The Mech Touch

The Blade Chaser flew out into an empty zone that was situated a fair distance away from the expeditionary fleet.

After Venerable Imon Ingvar went through apotheosis and became born anew, his brand-new custom mech no longer suited his level of strength.

He did not abandon it, though. The Larkinson Clan still needed a lot of time to provide him with an expert mech, and there were no machines available that could give him a better piloting experience.

Even if he had the option to adopt a new expert mech, he would feel extremely reluctant to make the switch.

Though he only piloted the Blade Chaser for a short amount of time back when he was an expert candidate, he already developed a strong emotional bond with his machine.

Gloriana had designed and tailored it to fit his fighting style and inclinations and that hadn't changed that much.

Sure, he was stronger and more skilled than ever before, but the Blade Chaser still aligned with his style.

He had to be careful about breaking his mech, though.

His thinking speed and combat responses had grown to an insane degree. He was able to control more aspects of his mech than ever before. This was the result of undergoing an evolution that not only granted him greater power but also allowed him to merge with his machine to a deeper degree than ever before!

Everytime he fought, it became so tempting to push the limits of his mech even further, yet he constantly had to remind himself that his mech was too weak and fragile to endure so many stresses.

"I can't wait for you to become an expert mech, Blade Chaser." He whispered to his own machine.

The Blade Chaser had gained a lot of benefits after Imon broke through while piloting the custom mech.

According to the patriarch, his custom mech was in the process of transitioning from a second-order living mech to a third-order living mech.

Imon didn't know what that meant until Patriarch Ves told him that mechs began to talk to people when they reached the latter stage.

The Blade Chaser was becoming more alive!

Although he and his personal mech already developed an intimate relationship with each other, the new expert pilot looked forward to seeing his battle partner evolve!

"Just wait until you have been upgraded!"

He looked forward to seeing the Blade Chaser transform into an expert mech. If the Design Department put in the same amount of effort as they did in upgrading the Shield of Samar, his upgraded machine would definitely turn into a worthy champion and protector of his sister!

"How long will it take to reach that point?"

Venerable Imon grew a bit frustrated at the unfortunate timing of his breakthrough. According to the mech designers, the fleet first needed to finish its business in the Garimel System and return to the Davute System in order to get the design process rolling.

This might take a while seeing that the expeditionary fleet intended to stay and mine for resources.

As Imon waited in place, another mech soon arrived to begin the practice session.

"Venerable Imon."

"Venerable Dise."

The First Sword was an incomparably powerful machine compared to the Blade Chaser. Even though it wasn't a masterwork, the expert mech was the singular most powerful melee combatant in the Larkinson Clan.

Dise never paid attention to whatever shortcomings it possessed. She drilled and mastered her expert mech so that it could completely perform all of the sword moves she developed with her machine in mind.

This was why no one in the Larkinson Clan had yet to beat her in a fair duel!

"How much progress have you made in progressing your sword style?"

"I have followed your suggestions and created a new framework based on the powers that I have gained as an expert pilot." Imon respectfully answered towards his current instructor. "I'm limited to applying my power in smaller moves, though. Alarms will ring whenever I try to pull off a bigger move."

"It's frustrating, isn't it?" The bald, dark-skinned woman said. "I've been in your situation. You have all of that power but you need to keep it bottled up lest you break your own machine."

Venerable Imon sighed. "That's right. This is torture. I can't imagine how I will be able to last for half a year."

"This is a test, Imon. You can either mope about your inability to burst out those big and flashy moves or you can make more productive use of your time and focus on controlling your newfound powers instead. There are more ways to develop your strength. The more time you spend on deepening your control, the more you will be able to defeat stronger opponents when you aren't able to match them. Don't become like those brutes who do not think about how much energy they are wasting with every move! If you want to guard your sister against a monstrous opponent one day, you must not slack off in this period of time! Now come! Show me your progress!"

The younger expert pilot's eyes flared as soon as Dise mentioned his responsibility towards his sister.

The other Larkinsons had quickly caught on to the fact that mentioning Commander Casella Ingvar always succeeded in triggering her brother!

It was so disgustingly easy to provoke a response from the young but talented man and this time was no different!

"I can't beat you with this mech, but I will sure as hell give you a run for your money!"

As Venerable Imon became more heated, his Blade Chaser became surrounded by a faint solar yellow corona that served as a distinct contrast against the bright blue supergiant star in the distance.

This corona could easily solidify into an actual resonance shield if Imon piloted an actual expert mech. As it was, the yellow glow functioned little differently from a special effect at the moment.

The Blade Chaser went into action. It raised its twin swords and sought to pressure its opponent with a barrage of quick and flexible strikes!

Silent collisions took place as the First Sword deftly managed to deflect and evade the rapid attacks.

Venerable Dise did not feel pressured at all by the offensive. The Decapitator, the masterwork mech sword wielded by her expert mech, functioned as an effective shield due to its broad width.

She did not even have to resort to any of her resonance powers in order to fend off the custom mech's attacks! The current sword barrage was incomparable to the Dark Zephyr's storm of knives!

"Is that all you've got?" Dise taunted.

"This is just a warm-up!"

Knowing that the First Sword's defenses were hard to overcome, Venerable Imon instructed his mech to move and circle around its opponent.

Although the maneuverability of his Blade Chaser was not on par with an actual expert mech, Venerable Dise had purposefully limited the First Sword's performance in order to give her sparring partner a fairer challenge.

This enabled the Blade Chaser to outmaneuver the First Sword at certain times.

Whenever the First Sword wasn't able to block the incoming attacks with ease, the Blade Chaser let loose a rapid succession of sword strikes that actually struck with the power of prime resonance and a tiny bit of true resonance! 

Imon was resonating with his custom mech despite the fact that the latter did not incorporate any prime or resonating exotics!

Of course, the expert pilot had to strain quite hard in order to resonate with his mech. The only reasons why he was able to do this was because of his deep connections with his Blade Chaser.

The custom mech had also grown and aligned even closer to Venerable Imon!

Driven by Imon's stimulated willpower, the Blade Chaser minutely gained the power to distort reality, thereby significantly increasing its threat towards the First Sword!

Venerable Dise understood she needed to take this fight more seriously. The First Sword launched counterattacks every now and then which were always difficult to resolve.

The Blade Chaser had to cross its blades, use its strength to deflect a stab or thrust its frame to the side in order to evade a threatening strike.

Throughout it all, both mechs danced around each other. Their maneuvers became more intricate but never past the point where the weaker mech had to exceed its limits!

Eventually, Venerable Imon executed his first new technique based on the instruction he received!

"Sundance Flurry!"

The swords wielded by the Blade Chaser glowed brighter as they struck with a hint of Venerable Imon's hot and fiery willpower!

One of the lessons that Venerable Imon had learned was to let his imagination empower his moves.

The use of symbols, metaphors and beliefs not only helped with shaping his raw willpower, but also influenced the subsequent development of his force of will!

Though Venerable Imon's conviction centered around protecting his sister, he knew that he was not cut out to pilot a defensive mech.

To him, attacking and resolving a powerful opponent as quickly as possible was the best way to safeguard his sister in battle!

With her own powerful talent and abilities, Commander Casella could easily resist swarms of weaker opponents.

Her worst opponent was a singular powerful foe! If she was ever targeted by another enemy expert mech, then she did not have many options to defeat such a terrible adversary.

The First Sword's extreme combat prowess easily stimulated Venerable Imon's protective desire.

If he could not defeat this expert mech, how much better would he fare against an actual enemy expert mech?

"HAAAAAA!"

The Blade Chaser's frame began to strain a bit more as Venerable Imon couldn't help but increase the pace!

Even though its glowing swords struck with greater force and ferocity than a moment ago, the First Sword continued to block and deflect with just its greatsword alone.

The expert mech did not bother to make any evasive maneuvers!

As Imon became more intent on breaking the First Sword's guard, the massive greatsword suddenly struck out just as the Blade Chaser was increasing its momentum!

The large weapon not only batted aside the smaller swords, but also struck the side of the Blade Chaser's torso without any further hindrance!

The two mechs separated from each other.

As Venerable Imon came down from his earlier exertion, his mood sank a bit as he realized that he had been careless.

His Blade Chaser shouldn't have gotten hit!

"Do you understand where you have gone wrong?" Venerable Dise asked in a calm tone.

"I… tunnel-visioned on my Sundance Flurry technique. I focused so much on my attacks that I neglected my defenses."

Dise nodded. "That is correct. Your new sword technique has potential, but spending so much time on launching attack after attack can easily make you lose track of everything else. This is why it is better to spend your efforts on developing shorter and more flexible techniques. You need to polish your control in multiple aspects."

"I understand, but…"

Though Venerable Imon hadn't been able to fight at his full potential, the small glimpse of power that Venerable Dise displayed already left him with an unshakeable image.

There were so many ways for expert pilots to develop themselves. Breaking through was just the start!

Still, as Venerable Imon considered all of the lessons he received, he could not entirely embrace all of them. He had his own views and did not obsess as much over control as Venerable Dise.

"I am still in the process of developing my own fighting style." He said as his will grew firmer. "My technique is still flawed, but this is what I do best. If I already had an expert mech, I wouldn't have given you an opportunity to counterattack so easily!"

Venerable Dise smirked. "We shall see. Come again! Show me what else you have been working on since our last sparring session!"

The Blade Chaser clashed against the First Sword once again! Both swordsman mechs dueled against each other with much greater ferocity than that of ordinary mechs!