5039 Brave and Fearless Back inside the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves glanced at a projected feed that solely tracked a single machine among many. His latest creation had finally entered the fray by approaching a beleaguered alien destroyer. The offensive knight mech's performance did not stand out from the rest. Although the Blood Star's sword faintly glowed under the resonance of a recently recovered high-tier expert pilot, the lack of resonating materials prevented the weapon from destabilizing the segmented transphasic energy shield as effectively as other powerful mechs. This did not depress the Blood Star and Venerable Benjamin Larkinson's enthusiasm in any way! Ves twitched whenever the alien warship's attacks strayed close to the Blood Star's position. The Carmine mech may have been his latest handmade work, but he was lacking many of the qualities of an expert mech! In fact, the Blood Star was not an expert mech at all! The machine was only able to exhibit a bit of true resonance and prime resonance at his current state. Ves did not agree to allow his grandfather to sortie on the battlefield at first. He had already put so much effort into clawing him back from the dead! This was no time for a pilot who had barely started his retraining from participating in a serious battle! What if a warship was lucky enough to strike a direct hit against the relatively fragile Blood Star? Without a resonance shield or a quasi-first-class mech frame, a single direct hit from any primary warship cannon could instantly smash the Blood Star and his pilot into pieces! This was why Ves preferred to keep his grandfather back just like the expert pilots who recently made their breakthroughs. However, his grandfather insisted on deploying into the field this time! He even had an argument with Ves over this matter! "You don't understand, grandson." The old man who had donned his custom piloting suit shook his head. "I need to take part in this fight. I have no excuses to stay out of it. My new Blood Star might not be an expert mech, but it is still strong enough for me to serve me decently enough. Besides, there is no better way for me to learn how to pilot a mech with that Carmine System of yours when my life is on the line." "It is exactly because your life is on the line that I want you to stay out of it!" Ves yelled back. "Why can't you wait until you have gained a proper expert mech? If you want to deploy so badly, why don't you join the reserves and protect the fleet for the time being? There is no reason for you to charge forward and put your fragile new mech in the firing lines of those alien warships!" Benjamin stepped forward and embraced his grandson in a warm and affectionate hug. "I love you and respect you, Ves, but that does not mean I will obey you without question. Don't forget who is the elder among the two of us. Expert pilots derive their strength from being brave and fearless in the face of overwhelming adversity. Those who bide their time and refrain from going into battle when they clearly have the power to do so will not be able to make it as far. This is a lesson that I have only learned later on and after talking with many other expert pilots." The older Larkinson's voice contained a strong element of will and belief. Now that he had reignited his fighting intent, he was determined to pursue the path that he had missed out on for half of his life to the very end! He wanted to make the most out of the second chance provided by his grandson and gain the strength needed to protect his family and descendants against all threats, including the speculative aliens from the nearby supergiant galaxy! "Grandfather..." "I need to do this." Benjamin firmly stated. "If I cannot muster up the courage to confront these relatively weak warships with a fully functional mech, how can I ever break through once again and advance to ace pilot? Do not forget that I am far from my prime. My age and physical condition are still holding me back. The only means of overcoming these handicaps is to be braver and more relentless than other expert pilots!" Ves actually agreed with his grandfather, but that did not mean he was okay with this course of action! Though Ves felt tempted to force Benjamin back by force if necessary, he ultimately recognized that doing this was a massive disservice. His grandfather was right. A true warrior must remain bold and fearless. Benjamin's abrupt recovery may have extended his lifespan by a comfortable margin, but he was still a bit too close to reaching his end than Ves liked. Only by becoming an ace pilot would Benjamin's force of will grow strong enough to fully rejuvenate his own body! "Fine." Ves eventually grumbled. "You can go as long as you prove you are able to control the Blood Star well enough. Your mech must be able to respond and move quickly enough to evade any powerful attack launched by a warship." "Don't worry, grandson. My intuition has become stronger than ever." As the Blood Star under the control of Venerable Benjamin Larkinson continued to fight alongside other Larkinson mechs, Ves eventually eased his concerns. The aliens did not have the capacity to threaten his grandfather this time. The Blood Star also did not attract any scrutiny from the aliens due to its relatively unremarkable performance. Of course, Ves did not completely leave his grandfather unattended. He shifted the view and noted that the Dark Zephyr was hovering in the vicinity. The expert light skirmisher contributed to the battle by attacking the transphasic energy shields and quickly eliminating all of the exterior modules of vulnerable warships, but that was not his true mission this time. Ves did not completely feel reassured about throwing his grandfather into the fray with an inadequate Carmine mech. This was why he called on Venerable Tusa to shadow the Blood Star and step in whenever necessary. No Larkinson mech was faster than the Dark Zephyr. Venerable Tusa's intuition towards danger was also the best out of any of the expert pilots of the Larkinson. Fortunately, Venerable Benjamin had yet to encounter any lethal threats. Even if he was determined to embrace the life of a soldier once again, he still recognized his limits and did not attempt to pull off any unreasonable stunts. His Blood Star could only do so much. "Sir! The orven battleship is about to falter!" Ves' eyes lit up. He had been paying more attention to his own mechs than anything else, so he hadn't fully tracked the fight centered around the largest and most advanced alien vessel. He never really exhibited that much concern towards this vessel because he knew that three whole ace mechs should be able to control it with ease. This was especially the case when Ves had upgraded the primary weapons of all three ace mechs with the blessing of the Phase King! From the start of the engagement against the alien fleet, the three ace mechs had already flown ahead of the main wave of mechs and preemptively controlled the orven battleship to prevent her formidable arsenal from threatening other friendlies! In fact, the incredibly fast and elusive Jedda Sandivar boldly sped ahead of all of the other machines and arrived in the middle of the alien fleet without any fear! The ace light skirmisher flew so fast and changed direction so often that none of the gun batteries of any warship was able to keep up with its dizzying movements! In order to prevent the battleship from targeting other vessels, Saint Marissa Lewandowski activated her Saint Kingdom and filled it up with an obscuring mist that penetrated through all energy barriers and physical obstacles! Over half of the structure of the battleship descended into fog, which not only isolated all of the orven crew members, but also started to block or interfere with the transmission of electronic signals! Saint Lewandowski worked hard to improve the latter effect. A light skirmisher was not the best machine to deploy against a warship due to its inherent traits, so the ace pilot specifically developed her strength in order to maximize her ability to cripple any warship so long as her domain field could get through! The Jedda Sandivar lived up to its promise. The ace mech single-handedly disrupted the operation of the orven battleship and the coordination of much of her crew! This granted an excellent window for the Royal Jeem to charge forward like a lancer mech and brace its spear for a devastating strike! As the ace spearman mech surged forth like a flaming projectile, Saint Kalasandra Boojay resonated with the spear and called upon the assistance of the Phase King! The manifestation of the design spirit briefly appeared into view before sinking into the glowing speartip. Its integrated phasewater became a lot more active under the creature's direction! Just before the Royal Jeem struck the orven battleship's defenses head-on, Saint Kalasandra quickly issued a command! "I decree that all energy shields shall shatter in front of my spear!" The mighty spear of the Royal Jeem struck a powerful segmented energy shield and instantly caused it to collapse! A second layer appeared but collapsed as well! It was only when the third layer appeared that the Royal Jeem's advance had finally been blocked! However, it was at this time that a burst of distant resonance-empowered transphasic positron beams struck this weakened segmented energy shield! The Macharia Excelsia piloted by Saintess Ulrika Vraken had finally taken action! Though the ace rifleman mech declined to fly into the middle of the enemy fleet like the other two ace mechs, it was still able to provide extremely powerful firing support from the rear! The Macharia Excelsia's recently upgraded Hexfire Positron Assault Rifle faintly exuded the presence of the Phase King. Although Saintess Ulrika Vraken was unable to accommodate the Phase King as well as the other two ace mechs, the degree of improvement was more than enough to exert heavy pressure onto the defenses of the orven battleship! The Jedda Sandivar did not remain idle all of this time. While Saint Marissa Lewandowski continued to maintain her crucial blinding smoke, she also drove her ace light skirmisher to dive in and stab at the battleship's energy barriers with its twin blessed kamas! Even if they weren't entirely suited to damaging energy shields, the Jedda Sandivar struck so quickly that the orven battleship's shield generators struggled to persist under the continuous assaults! The Phase King's influence continued to amplify the attacks of the three ace mechs. Under normal circumstances, the orven battleship should have been able to last much longer under the combined assault of three second-class ace mechs. However, the extreme optimization and other boosts provided by the Phase King made all of the difference. The fairly aged and outdated orven battleship had no solution against this onslaught! It was already a small miracle that her veteran crew and well-cared for components were able to last this long against the unrelenting attacks. From the moment the Royal Jeem had circled around and charged against the orven battleship yet again, the ace mech succeeded in breaching through the last layer of segmented energy shields! The ace spearman mech managed to get inside the multi-layered shells and gained full access to all of the gun batteries that the Golden Skull Alliance feared so much! This time, no starfighter was left to stop the Royal Jeem from wreaking havoc across the hull. No phase lord emerged from the hull of the alien battleship to flee into the depths of space or defend his last remaining shred of honor. The Golden Skullers were disappointed when they saw that their ace mechs wrecked the orven battleship without any further complications. It appeared that there was no hope of earning any Warship Tokens today.