?Chapter 6156 Repercussions of Evil The fight rapidly heated up when the two fighters came closer enough to exchange blows with each other. The krelion judge wielded a single ornate staff, but possessed enough skill and might to suppress the Elegant Rage despite the fact that she was wielding two weapons. This was not because the alien possessed powerful weapon skills. His attack moves were not particularly brilliant or clever. Rather, the alien relied on other advantages to gain the upper hand. The krelion struck hard and fast, allowing him to exert greater pressure onto the Elegant Rage than the alien swordsman! Not only that, but the krelion was even better than the four-armed alien in leveraging the power of his element with every strike. During a particular instance, the lightning manifestation's entire body exploded with light, which not only caused the surface of the Elegant Rage to burn, but also blinded the mech for a time! The Woodsap mech almost lost grip of her tonfas as a glowing staff smacked them aside before punching a hole through the chest plate that almost managed to penetrate the cockpit. The krelion had already come close to killing the mech pilot and thereby ending the Elegant Rage's chances of surviving this tribulation! Major Jankowski immediately felt the pressure of death and began to burst out his potential! A huge infusion of wood energy channeled into the tonfas before the Elegant Rage smacked them towards the alien! The krelion did not bother to retract his staff as a shield of light energy intercepted the tonfa strikes. Bang! Bang! Each weapon strike released a large burst of wood energy, generating enough force to separate the two combatants from each other. The Elegant Rage and the krelion judge briefly paused in order to evaluate the first exchange of blows. "The tribulation manifestation is able to keep up with the Elegant Rage when she is saturated with plundered wood energy." Ves immediately noted. "This is bad, because once our mech is no longer draining any wood energy from the environment, it will not be able to keep up anymore." "Then we will have to win this fight before we run out of forests to drain." Major Jankowski declared. The man had already fought a long and exhausting duel against the alien swordsman. The krelion judge exerted even greater pressure towards him, but Simon Jankowski was determined to perform better rather than worse! His qualities as a first-class mech pilot and his considerable combat experience made it easier for him to maintain his fighting spirit. Even if he was at a disadvantage, he should never allow himself to get discouraged. The lower his morale, the quicker his defeat! The Elegant Rage was in the worst mood out of the three. The mech not only suffered a lot of burns after getting struck by different intensities of light energy, but her wounds were also recovering slower than usual. "THE ENEMY'S LIGHT AURA IS INHIBITING MY REGENERATION." The Elegant Rage warned. "THE ALIEN'S LIGHT IS BURNING THE WOOD ENERGY GATHERED BY MY THORNS. THE LIGHT SOURCE IS MUCH MORE INHIBITING TO ME AT CLOSE RANGE." Both Ves and Major Jankowski frowned. The Elegant Rage was most comfortable fighting up close, but the light-emitting alien appeared to be expressly designed to counter this advantage! The Elegant Rage tried to create more distance from the alien judge, though it was not entirely certain whether this would work. The krelion judge had demonstrated amazing speed earlier, but perhaps there was a restriction that prevented him from moving so quickly all of the time. Whatever the case, as the Elegant Rage flew closer towards the center of the dying forest, the mech began to launch a second salvo of thorns, enabling her to drain the energies of trees located much further ahead. Once she had managed to prolong the supply of stolen wood energy, the Elegant Rage finally turned around and aimed at the distant tribulation manifestation with the Sprout Rifle. Ves did not dare to call Gaia to ask for another blessing. Fortunately, the Elegant Rage was able to make up for the absence of this boost by channeling a lot of wood energy into the weapon. The ebony wooden seed began to grow in both a qualitative and quantitative fashion. Once the organic projectile had reached its limit, the Sprout Rifle quickly launched it towards the enemy! "Feel the wrath of nature!" Major Jankowski half-expected for the alien judge to evade the shot, but he instead remained stationary, allowing himself to get hit by the empowered seed. Bang! The impact was not particularly powerful, but that was not the purpose of the seed. Instead, the seed rapidly began to sprout. It quickly absorbed all of the wood energy infused into it and began to grow dark and ominous vines that were covered by thorns! The thorn vines grown from plundered wood energy were not only steeped in negativity, but also exuded a depressing atmosphere! However, the krelion judge appeared to be incredibly resistant against the dark vines. His light shield not only did a perfect job at keeping the vines and their sharp thorns at bay, but also negated all of their ominous properties! When light and darkness intersected with each other, the weaker of the two often suffered an immediate disadvantage. This was most definitely the case this time as the powerful light generated by the krelion judge overpowered the thorny vines! The tribulation manifestation's command over energy was better than the Elegant Rage in her empowered state! Major Jankowski did not leave it at that. The Elegant Rage continually fired one ebony seed after another. The mech did not spend any time to create any more sprouting seeds, so the organic projectiles only inflicted a lot of kinetic damage upon impact. Each strike sapped the light energy shield a little further, but it remained so bright and whole that it didn't appear as if the repeated impacts were accomplishing anything useful. Instead of showing signs of distress, the krelion judge glowed brighter and brighter until an illusionary vision appeared behind his back. A complex circular symbol appeared behind the alien! It was at least ten times taller than the krelion judge and exuded a sense of sacred duty towards justice. "What is that?!" Major Jankowski reacted with shock! "THE TRIBULATION MANIFESTATION HAS GROWN BRIGHTER AND MORE POWERFUL THAN BEFORE. THE DARK VINES ARE ALREADY BURNING UP AS WE SPEAK. I TRULY DO NOT WANT TO GET TOO CLOSE TO THIS ENEMY IN THIS STATE." Ves grew more serious as he caught sight of this mysterious occult-like symbol. He could already tell that it was far more than an artistic doodle. The light from the local star seemed to brighten in the direction of this giant light symbol. It was as if the star suddenly decided to play favorites and bathe the krelion judge with an extra strong dose of light! The aura of the tribulation manifestation grew stronger, sharper and more heartless than before. The Elegant Rage immediately became suppressed to the point where she was unable to harness stolen wood energy as smoothly as before. Ves immediately frowned when he formed a guess of what was happening. "This is probably a method employed by qi cultivators. What you are seeing is a representation of the krelion's artistic conception. Perhaps it is a logogram that holds the meaning of both light and justice. Whatever the case, this outward expression of an artistic conception has allowed this alien to amplify his domain in combat." "Wait, are we facing an ace mech-like opponent? Is this why we have fallen under a suppression effect?" "I don't think our opponent has reached the equivalent rank of an ace pilot, but that does not change the fact that he is powerful. His command over light is too exquisite, and it doesn't help that this element happens to counter the Elegant Rage especially well." This was just the beginning. Now that the krelion judge had entered into his most serious combat state, he no longer limited himself to probing strikes and began to launch much more fervent attacks! 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶 "Watch out!" The krelion pointed his decorated staff at the Elegant Rage and began to release a sustained light beam that struck the Elegant Rage and continued to drill into her armor despite her attempts to evade the attack! The Woodsap mech was not only suffering constant damage from the active energy beam, but also began to suffer mental torment as the attack violently punished the living mech for giving into evil! Major Jankowski experienced the Elegant Rage's pain as well, but the neural interface separated him from his machine just enough for him to make the correct move. The Elegant Rage flew deeper into the forest before hiding behind a low hill! The sustained light beam struck the ground and began to burn through a lot of worthless soil. Since the krelion judge was no longer able to strike at the mech, he cut off the energy beam and started to move closer. Major Jankowski was not in a hurry to move the damaged mech again. Much of her exterior had become scarred by burn grooves. The sustained energy beam might not have been able to pierce through the armor, but the areas that got burned were very slow to recover! "The light has both a purifying and punishing property." Ves commented. "The former makes it harder for the Elegant Rage to recover. The latter causes the light to inflict more direct damage. The combination of the two is quite lethal." "Our mech needs more wood energy." Major Jankowski said. "This forest is already halfway to getting drained. We need to move and spread thorns into another forest." "Then move. Focus on replenishment rather than offense." Ves advised. "It is okay to fall into a temporary disadvantage. Woodsap mechs should always be able to win a battle as long as they can last long enough. Do your best to keep the mech alive." The Elegant Rage did not dare to stick around any longer. The machine jumped from his location and blasted away towards a different forest that had been designated for use by the Larkinson Clan! The krelion judge advanced faster and began to pursue the Elegant Rage! With the giant representation of his artistic conception hovering behind his back, the powerful tribulation manifestation not only radiated light that continually stung the Elegant Rage, but also fired energy beams that unerringly struck the mech! The rear of the Elegant Rage began to accrue more and more holes that were slower to regenerate. The mech was forced to channel a lot more wood energy to these damaged parts in order to boost their restoration rate as much as possible. The action was effective, but the Elegant Rage ate through her excess wood energy reserves considerably faster than before. By the time she reached another forest, her surplus had already dwindled to almost nothing! "Nature's Benediction!" Many thorns flung from the Elegant Rage and spread across a forest that was filled with a different variety of trees. Stolen wood energy began to gather in and around the cybernetic mech once more. Her Sprout Rifle began to fire considerably more powerful seeds, only for the projectiles to burn and weaken before even managing to strike the alien's light energy shield! The retaliation from the glowing enemy was much more effective. As the krelion judge's staff continued to strike the Elegant Rage with judgemental light beams, the mech suffered considerably greater damage than before! "The alien has grown stronger!" "That's not true." Ves shook his head. "The energy levels of the tribulation manifestation has not increased any further since he unveiled his giant artistic conception. What changed is that his light attacks are inflicting at least 20 percent more damage to the Elegant Rage. I am afraid that the mech is the reason for the difference. The more she plunders from the environment, the more guilty she becomes! Not only that, but all of the parts that are restored with the help of stolen wood energy become tainted with darkness and other nasty stuff. That makes the mech frame increasingly more vulnerable to the alien's light attacks."" Major Jankowski looked shocked. "If that is the case... then our mech will become increasingly more disadvantaged over time. It's impossible for us to win by attrition!" Ves realized this as well. His heart sank as he realized that the krelion's more developed domain and exquisite artistic conception provided him with an absolute advantage in this battle!