The Mech Touch

The Larkinson expert pilots felt a lot of pressure as their expert mechs floated before the second nunser phase lord.

Unlike his much more formidable father, L'Koi, who apparently styled himself as the Faceless Warrior, did not tower too much over the mechs.

It was highly unlikely that the newly arrived phase lord was holding back in this regard. If this was the case, then L'Koi probably ranked at the bottom among other nunser phase lords.

Even so, that was no reason for General Ark and the other Larkinson expert pilots to underestimate this new adversary.

Even if L'Koi was fairly young and new to his current condition, his father had probably given him a small but useful package of phasewater organs.

L'Koi's true body shouldn't be able to fit too many phasewater organs at the moment, but just a basic set was already enough to add new strengths and improve his specializations!

Another reason for concern was his equipment. As far as phase lords went, it was a lot easier for them to acquire new equipment than to obtain powerful phasewater organs.

L'Koi did not wear a full raiment that covered his entire body in thick armor plating, but it was still a very well-armored suit that provided plenty of physical protection to his flanks and rear.

His choice of armaments were two transphasic hyper axes. The weapons exuded an unnaturally strong sense of force, which meant that the weapons were likely able to inflict much heavier impacts upon contact!

What also looked concerning was that L'Koi's raiment also featured two proportionately large autocannons. The machine gun-like armaments were only able to point their muzzles forward, but were connected to large ammunition caches, allowing them to open fire for an extended period of time.

There were many other technological features to the raiment. It came with a fairly modest set of azure shield generators that provided the phase lord with additional energy barriers, thereby giving L'Koi the luxury to attack without needing to worry too much about suffering retaliatory attacks.

If the Tireless Engine pampered his favored heir as much as General Ark suspected, then the autocannons likely fired solid transphasic hyper projectiles that would definitely hurt a lot on impact. The resonance shields of all of the expert mechs would definitely have a lot of trouble with trying to resist a continuous barrage.

What was worse was that L'Koi was not alone. The entire Ghirard Fleet was still up and about.

The warships and phasefighters could provide fire support at all times, allowing them to wear down the defenses of the expert mechs so long as they had a clear shot at their targets.

As L'Koi was beginning to move into action, a helmet unfolded and wrapped around his large head.

True to his title, his helmet lacked any obvious eyes and other features, making it seem as if he did not possess a face.

"I SHALL TEAR YOUR MECHS ONE AT A TIME!"

The aggressive nunser phase lord charged forward and already began to open fire with his twin autocannons!

The expert mechs were already on the move, allowing them to easily evade the twin streams of projectiles.

According to the sensor systems, the solid rounds were not all transphasic. Only one in fifteen of them possessed enhanced penetrative properties, likely in an attempt to save on costs and resources.

What was more concerning was that the rounds were all laced with a fire hyper material that could inflict additional heat damage on impact.

Perhaps getting struck by a single round was not that scary, but getting struck by hundreds of them would drain the defenses of any expert mech within a minute!

Fortunately, it was frankly not that difficult for the expert mechs to evade the ranged attacks. The firing angles of the flank-mounted autocannons were very poor, and their aim jostled a lot whenever L'Koi made any physical exertion.

Even so, the autocannons exerted a lot of pressure onto the expert pilots and forced them to stay alert and on the move at all times. The mental burden of keeping constant track of where the autocannons were aiming would steadily take a toll on the psyche of the expert pilots.

That was probably the real point of this weapon system.

Though the autocannons chewed through ammunition at a prodigious rate, the nunser warlord's body was so large that his raiment was able to attach plenty of ammunition canisters on its back!

"What do we do, general?!" Venerable Imon Ingvar asked as the stress of the situation was affecting his mood.

"This is what you all signed up for. This is our challenge." Ark told the other Larkinson expert pilots. "First, forget about retreating. The younger phase lord has the strength and the ability to prevent us from escaping. Splitting up will only allow him and his fleet to hunt us all down in quick succession. Our only chance of making it out alive is to beat L'Koi badly enough that he is no longer willing or able to pursue us. Kill him if you can, but our greatest priority is to create a moment for us to disengage."

There was no way that L'Koi would run out of rounds any time soon, which meant that the expert pilots actively had to move away from the front of the phase lord for a long time.

"What do we do, general?!" Venerable Imon Ingvar asked as the stress of the situation was affecting his mood.

"This is what you all signed up for. This is our challenge." Ark told the other Larkinson expert pilots. "First, forget about retreating. The younger phase lord has the strength and the ability to prevent us from escaping. Splitting up will only allow him and his fleet to hunt us all down in quick succession. Our only chance of making it out alive is to beat L'Koi badly enough that he is no longer willing or able to pursue us. Kill him if you can, but our greatest priority is to create a moment for us to disengage."

It was actually better if they didn't kill L'Koi. Doing so would probably set off his father. If the Tireless Engine went berserk, then even if the Mars was able to survive the powerful phase lord's wrath, the expert mechs would definitely not be able to resist getting impaled by the so-called Saint Piercer!

"How do you want to engage the phase lord?" Venerable Orfan asked.

"We get close and try to stick to his flanks and rear at all times." General Ark answered. "We cannot separate ourselves from L'Koi. Doing so will give the Ghirard Fleet very clear shots against our expert mechs. Only by staying close to our targets will the enemy warships and strike craft refrain from opening fire against us for fear of hitting the Tireless Engine's precious son."

Nunsers valued family very much, and they were also very hierarchical. General Ark already knew that the nunsers hated friendly fire with a passion. Landing a single hit on L'Koi would probably be a death sentence for the spacers and officers responsible for making this happen.

This was why the expert mechs needed to use L'Koi's considerable bulk as a shield against enemy fire.

The other expert pilots had no objection to this plan. They were predominantly melee mechs anyway, so they were bound to fight up close regardless.

"Who will try to catch his attention? The enemy phase lord needs a target to fixate on, or else we all have to be on guard against his powerful attacks."

"I will." General Ark said. "My expert mech is the strongest and it is also in the best condition. My machine is good at attracting attention. I can guarantee you that L'Koi will not divert his attention to you as long as you do not give him a reason to look in your direction."

The expert pilots of the 77th Warborn had trained in comparable virtual training scenarios in the past. They all roughly understood how they needed to coordinate with each other.

Against a phase lord like L'Koi, it was important to give the large enemy a reason to fixate on one machine above the rest. General Ark voluntarily assumed the most difficult responsibility out of a sense of duty but also ambition.

There was no better way to squeeze beyond the limits of his current potential than to attract the ire of a phase lord!

While there was still a chance that the expert mechs might win against L'Koi, the victory margins were depressingly thin.

The best way to turn this entire situation around was for an ace pilot to emerge and beat down the phase lord in a short amount of time!

This confrontation presented General Ark with the best opportunity yet to accomplish his breakthrough.

If it did not work, then General Ark did not have a lot of ideas to fall back upon.

"Attack!" He urged the other Larkinson champions. "Focus on disabling his autocannons first. Concentrate on punching through the armor next. We need to damage and cripple at least some of his phasewater organs to deter him from pursuing us any further."

The plan sounded simple, but this was anything but the case.

As the four expert mechs closed in on the enemy phase lord, they all evaded the two heavy axe strikes and began to assail the nunser phaselord from different directions!

L'Koi did not allow him to get swarmed without retaliation. The alien turned around a lot faster than the expert pilots expected and almost managed to avoid getting chopped into pieces by evading the twin axe strikes!

Though the powerful machines manage to evade the attacks without issue, the problem was that the powerful axes also cleaved into dimensions, thereby producing strange spatial phenomena that turned the surroundings into a weak spatial hazard!

The phase lord experienced no harm from this effect, but the same could not be said for many other people!

The more L'Kai swung around his axes, the more the unnatural blades of the weapons destabilized the surrounding fabric of space!

Unlike the Mars which was able to bull through the messy spatial phenomena due to the power of its pilot, the expert mechs were much weaker!

Their resonance shields strained each time they needed to reset a patch of space so that it behaved normally again.

While General Ark and the rest were still glad that their powerful machines were able to resist the surrounding spatial activity, their resonance shields were depleting at an accelerated rate just by maneuvering around the phase lord!

Sticking around L'Koi was not so safe either. One way or another, they had to gain the upper hand and defeat the enemy phase lord so fast that no petty ability would be able to block their vast might.

However, the expert mechs had already begun to attack.

The Riot stuck to the rear whenever possible and decided it was best to maintain to stick to the rear whenever possible. The machine had to juke frantically from time to time in order to avoid the vengeful hoof strikes coming from below.

As the expert spearman mech's weapon made frequent contact with the azure energy shields that covered the alien, Venerable Orfan grinned in satisfaction when she saw that the segmented energy shields were crumbling quite quickly.

"L'Koi isn't wearing a high-quality raiment as we feared! He is fitted with generic shield generators, and there aren't as many of them so his energy barriers are not that strong. We can win as long as we can get through!"

The expert pilots had already come to this conclusion a short while ago. The expert mechs began to strike at the azure energy shields more violently. Their space suppressors did a good job at weakening the energy defense, causing every segmented energy shield to fall at a faster rate.

However, L'Koi also grew more aggressive as a result. His powerful axes swung harder and produced more spatial disturbances that were constantly getting in the way of the expert mechs!

"The Blade Chaser's resonance shield has dipped below 15%!"

"23 percent for my Riot."

Ark, whose Lionheart was still busy trying to buzz in front of the enemy phase lord as much as possible, knew that the risk of suffering casualties would be much greater once those resonance shields came down.

He needed to turn the tables against the phase lord soon, or else the strike force of high-ranking mechs would meet its end on this battlefield!

The Larkinson decided to bring out one of his big guns.

"Noah! It's time to perform!"

"Rwoar!"

A large white lion companion spirit emerged from his body and grew eager to strike a telling blow against L'Koi!

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