The Mech Touch

Patriarch Reginald Cross had no idea how the Neo Amadeus was able to toss its swords with so much power while also retaining a strong degree of control over them. He truly had no clue how the designers of the Gauger ace mech made all of this possible.

It didnʼt matter, though. There was no need to think too deeply about the science and engineering behind the mech of his opponent. All Reginald needed to do was to beat his enemyʼs measures!

Both sides still maintained a fairly cautious and serious attitude towards each other. A battle between ace pilots and ace mechs was often equated to a long and difficult war campaign.

Even the smallest differences could magnify into major advantages or disadvantages, so the two ace pilots had to make sure to be as efficient and effective with how they spent their resources.

Previously, Patriarch Reginald gained a small advantage.

When the Penitent Sisters and the Glory Seekers sought to poke the mechs of the Sundered Phalanx with a giant death fork, Saint Jeremiah Gauge had no choice but to take action first.

Battle formation attacks were strong, but their power was incomparable to the strength of an ace mech in the field.

This was why Reginald never took them seriously. Tricks like these no longer worked in front of absolute strength!

Though Saint Jeremiah managed to block all three death wave attacks, it still took quite a bit of effort to disperse the battle formation attacks. This not only exposed a part of the capabilities of the Neo Amadeus, but also forced its ace pilot to expend a bit of resources before his fated duel.

These relatively minor differences might end up giving Reginald a huge advantage later on in the fight!

His confidence had grown as a result. Though Reginald did not despise his opponentʼs sword tossing moves, there was no particular reason why he should fear them either.

He had several different ways to repel the incoming sword.

Since he had chosen to deploy into battle while equipping his Mars with a pair of shoulder-mounted gauss cannons, Reginald chose to fire them at the incoming threat.

While these modular gauss cannons were merely secondary armaments to the Mars, their firepower was much greater than the shoulder-mounted weapons of expert mechs such as the Point Break and the Shockshell.

The twin impacts considerably weakened the advancing sword, but did not stop it in its tracks.

The weapon continued to advance towards the Mars and quickly crossed into its targetʼs Saint Kingdom.

The strong suppression from Patriarch Reginaldʼs domineering willpower heavily impacted the sword, but Jeremiahʼs willpower happened to be stronger and more condensed!

Ultimately, the Mars had to block the incoming sword with its transphasic axe.

Though Patriarch Reginald attempted to capture the weapon in order to deprive the Neo Amadeus of a powerful tool, the sword had already bounced away and somehow accelerated straight back towards its owner!

”Strange.” Reginald frowned.

He did not expect to succeed as the Neo Amadeus would have never send out its valuable weapon on a one-way trip.

However, the way the sword resisted his domain field and defeated his attempts to capture it was odd. Reginald mentally raised the threat level of his opponentʼs sword.

The two ace mechs continued to probe each other with cautious attacks. Neither ace pilots showed much haste even though the main battle taking place below had picked up again.

The Mars lightly exercised its ARCEUS System as Patriarch Reginald used the energy beam attacks to understand his opponentʼs Saint Kingdom and gain a better understanding of the defensive measures of the opposing ace mech.

The Neo Amadeus tossed its three primary weapons in different combinations and patterns. Each of its swords possessed different properties and affected the Mars in different ways.

Reginald eventually confirmed that the Neo Amadeus indeed had a transphasic sword and a plasma sword at its disposal.

It was the third sword that initially gave Reginald an unexpected surprise.

Though the third sword did not possess the penetration power of the transphasic sword or the melting capacity of the plasma sword, it was still absurdly effective at resisting and cutting through the Marsʼ domain field!

Patriarch Reginald actually found the third sword to be the most uncomfortable to deal with. It felt as if the weapon was completely unassailable to his will.

He didnʼt like that. Everything and everyone should submit to him. He had come here to defeat the Neo Amadeus and force Jeremiah Gauge to his knees.

How could Reginald accomplish his goal when he couldnʼt show a single sword who was in charge?

”Benedict.” The Cross Patriarch spoke up. ”What is this sword and why is it so weird?”

”If I am not mistaken… it is likely to be a rare but powerful anti-resonance sword.” The Master replied. ”This means that the weapon is made out of extremely expensive alloys that inherently resists the effects of resonance.”

”Something like that can exist?”

”The mech industry is far more diverse than you think. We havenʼt even scratched the surface of all of the technologies that have emerged throughout the generations.”

”If this sword is able to resist every form of resonance, then why is Jerry able to maintain control over it?” Reginald puzzlingly asked.

”I have heard that there are special proprietary processes that can make a permanent exception to the swordʼs effect for a single powerful mech pilot. The anti-resonance sword is essentially keyed to Saint Jeremiah Gauge.”

As Master Benedict revealed what he knew about anti-resonance weapons over the communication channel, Ves abruptly jerked in his seat!

”Meow?” Lucky shifted from his position on the armrest and curiously gazed upwards.

”Donʼt you think this anti-resonance alloy sounds familiar, Lucky?”

”Meow…”

”Itʼs your favorite laxative! Itʼs been years since you last used the kitty litter box. Iʼve been meaning to feed you a chunk of B-stone, but I have so little of it left that I canʼt bear to lose any more of it. If this anti-resonance alloy works the way I think it does, I may have found a more readily available substitute to B-stone!”

”MEOW!”

In fact, the anti-resonance alloy employed by the Neo Amadeus was probably much superior in terms of hardness. The Gauger mech designers wouldnʼt have used it to make a sword if the material was not able to keep up in battles between ace mechs.

Though Ves already suspected that anti-resonance alloys were products of high technology and therefore incredibly expensive and difficult to get ahold of, he was willing to do almost anything to obtain this material!

This was because it could likely offer him superior protection against spiritual threats!

As Ves added anti-resonance alloy to his wishlist, the two ace pilots were finally done with probing each other.

The main reason why they started out slow was because neither of them were completely certain whether their opponent was within their ability to defeat.

There was a huge variety of ace mechs. The differences in power between the weakest and strongest ones was immense, so the pilots had to make sure they did not get into a fight where their chances of victory was virtually zero!

Fortunately, neither Reginald nor Jeremiah found that their opponents were unreasonable. Though there were definitely differences between the two, they were well within reasonable ranges.

Two of the swords of the Neo Amadeus automatically entered their holsters. The ace mech took hold of its transphasic sword and began to accumulate power.

The Mars on the other hand gripped its transphasic axe and shotgun tighter. The ace mech also shunted more energy towards the ARCEUS System in preparation to make heavier use of its integrated weapon systems.

”Theyʼre getting serious now.” Master Benedict judged.

Eventually, the Neo Amadeus moved first! It exploded into action as its transphasic flight system accelerated it forward at a much more impressive pace than ace mechs of the previous generation!

The Mars also moved an instant later.

Naturally, it did not choose to meet up with the Neo Amadeus. The Crosser ace mech instead flew in the other direction as it sought to stay as far away from its opponent as possible!

Both ace mechs traversed so quickly in space that they resembled comets at this time!

Most ordinary sensor systems didnʼt even possess the capabilities to observe them effectively. Only higher-end sensors were able to provide solid views of the two ace mechs, much to the disappointment of many onlookers.

However, it didnʼt take premium military-grade sensors to figure out that the pursued was faster than the pursuer!

The Marsʼ Pulsvar V-1 transphasic flight system did not necessarily incorporate superior tech, but its material composition was definitely more luxurious!

It not only incorporated a bit more phasewater than the flight system of the opposing ace mech, but was also made out of other superior materials!

The cost of equipping the Mars with a more luxurious transphasic flight system was great, but the Cross Clan did not hesitate to invest this much in order to produce this kind of circumstance!

”As long as the Mars is able to outpace the Neo Amadeus, it can steadily wear down the ace swordsman mechʼs defenses!”

Patriarch Reginald did not hold back the incredible firepower of his ace mech anymore. The Magma Vein System augmented by the Endex System supplied an abundance of energy to the ARCEUS System, allowing the Mars to fire resonance-empowered laser beams with incredible power!

Each of the laser beams struck at the speed of light, making it extremely difficult for the swift and agile Neo Amadeus to evade the attacks.

Saint Jeremiah Gauge had little choice but to weaken the incoming laser beams by exerting his domain field to weaken them as they passed.

After that, the Neo Amadeus resolved the remaining power of the attacks by blocking them with the flat of its blade or the transphasic armor of his ace mech.

The flood of laser beam attacks did not deal any apparent damage to the Neo Amadeus, but it would be a horrible mistake to think that the Gauger ace mech could shrug off the blows without paying a price.

Under the current circumstances, each serious attack launched by the ARCEUS System was enough to punch through the titan shields of space stations and important city districts!

The firepower of the ARCEUS System could easily cripple dozens of combat carriers or partially hollow out a capital ship in a matter of minutes!

This was the reason why the mech community often repeated the phrase that the only way to defeat an ace mech was another ace mech.

As long as Jeremiah Gauge was able to maintain his Saint Kingdom, practically every attack launched by the Mars lost at least half of their effective firepower! It was a lot easier to block whatever was left at the end.

Though it looked as if the Mars was squandering a large amount of energy and other resources while getting little done in return, Patriarch Reginald knew better.

Energy management and energy supply were the greatest advantages of his Mars. His control over his living mech was so great that he could feel how much his exceptional machine sustain the current intensity of attacks.

Reginald was extremely confident that the Mars would definitely be able to outlast the Neo Amadeus!

Perhaps Saint Jeremiah made the same realization, because he no longer maintained the current status quo.

It was true that the Neo Amadeus was not as fast as the Mars due to possessing an inferior transphasic flight system, but fortunately the designers of the ace swordsman mech developed an extra solution to address scenarios like these.

The Neo Amadeus extended its transphasic sword forward. When Saint Jeremiah began to resonate with the weapon in a specific way, it began to glow and affect the surrounding space!

Many observers grew surprised as the activated transphasic sword seemed to cut through a part of the fabric of space, causing a brief warp tunnel to take shape behind the advancing weapon.

When the Neo Amadeus became enveloped by this strange warp tunnel, its speed abruptly increased by at least 20 percent, which was enough of a difference for the ace swordsman mech to catch up to its prey!

”How can this be possible?!” Ves reacted with shock. ”Ace mechs are too ridiculous!”

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