The Mech Touch

Ever since the Design Department completed the promised upgrade of the Riot, Venerable Orfan practically became reborn at that point!

Just like how Venerable Tusa and Venerable Stark gained a substantial leap in combat strength after their expert mechs became at least 50 percent stronger, the Riot Version 2.0 was exactly what Venerable Orfan needed to better exert her combat potential.

The overall upgrades to the Riot's components and subcomponents allowed it to run smoother and more fluid than before.

Those were the easiest changes, though. It took a lot more to transform the Riot into a true offensive and defensive powerhouse.

To that end, Dulo Voiken and Tifi Coslone had teamed up to reengineer the arms and other mechanical aspects of the Riot to increase the strength and speeds of its spear attacks!

Though Ves often regarded Dulo Voiken as the most useless Journeyman of the Design Department, he happened to be extremely competent when he was working within his area of expertise.

Considering his deep love, passion and affinity for spearman mechs, he even took over the responsibility of leading the upgrade project.

"I've always wanted to fix your Riot." Dulo plainly said as his expression grew a bit disgusted as he scanned the Riot in front of him. "No offensive, boss, but you and your wife don't really understand the finer points about spearman mechs. Whenever I look at your Riot, I don't see a spearman mech. I see a swordsman mech that you have awkwardly modified in an attempt to improve its performance with spears. This is an unacceptable result in my opinion. An expert mech deserves better."

Ves did not mind being told that his work was bad. He was afraid that no one would criticize his design choices. If no one identified any problems, it became a lot harder to improve his mech design any further!

"You're right, Dulo. I will leave this project in your hands. Feel free to set the direction of this upgrade project and gain ownership over the Riot. My only demands are that you must retain the original character of the Riot as much as possible while also respecting the wishes of Venerable Orfan."

Dulo confidently smiled while crossing his arms. "Expert mech or not, it is easy for me to improve the Riot in many aspects. Just wait until I am done with it. Thank you for entrusting this upgrade project to me, sir. It means a lot to me that you feel reassured with letting me make decisions on an expert mech that originally belongs to you and your wife."

While Ves still cared about the Riot, he acknowledged that he and his wife weren't the best mech designers to care for it anymore.

Just like how Ketis marked the First Sword as her exclusive territory, it was not that bad of an idea to make a Journeyman who specialized in spearman mechs responsible for continuing the development of the Riot.

It was only in the hands of a mech designer that was truly passionate about this mech type that the Riot would be able to maximize its potential as an expert mech!

Under Dulo Voiken's leadership, the Riot gained a new design direction that primarily focused on increasing all of its parameters while preserving what made it strong and special in the first place.

Aside from investing a substantial amount of design resources to improve its ability to launch stronger and faster spear attacks, the new Riot already gained a defensive makeover, courtesy of Dulo's sister.

The improvement to its armor system solved a weakness that had increasingly been weighing Venerable Orfan down.

With the new ExTrans Armor System, the Riot fully regained its ability to fight on even ground against the First Sword!

Though Venerable Dise's expert mech received its own enhancements, they were not as drastic as the Design Department did not opt to replace the First Sword's Unending alloy system. Sara Voiken merely optimized it so that it became a bit more effective at doing its job.

The overall result of upgrading the Riot and the First Sword was that their differences had grown greater than before.

Previously, Ves did not fault people too much if they thought the two offensive melee mechs performed almost identical to each other.

Even though Ves clearly knew that this wasn't the truth, it was hard for laymen to understand all of the design choices that made the two different.

There shouldn't be any ambiguity anymore after both of them had been upgraded to their 2.0 versions.

The Riot improved in a way that pushed it deeper onto the path of frontline assaults. It could serve as the tip of the spear and could confidently fight against other powerful expert mechs head-on by relying on its massively improved defensive capabilities!

Whenever the upgraded versions of the Riot and First Sword dueled against each other inside the simulated arenas of the MSTS, Venerable Orfan finally found it easier to cope with her friend and rival's sharp and penetrating sword techniques!

Unlike before where the First Sword could pierce straight through the Riot's original two-stage armor system with a single well-placed power attack, this time the former had to grind the expert spearman down over time!

By utilizing the new ExTrans Armor System as a powerful damage sponge, Venerable Orfan became a lot more capable of biting back by adopting a strategy of trading blows!

Of course, Ves didn't particularly approve of the destructive and wasteful fighting style that she developed to cope with powerful mech duelists.

"I know it is fun to pretend your expert mech is invincible while whacking away at an enemy expert mech, but our clan can't possibly sustain so much attrition." Ves warned her one day. "Don't forget that it is extremely troublesome to fabricate the transphasic armor plating. While I have already ordered additional quantities in order to facilitate repairs after a hard-fought battle, it is not worthwhile for us to stockpile an entire mountain's worth of redundant mech parts."

Venerable Orfan didn't take his words that seriously. "I will see what I can do, but… I would rather return from the battlefield with an expensive repair bill than let my enemies go free."

"...Just do your best to preserve the integrity of the ExTrans Armor System."

After spending many hours on familiarizing and mastering all of the changes of the Riot Version 2.0, Venerable Orfan finally had an opportunity to put her new capabilities to use on the battlefield!

From the moment the grand melee in the center began, Venerable Orfan and Venerable Dise had teamed up with each other.

They had fought many duels against each other within the MSTS, but they had also fought thousands of simulated battles alongside each other.

The two complimented each other well.

The Riot excelled at frontal combat and was not afraid of taking hits.

The Second Sword was much faster at taking down opponents but wasn't great at taking blows.

As the pair of Larkinson expert mechs began to approach the enemy lines, they hadn't encountered any Sundered Phalanx expert mechs in the immediate area.

"Hm. This is troublesome." Venerable Dise said. "The nearest detected enemy expert mech is too far away. If we leave this area, we will be exposing all nearby friendly troops to danger."

Venerable Orfan grinned. "There's no need for us to head to our targets. We can draw them over."

"How?"

"Isn't it obvious? Kill as many enemy mechs as possible!"

Venerable Orfan and the Riot began to resonate to a greater degree as they both became excited at the slaughter that they intended to commit against their foes!

Unlike some expert pilots, Rosa Orfan had no qualms about bullying the weak. The battlefield was inherently cruel. As a former mech officer of the Flagrant Vandals, she adhered to the philosophy that any means should be used to win a battle!

With that excuse in mind, Venerable Orfan laughed as her powerful glowing orange expert spearman mech crashed into the defensive lines of the 2003rd Medallion Guards Mech Division!

While the Medallion Guards had earned a lot of achievements during the Komodo War, it wasn't actually among the strongest enemy mech divisions in the field.

Their mechs were still based on outdated models that adequately fulfilled their purpose during the Komodo War but fell a bit short in an environment such as the Red Ocean.

However, as long as the Medallion Guard mechs relied on their thick and sturdy mechs to hold the line like the more well-equipped Pima Defenders Mech Division, the old but reliable defensive mechs could still hold back the mech units of Hex Army!

If no one else intervened on this part of the battlefield, the two sides would have probably grinded each other down at a relatively glacial pace.

The violent entry of the Riot changed all of that at once!

It did not even need to resort to its spear to destroy the Medallion Guard mechs. Just crashing into them with the help of the Riot's powerful and violent resonance shield was enough to shock them into disability!

"Hahahaha! Your mechs are as fragile as dolls! Come fight me, Fridaymen!"

The veteran mech pilots of the Medallion Guards weren't foolish enough to gang up on the Riot.

They quickly attempted to distance their machines from the opposing expert spearman mech in order to limit the damage, but the problem was that their relatively slow defensive machines had no chance of outrunning an expert mech that had become even faster after receiving an upgrade to its flight system!

The Fridayman mech pilots that were closest to the Riot had the illusion that they weren't fighting against an expert mech, but instead got in the way of a massive, primal warbeast!

"Monster! It's a monster!"

"Don't try to stand in its way!"

"Eject! Eject as early as possible! Don't throw your lives away!"

One of the strangest aspects about the Riot was that its design spirit was Qilanxo. This was an unusual choice given that it was an offensive melee mech, but Qilanxo was not a cuddly little lizard that only knew how to protect.

When combined with the Riot and under the purposeful development of Venerable Orfan, Qilanxo's aura had slowly morphed and mutated into a more primal and aggressive variation.

As Venerable Orfan became increasingly more immersed in the slaughter that she was committing, her mind and will achieved an even greater state of resonance with Qilanxo!

The shadow of a giant lizard briefly flickered behind the Riot as it continued to demolish at least half-a-dozen regular mechs with each passing second.

The glow and resonance shield surrounding the Riot grew more aggressive and violent as it seemed as if the expert pilot and expert mech had transformed into the personification of an exobeast!

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Venerable Orfan's only regret was that she didn't excel at mass destruction. The Riot's killing efficiency was a bit low compared to numerous other Larkinson expert mechs.

Unlike Venerable Dise, Venerable Orfan had not developed any fancy spear techniques that allowed her to throw out wide-area energy attacks. Charging her Riot forward and colliding against packed enemy mech formations was the only way for her to cause enough damage to completely disarray the Medallion Guards.

Her efforts were creating the desired effect. It only took a single minute of charging through the enemy defensive lines that hundreds of Medallion Guard mechs had fallen, which also implicated the formations of thousands of other Fridayman mechs!

This was the horror of an expert mech when left unopposed by an opponent that was at least close to its level.

Through the advantages created by the Riot, the Hexer mechs that had previously entered into a stalemate against the Medallion Guards were now gaining a massive advantage!

It wasn't until the Riot crushed another enemy mech company that a powerful resonance-enhanced gauss round collided against the rampaging Larkinson expert mech!

"Hah! We've caught a big fish this time!"

The Sundered Phalanx hadn't dispatched any of its low-tier or mid-tier expert mechs to reinforce the Medallion Guards.

Instead, the Fridaymen directly sent over one of their rare but powerful high-tier expert mechs, one that originally hailed from the Medallion Guards!

Venerable Orfan instantly recognized the powerful expert hybrid mech that sought to end her killing spree.

She smirked. "I've been waiting for you, Shockshell."