Chapter 7173: Subtle Influence Though the Ascended Giant needed to rest his overstrained body, he only needed a short time to allow his unnaturally strong constitution return to a more tolerable state. The Unshakeable King wasted no further time and began to charge forward, intent on fishing the job! Yet just as he was halfway to closing the distance, an accident occurred! A handful of the servos on his legs unexpectedly malfunctioned, causing the Unshakeable King’s rhythm to become interrupted! Though he could still power through this unexpected event, the momentary break in momentum caused him to halt. "What... did you do, foul human?" Blinky grinned like a cat that got the canary. "I did nothing. You are solely responsible for your own misuse of your equipment. Did you ever bother to read the manual of your raiment? This thing was never designed to facilitate such violent motions! The developers of your raiment built it like a tank with the expectation that you would fight like one. Your attempt to mimic a charging beast has clearly exceeded the tolerances of your armor, causing it to wear down at an accelerated rate, especially when you burst into motion with extreme force." The Unshakeable King had been so adamant about keeping his new capabilities secret that he had neglected to test them thoroughly enough! This clearly proved the Ascended Giants had become so authoritarian that they had neglected the sensible advice and recommendations of their staff officers. Just because the Ascended Giants assumed they were gods did not mean they were infallible. They could still be wrong because they clearly did not possess a lot of expertise in many fields, most notably a technical understanding of their raiments. Servos and motors were not necessary in most light raiments as the physical prowess of an Ascended Giant was more than sufficient to maneuver with so much mass attached to their bodies. The same could not be said for the kind of heavy raiment that clad the Unshakeable King’s form. While it was outdated, it was truly a good example of robust engineering. Its developers had configured it with the expectation that the Unshakeable King would carry forth the Ur-Titan tradition of being defensive bulwarks. Enhancing mobility was therefore an afterthought, but in order to make sure that the phase lord could carry all of his bulk around without growing too sluggish, the raiment still contained a number of servos, just like heavy combat armor. Of course, it could still be argued whether these servos were necessary considering that phase lords were still considerably stronger even accounting for their exaggerated sizes. Blinky continued to grin as Ves criticized the meathead even further. "We allowed you to wail on us not just because you were doing a good job at abusing your own raiment, but also so we could take the measure of you. We know how fast you can move. We know how much force you can put behind your weapon swings. I have already calculated the force amplification of your Impact Hammer mechanisms. I know how this tech works. I understand its strengths... as well as its weaknesses." The Unshakeable King did not move. The more he listened, the more he frowned. There was a part of him that urged him to disregard the alarms transmitted by his raiment and continue to charge forward. A true Ascending Giant did not need to rely on armor in order to defeat his opponents! He would purge his heavy combat armor if that would help him close the distance faster! Yet just as this insane idea could take root, the Unshakeable King’s discipline reasserted itself and squashed it into pieces! This was not a sound strategy! To discard the enormous defensive advantage of his raiment was a completely uncharacteristic notion. He would never come up with such an idea during normal times! It was at this point that the Unshakeable King realized that something greater was amiss. When he forced himself to reflect on his recent words and actions, he realized that he had comported himself in a completely different manner than he should. The strategos broke his own rules and answered too readily to his adversary’s provocations. Even now, the Unshakeable King’s had to resist several tempting but ultimately stupid ideas to go on the attack. One of them even called for throwing one of his hammers at the Dark Apostle! "You dishonorable cur." The Unshakeable King pinned his opponent with an accusing stare. "You did this to me. There is something about your presence that is quietly forcing me to lower myself to your level. What foul human sorcery have you cast on me that is responsible for clouding my judgment?" "Do you think I would be stupid enough to give you the answer?" Blinky huffed and swished his black-tipped tail. "We did nothing aside from exposing your true self that is hidden behind your stoic mask. If you were truly as noble and exemplary as your public persona suggested, then you would have shown such an ugly face to your fellow Ascended Giants." Only Ves and the Dark Apostle knew that the reason why the Unshakeable King behaved with fewer scruples and inhibitions than before was due to the Corrupting Orb. Ves had not wasted the recent golden lottery ticket prize. He had thought about how he could put it to good use in the upcoming duels. There was no time to develop anything fancy, so he simply decided to create a hidden slot inside all of the raiments that just happened to accommodate the new artifact. By surrounding it with darkness hypers and channeling more darkness energy into it, the Corrupting Orb strengthened its capacity to corrupt the minds and spirits of anyone that came in close proximity. Ves and the Dark Apostle were virtually immune to the orb’s insidious influence, but the same could not be said for others! The Unshakeable King’s mentality, discipline and phase lord endowments may have granted him much more resistance than most, but one of the dangerous aspects about the Corrupting Orb was that it exploit any chink in the armor. Even the greatest of heroes possessed one weakness or another. The Corrupting Orb played in on that, ignoring what others were good at in favor of preying on their weakness. Although the Unshakeable King was not an ordinary figure, his mind and spirit were still relatively weak compared to his undaunted true body. The close proximity of the earlier confrontations combined with the Unshakeable King’s existing mental flaws meant that the Corrupting Orb only needed to induce a few small pushes here and there to induce a significant change in the human phase lord’s behavioral pattern! Although it was a pity that the Unshakeable King caught on to his own abnormalities so soon, Ves was still happy at the results. The Unshakeable King’s unambiguous words exposed his treasonous thoughts and ideas to both enemies and allies. There could be no mistaking his positioning, and Ves had every right to defeat and kill this traitor to the human race. There was a difference between killing a beloved hero and killing a traitor that would have led them to damnation. The Dark Apostle finally activated the plasma edge of his weapon. The Teragon Plasma Spear finally assumed its proper form. The Minor Demon locked inside the D-arm had been waiting long enough for this moment. It had become far too frustrated at all of the heavy defensive actions! That was not all. The Dark Apostle’s Flame Lord Raiment entered into a second phase of readiness. Heat radiated from different ports and most notably the backpack module as the large reactor had become fully active! The Dark Apostle already felt a lot of heat wrapped around his physique. The insulation of his raiment was rather poor due to lack of time and capacity, so the phase lord had little choice but to allow his enormous true body to act as a makeshift heatsink. The flood of fire energy converging from the surrounding environment completely overshadowed the other elements. This included darkness energy which actively sought to shy away from all of the hot and scorching fire energy! All of this fueled the D-arms even further. Their energy levels had become notably higher. The flight system mounted in the rear even spread out and produced flaming wings! The Unshakeable King observed all of this. His raiment tried to analyze what was going on and make sense of it, but it was unable to come up with any coherent answers. Now that he had recognized his own faults, the Ur-Titan leader resolutely slipped back to his old ways. He did not choose to stand his ground, but instead lifted off and floated in the air. "I see you have decided to get serious now, Larkinson. Come join me in orbit. Let us end this fight in space. That is the true arena of our kind." The more pragmatic reason for insisting on fighting in space was that the Unshakeable King did not have to strain his raiment that much when fighting in space. His flight system as opposed to his legs were responsible for his mobility. There was less chance of equipment failure if he relied on the former to move around. It was already designed with a lot of rigorous activities in mind. The Dark Apostle did not refuse this invitation. He could have charged and forced the Unshakeable King back onto the ground again, but he too preferred to fight in space whenever possible. It took a bit of time for both of them to ascend to an acceptable height. The Unshakeable King finally stopped and maintained orbit while adopting a full defensive posture. He even activated his Tarsei organ to affix his body into the same relative coordinates and make him fully live out his name for becoming unshakeable. The Unshakeable King did not mount any offensive actions. He simply hovered in place and silently invited for the Dark Apostle to go on the offense. "The Unshakeable King seeks to exhaust us to death. His earlier displays of martial valor should have earned him a hefty amount of points. He can afford to stall us for the remainder of the duel. It is not honorable, but it was a much more effective approach." "We must go on the offensive as we originally planned." The human phase lord accurately judged. "Forget about other goals or side objectives. We must solely set our sights on the greatest threat." As the Corruption Orb took a backseat due to concentrating so much fire energy, the Teragon Flame Spear and the Flame Lord Raiment both sought to have a taste of phase lord blood! The Dark Apostle became determined to oblige them. He called upon their power and charged forth like a comet soaring through a star system! As the attacking party came close to the Unshakeable King, the Dark Apostle suddenly experienced discomfort and involuntary slowdowns as changes in gravity along with strange illusions was doing its best to distract him from his mission! This was the lesser Tarsei organ at work. It served as an excellent way to prevent starships from escaping the star system and to secure high-risk adversaries. Though the Dark Apostle already anticipated a move like this, he still grew clumsy despite all of the psychological preparation. Yet despite his lack of experience and the newness of his newly acquired fighting skills, the Dark Apostle pushed through all of these hindrances and thrust his plasma spear forward just as twin hammers either sought to demolish the plasma weapon or successfully blast it out of its current owner’s grip! "As if that would work!" Short of striking the Unshakeable King’s bulky form, an energy construct grew from the tip of the spear and struck the phase lord’s spatial barrier! The briefly empowered Teragon Plasma Spear burned with unnatural hotness. Its tip had lengthened and was able to inflict damage considerably easier with the help of the extra reach! The spatial barrier of the Unshakeable King began to suffer intense blows! Though the human phase lord tried his best to compensate, his twin Impact Hammers felt like a burden and his maneuverability in space was not too great.