Chapter 6065 Am I Not As Good As I Thought?
The Mech Touch
Chapter 6065 Am I Not As Good As I Thought?
The Elegant Rage gained new life after she had obtained a new weapon.
The Heartsword may be the least fanciest weapon in the Everchanger's arsenal, but that did not change the fact that it was far tougher and sharper than practically any other blade wielded by a standard mech!
It was a disproportionately powerful weapon when wielded by a standard mech. Lanie completely forgot about her custom mech's tonfas and eagerly began to revive all of the swordsmanship skills that she had accumulated and 'inherited' in the past!
The Heartsword was explicitly designed as a handy alloy sword that was meant to be wielded by a single hand.
Unlike the long and massive greatswords wielded by many Swordmaiden mechs, the Heartsword's mass and length was not particularly high.
The Elegant Rage possessed enough physical power to cut through one wooden mech with the Heartsword, but it was a lot more difficult to cleave through other enemies with the same blow.
This was not a failure on the part of the Heartsword. It was already a sharp weapon on its own, and the true resonance imbued by Venerable Joshua directly enhanced this trait.
However, now that the Heartsword had left the Everchanger's hand, the weapon was not able to maintain a solid connection to Joshua's willpower. The empowerment from true resonance had become feebler as it needed to last for the remainder of the engagement.
This forced Lanie to make adaptations to her combat approach.
Her Elegant Rage began to maneuver more violently in the air. Only by building up momentum was she able to generate the greater forces required to cut through multiple wooden mechs at once.
Though Lanie did not have much practice with wielding such a powerful weapon with limited reach with two hands, she applied all of her relevant skills and adapted them according to the situation.
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Holding the weapon with two hands also allowed the melee mech to maintain a firmer grip on the Heartsword. Lanie did not dare to wield the Heartsword with a single arm. Her mech had become a weak point at this time.
It was very much possible for the expert mech-grade weapon to slip out of Elegant Rage's grasp if it was only held with a single hand!
Though Lanie did not have much practice with wielding such a powerful weapon with limited reach with two hands, she applied all of her relevant skills and adapted them according to the situation.
Her melee mech's killing efficiency steadily rose while also getting hit much less in return. The living mech regained some of the elegance that characterized her performance in previous battles.
"Ma-aow!"
A spiritual Burmese cat helped Lanie improve her control over her mech and borrowed weapon by inhabiting the Elegant Rage.
Kelly usually occupied one of the tonfas in order to give the expert candidate greater control over the weapon, but the companion spirit did not dare to get too close to the Heartsword.
Venerable Joshua's lingering willpower was so strong that Kelly would most definitely suffer a heavy blow if she came too close!
The cat only dared to inhabit one of the arms of the Elegant Rage, but that was already enough to subtly improve Lanie's killing efficiency.
Broken wooden mechs continued to fall from the air as the enhanced melee mech went on a rampage.
The sword-wielding machine even found opportunities to clear out the wooden mechs that swarmed the Zeal from above and the sides!
The Zeal may have gained a reprieve, but the danger to the heavy artillery mech had not yet passed!
A lot of wooden ranged mechs had deployed in the field. Now that their melee counterparts no longer blocked their firing lines, a multitude of seed volleys struck the Zeal's heavily strained azure energy shield.
Each of them possessed many different cannon configurations, but the most outrageous variation was the one that looked like a close copy of the Zeal!
Not only were they mounted with four relatively standard seed cannons, they also bore an oversized version that looked like a wooden imitation of the Devora Cannon!
The wooden imitations of the Transcendent Punisher Mark III were particularly threatening!
Each of them possessed many different cannon configurations, but the most outrageous variation was the one that looked like a close copy of the Zeal!
Not only were they mounted with four relatively standard seed cannons, they also bore an oversized version that looked like a wooden imitation of the Devora Cannon!
Fortunately, the Emperor Tree might be able to replicate the size and shape of the Devora Cannon, but it was completely unable to replicate the principles of electromagnetism and phasewater technology.
Aside from launching oversized seeds that dealt a bit more kinetic damage than usual, the wooden imitations of the Transcendent Punisher Mark III was not even close as threatening as an actual quasi-first-class mech.
Even so, the Emperor Tree had spawned over 60 of them, indicating that it had invested a lot of resources to create this batch!
More wooden heavy artillery mechs continued to drop from the upper canopy and landed straight onto the ground where they took root and bombarded the Zeal from below.
The implications of that possibility did not bode well for Taon!
Even if the Emperor Tree did nothing else but slightly nudge his aim off, that was already enough to prevent the Devora Cannon from achieving anything meaningful.
"I am not incompetent! I can do better than this! I have struck far more difficult targets in the past!"
Was that truly the case?
Taon may have been in control of the mech, but it had always been Ylvaine helping him finetune his aim.
It was impossible for Taon to deny the indispensable aid provided by the design spirit.
If he did so, he would not only be lying to himself, but also discounting the power of the Great Prophet!
Neither of these two consequences were acceptable to Taon, so he had no other choice but to consider two possibilities.
Either his mind was too weak to resist the Emperor Tree's manipulation, or his skills were not as good as he thought.
Perhaps both might be true at the same time!
As Taon was met with repeated failure, he began to suspect that he was failing all-around.
So what if he was an expert candidate? Taon felt as if he was barely better than a typical mech pilot. He was still too far away from acquiring the qualities of a genuine expert pilot.
Despair began to overtake his mind.
Just as Taon was able to sink into a pit of darkness, a light shone from above.
A familiar presence appeared when Taon yearned for it the most. His mood rose as he began to sense a familiar source of guidance!
He even began to regress by pleading for help from Ylvaine!
"Where are you, my prophet? Please give a sign to this lost lamb."
"TAON! GET YOUR MIND TOGETHER! FOCUS ON THE MISSION, NOT YOUR MISERY!"
Though the Zeal tried his best to shake Taon from his growing depression, the expert candidate was deaf to these pleas!
Just as Taon was able to sink into a pit of darkness, a light shone from above.
A familiar presence appeared when Taon yearned for it the most. His mood rose as he began to sense a familiar source of guidance!
Even though it was much weaker and less responsive than before, Taon had worked with Ylvaine often enough to recognize his glow!
"Hahaha! You have not forsaken me! I knew it! You have never left me! You were always there, but I was never able to hear your guidance before! The only way for me to hear you across every barrier was to have more faith and zeal than anyone else!"
Taon grasped at the fleeting connection to Ylvaine like a man possessed. He hungrily devoured the scattered guidance from the Great Prophet and quickly adjusted the parameters of the targeting system of the Devora Cannon.
The heavy artillery mech's Devora Cannon aimed at the Emperor Tree with a much stronger intensity than before.
Taon became so enraptured by his own piety that he had narrowed his focus to the point of drowning out nearly everything else aside from his controls and the mystical guidance from above.
When the Great Prophet finally told him to pull the trigger, the expert candidate did so without hesitation!
BOOOOM!
The impact noise was much different than before!
Just as Taon saw that his mech's attack had finally managed to sever one of the Emperor Tree's branches, a powerful shock went through his mind!
His vision and perception of the environment shifted as he was met with a different reality from before!
"This..."
"TAAAAAOOON!" Venerable Joshua roared as his Everchanger literally glowed with rage! "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! HOW COULD YOU HAVE STRUCK THE ELEGANT RAGE IN THE BACK?!"
"What?!" Taon couldn't believe what he just heard! "No! I didn't!"
"YOU HAVE JUST SNEAK ATTACKED YOUR OWN CLANSMAN!"