The Mech Touch

"How can a huge mech like this just negate the damage inflicted by a massive charge from an expert lancer mech? The Point Break hit this souped-up Everchanger right in the chest!"

"Do the Larkinsons sell a regular version of this regenerating mech?"

"There has to be a limit to the amount of crap that the mechs of the Larkinson Clan can pull off! How can other mech designers possibly compete if the mechs from this group can easily put themselves back together?"

"Don\'t be a fool. This mech and additional equipment are anything but average. The cost to make this regenerating mech is absolutely high and the resources it needs to pay in order to repair itself in the field in such a short span of time is bound to be great. It might look completely undamaged, but in my opinion it is already a spent force!"

As usual, the laymen only based their judgment on what they could observe with their naked eyes while the more knowledgeable mech insiders understood the deeper circumstances of what had happened.

What they guessed was not that far from the truth. Venerable Joshua had indeed exhausted a lot of willpower and mental energy in order to activate the Everchanger\'s intrinsic Regeneration resonance ability.

The key resonating exotic that enabled Joshua to pull off this feat was Fixer Iron. It was not that rare of an exotic and its price was also fairly reasonable.

The only issue was that few expert pilots possessed the qualities to make good use of it. Venerable Joshua was one of the rare expert pilots that was both highly compatible with it while also possessing the right domain to utilize it in the most effective manner.

However, not even Ves expected the Everchanger to be able to regenerate this much damage at once!

He was actually one of the people who were most shocked out of everyone!

"This is impossible! There is a limit to how much Fixer Iron can repair battle damage based on Joshua\'s current resonance strength!" Ves explained as he sat up straighter on his chair inside the bridge of his flagship. "There\'s no way that resonating with Fixer Iron can create so many missing materials out of energy. Besides, this resonating ability shouldn\'t have extended its effects to the meat suit!"

Ves arguably possessed the greatest understanding of the Everchanger\'s design and characteristics. He had performed a lot of tests over the years in order to quantify its more metaphysical performance parameters.

There had been a time where he had become obsessed with Fixer Iron and what Venerable Joshua could do once he resonated with this amazing material.

It was through repeated experiments where he deliberately damaged different parts of the Everchanger that Ves understood all of the strengths and limitations of the Everchanger\'s Regeneration resonance ability.

Unless Venerable Joshua progressed into a high-tier expert pilot and became a lot more capable of distorting reality, it should have been impossible for him to repair so many broken parts at once!

Ves leaned forward and narrowed his eyes in suspicion. What did Joshua do to enhance the effectiveness of this ability by at least several times?

After ruling out many possible options, Ves eventually narrowed his sights to prime abilities.

One of the most unique and defining traits of the Everchanger was its ability to switch from one design spirit to another. It neatly complemented Joshua\'s talent in getting along with many different entities.

"As far as design spirits go, there are several that could amplify the effect of Regeneration. There is the Superior Mother, but there is also Gaia…"

Ves widened his eyes in realization.

Gaia!

He immediately concluded that it was none other than Gaia herself that had lent a hand to Venerable Joshua in this critical moment!

Only a design spirit that had moved closer and closer to the power of a so-called True God could supercharge the Everchanger\'s Regeneration to this extent!

Ves did not anticipate that Venerable Joshua\'s relationship with Gaia had grown to this degree.

Despite being her progenitor, Gaia almost never listened to Ves. She even refused to function as the design spirit of a couple of mechs that Ves had come up with over the years.

Apparently, Gaia apparently had no need to gather low-level spiritual feedback from mechs.

Ves also had the feeling that she disdained the mechs that he had designed with her in mind. Perhaps only first-class mechs or high-level mechs could obtain her approval!

"If that is the case, then the Everchanger should definitely be the Larkinson mech that appeals to her the most."

As Ves thought about all of the implications of Gaia\'s willingness to lend a hand to Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger, the battle between the three powerful expert mechs picked up again.

At the moment, the Everchanger\'s combat readiness had dropped far below its peak.

Not only did Venerable Joshua exhaust himself to force his mech to repair itself, but the meat suit was also largely a spent force.

Everything had a price. The spatial manipulation abilities that the Titan-5 Project had performed on a continuous basis along with all of the damage its spatial barrier had mitigated had drained a lot of energy already. Recovering and regenerating its battle damage expended even more energy!

There wasn\'t much time left for Joshua to leverage the meat suit\'s enhanced strength and additional possibilities.

Once he lost the power of the meat suit, it would be difficult for the Everchanger to defeat the Rekkar and the Point Break by itself!

"I can still finish off at least one machine!" Venerable Joshua mustered up his battle intent again.

The sensors of his enhanced mechs focused on the Point Break that was already circling around in order to perform another charge.

Though Venerable Joshua and the meat suit were no longer in their best state, Venerable Ulrik Valke and the Point Break paid an even greater price to pull off its earlier attack!

Originally, Venerable Valke thought that his most powerful charge would have finished off his opponent.

The Point Break\'s overloaded charge attack should have at least crippled the Everchanger to the point where the Rekkar could easily finish off the damaged mech!

Now that the Everchanger had repaired itself in defiance of all expectations, Venerable Valke forced himself to ready his damaged Point Break for another charge.

"Why won\'t you stay down?!" Venerable Valke cursed as he hatefully stared at the meat suit. "George, do your best to hold this damn monster in place. As long as I drive my lance through its back, I don\'t believe it can pull off the same trick twice!"

Venerable George Baldassare made an acknowledging sound. "Don\'t push yourself too much, Ulrik."

"I\'m not as fragile as you think. I\'ve faced worse situations during the Komodo War."

Unlike the Point Break that looked as if it was nearing the end of a marathon run, the Rekkar was still in excellent condition.

The meat suit launched few if any attacks towards the expert space knight. The Rekkar also had no opportunity to attack the meat suit up to this point.

Now that the Titan-5 Project was under no condition to maintain a warp inhibition field or engage in warp travel itself, the Rekkar was finally able to catch up to its oversized target!

"Take this, you big bastard!"

The Rekkar\'s transphasic axe glowed as it was about to chop down at the meat suit!

Even though expert space knights did not excel at attacking, this strike should not be underestimated!

Venerable Joshua recognized the threat, but he did not want to fight against the Rekkar at the moment. Venerable Baldassare\'s expert mech was way too tough and needed to be grinded down slowly.

While Joshua was confident that his Everchanger could defeat the Rekkar even if it lost the meat suit, he did not want to do so with the Point Break hovering in the background!

The best course of action that he could take was to take the Point Break off the board first.

Unfortunately, Venerable Valke clearly knew this as well and kept his expert lancer mech at a safe distance until he was ready to commence his charge.

The Titan-5 Project attempted to summon a couple of weak space blades and launched it towards the Point Break, but none of these attacks had much effect anymore due to the depletion of the meat suit.

The wizard had exhausted his magic!

"If that\'s the case, then I\'ll fight you in a different way!" Joshua decided.

He first had to lure the Point Break closer, and to do that he needed to fight against the Rekkar first.

As the meat suit and the Rekkar brawled against each other, neither side held back their aggression!

The meat suit had returned to its original and more violent combat approach by relying on brute force to wear down its opponent.

The Titan-5 Project\'s large proportions made it easy for it to launch powerful punches and kicks against an expert mech that wasn\'t fast or agile enough to evade the incoming attacks.

Every strike from the meat dealt as much damage as a power blow from an ordinary expert mech!

The Rekkar\'s resonance shield depleted quite quickly as a result, but Venerable Baldassare showed no concern at all. His expert space knight\'s defensive layers were much stronger than that of an offensive expert mech.

He hadn\'t even activated the custom HiCap energy shield which could absorb a lot of damage once the Rekkar\'s resonance shield failed.

Meanwhile, the Rekkar\'s transphasic axe was dealing real damage to the meat suit now that the latter had lost its spatial barrier.

Despite the hardy and resilient flesh derived from the toughest parts of an ancient astral beast, the transphasic axe cut deeper and inflicted considerable damage with every chop or hack.

The only reason why the meat suit was able to hold out for the time being was because it was so large and thick!

Not only that, the meat suit also retained a limited ability to redirect healthy flesh to its damaged sections so that it could quickly plug its weak points.

The problem was that this accelerated the depletion of the meat suit\'s energy reserves.

"C\'mon. Don\'t wait so long. Attack me, already." Venerable Joshua pleaded as he continually paid attention to the Point Break.

Venerable Valke finally had enough. His Point Break no longer built up any further momentum because the expert pilot intuitively judged his machine would break apart if it charged at greater speeds.

Now that he decided to commit to an attack, he resolutely turned his Point Break around and pointed its second lance straight towards its target!

"Make sure you keep its back pointed towards my weapon, George!"

"On it, Ulrik!"

This wasn\'t the first time the two expert pilots had worked together. Venerable George Baldassare possessed enough confidence to lock the orientation of his oversized opponent. He just had to launch an all-out assault!

"Take this!"

The Rekkar glowed brighter and its axe became infused with more true resonance than ever!

Each strike tore out a greater hole in the bloody chest of the meat suit than before!

Even if the meat suit turned around in the end, it would just allow the Rekkar to savage its back!

Though Venerable Joshua recognized that he had fallen into another difficult situation, his eyes shone as he felt more alive than ever.

"I hope you won\'t disappoint me this time, Titan!"

As the Point Break rapidly advanced forward to the point where it was almost ready to drive its lance through the back of its target, a mutation had suddenly occurred!

The meat suit seemed to part in half as if someone pulled down a zipper right through its front.

A fast and agile green-coated hero mech with white and gold accents deftly jumped out of its meat suit, leaving behind a hollow sack of biomatter.

The speed of the Everchanger\'s disengagement was so quick that the Point Break had no opportunity to aim its lance at the retreating expert hero mech.

Soon enough, its lance pierced through the hollow meat suit and almost threatened to slam against the Rekkar and explode with great fury if not for Venerable Valke\'s quick response!

"Damnit, the Larkinson pilot fooled us again!"

The Point Break continued to soar forward but with a large but flabby slab of flesh stuck to its lance.

Venerable Valke\'s expression turned ugly as his expert mech attempted to dislodge the empty meat suit from its weapon. He even thought about letting go of the Point Break\'s current weapon entirely before pulling out a third lance.

Yet before he could do so, he sensed a massive threat and a huge amount of malice from the Titan-5 Project!

The flesh that previously appeared flabby and inert suddenly shook and came to life!

Even though the Point Break quickly let go of its lance and attempted to retreat, it was far too slow!

The meat suit actually turned itself inside out and folded over to engulf the expert lancer mech in its macabre embrace!

"Ahhh!"

The monstrous meat suit completely wrapped around the Point Break and began to squeeze and attack its entire frame!

It was as if a biomonster had devoured an entire expert mech!