The Mech Touch

Two out of three duels concluded in a satisfying manner.

Saint Dise Larkinson secured the most astonishing result.

After many years of struggle, she finally discovered her incredible potential as a manipulator of the metal element, and activated it in such a spectacular fashion that she immediately rammed through her bottleneck and broke through!

The power she displayed and the realization of the might she always dreamt of harnessing in her duel against the Muscular Swordsman convinced everyone that she deserved to attain her sainthood. Best of all, her breakthrough took place in fairly benign circumstances, so the probability that she had become distorted due to an extreme outburst of negative thoughts and emotions were practically nil!

All of this meant that Saint Dise was likely to retain the same degree of stability and reliability as she exhibited during her expert pilot days.

The same could not be said for the likes of Saint Commander Casella Ingvar and Saint Isobel Kotin. Both of them broke through under abnormal circumstances that concerned the higher ups very much.

The Larkinsons paid care and attention towards their only Saint Commander in particular.

No one had forgotten that her cherished brother, Venerable Imon Ingvar, died during an escapade gone wrong.

Even if General Ark Larkinson managed to avoid any blame due to the death of a vital asset under his command, Casella Ingvar was too compromised on this sordid issue and could not accept this objective verdict!

There was bad blood between the two extraordinary mech commanders. It would have been best if the two were placed as far apart as possible, but the needs of red humanity trumped these personal grievances.

The unsympathetic and overworked military strategists that were responsible for propping up the frontlines carelessly assigned the expeditionary fleet of the Golden Skull Alliance and the 77th Warborn Mech Division to the same star system!

Perhaps in the eyes of the Red Three, the Warborn fielded a lot of mech pilots that originally hailed from the Larkinson Clan and Cross Clan.

Since that was the case, they should naturally perform better when fighting alongside their compatriots in the expeditionary fleet!

That logic should have worked under ordinary times, but because of the unsolvable tension between Saint Commander Casella and General Ark, the two mech forces simply chose to request

Assignments that put them at least one light-minute away from each other at all times.

That worked, more or less. Saint Commander Casella meticulously fulfilled her duties without complaint. She did not show any sign of abnormality towards the apparent presence of the Warborn in the Viola Magnifica System.

However, many Larkinsons secretly questioned whether the ace commander would remain this way when the native aliens conducted their next large assault.

Once the battlefield became engulfed in chaos, would the Saint Commander truly remain

Well-behaved when the battle lines became compressed and the man who failed to take good care of her brother entered her reach?

Nobody could say for certain!

Ace pilots might appear just as human as a random person on the street, but had already crossed the halfway mark towards their journey to godhood.

They had already shed many aspects of their mortality that previously made them weak and vulnerable.

Yet were all traits that supposedly decreased their combat effectiveness truly negative?

The reduction or complete absence of human expressions such as fear, doubt and hesitation had made ace pilots a lot more decisive and fearless.

That was good if they had to hold the line against powerful adversaries, but the side effect was that it also made them more prone to taking radical actions that fell outside of the scope of their objectives!

This was the risk that came with handling high-ranking mech pilots that managed to break through under less desirable circumstances.

In any case, the Larkinson Clan did not have to worry about this risk factor when dealing with Saint Dise.

She was an honorable warrior.

Her conviction was upright and noble.

She had always prized her self-control.

A proper transition from an expert pilot to an ace pilot should not undermine these positive traits, but reinforce them instead.

Saint Dise should be moving closer and closer to the ideal swordswoman that she had always aspired to become!

Under the halo of her unexpected but undeniably breakthrough, the success of Saint Linda Cross became a lot less remarkable.

Unlike Dise who clearly overperformed in the most dramatic way possible, Saint Linda Cross merely met everyone's expectations.

Even if she was a fresh ace pilot who broke through relatively recently and had yet to prove her mettle in a serious battle, an ace pilot who had already stabilized her new condition was still a combatant that far exceeded the combat capabilities of an expert pilot in every way!

Their strength was not only higher, but their ability to adapt to adverse circumstances was considerably better.

Situations that stumped expert pilots would not faze ace pilots because the latter possessed a lot. more ways to express their power.

Although not even Ketis expected for Saint Linda Cross to take up her old arms again.

The Amphis Extremis resembled a gladiator as the ace mech had forgone its shield in favor of dual-wielding two chained weapons!

This combination proved too much for the Elegant Swordsman, whose flowing movements and creative attack angles got stifled by the extended and versatile reach of the Amphis Extremis!

That meant that the protectors that stood up for Ketis successfully managed to pass two out of three tests.

The Heavensword, which used to be held in the hands of the Elegant Swordsman, flew free again. The enlarged relic weapon did not make any drastic moves. It merely retracted the heavenly energies that previously comprised the Elegant Swordsman and the Muscular Swordsman before remaining in waiting.

The Heavensword did not make any further action against the Amphis Extremis and the First Sword. This was fortunate since the latter had to withdraw from the field in order for Saint Dise to recover from her breakthrough and give her the rest she deserved.

When Ketis studied the Heavensword from another live feed, she couldn't tell what it was thinking, but she could make a few guesses based on her observations.

The Heavensword was probably the most satisfied with Saint Dise. She was the closest thing to a true swordswoman among the mech pilots.

Over the course of her struggle, she had stepped up by imitating the Muscular Swordsman's method of harnessing the power of an element to augment his swordsmanship and open up new possibilities of attack and defense.

In other words, Saint Dise successfully vanquished her opponent by inheriting the swordsmanship principles 'taught' by the Heavensword!

Even if Dise only copied the principles and did not absorb anything else from the ancient sword cultivation legacy on display, this was already enough.

She could be regarded as a successful graduate of the Heavensword.

The performance of Saint Linda Cross was merely satisfactory. She was not a true swordswoman and never pretended to be one. While she recognized the value of a sword and relied on one to pass her test, she did not imitate the methods of her opponent to do so, but stuck to her own distinct fighting

Style.

This satisfied the Heavensword's basic condition of strength. Saint Linda proved with her deeds that she was not weak, and that was enough to earn the weapon's begrudging approval.

There was only one duel that remained unresolved.

Everyone's attention soon shifted to the last protector, and became disappointed at what they saw.

It was not that Venerable Joshua was doing particularly badly. His Everchanger still remained pristine for the most part as the high-tier expert pilot readily took advantage of his ability to regenerate his machine to keep his battle partner in good physical condition.

Yet all of this regeneration gradually exhausted his willpower and began to give him a headache. So far, Joshua had managed to adapt to his adversary's rhythm. He even began to employ his mech's Heartsword to block a few of the piercing strikes launched by the incredibly swift and elusive Teenage Swordswoman, but that was the most he managed to accomplish.

The only energy manifestation remaining in action still stuck to her current strategy engaging in

Hit-and-run attacks.

The Teenage Swordswoman moved like a gust of wind. Her lithe robe form rapidly blurred forward and easily managed to predict and circle around the Everchanger's hasty guard before poking the tip of the copy of the Heavensword into a rear armor panel!

By the time the Everchanger turned around to launch a hastily counterattack, the Teenage

Swordswoman had already flown out of reach!

This pattern had repeated so many times that everyone had grown numb at the sight.

"Joshua..." Ketis grew mixed after observing the remaining fight.

She felt disappointed, angry and concerned at her husband. She knew him well, so she understood

That he must be feeling incredibly frustrated at his continued ineptitude.

He was fighting for more than his own pride! He was also fighting to preserve Ketis' future!

It was the husband's duty to protect his wife. Failing in this task meant that he was too weak to keep

His family safe.

Joshua did not want this to happen!

If possible, he wanted to beat the Teenage Swordswoman by breaking through like Dise.

This was easier said than done.

There was a difference between his situation and that of Dise.

The latter possessed hidden potential that she easily managed to unlock after realizing her

Shortcoming.

The former may or may not possess untapped potential of his own, but he lacked the means to draw

It out in this difficult circumstance.

Joshua already harnessed the power of life, or else he wouldn't have been able to regenerate his

Machine.

There may be other aspects about life that he had yet to explore, but he did not think he had overlooked anything big like Dise.

Venerable Joshua realized that he would not be able to trigger his breakthrough by copying her

Homework.

"This damn Heavensword is too biased towards swordsmanship! Why can't you give me a break and allow my luminar crystal rifle to inflict actual damage for once?!"

His complaint may be valid, but the Heavensword never had an obligation to be fair.

The fact of the matter was that Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger were particularly unsuited to

Overcome the Heavensword's challenge.

Joshua still tried, though.

He tried to evoke the power of different design spirits. He switched from channeling Trisk to

Channeling the Golden Cat, Qilanxo, Zeigra, the Illustrious One, Lufa, Ylvaine, Gaia and even the

Superior Mother!

Yet none of the advantages granted by this diverse collection of design spirits brought the expert pilot any closer to victory.

In fact, the Everchanger incurred even more damage, as the loss of mobility due to disengaging from

Trisk was too significant!

Ketis was pretty clear why Venerable Joshua ultimately failed to measure up like Saint Dise.

"Your fundamentals are too poor. She sighed.

His swordsmanship was good, but he fell short of the standards of a genuine weapon master.

His versatility was his strength, but it was not omnipotent enough to allow him to respond to any

Situation.

His state of mind remained susceptible to setbacks, which meant that his willpower was not yet up to

The standard of an ace pilot.

All in all Toshna was simply not ready at this time.

Perhaps his lack of success could be attributed to the underperformance of his outdated expert

Mech, but this excuse clearly did not apply to Saint Dise!

As the one-sided beating continued to drag on for a few more minutes, the Teenage Swordswoman

Completed her final attack run before her entire form lost definition.

The heavenly energies that made up her shape dispersed before flowing back to their source.

The Everchanger froze in space. Venerable Joshua breathed heavily as he tried to puzzle out why the

Teenage Swordswoman had disappeared.

"What... what happened, Ketis?"

"My guess is... the Heavensword has run out of patience. The swordmaster voiced her guess based

On her own feelings towards her husband. "You failed the test. There is no point in giving you any further opportunities when you have no chance of overcoming this challenge"

Joshua became devastated as his failure began to settle in his mind.

There was nothing much that Ketis could do for him at the moment. She had greater concerns to

Deal with at this time!

Now that only two out of three protectors satisfied the Heavensword's demands, how would the

Sentient artifact evaluate the outcome of this exercise? Would the ancient weapon become satisfied that Ketis at least had two dependable guardians, or would it consider Ketis to be weak for entrusting her safety to the wrong champion?

Nobody could predict how the Heavensword would judge the results! There was too little data on its personality, its behavioral characteristics and its values! The Heavensword could have made everyone's lives a lot easier if it bothered to communicate directly with humans rather than leave everyone guessing with its bizarre actions and decisions. "What will you do next?" Ketis frowned in concern.

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