Chapter 5996 Constraint on Offensive Power As Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson continued to exert his willpower to keep the phasewater of his body in check, he had plenty of time to reflect on his time of service in the Larkinson Clan. "Damnit, Ves…" He continued to lie on his bed while his piloting suit occasionally injected fluids and nutrients to sustain his body. There was no need for him to visit the bathroom and risk losing his focus as his advanced suit took care of that business with as little distraction as possible. While much of his attention was directed towards tracking and suppressing the drops of phasewater dispersed throughout his body, he stayed awake for so many hours that he could still reflect on his turbulent service in the Larkinson Clan. Tusa still resented Ves for setting events into motion that ultimately led to the downfall of the Larkinson Family and the deaths or arrests of so many family members. Even though many Larkinsons at the time had moved on from that dark period of their history, Tusa never forgot that Ves was the main culprit behind those tragedies. The Larkinsons became exiled from the Bright Republic. What was worse was that the Larkinsons also became split. The old family led by Ark Larkinsons turned mercenary for a time, while the clan founded by Ves grew explosively now that he had unshackled himself from the Bright Republic. One of the reasons why Tusa felt so ambivalent about joining the clan was because he grew much stronger than he ever could have imagined. He knew that if he continued to serve in the Mech Corps as a member of the Larkinson Family, he might be able to advance to the rank of expert pilot, yet would likely retire as one. Third-rate states such as the Bright Republic could not support the development of ace pilots. Third-class expert mechs simply weren't powerful enough to boost the growth of more powerful expert pilots. Tusa did not have to worry about that problem while serving under a mech designer like Ves. Unfortunately, the privilege of piloting the Blueshift, a custom mech designed by Ves, came with a heavy price. Too many Larkinsons died in those early days. Even when Ves made the radical decision to open the clan to widespread recruitment, Tusa still bore the guilt of failing to save as many lives as he could. No matter whether the clansmen were trueblood or adopted, Tusa had an obligation to protect them from harm. He might not be as extreme about it as his cousin Jannzi, but he still lamented every Larkinson that fell in battle, even if the individual in question accepted the risks of becoming a soldier. It was because of Ves' persistent habit of throwing the Larkinsons into battle that Tusa developed a greater urgency to grow stronger. As long as he became strong enough to single-handedly dominate a battlefield, he could reduce the amount of casualties by as much as 90 percent! It all came to a head during the Battle against the Abyss. He could never have imagined that inside the Nyxian Gap, he along with the rest of the Larkinson Clan was forced to confront an armada of pirate warships as well as three 'dark gods'! Tusa gained a much better understanding of what they were today, but back then he became overwhelmed at the enemies he was supposed to fight against. The Blinding One. The Inexorable One. The Unending One. Those were the names used by the pirates and the cultists of the Nyxian Gap. He did not really care too much about the effort to defeat the Blinding One and the Unending One. All he remembered from that life-changing battle was his attempts to stop the Inexorable One. He despaired at first. How was he supposed to defeat a giant avian beast made out of energy that flew faster than his mech and was impossible to slow down? Combined with an aggressive and opportunistic mindset, the Inexorable One terrorized the fleet of the Larkinson Clan. Seeing that the big bird was about to slay a lot of Larkinsons, Tusa finally couldn't take it any longer and triggered his apotheosis! He could remember it even now. He not only managed to push back the Inexorable One, but also managed to avoid the avian entity's energy vortices! Tusa finally understood his true strength for the first time. It was freedom. He had conquered many of his struggles by freeing himself from the constraints that held him back. Whether it was the expectations set by his fellow mech cadets or the obstacles placed by his enemies, Tusa defeated them all by denying their ability to hinder his efforts! It felt so liberating to gain the power to ignore the obstacles in his way and achieve his goals in ways that his enemies did not expect! After that battle, Tusa thought that his career would truly begin as he finally gained the power of an expert pilot. The reality was less than ideal. It took a long time for Ves and Gloriana to design and deliver the promised expert mech. Fortunately, the wait was worth it. The Dark Zephyr was far greater than the typical low-tier expert mechs that the Mech Corps issued to its expert pilots. The Dark Zephyr was a living mech, one that had been tailored for Tusa's use from beginning to end. Even though the machine wasn't able to speak or communicate with clear sentences at the time, Tusa already knew that he would start an unforgettable partnership with the expert light skirmisher. Years went by as Tusa continued to get dragged in battle on occasion. He was glad that Ves started to become more measured when it came to seeking confrontation. However, the fateful decision to relocate to the Red Ocean brought so many changes and advancements that Tusa felt as if he could never take the time to settle down. So much had happened during the end of the Age of Mechs. Tusa fought for the Larkinson Clan much longer than he did for the Mech Corps. He developed his piloting skills and steadily exercised his willpower. He married Ranya Wodin-Larkinson and started a family with the director of the Larkinson Biotech Institute. Life was going well for Tusa. Even if his progress started to slow down due to the lack of intensive battles, the relative period of calm and stability allowed him to polish his newly developed skills and consolidate all of the gains he made in the previous years. Just as Tusa thought that he would be able to grind his way up again by participating in the Trailblazer Expedition, the Great Severing occurred! His entire life got caught by events outside of his control yet again. The Red War turned into an existential crisis to red humanity. Ves decided to become a lot more high profile and attract lots of unwelcome attention in the process. The expeditionary fleet continued to fight against alien raiding fleets, yet without the presence of Ves, several Larkinson expert pilots and a heap of veteran soldiers. Nothing was the same anymore. While the combined leadership of the Golden Skull Alliance was a lot more rational than Ves, the native aliens got a lot more serious as well! Tusa should have felt glad about getting into more fights, yet he felt anything but satisfied. "Those alien warships are too frustrating to fight against!" Even the worst alien warships took a lot of effort to destroy. Their transphasic defenses resisted a lot of attacks and their abundance of powerful gun batteries always exacted a price from the Larkinson Army. If not for the fact that the expeditionary fleet was accompanied by several ace mechs belonging to the other partners of the Golden Skull Alliance, the Larkinsons would have lost a lot more mechs and mech pilots from the repeated engagements! Some expert pilots started to unleash their greater potential. Venerable Isobel Kotin was a good example of that. Her Promethea was exceptionally good at burning down entire warships, so much so that she had to restrain her firepower for fear of turning every salvageable hull into worthless slag! Tusa had a much worse time in comparison. He entered into a brand new struggle where he tried to figure out his place in the battles of the Red War. Light skirmishers had a place in battles between mechs. They had never been designed to fight in a battle between mechs and warships! Even at the expert mech level, the Dark Zephyr often struggled to neutralize enemy warships fast enough. The Shadow Dance that he learned from a mysterious fruit gifted by Ves had become irrelevant in the face of powerful transphasic energy shields and hulls so big that they could fit entire cities. Tusa considered it to be a shame that he was forced to equip his Dark Zephyr with transphasic grenades in order to defeat enemy warships fast enough. He had no objections towards the existence of these powerful grenades. He just felt it was a personal failure for him to resort to these expensive boondoggles just so that he could carry his own weight. Compared to more destructive expert pilots such as Venerable Davia Stark and Commander Casella Ingvar, his capacity to inflict damage was the lowest! Not even the fact that he managed to master a powerful ability called the Leap of True Freedom could change this fundamental shortcoming. Tusa frequently thought back on what it meant to be a light skirmisher specialist. Light skirmishers were irregular combat units. They were never meant to confront enemies head-on. They were supposed to keep their distance from enemies that outmassed them and outgunned them. They were also supposed to rely on the superior firepower of other mechs to make up for their lack of offensive power. The more Tusa thought about it, the more frustrated he became. Even though he agreed with the doctrine built around light skirmishers, he personally felt frustrated by the fact that he became so powerful, yet also stayed weak at the same time! His anger and frustration stimulated his willpower and caused the surrounding shadow energy to deform around his body. His grievances about his lack of hard combat power caused him to look forward to the long-awaited upgrade of the Dark Zephyr even more. Tusa opened his eyes and glanced towards the distance. Though much of the mech frame was dimly lit, the expert pilot could still see and feel his high-tier expert mech being reconstructed a single piece at a time! It would not be long before he finally gained an opportunity to command more power than ever. He particularly looked forward to activating the Dark Wind Module that promised to transform his Dark Zephyr to a much more powerful threat than before! Even though the Ultimate Module was highly experimental and had never been properly tested, Tusa believed in Ves' work. His eyes burned as he thought of all of the ways his upgrade expert mech could shatter powerful alien warships by destructively phasing through their hulls. From the moment the Dark Zephyr completed his latest transformation, he would no longer become trapped by the constraints of the light skirmisher archetype. The Dark Wind Module effectively freed his battle partner from the expectation that light skirmishers were unable to inflict powerful blows! Tusa looked forward to his own liberation as well. The expected capabilities of the Dark Zephyr Mark III promised to open up his options and allow him to fight much more aggressively than before! "Ah!" His mind became so distracted that he failed to suppress the small amount of phasewater circulating in his left arm. Muscles tore apart while blood spurted from the open wound! Fortunately, his piloting suit instantly reacted by pressing on the tear in his skin and injecting nanomachines that rapidly restored and knitted the damaged tissue back together. The painful slipup reminded Tusa that before he could fully enjoy his transformed expert mech, he first needed to transform his body to remove its weakness against phasewater! Tusa had managed to overcome many challenges throughout his life and career. He refused to let this one break his will!