The Mech Touch

The Elegant Rage had to put up a slightly greater struggle to defeat the next opponent, but that was all. Major Jankowski needed no additional instruction in order to outfight the tribulation manifestation that resembled a rock golem.

The enemy was amazingly resistant against damage, but it was unable to fly. The only threat posed by the creature was that it was able to launch rock projectiles that flew fast and exploded as soon as they approached their targets.

The Elegant Rage was able to evade the rock projectiles so long as they remained in one piece, but her armor received a lot of scratches after getting struck by a lot of rock shards.

The fight turned into a contest of endurance. The Elegant Rage eventually managed to win comfortably as the lightning manifestation was unable to withstand all of the ebony wooden seeds launched by the Sprout Rifle.

As the Elegant Rage already managed to complete two-thirds of the multi-modal lightning tribulation, both Ves and Major Jankowski became more alert.

"It's going to get really difficult from now on." Ves remarked. "Lightning tribulations never want to let off their targets easily, and I fear that my action to provoke the storm will finally come back to haunt me. If my guess is correct, the tribulation will get more serious by targeting the weaknesses of the Elegant Rage."

He could feel the energies accumulating in the storm clouds. The continued survival of the Elegant Rage did not sit well with the lightning tribulation.

Thankfully, no matter how powerful it became, at least it didn't get hijacked by the Subjugation King.

The powerful god king probably had standards. It was an absolute waste of time for him to expend so much power just to witness the struggle of a much weaker mech.

It may also be that the Subjugation King was only able to hijack storms of sufficient size and power. It could be that only larger and more noticeable storms registered on his senses.

Whatever the case, Ves didn't have to worry about a certain slave driver trying to ruin his life again!

"The next one is coming." Major Jankowski noted.

The lightning manifestation that appeared as the seventh challenge came in the form of a living gas cloud!

The hostile 'entity' was fast and surprisingly agile, so the Elegant Rage had little choice but to confront this enemy head-on without any chance of avoidance.

That was where the problems began. From the moment the Elegant Rage attempted to strike the gas cloud with her ebony wood tonfas, the weapons simply passed through without hitting anything solid!

In the meantime, the gas cloud began to generate a large amount of lightning bolts, many of which struck the Elegant Rage from all sides!

Although the mech's armor system was able to endure this destructive massage for the time being, the more delicate and vulnerable parts were faring significantly worse!

The sensors and the flight system of the Elegant Rage possessed a much lower damage tolerance and could not withstand this lighting bombardment for long!

Major Jankowski immediately recognized the threat and tried to pull the Elegant Rage out of the gas cloud.

Unfortunately, no matter how elegantly the cybernetic mech moved through the air, the Elegant Rage was unable to shake off a cloud that was even faster and more maneuverable!

"How can I kill an enemy that can't be struck?!" He questioned. "It doesn't look as if this enemy will exit this special state!"

The Red Association was not entirely unfamiliar with enemies that exhibited similar capabilities.

In most cases, it took a lot of energy to maintain an intangible state.

In addition, first-class multipurpose mechs were often equipped with diverse armaments, of which one should always be able to damage these tricky opponents.

The Elegant Rage did not have access to a dozen different weapon systems! Much of the damage that the mech was able to inflict was physical in nature, but this just so happened to be the most ineffective solution against an opponent that lacked a solid body!

Ves frowned in thought. He studied the enemy that continually struck the Elegant Rage from every direction in the hopes of discovering a weakness.

"Wait! I know how you can defeat this enemy!" He exclaimed.

"Please elaborate."

"If my guess is right, an enemy like this can only be harmed by relying on energy damage."

"My mech doesn't have access to energy weapons at the moment. Wasn't this model equipped with plasma tonfas?"

"I replaced them with solid ebony wood rods." Ves helplessly said. "As I have said before, I always assumed your Association would take the time to design proper weapons and arm the Elegant Rage with them. Anyway, that's not important at the moment. Your mech still has an extraordinary means of attack. Examine the state of the thorns. They are constantly accumulating energy as your mech gets attacked. You should be able to launch an effective counterattack if the thorns are packed with counterattack energy."

The Elegant Rage's thorns were not for decoration! They had become the unique gimmick of the partially wooden mech. The wooden and metal thorns adorning her mech frame became deadlier as the living mech continued to suffer greater harm.

The expert candidate inspected the thorns, but grew disappointed when he evaluated their current threat level.

"They're not powerful enough. I can vaguely feel the energies inside of them, but I don't have any confidence that they will be able to deflate this gas cloud."

The efficiency was too low!

It couldn't be helped. The Elegant Rage's thorns were originally a manifestation of Venerable Lanie's distorted willpower. Only when the living mech came under the effect of forced resonance or true resonance would the thorns be able to show their true power.

As it was, the thorns were charging up so slowly that it would take forever before they could land a serious enough blow against this intangible opponent!

Just as Major Jankowski was starting to think about giving up and evacuating from a no-win situation for the second time, Ves spoke up again.

"We can still defeat this enemy. The electrical bolts produced by this gas cloud are quite weak, so the Elegant Rage can still endure them for the time being. The problem is that the mech cannot outlast the gas cloud long enough to charge up the thorns. In order to buy more time to prepare an effective counterattack, you need to relocate the mech. Go down to the forest. The thicker the trees, the better."

Major Jankowski grinned. He immediately understood what Ves had in mind!

Instead of continuing to struggle in the air, the Elegant Rage abruptly dove and descended straight in the middle of the densest part of the forest!

The gas cloud followed suit and made sure that it remained centered around the moving mech.

The difference this time was that many of the lightning bolts struck the trees instead of the mech itself!

Many of the bolts ended up striking the surrounding trees, causing them to explode or catch on fire!

Though the gas cloud was inflicting terrible harm on the environment, the Elegant Rage gained a momentary reprieve.

However, it was not enough.

"This is a good idea, but the Elegant Rage is not recovering fast enough. There is only so much this forest can shield the mech from damage."

The trees were too weak and fragile! They were nowhere near as powerful as the Emperor Tree, so they were only good for grounding lightning bolts.

Seeing as this plan was not producing the desired results, Ves decided to voice his second proposal.

"We need to be more proactive. Try and invoke the blessing of Gaia before firing the Sprout Rifle straight towards the ground."

"Pardon?"

"Let me guide you through the process."

It took way too much time for Ves to explain his plan, but Major Jankowski did not need to know that much in order to do his job. He didn't even need to bargain with Gaia for assistance. Ves was already in the process of begging the design spirit for help!

"Gaia! Listen to me! Help us out by lending your power to the Sprout Rifle!"

It was difficult to catch the True God's attention. Gaia grew way too quickly and lost her respect for her progenitor. She quickly became involved in much greater affairs, causing her to look down on the Larkinson Clan.

"Gaia! Gaia! We need your help! The Elegant Rage won't be able to make it if you don't lend us your power. Think of all of the good this mech can do once she has survived this test. I intend to make a lot more Woodsap mechs in the future. I am not afraid of dedicating many of them to you, because there are no other design spirits that are more suitable to shower the Woodsap mechs with their blessings."

Ves could feel that he had managed to attract Gaia's interest, though the ongoing tribulation event made it difficult to maintain a connection.

"It's okay." Ves reassured Major Jankowski. "The Sprout Rifle is designed to channel Gaia's blessing. I think that is enough of an excuse to get away with this. We just have to be careful not to do it often enough to make the tribulation storm think we are cheating."

Now that he managed to attract the distant design spirit's attention, Ves quickly began to bargain with her. He knew that the only way for the Elegant Rage to borrow her power was to win her over with solid benefits.

After making certain concessions related to Woodsap mechs to Gaia, the design spirit finally went into action.

"The storm is growing more violent!"

Outside intervention was a big taboo during lighting tribulations. This was why the current one became a lot more complex after Ves deliberately provoked it at the beginning.

"It's okay." Ves reassured Major Jankowski. "The Sprout Rifle is designed to channel Gaia's blessing. I think that is enough of an excuse to get away with this. We just have to be careful not to do it often enough to make the tribulation storm think we are cheating."

Gaia only reached out to the Sprout Rifle long enough to infuse it with a modest dose of her power.

She retracted her presence before the tribulation storm could do anything more.

Now that the Sprout Rifle had become infused with the blessing of Gaia, Major Jankowski reluctantly pointed the weapon downwards and fired an activated ebony seed right onto the ground!

The impact was softer than usual. The Sprout Rifle had deliberately reduced much of its power in order to prevent the seed from shattering apart.

Once the seed settled into the soil, its green glow became brighter as it began to sprout and extend all sorts of thorny vines in every direction.

Each vine was filled with a bountiful amount of life energy and wood energy, allowing them to grow rapidly!

Not only that, but the thorns also became charged by Gaia's energies. As soon as they came in contact with the gas cloud, they began to attack it on a metaphysical level!

"It's working!" Major Jankowski noted. "The thorns on those vines are much more effective than the thorns on the exterior of my mech."

"That's because they are charged by the power of a True God."

What was important was that Gaia did not attack the gas cloud directly, but instead empowered the sprouted thorn vine.

The thorns became so effective that they not only harmed the gas cloud, but also started to absorb its energy to fuel the growth of the vines even further!

Although the gas cloud immediately retaliated by striking the vines with lightning bolts, the energetic vines rapidly recovered and became more vigorous in their attacks!

"Is this the true power of the Sprout Rifle?" Major Jankowski asked as he never expected this kind of weapon to produce such a strange sight.

"Not even close." Ves shook his head. "The Sprout Rifle only truly comes into power when wielded by Venerable Lanie. It is a real shame that the first display of this ability does not have the benefit of her true resonance. The gas cloud never would have troubled us so much if she was in the cockpit."

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