Chapter 7334: Not Effective "Sir!" The Divine Harpoon contacted his superior. "The Ixith Goliath has exceeded our expectations multiple times. Its apparent threat level matches our most pessimistic scenarios. Do you wish for us to commit or would you like to initiate a tactical withdrawal?" It was fair for the strategos of the Faceless Giants to ask this question. The strength and capability demonstrated by the Ixith Goliath already made it as dangerous as a senior ace mech and a particularly developed one at that. While it was not impossible for the Ascended Giants to inflict a lot of harm against this alien champion, they would have to withstand elevated risks if they wanted to participate seriously in this historic encounter. The Dark Apostle genuinely found it difficult to decide whether it was a good idea to throw his men against this exceptionally powerful Goliath. The strength disparity was too big and obvious! However, if the Ascended Giants withdrew from this battle so soon, then not only would they paint themselves as cowards, but the morale of all of the remaining defenders would definitely plunge, which would exacerbate their losses! Those poor sods did not deserve such a fate, and the Dark Apostle did not want to receive the stigma of abandoning his comrades in the line of battle. Even if it was obvious to everyone that the humans were outmatched, not everyone was able to buy into this excuse. In a time where the Phase Lord Department had garnered a lot of infamy and had yet to redeem itself among the big shots of red humanity, the Dark Apostle did not want to end his unit’s deployment in such a shameful manner. Besides, he had yet to truly utilize all of his new toys. He refused to believe that he could inflict any damage to this large organic opponent! "Advance!" Under the arrangements of the Divine Harpoon, the Ascended Giants split into several different groups. The Ur-Titans assumed the vanguard positions while the Faceless Giants hung back in order to serve as backup. The giants themselves did not believe that the Faceless Giants could make much of a difference in this battle. Their strength was simply too weak to inflict much harm onto the Ixith Goliath, and their relatively thin superdimensional raiments made them vulnerable to getting killed. Even so, the Faceless Giants themselves did not want to back off entirely. Before Ves and the Dark Apostle fully invested themselves into battle, they briefly checked up on Saint Orfan’s condition. Gloriana had been keeping a careful eye on the Riot Mark III. No matter how far it had mutated from its original form, she still felt at least somewhat responsible for its subsequent development. "I have been busy with transmitting soothing messages to Rosa Orfan." She reported to her husband. "I am not entirely certain whether they are effective, but the Riot Mark III has not made any further moves so far. The withdrawal of nearly every voribug combatant has left her without any immediate enemies to vent her aggression. We were afraid that she would turn her Destroyer spear towards our allies, but she has managed to contain this urge. Right now, she is trying to fight to regain control over herself." "How soon do you think she can return to a more controllable state?" "I honestly cannot say, Ves. Progress is slow but also difficult to track from the outside. Saint Orfan may be able to return to sanity in the next minute, or she may need an entire day to regain control. I do not think it is wise to develop plans based on her availability. The sequelae of your experiment relating to your ’adversarial mech’ is simply too severe. Even if she is able to pull herself out of her current mind state, a confrontation against the Ixith Goliath may drag her back into an uncontrollable frenzy. In short, I do not recommend you base your battle plans on her availability." "We may not have any other choice, Gloriana. Victory demands a champion who can defeat an opponent that is equivalent to a greater phase lord or a senior ace mech in strength. The closest candidate that comes to mind is Saint Dise and her D-mech." "What about you? Didn’t you manage to win the leadership challenge not too long ago? You and your other self proved to be a potent combination all on your own. Compared to back then, you are much stronger now that you have built yourself a proper set of superdimensional gear." Blinky sighed. "You overestimate us, honey. Our scale may be larger than the others, but our but your body is still as small as a mouse in front of a monstrosity like the Ixith Goliath. Its superior mass, reach, strength and other factors will make it difficult for us to achieve much results. Our superdimensional gear is strong, but our extraordinary factors are too weak. The Riot Mark III is our only hope. It has the perfect combination of superior equipment, abundant combat experience, battle-honed intuition and strong extraordinary factors. At the very least, her attacks have a much greater ability to overcome the resistance generated by stolen resonance." "Then what do you want us to do then? Do you want us to wake up your hero?" Ves felt conflicted for a moment. He was torn between two competing interests. On the one hand, it would be best for Saint Orfan’s development if she woke up by herself. On the other hand, they truly needed her combat power in the fight against the Ixith Goliath. "Let her sort out her own problem for the time being." He eventually responded to his wife. "I have faith in her. No ace pilot is average. Even if she is very far removed from the norm, her basic quality as a Saint is still guaranteed. If she is a champion who loses control over herself too easily, then she cannot be depended upon on the battlefield at her current stage. It would be better not to include her in our battle plans." Gloriana accepted these arguments. "Since that is the case, we should prepare for evacuation. We need to make sure we can distance ourselves from the Ixith Goliath if the situation deteriorates even further." The communication channel closed. "It sounds like we need to confront the Level 8 Goliath without the Riot Mark III." The Dark Apostle stated. "Are you scared?" The Ascended Giant grimaced beneath his helmet. "Does it count if I say I don’t know? Our gear is good enough that we can gain a slight advantage, but only if the big guy has already exposed most of its tricks. I am not confident enough we can do more than preserve our lives if the Ixith Goliath is a lot deadlier than expected." The Goliath HIve invested a lot of resources into bringing this megavoribug to life. There was no way this enemy was as simple as it appeared on the surface. "The good news is that the swarms have grown scarcer." Ves reminded his other self. "The Goliaths are much more difficult to deal with when they are surrounded by swarms of cannon fodder bugs. The Ixith Goliath cannot replicate that because many of the bugs have already been eliminated in advance. Even if there are a few sparse swarms left, the Faceless Giants and other supporting units should be able to wipe them out with ease." This was a major advantage, but it might not last. The more time passed by, the more the Goliath Hive could reinforce its units with swarms sent from the outer system. As the groups of Ascended Giants closed in, the Ur-Titans cautiously approached the giant Goliath and began to strike with their plasma halberds. The Ixith Goliath barely noticed the attacks. The plasma halberds were fine weapons when used against smaller and weaker megavoribugs, but proved much less effective when striking the resonance-empowered shells of this large foe! The only instances when they managed to inflict more effective damage was when they struck the holes in the exoskeleton that had not fully healed. Yet the results did not satisfy the giants. "The shell is too thick and strong. Our plasma halberds can only burn shallow grooves onto the surface." "Targeting the weak points isn’t working either. This resonance-empowered flesh is resisting our attacks. It takes too much power to burn this biomass!" "The Ixith Goliath isn’t even paying attention to us. It is continuing to prioritize other targets!" Aside from tearing apart an orbital fortress, the limbs of the Level 8 Goliaths occasionally flailed towards the surrounding ace mechs whose Saint Kingdoms impacted the massive creature a lot more severely! What did this indicate? It told everyone that the Goliath had little to no reason to take the Ascended Giants seriously! This revelation injured the pride of every giant! "Just because we do not have resonance does not mean we can be ignored!" The Divine Harpoon roared to the men. "Forget about the plasma halberds. Draw your superdimensional weapons and proceed to carve into this monstrosity’s exoskeleton. Make sure you limit your attacks to the outer shells." The Ur-Titans did as commanded. They switched to the weapons originally assigned to their phalanx. The hull-grade superdimensional halberds had been attached to their backs all this time. Now, they pulled out the sharp and tough polearms while putting the plasma halberds in their place. The weapons felt a lot cooler but more solid in their armored hands. With their superdimensional armaments, the Ascended Giants did not fear getting blocked by the enemy’s stolen resonance! When the Ur-Titans struck once again, the blades of their superdimensional halberds carved straight through the tough organic matter without encountering too much resistance! 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎 Although the Ixith Goliath predictably started to regenerate the wounds in real-time, the Ur-Titans did not let up and continued to swing their weapons at the giant target. All of this savagery compounded the damage and caused parts of the Ixith Goliath’s exoskeleton to weaken. However, the problem was that the difference in size still limited the magnitude of the damage. Ves had the illusion that a bunch of armored mice tried their best to gnaw at the body of a thick-skinned bear. While the comparison was not completely accurate, it still indicated how little of a difference the giants were making. The only real consequence this time was that the Ixith Goliath finally started to take the ’mice’ a little more seriously. Though it still prioritized other targets over the giants, it began to spare a bit of its time to swipe its claws at the Ur-Titans! The difference in reaction speed and mobility was too great. Before the Ur-Titans registered the attack and attempted to move away, the claw had already arrived! Each Ascended Giant struck by the claw immediately launched away from the Level 8 Goliath! "No penetration!" Fortunately, a single claw strike was not enough to breach the superdimensional raiment. While the resonance-empowered claws managed to cut grooves into the hard and dense matter, it would take multiple strikes in the same place in order to break the superdimensional armor. The Ixith Goliath could easily make this happen if it focused its full aggression on an Ascended Giant, but it did not deem that to be a worthwhile use of its time. The Ur-Titans that had just been struck by the Ixith Goliath quickly recovered and resumed their offensive! So long as their raiments could withstand more hits, they did not fear the Level 8 Goliath! They persisted in their halberd attacks and tried their best to open up the exoskeleton so that other powerful units could bombard the gaps in the defenses. While this tactic made it easier for warships and orbital stations to inflict effective damage, they suffered the same problem as the giants. Their extraordinary factors were too deficient! Aside from the modest boost provided by hyper technology, conventional arms simply weren’t effective enough against the Ixith Goliath.