Chapter 3281: Trial By Fire Getting beat up by three expert mechs was never an enjoyable experience. Venerable Orfan loudly made that known over the communication channel. Venerable Dise was of the same mind, even though she wasn't as vocal about it. This was not what she imagined out of her first true battle as a proper expert pilot. She was still glad that she finally received an expert mech that could fully translate her fighting style and sword techniques. She only had to look at Joshua and Jannzi to see what happened to the few Larkinson expert pilots who were left out of the expert mech party. The difference in performance was massive. "It would have been nice if they could help lift the burden." She said through gritted teeth as she readied herself for another tricky attack run. The First Sword parried a swooping strike from the Morko Mark II while also turning around to mitigate a simultaneous strike from the Paravad. "Evil human! Your defeat is inevitable! Vulcan shall smite your demonic mech! Through fire and faith, that invincible armor of yours will not avail you for long!" The dwarven expert pilot's constant string of nonsense did not make Venerable Dise's life more pleasant either, but she endured the vitriol for one important reason. She needed to know as much about her opponents as possible. Without understanding their mindset and emotions that drove them to fight, it would take a much longer time for her to determine an appropriate strategy. "Everyone can be defeated as long as I figure them out." She reminded herself. Just as Venerable Merek Bulfuron patiently waited for opportunities to land a blow on the First Sword, Venerable Dise also bided her time in order to wait for an opportunity to grasp her chance. She was highly cognizant that the Unending alloy armor plating of her expert mech was the only reason why she was able to hold off three opponents at a time. She could even opt to make risky counter-attacks if she thought that the dwarven expert mechs weren't respecting her threat. Still, there was a limit to everything and the resonance-empowered attacks inflicted by the dwarves hit much harder than any other attacks. From the claw strikes of the Paravad and Morko Mark II to the relentless gauss rounds pouring from the Domingo Daren, her First Sword was enduring attacks at a much higher frequency than she was designed to withstand! If the armor wasn't being worn away, then the internals were sustaining constant shocks. The only consolation was that none of the Hivar Roarer mechs hit particularly hard. The Domingo Daren was the only expert mech that posed a greater threat. With double gauss cannons in every gun port, its punch might not be the highest but the firing rate was relentless! If Venerable Dise wasn't so afraid of ruining her mech sword, she would have raised it and propped it up so that her expert mech could use its broad flat side as a makeshift shield. However, the thought of using Ketis' great masterpiece that had been made with love and passion did not sit well with Dise. A sword was meant to cut and stab and this one was even more so to a serious swordswoman. Failure was not a valid excuse to tarnish the purpose of a great weapon! As far as she was concerned, she was on a timer. She needed to figure out a way to reverse this adverse circumstance while she continued to resist the ongoing onslaught. If she waited too long for the situation to change, then the idiot dwarves would eventually get their way and fell her expert mech! Though she hoped to gain aid from the other Larkinsons in the battlefield, it didn't appear the clan had any to spare. Venerable Tusa was the best possible option, but he was no longer as sharp and fresh as before. Dise was afraid that the three Hivar Roarer expert mechs would turn on the Dark Zephyr and wear it down with far greater ease! Though the Dark Zephyr excelled in speed and agility, the Paravad and the Morko Mark II didn't score low in these categories either. The Morko Mark II was probably fast enough to keep up with the Dark Zephyr. Once the dwarves managed to corner it somehow, the Dark Zephyr's thinner armor and worn state would last only a fraction of the amount of time! "I need to solve this problem myself!" Venerable Dise was not a stranger to getting outmatched. From the beginning, the Swordmaidens often had to outfight superior opponents. Though not every battle against domineering pirates turned out well, she and her sisters learned how to cope with pressure and shape their belief in their own strength. Inferior mechs and numbers never scared the Swordmaidens. If battle against superior foe couldn't be avoided, then people like Dise trusted in their own skill and swordsmanship to grasp victory with their own hands! "It's been a long time since I last felt this way." Getting singled out by three enemy expert mech woke up a dormant yearning in her heart. The long months of peaceful training sessions had dulled her blade. No longer. Now that she was thrown in a battle for her own survival and the continuation of the Larkinson Clan, she was slowly getting back in her element. In the past few years, her greater strength and progression compared to the rest of her sisters singled her out as a champion. The more power she gained, the more the Swordmaidens looked up at her. This made her feel responsible for their safety and prompted her to become their spiritual leader even if she wasn't in their chain of command. Yet leadership did not come naturally to her. She was nowhere comparable to Commander Lydia who built up the Swordmaidens step by step by relying on her own vision, judgement and hard work. Dise was a hunter at heart. Prior to the Swordmaidens getting accepted into the Larkinson Clan, she regularly went on hunting trips. The frontier beyond civilized space featured plenty of untamed planets where alien environments bred strange and dangerous exobeasts. They were even used as graduation tests for the Swordmaidens a long time ago. Every fully-fledged Swordmaiden had to hunt at least one exobeast on their own with just some basic clothes on their back and their trusty swords at their side. Ketis had completed this test and so did Dise. The difference between the two was that Dise grew addicted to the experience. The tracking of her prey, the wait for the right opportunity and the glorious confrontation where she sought to stay alive against powerful creatures made her feel more alive than ever! The accomplishment she gained from vanquishing an exobeast that weighed many tons and could easily crush her body flat with a single blow was indescribable. She rarely gained the same degree of stimulation when she fought against enemy mechs. It just wasn't the same as human opponents used their brains to compensate for their lack of power. Dise didn't enjoy the mind game aspect of fighting against other humans. She much preferred to fight against opponents who forced her to rely on her instincts and her skills to overcome her challenges. In this battle, she began to feel some of those dormant desires returning from hibernation. The effect was even stronger due to the fact that she was fighting against bestial mechs instead of humanoid mechs! As the difficult struggle continued to progress, Venerable Dise increasingly had the illusion that she was fighting against a pack of three ferocious exobeasts instead of mechs piloted by people like herself. The more she felt this way, the more she developed the urge to hunt them down like she had done many times in the past. From the moment she started to see her current opponents as prey rather than peers, her piloting style underwent a subtle and indescribable shift. After so much time had passed where the Swordmaiden expert pilot was engaged in high-intensity combat, she had become a lot more familiar with the First Sword. Sure, she practiced with her expert mech before, but performing maneuvers under calm practise sessions was never as good as getting thrown in a trial by fire! Under the threat of death and worse, Venerable Dise pushed herself as hard as possible so that she could refine and master her control over the First Sword! The dwarven expert pilots were cruel taskmasters. They exploited every mistake she made and ruthlessly taught her a lesson whenever she became overconfident. However, with the help of her dwarven 'tutors', she rapidly managed to flesh out her new post-expert mech fighting style and become more effective at piloting the First Sword. This showed in the way she managed to evade more attacks and created more opportunities for her to make a counterattack. Once she seriously began to snap attacks at her opposition, the Hivar Roarer expert pilots had become a lot more alarmed. "Evil witch! You don't deserve to use that masterwork mech!" She smirked. The angrier the dwarves became, the better she was doing. The dwarven expert mechs weren't blind to what was happening either. Though Venerable Merek was content with the progress that he and his fellow dwarven expert pilots had accomplished, they were still far from breaching the First Sword's defenses! "The human expert pilot is getting stronger!" "We need to achieve a breakthrough." "Then go in deep! I'll lead the way!" Venerable Merek realized that he was fighting against an inexperienced expert pilot who still had much room for improvement. If that was the case, then playing it safe was no longer the wisest strategy. He had to finish this fight as quickly as possible in order to strangle his opponent when she was still manageable! The switch happened abruptly. Just as Venerable Dise became accustomed to the rhythm of the enemy attacks, now she was back to fighting for her life as the Paravad eschewed hit-and-run attacks in favor of applying constant pressure! It was as if she was being attacked by a giant bird that was out for blood. The Paravad assailed the First Sword with a combination of claw and beak attacks. Sometimes, the avian expert mech smacked the humanoid expert mech with its wings, more for distraction than to inflict damage! It took everything that Venerable Dise had and more in order to fend off the aggressive assault. Venerable Merek was a talented mid-tier expert mech who possessed an abundance of skill. With the Paravad assaulting the First Sword madly from the front, the other two expert mechs focused on attacking from the flank and rear. "Taste the power of dwarven engineering!" Claws and gauss rounds pounded the areas where Venerable Dise couldn't muster up an adequate defense due to the necessity of keeping the raging Paravad at bay! The expert swordsman mech was getting hit at a faster rate! All of the shaking and rattling from receiving powerful blows was probably not doing the internals any favors. Already Venerable Dise could tell that more and more components were switching from green to yellow conditions. Though this was not necessarily a cause for alarm, the margin for error became smaller and smaller. Those stressed components could easily start malfunctioning if they continue to endure concussive shocks. As the dwarven expert mechs kept piling on the pressure, Venerable Dise continued to release more sweat as she tried to keep her mech in working condition. At one point, something within her boiled over. The hunter was never supposed to be the hunted. The prey that were trying to take her expert mech down were but mere bestial mechs that possessed limited, rigid movement restrictions that should still be exploitable to an experienced hunter! "I see your weakness!" Venerable Dise shouted as she adopted a bloodthirsty grin! The First Sword turned and parried the next attack of the Paravad with exquisite timing. While the expert mech piloted by the hero of the Hivar Roarers tried to recover quickly, the Decapitator swung true and managed to slice off half of the wing of Venerable Merek's proud machine! With the excellent sharpness and power of the masterwork mech sword, the Paravad's armor stood no chance! "Impossible! How can this incompetent human harm my beautiful expert mech?!"