Venerable Orfan grew desperate and frustrated when she saw that the Shockshell had overcome the first layer of defense of the First Sword. Though Venerable Dise's expert mech was not as fragile as other comparable expert swordsman mechs due to the protection afforded by its Unending alloy armor system, it was far from sufficient against an opponent as powerful as Venerable Rebecca! The Shockshell itself possessed the capabilities to penetrate the First Sword's armor. As soon as it had overwhelmed the Larkinson mech's resonance shield, it had channeled extra power to its transphasic weapon systems in order to amplify their damage potential and enhance their penetration characteristics. The difference it made was clear! Whenever the Shockshell fired its shoulder-mounted gauss cannons at the First Sword, the solid rounds punched deeper into the armor than before! Though the limited power and caliber of the gauss cannons were ultimately not enough to ensure its firepower could punch through the First Sword's Unending alloy armor plating directly, just hitting the expert swordsman mech already caused its surface layers to crack. What was even more dangerous was the shocking quality that Venerable Rebecca's powerful will imparted on the rounds, the First Sword also froze and became jerky for an instant. Together with the electric bolts fired by the chest-mounted electrorods and the positron beams fired by the wrist-mounted energy cannons, the Shockshell was able to electrocute the First Sword to such a degree that the latter simply couldn't operate as smoothly as before. This was a devastating debilitative effect to an expert pilot that relied on high control to operate her expert mech to the fullest! "I love tearing apart fancy expert mechs like yours the most!" Venerable Rebecca laughed as her stormy willpower enhanced the shock quality of her expert mech's electrical attacks. "It doesn't matter how tough your armor is. It will be easy to dispose of you once I shock you into paralysis!" The First Sword's armor might not possess any transphasic properties, but its sheer density and hardness still provided it with enough protection provided that the Shockshell did not concentrate its attacks on any weak points. Although the Shockshell's offensive might was strong, it also happened to possess a single major shortcoming. The expert hybrid mech lacked a sharp weapon that could penetrate through strong armor plating! Though the Fridayman expert mech's transphasic shock hammer, transphasic concussion shield and transphasic shoulder-mounted gauss cannons were designed to inflict shock damage that could bypass the armor and directly damage the vulnerable internals of a mech, there were still limits to everything. The Gauge Dynasty had not invested as much phasewater in the Shockshell as the Cross Clan had done for the Mars, and it showed as the First Sword stubbornly resisted the vibrations and electricity coursing through its exterior. Though numerous internal components were beginning to get worn down, Venerable Dise tried her best to protect and preserve these vital parts by infusing them with as much true resonance as possible. She had to give up on launching sharp and powerful attacks in order to do so, but the Swordmaiden expert pilot understood that she had no chance of defeating the Shockshell by herself. Venerable Dise's only hope of overturning this battle was to buy enough time for Venerable Orfan or another friendly expert mech to come bail out her First Sword! She couldn't do it alone! As the Shockshell constantly bombarded the First Sword with electric attacks, it became increasingly harder for Dise to muster up the strength of her machine. It was as if the Shockshell was slowly eating away at the First Sword's control mechanisms. Even if the First Sword's armor remained intact, it risked freezing up if it continued to be bathed by electrical current. Fortunately, she could still rely on a bit of help to mitigate the storm of attacks. The First Sword itself had grown a lot since its initial creation. Even though it wasn't a masterwork expert mech, the mech still gained enough awareness to do everything it could to preserve its integrity. What also helped was the Decapitator greatsword that was in the First Sword's hands! As a masterwork mech weapon that Ketis had personally forged, the weapon had not only been infused with a piece of its creator, but also possessed a strong life of its own! Since Venerable Dise constantly channeled it with her willpower, the Decapitator had grown even sharper and more unyielding than before. Sword and wielder were one and the same! The incredibly strong bond that Venerable Dise had forged with the Decapitator allowed the First Sword to achieve greater results with its weapon than before! Right now, Venerable Dise was thinking hard on how to reduce the damage to her expert mech even further. Her only hope of doing so was to rely on the Decapitator, the vessel of her power. Through the heavy pressure that the Shockshell exerted onto the First Sword, Dise's mind and will became so active that the Swordmaiden expert pilot finally came up with a crazy but daring idea! Dise's eyes shone brightly as her resonance with the Decapitator had reached a peak! "Cut through the storm!" A blinding light escaped from the Decapitator as its wielder swung it down with great force! The Shockshell responded quickly and already backed out of the range of the Decapitator, but the wide sword energy manifestation tore through the electrical current generated by the high-tier expert mech's electrorods and forcefully silenced the surrounding space! For a few seconds, Venerable Dise's overwhelming need to dispel the storm and calm the space in front of her expert mech remained dominant. However, Venerable Rebecca furiously pushed back and proceeded to launch electrical bolts and bursts at the First Sword! The strength of their willpower was not comparable! Venerable Dise might be able to buy a bit of time by bursting out with all of her strength, but her opponent could easily squash the resistance with just her regular focus! "You are too young and weak to challenge an old soldier like me." Venerable Rebecca taunted even as her Shockshell continued to grind down the First Sword through a combination of melee and ranged attacks. "Challenging me was the most serious mistake you have ever made. Do you truly think that expert pilots such as myself who are closest to ace pilot can be challenged by the likes of you? You are at least half a century too young to earn my recognition!" Although Venerable Dise had already made the wisest choice by shutting off the open communication channels to prevent her from hearing her opponent's words, it wasn't effective. This was because Venerable Rebecca possessed so much strength and control over the surrounding space that she was easily able to convey her words to Venerable Dise by her force of will alone! Venerable Rebecca Andus might sound confident, but she did not slack off in the slightest. A battle between expert pilots was also a battle of the mind. The more she was able to disturb her opponent's mental balance, the easier it would be to overwhelm the opposing expert mech in combat! With Rebecca's resurging power, the brief outburst from Dise lost effect. The latter did not give up, though. She spontaneously channeled her power in various different ways in order to create a defensive technique that could better cope against the storm that was zapping away at the First Sword. Eventually, the First Sword held its Decapitator upright and turned it into a makeshift lightning rod! Much of the electrical current that previously struck the First Sword's chest as well as other vulnerable parts now became attracted by the large and thick greatsword! Though the Unending alloy sword endured greater stresses as a result, its transcendent, masterwork qualities helped a lot with reducing the influence of Venerable Rebecca's willpower. This significantly reduced the amplification that made the electrical attacks so shocking and difficult to deal with. The remaining insulating and damage resisting properties could cope with the remaining electrical damage a lot easier as a result. Venerable Dise felt a lot more relieved. Though her situation was still bad, she bought a bit more time for herself. In a way, the Swordmaiden expert pilot felt thankful for Venerable Rebecca for teaching her the importance of developing more defensive techniques. With her sword as the instrument of her will, Venerable Dise came up with one trick after another. She spontaneously adapted her existing sword style and created a host of new extraordinary techniques that defended her expert mech against attacks in different ways! In one moment, a shield of pure sword energy blocked the electrical storm. In another moment, the Decapitators swept out and actually managed to cut the two solid projectiles that the Shockshell fired from its shoulder-mounted gauss cannons! As Venerable Dise continued to dredge the less explored parts of her power in order to generate new defensive techniques, her opponent had long grown annoyed at the blatant experimentation. Did this Larkinson expert pilot truly think that Venerable Rebecca was here to train her own opponent?! "Don't get complacent!" Rebecca roared as the Shockshell charged forward and slammed its shock hammer against the First Sword! The expert swordsman mech had to interrupt its lightning rod stance in order to block the hammer from striking its frame. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢 Even though the Decapitator successfully stopped the hammer from striking the Larkinson expert mech directly, the resulting electrical explosion engulfed the First Sword and fried some of its more exposed sensor modules! However, it became increasingly harder for Venerable Rebecca to damage the deeper and more important components of the First Sword! This was because the heavy pressure exerted onto Venerable Dise finally caused the proud and strong swordswoman to compromise on one of her beliefs. As a Swordmaiden, Venerable Dise had always been taught to believe in her own strength. A Swordmaiden must be strong because no one else could be counted upon for help. At most, only other Swordmaidens could help a Swordmaiden, but it was best not to drag down fellow sisters due to lack of strength. If one was weak, a Swordmaiden had no one to blame but herself. Venerable Dise never imagined that she would be put in this position. For years, she had embraced the identity as an expert pilot and a hero of the Larkinson Clan. Her name was synonymous with the word strong and her melee dueling capabilities ranked among the top of her peers! Being driven to this dire state by Venerable Rebecca Andus and her Shockshell was a considerable blow to her ego and her vanity. As it became clear that her current measures were not sufficient to keep the First Sword going, Venerable Dise fell into a difficult dilemma. Should she continue to believe in her own strength in the hopes that she could find a way to reverse the tide by herself, or should she take a step back from her own conviction and accept the need to rely on help? At this crucial moment, Venerable Dise's will to survive and continue to protect her fellow Swordmaidens and Larkinsons exceeded her selfish desire to develop her own strength under the most difficult crucible possible! It was as if Dise flipped a mental switch. "Qilanxo! Assist me in battle!" A silent roar rang through Venerable Dise's mind as she unabashedly embraced Qilanxo's influence. The First Sword glowed brighter as it channeled the power of a design spirit! Though Qilanxo was only able to effect the First Sword to a limited degree, the faint spatial barrier that hovered over the exterior of the expert swordsman mech substantially weakened the extraordinary properties of the incoming attacks, thereby allowing the Unending alloy armor plating to resist the blows with greater ease! Venerable Dise could feel her mentality becoming more animalistic as her bond with Qilanxo grew stronger during this difficult period. Her swordplay became more savage and less controlled, but the power of its strikes not only became stronger, but also dealt more damage against the Shockshell! After a long period of laying low, Qilanxo finally gained an opportunity to display her might on the battlefield!