Chapter 6141 Single-Modal Lightning Tribulation Ves was glad that the Carmine System and its variations did not conflict with classical neural interfaces. It was very much possible for mech pilots to form double connections to their living mechs. There was no rule that stated that a Carmine mech had to completely replace an old-fashioned but reliable neural interface for an exotic Carmine System. In fact, Ves believed that a pilot could exert the greatest degree of control over a mech by using both interfacing methods on a concurrent basis. Ves had modified and tweaked the Elegant Rage with this assumption in mind. He did not really consider the scenario where an entirely different pilot had to pilot the living mech in an emergency. Unfortunately, the lighting tribulation cared nothing for Ves' plans and arrangements. He had no choice but to work with what was available. He missed Venerable Joshua. Out of all of the possible substitutes that Ves could think of, Joshua was perfect for the job. He was not only highly adaptable and accustomed to piloting a wide variety of Larkinson mechs, but he also possessed a strong affinity for life, which shared close relations with the wood element! Major Simon Jankowski was a step down in every way despite the fact that he was a trained and experienced RA mech officer. Ves did not discredit Jankowski's own combat prowess. He just thought that the expert candidate was better off piloting the first-class multipurpose mechs. The mecher had not spent his entire career on becoming good at piloting second-class mechs. Forget about Venerable Joshua. Ves would have been happy with any experienced Larkinson mech pilot. He resented the fact that the Premier Branch still remained isolated from the rest of the clan. He also felt it was high time for the new branch to build up a proper mech force staffed by dependable Larkinson pilots. Otherwise, he would have to continue relying on Major Jankowski or other outsiders whenever he urgently needed the services of a mech pilot. "Ves." Jovy spoke over the communication channel. "Analysis of the storm forming over the Elegant Rage has confirmed that it is likely preparing to initiate a single-modal, single-round lightning tribulation. It is the simplest and least demanding form of tribulation that can be attracted, so its threat level is the lowest out of all of the possibilities." A single-modal, single-round lightning tribulation only amounted to getting struck by a single lightning bolt 9 times in a row. It was short, straightforward and lacked the complications and surprises of multi-modal lightning tribulations. Unfortunately, it was not an outcome that Ves wanted to obtain. "We're in trouble." "How so, professor?" Major Jankowski asked even as he was in the process of understanding the technical capabilities of the mech he just interfaced with earlier. "If Jovy's words are correct, we are about to get hit by 9 destructive lighting bolts in a row. That would have been fine for a mech that has notably strong defenses, but the Elegant Rage is designed to function as an offensive mech. Her main form of defense is evasion, which is not an option against a tribulation event that is known to strike targets with unerring accuracy." Ves quickly tried to consider whether the Elegant Rage was resilient enough to resist the power of 9 tribulation lightning bolts. He was fairly certain that the mech could easily shrug off any single lightning strike. The problem with tribulations was that they never settled for single attacks. The next lightning bolt struck when the target did not have time to recover from the previous one. Combined with the fact that the next attack was always stronger than the last one, then there was a good chance that the Elegant Rage would eventually get overwhelmed! As Major Jankowski processed this information, he did not look good either. The Elegant Rage was equipped with a range of weapon systems, from ebony wood tonfas to the brand new Sprout Rifle. However, these weapons served no purpose against a powerful storm cloud that was so lazy that it only rained down 9 boring lighting bolts in a row. There was no way for any of these weapons to show their advantages by beating up more concrete enemies formed out of tribulation lightning! Instead, the lighting tribulation only came to test the Elegant Rage's hard defenses, which were not that good! The Elegant Rage's energy shield generator was too small, underpowered and horribly outdated to boot. The metallic armor system was also lastgen and underpowered according to the Larkinson Clan's current standards. The only bright spot was the parts made out of improved ebony wood. Despite lacking phasewater reinforcement, it still functioned as a particularly effective hyper material. Under the right circumstances, the parts made out of ebony wood should be able to regenerate any damage they received. The surrounding forest generated and attracted a considerable quantity of wood energy, but it was nothing comparable to what the Emperor Tree was able to gather when it was still alive. Venerable Lanie and her companion spirit were also unable to help in this matter due to their absence. The more Ves thought about it, the more he disliked this situation. The Elegant Rage simply wasn't equipped to survive a straightforward series of lighting bolts. It's about to start, sir!" Major Jankowski warned. The storm clouds already started to produce flashes of light. The dark and stormy clouds openly directed their animosity towards the Elegant Rage, making it seem as if they were eager to pummel the Woodsap mech into the dust! Ves grimaced and continued to consider a lot of different thoughts. He thought back on the descriptions he read about lighting tribulations. His eyes narrowed just before the first strike was about to fall. "It's coming!" CRACKLE! Major Jankowski already commanded the Elegant Rage to brace herself by pulling out her tonfas and crossing them above her head! The expert candidate expected for the mech to receive a nasty shock that was bound to scorch or damage a number of parts. What the Elegant Rage experienced instead was a mild electric jolt, one that was only powerful enough to massage the mech frame! This wasn't supposed to happen. Even the weakest lightning tribulation should already be a strenuous ordeal to a mech as weak as the Elegant Rage. When Major Jankowski tried to examine what had happened by performing a quick internal diagnostic, he quickly discovered that a second presence had appeared besides the Elegant Rage. The much larger and taller form of Ves in his nanosuit stood protectively over the mech of his own design! It turned out that just before the tribulation attack was about to strike the Elegant Rage, Ves had instantly teleported out of the cockpit and rapidly unfolded his true body for the purpose of intercepting the lightning bolt! "P-Professor?" Ves' giant form grinned before he rapidly shrunk in size. Once he managed to fold up his bulky true body, he teleported right back inside the cockpit of the Elegant Rage. "That should do it." Ves affirmed. "It's a bit of a gamble, but I can't think of anything better. That tribulation lighting sure stings a bit. I am glad that I already endured worse in the past." Major Jankowski looked nonplussed. "Why did you do that, sir?" "I didn't do it to shield the mech from damage." Ves explained himself. "I did it to provoke the tribulation storm. You see, these sorts of tests are largely conducted to test the fitness of the object. By moving to intercept the lightning bolt and weaken it to the point where the remaining force just tickles the mech frame, I have directly provoked the tribulation event by interfering with its purpose. If my guess is correct, the storm should be readjusting its parameters right now…" "Ves!" Jovy said in mild alarm! "Your actions have directly agitated the tribulation storm! It is growing more powerful and turbulent. Our new analysis indicates that it has turned into a multi-modal lightning tribulation! If this was the purpose behind your spontaneous intervention, then I have to say that it worked." "That's great news! You should already know why I did this, correct?" "I do." Jovy was a good enough mech designer to understand that the Elegant Rage should theoretically stand a better chance in a more complex tribulation event. "The threat posed by the lighting tribulation has increased. We have yet to found any signs that it has grown powerful enough to conduct another round of tribulations, but be careful not to push your luck any further. One provocation from you is already enough." "Relax, Jovy. So long as the storm behaves like I think it will, there is no need for me to intervene further." "Don't worry, Major. I did you a favor. If the storm responds as I think it will, the clouds will soon start to spit out tribulation manifestations that you can duel against to your heart's content. That sounds a lot better than passively letting the Elegant Rage get tortured by lighting strikes from above, right?" As the storm above the Elegant Rage started to accumulate more scary energies, Ves leaned forward and carefully patted the expert candidate's shoulder. "Don't worry, Major. I did you a favor. If the storm responds as I think it will, the clouds will soon start to spit out tribulation manifestations that you can duel against to your heart's content. That sounds a lot better than passively letting the Elegant Rage get tortured by lighting strikes from above, right?" Though Simon Jankowski truly did not know whether he should be thankful of this development, he had to steel himself for the true challenges ahead. CRACK! A lightning bolt struck the forested ground before the Elegant Rage and instantly produced a clearing. A tribulation manifestation appeared that resembled a flying raptor. The reptile with wings soon began to lift off the air and possess a commanding view of the environment. The lightning manifestation only had eyes for the Elegant Rage. Ves narrowed his eyes as he and Blinky quickly tried to determine the properties of this simulated alien opponent. "Be careful, major. Blinky is able to sense that while the manifestation is able to channel tribulation lightning, its main element is based on blood." "Blood?" Major Jankowski soon knew what that meant as the winged raptor suddenly began to produce a stream of red blood that hovered around the creature. The tribulation demonstrated strong command over blood. Such an opponent could be quite scary to fight against! However, Ves only grinned at the sight. "Get close. Get really close. Don't bother fighting with your tonfas. Just let the winged raptor strike your mech before trying to retaliate with the thorns." Although Major Jankowski wanted to maintain his distance from such a disturbing opponent, he decided to put his trust in Ves' advice and approach the enemy target. The winged raptor immediately began to send out a spray of dangerous and corrosive blood. "Don't evade! Let it hit your mech frame!" The blood instantly started to behave like acid when it began to douse half of the mech frame. Though the Elegant Rage immediately started to suffer a lot of exterior damage, the mech immediately closed in on the blood raptor and began to crash against the lighting manifestation! The winged raptor incurred considerable damage as it was not equipped for defense. However, it was able to repair its damage by expending its reserve of blood. The raptor soon began to spray the Elegant Rage with another torrent of corrosive blood! While the metallic parts of the living mech was not faring too well, its ebony wood components were doing a much better job of staying in one piece! Even if the wood started to succumb from the corrosive blood, it was already starting to regenerate and undo the damage in real-time. How impressive! "Keep brawling against the blood raptor. Try and roll around so that a lot of thorns end up puncturing this tribulation manifestation. Don't stop rolling!" It sounded like a silly command, but it was truly producing results! The more the Elegant Rage got struck, the more lethal the thorns became! The Elegant Rage would have been able to clean up the blood raptor easily by now if Venerable Lanie was sitting in the cockpit. However, the current thorns were not that bad. They still possessed power of their own that was not reliant on the nascent domain of an expert pilot. As the blood raptor began to suffer more and more from getting stung by all of the thorns, the lightning manifestation finally popped and began to release destructive and creative energies in the immediate environment. The Elegant Rage just survived her second tribulation strike!