy greatsword.

Yet just as Major Jankowski and the five brothers struggled to form an effective strategy, the earth warrior suddenly exerted a strong energy field that constricted the surrounding space and caused every movement to be met with much greater resistance!

Ves grew alarmed when this occurred!

"This... this is a domain!"

Although it was not as strong and dense as a Saint Kingdom, the earth swordsman's comprehension and control over the earth element was so extensive that its influence had reached a surprisingly long range!

The Elemental Lord especially became locked by the earth warrior, making it seem as if the mech was unable to escape!

Major Jankowski's ability to generate forced resonance had just passed its high tide. His ability to empower the Elemental Lord could not become any stronger, which meant that he had no ability to break this weird new condition.

"My mech is hardly able to move! The earth fey has lost control over the surrounding earth E energy. The third brother is unable to stop the tribulation warrior from usurping his control!"

Ves widened his eyes in alarm!

That was bad!

The Elemental Lord only performed at its best when it was able to harness all five elements!

If the drone mech no longer had access to the earth element, then many important chains became inaccessible!

Ves could already feel the consequences around the cockpit.

The mech frame lost a lot of reinforcement due to the breakdown of the fire-earth-metal chain.

The water fey was no longer able to empower its own intact azure energy shield with the earth-metal-water chain.

The loss of a single element was enough to cripple the Elemental Lord, and that was when Major Jankowksi was still in his breakthrough state!

The earth swordsman did not waste this opportunity. As soon as the drone mech had become immobilized by the power of earth, the tribulation manifestation slowly charged forward while holding aloft its gigantic greatsword.

Even if the earth swordsman was relatively slow to build its charge, it gradually built up an indomitable momentum that became more and more frightening.

The oppression exuded by this tribulation manifestation was at least an order of magnitude greater than that of the defeated wind swordsman!