The Mech Touch

6074 Unbreakable

As the sparring session began to wound down, both Ketis and Dise still retained their excitement.

Dise had taken her earlier failure in stride. Her mood recovered over the course of the sparring session. The more tshe spent on condensing and refining her new swordsmanship, the more momentum she applied through her attacks!

The two Swordmaidens engaged in an unspoken form of communication.

Ketis eagerly encouraged the expert pilot to develop her new swordsmanship. The mech designer helpfully reduced her role to that of a practice dummy so that Venerable Dise was able to redefine her personal sword style.

By the tVenerable Dise completed the prototype of her new approach towards sword combat, her body grew exhausted due to the intensive exertions, but her willpower hungered for more!

"Congratulations, Dise."

"Thank you, Ketis." The expert pilot responded in a lighter tone now that she had recovered her mood. "I am still upset about how I failed to cto Taon and Lanie's aid, but that will be the last tI let our comrades down. If I ever end up surrounded by roots or other obstacles, I will do my utmost to push my way out by force. I will no longer fear every attack. Even if I cannot evade them, I will put my complete trust in the steel of my mech!"

"Your mech isn't actually made out of steel. It currently consists of Unending alloy and many other metallic and nonmetallic materials." Ketis couldn't help but correct her sister.

Dise shrugged her shoulders. "It is a figure of speech."

"It is quite unusual for a swordsman mech specialist to put so much emphasis on defense. Why don't you favor an approach that is all about attack? As long as your attack power becomes high enough to cut down every adversary, there is no need to consider defense anymore!"

"I… have considered that approach, but that fits your ethos more than mine. Maybe it is because of my lingering connection to Qilanxo, but I cannot ignore the matter of defense. Even if my First Sword finally completes her makeover, I do not think that the technical improvements alone will help her withstand every attack. Only by making my mech unbreakable will I be able to overcevery powerful enemy with confidence!"

This was a rather distinct deviation from the Swordmaiden approach towards combat. The mech legion's mech doctrines always emphasized the need to combine strong attack with good control and maneuverability.

So long as the Swordmaiden mechs were able to strike at the right tand disengage from the enemy whenever they wanted, they would definitely be able to gain the upper hand!

If the Swordmaiden mechs got bogged down in a tough fight against enemies that had them at a disadvantage, then they already failed!

From what Ketis was able to gather from Dise's words and swordsmanship, the high-tier expert pilot sought to succeed where other Swordmaidens faltered.

It was… strange, to say the least. Dise was the first expert pilot of the Swordmaidens. Everyone just assumed that she would embody all of the classical strengths of her mech legion!

"I think I understand your logic, but… what if piloting an unbreakable mech and wielding an impervious sword is not enough? If you focus too much on defense, how will you be able to spare enough energy to attack and kill your foes?"

A swordsman focusing on defense was not an absurd idea in itself. As a swordmaster, Ketis had dabbled in many sword styles developed by the Heavensword Association that possessed a defensive focus.

From coordinating with physical shields to specializing in counterattacks, many different swordmasters in the past figured out ways to fend off incoming attacks with greater effectiveness than was normally possible.

However, their ability to go on the offensive could not keep up with their more conventional peers.

Ketis had legitimate concerns about Dise's shift in development strategy. The First Sword had acquired a good reputation for being the strongest offensive melee mech of the Larkinson Clan.

As far as defense was concerned, there were other melee mechs that could do a better job in this aspect.

The Riot carried a lot more armor and proved to be a lot tougher than people gave him credit for. The upcoming upgrade would make the expert spearman mech even more unkillable!

The Everchanger was not as thick and massive, but he was able to regenerate from all but the most severe damage. What happened to the Elegant Rage in the last mission was a good indication of the expert hero mech's unreasonable ability to bounce back from his injuries!

As for the First Sword… aside from wielding a large and very hardy masterwork greatsword, Ketis could not really think of anything else that gave her a pronounced defensive advantage.

How would Dise be able to excel in defense while making sure that she did not waste the offensive advantages of her expert mech?

The swordsman mech specialist grinned at the mech designer. She raised her greatsword.

"Respa."

Her powerful companion spirit emerged from her head. Respa currently took the form of a greatsword that looked like a miniature copy of the Decapitator.

As soon as Respa merged with the large blade, the weapon began to exude a much greater threat than before!

Unlike Sharpie who straightforwardly granted any weapon wielded by Ketis an unnaturally sharp edge, Respa seemed to be obsessed with beheading foes!

Though Ketis was supposed to be winding down, she instantly becmore alarmed as she felt a faint threat towards her life from Dise's greatsword.

Of course, the threat was only faint. Venerable Dise was not a full swordmaster, after all. It was already amazing that she could make Ketis feel uncomfortable.

"I feel a slight sting on my neck." Ketis commented. "It is… a disconcerting sensation. I cannot ignore it or get rid of it. Is Respa that eager to separate my head from my neck?"

"I wanted to show you that I still have a way to retain my killing edge. During the last mission, I witnessed how Lanie and her companion spirit were able to empower the Elegant Rage in two different ways. That gaveenough inspiration to try something similar. I will continue to focus on making my mech as unbreakable as possible, while Respa will do her best to helpbehead my enemies as easily as possible."

Ketis finally understood the expert pilot's complete scheme. It was a rather ambitious and difficult one to fulfill.

"I can see how well they complement each other." Ketis said. "Pardon the pun, but it will allow you to excel in completing decapitation strikes. Normally, I would say that it would be difficult for you to decapitate starships, phase whales, the Emperor Tree and other difficult enemies, but… I feel that Respa has already made deeper attainments in beheading. So long as she goes far enough, you will eventually be able to 'decapitate' any enemy on a conceptual level."

What did that mean?

It meant that even if Venerable Dise confronted an enemy without a clearly defined 'head' like the Emperor Tree, her powerful mech would still be able to kill the calamity beast by striking it at a specific location only once!

Of course, Venerable Dise was completely unable to do so at this time. She may ca lot closer to doing so if she managed to advance to ace pilot, but even then she would be limited to performing instant kills on swarms of weaker opponents.

Still, Ketis was more than happy to see that her sister not only formulated a cohesive plan, but also had a good chance of realizing her ambitions!

The two talked a bit more about swordsmanship and other related topics. Ketis had little reason to discuss more substantive subjects.

Dise was on the right track. The powerful expert pilot was more than capable of fleshing out her new combat approach through her own efforts.

Hours later, Ketis approached the hangar bay where the Everchanger had arrived.

Her husband had already left the cockpit. Similar to Dise, Venerable Joshua also grew disappointed in himself. He had becmore deeply affected by his failures and the tragedies that resulted from them. As the commander of the strike force, he held immediate responsibility over what had happened.

"Joshua." Ketis gently greeted her husband as she kicked off the deck and floated towards the open cockpit. "It is not entirely your fault, you know. I am partially responsible for what happened by not insisting on a more cautious approach. The planning of this mission wasn't good enough. In hindsight, we should have taken the Emperor Tree's ability to twist people's minds more seriously when we know that it had already turned many exobeasts into suicidal aggressors."

The expert pilot was surrounded by his own gloomy air. His liveliness and optimism had dimmed as he continued to sit on the edge of the cockpit entrance.

"I know I don't carry all of the blame, but… I could have saved them, you know. If I was able to fight my way out of the envelopment of purple mechs and annoying branches, I could have arrived in tto stop the fight between Taon and Lanie from getting worse. Now… two of our clan's brightest prospects have bectarnished."

Ketis sat down next to Joshua and embraced him in an affectionate hug. "I will tell you the sstory I told Dise. You are not entirely to blame. We made a plan and we thought it worked. Things can always go wrong. No one can win a battle every time. What matters is not that we suffered a loss, but what we must do in order to prevent a similar outcin the future. How much progress have you made in that? Have you figured out why you fell short, and what you must do in order to remedy your problem?"

"HIS PROBLEM IS SIMPLE." The Everchanger interjected without invitation. "MY BATTLE PARTNER IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH. HE SPLITS HIS ATTENTION AND HASN'T FULLY FIGURED OUT WHAT HE MUST FIGHT FOR AND HOW HE WILL DO A BETTER JOB."

The high-tier expert pilot's expression grew complex. "I guess I can't avoid it anymore. I did put a lot of thought into those matters. I have a lot of simple dreams, but I realize I can't make any of that happen if I don't grow stronger. We used to live in a twhere everyone looked up to high-tier expert pilots like myself. Now… I understand how little that matters when confronting a calamity plant like the Emperor Tree. To think that there are more native creatures who are around the slevel. If enemies like these continue to evolve across the Red Ocean, then I can't remain stuck at my current rank. I need to break through and becstrong enough to challenge a big enemy like the Emperor Tree by myself."

"That is easier said than done, Joshua. According to our own analysis, Saint Tusa and the Dark Zephyr Mark III won't be able to kill the Emperor Tree. Their burst damage is high, but they are not good at inflicting damage on a massive scale. The calamity plant has demonstrated such unreasonably high regeneration capabilities that it will just heal whenever it gets struck by a serious attack."

The story was a bit more nuanced than that. The analysis had only been conducted with the assumption that the Dark Zephyr remained a quasi-first-class high-tier expert mech.

Once it got upgraded into a much more powerful first-class ace mech, then the threat posed by the Dark Zephyr would undoubtedly increase, though not as radically as most people anticipated.

However, it was much more appropriate to use the right tools for the right job. Ketis was much more optimistic about Venerable Isobel Kotin and the Promethea because they excelled at taking down massive opponents!

As for Joshua, Ketis could not figure out what her husband intended to do in order to make sure he gained the upper hand in future confrontations.

Did he even have a plan?