The Mech Touch

The alien stared hatefully at the Antonio Cross that was continuing to boost away from the immediate danger zone.

No matter what, the relatively mobile but fragile fleet carrier could not afford to get affected by the phase lord's spatial shockwaves!

"Keep firing at the alien! There has to be a limit to his spatial barriers. Fighting against a phase lord is just like fighting a phase whale, but our adversary is smaller this time!"

Fortunately, the Golden Skull Alliance already possessed valuable experiences in fighting a phase whale beforehand.

Though the unclean whale found at the Palace of Shame was hardly a representative example of his kind, he was still similar enough to give every participant of the Battle of the Boryan Belt a good idea on the characteristics of this enemy type.

Phase whales and phase lords generally fought by relying on their strong biological bodies and their strong phasewater manipulation abilities.

Their ability to attack at range was generally poor, but their combat effectiveness was incredible as the range became smaller.

Their staying power was also considerable as long as their phasewater concentration surpassed an important threshold.

At that time, their actual bodies had become so large that they could accommodate a lot of powerful and productive organs. The compression of space produced by their inherent abilities helped to prevent all of this bulk from transforming the phase lords into giant astral beasts!

"This is like hitting a wall! How much does it take to push this alien back?!" Venerable Orfan complained as her Riot continually struck the spatial barrier of the phase lord. "Even if this fellow's spatial barrier is unreasonably strong, his own tiny body should have bounced away from now. Why isn't it happening?!"

The Amphis Mark II tried to help the Riot out by throwing out its signature chainsword.

From the moment this chained weapon flew out and struck the phase lord, the alien powerhouse hardly seemed to notice the momentous blow.

The alien withstood a heavy blow that could have bounced away any expert medium mech, especially after Master Benedict almost completely overhauled the original Amphis a few years ago. For the phase lord to behave as if he got struck by a harmless kitten was a disappointing result!

Though the Riot and the Amphis Mark II ultimately failed to pose a serious threat against the phase lord, the alien was under no such restriction.

"Careful! The nunser is rearing up again!"

The quadruped alien clearly didn't care that he was openly telegraphing his moves. The phase lord shrugged off every incoming attack with ease while making his forehoofs descend upon an invisible surface!

The release of his accumulated energy produced a spatial shockwave that rippled through the surrounding area!

While the expanding shockwaves quickly weakened to the point where they posed little threat against the distant ranged expert mechs, the two machines that were closer suffered much more damage!

The Riot and the Amphis Mark II both reinforced their resonance shields, which helped a lot with absorbing the damage.

However, the nature of the spacequake meant that it affected space instead of the objects occupying it. This meant that the expert pilots found it extremely difficult to block the harmful ripple effects as they eventually tried to attack the machines from within!

The qualities of true resonance managed to block the harm produced by the insidious attacks, but not completely.

Compared to ace pilots whose resonance strengths allowed them to project full-sized Saint Kingdoms, the resonance shields of expert pilots were much poorer in terms of defense!

Ves almost jumped when he saw how much internal damage the Riot had incurred. Though the expert spearman mech had at least managed to retreat far away enough to prevent greater damage, repairing all of the damaged and misaligned parts was bound to be a hellish job!

Not only had the mechs incurred a bit of internal damage, but the bodies of the pilots themselves became affected to a degree!

"Ah! I am beginning to feel sick." Venerable Orfan spoke as she did her best to prevent the contents of her stomach from spilling out of her mouth. "I'm also starting to get a headache."

"Be more careful about tanking those spatial shockwaves up close." Ves warned the expert pilots. "They can pass through all of the defenses of your machines and affect your bodies to an extent. Make sure to pay attention to the condition of your heads. Your brains are the most crucial parts of your body. If anything goes wrong, the man-machine connection that is crucial to controlling your expert mechs may become impaired!"

That news caused a lot of distress among the expert pilots!

There was no worse way to retire from mech pilot than suffering too much brain damage!

Even though expert pilots developed much more resilient brains as a result of their evolution, they still weren't as strong and remarkable as the brains of ace pilots.

As such, each time these expert pilots become affected by a powerful spatial shockwave, they essentially risk getting crippled in a personal capacity!

"It's similar to a death energy battle formation attack." Ves uttered with concern. "It's an attack method that is incredibly good at bypassing conventional defensive measures. Our expert pilots are able to hang on for the time being, but if that space quake hits our ship up close, most of the crew probably won't be able to survive!"

In other words, this was an unblockable attack that could devastate entire fleets under the right circumstances!

As Ves became engrossed with all kinds of doom scenarios, Master Benedict began to gather more data. He pulled up a few charts and studied the data before he provided his own insights.

"The alien phase lord's area attacks can be blocked, but we need the right resources to do so." The older mech designer stated. "I have looked up the the damage incurred by the two closest expert pilots, and it turns out that Venerable Linda Cross did not receive as much damage as Venerable Rosa Orfan."

"That's because Linda is piloting a defensive mech."

"That is true, but that is not enough of an explanation. Both the Riot and the Amphis Mark II are medium mechs, and the latter is not that much more massive or tougher than the former." Benedict retorted. "I have studied the data and performed a few calculations. According to my preliminary conclusions, the key reason why Venerable Linda was not as affected was because her expert mech is clad with much thicker transphasic armor plating."

Ves went still for a moment.

The explanation made a lot of sense. He felt fortunate that he had sent the Riot first as opposed to a more vulnerable expert mech such as the Dark Zephyr or the First Sword.

Although the defenses of the two machines were not weak, their greatest shortcoming in the new frontier was that their armor systems were based on Unending alloy instead of increasingly more common transphasic materials!

Unending alloy offered a unique combination of benefits, but they did not offer the strong protection against spatial attacks like other alloys that had been infused with phasewater!

Ves already intended to replace the armor systems of his more outdated mechs with quality transphasic alternatives. This incident caused this initiative to shoot up in priority!

"Be careful, Orfan! I don't think it is permissible for you to get struck by a spatial shockwave again. The ExTrans Armor System might be able to provide partial protection to your mech and body, but the layer is too thin."

"I know." Venerable Orfan grumbled. "I will make sure to run back faster as soon as this alien begins to rear his body again."

The recent realizations messed up the battle plan, forcing the human combatants to make adjustments.

The ranged expert mechs were fine for the most part, but the melee expert mechs had to pay a lot more attention.

As soon as the phase lord tired of trying to bash his armored head against the resonance shields of the expert mechs in front of him, he began to make a familiar move while accumulating a lot of energy.

"He's rearing up again! Get away!"

"You don't need to tell me that again. I'm outta here!"

The Amphis and the Riot quickly aborted their attempted attacks and flew away as fast as they could!

Ultimately, the phase lord managed to produce another thunderous spatial shockwave!

"The space quake is larger and more powerful than the last one!"

The phase lord's attacks weren't static. He apparently exerted significantly more power than before and caused the resulting space quake to channel significantly more damage at longer ranges!

Fortunately, the two closest expert mechs had run away sooner, thereby causing them to become less exposed.

The Amphis was slower but managed to endure the shockwave attacks a lot better. Her defensive configuration and stronger resonance shield adequately resisted the effects of the space quake and only produced minor internal damage.

The Riot managed to get a bit further, but mobility was not his strong suit. The expert mech's relatively thin ExTrans Armor Systems tried to mitigate as much of the incoming shockwave, but ultimately came up short.

The expert mech jerked and momentarily interrupted his flight as the internal damage produced by the second spatial shockwave compounded the internal damage he had incurred just a moment earlier.

The Riot seemed to scream in pain as many components and subcomponents glitched or malfunctioned!

Not only that, but Venerable Rosa Orfan incurred such a shockwave that she momentarily lost control of her body as well!

"Ahhh!"

Her helmet automatically opened up a gap to allow her to vomit out the contents of her unsettled stomach without hindrance.

Fortunately for the expert pilot, the housekeeping systems of the sophisticated cockpit of the Riot still remained in working conditions.

A special gravitic field came to life that easily captured the foul biological matter and gently siphoned it all away, thereby keeping the cockpit clean and hygienic.

"I… I don't think I can stay in the fight any longer." Venerable Orfan wearily said as she coughed a few times.

"Don't worry." Ves immediately responded. "Don't worry about anything else and keep retreating. The Antonio Cross is ready to receive your expert mech. The Riot is not in a good shape at the moment."

"You'll fix him, right? He's my best battle buddy."

Ves seriously nodded. "I will promise that I will work on upgrading the defenses of your Riot so that you can fight against your future opponents with greater confidence. Perhaps the materials that we can salvage from the Tower of Babel will help with that. Let's hope we can win this battle. You have contributed enough. We know what the phase lord is capable of thanks to your help."

As the Riot and the Amphis Mark II pulled back, the next batch of melee expert mechs flew forward.

"It's my turn now!" Venerable Vincent excitedly said as he showed little fear of getting brain scrambled by the phase lord's confounding phasewater manipulation abilities. "It's been too long since I last punched an alien with my fists!"

Ves had much better hopes for the C-Man. His armor system was mainly made up of TESMAS, which stood for Transphasic Energized Smart Metal Armor System.

With 5 kilograms dispersed throughout the C-Man's transformable exterior, Venerable Vincent should be able to withstand a few more space quakes than Venerable Orfan.

The Blade Chaser Mark II surged forward while wielding both a sword and a pistol!

Unlike the C-Man, the Blade Chaser Mark II glowed a lot brighter, signifying that Commander Casella already channeled her power into her brother's expert mech!

"Let's hope these two fellows are able to do a better job." Ves crossed his arms in expectation.