The Mech Touch

"Interesting choice."

"Hm?"

"I gave you a good look at my mech design yesterday. It should have been clear to you that my Nelerat is a hyper mech that is entirely centered around the application of earth energy." The much older mech designer elaborated his thoughts. "It has become well-known that there are strong complementary and oppositional relationships between the most common E energy elements. Fire energy inflicts less damage on defenses that are reinforced with earth energy. This is because fire can actually feed earth. Surely a mech designer that is familiar with extraordinary sources of power should understand this basic fact."

Master Kreshnik essentially referred to how the Fey Fiannas were inflicting much less damage against their opponents than the other way around.

The luminar crystal rifles along with the luminar crystal cannon fey had all been equipped with fire beam attack phase crystals that shot fire-empowered laser beams.

Although Ves had managed to develop much better attack phase crystals that could inflict much more serious damage, the most basic fire beam attack phase crystals were cheap, efficient, easy to mass produce.

That made them particularly suitable for a mass production model like the Standard Edition of the Fey Fianna.

Despite launching fiery hot laser beams at the distant mountain-shaped fortification, the energy weapons harnessed by the Fey Fianna hardly produced any waste heat. Their energy cells also did not get drained at an alarmingly fast rate. They could easily keep up the firepower for quite a while.

At first, these fire beams were making brisk progress.

Even though Master Kreshnik had made the unusual decision to equip his Nelerat Mark I with earth-attributed energy shields, their capacities were small because it was impossible to equip the rifleman mechs with larger generators.

Even so, the earth energy reinforcement along with the favorable environment toughened up the rifleman mech's energy shields so much that they neutralized a significant portion of the thermal damage.

The small capacity energy shields of the Nelerat Mark I's managed to last significantly longer as a result!

However, it was hard to turn a molehill into a mountain by relying on a lot of earth energy.

Eventually, the energy shields broke, allowing the Fey Fiannas to channel their collective firepower at the actual fortification.

The repeated fire beam attacks were starting to make real progress. They began to melt and vaporize the hard and thick alloys, especially at certain sections that were easy to target due to the fact that the fortification was completely stationary!

The Fey Fiannas did not manage to do all of this with impunity.

Their water energy shields were taking a considerable beating during all of this time. The painful aspect about orienting all of their defenses around the water element was that they shared a common weakness against earth energy-based attacks!

Ves had to refrain himself from wincing each time he saw one of the water-based energy shields of his mech or fey getting destabilized at an alarming rate.

The high rate of fire along with the elemental advantage of the Nelerat Mark I was a nightmare to the Fey Fiannas!

The only saving grace was that the relatively good maneuverability of the drone mechs enabled them to evade a part of the incoming attacks. This helped to ease the strain on the energy shields at the cost of expending a lot of energy in order to power their intensive energy maneuvers.

The Fey Fiannas did not let their energy shields burst, which induced the greatest strain on their generators. What they did instead was to alternate their energy defenses.

Whenever an energy shield fey was nearing its limit, it retreated and allowed another fey or mech to put a new energy shield forward.

This was a relatively simple but effective rotation that enabled the energy shield generators that no longer came under strain to recharge and return to their optimal states with the least amount of complications.

If the opposing side deployed melee mechs or tried to attack the Fey Fiannas from angles, then it became a lot harder to grant the nearly depleted units enough rest to restore their conditions.

However, because the Nelerat Mark I's all huddled together inside their makeshift fortification, it became very clear that every attack they launched only followed a single trajectory.

The Fey Fiannas merely had to concentrate their defenses in a single direction to block all of the attacks coming their way.

It hardly helped. The Nelerat Mark I did not rely on positioning to gain an advantage on the battlefield. They were hard hitters that preferred to hide inside their little castles. Their gauss rifles continued to fire round after round with no abating.

The elemental disadvantage of the Fey Fianna became increasingly clearer as a result. Despite the fact that the drone mechs and fey were able to rotate their energy shields, each of them were getting drained at a much faster rate that they could replenish in so little time!

This was especially problematic when the Nelerats tried their best to focus their fire on one of the Fey Fiannas. Their goal from the beginning was to eliminate one of the three drone mechs as soon as possible.

In the meantime, the barrage of fire laser beams was making moderate progress in burning through the earth-reinforced external armor plating.

The main reason why the repeated energy attacks appeared to be fairly effective against the fortification was because the latter was made out of affordable and disposable alloys.

However, their thickness granted them a considerable buffer, making it harder to bun holes right through the other side.

As the surface of the fortification became more and more hot due to the repeated attacks, the Fey Fiannas suddenly encountered a familiar obstacle in the form of earth energy shields!

The Nelerats had already restored the conditions of all of the energy shield generators that had only been depleted a relatively short time ago.

The unexpectedly quick reappearance of these energy shields significantly interrupted the momentum of the Fey Fiannas.

Attacks meant to drill through the holes made into the fortification instead struck the energy shields that stubbornly prevented the incoming fire from damaging anything material.

The earth energy shields did more than that. They offered enough protection to allow the Nelerat Mark I to make an even more surprising move.

Ports opened on their torsos. Nozzles extended from the ports and began to spray a thick solution into all of the cavities on the hot exterior of the fortification.

Once the thick slurry entered these cavities, the alloys rapidly cooled down while the gaps in the defenses started to get filled!

Though it was clear that this quick fix could never restore the defenses to their full conditions, the emergency measure could buy valuable time for the defensive rifleman mechs!

The modest earth energy shields did not last very long. They reached their limits soon after, enabling the luminar crystal weapons of the Fey Fiannas to strike the fortifications once more!

Each of their fire beams deliberately struck the sections that had been filled with the hardened solutions.

Just as expected, they broke faster than proper armor, but they still did a decent job at preventing the Fey Fiannas from threatening more important components!

"What a great design solution." Ves couldn't help but comment. "I can see how this sort of routine is tailor-made for countering alien starfighters. Those alien craft love to swing around and perform intensive attack runs before flying away to prepare for their next ones. By relying on a combination of fast-regenerating energy shields and field repairs, your defensive rifleman mechs can continually restore their damage buffers, making it impossible for alien starfighters to inflict serious damage unless they go all out in overwhelming the defenses of your fortified mechs."

Master Kreshnik couldn't help but smile. "Thank you for your appreciation. We have truly worked hard to develop, acquire and perfect the technologies that we have chosen to make use of. The armor repair solution alone was difficult to research. It had to be economical enough to be used by second-raters, but it also had to be effective enough to resist attacks without immediately crumbling apart. Armor systems and repair systems are not my strengths, but they synergize too well with my proprietary energy shield systems."

There were clear differences between the energy shields of the Fey Fianna and the Nelerat Mark I.

The former was based on a more traditional pattern. It had become quite common to resort to the water element to reinforce energy shields. Not only did they possess fantastic synergy with transphasic energy shield generators, but they also performed well against energy weapons, which were widely used by both human and alien combatants.

However, the energy shields of the Fey Fianna were slow to restore their integrities once they resisted a lot of attacks. This was the common shortcoming of many energy shield systems available to mechs.

The Nelerat Mark I did not suffer from this problem. Though their energy shields were not able to resist as much damage before they reached their limits, it became clear that they could bounce back at a remarkably fast rate under any circumstances!

As the ranged slugging match continued, it became more and more clear that the Fey Fiannas would eventually lose all of their energy shields.

In contrast, the Nelerat Mark I's could always rely on their energy shields getting back online after a certain delay!

This granted the defensive rifleman mech a notable advantage in the later stages of a match. Their earth energy shields would keep bouncing back on a repeated basis, thereby effectively increasing their ability to withstand damage by a far greater extent than their appearances suggested!

The best way to overcome these fast-regenerating energy shields was to launch an overwhelming assault. Burst weapons or melee weapons were ideal at chipping away at these weak but constantly renewing energy shields.

Unfortunately, the Fey Fiannas did not enter the arena with such a loadout. They were all equipped for attribution battles. Their luminar crystal weapons were not known for their exceptionally high attack power. They were clearly configured for endurance battles!

This was why Master Kreshnik still found it perplexing that Ves had chosen to field his Fey Fianna like this. This was the completely wrong loadout to deploy in this particular matchup.

"If I was in your shoes, I would have equipped your Fey Fiannas with the heaviest axes that they can lift with their slender arms. Each Fey Fianna should be accompanied by 3 gauss cannon fey and just 1 energy shield fey." The older man spoke to Ves who was floating by his side. "Rush them forward. Go for maximum and overwhelming impact. Your mechs may stand a better chance of winning this challenge match if they attempt to break through the layered defenses of my Nelerats as quickly as possible. Doing this will give my rifleman mechs less time to take advantage of the fast-regenerating properties of their energy shields."

Ves knew that quite well, yet he declined to adopt this logical approach.

Instead, he put himself at a greater disadvantage and stupidly tried to make his Fey Fiannas outlast the defensive rifleman mechs that were clearly optimized for this mode of combat!

"Hehehehe." Ves chuckled and smirked. "What can I say? I like to live dangerously."

"There is taking risks and there is launching yourself into a star. I truly cannot think of any rationale that will give your drone mechs a clear advantage in this matchup. Not with this configuration that you have chosen. Are you deliberately attempting to lose this challenge?"

"No." Ves firmly replied. "I am very serious about winning this match. I can promise you that I have no intentions of disrespecting your challenge. I am committed to proving the superiority of my Fey Fianna, but that is precisely why I am forcing my machines to fight under these adverse circumstances. I want to show the public that my work can overcome the inherent disadvantages of this situation and secure a decisive victory in the end."