Chapter 5488 Conservation of Momentum Of the 12 mechs brought by the Larkinson hunting team, it became clear which ones carried the show. That was not to say the other mechs underperformed. The lone Huntmaster served as an adequate scout and possessed the greatest sensitivity towards the actions of the Giant Stone Eater. If not for the presence of Ves, the spearman mech that excelled at hunting would have surely made a greater impact in the fight. The three Crystal Lords failed to inflict any serious damage at first glance, but their steady and consistent kinetic beam attacks constantly forced the Giant Stone Eater to split its attention. This was especially the case now that the large earth monster had directed all of its attention to eliminating the more serious swordsman mechs up close! Unburdened by the need to suspend their attacks and frantically evade incoming exploding rocks, the mech pilots of the gleaming reflective rifleman mechs devoted a lot more focus towards aiming and firing their rifles. In circumstances like these, the Crystal Lords leveraged one of their greatest strengths, which was their ability to achieve pinpoint accuracy while launching many repeated attacks! This was not too unusual among rifleman mechs armed with energy rifles, but the crucial difference here was that these older mechs were able to inflict pure kinetic damage due to the odd properties of their luminar crystal rifles! Any other physical weapons such as low-tech ballistic guns inevitably produced varying degrees of recoil. Even high-tech gauss rifles produced recoil due to conservation of momentum, though the impulse was usually smaller with longer barrels. No matter what, few powerful kinetic weapons could remain completely still when fired. This was what made luminar crystal rifles loaded with kinetic beam attack phase crystals so special. Conservation of momentum still applied in this case, but in a bizarre case of alien tech wizardry, kinetic beams did not actually possess any significant mass when they launched out of the muzzles of the luminar crystal rifles! It was as if the rifles fired kinetic rounds that effectively massed less than a single hair! By taking advantage of the fact that they retained the accuracy of energy weapons while inflicting damage as if they were kinetic weapons, the luminar crystal rifles inflicted devastating surgical damage on a narrow section of rock armor and resilient flesh that connected a catapult arm to the top of the Giant Stone Eater's torso. If not for the fact that the defensive and regenerating properties of the highly mutated beast were so insane, the catapult arm would have been amputated by this time! Even so, the Giant Stone Eater was not able to attack as freely as before. By neglecting the consistent precision fire from the three Crystal Lords, the beast had to redirect a greater part of its power to strengthen the defenses of its catapult arm while also regenerating all of the damaged flesh that impaired its functioning. This led to many consequences. The most critical one was that the Giant Stone Eater was unable to muster enough energy to summon the forest of spikes too many times. Though the large beast rooted in the middle of the crater had access to an abundant supply of earth energy, its consumption was equally as large! It had to reinforce its entire body to keep it covered with thick stone armor. It had to fire many rock shark rifles at the same time in order to exert pressure onto the Monster Slayers. It had to launch its explosive rocks at the very same Monster Slayers to slow down their advance. It also had to channel a lot of earth energy to all of the existing spikes in order to keep them strong enough to pose a threat against mechs. Aside from that, it had to power a lot of other processes in order to maintain a strong front against all of these mechs! "The Giant Stone Eater was beginning to run an energy deficit for the first time." Even though the mechs and mech pilots of the hunting team were also draining their reserves at a rapid rate, they at least made more progress than the Arrow Gods of last time! In short, the suppression from the Crystal Lords not only prevented it from replenishing the existing spikes, but also caused the damaged catapult arm to become less accurate and responsive. It was even starting to fall behind its healthier counterpart, which meant that the Monster Slayers found it a lot easier to evade the lone explosive rocks! All of these conditions shifted the circumstances in the favor of the Monster Slayers. These key swordsman mechs mowed through the expansive forest of spikes with greatswords that glowed with the sharp and metallic shine of brilliant reinforced blades. Each swing cut through the spikes and caused them to collapse. The hundreds of spikes that the Giant Stone Eater summoned before all got whittled down in a matter of minutes! Still, the mechs had not been able to remain unscathed during this time. The damage inflicted by the 16 rock shard rifles placed at the lower end of the stone beast's torso had inflicted significant damage over time. Unlike the mutated beast, the Monster Slayers did not possess the capacity to regenerate their dented and beaten frames over time! The good news was that much of the damage was confined to their exterior armor. The relatively thin layers of armor plating did their jobs and absorbed any unavoidable damage before they could damage the more crucial internal components of the mechs. The Swordmaiden pilots also deliberately shifted the facing of their mechs in an attempt to spread the damage over a much larger surface area. Combined with their constant efforts at evasion, they managed to preserve their combat ability by the time they swept apart the last spikes that barred their way forward. "The beast is within our reach!" "Be careful! We do not know what the Giant Stone Eater is capable of at close range." "Don't go all out! Poke it first and see how it will counterattack." The Giant Stone Eater clearly became more agitated due to the approach of six threatening machines. "Thrust!" "Slice!" "Cut!" The Swordmaidens did not dare to underestimate the threat posed by the beast that outmassed their mechs by a large margin. They simply steeled their willpower and channeled much of it into the greatswords of their mechs. The Monster Slayers eagerly responded to the guiding will of their mech pilots and did their own part to produce a weak form of resonance that enhanced the power of their blades. Through this deep and intricate form of teamwork, the swordsman mechs simultaneously managed to penetrate the thick stone exterior of their prey with greater ease than normal! Though the effect was not as smooth as they wished, Captain Gheri and her fellow Swordmaidens rejoiced when they saw that their weapons were effective at cutting through the beast's stone armor. The only issue was that the Giant Stone Eater was already beginning to repair the damaged rock by filling up the gaps, the Monster Slayers just commenced another run where they managed to inflict multiple wounds. Each time the relatively fast and agile mechs struck, they always reserved a part of their power in case they needed to evade a powerful counterattack. However, the larger and clumsy beast failed to respond adequately to the close assaults. Aside from the rock shard rifles which appeared to find it much more difficult to stay on target against mechs that made fast lateral movements at closer ranges, the only other offensive tool was the explosive rocks thrown by the catapult arms. Seeing that the mechs had come so close, the catapult arm made an extreme move and threw the explosive rocks down at exceedingly steep angles! BOOOOM! booooom! Though the targeted Monster Slayers weren't entirely able to escape the blasts at such close range, the explosions happened to inflict a lot of damage to the mutated beast's rock armor! The results were clear to everyone. The affected stone armor had partially shattered. A web of cracks ran through the surface. The extent and magnitude of the cracked stone made it a lot harder to restore them to their former conditions. "Hah! The stupid beast has done more damage to itself than our greatswords. If we can fool this monster into doing this a dozen more times, we'll be able to crack its armor in no time!" "Don't celebrate too soon." Captain Gheri frowned as she beheld the Giant Stone Eater with greater vigilance than before. "Its intelligence isn't as low as it looks. It has gotten close to evolving to a calamity beast. We need to maintain our vigilance. Do not hesitate to absorb your attacks the moment you see anything wrong." Although the Swordmaidens valued the importance of maintaining control, it became more and more challenging for them to rein in their aggression. They had so much power at their disposal now that they had developed an extensive degree of cooperation with their mechs! In the heat of battle, their urge to prove the strength and commit to more serious attacks continued to grow stronger. However, the harsh and brutal training of the Swordmaidens always emphasized the need to maintain control. Aggression was good, but only when they leashed it and kept it under their control. From the moment they released their control and gave in to their more primal and savage urges, they would lose the majesty and deliberate swordsmanship of the Swordmaidens! This was how the 6 aggressive Swordmaiden pilots ultimately managed to shackle their bloodlust. The Swordmaiden Sword Style's more extraordinary moves all required a high degree of control in order to pull them off. Any smidgen of inattention could cause a complicated move to lose its support, thereby making it difficult to produce extraordinary results through ordinary means. Ves was able to witness this in the cockpit of one of the Hymenopterans. The more he studied Ketis' work over the past year, the more he figured out the general working principles behind this novel new combat approach. "It is remarkable how these mech pilots are able to fight like quasi-expert pilots, but... mech pilots outside of the Swordmaidens will face an uphill battle in trying to replicate this feat." He concluded. The Heavensworder pilot in the cockpit nodded. "We have all tried to study and practice the new methods devised by Swordmaster Ketis. Theoretically, other swordsmen should be able to do the same, but somehow it is only the Swordmaidens who have succeeded so far. We hope that we may be able to master it in time after we continue to polish our skills and willpower in challenging hunt, but we may have to grind away for years before we can reach the level of Captain Gheri and her sworn sisters." It was not easy for these ordinary mech pilots to overcome their lack of talent. It did not help that they had aged past the prime of their lives. This was a common characteristic among the mech pilots who chose to transfer to the side branches. Though the continuous exposure to E energy radiation should gradually increase their chances of breaking through, an increase in probability did not translate into a certain outcome. In a galaxy where the enemies of red humanity constantly grew stronger and more threatening, it was incredibly useful for standard mech pilots to become as effective as quasi-expert mech pilots in battle! Ves fully recognized the value of Ketis' work and hoped that she would be able to flesh it out so that it became more accessible to mech pilots outside of her own posse. Just as he thought about how he could help Ketis improve her latest work, his eyes suddenly widened as Blinky detected a surge of earth energy! "Watch out! The beast is about to make a big move!" The sensitive living mechs had already issued their warnings to their mech pilots a split-second before. Captain Gheri's prudence paid off as the cautious Monster Slayers neatly turned around and sprinted away from the threatening beast as fast as possible! Even so, the Giant Stone Eater channeled a lot of power onto its left side. This section happened to feature a lot of stone armor that had been cracked by its own explosive rocks. From the moment the earth beast channeled a lot of power into this damaged section, the cracked stone armor exploded from its body and showered the nearby area with lots of heavy stone chunks! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Though most of the Monster Slayers were nowhere close inside the area of effect, one of the machines got struck by multiple powerful blows at once! Not only did the shards manage to penetrate the vulnerable rear armor, but one of its legs also got struck, causing it to deform out of shape! "Mech down!"