Ves grinned widely as he continued to sit in the observer's seat in the Spirit of Bentheim's bridge. Though Venerable Tusa had gone through a few twists and turns, he successfully proved his combat prowess and achieved the admirable feat of defeating two formidable expert mechs by himself! The significance of this victory couldn't be overstated. By handling the threat of Dukes of Hawkes without any backup, a lot of other expert pilots were able to handle the other champions of the Sundered Phalanx without getting outnumbered. Not every bout between expert mechs progressed favorably to the Hexers and the Golden Skullers. The Hex Army particularly fell into a disadvantage during this battle. The dynasties of the Hex Federation had sent out too many low-tier expert mechs that were piloted by expert pilots that had only broken through during the Komodo War. There was nothing wrong with their skills and their expert mechs weren't too bad, but the Gauge Dynasty had dispatched a higher proportion of older and much more experienced expert pilots to Pima Prime. In fact, the Gauge Dynasty also sent plenty of younger war veterans to the Red Ocean, but the local leaders had concentrated the stronger ones in Pima Prime, as it just so happened to be the star system where they were stationed in as well! Due to this subtle difference, multiple Hexer expert mechs already incurred considerable damage. Naturally, there were also situations where the expert mechs of the Hex Army and the Golden Skull Alliance gained advantages over their opponents. This way, neither side possessed any clear advantages. The Dark Zephyr may have secured a powerful advantage at the right flank, but it would take time for Tusa's personal victory to cascade into other advantages on the battlefield. "There is so much going on that I can't pay attention to everything that is interesting." Ves softly complained to himself. "Meow." Lucky responded. "Hey, that's a good idea, actually. Why didn't I think of that before?!" Ves concentrated for a moment before Blinky emerged out of his head. Mrow! The Star Cat shook as if he had just woken up from a nap. After lapping at his fur for a few seconds, Blinky lazily floated besides Lucky and settled down in the air to observe the projected live feeds of the battlefield. Though Ves found it a bit weird to track two different parts of the battlefield at once through his own eyes and the eyes of his companion spirit, he slowly got used to this new mode of observation. Blinky pretty much functioned as a split personality to Ves, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem for him to maintain two trains of thoughts at the same time. His efficiency in analyzing battle scenarios had dropped, but Ves got much more done in the same amount of time. "You might as well come out and enjoy the show as well, Vulcan." An incorporeal dwarf wearing modern dwarven armor emerged from the Hammer of Brilliance. The gruff, bearded design spirit sat down on an invisible seat and fully showcased the parallel thinking process of a pre-divinity by tracking over a dozen different live feeds at the same time! Of course, Ves himself wasn't able to process that much action at all. Vulcan merely kept track of everything and notified his principal whenever something noteworthy took place. It turned out that a lot of interesting clashes had begun at the center of the battlefield. The melee mech units from both sides had finally collided against each other! Large numbers of mechs organized in mech divisions, mech regiments and smaller organizational units adopted all kinds of formations as they systematically tried to fulfill their respective roles. Different mech designs and different mech doctrines violently tested themselves against each other. It was only on the battlefield where the works of Ves and many other designers truly proved their worth! Ves initially focused his attention on the most basic mech of the Larkinson Clan, which was the humble Bright Warrior. Of all of the older mech models that he had updated in recent years, the Bright Warrior Mark II Version B was definitely one that challenged him more than any of the other ones. This was because upgrade projects such as the Transcendent Punisher Mark II and the Ferocious Piranha Mark III did not really change the essence or the fundamental concept of their designs. Both of them fought them in the same way, but possessed much better specs due to replacing their older parts with newer ones made out of superior tech and materials. Ves hadn't been satisfied with repeating this approach for the successor of the old Bright Warrior. The original third-class version of the Bright Warrior had provided a stellar boost to the early Larkinson Clan. The use of Breyer alloy which was much better than any other material that Ves could obtain at the time allowed Ves to equip his troops with crucial trump cards that could crush other ordinary third-class mechs in battle. The original meaning of the Bright Warrior got a little lost after the Larkinson Clan transitioned into a second-class organization. Breyer alloy no longer provided a substantial advantage over the enemies of the clan. Ves and Gloriana had therefore chosen to reorient the Bright Warrior concept around its modularity and its impressive compatibility with many different mech pilots. "It's a good concept, but it has become a lot less special, especially as we developed newer and better mechs." It was easy to decide to develop a straightforward updated edition of the Bright Warrior, but Ves did not want his first true mech line designed for the Larkinson Clan to turn into a boring and generic starter mech. He recalled that he had puzzled so much over this issue at this time that he had eventually called up the Larkinson Mandate. "Goldie. Do you have any ideas on how I should reinterpret the Bright Warrior?" A beautiful Golden Cat emerged from the heavy tome and pressed her head against Ves in a friendly and affectionate greeting. Nyaaa nyaaa nyaaaa. "I'm glad you are satisfied with the current configuration of the Bright Warrior, but it should really be able to do more than serve as a channel for you to spread your influence and derive spiritual feedback. What else would you like me to add in the mech design? You should already know that I am much more adept in spiritual engineering than in the past." Goldie actually fell in thought for a time. Nyaaaa nyaaa nyaaa. "That… is actually not a bad idea." Ves became surprised as Goldie came up with a suggestion that he had never considered before. "Now that I think about it, this is a brilliant suggestion! It is definitely a possible path that we can take to elevate the Bright Warrior model." The Golden Cat was connected to every member of the Larkinson Clan, so she knew what the Larkinson mech pilots wanted from their mechs the most. According to the ancestral spirit, the pilots of the Bright Warriors were pleased with its wide compatibility and excellent flexibility, but these traits also made it so that they never got exactly what they wanted out of their mechs. The Bright Warrior was a four-sizes-fits-all solution. Mech pilots had little choice but to pick one of the four 'sizes' and adapt to their choices as much as possible. The suggestion that Goldie gave to Ves turned this interaction into a two-way street. What if the mech was the one that adapted to the mech pilots? Goldie wasn't referring to the living traits of the Bright Warrior mechs, but their technical configurations. Properly speaking, the Bright Warriors were classified as semi-modular mechs because they came with a limited selection of swappeable mech configurations. While Ves didn't have to throw away this concept, he could expand upon it by adding additional modularity to the entire Bright Warrior system! As the idea sounded more and more compelling to him, Ves quickly summoned a design interface and called up his Bright Warrior designs. He loosely modified them by removing a few unnecessary elements and adding all kinds of modular hardpoints across their frames. "What if I add slots to the shoulders so that the mech pilot can choose to mount turrets or missile launchers onto the mech?" "What if I add another slot to the rear so that the mech pilot can choose to bring extra ammunition or energy cells to the fight?" "What if I make the flight system modular so that individual mechs or mech squads can mount different models that excel in different circumstances?" "What if I design a whole suite of varied weaponry that perform better in different roles and battles?" Ves' imagination went wild that day! His need to elevate the level of the Bright Warrior drove him to draft all kinds of varied equipment and modules! All of these ideas added to a determination that the design concept of the Bright Warrior could truly catch up to the needs of the Larkinson Clan again if he executed it to the fullest! "This… modularization of the Bright Warrior might be the key to maintaining its relevance to our clan. You're a genius, Goldie!" Ves grinned and kissed the glowing cat's head! Nyaaaaa~ Ves polished and organized his scattered ideas into a proper draft design and design proposal. He could already imagine the Bright Warrior Mark II's changing his clan for the better. "The keywords here are modularity and choice." Ves affirmed. "While the Bright Warrior still comes in four main flavors, you can sprinkle additional seasoning or ingredients on top of it depending on the needs of the mech pilot or the mech unit." He could already tell that introducing the modularized version of the Bright Warrior would definitely increase the logistical burden of the Larkinson Army! This was because in order to give every mech pilot a lot of choice, it was essential for the clan to fabricate and stockpile a large and varied collection of modules and external equipment! For example, the swordsman mech version of the Bright Warrior no longer had to wield the same model of longsword like every other copy of this mech. The mech pilot finally gained the option to choose from a greatsword, a broadsword, a saber, a pair of swords or even a blunt weapon! Ves and Gloriana just had to alter the design of the Bright Warrior so that it could more easily handle all of those different weapons with vastly different characteristics. Aside from being able to choose between different weapons, the mech pilot should also be able to choose additional modules such as shoulder-mounted guns, short-range sensor systems, grenade holsters and more! Despite all of these additional burdens, Ves became too enamored with the idea to give up on it. As long as his clan did not stockpile too many unnecessary pieces of equipment and produced them on demand as much as possible, he believed it should be viable to implement this new and more personalized version of the Bright Warrior! Ever since Ves finally completed the upgrade project, a lot of Bright Warriors began to show up that no longer looked identical to each other. Ves had left it up to the individual mech legions to decide how they wanted to handle the personalization rights. Some mech legions prized uniformity and chain of command, which meant that the mech officers in charge of a unit usually decided on the modular configurations. Others granted more autonomy to the mech pilots, which meant that the users of the Bright Warriors could configure it exactly to their liking! Whatever the case, Ves had noticed a clear and major jump in pilot satisfaction for his new product! This was why the Larkinson mech units based around the Bright Warriors looked a lot more varied and eclectic. "It's kind of like an online game where every player has chosen to equip their modular mechs with the equipment that they brought with cash or earned through their own efforts!" The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!