The Mech Touch

Ketis continued to observe the Heavensword's energy projections fight.

It was amazing to think that a single object could instantly generate mech-sized combatants that could give ace mechs and expert mechs a serious challenge.

Such an object was already valuable enough when used as a protective talisman!

As long as the Heavensword was willing, it could act as a bodyguard for anyone who did not possess fighting abilities!

Ketis did not think that the Heavensword would condescend to allowing itself to be carried by a weak and defenseless civilian.

Its refusal to allow itself to be wielded by the likes of Legion Commander Charles Antunovic and Director Fred Walinski sent a very obvious signal.

To be honest, Ketis felt she did not possess the qualifications to wield the Heavensword either.

This was a grand work that was comparable to a god mech in quality.

In fact, Ketis believed that the Heavensword slightly surpassed the scope of god mechs. Many amazing relics of ancient times had decayed and became lost in the annals of history, yet the Heavensword was still able to maintain basic operations in a barren environment like the Milky Way for cons.

Ketis had no idea. It depended on whether the machine could be separated from the man, and what actually happened if a god pilot ever died.

Grand works were way too high-end for a Journeyman Mech Designer to consider making herself.

She even believed that a swordmaster such as herself did not deserve to wield the Heavensword either.

Not even sword saints appeared to be a good match with the relic weapon. The disparity in strength and capabilities between the two were far too great.

Only a sword god could fully master the Heavensword and bring out all of its immense hidden potential.

Ketis would really prefer it if the Heavensword stopped bothering her and go find a worthy wielder among god pilots or other swordmasters.

Alas, the ancient sword was difficult to please. It had very distinct tastes. It appeared to dislike any sort of mech pilot regardless of whether they specialized in swordsmanship. As for swordmasters, the Heavensword did not take notice of Fred Walinski or the other swordmasters that immigrated to the new frontier on their own initiative.

The community of swordmasters was not that big in the Red Ocean. Ketis had talked to them a few times. While they were older than her for the most part, nobody could say for sure who among them was the strongest.

That was because swordmasters lacked a systematic roadmap that could allow them to become sword saints.

This was also why none of these swordmasters stood out. They originated from the Heavensword Association which gave them a structure to become swordmasters, but also imparted them with many preconceived notions.

If the Heavensword wanted to enact change, then it may find Ketis to be a lot more attractive than the other sword idiots.

Unlike these brutes who rarely bothered with normal schooling and just practiced their swordsmanship during their youth and adolescent years, Ketis was vastly more intelligent and educated.

Sure, her education was anything but conventional, but that could be considered an advantage as she hadn't been instilled with rigid sensibilities that only served to narrow her vision.

Perhaps that was what drew the Heavensword to Ketis the most. Not only did she possess the strength of a swordmaster and the intelligence of a mech designer, she also possessed a vision that had not been influenced by modern civilized principles!

The behavior exhibited by the Heavensword thus far showed little respect for the norms and values that most humans took for granted.

It was an artifact that originated from a mythical age in the distant past. Customs were probably a lot rougher and more brutal at the time. If the Heavensword kept pestering her despite her attempts to keep it away, then Ketis needed to understand how it thought in order to wrangle it successfully.

"Ugh, these ancient relics are such a bother. Can't they just stay buried like the rest of the era they came from?" The swordmaster resentfully grumbled.

She began to pay more attention to the three duels. While Saint Linda Cross was beginning to hold her own while Venerable Joshua Larkinson continually failed to catch the Teenage Swordswoman, Venerable Dise experienced her own difficulties.

Her challenge was different from the others.

As a genuine swordsman mech pilot, Dise had skill and experience in spades. Her First Sword exuded a confident and eager attitude as she swung the Decapitator.

Unlike Joshua, Dise relied entirely on her swordsmanship to make it to this point. She had never made use of any gimmicks such as the ability to regenerate the damage onto her mech or borrow the power of another design spirit.

She almost embodied the model of a traditional swordmaster, even to the point of developing a close relationship with her weapon of choice, which in this case came in

The form of a mech!

Unlike Venerable Joshua who felt much more constrained while piloting an outdated expert hero mech, Venerable Dise acknowledged the shortcomings of her own aged expert swordsman mech and simply tried to make the best out of her situation.

As a Swordmaiden that had gone on hunts in the past where she pitted her own fragile human body against the savage exobeasts that populated the untamed planets spread throughout the cosmos, Dise had continually managed to defeat powerful creatures despite possessing a fraction of their strength!

This was what Venerable Dise excelled at. Every high-ranking mech pilot of the Larkinson Clan had their own merits that elevated their strength and value above the

Norm.

In the case of the Swordmaiden expert pilot, Dise always believed that her excellent fighting and swordsmanship skills allowed her to defeat the strong while she was objectively weaker!

If the disparity in hard power wasn't so gigantic, her First Sword would have sought out an enemy phase lord!

In any case, unless the enemy was especially tricky to fight against, Venerable Dise did not fear any duels against adversaries that were weaker or of equal strength than herself! She was incredibly confident that she would be able to win these bouts at least 9 out of

10 times!

Yet when her First Sword started to get pushed back time and time again by the energy projection designated as the 'Muscular Swordsman', she couldn't help but question that

Arrogant assumption.

Her spar against an opponent that the Heavensword had likely selected and reproduced with care brutally taught her that exquisite swordsmanship alone was not enough to gain an advantage in a serious sword duel.

This became evident whenever the First Sword blocked the Muscular Swordsman's

Attacks.

The expert mech continually got pushed back due to the disparity in strength!

There was a huge difference between the physical power of the two! There were times when the First Sword outright failed to block an incoming sword strike and managed to get her Unending alloy plating cut and damaged as a result!

Venerable Dise initially did not understand why a one-handed weapon like the Heavensword became light, fast, swift or elegant in the hands of the other two energy projections, but turned into a crude cutting implement in the hands of the Muscular

Swordsman!

Just like his primitive leather hunter's outfit suggested, the Muscular Swordsman possessed no grace in his nonexistent bones.

His maneuvering was straightforward. He only ever moved forward and backwards. Most

Of the time, he pressed forward as if he was constantly stuck in attack mode.

"Has he lost his mind?!"

There was a method to his madness. His unrelenting aggression combined with his awful

Tendency to doggedly stick to his target at all times stifled the First Sword's ability to

Counterattack.

If he ever took a step back, I was because he needed moment to recover or because. he was preparing for an even more devastating strike.

Otherwise, he remained committed to offense no matter how much he put his large and

Muscular body at risk!

What Venerable Dise found even crazier was that the Muscular Swordsman rarely

Bothered to evade attacks!

He instead preferred to let the First Sword's strike go through in favor of chopping the

Heavensword with great force!

"This madman!"

This exchange always made the First Sword worse off! Every weapon swing from the Muscular Swordsman struck with great force and inflicted more than simple cutting

Damage.

The Muscular Swordsman may look and act like a brute with no subtlety in his body, but

That did not mean he was an imbecile.

"This is a master of the earth!"

The man possessed a surprisingly effective grasp on the earth element.

One of the ways he applied this advantage was to surround the Heavensword with a thicker and substantially longer application of heavenly energy that was strongly biased towards his favored E energy attribute!

The Heavensword effectively transformed into a substantially different sword as a result. The Muscular Swordsman comfortably held the enlarged hilt with both of his thick arms and was able to hack down the blade as if he was swinging down a heavy club! Since the earth-aspected Heavensword crushed down with much greater force than usual, the First Sword acquired a growing collection of cuts as well as shattered pieces of

Armor plating.

The internal components of the expert swordsman mech incurred damage as well as the powerful kinetic blows badly rattled the closest sections of the mech frame.

In contrast to the Muscular Swordsman's undeniably effective power attacks, the exquisite and well-executed offensive sword attacks failed to inflict any immediate wounds onto the energy projection!

In multiple cases, just before the Decapitator managed to strike the 'body' of the

Muscular Swordsman, encountered a hindrance in the form of a rocky layer of armor!

No matter what angle the First Sword managed to strike the Muscular Swordsman, the latter always found a way to conjure up a layer of metal and position it over the right limb or body part to block any attack!

Although Venerable Dise understood that her attacks were not completely useless and that every blocking attempt drained the Muscular Swordsman's energy a bit further, the latter appeared to possess an abundance of energy!

Not only were his defenses tough, his endurance was probably good as well! The Muscular Swordsman's reckless and linear fighting style made complete sense after taking this crucial factor into account.

The man fought like a berserker, knowing that most of his adversaries were unable to

Outlast him after getting locked in a mutual exchange of blows.

With superior defenses along with an earth-empowered Heavensword that struck like a gigantic club that just happened to have a sharp edge, few combatants of the same level would dare to stand in front of such a beast!

"If that is not enough, my First Sword can't even take advantage of her superior mobility." Venerable Dise discovered.

For all of the strengths of the Muscular Swordsman, his mobility was much worse in comparison. He simply could not keep up with the First Sword in terms of speed and

Maneuverability.

This gave Venerable Dise a chance to outfight the Muscular Swordsman by relying on

Her expert mech's superior mobility.

Yet when she actually tried to change her strategy, the Muscular Swordsman refused to

Let the First Sword fly away with impunity!

The energy manifestation raised his energy-covered Heavensword with both of his hands and began to leverage another aspect of the earth element!

A thick and heavy energy field came to life that was saturated with the earth element!

Amplified by high-grad heavenly energy, the earth field produced a myriad amount of effects that hindered the First Sword from distancing itself from the source!

The pulling gravity field, the circular vortex distortion and other effects slowed down the First Sword's attempt to disengage from the Muscular Swordsman!

The living mech slowed down to such an extent that the somewhat decent forward acceleration rate of the Muscular Swordsman could easily catch up to his chosen prey. The First Sword hastily put up a defense, but the much better prepared Muscular Swordsman was able to convert his charge into a chopping attack that was unblockable with the First Sword's current strength!

The Larkinson expert mech suffered another nasty cut to one of its shoulder plates.

Precious Unending alloy got cut or fractured with many pieces spreading across space.

If the Muscular Swordsman kept bashing its copy of the Heavensword like this onto the

First Sword, then almost all of her Unending alloy may end up getting lost by the end of this bout!

"This swordsman... is overpowering all of my tactics and basic sword moves!"

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