The Mech Touch

The Giant Stone Eater displayed a remarkable ability to weaponize the ground!

This attack method exceeded the scope of biological attack methods. No ordinary exobeast could manipulate the soil to the point of causing them to spawn abnormally strong and sharp spikes.

"What a strong application of earth-attributed E energy." Ves admiringly said. "It is amazing to think that this mutated beast is able to utilize energy in such a directed fashion solely by relying on its new instincts."

Based on his comprehension of the Beginner Five Elements Spells Manual, it would take a qi cultivator years of hard work and practice to manifest his power in a similar fashion!

It was unheard of for qi cultivators to be able to execute these kinds of spells without studying them first. Even those with an excellent affinity in the earth element still needed to figure out stuff on their own before they could apply their powers with such skill.

Apparently, Arrow Gods did not expect that the Giant Stone Eater could summon a forest of spikes.

The most annoying part about them was that they lingered upon appearance. The powerful mutated beast even continued to channel earth-attributed E energy in them, causing them to retain their abnormally strong resilience.

The earth element was often associated with defense and toughness, so the Huntmaster mechs were unable to break them with ease.

The forest of spikes effectively limited their maneuvering space!

Since it took way too much time and effort to get rid of all of these ground spikes, the Huntmaster mechs circled around and tried to poke at their target's weak points from another angle.

The spearman mechs barely had any time to interfere with the Giant Stone Eater up close when the mutated beast summoned even more earth energy!

Though the mech pilots of the Huntmasters had a low sensitivity towards any shifts in E energy, their living mechs were different!

From the moment their living mechs detected the massive shift and warned their mech pilots of the impending danger, the latter did not hesitate to back off from the Giant Stone Eater!

Another forest of spikes shot out of the ground, this time larger and wider than before!

Crack!

Though two of the Huntmasters managed to get out unscathed, the one that was closest to the mutated beast failed to avoid the spike that tore up its left leg!

The crippled mech stumbled as the stone spike surprisingly tore through so many components that the limb had become inoperable!

"Damn! That Huntmaster is falling!"

The Giant Stone Eater had suffered attack after attack since this confrontation began. Now that one of the annoyingly mobile mech had lost its speed, the mutated beast quickly took advantage of this opening!

A pair of rocky slabs shifted apart, revealing a scaled nozzle that resembled a short rifle muzzle.

Soon, that nozzle began to spit out an erratic but rapid torrent of crude stone projectiles!

Reinforced by earth energy, these relatively small chunks of rocks struck with greater force and impact than they should, causing them to strike at the vulnerable Huntmaster with the force of ballistic projectiles!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The fallen Huntmaster's armor began to get chipped at a steady rate. Its inability to evade attacks exposed a serious flaw in its ability to cope with attacks.

Though the armor system designed by Sara Voiken held up remarkably well against these rapid physical attacks, there was only so much she could do for an offensive mech.

"That is also new." President Yarich remarked. "The Giant Stone Eater must have evolved this imitation rifle after it had exhausted the ammunition of the previous hunting team that thought it could win a battle of attrition with this monster."

That strategy made sense if the hunters attacked an ordinary opponent, but a mutated beast that could continually absorb earth-attributed E energy did not play by the rules.

The other mechs of the Arrow Gods tried to relieve pressure on their injured comrade by focusing their attacks on the scaled nozzle.

It hardly worked. The organic weapon was so embedded in the body of the Giant Stone Eater that it could only be attacked from a limited angle!

Anytime the ranged mechs positioned themselves at the correct angles, the Giant Stone Eater simply lobbed a pair of explosive rocks at them, which forced them to abandon their attacks and move away!

BOOOM! BOOOM!

The Giant Stone Eater actually showed another adaptation by throwing smaller rocks. Their explosive power was weaker, but the mutated beast was able to form them quickly enough to pressure the archer mechs and rifleman mechs much better this time!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The crippled Huntmaster had rolled onto the ground and changed its orientation in order to narrow its surface area to the monster.

This actually reduced the hit rate by a significant margin as the organic rifle was incredibly inaccurate.

It might be bearable for the Giant Stone Eater to fire a stream of rock projectiles at closer range, but it had yet to figure out how to make it accurate at longer ranges!

As the Arrow Gods struggled to save one of their own, a trio of auxiliary mechs finally stepped forward.

Ves did not recognize their design, but he could see that they were utilized as pack mules and additional labor.

Each of them happened to be equipped with chained hook launchers, though Ves imagined that the mechs could swap out their hooks with sharp harpoons.

The machines quickly fired three identical hooks that magnetically attached themselves to the fallen Huntmaster at the right sections.

The three support mechs subsequently ran backwards, making sure to reel in the chains attached to the magnetic hooks.

"They are rescuing their fallen mech." Marvaine noted with great interest.

President Yarich nodded in approval. "It is customary for hunting teams to include auxiliary mechs. Piloting them is not a glamorous job, but they are often piloted by young and inexperienced recruits who are in the process of learning this trade. Wreck retrieval is an essential job to them. They not only prevent expensive machines from getting trampled by maddened beasts, but can also restrain the movements of a prey."

The Huntmaster's condition deteriorated as the hooks roughly dragged it across the ground.

The angle of the crater made this job a little more difficult. The Giant Stone Eater continued to spray its stone projectiles without abandon.

Yet what concerned the Arrow Gods the most was when the crippled mech had distanced itself just far enough to come in the range of the mutated beast's fearsome stone catapults!

As if sensing the impending threat, the various mechs ceased their ineffectual attacks and ran towards the chains.

The mechs all utilized their chains to speed up the retrieval of their fallen comrade.

"They're not going to make it in time." Andraste frowned.

The Giant Stone Eater launched two decently sized explosive rocks at the damaged Huntmaster!

Yet before they fell down to the ground, the Huntmaster suddenly regained a lot of life and utilized its arms and only working leg to push itself off the ground and sprint away in an awkward crawling motion!

BOOOM! BOOOM!

Normally, this would never work, but because the spearman mech was actively pulled by three strong hooks, it managed to escape the blast radius just enough to only get sprayed by a shower of pebbles!

"They're gone!"

The damaged mech successfully leapt over the edge of the crater and continued to sprint-crawl away as if its life depended on its performance.

Even though the mechs of the Arrow Gods had left the Giant Stone Eater's line of sight, the latter still had another way of sensing its retreating adversaries.

BOOOM! BOOOM!

BOOOM! BOOOM!

The Giant Stone Eater continued to lob explosive rocks at the departing hunting team for quite a while. Its powerful throwing arms possessed a remarkable range and demonstrated an impressive degree of accuracy.

If not for the fact that the rocks were so painfully slow once they flew into the air, it would have been a lot more challenging for the hunting mechs to evade these artillery strikes!

"A failed hunt." Oscar Tarich delivered the verdict. "This is not a surprising result. The Arrow Gods fought well and came in with a good game plan. It is commendable that they managed to minimize the damage as soon as they recognized that they cannot defeat their prey without suffering serious losses. It is just that the Giant Stone Eater has adapted faster than the norm. Despite its appearance, this mutated beast is learning quickly. We will have to revise our estimate on how much time is needed for it to evolve into a Calamity Beast."

"This beast is so strong." Andraste spoke with a lot of awe in her voice. "Do you think the Swordmaidens can kill this monster, papa?"

Ves wanted to voice his support for his troops, but he found it difficult to do so this time.

"That is difficult to say, honey. Part of the reason why the Arrow Gods failed to take down the Giant Stone Eater is because their mech and weapon configurations are not the most ideal against this kind of thick and heavy monster. The Swordmaidens will incur a similar handicap if they challenge this beast with just their Monster Slayer mechs. This massive beast cannot be defeated by relying on clever maneuvering and fancy sword techniques. It needs to get pounded by concentrated salvos of artillery fire from a comfortable distance."

The forest of spikes posed a massive threat to any landbound melee mechs. Ves could not think of any way for the Swordmaidens to remain close to this versatile stone beast.

"We generally disapprove of artillery mechs in hunts." The branch president of the Hunting Association said. "They inflict too much damage to the terrain, and produce too much noise. Their usage vastly increases the chance of attracting other powerful beasts. This is a serious danger as most artillery mechs are slow to move and poorer at traversing complex terrain such as the mountains of the Sorara #390 Hunting Ground."

"I see."

"Oh, I have an idea!" Marvaine cutely spoke up! "If we cannot bombard it from a distance, then why not use flamethrowers? Our mechs do not have to get so close in order to use them. They can spray so much fire on the rock monster until it cooks like the fish we roasted last time!"

"That is so clever, little brother! I wonder what a rock monster steak tastes like."

"Ahem." Ves cleared his threat. "Your idea is good, Marvaine, but it is a little more complicated than that. If you look up the public database of the Red Association, you will find out that fire energy has a synergistic relationship with earth energy. Defense happens to be the Giant Stone Eater's specialty, so it should be able to endure the damaging influx of fire well enough to transform into additional earth energy. What will end up happening is that this beast will become even stronger and find a way to kill all of those flamethrower mechs. Perhaps it may even evolve into a lava beast."

"Ow..." Marvaine looked disappointed that he got it wrong. "Then how can you defeat this beast?"

"According to that same database, wood energy has a contradictory relationship with earth energy. I would try to field a mech that has a strong relationship to this element. Such a mech can effectively inhibit the Giant Stone Eater's capacity to reinforce itself with earth energy. Once you can weaken its fundamental strength, its attacks will become less exaggerated and its defenses won't be as inexhaustible as before."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Such a mech doesn't exist, papa."

"I know. I will design it one day."

Ves took one last look at the triumphant Giant Stone Eater before the shuttle moved to another hunting ground.

He had become quite impressed by this earth beast. Its defensive properties were insane and its offensive potential was not weak.

The mutated beast was not so easy to obtain, though.

He struggled to decide whether he should instruct the Ocanon VI Branch of the Larkinson Clan to retrieve the Giant Stone Eater.