The Mech Touch

Few opponents managed to stay strong when confronted by the Larkinson Clan's renowned expert mechs.

Even if the Bolvos Rage was a high-tier expert mech, its design and material composition were not that exaggerated.

The upcoming Mars Project was much more extravagant! Its design budget was a lot higher, so much so that the Cross Clan had to forgo a lot of essential investments in order to fund the acquisition of all of the medium and high-grade exotics to realize Professor Benedict's ambitious vision.

While the knowledgeable people in the expeditionary fleet would not be surprised if the completed Mars Project was able to stomp all three Larkinson expert mechs by this time, the older and aging Bolvos Rage should have struggled a lot more.

The reality was different, though!

Despite getting pushed by the Riot and despite getting bombarded by the twin attacks from the Amaranto and the Everchanger, the expert hybrid mech still maintained a dominant posture!

Venerable Joshua and Venerable Orfan both grew more uncomfortable after seeing their efforts achieve so little effect.

They were not holding back that much at this time!

"It's not the expert mech. It's the expert pilot! Look at the readings from the resonance meter. Patriarch Reginald's peak resonance strength has reached 58.6 laveres!"

That was a small step more than his previous best result! Although the jump from 57 to 58.6 laveres looked small, the reality was that the increase in power was significant!

Compared to his weaker self, the current version of Reginald Cross had inched closer to godhood!

The unreasonable strength boost he gained from this small but significant progress became evident in how tenaciously his expert mech resisted all of the attacks.

Aside from the costly penetrating attacks launched by the Amaranto, no other strike had succeeded in damaging its mech frame!

The resonance shield's unbreakable appearance was a direct reflection of Patriarch Reginald's incredibly domineering willpower!

Seeing that neither the Amaranto nor the Everchanger were able to crack the Bolvos Rage's defensive layer anytime soon, Venerable Rosa Orfan realized that it was up to her to make the difference.

She attacked with greater intensity and explicitly sought to exhaust her opponent's resonance shield with repeated resonance-empowered attacks.

"Champion's Momentum!"

Venerable Orfan even resonated with the Pierrotis integrated in the spear of her expert mech. This special resonating material amplified momentum-based attacks, causing the Riot to output significantly more damage as long as it struck with the entire mech moving forward.

While this was effective for a time, the enemy did not remain static.

"Let me increase the heat!" Patriarch Reginald called.

Even as his Bolvos Rage fought back against the Riot, it began to use its various integrated energy weapon modules to fire at the distant Amaranto!

The attacks struck the expert rifleman mech with great power, causing Venerable Stark to experience a lot more difficulties!

Not only was she obliged to divert more power and attention towards her expert mech's defenses, she also had to move her mech around in order to block the enemy's line of sight as much as possible.

Patriarch Reginald did not mind. The ranged attacks that weren't able to hit the Amaranto instead struck the Riot that was doing its best to absorb the hits instead.

"Damnit!" Venerable Orfan cursed. "This fellow hits hard!"

The Bolvos Rage was primarily a ranged mech, after all. Its axe was merely a weapon used to fend off melee opponents.

Now that it was utilizing the majority of its weapon systems, Patriarch Reginald and Bolvos Rage's power consumption had risen by a lot.

This meant that the high-tier expert mech would no longer be able to sustain its resonance shield as long in the face of all of the incoming attacks.

Still, it was worth it as long as the Bolvos Rage succeeded in taking one of the three expert mechs out of the action!

The Riot began to endure a lot of punishment!

Unlike its current opposition, its expert pilot was not an unreasonable existence among her kind.

Venerable Orfan's willpower depleted at a worrying rate as the Riot's resonance shield withstood attack after attack.

Although a part of her wanted to move her Riot aside, her desire to win and prove herself worthy was too great to prompt her to retreat.

She intended to face this threat head-on and last as long as possible!

Surprisingly enough, the Riot was holding up quite well actually. Although its resonance shield wobbled more and more, it always managed to hold strong even when the Bolvos Rage launched a powerful beam attack from its chest projector!

"Hm?" Patriarch Reginald recognized the Riot's resilience as well. "I heard that your expert mech is tougher than it looks. There is truth to these claims."

That did not worry him too much, though. Whether the Riot lasted a minute or two minutes didn't matter. Eventually, it would lose its resonance shield after reaching its limit, and that was the point where the expert mech was 'dead' according to the rules!

Due to all of this pressure, Venerable Orfan was no longer reluctant to employ her newest ability.

"So you want to pick a fight with me? Then let's have a riot! Second Skin!"

She attuned herself to another resonating material of her expert mech. Resonating with BSN-17A caused her expert mech to generate a second energy barrier.

This increased the Riot's ability to resist damage without exposing its frame, but this was not the extent of her move.

Venerable Orfan momentarily removed her awareness from the battle and reached out to a mysterious place where she came into direct contact with the design spirit she had been bonded to for numerous years.

Orfan and Qilanxo both banded together! With the addition of the Riot, the three reached a complex form of cooperation that drew out the best of each!

"Disharmony Barrier!"

The Riot's second resonance barrier began to take a more unstable quality. It shook and wobbled as if it had turned into a rebelling slime.

In an instant, the Disharmony Barrier actually attempted to engulf the Bolvos Rage's resonance shield!

The interaction between the two extraordinary energy fields produced crazy reactions that rapidly depleted the integrity of them both!

"What is this?!" Reginald became surprised as the Larkinsons pulled out yet another unusual trick!

Much to his surprise, his expert mech's resonance shield was depleting at a far faster pace than he anticipated.

The reason for that was not because the Riot's weird and unstable Disharmony Barrier inflicted more damage.

In fact, if the Disharmony Barrier struck a normal mech, it wouldn't leave much a mark at all as its material damage potential was too low!

The key to its mechanism was in the word 'disharmony'.

After piloting the Riot for an extended amount of time, Venerable Orfan gradually realized that her expert mech possessed an extra gift that could be dangerous in certain circumstances but could produce surprising results in other circumstances.

The source of this surprise factor was the Unstable Chaos Essence that Ves had integrated into the Riot for dubious reasons.

Though this gem had given Venerable Orfan plenty of grief by giving her headaches and causing her to lose control of the Riot's operations, she had gritted her teeth and slowly learned how to handle this quality!

While she was far from mastering this chaotic element, she gained just enough proficiency to use it as the basis of a new prime ability.

The help of Qilanxo was essential as the big lizard possessed a much finer control over all of these different energies.

Together with the active support of the design spirit, Venerable Orfan and the Riot unveiled their new signature prime resonance ability for the first time!

The results of the Disharmony Barrier turned out to be a lot better than Orfan had expected!

The Bolvos Rage was no longer in a comfortable position as before. Its resonance shield was collapsing at a significantly faster rate because the disharmony introduced by the Riot was making it difficult for Patriarch Reginald to resonate with his own machine!

It was as if Patriarch Reginald was playing a lovely song on the piano, only for a drunken Venerable Orfan to barge into the room while banging a pot!

It became a lot harder to appreciate the original song with the addition of this disturbing element!

Even though Venerable Orfan's strain had increased to a massive degree due to the difficulty of disturbing the symphony of a high-tier expert pilot, it was still worthwhile for her to put in all of this effort!

She grinned even as she was being worn down at an accelerated pace.

"I originally developed this ability to mess up enemy ace mechs, but I'm okay with using it on you as well!"

Patriarch Reginald couldn't take it any longer. He did not wish to bully his weaker sparring partners that much, but the Disharmony Barrier disturbed him on a profound level.

He no longer felt comfortable inside his expert mech! The Bolvos Rage was a machine that had shared wealth and woe with him. He and his expert mech had defeated so many of their peers that their fit had reached an admirable height!

Yet due to this unexpected interference, Patriarch Reginald was not able to leverage his expert mech's strength as well as before.

"Get… OFF!" He boomed!

The Bolvos Rage finally brought its shotgun to bear. The large weapon aimed towards the Riot and blasted powerful resonance-enhanced projectiles that instantly shredded the Riot's Disharmony Barrier and almost knocked apart the resonance shield underneath!

The Riot and Venerable Orfan endured so much disturbance that they were both taken out of the fight almost entirely!

Before Venerable Orfan could recover from this impactful blow, the Bolvos Rage was about to use its integrated weapons to break the Riot's lingering resonance shield entirely!

"You will have to go through me first!"

In an instant, the Everchanger had moved in front of the Riot and resisted the blow with its completely intact resonance shield!

"You!"

"Yes, me! Did you think I would keep taking potshots at your back?"

Under Venerable Joshua's deliberate control, the Everchanger blocked any attack that was intended to knock the Riot out of the fight.

Although the expert spearman mech clearly wouldn't be able to recover quickly, it was already enough for the Everchanger to occupy the Bolvos Rage's attention!

Joshua had given up on inflicting as much damage as possible towards his opponent. The Everchanger had holstered its Vitalus rifle and relied solely on its mech sword and resonance shield to resist the Bolvos Rage's mixed attacks!

Plasma attacks and positron beams collided against the Everchanger's bright green resonance shield at a constant rate.

At the same time, the Bolvos Rage also did not hesitate to strike the expert hero mech with its axe as well as its powerful shotgun!

The latter hit the Everchanger like a punch with each discharge!

However, Venerable Joshua never lost confidence in his expert mech's ability to endure. The reason for that was because he had switched its design spirit to Qilanxo!

With the backing of the former sacred god, Venerable Joshua resonated with her, causing them to activate an unnamed prime ability that moderately increased the defensive power of the Everchanger's resonance shield!

Now that the Everchanger completely absorbed the Bolvos Rage's attacks, the Amaranto at the rear gained plenty of opportunities to attack without much scruples!

The only hindrance that Venerable Stark encountered was the fact that the Everchanger was constantly in the way.

Without its missiles, the Bolvos Rage's remaining ranged attacks were unable to go around the expert hero mech!

The same limitation did not apply to the Amaranto. The highly-specialized expert rifleman mech deliberately shifted the aim of its Instrument of Vengeance and began to fire a volley of empowered light beams that actually bent as it traversed through space!

Each and every crooked beam struck the Bolvos Rage's ragged resonance shield without striking the Everchanger!

After another couple of volleys of uninterrupted fire, the Amaranto's final light beam attack finally broke the Bolvos Rage's incredibly resilient resonance shield!

"..."