Chapter 5870 Cultivation Deficiency The battle intensified as familiar soldiers returned on the battlefield yet again. Though the fleeters were unwilling to field more than 50,000 soldiers at a time, it was no problem to swap out one unit with another. The 34th Assault Regiment and the 88th Bombardment Regiment had already made their contributions. The 6th Giant Trapper Division had fought much more arduous battle and suffered considerable losses that could not easily be replaced. No one would begrudge them if they sat out the remainder of this event. There were many other fresh units of Dread Marines that eagerly wanted to earn glory in battle. They also learned about the rewards for defeating the lightning soldiers and eagerly wanted to gain strength through defeating their opponents. However, the needs of the Dominion of Man surpassed the individual needs of the troopers. As much as the current selection of Dread Marines deserved a chance to baptize their Dread Armors in tribulation lightning, their lacking results forced their superiors to make the switch. With the return of a lot of familiar Dread Marines, the fight intensified, but not by much. Even though the newly arrived Dread Marines had absorbed varying amounts of tribulation energies, it was not quite clear how they improved. None of the Dread Marines exhibited any significant differences in performances. They did not suddenly move twice as fast or launched attacks that inflicted ten times as much damage. While the humans who fought with the evolved Dread Armors clearly sensed that they had reached a new level of strength, their improved conditions did not come with a manual that taught them how to leverage their new boons effectively! This was not the result that Ves and Dread Captain Volkert Argile wanted to see. They expected the lightning baptism to provide more concrete results. "I think the evolved Dread Armors need to be fueled with energy in order to display greater strength." Ves suggested as he continued to observe the fighting from his position behind a dormant turret. "When is the Spark Reactor ready to channel fire energy to our locations? It has already been several minutes." "Your request is unprecedented, professor. It takes time to make the required adjustments. Do not forget that the Spark Reactor is located kilometers away from your position. Our engineers have informed me that they must manually override the safeguards built into the Spark Reactor in order to further redirect its output of fire energy. In addition to that, they must manually open up waystations and other safety valves in order to channel so much fire energy to the right destinations. We have teleported all of the relevant engineers to the right coordinates. It should not take long for them to complete the necessary modifications." Trying to modify and alter the functioning of so many elements of the ship's energy transmission system was like playing with fire. It was exceedingly dangerous to tinker with the power lines and other relevant components without cutting off the power supply. Nonetheless, the engineers bravely did what was necessary in order to support the soldiers who were struggling to fight for the Dominion of Man's survival. Ves could feel it. A surging firestorm welled up from below and began to pump out a lot more fire energy across the entire hull section! The effects were immediate. Everyone felt a bit hotter than before. The raw power of the living spark also reinforced the transphasic hyper plating, slowing down the progress of the metal-eating insects. However, it was the Dread Marines who benefited most from this change. Each and every one of them fought a little harder than before. This was not a surprise as every Dread Armor had already been brought up to the current generation by incorporating high-quality hyper materials. Each attack hit harder than before. Energy weapons and explosive weapons received the greatest benefit as they were much more likely to incorporate fire hyper materials. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂 The energy barriers that shielded the formations of metallic ants rippled to a greater extent than before. It was not enough. The added pressure was great, but the Dread Marines still did not gain enough of a firepower boost to break the equilibrium. The effect of the increase in fire energy was noticeably greater on the Dread Armors that had undergone lightning baptisms. The metallic suits began to glow in a fiery corona as they did a considerably better job at absorbing and channeling the fire energies. Their attacks hit even harder than the Dread Marines who had not fought in the previous waves. The plasma swords wielded by the Dread Marines of the 34th Assault Regiment burned hotter and struck more punishing blows against the metallic energy barrier. The explosive shells and missiles launched by the 88th Bombardment Regiment burst with greater fury upon impact. The Dread Marines of the 6th Giant Trapper Division were able to fly faster and charge with greater impact! In order to achieve quick results and set up a domino effect, Dread Captain Argile had decided to concentrate the replacements in a single formation. Each of the newly appeared Dread Marines had to utilize their enhanced combat strengths to quickly take down a single energy barrier! "It's… it's working!" The lightning insects had done a fantastic job at maintaining their combined energy barrier while enduring a huge amount of pressure. Yet even they possessed limits. The damage inflicted onto the metallic energy barrier had finally exceeded the replenishment rate. This meant that the barrier shielding tens of thousands of lightning insects was finally starting to weaken! "Wait! What is that?!" "Alpha insect detected! We are detecting much stronger energy fluctuations from the larger alien!" A larger, more ornate and better equipped insect suddenly became visible. The alpha insect had previously hid itself by hiding in the press of lesser insects. Now that the metallic energy barrier was beginning to drain, the lightning insect commander or champion could no longer remain idle. It raised one of the forelimbs that ended in a pointed spear and began to channel a lot more metal energy than any of its fellow insect brethren! Ves and many other observers widened their eyes. The power released by the alpha insect was astonishing. It became clear that the creature's cultivation was at least an entire stage stronger than any of its ordinary compatriots! The sudden intervention immediately turned the tide of the battle. The alpha insect not only made the metallic energy barrier a lot tougher, but also began to strengthen it in a more qualitative manner! Runes began to shimmer into place as the alpha insect utilized his superior cultivation knowledge to his advantage. The metallic energy barrier had become more efficient! It took less energy to block the same attacks than before! This was bad news for the crew of the Dominion of Man because it negated their previous advantage. There were limits to the offensive power of the Dread Marines. They were too small and could not mount weapons that were too large and cumbersome. Technology granted them strength, but also limited their power expression. Hyper technology was able to stretch the rules a bit, but there were always limits. Ves frowned when he witnessed all of these changes. He had learned a lot of lessons about combat and the application of E energy, but most of them emphasized mankind's inferiority in these areas. There was no way in hell that humanity could outcompete the aliens of Messier 87 in terms of E energy manipulation. Perhaps the only mitigating factor was that the aliens from the distant supermassive galaxy were accustomed to fighting in high-energy environments. Once they started to fight in the Red Ocean, many of their techniques either became weakened or unusable due to lacking energy support! "It all comes down to energy." Ves repeated to himself. The intervention of a champion with greater cultivation than the rest of its kind taught Ves how a single strong figure could transform the combat effectiveness of an entire unit of troops. The current sight reminded Ves of his battle formations. Allowing a superior cultivator to leverage the collective strength of many soldiers in a much more effective manner could produce overwhelming results that could easily turn the tide of an engagement! Previously, Ves had always relied on other champions such as Venerable Joshua to function as the linchpins of these battle networks. This time, none of them were available. His expert pilots were many light-years away. Even if they were closer, they still wouldn't be allowed to participate so that the aliens of Messier 87 still had no solid clue what high-ranking mechs could do against their forces. It was up to him or rather Blinky to function as the coordinator of a battle network, or at least a bastardized version that worked for Dread Marines. First, Ves needed to verify whether Blinky was capable of absorbing and channeling the increased fire energy released by the Spark Reactor. "Do your job, Blinky!" "Mrow mrow!" Blinky felt apprehensive at the thought of directly absorbing or coming into contact with the fiery energy. When the Star Cat utilized his devouring ability to gather a large quantity of potent fire energy that was emanating from the hull, the companion spirit immediately experienced a lot of pain and discomfort! "Mrooow! Mroooow!" Blinky was only able to absorb a minute amount of fire energy produced by the Spark Reactor. However, the Blinkyverse instantly destabilized as the foreign energy immediately started to go berserk! It started to destabilize the first star, heat up planets beyond their acceptable range and start fires that could not easily be extinguished! The energy was untameable. Blinky was far too weak to control E energy generated by a True God-like entity. The fire energy was not only exceedingly high in quality, it also carried a relatively weak but still valid imprint of its originator. This meant that Blinky would have to overpower the living spark in a contest of some sort in order for the companion spirit to tame the newly gained energy! Perhaps that might be acceptable if Ves and Blinky were free to experiment, but they were operating on an active battlefield at this time! "Spit it out, Blinky." "Mrooow! Mroo..oooow…! Mrow-mrow!" "Don't be greedy! You can try to digest some later! Right now, we have a battle to fight!" "Mrowww…" It took a lot of effort, but Blinky finally spat out the fire energy that proved to be uncontrollable. Ves began to grimace. This was not good news. It became increasingly more obvious to him that the Dread Marines and especially the ones baptized by lightning had little clue how to channel E energy more effectively. Even though Ves was not a proper qi cultivator, he still recognized many instances of waste and inefficiency. If the Dread Marines had a proper cultivator in their midst, they could channel the fire energy a lot more effectively, thereby achieving much better results on the battlefield! Ves originally thought that Blinky could play this role, but the incompatibility between him and the power of the Spark Reactor hindered his plan. He switched his gaze between Blinky and the Dread Marines. Why was Blinky unable to properly harness the fire energy generated by the Spark Reactor while the Dread Armors showed no rejection reactions? Ves quickly realized one of the possible answers. "The Dread Armors are already being treated as an extension of the Dominion of Man. I… am not. Blinky and I may have contributed to her evolution, but we haven't formed a Bloodfire Pact with the dreadnought." He had no intention of doing that. He would pretty much have to bid farewell to his current life if he made this commitment. He would also be at risk of literally going down with the ship if the Dominion of Man failed to survive this lightning tribulation. In any case, now that he identified the current problem, he quickly tried to come up with a solution. "Wait, I may not be a part of this sacred brotherhood, but I happen to know an entity that does!" Caramond! The ancestral spirit that was still in the process of coming into power was deeply rooted into the Dominion of Man! All Blinky needed to do was to borrow Caramond's power to manipulate the fire energy generated by the Spark Reactor as if it was his own possession!