The Mech Touch

Ever since the Hyper Generation introduced space suppression technology, red humanity finally gained an effective counter against the ubiquitous transphasic energy shields so loved by the native aliens.

The original residents of the Red Ocean had occupied the dwarf galaxy for so long that they had accumulated huge reserves of phasewater.

They had so much more time to harvest phasewater and invest it in the construction of lots of warships and other combat craft.

This was one of the biggest reasons why linefighters suffered so many losses at the frontlines.

The Red Two and the first-rate superstates were in better shape. Their vast wealth and power easily allowed them to gather enough phasewater to equip their premier combat units with transphasic weapons and defenses.

Other groups, especially the more grassroots ones, did not enjoy this particular luxury!

Since most human forces were not able to enjoy the benefits of phasewater technology, they needed to even the odds a different way.

Space suppression technology offered them the equalizer that they had long demanded.

While it was true that space suppressors worked a lot more effectively if they integrated a bit of phasewater themselves, the revolutionary tech developed by the mechers in cooperation with the Spacelock also remained effective without the use of this expensive exotic material!

The tech massively increased the combat effectiveness of many human forces and single-handedly revived the popularity of melee mechs.

The effectiveness of space suppression modules was already notable enough when utilized by standard mechs, but they really started to shine when employed by high-ranking mechs!

The custom-developed space suppressor utilized by the Mars was unlike the ones equipped by ordinary mechs. Not only did its tech and materials reach first-class standards, but it also integrated a luxurious quantity of phasewater!

The power of pure technology was just one half of the equation that made this custom space suppressor so strong.

The power of true resonance amplified the performance of this module to an even greater height!

Sustained willpower baptism had steadily boosted its passive performance parameters beyond what human science could produce.

When Reginald truly started to resonate with it, the strength of the space suppression field generated by this extraordinary module multiplied by at least several times!

This was a dramatic result that only high-ranking mech pilots could produce!

No alien phase whale or phase lord could produce anything comparable, because their strength did not lie in their willpower!

This was the difference between quantity and quality.

The Tireless Engine may hold an immense advantage in quantity, but Reginald fearlessly challenged the enormous phase lord because he believed he could win this bout by relying on his superior quality!

So far, he had not been proven wrong.

As soon as Patriarch Reginald activated its powerful space suppressor and actively resonated with it, the Mars produced a highly concentrated space suppression field that forcibly eliminated most if not all spatial distortion effects around the Mars.

Not only that, but the nearby segmented azure energy shields lost even more strength!

"Your protection is huge, but brittle! What is the point of growing so big if your defenses are being stretched so thin? Hah! Your energy shields are fragile in front of my ace mech!

All of the phasewater empowerment put into the Saint Crusher's shield generators disappeared under the effect of the space suppressor, causing the segmented energy shields to look and feel especially feeble!

When the Mars unleashed another salvo of positron beams, they split up and struck six different weakened segmented energy shields.

All six of them collapsed with unnatural ease!

Patriarch Reginald grinned when he saw this result. "Hahaha! I knew it! You're not as tough as I thought! I won't need an entire day before I can sink my axe into your flesh!"

The Mars gained even more momentum after Reginald confirmed he was able to chew through the phase lord's energy defenses with greater ease!

Though the Tireless Engine repeatedly tried to damage or beat back the Mars by swinging its spear with dazzling speed, the Mars always proved itself to be faster and more alert to sudden attacks!

The mobility of the Mars was already fairly good, but it had received successive upgrades that made it faster, more responsive and more able to make sharper turns and course corrections.

Although the Mars was not able to match the mobility of a true light mech such as the Dark Zephyr Mark III, it was no slouch in this area.

Even so, mobility was not everything. The Mars constantly played with fire by constantly trying to weaken the nearby segmented azure energy shields with its powerful Saint Kingdom and space suppressor.

In order for Patriarch Reginald to debilitate his adversary's defenses as best as possible, he had no choice but to bring his Mars into the phase lord's striking range.

The titanic Ghirard skillfully whipped, spun and swung his long and massive spear around and constantly threatened to smash the Mars with such overwhelming force and leverage that a direct strike could easily launch the smaller machine away!

Yet for all of the speed and skill that the Tireless Engine put into his spear techniques, the Mars was able to evade the attacks with ease.

This was because for all of his strength and size, the phase lord did not actually possess any extraordinary skill!

His skill and combat intuition was honed beyond the ordinary limits of what his race and physique might suggest, but they were ultimately not the focus for his transcendent evolution.

The excessive emphasis on phasewater and biology were purely quantitative means of improvement. This left phase lords as well as phase whales with very little resources to spend on more qualitative improvements that enabled them to make better use of their capabilities.

From the perspective of Patriarch Reginald, the Tireless Engine's spear techniques were utterly useless because they weren't fast or accurate enough to hit his mobile ace mech!

His Mars was like a fly buzzing around a lumbering human that continually tried and failed to swat the insect.

Nothing the phase lord tried succeeded, at least at first. The frustrated nunser warlord began to channel more power into his phasewater organs.

This not only caused his body to move faster at the cost of eating up a prodigious amount of stored energy reserves, but also strengthened the spatial distortion effects around his body.

Unfortunately, the effect of the former did not give the Tireless Engine enough of a speed advantage to hit the Mars.

The effect of the latter was too dispersed. While it certainly made the surrounding space deadlier to both allies and enemies, an ace mech like the Mars was easily able to power through all of the debilitating field by relying on the protection of its Saint Kingdom and space suppressor!

The Tireless Engine visibly grew frustrated. His gigantic alien head may be covered by a stylistic-looking helmet, but his spear attacks grew increasingly more jerkier and irregular.

Of course, the alien did not grow less dangerous by losing his cool. He instead utilized his frustrations to make his movements more unpredictable, making it a lot harder for Patriarch Reginald to predict where the next attack would land.

Even so, the ace mech still managed to dance around the extremely powerful and threatening polearm strikes without seeming to be in any greater danger.

"YOU ANNOYING INSECT! EVEN VORIBUGS ARE NOT AS FRUSTRATING TO ERADICATE AS A SMALL HUMAN WRAPPED IN A SMALL MACHINE AS YOU. STAY STILL SO THAT I MAY CRUSH YOUR SHIELDS AND PULVERIZE YOUR METAL TOOLS!"

"Hahaha! Keep trying, you overgrown alien dolt. You will never hit me with that silly spear. I have fought other ace pilots whose skill with their weapons and combat intuition are so much greater than yours. Size doesn't matter. The only thing going for you is your stupidly thick defenses, but even that won't help you for long."

Ever since the Mars got closer, its ARCEUS System inflicted much more effective damage than before. It was able to eliminate at least six whole segmented azure energy shields after they got weakened.

While the Tireless Engine still had a lot more segmented energy shields to rely upon for protection, the rate in which the Mars got rid of them had increased so much that the dynamic of the duel heavily tilted in the favor of the Mars!

This was an amazing result so far. Although Reginald still did not see any opportunity to take out the leader of the Ghirard Fleet in an instant, he was more than capable of containing his enemy and preventing the massive alien from turning around and reinforcing the rest of his fleet.

The phase lord did not miss the fact that the expert mechs that had accompanied the Mars went on to raid the precious warehouses built on the surface of the Duqaste XI!

Days and weeks worth of valuable supplies went up in smoke. Each destroyed cache represented another delay or setback in the attempt to conquer the Duqaste System.

If the damage escalated to the point where an assault effectively had to be called off, then the Tireless Engine would not only lose a lot of prestige among his fellow 'gods', but also receive a penalty from the Red Cabal!

"YOU ARE NOT ENTIRELY WRONG, HUMAN. SIZE DOES NOT ALWAYS MATTER. MY FORM HAS ALWAYS ALLOWED ME TO TOWER OVER WEAKER PHASE LORDS AND WARSHIPS OF MANY SIZES. YET AGAINST A METAL INSECT LIKE YOU… A DIFFERENT APPROACH IS NEEDED."

The nunser phase lord could not afford to suffer these setbacks. Many of his peers and rivals would exceed him. The phase whales will not see any reason to award him with a precious phasewater production system, thereby cutting off his best opportunity to evolve into a greater phase lord!

The Tireless Engine understood that as long as he continued to fight like this, he would eventually get ground down by the agile ace mech.

The phase lord made a surprising admission.

"YOU ARE NOT ENTIRELY WRONG, HUMAN. SIZE DOES NOT ALWAYS MATTER. MY FORM HAS ALWAYS ALLOWED ME TO TOWER OVER WEAKER PHASE LORDS AND WARSHIPS OF MANY SIZES. YET AGAINST A METAL INSECT LIKE YOU… A DIFFERENT APPROACH IS NEEDED."

The Saint Crusher was an abject failure. Either that, or it had met the wrong kind of ace pilot and ace mech.

Since that was the case, the Tireless Engine made a daring choice that not many phase lords in his position would make.

His enormous metal raiment, which still maintained a lot of intact segmented azure energy shields, suddenly began to bulge and split apart at the seams!

Patriarch Reginald got caught off-guard by this sudden change and hastily pulled his Mars back in order to move away from any surprise attacks.

It was not an attack.

The Tireless Engine had decided to purge his Saint Crusher from his giant biological form!

Huge pieces of armor, functional systems and weapon modules got loose as they split away from the giant phase lord's body.

The purged metal pieces soon disappeared in an instant. Ghirard had obviously stowed his gigantic equipment back into his own private pocket space.

Now that the phase lord had unburdened himself from his strong but ultimately constricting raiment, the alien warlord then proceeded to shrink his form!

More and more pieces of his true body began to fold into different dimensions, thereby reducing the Tireless Engine's mass and volume at a rapid rate.

It was not until the phase lord shrunk his height to just 170 meters that his change in form had stopped.

"BEFORE I HAD GROWN TO THE STATURE THAT YOU JUST FOUGHT AGAINST, I WAS A MUCH WEAKER GOD. I HAVE SPENT MANY MORE YEARS IN STRUGGLE AT A SIZE CLOSER TO THIS! NOW THAT I HAVE RETURNED TO IT ONCE MORE, YOU SHALL FIND IT MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO EVADE MY ATTACKS."

The shrunken but still dangerous-looking phase lord retrieved a much smaller but still solid transphasic hyper spear from his pocket space.

Patriarch Reginald actually grew jealous at the Tireless Engine. Why did the phase lord get to have a handy pocket space when his Mars did not have access to the same?

In any case, Reginald still did not take his adversary all that seriously.

"Heh. Talk is cheap. All I see is that you have given up your greatest advantage as a phase lord. You should keep your tin can much longer. At least you could have prolonged your eventual defeat!"

The duel resumed, but this time the two combatants were not as exaggeratingly far apart in size!

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