The Mech Touch

The elite Phaser fish-whales still had a lot of fight left in them! Despite having expended a lot of their energy on repelling the Swarmer invasion, they still had more than enough reserves left to fight against the plunderers that had stolen all of their phasewater.

To them, the fight wasn't solely about rescuing the Phase Kingdom or restoring the Phase King's prestige.

Each of them personally claimed the small pools that the humans and Evolvers had recently plundered. All of the phasewater that they stashed at the bottom of the water pools represented their accumulated savings over many years.

Now that these thieves had callously taken away all of the precious earnings that the Phase King had benevolently bestowed them for their service, how could the elite Phasers not be indignant?

This fight was personal to them! If they couldn't stop the thieves and regain their stolen property, they would not be able to live anymore!

The persistent aggression from the elite Phasers gradually overwhelmed the mechs and Evolvers that resisted against them. They not only fought as hard as possible, but also did not fear the loss of their lives as long as the greater group managed to secure greater gains in return!

Numerous notable Phaser fish-whales managed to kill and destroy over a dozen opponents during this time.

For example, the cunning Scar Prince fought in a highly troublesome and despicable manner. The old fish-whale with unhealed scars on its hide shuttled around the battlefield, looking to pick off wounded and isolated opponents.

One of its preferred ways of attacking opponents was growing a pair of horns on its head in a similar fashion to the bladed fish-whale of the Evolution Kingdom.

Once it had grown these sturdy horns, the Scar Prince warped the space around it, allowing it to move a lot faster and charge towards its opponents at a pace that left its victims with little time to prepare for their impending doom!

A pair of Bright Warriors hailing from the Avatars of Myth were in the process of circling around the side of a Phaser fish-whale that was already locked into combat with an Evolver fish-whale.

However, before they could make their flanking attacks, they quickly noticed that a threatening opponent had changed course and was rapidly moving in their direction!

"Damnit, it's the Scar Prince! Evade!"

Though the two mechs tried to split apart from each other, the Scar Prince concentrated its phasewater organs, causing its prodigious body to move even faster!

The Avatar mech pilots barely had time to eject their cockpits before a massive fish-whale body shattered the just-abandoned mechs to pieces with its bulk!

Just as the Scar Prince gloated over its latest victory, the space around it began to distort in a way that caused its body to accumulate another scar!

Elsewhere, the Storm Prince kept engulfing the surrounding space in spatial storms. Its current adversary was not an Evolver, but an expert mech!

Venerable Tusa constantly kept his Dark Zephyr on the move. It had been some time since he last launched an attack on the Storm Prince as his opponent's spatial manipulation powers were just too formidable!

"I need help here! This fish-whale is way too powerful for me to take on alone!"

Soon enough, a couple of resonance-empowered positron beams struck the Storm Prince's spatial barrier, causing the protective measure to visibly weaken!

The Everchanger had decided to intervene!

"Tusa, I will keep providing fire support. Find an opportunity to pincer this Phaser!"

The light skirmisher specialist grinned. "Will do! There's no way this Storm Prince can defend against two sides at once!"

The Dark Zephyr went from passive to active as the Storm Prince was no longer able to unleash its spatial storms with impunity!

Though the powerful Phaser still tried to engulf the annoying expert light mech with its attacks, the potent fire from the Everchanger forced the belligerent fish-whale into bolstering its defenses!

While the Storm Prince erected another spatial barrier that allowed it to endure the persistent fire from the Everchanger, the Dark Zephyr suddenly zipped to its rear and stabbed forth with its sharp and hungry knives!

Unfortunately, the Storm Prince's main spatial barrier was not only powerful, but also all-encompassing!

Tusa already expected this to happen, though.

"Heh, I not defense is inexhaustible! I'll just keep hitting you until something gives!"

The scientists and analysts attached to Task Force Fisherman already collected and analyzed a lot of data related to the performance of the Phasers.

Studying the properties of their characteristic spatial barriers was one of their core priorities!

It was too bad that the defensive capabilities of the spatial barriers were too effective. All six attack modes of the Larkinson Clan's versatile luminar crystal weapons failed to gain any advantages against this defensive measure.

Some actually performed a lot poorer than normal due to their lower efficiencies!

For example, the obscure slicer beam that was capable of puncturing through armor with greater ease was unable to do so against solidified space.

In the end, the mechs all decided to stick to positron beams because their damage potential was the greatest.

The Everchanger put quite a lot of power in its steady barrage of ranged attacks. It had already fired so many times that even high-tier expert mechs should feel concerned!

However, the Storm Prince was significantly more resilient than everyone thought. After enduring the attacks from the Dark Zephyr and the Everchanger for a minute, its form suddenly disappeared as it had blinked over 10 kilometers away!

"Urgh, this trick again." Tusa cursed even as his expert mech moved towards the Storm Prince again. "I'll keep chasing after it no matter where it goes. The Storm Prince is too dangerous against our other mechs if left unchecked."

"Understood. I will help when I can, but there are more comrades who need my support."

Venerable Joshua wasn't kidding. There were too many fires erupting for him to put out by himself. All he could do was to fire at the Phasers that were just about to demolish more mechs.

The Phasers hit too hard!

Their phasewater abilities were not only unblockable, but also affected the internals of a mech in certain situations.

This extreme threat constantly put mechs on the defensive. Even if they relied on the Evolver fish-whales to take the brunt of the attacks, the Phasers had wizened up to the tactics.

"The Phasers are improving their coordination!"

The aggressive fish-whales initially fought while overtaken by their fury and anger. This had caused them to chase after their opponents while neglecting their group tactics.

However, now that they encountered stiff resistance, the Phasers cooled down a bit and fought more intelligently than before.

Even if they weren't as smart as the Evolvers, the Phasers were by no means stupid. They began to support each other to a greater degree even as the Evolvers tried their best to attack and disrupt their coordination!

Fish-whales kept colliding against other fish-whales. Blood constantly spilled as the aggressive creatures displayed the savagery that they had always exhibited in their fights!

The mechs of Task Force Fisherman found it harder to fight the Phasers at this point. The mechs could easily get engulfed in various ways if they got dangerously close to the thrashing fish-whales.

There were even instances where mechs got smacked by Evolver fish-whales that hadn't been paying attention to their surroundings!

Despite the increasing difficulties, the mech units did not back down from the struggle.

Some groups even chose to ramp up their aggression and fight in a more risky but daring manner!

"C'mon, you ugly fish! Stop moving around so much!" Commander Sendra cried out as her Second Sword mech kept striking the spatial barrier of the Scar Prince while it got entangled by another powerful Evolver fish-whale.

The Scar Prince might not have been able to hear the Swordmaiden Commander's taunts, but the dangerous fish-whale did not enjoy the constant sword strikes!

Its eyes narrowed even as its spatial barrier disappeared. A few Swordmaiden mechs pounced on the vulnerability and charged at the exposed flank of the Scar Prince in an attempt to stab their swords into the flesh of this great fish.

Commander Sendra did not follow suit, though. Her eyes widened as her mind and instincts screamed warnings.

"Back off! It's a trap!"

It was too late! The Scar Prince had secretly poised its tail a moment before and struck out against the Second Swords!

Numerous mechs sustained heavy damage! Some lost their weapons while others became deformed to the point where they could no longer swing their swords!

Fortunately, none of their cockpits sustained significant damage, but the absence of several powerful Swordmaiden mechs definitely hurt!

"These damn fish-whales." Commander Sendra gritted her teeth.

As the soldiers constantly struggled against each other, the fight between the two king fishes had reached a red-hot stage!

By now, the Phase King was no longer able to keep the Cerebral King at bay!

The latter kept charging at the former, only for the Phase King to teleport away.

Yet after repeated teleports, the Phase King realized that it would quickly exhaust itself if it continued to avoid its enemy in this fashion.

The effort it took to teleport an enormous king fish was enormous compared to employing a form of pseudo-warp travel to accelerate forward!

This was why the Phase King eventually decided to meet the Cerebral King's challenge head-on!

As the two ancient archenemies collided against each other, they employed a myriad of destructive abilities that were so damaging that they sometimes affected others!

As the damaged Bolvos Rage attempted to sneak up to the Phase King's side, the king fish in question utilized its powers to generate a spatial vortex that was meant to grind the Cerebral King's body!

However, the vortex also affected the high-tier expert mech. Patriarch Reginald gritted his teeth as he tried to pull his machine away from this dangerous phenomenon.

"Take this, you big fish!"

Some of the weapon mounts of the expert hybrid mech were disabled at this time, but it still had enough left to launch a potent strike at the Phase King.

This time, the attacks hit their mark!

Patriarch Reginald didn't look happy, though. Only a small layer of flesh and fat had gotten burned. This was a pathetic result considering how much power and resonance he put into the salvo!

"These fish are too big!"

The titanic creatures were more comparable to warships than mechs. Their immense bulk provided them with so much buffer that Reginald saw little hope in using its ranged armament to inflict any serious damage onto the Phase King.

"I need to get close and put my Whale-Cutting Saber to good use!"

That approach came with its own problems, though. Right now, Reginald did not think it was a good idea to bring his expert mech close while the Phase King kept its omni-directional spatial vortex active.

The rich means displayed by the Phase King were too difficult to fight against. Even the powerful Cerebral King was at a slight disadvantage in this duel. How could the Bolvos Rage do any better?

He may be brave, but he wasn't foolhardy!

His mech already suffered a substantial blow and it couldn't take another major hit. Alarms kept pinging his mind as the constant movements kept stressing out the already-damaged components.

In other words, the more the Bolvos Rage fought, the faster it was falling apart!

"What an awful time for my machine to fail!"

It was incredibly frustrating for Patriarch Reginald to have the will but not a mech that was strong enough for him to challenge powerful foes.

Right now, he yearned to pilot the Mars Project more than ever!

"No. Maybe it's not the mech. Maybe it's me. If I was as strong as my father, no fish would be able to stand in my way."

As Reginald observed the Phase King fighting against the Cerebral King, he felt more and more disappointed at himself for being unable to make a difference in a fight at this level.