The Mech Touch

Duels between expert pilots were solemn occasions.

Only an expert pilot could adequately restrain another expert pilot.

The huge Hexer assault on Dosth and Marrekath III not only featured hundreds of thousands of ordinary mechs, but also a notable amount of expert mechs!

Some of these expert mechs banded together and clashed against teams of the enemy expert mechs.

Others were more suitable to act independently. This happened to be the case with the Sulvar Mark III and the Zeon Bladedancer.

Both expert mechs were designed as light skirmishers. This meant that their mobility was high enough to attack any vulnerable enemies while avoiding any stronger opposition.

Now, they just happened to meet together in battle and soon exchanged a lot of blows.

The attacks happened too quickly for ordinary people to track. The thinking and reaction speeds of both expert pilots had reached an insane level!

Venerable Maysha Emdis slowly began to grin as the ongoing duel slowly shifted in her favor.

"You feral boys are all the same. You can't resist hitting your heads against the wall!"

"Shut up, you ugly pig! You may be strong enough to fend off my attacks, but I only have to be lucky once to end your life!"

As a flighty and impatient expert pilot, Venerable Asmeran couldn't stomach his current circumstances.

As the Untouchable, the attacks launched by his opponents never landed on his mech. However, he was forced to put a lot of effort into evading the increasingly tricky attack angles.

Yet no matter how many attack runs he made, the defensive posture adopted by the Zeon Bladedancer continued to frustrate the Fridayman expert pilot!

It was easier to defend than attack. While the Sulvar Mark III expended a copious amount of energy to power each evasive maneuver or attack, its energy cells depleted a little more!

Of course, compared to an ordinary mech, the expert light skirmisher mech contained a lot of high-quality ultra-dense energy cells. The cost of these custom-made energy cells was incredibly mind-boggling, but they were essential allowing Venerable Asmeran to evade attacks time and time again.

Yet his duel against Venerable Emdis already caused him to expend far more energy than he anticipated. Activating so many resonance abilities and pushing his mech's flight system to the limit always demanded a price, and for the Sulvar Mark III that meant depleting its energy reserves at a rapid rate!

Was Venerable Asmeran making a mistake? Had he foolishly decided to adopt a reckless strategy that played right into his opponent's hands?

As an expert pilot, it was not as if he was stupid enough to overlook this basic reality. He dedicated his entire life to piloting light skirmishers. He was extremely familiar with the deep and complicated dynamics surrounding duels between two ultra-mobile mechs.

Even as his Sulvar Mark III's resonance shield continued to get hammered by the Zeon Bladedancer's tricky counterattacks, the former Vicious Mountainer did not relent!

He lived for the pursuit of speed!

The true resonance that embraced the Devos Maniac expert mech shone brighter!

The mech that had become an extension of Venerable Asmeran seemed to share in his desire and attempted to squeeze more acceleration out of its thin and light frame!

Instead of backing down and altering his approach, he instead doubled down and relied even more on his superior mobility to win this duel!

This was what his instincts urged!

This was what his will yearned the most!

Since the moment he decided to specialize in piloting light skirmishers, Kris Asmeran always focused on excelling in mobility.

A mech that never got his was a mech that could defeat any opponent!

He had never stopped his pursuit of speed. He single-handedly focused his entire fighting style on moving fast, not hesitating to put his life on the line for his beliefs.

And for this, he was rewarded! As someone who underwent successive baptisms that transformed his life at least twice, Venerable Asmeran became even more convinced that dedicating his life to speed was the only way for him to reach greater heights!

In Vicious Mountain, the warriors there believed that only the most courageous and glorious were worthy to ascend to greatness.

Asmeran looked down on those who were timid, prone to calculation or compromised on their convictions.

Even if it wasn't the best choice for him to rely on his greatest strength despite getting countered by his opponent, that just meant that he wasn't fast enough.

Only through reaching his limit and breaking beyond this barrier would allow him to reach a new level of strength!

Only by putting his entire life on the line to achieve this breakthrough would he have hope of advancing to ace pilot!

To transform himself from a demigod to a half god was one of his greatest dreams!

Though countless ordinary mech pilots felt envious that people like Asmeran managed to become expert pilots, he did not think this was the end of his journey.

Expert pilots were just like Journeymen Mech Designer. They both ranked at the bottom of the totem pole of extraordinary individuals!

Each mech pilot in Vicious Mountain dreamt of becoming an ace pilot. Only by reaching this exalted rank would they have the contention to rule over vaste swathes of territory or even compete to become the head of the great Garlen Empire!

Even after Venerable Asmeran joined the Fortune Legion, he never let go of this life-long ambition.

As long as he utilized the Komodo War to sharpen himself and stimulate his untapped abilities, he would surely come closer to reaching his goal!

If he ever advanced to ace pilot, then the Fortune Legion could no longer hold him. While he was thankful to the Carnegie Group for supporting him, Vicious Mountain was still his home.

No matter what, ace pilots were welcome anywhere. Even his exile no longer had any meaning once he returned with a stronger fist than before.

Yet for all his dedication towards his chosen pursuit, his Sulvar Mark III became increasingly more distressed!

After making so many passes, his mech was clearly getting the worst end of the exchanges. Venerable Asmeran wasted an increasingly greater amount of resonance strength and the Sulvar Mark III had already expended over half of its prodigious energy reserves.

In contrast, the Hexer expert mech consumed only a fraction of its energy reserves as it mostly focused on evasion and opportunistic counterattacks.

Venerable Emdis was under far less pressure, especially when she knew that her opponent was one of the brainless types of expert pilots!

"Hahaha!" Venerable Emdis gleefully grinned as she continued to pilot her Zeon Bladedancer in a way that conserved its energy reserves. "You brutish boys are so easily led by your primal impulses. Wars are never decided by brawn alone! To ignore the bigger picture and the needs of your state in favor of pursuing your selfish obsession is the height of folly! Expert pilots like you always perish the soonest!"

The Sulvar Mark III did not slow down due to the Hexer expert pilot's taunts. Instead, Venerable Asmeran grew even angrier and drove his exquisite light skirmisher even harder despite the cost!

"You scheming women are a disgrace to our kind! How you manage to become a demigod is beyond me. Whatever the case, with your poisonous heart, I doubt you'll ever get close to the threshold of ace pilot within your life!"

Venerable Emdis sneered. "We expert pilots are servants of our states. We are nothing without the support provided by our betters. Barbarians like you who only care about yourselves are destructive elements in society!"

"Attaining greater strength is a far better way of protecting your people than becoming their slave!" Asmeran barked back as his attacks reached an even greater degree of intensity!

His expert mech's energy reserves dipped at an even greater rate!

"Hehe." The Hexer expert pilot readied herself to turn the tide. She had already estimated that the Sulvar Mark III was getting closer to depleting its energy reserves! "I'm not an idiot like you. You willingly fell into my trap, which is just the way I like it! Let me show you why I'm called the Wrathful Witch!"

The Zeon Blademaster finally looked ready to make a fatal move. Even as the Sulvar Mark III continued its futile attempts to break the defenses of the Hexer mech, Venerable Emdis already knew this duel had been decided.

An awesome amount of true resonance surrounded the entire mech! One of the knives the Zeon Blademaster held started to glow so much red that it seemed like it was dripping with fiery blood!

On ominous pressure settled onto Venerable Asmeran's heart. His eyes widened a little. The interruption was just enough to disturb his attack rhythm, causing his Sulvar Mark III to become slightly exposed!

Even though it would only take less than a second to correct this mistake, the Wrathful Witch pounced on this opportunity!

Venerable Emdis would not let the Fridayman expert mech continue this farce any further!

Once the Sulvar Mark III succumbed, the Devos Maniacs would lose a critical expert mech and expert pilot, thereby inflicting a severe blow to their morale.

Though the 363rd Devos Maniacs fielded more expert mechs, the fall of one of their number would definitely impair their ability to stall the Trivaxis Helldoves.

The Hexer expert pilot couldn't wait to get rid of Venerable Asmeran before launching her own massacre amongst the ranks of the Devos Maniacs!

Just as the Zeon Bladedancer was about to launch its fatal resonance-empowered attack, Venerable Emdis suddenly blinked and directed her mech to dart in the opposite direction!

A very powerful positron beam had just passed through the path her Zeon Blademaster would have taken if she committed to attacking the spent Fridayman expert mech!

"Who?!"

There was no way that Venerable Emdis could retain her calm. She had patiently conserved her battle strength and waited so long to reach this point. Just as she was about to harvest her reward, another powerful opponent arrived to forestall her victory!

In contrast, Venerable Asmeran felt nothing but relief. Even though it appeared that they were all alone, they were still part of a battle between two massive forces.

They were hardly the only expert pilots in the field!

It made sense for the defenders to dispatch reinforcements when they noticed that Venerable Asmeran was having a hard time.

This intervention basically saved him from paying the ultimate price after he lost a critical bet.

However, once the Sulvar Mark III's sensors began to pick up the new arrivals, Venerable Asmeran grew puzzled.

"What is the CRC doing here? And what is up with all of these rifleman mechs?"

The Coalition Reserve Corps rarely appeared on the frontlines. As its name suggested, it was a weaker branch that mostly concerned itself with other matters.

Even so, Venerable Asmeran did not begrudge the timely intervention of the ranged expert mech. The resonance power attached to that positron beam was no joke, especially against lighter mechs!

"Declare yourself!" Venerable Emdis barked over the open channel.

Since the Fridaymen dispatched reinforcements, why couldn't the Hexers do the same? She had no intentions of fighting two expert mechs at once. Even if the Sulvar Mark III had almost reached its limits, it could still play a critical role when it worked together with a powerful rifleman mech!

The 1345th Trivaxis Helldoves already acknowledged her request. Two more Hexer expert mechs should be arriving anytime soon. Even though one of them was male, Venerable Emdis knew that she couldn't be too picky at the moment, especially when expert mechs were required everywhere.

The impressive-looking rifleman mech at the head of a formation of lesser rifleman mechs was coated in blue. It featured golden accents and carried a very large rifle with multiple attack modes.

"I am Venerable Ghanso Larkinson of Unit L. Together with my men, we shall end your reign of terror and rid this star sector of another cancer cell!"

"How dare you!" The Hexer expert pilot felt affronted!