The Mech Touch

As the thorns spread across the forest environment sucked the energies of all of the surrounding trees to the point where they had nothing left to donate, the Elegant Rage became drunk with stolen power!

Aside from repairing her broken tonfa, the Elegant Rage also expended a lot of wood energy to spontaneously grow a lot of new thorns across her mech frame.

The ones made of improved ebony wood grew the fastest, while the ones that were meant to be made out of second-class alloys took a lot more time to take on their final shapes.

Regardless, as soon as the Elegant Rage managed to regrow most of her thorns, she immediately launched them out with far greater force than previously!

Even though a lot of thorns ended up crashing into areas that had already been drained of life, there were still a lot more thorns that managed to traverse much longer trajectories before they landed on the ground.

Once these distant thorns took root, they began to drain all of the trees and plants of all of their energies, causing the entire terrain to look as if the area had become affected by an apocalypse.

The Elegant Rage already regrew her third set of thorns, though she was not in a hurry to launch them anymore. She already gained access to far more wood energy than she could reasonably harness.

She had so much energy in her reach that her control over it all had rapidly degraded!

It couldn't be helped. The Elegant Rage was not that strong, and she did not possess the support of true resonance that she could only gain when being piloted by Venerable Lanie Larkinson.

For example, her tonfas along with her entire mech frame became fully rejuvenated!

Just like the Emperor Tree when it was at its height, the Elegant Rage inherited the same insanely effective regeneration factor. As long as she had access to enough wood energy, there was no limit to her ability to restore from battle damage!

One of the reasons why the Elegant Rage fell behind during the start of this bout was because she already accumulated a lot of damage across her mech frame from previous exposures to tribulation lightning.

Now that the Elegant Rage managed to repair all of the damage that the living mech previously did not have time to remedy through the normal process, the machine practically returned to her peak condition!

Major Jankowski almost moaned as he experienced this reversal. He truly felt as if he could defeat any opponent so long as the wood energy remained abundant!

Though Ves was glad to see that his efforts successfully allowed his creation to finally live up to her potential as a Woodsap mech, he did not miss the sequelae of utilizing demonic means to gain more power.

The regenerated components of the Elegant Rage looked darker and less perfect than the other parts of the mech.

It was as if the wood energy plundered from the trees was tainted.

From the moment the Woodsap mech utilized the energy that was stained with the lives of so many plants, it absorbed all of the taint and negative karma that came with it! Guilt literally stained her mech frame!

Ves was already able to figure out a few consequences to this mutation. The Elegant Rage had started to sink into darkness, making her less compatible with positive energy.

Nature also started to repel her more actively. She was no longer a mech that could peacefully get along with plants anymore. She had proven herself to be a predator who did not hesitate to destroy ecosystems in order to gain a combat advantage.

Fortunately, the stain was not too great this time. The forest that she destroyed was still very young and artificial to boot.

The heavens did not really think much about unmaking trees that were just a few years old at most.

Perhaps there might be ways for the Elegant Rage to gradually get rid of the stain in the future.

It all depended on what Venerable Lanie used the Woodsap mech for and whether she took the initiative to drain another forest of power.

For now, the Elegant Rage still had a bout to win!

Major Jankowski did not want to let all of the overflowing wood energy to go to waste, so he quickly boosted his mech back into the fray!

Crack!

Crack!

Crack!

The Elegant Rage began to assail the alien swordsman with so much force and fervor that she immediately gained the upper hand!

Major Jankowksi had completely thrown aside any notion of defense and decisively committed to attack!

Was the alien swordsman attempting to block? Attack!

Was the alien swordsman trying to conjure a fire and ice curtain? Attack!

Was the alien swordsman making a risky attack that could inflict serious damage to the Elegant Rage's chest? Attack!

A more skilled and transcendent fighter like Venerable Lanie would have been able to employ this aggressive strategy so well that her adversary would not be able to launch a counterattack.

Major Jankowski did not possess her extraordinary skills and reflexes. His dual wielding ability was just as poor as before.

Gaining access to a lot of wood energy did not affect the considerable disparity in fighting skills.

The alien swordsman was still able to block many strikes and launch clever counterattacks that neatly exploited the Elegant Rage's obvious openings.

So what?

Each time the Elegant Rage got struck by a fire or ice sword and incurred varying degrees of damage, a lot of wood energy instantly surged to the scarred sections and restored them whole again!

The restoration process was sloppy and inefficient, but it was quick!

Speed mattered the most. As the Elegant Rage continued to batter the alien swordsman's guard with a pair of tonfas that almost never dipped below their peak conditions, the Woodsap mech periodically got struck by swords that Major Jankowski was not able to intercept with his skills.

However, it was already enough for him to be able to contain the offensive Dower of the tribulation manifestation.

As long as the alien swordsman was not able to assume a fully offensive posture

And inflict heavy damage at a rapid rate, the Elegant Rage was always able to restore herself to full condition before the enemy had a chance to exploit any gaps in her defenses!

Not too long ago, a few Larkinson expert pilots became frustrated by how they were unable to get any closer to killing the Emperor Tree and its ebony mechs due to the inability to compound on any damage.

In order to kill most large enemies, a mech needed to start small and focus on weakening different sections of an enemy. Crippling the limbs, breaching armor plating and disabling specific modules were all established methods to defeat giants who could not be killed in an instant.

However, this strategy had little chance to succeed when the enemy regenerated too damn quickly to allow any of these gaps or faults to persist! Right now, the alien swordsman was put in the unfortunate position of trying and failing to attack a wooden opponent that seemingly had access to an endless supply of vitality!

"My mech is immortal! She can't be killed!" Major Jankowski exclaimed! The expert candidate recklessly squandered the wood energy harvested from the entire forest. He acted like a lottery winner who had just switched from extreme poverty to extreme wealth and couldn't wait to spend much of his

Windfall!

The stolen wood energy surrounding the Elegant Rage continued to deplete at a rapid rate, but all of it was worth it as the Woodsap mech's seemingly suicidal offense finally pushed the alien swordsman to the brink!

Crack!

Bang!

The swords wielded by the tribulation manifestation lost much of their elemental power as the Elegant Rage exhausted much of fire and ice energies at her enemy's disposal!

The alien swordsman had tried to harness his power over the opposing elements to fend off one attack after another, but the repeated blunt force strikes had finally caused the four-armed alien to bottom his reserves!

"Hah! Not so tough now, huh?!"

The threat level of the tribulation manifestation instantly plunged now that it was running out of fire and ice energy.

The alien swordsman was only able to draw upon the relatively paltry amount

Of E energy radiation that was constantly radiating from Messier 87, but this was far from enough to make up for the gigantic disparity in energy levels!

The alien swordsman still managed to hold on by relying on his exquisite sword

Skills.

Even if he was not able to perform any dazzling elemental techniques with his blades, he was still able to rely on solid swordsmanship to block and deflect a

Lot of incoming tonfas. Unfortunately, the alien swordsman's skills and physical strength alone was not enough to fend off the Elegant Rage's reckless assault!

Major Jankowski was forcing the Woodsap mech to overstrain her mechanical

Parts and pull off moves that would have torn or damaged her internals, just to

Be able to hit the enemy faster and harder! Normally, it was completely counterproductive to perform these self-destructive moves, but Major Jankowski clearly realized that he could get away with his actions because the mech would regenerate all of the

Self-inflicted damage anyway.

Faced with such an unreasonable mech, the increasingly more exhausted alien

Swordsman could not avoid instances where the tonfas managed to strike his body with hard and punishing blows.

There was no particular elemental reinforcement to these blows.

Ves could have taught the Elegant Rage how to expend wood energy in order

To produce a withering effect that could promote the decay of any enemy struck by a tonfa.

He declined to do so because it wouldn't be effective against all but the weakest tribulation manifestations. He also did not want to overwhelm the Elegant Rage by forcing her to perform multiple techniques at the same time. The current results were already satisfactory enough!

Even if Ves' solution had only increased the Elegant Rage's effective energy level and did nothing to improve her energy utilization, it did not matter so long as the Woodsap mech could get by with simply smashing enemies by

Relying on brute force!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Major Jankowski may be mad with power, but he was still professional enough

To focus on how to negate the threat posed by his adversary as quickly as

Possible. Any tonfa strike that broke past the alien swordsman's increasingly feeble guard went on to strike the limbs of the creature.

All four arms suffered repeated impacts!

Soon enough, the arms began to snap, causing them to lose the strength to

Wield a sword!

Though the alien swordsman managed to prolong his resistance by relying on the fact that he had four arms to hold a sword, the Elegant Rage repeatedly bashed her tonfas like clubs until her adversary had no arms to spare anymore!

Before the Elegant Rage rushed up in order to deliver the coup de grace against a swordsman who had lost the ability to hold his weapons, the tribulation manifestation made a surprising move.

The crippled swordsman bent his knees and made a formal alien gesture that

Conveyed respect towards his adversary.

"This... is an honorable swordsman... or at least the simulation of one." Simon

Jankowski calmed down from his adrenaline rush. "As one soldier to another, this alien fought honorably and sincerely. I like his species."

Ves didn't care about martial sentiments. He patted the side of the wooden

Piloting chair with his hand.

"Finish this bastard off and prepare for the next and final bout. Make sure to fly to a different forest. The one underneath the Elegant Rage has already been depleted and can no longer serve as an energy reservoir."

The end of the lightning tribulation was in sight. The Elegant Rage only needed to overcome one more challenge.

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