Chapter 6366 Ves Larkinson's Combat System "Hahahaha!" Ves grew more and more enthused as he began to exert much greater power than before! It turned out that Ves had vastly underestimated the difference that good equipment could make. The hyper nanomachine plagues were never designed to serve in this capacity, but because of a series of happy coincidences, they inadvertently served as the perfect base for his raiment. His successful experiments with the nanomachine plagues inadvertently caused him to figure out his own combat system. Smart metal was the best way to go forward. It was malleable, adaptable and could take on many different forms. In order to test this out, Ves raised one of his arms and replicated the enlarged fists that he had originally designed for the C-man. With another thought, a tail of darkness extended from his backside, imitating the autonomous tail that added a bit of playfulness to the Devil Tiger! These quick experiments proved that Ves could practically replicate most of the design elements of his smart metal mechs! So long as the nanomachines were capable of replicating the smart metal configurations of his past mech designs, he could instantly use them to summon any piece of equipment that he wanted! There was a huge potential in this, but he was currently limited by time and lack of nanomachines. Engulfing his original raiment wasn't enough. He needed a lot more smart metal if he wanted to clad himself with a much larger and more versatile piece of equipment! Ves gazed at the archeshell underneath him with greater hunger and desire. Though the nanomachine plague still found it difficult to eat through the shell itself, the flesh underneath should be a lot easier to devour and digest! As if driven by his growing desires, more pieces of his smart metal raiment fell off in order to speed up the effort to pierce through the thick archeshell! With the help of a pair of mechs and the growing injection of darkness energy, Ves made such great progress that he was finally able to create a solid breach into the flesh barrier! Although the arche phase lord's massive true body tried to resist and close the gaps by injecting a lot of phasewater-infused blood and tissue, the hungry nanomachines forcibly overcame the resistance and continued to dig inside the alien's body with great enthusiasm! Even when faced with the corrosion of spatial activity from all of the phasewater, the nanomachine plagues proved to be resilient enough to persist long enough for them to devour flesh and reproduce! The quantity of nanomachines rapidly grew. These ones were different and weaker due to the integration of different materials, but they were undoubtedly part of the same strain as they hungrily devoured more pieces of flesh in order to obey their primary directive! The arche phase lord that got infected by the living smart metal machines began to feel what was taking place inside his own body and began to panic! The alien thrashed so much that he had lost his coordination with his fellow phase lords. "Careful! The archeshell ball is breaking apart!" The deteriorating unity between them ultimately caused their highly defensive formation to collapse, causing them to split into 5 separate phase lords again! This not only made the arche phase lords a lot more vulnerable, but also showcased how much worse the most heavily injured phase lord was doing! The nanomachine plagues proved their worth and more. Though their continued incompatibility with phasewater hindered their efforts a lot, it just so happened that the true body of a lesser phase lord was not too saturated with phasewater, which meant that there was plenty of organic tissue that the nanomachines could safely devour! The more the phase lord was getting eaten from the inside, the more he began to thrash like an uncontrollable beast! The arche phase lord was not entirely defenseless against internal infections. He mobilized his spatial abilities and his own inherent control over his body to squeeze out as many nanomachines as possible! Yet for all of the ones he managed to remove from his body, more seemed to take their place as the nanomachines spread through the other parts of his body doing their own thing. "What is happening, professor?" "The nanomachine plagues have settled into his body. Even now, his own alien blood circulation is spreading the destructive plagues into his gigantic heart and phasewater organs. The damage is negligible for the moment, but it will become a lot more serious once the nanomachines have grown their numbers. The phase lord is doing his best to destroy or remove them in any way possible." "We can't let that happen! We need to distract the injured phase lord and hasten his demise!" The first-class multipurpose mechs began to assault the infected arche phase lord from every direction! Although his cracked and damaged archeshell was still able to resist a lot of damage, the front of his body was much less able to resist repeated attacks. The other 4 arche phase lords tried to help their colleague by surrounding him from multiple directions, but their efforts were not sufficient now that they had broken out of their earlier formation. In order to distract the infected phase lord from dealing with the nanomachines tearing through the softest pieces of his flesh as if they were at a buffet, Ves chose to charge forward and distract the enemy as much as possible! One of the healthier phase lords moved forward to block his attacks. Ves' smart metal-covered staff repeatedly smacked into the limbs of the lesser phase lord. The alien adversity uttered soundless hisses as the repeated injections of darkness energy caused the alien limbs to grow numb and weak. Although the arche phase lord did not launch any powerful attacks, Ves grew more frustrated his attempts to break the limbs of his opponents achieved very limited success. The arche phase lord's limbs were definitely becoming more and more injured, but the rate of deterioration was so low that it was taking too long! Fortunately, the surrounding first-class multipurpose mechs lent him a hand by bombarding the phase lord with their formidable arsenal of weapons. The arche phase lord in question lurched as the concentrated attacks repeatedly targeted his weakest side. All of the distractions created by Ves and the first-class multipurpose mechs greeted gaps that enabled other mechs to launch attacks at the weakest and most injured of the enemy group. "Professor Larkinson!" "Yes?!" "Can you grapple or restrain one of these arche phase lords?" "No. My body isn't as large or massive as theirs." "Then can you step up your offensive and keep the enemy in front of you occupied? The arche phase lords look as if they are about to resume their offensive against Fort Rock." "I will try!" Ves had been thinking about how he could flesh out his newly discovered combat system even further. With the nanomachine plagues at his beck and call, he should have a lot more options at his disposal. A thought came to mind. He stripped himself of his nanomachine plagues, commanding them to disperse in tens of thousands of smaller cat shapes. The nanomachine plagues no longer stuck by his side, but began to disperse across the battlefield in an attempt to devour any pieces of debris they came across! Ves needed more of them in order to unlock their greater potential. His current true body was quite large, which also meant he needed a lot more smart metal in order to create anything good! Exposing his true body and his face to his enemies was a great risk, but Ves no longer feared his enemies as much as much anymore. At this stage of the battle, many of the enemy phasefighters and warships had been demolished. The greater phase lords were fighting for their lives. Meanwhile, the 5 arche phase lords in front of him had proven to be weak at offensive. He did not strictly need a raiment to keep himself alive, though sending his nanomachine plagues away weakened his connection to the power of darkness. Even so, Ves made a deliberate choice when he exposed himself. "Aliens!" He transmitted in the open while beating his chest with his fist! "Your target is here! If you want to kill me, then come and claim my head yourself! As long as you eliminate me, you can complete your mission and die with honor! So what are you waiting for? Attack!" Despite all of the problems the arche phase lords had endured, they still looked committed to the fight. When Ves presented himself to the native aliens in a manner that could not be ignored, the arche phase lords quickly recalled their original missions. The weapons of mass destruction and the unceasing attacks launched by the human first-class multipurpose mechs had inflicted a lot of damage to their archeshells and psyche. As old and wise as they may be, they had endured a huge amount of pressure. They hated this dangerous mission and wanted to retreat back to alien space as fast as possible. From their perspective, destroying Fort Rock was secondary to claiming Ves' life! Although it made strategic sense for them to destroy the space fortress with the big cannons and strong interference measures, the arche phase lords knew they could get rid of their troubles much faster if they completed their mission ahead of time! Since the whole point of traveling so deep in human space was to assassinate the human mech designer in front of them, the arche phase lords completely threw any thoughts about ramming Fort Rock aside and advanced towards Ves instead! "I've managed to catch their attention! What do I do next?!" "Try and see if you can lure them away from Fort Rock. The more they leave it alone, the more it can help us control the battlefield." Ves already began to orient himself so that the arche phase lords would have to move away from their previous target. As they moved away from Fort Rock, the arche phase lords gained in strength as they came under less suppression and interference than before. This made life harder for Ves as his spatial barrier had to resist stronger attacks than before. The arche phase lords also became increasingly tougher and more resilient, making it even harder to defeat them than before! This pattern persisted for a couple more minutes. Multiple first-class multipurpose mechs had to withdraw and retire from the battlefield after sustaining too much damage, but at least the native aliens were no longer threatening Fort Rock. Just as the arche phase lords regained enough strength to be able to catch up to Ves, a wave of darkness and malevolence converged from many different directions! The nanomachine plagues had returned! Not only that, but they had all expanded the size of their swarms! Even though they all had the option to stay away from Ves, they voluntarily answered his call and came back to him so that they could be used by him once more. As the expanded nanomachine plagues gathered around Ves, they surrounded him in such a thick layer of nanomachines that it no longer became obvious that a human phase lord was hiding inside! Under Ves' direction, the nanomachine plagues continually shifted in shape until they began to take on a different and unexpected form. "Is that… a giant cat?" "No. It's a tiger!" Ves impulsively decided to follow his whims and ordered the nanomachine plagues to condense into the shape of his Devil Tiger! As they obediently tried to imitate the form and also several of the smart metal mech's internal systems, Ves could feel the growing power at his disposal. Choosing to replicate one of his smart metal mechs had been the right decision! Compared to any other ad-hoc shape he could form, the smart metal mech that he had meticulously designed and optimized once upon a time clearly offered superior combat performance! As Ves completely immersed himself in the shape of a feline mech-like construct, the harmony between him and the nanomachine plagues grew even stronger! His grin grew wider even as the copy of his Devil Tiger exposed its sharp and deadly fangs. "Let me show you the power of my Devil Tiger!"