Chapter 6006 Ultimate Power The sparring session was about to enter a new phase. Saint Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson already proved that he could avoid the attacks and overcome the linked energy shields of the RA mech squad. With 3 of their number down and out of the fight, the remaining 9 machines had much less of a chance to rely on their numbers advantage to take down a powerful machine that they could not pin down! Ves chuckled at the sight. This bout was an illuminating experience for him. First-class multipurpose mechs tended to carry a huge amount of weapon modules and other nifty features in their mech frames. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶 All of these additions continually increased the mass and volume of the mechs to the point where they had to be sized a little bigger than second-class mechs to accommodate all of their gadgets. That did not necessarily mean that they were slow. Every top-tier first-class multipurpose mech of the Hyper Generation came equipped with potent hyper power reactors and high-thrust transphasic hyper flight systems. The combination of both granted these machines powerful straight-line acceleration capabilities. This meant that as long as they traversed longer distances in straight or gently curved trajectories, they could theoretically catch up or surpass the Dark Zephyr! However, whoever designed these first-class multipurpose mechs only made moderate attempts at increasing their agility and short-distance maneuverability. Ves understood the logic behind the decision. The first-class multipurpose mechs carried way too many weapon systems and other modules ranging from plasma weapons, positron beam weapons, gravitic weapons, missile launchers, ECM systems and more. There was no way they could maneuver as fast as light mechs while hauling all of that baggage! In comparison, the Dark Zephyr's only means of attack was a pair of lightweight stormblade knives and a small Ultimate Module. This was why the Dark Zephyr dominated the maneuvering game to such an extent! The expert light skirmisher should have struggled to evade the attacks of the RA mech squad a lot more if Tusa was still an expert pilot. His ascension to ace pilot completely changed the game. His skill increased too much and his Saint Kingdom amplified the performance of his Dark Zephyr by a much greater extent. There was no way the mechers could move quickly enough to strike the Dark Zephyr up close or at a distance! This was why the first-class multipurpose mechs did not even attempt to win the maneuvering game. They instead abided by the most appropriate strategy for them, which was to rely on their formidable defenses and their most appropriate offensive solutions. The Dark Zephyr's knife attacks were strong, but the RA mech pilots encountered stronger attacks in the past. Their mechs should be able to fend off the expert light skirmisher for at least a short amount of time. The use of shotguns, flamethrowers, high-explosive missiles and other area-of-effect weapons should have been enough to damage fast-moving opponents. Unfortunately, most of these weapon solutions lost too much of their potency as soon as they entered the Dark Zephyr's Saint Kingdom! Tusa felt no more threat from his remaining adversaries, so he decided to finish this sparring session on a high note by testing the offensive capabilities of his Dark Wind Module for the first time! There were still a number of new and old features of the Dark Zephyr that he had yet to trial. For example, the Dark Zephyr still retained his old Endless Paths hyper ability that allowed him to produce half-illusionary clones of himself. The archemech also hadn't employed his new Electronic Gremlin System. Tusa saw little point in trying them out. He was already familiar with the Endless Paths ability, and the Electronic Gremlin System was too low-tech and lacking in sophistication to ever be able to hack the most vulnerable modules of a state-of-the-art first-class multipurpose mech. The only feature that excited him now was the Dark Zephyr's exclusive Ultimate Module. "Blackwing, give me a hand!" "Chip chip!" In tandem with Tusa's breakthrough, his companion spirit also became a lot more powerful! Blackwing had gained a domain of his own, allowing him to control and harness shadow energy to a much greater extent. This hadn't been obvious before as the Dark Zephyr's Saint Kingdom was just so much stronger. However, as soon as Blackwing entered the Dark Wind Module and began to imbue it with greater shadow energy and true resonance, he was finally beginning to show how much more assistance he could provide in combat! The avian companion spirit still had a long way to go before he became as powerful and useful as Emma, but at least he managed to surpass all of the other companion spirits of the Larkinson Clan. "Mrow!" Even Blinky grew jealous at Blackwing's impressive leap of strength. The Star Cat may have the advantage in versatility and long-term potential, but Blackwing's current hard power already carried the shadow of the 'dark gods' that the Larkinsons fought against in the past. Therefore, when Blackwing began to amplify the Dark Wind Module, some of its parameters began to shoot up by as much as 200 percent! This was not a surprise to Ves. As an advanced hyper module, this innovative device was designed to scale particularly well with a rise in energy levels. As Blackwing not only allowed Tusa to resonate stronger with the Dark Wind Module, but also draw in a lot more shadow energy, the Ultimate Module finally reached a potent charged state! Ves' eyes lit up as he recognized that the Dark Wind Module was able to exert more power due to another variable. "Ultimate Runes! It has already acquired a handful of Ultimate Runes!" The principle of an Ultimate Module was that it was supposed to contain a subordinate spirit of the living mech. Ves came up with the idea that the Ultimate Module could accumulate its own separate version of Ascension Runes, but all of this had remained theoretical for the time being. It was only now that the Dark Wind Module was charging up that he obtained empirical proof that it was truly capable of forming its own Ultimate Runes! "It must have gained them when Tusa broke through!" Normally, it should have taken months before the Dark Wind Module naturally formed its first Ultimate Rune, but the current situation had fast-forwarded this process. Shadows continued to surge towards the Dark Zephyr as the expert mech very obviously radiated a huge amount of threat. Major Simon Jankowski was barely able to resist the pressure owing to his stronger willpower, but the other mechers failed to maintain their full concentration despite their excellent training against such effects. From their perspectives, the Dark Zephyr had surpassed the definition of a mech and started to turn into a giant shadow monster that was just about to sweep through their mechs with a single flap of his wings! "WATCH OUT!" An enormous streak of shadow ran through multiple first-class multipurpose mechs at once! The Dark Zephyr had not only burst forward in an instant, but also activated the Dark Wind Passage hyper ability for the first time. The results were dramatic as a thick streak of shadow energy ran from the expert mech's starting point all the way to a distant location over two kilometers away! The trail of shadow energy finally started to fade as the Dark Zephyr slowed down and leisurely turned around. In the meantime, Ves carefully studied the state of the multipurpose mechs that got struck by the shadow streak. The changes did not become apparent right away, but as the seconds passed by, four mechs began to malfunction. Their limbs froze up. Modules began to lose power. Sensor systems and other delicate components started to crumble and break apart as the shadows had weakened them past their breaking points. Not everything crumbled into shadows. Much of their tough transphasic armor plating and reinforced components still managed to stay in one piece. Nonetheless, the lethality of the Dark Wind Passage Ultimate Ability centered around its capacity to directly compromise the weak points of a target! Armor and other forms of protection failed to block the Ultimate Ability. This was why the affected first-class multipurpose mechs all started to lose so many modules at once. One of the downsides of employing a lot of miniaturized modules was that each of them were not particularly tough! This caused them to be a lot more vulnerable to the weakening effect of Dark Wind Passage. As four powerful RA mechs lost much of their combat power, the remaining RA mech pilots all lost their remaining battle intent. They still had hope of eking out a victory or losing this bout in a graceful manner, but the Dark Wind Passage had been the straw that broke the camel's back! Unless they received additional reinforcements, there was very little point in continuing this bout. The mech pilots weren't stupid. They recognized that the Dark Zephyr could have reaped their lives if the newly upgraded machine aimed his Dark Wind Passage directly through the cockpits of their mechs. Tusa instead opted to follow a trajectory that allowed the Dark Zephyr to damage the more peripheral components of the first-class multipurpose mechs. While this may have allowed the RA mech pilots to preserve their lives, they failed to salvage their pride. They knew they had lost this battle. Venerable Tusa and his companion spirit was a powerful combination, and the Dark Zephyr was much more powerful than a typical quasi-first-class high-tier expert m,ech! How could Major Jankowski and his remaining subordinates ever take down Professor Larkinson's most perverse mech to date? They still wouldn't be able to restrain the Dark Zephyr until they brought additional mech squads, particularly ones that excelled at enhancing friendly mechs while debilitating enemy ones! "Our mechs are not configured to counter an ultra-maneuverable high-ranking mech. We… never stood a chance." Saint Tusa clearly sensed the shift in morale, so he purposely slowed down his expert mech and weakened his Saint Kingdom. The shadows around the Dark Zephyr began to fade. The machine also sheathed his stormblade knives. Throughout this short but intense sparring session, the Dark Zephyr did not incur any damage. Although the Dark Zephyr radiated much less threat than before, nobody could forget how extensively he dominated his adversaries! "I am done for now." Tusa transmitted in a completely relaxed tone. The expert mech turned around and flew back to Diandi Base. This signaled the definite end to Tusa and the upgraded Dark Zephyr's bombastic demonstration of power! Ves was happy beyond belief as he flew back to base as well. The short but highly impactful sparring session told him that one of his dreams had finally come true. The Larkinson Clan finally gained the power to defend against the Red Two. Not completely. Far from it. Right now, the Larkinsons could only put up a very modest fight against just a fraction of the enormous military might of the Red Association and the Red Fleet. Yet that was already enough for Ves to buy time to slip the Red Two's leash and run away if he wished! "This is real progress." Ves did not feel secure enough. The emergence of a single ace pilot may have elevated the Larkinson Clan, but it still had a lot to go before it could enter into the big leagues. The Larkinsons at least needed to nurture half-a-dozen additional ace pilots and pair them all up with first-class ace mechs before they could effectively deter most threats! That was still too far away for Ves. He first needed to think about arranging yet another upgrade for the Dark Zephyr. His Mark III incarnation had only existed for a brief amount of time, and already he had become obsolete! Even if the Dark Zephyr had been designed with an ace mech upgrade in mind, Ves still did not look forward to puzzling out the logistical issues of this necessary process. As Ves returned to the mech workshop so that he could conduct a very thorough inspection of the willpower-baptized archemech, he suddenly halted in the air as he came across a shocking sight. Gloriana stood in his path while plastering the widest grin across her face. "Good news, Ves! I managed to break through! I have finally managed to catch up to you! You can call me Professor Gloriana soon!" "That… that is great news!"