The Mech Touch

Chapter 6769 Tough Therapy

The next few days pushed Saint Stark to her limits.

The Stewards Siamesia took their responsibilities of mentorship seriously. Given the current war climate, the saints did not wish to relent in their attempts to bring Davia Stark up to a more satisfactory standard.

"Mercy in training is nothing less than cruelty during these times." Alo ruthlessly said. "We will keep you here for as long as the power reactor of your ace mech can last. There will be no rest or respite because our enemies will not give you any. You may employ whatever measures you can muster in order to fend us off. Do not hold back. You may try to kill us. You will not succeed, but attempting to do so is a good way for you to hone your killer instincts."

What ensued was a training session as well as a torture session!

The Lamia Kailamassu continued to collide against the Amaranto Mark III's mech frame with deliberate and unstoppable force!

Each time, the bulky ball-like dual-pilot ace mech maneuvered around at speeds belying its considerable mass and volume. Its stature may be a fraction of the size of a phase lord, but Stark had an illusion that its force and momentum were equivalent to that of a greater phase lord!

Fortunately, the Stewards Siamesia understood exactly how much physical force the archemetal frame of the Amaranto Mark III could endure.

It was admittedly not much. If not for the strong reinforcement properties of archemetal, the Amaranto Mark III would not have been qualified to engage in melee combat against opponents of the same level!

"Pathetic!" Alo admonished as the Lamia Kailamassu evaded the plasma bayonet thrust with disturbing ease before bouncing the lighter and feebler Amaranto away like a pinball! "Is this the best you can do?! Your reflexes are too dull! Your experience in defending yourself at close range is worse than that of an expert pilot! Your judgment is too prone to deception! Any martial phase lord can cripple your ace mech with a single successful teleport strike. A greater phase lord can snap your proud machine with a single attack, masterwork or not! He wouldn't even need a Saint Piercer to make it happen!"

The Amaranto Mark III recovered control over her trajectory and attempted to bring her Instrument of Vengeance to bear against the circling Lamia Kailamassu.

The dual-pilot ace mech had just distanced itself from the ace marksman mech and appeared to be building up a lot of momentum.

This was a fantastic chance for the Amaranto to lean towards her strength and let loose a shot!

Saint Stark began to grin as she resonated with her oversized luminar crystal rifle. She

already commanded her companion spirit to possess the Instrument of Vengeance while also beseeching Ylvaine to help her predict her tricky opponent's highly tricky evasive

maneuvers.

At the same time, she resonated with the ChargeMate that was integrated into her ace mech to speed up the accumulation of power in her luminar crystal rifle.

Stark did not bother to resonate with HeatMate as that would slow down the previous effort and induce unnecessary strain. Her machine still remained relatively cool and had just begun to glow brighter as the mech frame's vast amount of hyper materials began to pull in the power of light.

She also drew out a lot of additional power from the supplementary Endex System Version 3.0. More and more E energy got pulled in before being converted into pure electrical energy that facilitated the charging rate of the Instrument of Vengeance. There was no way the Stewards Siamesia would allow the Amaranto to charge her primary weapon to her limits, but Stark did not consider this possibility in the slightest. Instead, she just wanted to build up as much of a charge as possible in two seconds or less so that she could give her opponent a nice whack.

Yet before her Instrument of Vengeance built up a 10 percent charge, the Lamia Kailamassu teleported forward in defiance of the Amaranto's Saint Kingdom and smacked straight into the archemech, causing her to tumble away in a humiliatingly easy fashion!

That was not even the worst that happened!

The dual-pilot ace mech charged at an angle that wretched the Instrument of Vengeance away from its owner!

The luminar crystal rifle helplessly spun into the distance as a result. It took quick thinking on Davia Stark's part to use her Saint Kingdom to arrest the weapon's launch and pull it back to the Amaranto.

Stark did not give up on using her rifle as it was meant to be wielded. She resumed the charge, but the Lamia Kailamassu did not mess around and immediately flew close before smacking away the rifle from the Amaranto's hands yet again!

The junior ace pilot grew incredibly irritated! She felt as if her sparring partner was constantly splashing water in her face!

"Let me get off a shot!" She snarled in frustration.

Alo's response was direct. "No."

"Why not?!"

"Why train in an area that you already excel at? We all know how good you are at eliminating enemies from afar. Training your marksmanship at this stage will not make you that much stronger. Your shortcomings are too great, but unlike other marksman mechs, the unusual construction of your machine has blessed you with a stronger mech

frame than normal. You have never taken full advantage of that. We must correct that as soon as possible. The longer you remain a sitting duck against enemies at close range, the less you deserve to launch any shots. DEFEND YOURSELF!"

The sparring session continued. The Amaranto got knocked was a miracle that its more delicate parts hadn't shaken loose. Each time, Saint Stark tried her best to evade the charge attacks.

She failed every attempt.

so many time

hat it

The twin saints remained merciless. They held in back when it came to inflicting damage, but they had no qualms about employing their greater strengths to ensure their ace support mech smacked the Amaranto around like a ragdoll time and time again.

It was an interesting if punishing exercise for the first 10 minutes, but as the sparring session stretched on for an hour, Stark had accumulated a lot of frustrations!

The two Rubarthan ace pilots had not limited themselves to physical therapy. They had also begun to use their overlapping Saint Kingdoms to induce mental hallucinations onto

Stark!

In one moment, the Amaranto looked ready to thrust her plasma bayonet into what would hopefully be the Lamia Kailamassu's trajectory.

In the next moment, the ace marksman mech froze for an instant before resuming her attack, which the Lamia Kailamassu easily managed to evade!

Davia Stark wanted to rely on her intuition to predict the Lamia Kailamassu's attack angle, but Alo and Jeri's Saint Kingdoms had abruptly pulled at her mental scars, causing her to confront the horrors she had witnessed in the past.

Though Stark had tried her best to extricate herself from this forced recollection, she still remained distracted for several crucial seconds!

Though Stark had already instructed her living medch to take control as quickly as possible and act according to her best judgment, it simply did not work out as well as

she hoped.

As much as the Amaranto had learned from her ace pilot, the living mech was fundamentally unable to match the skills, judgment and supernatural intuition of a

genuine saint.

The performance of the Amaranto merely matched that of a well-trained if unimaginative elite mech pilot at best.

The living mech was no different from a child in front of a pair of ace mechs that had reached the cusp of godhood!

Aloretzi and Jerivern steadily ramped up the usage of their Saint Kingdoms. They even began to employ additional measures to add to the confusion.

The Lamia Kailamassu engaged in infrequent and unpredictable teleport hops. The machine could appear in any direction. It could show up right in front, to the side, down

below or even behind.

What was worse was that its teleportation module was so confounding that it could even switch the orientation of the Lamia Kailamassu!

For example, when the dual-pilot ace pilot charged from the front, it could instantly teleport behind the Amaranto while simultaneously turning her 180 degrees around, allowing her to launch straight into the unexposed rear of the Larkinson ace mech while retaining most of her inexplicably reversed momentum!

This was an incredible cheat!

With the help of two sources of extremely potent true resonance, the Lamia Kailamassu's teleportation module was able to violate the laws of nature to a baffling

extent.

It did so in complete defiance of Davia Stark's Saint Kingdom!

The domain field might as well not exist by how domineeringly her adversary pulled off

one reality-defying feat after another.

"I need to catch my breath!" Stark complained. "Can you give me a minute to rest and

thin?"

"No. The enemy will never let you off, so neither will we. It is better for you to falter now

than later."

The Stewards Siamesia had been truly serious about abusing the Ameranto until she had completely expended her energy reserves!

Stark began to regret the most recent upgrades. The first-class power reactor and vastly more effective energy cells kept the Amaranto Mark III Revision 2 going a lot longer than

before.

Combined with the 'renewable' electrical energy generated by ChargeMate and the Endex System Version 3.0, the ace marksman mech was loyally fulfilling her purpose in keeping her fed with lots of energy as long as possible!

Though Stark found it tempting to employ tricks to drain the energy reserves of her ace mech faster, she resolutely refused to do anything that cut this punishing sparring

session short!

The sparring session reached its second hour, then its third.

The Amaranto Mark III's energy reserves finally started to reach a distressing level, but

the machine was still able to fight, not that it mattered.

The only consolation was that Saint Stark was gradually able to learn how to cope with

the repeated mental and physical abuse.

She gritted her teeth, but instead of complaining about the torture, she kept herself

silent and worked hard to perform better than before.

Her ace mech gradually found ways to lesson and mitigate the consequences of getting

slammed by the Lamia Kailamassu.

She learned how to anticipate the charging attacks to a better extent. She learned how

to reduce the impact damage. She learned how to arrest the Amaranto's tumbling faster. She also learned how to keep hold of the Instrument of Vengeance.

Her Saint Kingdom played an indispensable role. The Amaranto alone could not do it.

Stark had gradually come to realize that the only way to defeat an effect empowered by

a Saint Kingdom was another effect empowered by a Saint Kingdom! Stark did not attempt to weaken the Lamia Kailamassu. It was hopeless for her to

directly contest her will against two peak ace pilots.

She instead focused on empowering the defenses and other physical parameters of the

Amaranto Mark III.

This produced much more successful results as she was still able to retain her dominion

over her own ace mech!

At the same time, Saint Stark's growing fury and frustrations caused her mental

fortitude to grow.

She tried everything to block the mental intrusions, and she found that strong emotions

was a good shortcut to mitigate the unwanted hallucinations.

The stronger her anger, the more effective her defiance!

Her determination to retain his focus became an increasing obsession to her. The Stewards Siamesia had repeatedly humiliated her by making her vulnerable time and time again.

There was a limit to how much Saint Stark wanted to be reminded of her flaws and

vulnerabilities!

"GET... OUT... OF... MY... HEAD!"

Saint Stark miraculously managed to push away the 'non-lethal' mental intrusion

entirely as her fury exploded!

Her rebuke came accompanied by a dazzling explosion of light that turned the Amaranto

Mark III into a giant flashbang!

Though it did not stop the Lamia Kailamassu from colliding into the ace marksman mech shortly afterwards, at least Stark managed to protect her awareness this time! "Good job, Davia! It took you long enough. I was afraid it would have taken you 4 hours to

figure out how to defend your mind and will." "SCREW YOU, ALO!"