The Mech Touch

As the spatial fissure continued to tear through the fabric of space, it was clearly gaining on the fleeing Amaranto.

The expert rifleman mech never excelled in speed to begin with, and she was also weighed down by the considerable mass of the Instrument of Doom.

"I will have to toss aside my energy cannon if this doesn't end!" Venerable Davia Stark warned.

That would certainly help with freeing up the Amaranto's speed, but no one knew what would happen after that. If the fissure went on to destroy the Instrument of Doom, the rapid strike force might lose its only chance of punching through the phase lord's near-impervious spatial barrier!

In order to preserve this essential capacity, the rapid strike force needed to relieve the Amaranto's predicament!

Ves looked at the live feed centered on the phase lord and noticed a crucial detail.

"The enemy phase lord has become stationary! He is not making any further movements. Concentrate all of your attacks on him! Do not let up on the pressure!"

Many expert mechs had already begun to do so. Other powerful ranged mechs such as the Minerva, the Promethea and the Star Dancer Mark II implicitly coordinated with each other and concentrated all of their attacks on a precise point in the spatial barrier that was right in front of the alien opponent's damaged armor sections.

"No defense is unassailable!" Venerable Brutus Wodin spoke as his expert mech did not produce any noticeable results up until this point. "Activate your strongest attacks! The alien isn't moving or taking any other actions to mitigate the damage, so this is our greatest chance!"

The ranged mechs in question all started to glow brighter as their pilots charged up to launch more powerful attacks.

More machines joined the fray as well. Melee expert mechs such as the Dark Zephyr and the First Sword ignored their vulnerability against spacequakes and boldly surged forward in order to add their might to the ongoing offensive!

As the various power attacks struck the phase lord, the alien looked visibly more discomfited.

"I don't believe you can ignore my shots anymore!" Venerable Imon Ingvar spoke as the Blade Chaser Mark II continuously fired his Gray Lotus at the same spot from the same angle.

The death energy phasing through the spatial barrier and striking the phase lord's body directly started to produce clear differences at this time. Portions of the alien's external body began to fade and necrotize as Helena's power did its job.

If that wasn't enough, the melee expert melee mechs finally unleashed their own power moves!

The first one to arrive came from the C-Man. The expert mech charged forward with as much momentum as he could build while rearing up his increasingly brighter first!

"VINCENT PUNCH!"

The resulting impact produced a significantly greater result than Vincent's last one. The stressed spatial barrier destabilized a bit further, but still managed to hold up to this point.

The Dark Zephyr followed up next. Though the light skirmisher did not look as if he could exert anything close to the raw power of a brawler mech like the C-Man, it possessed a lot more finesse and precision!

The Larkinson Clan's iconic expert light skirmisher advanced in a different manner than before.

Previously, the machine prioritized speed over anything else. This time, Venerable Tusa entered his Shadow Dance mode, causing his expert mech to become a lot more deadlier and graceful than before.

Once the Dark Zephyr danced his way to the unmoving phase lord, the expert light skirmisher stabbed out both of his shadow-empowered knives at once as he completed his mysterious sequence!

"The Finale!"

This time, the spatial barrier briefly showed a few cracks after getting struck by the Dark Zephyr's oddly lethal attack, but they quickly disappeared as the phase lord's formidable strength proved to be superior in the end.

"The alien is showing weakness! We can do it! We need one more blow to break the spatial barrier!"

The continuous succession of heavy, concentrated attacks not only weakened the integrity of this powerful defensive measure, but also slowed down its recovery rate.

The latter was the most crucial part! The attacking side just needed to launch one more powerful strike to prevent all of the prior strikes from going to waste.

Venerable Dise waited for this moment. She and her First Sword both shared a lot of frustration about their continued inability to fight against the more powerful indigenous threats of the Red Ocean.

In one battle after another, the expert swordsman mech either had to play second fiddle or be forced to take up a paltry ranged support role.

The First Sword was never designed to cheer on other mechs. She was designed to be the ultimate swordsman mech and one that could leverage the skill of her expert pilot to defeat all opponents, no matter how strong or confounding they may be. This was the ethos of the Swordmaidens and it was one that Venerable Dise and her battle partner were determined to pursue!

Unlike other expert pilots, Venerable Dise had no desire to wait until the Larkinson Clan's mech designers upgraded her expert mech again.

The First Sword was hardly the strongest or the most cutting-edge expert mech of the Larkinsony Army anymore, but Venerable Dise deeply understood her expert mech and how to control the machine to an extremely fine degree.

Not only that, but she had also put a lot more effort into training and improving her fighting style than any of the other expert pilots.

That was not to say that her colleagues and peers were weak. They all possessed their own strengths, but it was undeniable that many of them had developed a high dependence on the tech at their disposal.

Venerable Dise was the only active expert pilot who fully embraced traditional swordsmanship.

She embraced its somewhat archaic and cumbersome customs and regularly exchanged insights with other powerful swordmasters.

One of the problems that they became increasingly more concerned about was the challenge of breaking through the powerful defenses often employed by the native aliens.

The Heavensword Association had already sent out multiple batches of pioneers to the Red Ocean, and some of them found that their vaunted swordsman mechs attained less than desirable results in confrontations against alien forces.

Whether it was the spatial barriers projected by organic powerhouses or the more ubiquitous transphasic energy shields produced by highly advanced generators, many sword styles that had proven to be effective in the past no longer became as reliable as before.

Many sword styles in use today had been adapted to mech combat. Their creators and contributors never paid much attention to the need to employ them against phasewater-based defenses.

All of that changed in recent years.

The various swordmasters working on these collective projects freely pooled their efforts together in order to work for the common benefit of the Heavensword Association and all traditional swordsmen.

It was an impressive development and one that started to produce several useful results due to the involvement of so many powerful warriors.

Venerable Dise might not have been able to contribute much to this great endeavor, but she and Ketis were able to absorb all of the new insights.

Armed with lots of new theories, the two powerful Swordmaidens collaborated on supplementing their sword styles so that they would have a way to breach through the energy shields of a powerful warship in the future!

Although the phase lord was not exactly the opponent that Venerable Dise had in mind when she created her latest sword technique, she had little doubt that her upcoming attack would be just as effective.

As the First Sword surged closer, the expert swordsman mech lifted up her Decapitator and began to infuse it with true resonance.

The long, sharp and heavy greatsword did not glow as brilliantly as other weapons, but it radiated a degree of lethality that was much more contained than usual!

Venerable Dise and the First Sword did not try to empower the Decapitator's next strike by themselves, though.

Aware that this might be the only opportunity for her to launch a power attack onto her opponent, Dise did not hesitate to call for help from the lead designer of First Sword!

"Ketis!"

"I know! I've been observing the battle from remote. Let me give you a hand."

Despite being separated by a couple of light-years, Ketis remained as up to date on the situation on the battlefield as the rapid strike force.

She not only understood Venerable Dise's predicament, but also shared her goal in trying to prove that melee mechs had not become obsolete in this new and different galaxy!

"Sharpie. It's time to shine!"

"Sharp! Sharp!"

Just like Ves, Ketis possessed an active connection to all of her masterworks.

This came in exceptionally this time as Ketis somehow managed to transfer her companion spirit from the Bloodsinger which she carried onto her person to the Decapitator that was currently held by the First Sword!

As soon as a part of Ketis' extraordinary power entered the much larger blade, the Decapitator's sharp edge glinted with additional power.

"Respa." Dise called out.

Not many people were aware that Ves actually bestowed Venerable Dise with her own companion spirit. The swordsman mech specialist rarely showed Respa off and mostly spent her time cultivating her own strength.

However, that didn't mean that Respa was useless to her. Not only did the greatsword-shaped spirit serve as the basis of the battle formations of the Swordmaidens, she also got along really well with Sharpie!

As soon as Respa entered the Decapitator's conceptual space, the humanoid-looking Sharpie grasped the spiritual greatsword and held it aloft as if she was a champion swordswoman!

"Sharp! Sharp! Sharp!"

The companion spirits of Venerable Dise and Ketis did not conflict with each other. Instead, their different powers resonated with each other, allowing them to exert greater strength than if they were on their own.

The two Swordmaidens shared a common history. They also worked together so extensively that their close cooperation already approached the standard of the Gemini Family!

They truly saw each other as sisters in heart if not in blood.

Once the Decapitator was almost bursting with power, the First Sword finally reached the phase lord and unleashed a slash that was followed by a glittering wake of stars!

"PHASE BREAKER!"

The First Sword smoothly flew away as the expert mech completed her most magnificent sword technique to this date!

Though the Phase Breaker was not as piercing as the Sword of Lydia or as overwhelming as the Blade Storm, the extraordinary sword move possessed its own charm!

This became evident when the glowing river of stars struck the spatial barrier an instant after the Decapitator's enormous blade moved past.

As the glittering points of light struck the translucent surface, the spatial barrier did not begin to crack.

Instead, it seemed to melt as if a thin wall of ice had just been struck with many different flames!

The phase lord reacted violently to this unexpected attack. The powerful alien interrupted the spatial fissure that he had been extending through space and hastily performed a short but instant displacement technique to evade the next round of attacks!

Ves and many other people did not expect the First Sword to make such a massive difference!

"It was almost too late."

The First Sword's attack had saved the Amaranto.

This was because the spatial fissure had reached the expert rifleman mech and tore a deep cut into one of her legs!

If the spatial fissure persisted any longer, then Venerable Stark might have been forced to eject the cockpit in order to preserve her life!

"Attack the phase lord! Now is the time!"

Now that the alien 'god' temporarily lost his spatial barrier for some reason, no one wanted to give him the opportunity to restore it again.

One energy beam after another struck the phase lord's body with unerring accuracy. Pieces of armor quickly disintegrated and completely exposed the alien to the full fury of many different expert mechs!

However, before the vulnerable alien endured any more hits, his body abruptly started to grow in size!

"What is happening?!"

"The phase lord... is unveiling his true body!"

A considerably more powerful presence radiated onto the battlefield as a nunser that was the size of a corvette-class starship had come into shape!