The Mech Touch

Lanie was having the time of her life.

She had heard so many stories about how fighting a battle in reality was incomparable to the simulated battles in the MSTS.

Though there were many veterans who praised the steadily improving realism of the latter, those that had experienced the real thing were still able to recognize the minor differences that made the MSTS inferior.

Even so, the new simulation training system was definitely more realistic, visceral and accurate than anything the Larkinson mech pilots practiced with before.

While Lanie indeed had to make numerous adjustments in order to better adapt to fighting in reality, the difference was not that big.

This was the greatest benefit of rookies who trained extensively with the MSTS!

The more ordinary rookies of the Larkinson Army were able to reconcile the differences after spending only a bit of time on this issue.

Lanie already adapted to fighting in reality after defeating her opponent!

The Favored Son that had lost all of its backup weapons had turned into a practice dummy in her eyes.

Despite the impressive skill and abundant combat experience of the opposing Fridayman mech pilot, the man could have never imagined that he would fight against an unreasonable prodigy like Lanie Larkinson!

The only troublesome factor was that the Favored Son possessed such a thick shell that it took a bit longer to overcome all of its defenses.

The HiCap energy shield of the weaponless halberdier mech continually shook and wobbled as Lanieʼs Lucid Rage persistently applied the plasma torches of its tonfas against the hardy barrier.

No matter how well the Bubble Man designed his famed HiCap shield generator, there were still limits to everything.

It took a lot of effort to resist the extreme application of heat and energy damage from the Lucid Rageʼs tonfas.

Naturally, the mech itself had to expend a lot of energy as well, but it was much easier to destroy than preserve.

With the assistance of friendly mechs such as the Rifle Warriors who fired disruptor beams at the Favored Son, the Lucid Rage finally overcame this difficult barrier and soon dismantled the vulnerable heavy mech through a combination of quick and ruthless strikes!

It did not take long for the mech pilot to call it quits and eject the cockpit.

”These heavy mechs are too troublesome.” Lanie frowned as she already turned her attention to her next target.

The Pima Defenders were simply too disgusting to fight against. There were so many heavy mechs. No matter how much she outfight her opponents, even the worst Fridayman mech pilot was able to rely on the unreasonable defensive strength of their large machines to stall their defeat.

The Pima Defender mech pilots knew that even if they couldnʼt defeat the enemies in front of them, they could still fulfill their roles by lasting as long as possible.

This way, they could stall the Avatar mechs and consume the strength of their opponents as much as possible!

When Lanie quickly surveyed the immediate battlefield, she could already see that while the Avatars succeeded in overpowering the Pima Defenders mechs inside the breach, their progress got increasingly more bogged down.

Though it looked as if the Avatars werenʼt making as much progress anymore, it was already good enough that they had managed to maintain the breach in the center of the enemy formation.

The only problem was that it was too difficult for the Avatars to expand this fault and break open the enemy formation by themselves!

Lanie personally experienced this as her Lucid Rage continued to fly around and challenge different opponents.

At this time, her rage had cooled as she allowed her more calculating side take precedence.

Previously in the MSTS and in live practice sessions, she never really played around a lot with the glows of her mech.

She assumed that it was best to balance out the influences of both design spirits in order to make the most out of the Lucid Rage.

It was only after she received Vesʼ advice and fought in a battle with real stakes that she discovered that her usage of her melee mech had been too shallow.

Ves designed the Lucid Rage to improve the mech pilotʼs mentality in any combat situation.

The battlefield was never consistent, though.

There were times where a lot of action took place at once. Quick thinking and proactive decisions were essential to maintaining the upper hand.

There were also other times where too much haste and aggression were detrimental. Lanie has seen plenty of Avatar mech pilots putting themselves in danger because they acted with too much haste.

At this time, Lanie deliberately focused on disarming the enemy offensive mechs. This was where the Lucid Rages such as her own mech could best contribute to the battle.

Compared to other Avatar mech pilots, Lanie achieved much better results. She specifically targeted the Favored Sons and the Space Piercers and skillfully trapped and wrenched away their weapons.

An increasing number of halberds and spears became divorced from their owners and floated off into deep space through her efforts and the efforts of other friendly mech pilots!

When people like Ves saw how many spears that integrated a bit of phasewater in their tips were carelessly drifting away from the battlefield, he specifically issued a command to retrieve them as soon as possible.

”Track all of the extendable spears of the Space Piercers and prioritize their retrieval as soon as the main fight has passed. We canʼt let any drop of phasewater slip away from our grasp!”

Though Lanie was able to disarm more and more enemy heavy mechs, that did not mean that the enemy machines were helpless.

They could still rely on their strong energy shields to block the advance of the Avatars for a long time.

Even though the Pima Defenders had not found a way to launch a counterattack against the Avatars, their ability to stand their ground and take a beating was first-class within the Sundered Phalanx!

”Weʼre not making enough progress! The Pima Defenders are slowly starting to reform their lines again.”

”We are not putting enough pressure on their mech officers! Each of them has already retreated to the rear where we canʼt target them as easily as before.”

”These Pima Defenders mechs are increasingly turtling up and relying on help from other mech units to push us back.”

”The Fridaymen arenʼt the only ones who can call for backup!”

Commander Melkor issued a request to another mech legion.

Soon enough, he received a response as the Eye of Ylvaine directed the firepower of around 60 Transcendent Punishers to the enemy mechs within and around the breach!

Right now, a lot of mechs were pressed together. Both friendly and enemy mechs became so intertwined that few ranged mechs dared to fire unscrupulously in this direction.

The risks of friendly fire were too great!

The ranged mechs of the Sundered Phalanx did not dare to provide fire support to the heavy mechs that were doing their best to prevent the breach from expanding.

The same applied to the Hex Army, the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan.

Reality was not like a game. Even within the MSTS, it was difficult for ranged mech pilots to support their comrades at the front once they got locked in combat against other melee mechs.

One of the greatest taboos on the battlefield was to harm oneʼs own comrades!

Even if it made a lot of tactical or strategic sense to indiscriminately bombard a battle line that was mixed with mechs from both sides, the soldiers in the field would never accept such a command!

However, there was one Larkinson mech legion where this rule didnʼt apply.

All the way back at the main fleet of the Larkinson Clan, many heavy artillery mechs stopped their attempts to suppress their enemy counterparts in the distance.

”The time to hide our fangs and conserve our resources has passed.” Commander Taon Melin instructed the pilots of the bunker mechs that had received a new objective. ”The Avatars have finally put down their insistence on trying to overcome the enemy by themselves. You already know what to do. Let Ylvaine guide your aim and do your best to grind down the energy shields of our targets. For the clan and for the Great Prophet!”

”For the clan and for the Great Prophet!”

The devout Ylvainan mech pilots, many of which had only converted to the faith a few years ago, all prayed to Prophet Ylvaine and received a response from their transcendent guide.

The third eyes of all of the heavy mechs that were safely sheltering inside the bunkers built into the hulls of different Larkinson starships all shone brightly as if they could pierce the truths that were previously obscured.

Each Ylvainan mech pilot gained a vastly improved sense of how they needed to configure their weapons and where they needed to aim.

While the gauss cannons of the Transcendent Punishers remained silent, the powerful heavy artillery mechs did not hesitate to fire powerful disruptor beams from their modern luminar crystal cannons!

Each energetic beam lanced across the battlefield from multiple angles and all converged to strike the Modal Firmaments, Favored Sons and Space Piercers that the Eye of Ylvaine had targeted!

With each machine getting struck at least a dozen times by the firepower of a heavy artillery mech, the affected Pima Defender mechs immediately experienced a lot more distress than before!

Previously, the attacks launched by the Avatar mechs steadily wore down the HiCap energy shields by a few percentages with each passing second.

This time, even the most well-off machine lost at least 30 percent of their total shield capacity due to all of the times they got hit by so many powerful disruptor beam attacks!

The firepower of a single Transcendent Punisher should not be underestimated. When 60 of them opened fire at the same handful of targets, the Pima Defender mechs simply couldnʼt hold out for long!

”Are these Larkinsons crazy?! How are these mech pilots so willing to trust their backs to their own artillery mechs?! Some of those energy beams just missed the mechs from their own side by just five meters!”

”Those Larkinson heavy artillery mechs canʼt be judged with common sense. Look at how many energy beams they fired already. Not a single time did they hit a friendly mech!”

The advantages of the Eye of Ylvaine were too great in this instance. The accurate and precise fire support from the Transcendent Punishers rapidly drained the HiCap energy shields that the Pima Defenders relied so much to hold their ground.

The unlucky Fridayman heavy mechs lost their energy shields so quickly that they didnʼt even have time to retreat to the rear!

”Hah, theyʼre not so brave anymore now that they have lost their fancy energy barriers! Press them hard and donʼt give them any room to retreat and recover their energy shields!”

Many Avatar mechs eagerly took advantage of the situation and dove in to disable and destroy the enemy mechs!

”The breach is widening! The Pima Defenders are no longer able to hold on as much anymore!”

This was a serious turn of events that could have wide implications for the rest of the battle.

It wasnʼt necessary to destroy the Pima Defenders entirely. As long as the Avatars successfully pushed the enemy heavy mechs back and prevented them from serving as the central anchor of the Sundered Phalanx forces, the attacking forces could quickly gain more advantages elsewhere along the battle lines!

It was at this time that the Sundered Phalanx committed stronger assets to the fight.

”Watch out! Their champions have emerged!”

Dozens of medium and heavy mechs of different designs and colorations surged forth from the rear of the enemy formation.

Each of them challenged the Avatar mechs that did the most work and showcased their great strength!

As Lanieʼs Lucid Rage just forced another Space Piercer to eject its cockpit, the Avatar mech quickly retreated and crossed its tonfas to fend off a charge from a more impressive looking Favored Son!

Lanie immediately noticed the difference between her current challenger and the other ones she fought.

As her Lucid Rage fought back and attempted to deprive the special Favored Son mech of its weapon, she found herself unable to do so as the enemy was way too astute to allow her moves to succeed.

”Finally, an expert candidate!” She grinned.

Despite the fact that she was squaring off against a superior mech pilot, Lanie exhibited no fear at all. Others might not have much confidence in their ability to defeat those that were one step away from undergoing apotheosis, but she was different!

”The difference between me and you is not as great as you think!”

The enemy mechʼs halberd continually poked and hacked at the Lucid Rage with considerably greater speed and force.

Lanie could already observe that the tonfas of her mech gained increasingly more scratches due to the difficulty of blocking her current opponentʼs attacks.

Though she had tried to drive her Lucid Rage closer to the powerful enemy machine, the enemy expert candidate never gave her a chance!

”Even if I canʼt beat you, I will lock you down!” Lanie vowed as she concentrated her all to this dangerous duel!