Chapter 5448 More Than A Phase Lord The second-class hyper mech arrayed before Ves possessed a simple design. It was a landbound hero mech that was equipped with a simple laser rifle and a relatively short truncheon. Neither of these weapons seemed overly threatening. Even if they managed to overcome his spatial barrier and hit his naked body, they would not be able to pierce through his skin and damage his sensitive organs. That did not mean that Ves looked forward to getting hit by these armaments! It would definitely hurt if he got struck by a powerful whack or a burning laser beam! Ves had gained a better understanding of his fighting capabilities as a phase lord. His lack of combat training was painfully evident. The bots had frustrated him multiple times due to his inability to execute his intended moves or his failure to read the actions of his opponents. These were basic but essential skills that every properly trained mech pilots mastered before they graduated from the mech academy! Part of the reason why it took at least 10,12 or even 15 years for mech cadets to complete their education was to train all of these fundamental combat skills. Ves completely lacked this sort of training, so his combat fluency was not much better than a complete civilian. Becoming a phase lord did not magically stuff his head with martial arts skills or whatever. He just gained an oversized body and the ability to perform a few spatial abilities. If Ves wanted to become proficient in combat up close and at a distance, then he needed to undergo focused training in these aspects! "Be careful, Ves. Our mech is about to attack. Try and resist as seriously as you can. Do not hesitate to defeat it with all of your means. Don't worry about the mech pilot. The cockpit is built according to the standards of a first-class multipurpose mech, so you won't be able to break it open that easily, especially when we have prepared other redundant protective measures." Though Ves could never really trust whether all of these measures could save the life of the mech pilot, he was unwilling to hold himself back. He needed to know how well he could fight against a real mech. This was why he was willing to cooperate with the mechers and trust that they had their act together. The opposing hero mech made the first move by running backwards while also raising its hyper laser rifle straight towards Ves! The pilot was skilled enough to launch an accurate snapshot at Ves in a single smooth motion. Ves slightly blinked at the bright flash of light. A fiery hyper laser beam had struck his spatial barrier! While the attack was not transphasic in nature, the hyper tech incorporated in the weapon added a lot of fire energy to the attack. This caused the fiery laser beams to strike significantly harder than normal! Ves was no longer in his prime condition. His short rest only allowed him to catch his breath and improve his condition by a small extent. That was a bit troublesome. His body possessed enormous energy reserves, but once they had been depleted, it would take a lot of time as well as nutrients to replenish what he lost. His spatial barrier flared repeatedly as the opposing hero mech never let up on its attacks. Though Ves did not feel too threatened by these attacks, it was a bad idea to let his current adversary drain his defenses for free. Ves did not even bother to run towards the distancing machine. His running speed was not as good as the opposing machine. He simply activated all of the phasewater throughout his body again and accurately teleported right next to the mech in question! Ves quickly launched a transphasic punch at the hero mech, only for the slippery mech to evade the attack in time! The hero mech not only managed to slide back like a slippery eel, but also launched a shot of its hyper laser rifle, causing Ves' spatial barrier to flare with burns once again! The outburst of light and flames interfered with his sight, but did not block his other senses. His Locos organ alone had become sensitive enough to perceive the presence and movement of mass in space. Ves ignored the fire laser beam attacks as best as possible and launched himself towards the hero mech again! However, the hero mech easily read his movements and always succeeded in evading in the right directions. Ves grew more frustrated at his inability to express his strength properly. It was not until he utilized his Maracos organ to unexpectedly bend the space around the hero mech that he was able to mess up his adversary's movements! Crash! Ves finally managed to inflict a heavy blow against the hero mech's energy shield! While the energy shield was not transphasic in nature, it was enhanced by the water element, which significantly reduced the damage of kinetic impacts. It would take a few more attacks in order to break through this defensive barrier! The hero mech already slipped away before Ves could land another attack. The machine did not try to avoid a confrontation. It not only fired its rifle whenever possible, but even chose to counterattack by striking its steely truncheon at his spatial barrier! Ves could sense the strong metal element hardening and improving the attack power of the physical blows. His spatial barrier was losing stability at a distressing rate. It appeared that the Red Association's application of hyper technology was on a higher level compared to the rest of the mech industry. He would have loved to sit down and study the more refined and optimized application of hyper technology, but that was currently not possible. Ves had a fight to win! The use of hyper technology gave Ves a bit of inspiration. What if he employed E energy as well? He could just treat himself as a hyper biomech. Ves had already gained proficiency in a number of 'spells' related to the five elements. He first tried to reinforce his spatial barrier with the water element in an attempt to mitigate the damage inflicted by the hyper laser rifle. However, Ves soon discovered that his ability to feel and manipulate spiritual energy had suddenly become worse! "WHAT?" Ves tried to keep the hero mech occupied by occasionally teleporting to its side and launching a transphasic punch that could not be avoided. He quickly discovered that his sensitivity to E energy had dropped. His body had grown a lot larger, and that kept his own Spirituality a lot busier. However, the more important reason why he was unable to command the various elements he had grown familiar with was because the space element had become far too dominant! His true body was filled with phasewater. His sensitivity to spatial phenomena had been raised by a drastic degree. It was as if a star that represented the space element shone so brightly that all of the other stars had dimmed in comparison! This was an annoying effect and it prevented Ves from pulling off the tricks he planned before. Though he was pretty sure he could still force himself to command the various elements, it was much easier to stick to spatial manipulation which benefited from the support of his entire body. "WAIT A SECOND." This was a match where he was able to employ all of his means. He still possessed two trump cards that he had yet to employ. First, his Jutland organ had become integrated in his phase lord body. Ves gained access to a lot more Worclaw energy than before, and now that he had unfolded his true body, he felt he could harness it a lot easier as well! Second, he also had Blinky and his other incarnations at his disposal. Ves was not a true warrior, so he had no qualms about relying on external help to beat his opponents. Once he made this realization, his eyes grew sharper and his glow became more intense. "Mrow!" His dramatic increase in body size did not translate to Blinky. His companion spirit still looked as small as a regular house cat. It was hard to imagine that such a small critter could make a meaningful difference in a fight of this scale. However, the Star Cat possessed a number of strong advantages. First, the cat began to disgorge a large amount of earth energy from the Blinkyverse. As an inherent spiritual entity, Blinky was able to skillfully control the earth energy so that it became integrated into Ves' transphasic fist. The earth element possessed an antagonistic relationship with the water element, so it was the best choice to break the hero mech's water energy shield. That was not enough. The organ that replaced his heart became hotter and more active as Ves purposefully drew out the Worclaw energy that was locked in a cycle inside his chest! Ves felt a lot more danger as he tried to draw out this mysterious and potent energy, but that made him look forward to its power even more! Once he accumulated the Worclaw energy into his earth and phasewater-empowered fist, it began to exude so much power that he was barely able to keep the energies in control! Crack! Ves immediately disappeared from his previous position and appeared right next to the hero mech! The mech pilot was not stupid. He had already commanded his machine to evade in a random direction just before Ves had pulled off his displacement maneuver. A medium hero mech was not light. Its typical characteristics made it impossible to perform instant evasions, especially when it was not equipped with powerful boosters. However, the mech pilot possessed keen battle instincts that had been honed through relentless training and a sufficient amount of battles. Combined with the fact that Ves had repeatedly utilized his teleportation ability during the fight, the pilot successfully managed to prevent his machine from getting struck head-on by the multi-empowered fist! Though Ves grew incredibly frustrated that his sneak attack had missed, he was unable to control all of the combined energies, causing them to suddenly explode from his fist at once! B000M! A surprisingly powerful blast of energies erupted from his supposedly failed attack, causing Ves to get pushed back by the force of his own outburst! The energy shields that protected the floor of the testing chamber flared considerably as they struggled to resist the forces. The hero mech quickly appeared into sight. Its water energy shield had been unable to withstand the powerful forces. Not only that, but the left side of its torso as well as its rifle arm had suffered significant damage! Ves' eyes lit up as he saw the results of his experimental approach. He gained a bit of inspiration and tried to pull off another move. Though the hero mech had tossed aside its damaged rifle and dashed forward in order to overwhelm Ves with a flurry of sword strikes, the inspired phase lord did not take these attacks too seriously. Blinky disgorged a large quantity of water energy to reinforce his spatial barrier and reduce its vulnerability to the metal element that enhanced the hyper sword. Meanwhile, Ves drew out a bit more Worclaw energy. Even though his oversized body had massively increased his reserve of this energy, his Jutland organ was not able to replenish it that quickly, so he had to be careful about squandering it too quickly. When Ves had gathered this Worclaw energy into his palm, he tried to combine it with his spatial abilities, but failed as there was no obvious way to combine them together. He shrugged and simply chose to combine it with E energy instead. "Mrow!" Blinky no longer reinforced the spatial barrier, but instead channeled as much fire energy to his palm as possible. Ves did not sense any particular synergy between fire-attributed E energy and Worclaw energy. They were completely different types of energies that did not intersect with each other in any obvious fashion. This increased its mystery even further. Ves still had little idea what it was and why it was not related to the other forces he was familiar with up to this point. He could wonder about that later. The hero mech had inflicted significant damage to his spatial barrier. His main form of defense was not going to last much longer! "BE CAREFUL!" Ves deliberately pointed his palm a bit downwards before he unleashed the mix of fire and Worclaw energy in a powerful and uncontrolled discharge! B000000M! The much greater quantity of Worclaw energy produced a much violent outburst that instantly crushed the legs of the hero mech before it was able to complete its evasion maneuver! The energy shields protecting the floor flared much brighter this time, but still managed to hold together. The fight had come to an end. Ves consciously started to relax. He already felt a bit tired after straining his phasewater organs and expending a significant portion of his Worclaw energy. The latter was a much more precious resource to him. It had made a crushing difference in this bout. Ves realized that so long as he kept enough Worclaw energy in reserve, he no longer had any reason to feel threatened by one or several second-class mechs! Of course, he would have a much harder fight on his hand if he was unable to muster enough of this highly potent energy type. He was frankly disappointed by his basic fighting capabilities as a phase lord. He clearly possessed the ability to compete against mechs, but his awful fighting skills and lack of familiarity with his new capabilities held him back. As Ves continued to evaluate his combat performance, the damaged hero mech had already been dragged away from the testing chamber. A much more powerful machine took its place. Ves immediately felt a much stronger presence as one of the first-class multipurpose mechs of the Bluejay Fleet came into view. He immediately felt intimidated by the powerful tech and the transphasic hyper modules of its cutting-edge design! "Ves, your body signals indicate that you are still able to persist in a fight. We would like to ask for your cooperation and test your ability to fight against this mech. We do not expect you to win, but it would be helpful for the both of us if we can play this scenario out in reality." "UHH... OKAY..." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞 Now that he came face to face with one of the strongest standard mechs in use, Ves no longer felt as invincible as before. Bang! Phasewater-infused blood spilled from his injured body as Ves collided against the shielded wall just 40 seconds after the match had begun! His nanosuit featured multiple holes as well as awful looking burns as Ves endured several painful plasma attacks! The first-class multipurpose mech hovered like an invincible metal deity in front of Ves. Its completely intact azure energy shield showed that it had not been threatened from beginning to end! "Well that is a clear outcome." Jovy said.