Chapter 3059: Bootleg Pendants Just before the air battle broke out in earnest, the Avatar and Vandal mech pilots took advantage of the short reprieve to reorganize their lines and form a new battle plan. The surviving mechs of the first wave were no longer fresh and battle ready as before. They had performed valiantly against the black mechs and it was unreasonable to ask them to fight as hard as before. It was a pity that the current situation of the Larkinsons didn't look favorable. The second wave brought around 320 mechs to the battlefield, but that still left them considerably outnumbered by the 500 formidable-looking Diyast mechs! Though the aerial mechs that had showed up also featured bland designs that lacked inspiration, their overall quality was still high enough to give any Larkinson mech a run for its money. As many analysts and mech designers of the Larkinson Clan began to perform rapid estimates of the enemy's expected battle performance, their overall conclusions weren't optimistic. "In terms of value, the two sides are roughly even. Our Bright Warriors and Ferocious Piranhas are qualitatively better. In terms of numbers, the story is different. Missing a hundred or so mechs matters significantly when the gap between the mechs of both sides isn't overwhelmingly wide… The Diyasts will be able to take advantage of their superior numbers to gain the initiative and maneuver much more freely on the battlefield." This was exactly what happened when both sides began to fight in the air! The Diyasts didn't bother to communicate with the Larkinsons. Ernesto Diyast and his trusted men were completely consumed by their need to take revenge against the Purnesse Family! Nothing, not even a foreign clan with an unusual battle style would be allowed to stop the reason why they had invested so much time and effort in this attack! As far as the Diyasts were concerned, the Larkinsons were just extensions of the Purnesse Family. Anyone and anything that dared to stand in their way of completing their revenge had to be eliminated! The aerial battle began with a furious exchange of fire. The Larkinsons mostly employed energy rifles while the Diyasts continued to favor kinetic rifles. Beams seared through the exteriors of Diyast mechs while solid projectiles cratered against the tougher armor of the Bright Warriors. After the first few volleys, it became clear that the advantage in numbers allowed the Diyast mechs to exert considerable greater pressure at range. The Avatar ranged mechs had to invest more effort into dodging incoming attacks or sheltering behind other mechs in order to remain operational. The different weapon types mattered a lot in this battle. Gauss rifles and other physical ranged weapons were heavily limited by the amount of ammunition that the mechs were able to carry. However, as long as their rounds didn't run out, the rifleman mechs were able to inflict a formidable amount of damage in a short amount of time! Positron rifles and laser rifles packed less punch on average. The beams had a tendency to spread out across the surface of a target and modern mechs were quite good at coping with excess heat. It took time for the damage dealt by energy rifles to become telling. This was not a long time, but in a situation where the enemy possessed a greater punch, the Bright Warriors armed with ranged weapons would definitely be routed if this pattern continued. [This damn mech model is too slow!] Mavelon complained as his mech got impacted by a gauss round that shattered some of its surface layers. [If I was piloting my old mech, I could have dodged this blow with ease!] [Stop complaining and shoot these new enemies down! We might actually be defeated by these yokels if the Larkinsons can't get their act together.] The four MTA mech pilots who took part in this operation endured a lot more pressure due to the changing circumstances. Even if they had the option to eject from their mechs, suffering defeat in their first deployment would become a huge stain on their records. Their colleagues back in the Association would never ever take the four seriously again if they knew what happened! Many other Larkinsons were aware that they had to do something special in order to reverse the current trend. "Vandals!" Commander Melkor shouted over the command channel. "Suppress their rifleman mechs! Take them out if you can, but don't let them fire at us unopposed!" "We're already on our way, commander! The enemy light mechs are running interference against us but we Vandals will make quick work of them. Just watch!" The Vandals deployed in the field all piloted the Ferocious Piranha, which many Larkinsons considered one of the best mech models of the Larkinson Clan. In their initial confrontation against their Diyast counterparts, the orange-and-grey mechs actually exhibited a slight but crucial edge in speed and acceleration. The enemy light mechs were faster! Yet when the range between the two groups of swift mechs decreased, the Flagrant Vandals actually gained the advantage! Their hateful glows forced every enemy mech pilot to alternate between feeling abnormally calm to getting engulfed by overpowering fury. Getting subjected to one of these glows was already bad enough, but the rapid switch between the two threatened to drive the mech pilots crazy! Though the Diyast mech pilots were not weak by any means, the constant pressure exerted onto their minds imposed a significant handicap on their performance. It was as if they were forced to waltz while their feet were stepping on heated coals! Who could possibly maintain a completely even cadence under those conditions? The furious, high-speed dogfight that ensued resulted in rapid strikes and rapid takedowns. Soon enough, the Diyast light mech specialists realized that they suffered from another disadvantage. "Hah!" A vandal mech pilot laughed. "It takes more than that to drive your knife through my armor plating!" The armor system of the Ferocious Piranha model was substantially better than that of the opposition. It was extremely expensive to mount quality armor onto mechs that had to be as light as possible. Yet Ves was willing to invest more than most people spent on light mechs to ensure that his Ferocious Piranhas would not fall apart so quickly. This was one of the reasons why the Ferocious Piranhas managed to fell more Diyast light mechs while their opponents failed to perform as brilliantly. The Ferocious Piranhas were much more suited for dogfighting than the opposing mechs! After dozens of mechs started to fall from the sky, the Flagrant Vandal mech pilots began to show their difference in another way. While the enemy mech pilots were certainly skilled and were capable of executing numerous standard tactics, their lack of foundation soon became evident. The mech pilots employed by the Diyast Family did not possess much of an identity! They merely passed the required classes of the mech academies they attended before going through another round of standard training when they were taken in by the Diyasts. Yet the fallen family was not able to grant anything extra to their mech pilots. Ernesto Diyast and his fellow survivors had lost too much in the initial collapse of their family. The martial tradition and the strong and distinctive identity of their household troops was completely lost! This meant that the mech pilots all had to start from scratch. This made a considerable difference on the battlefield. The Diyast light mech pilots fought while employing standard tactics and formations. Against normal opponents, this was already sufficient, but against the Flagrant Vandals which possessed a military heritage and counted a lot of experienced veterans in their ranks, the Ferocious Piranhas under their control easily isolated and ganged up against pockets of enemy machines. "Damn! They're starting to split and run!" Seeing that the situation was rapidly becoming more unsustainable, the commander of the Diyast light mechs ordered his men to avoid direct confrontations. The enemy light mechs all pulled back and spread out in different directions. They utilized their superior mobility to outrun the slightly slower Ferocious Piranhas and taunt them along the way. Some of the retreating light mechs even pulled out light-weight pistols or other ranged weapons in order to harass the Vandal mechs. When Melkor briefly paused between his shots to take stock of the overall situation, his lips curled into a smile. "You can play hide and seek all you want, but that leaves us free to confront other opponents!" A portion of the Ferocious Piranhas continued to chase after the fleeing Diyast light mechs. Their goal was not necessarily to eliminate the mobile machines. It was already enough for them to keep the enemy machines occupied. What was even more crucial was that the remaining Ferocious Piranhas flew in the other direction and dove straight towards the ranks of enemy ranged mechs! The rifleman mechs armed with gauss rifles were suddenly faced with a crisis as numerous Ferocious Piranhas flew past their sides and occasionally swooped in to drive their daggers through their fragile frames! Fortunately, the Diyasts assigned numerous escort mechs to cover their backs. The knight mechs and other melee mechs did their best to fend off the swooping Ferocious Piranhas and deter them from getting too close. However, this was already enough for the Flagrant Vandals. The Larkinson Clan clearly recognized that the Ferocious Piranhas did not need to risk themselves to take out their current targets. As long as they kept making threatening movements while making sure their glows affected the enemy mech pilots, the Diyast ranged mech pilots would not be able to fire their weapons against the Avatar mechs as comfortably as before! What was even better was that the need to protect the ranged mechs from getting cut to pieces forced a considerable amount of Diyast melee mechs to remain stuck in protection duty! The fact that these melee mechs were unable to join the main clash further ahead meant that the numbers difference became a lot more tolerable for the Avatar mech pilots. When the numbers became a bit more even, the performance of the Avatars finally began to stand out from the norm. "Avatars! Let's show our clan what we can do. Invoke the Golden Cat!" A mech captain commanded. The mech pilots he commanded simultaneously clutched a pendant that hung over their piloting suits. These little pendants were shaped in the form of a golden cat head! While they weren't totems because Ves didn't fabricate them in person, the pendants didn't have to be alive in order for them to serve their purpose. The Avatar mech pilots used them as a focus for their thoughts and meditations. Right now, they were doing their best to concentrate their minds and plead towards a spirit that represented the heart and soul of the Larkinson Clan. Back on the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves briefly frowned and turned towards his bodyguard. The Larkinson Mandate carried by Nitaa fluctuated for a moment. The Golden Cat received the earnest pleas of the Avatar mech pilots in the field. After a moment of thought, she decided to answer their calls! Nyaaaaaaaaa! Through the vigorous and growing Larkinson Network, the nexus began to exude a lot of her energy through a number of specific bonds. Every Avatar mech pilot that was clutching their pendants felt an invisible spurt of energy flowing through their bodies and minds. Even their mechs became more alive as they too received a boost from the generous cat! Though the Bright Warriors did not look any different from the outside, the moment they surged forward and clashed against the enemy mechs, the skill and fighting spirit of the Avatars had spiked! "Agghh!" "I'm going down!" "We can't stop these golden mechs!" The mech company that had received the blessing of the Golden Cat achieved immediate local superiority. No enemy mech managed to last more than ten exchanges of blows. Not only did the Avatar mech pilots employ greater skill and accurate judgement, they also fought as if they could always count on their comrades besides them! Their vastly-improved teamwork prevented many of them from falling!