The Mech Touch

Venerable Joshua finally felt liberated now that his Everchanger had shed the meat suit.

Though he definitely enjoyed the power granted by the Titan-5 Project, its feral personality and many complications had put an enormous load on his mind and spirit.

The meat suit's bulk and mass also confined his Everchanger in a way that vastly reduced its combat options.

Joshua felt much better now that he was down to piloting his Everchanger in its purest form!

Though the state of his expert mech was not at its best due to regenerating so much battle damage earlier, it was still in a much better condition to finish the fight.

While the Everchanger had just gotten rid of a heavy burden, another expert mech happened to take it over!

The Point Break currently resembled one of the victims of a horror drama as its entire frame became engulfed by the meat suit!

Even though Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger had already broken off their connection to the Titan-5 Project, that did not automatically mean that it had become inert.

The meat suit was extremely dangerous by itself!

Ves and the Larkinson Biotech Institute had tried many possible ways to tame the meat suit, only to conclude that the beast that they had created in their labs was too unruly to be tamed.

Any solution that reduced the meat suit's volatility also weakened its combat power, which was an unacceptable result to Ves.

Since Venerable Joshua was reluctantly able to keep it under control during his practice sessions, Ves decided to preserve the ferocity of the meat suit in order to maximize its combat power.

What happened to the Point Break was one of the nightmare scenarios of the Larkinson Clan!

If Venerable Ulrik Valke was in a better condition and if the Point Break still retained its resonance shield, then it would never have been put in such a sorry state by a giant sack of alien flesh.

The Everchanger would have suffered in a similar way if Venerable Joshua ever lost control of the meat suit one day.

"What is this!? I can't shake it off! This biomonster is chewing through the nooks and crannies of my expert mech!"

The Titan-5 Project actually wasn't as scary as it looked. It was not able to deal a high amount of damage now that it had lost the support of the Everchanger.

Its energy reserves were also low, so it could do little but surround the Point Blank while grinding away the weak points of the enemy expert mech.

Exposed parts and areas such as sensor arrays and the fight system became especially vulnerable to the meat suit's invasive attacks!

The most difficult aspect about the meat suit's attack method was that a melee mech like the Point Break had few effective ways to damage the meat suit.

Its limbs were all enveloped with strong alien flesh, which not only prevented it from wielding any weapons such as a backup knife, but also inhibited the expert lancer mech's ability to do anything else!

An expert hybrid mech like the Shockshell could have at least fired its integrated weapons and clear a bit of space on its exterior!

If this continued, then the meat suit would inevitably break through the weakest layers of the Point Break and drill inside so that it could ravage the internals. That would most certainly doom the expert mech!

Only external assistance could help the Point Break dislodge the meat suit!

"I'm coming, Ulrik!" Venerable George Baldassare called. "Hold it together and wait for my assistance!"

The Rekkar no longer tried to pursue the Everchanger and quickly flew towards the trapped Point Break.

However, the Everchanger was faster! The Larkinson expert mech had already raced towards the Point Break with the intention of eliminating this threat without giving it any chance to make a comeback.

Once the Everchanger closed in on the rear of the trapped expert mech, it ruthlessly charged forward and stabbed its sharp and glowing Heartsword through the back of the expert lancer mech!

The meat suit that had gone out of control offered a bit of resistance, but not enough to prevent the Everchanger's blade from sinking through!

The Heartsword continued to sink through the rear armor of the Point Break and dealt considerable damage!

However, the Point Break still remained operational. It was a bit too much to hope that a single strike would be able to take out a formidable mid-tier expert mech.

Even if the Point Break concentrated most of its defenses at the front, its rear armor was not that weak!

Just before Venerable Joshua wanted his expert mech to launch another attack, he grew alarmed and quickly made his Everchanger evade brace for impact.

The Rekkar had finally come! The expert space knight charged with its shield in front and bashed it against the frame of the Everchanger!

While the Everchanger bounced away, the Rekkar turned around and used its axe to hack at the damaged flesh that covered the rear of the Point Break.

Now that the Titan-5 Project was in a more awful state than ever, it became easier than ever for Venerable Baldassare to open up a channel.

"It's clear!"

"Thank you, George!"

The Point Break's cockpit finally ejected from the rear of the Point Break and quickly raced back to the Kosic Ring while a company of friendly mechs covered its retreat.

Venerable Valke felt no shame for abandoning his expert mech and retreating from the battlefield while the fight was not over.

As an expert lancer mech, he often challenged the most troublesome enemies on the battlefield and charged straight into danger in order to fulfill his role.

There were times during the Komodo War where he had expended his power and could no longer fight against the Hexer expert mechs.

Unlike expert swordsman mechs or other mech types, an expert lancer mech like the Point Break was hardly able to contribute if it was no longer able to make any further attack runs.

Venerable Valke had seen numerous fellow lancer mech specialists such as himself perish in battle because they stayed in the field too long.

"I might not win this battle, but I will certainly do better the next time!"

This was his personal mantra and one that had served him well over the course of his career.

As the Point Break lost its cockpit and its pilot, the meat suit had free reign over the machine. Its flesh eagerly poured into the cavity and proceeded to grind and wreck the insides of the abandoned expert lancer mech.

Meanwhile, the Everchanger was finally able to duel the Rekkar without too much interference from other enemies.

"It's just you and me now." Venerable Joshua declared as his Everchanger raised its Vitalus rifle and began to shoot light beams at the enemy expert space knight.

The Rekkar's resonance shield depleted quite quickly due to the Everchanger's attack. This prompted the Fridayman expert mech to advance and activate its warp travel function to close the distance as quickly as possible.

Venerable Baldassare still believed he could salvage a win from this confrontation! "I'm not scared of you anymore now that you no longer have your monster suit!"

However, just as the Rekkar rapidly caught up to the Everchanger, the latter mech activated its custom combat drive and moved away at an even faster pace!

The warp travel capabilities of the Everchanger was considerably more powerful than that of the Rekkar.

This was not a surprise as the custom combat drive that Ves had commissioned for the Everchanger was much more expensive and integrated a bit more phasewater.

The difference in mass was also a key factor that set their mobility apart. The Rekkar may be a medium mech, but its thicker armor added a lot more bulk to the mech.

Even if neither expert mechs possessed warp travel capabilities, the Everchanger still would have been able to outrun the Rekkar!

Though the Everchanger was not able to match the speeds of the Dark Zephyr, it was still able to ensure that the Rekkar could not catch up and use its axe to hack away at the Larkinson expert mech!

Venerable Joshua had no thoughts about fighting the Rekkar up close. Why would he make such an idiotic decision and give his opponent a chance to counterattack?

He already learned in previous battles that he should never underestimate his opponents. The Rekkar might not be as simple as it looked.

Though it took repeated ranged attacks to chip away at the defenses of the Rekkar, Joshua was willing to be patient.

"Damn you, coward!"

No matter what Venerable Baldassare tried to do, he could not urge his Rekkar to move any faster. He had also exploded his willpower once before and could not do so again.

Seeing that his expert mech was continually getting beaten up without gaining any chance to retaliate against the Everchanger, the Fridayman expert pilot figured out that there was no point in staying.

"Goodbye!" The expert pilot barked and promptly turned around to race back towards friendly lines.

The Everchanger did not possess the firepower to wear down the defenses of the expert space knight before it reached its buddies.

Though it did not stop firing at the retreating expert mech, that was merely to ensure that the Rekkar did not turn back and go on the attack again.

Venerable Joshua sighed. Though his Everchanger was still intact for the most part, he expended too many resources earlier. He did not think it was wise to intercept the Rekkar and lock it into place so that he could defeat it entirely.

"The Rekkar still has a powerful HiCap energy shield in reserve."

Joshua wasn't the only one who felt letdown by his performance.

Back on the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves furrowed his brows as he analyzed the meat suit's performance.

On one hand, its power and capabilities were absolutely great. The Titan-5 Project effectively granted the Everchanger the combat effectiveness of a high-tier expert mech for a relatively short amount of time.

The problem was that its energy consumption was too high. The meat suit's powerful organic processes expended so much energy that the organic energy cells simply couldn't meet all of the demand.

"Energy supply should be a major focus in the next major revision of the Titan-5 Project." Ves told Director Ranya.

The projection of the leader of the LBI nodded in agreement. "We will do our best to address this shortcoming, but it is difficult to obtain energy cells that provide noticeably more power at our current budget. You will need to find a way to supply us with what we need one way or another."

"I will see what I can do, but we are already using top-tier energy cells that we can obtain from the industry."

They continued to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Titan-5 Project. Ves felt it had been worth it to allocate so many resources to the meat suit, but Director Ranya still possessed a couple of doubts.

"Do you truly want to proceed with making the Titan-5 Project stronger?" Ranya carefully asked. "Look at what it is doing at the moment. It has gone completely berserk and is continuing to crush the Point Break despite the fact that there is no benefit in doing so. Its consciousness has completely degenerated."

Ves dismissively waved his arm. "I understand the risks, but what can the meat suit possibly do against our entire clan? Our containment processes are more than adequate enough to limit the dangers. By the way, make sure to retrieve it from the battlefield before any Fridayman mechs have the bright idea to shoot it to pieces."

His fears were unfounded. Though the Sundered Phalanx would have loved to destroy this dangerous bioconstruct under other circumstances, the Fridayman mech pilots did not have the luxury to do anything else!

This was because General Verle and Marshal Ariadne Wodin had decided that the time was right for them to employ one of their most powerful means.

Now that the Sundered Phalanx had suffered multiple setbacks to the point where their battle lines had become disordered, the Larkinsons and the Glory Seekers wanted to strike the decisive blows that might cause the enemy pilots to collapse entirely!

Large formations of Valkyrie mechs were already starting to take shape. An invisible cloud of death slowly started to engulf the battlefield!