Chapter 6268 The Consequences of his Own Actions He almost made it through! If his Cleansing Light could just strike at L'Koi's raiment and burn through the armor plating, the Lionheart would have been able to inflict real harm on the phase lord's body! Even if the damage ended up fairly superficial, the symbolic value of such a strike could not be overstated. It was a powerful sign that the expert mechs posed a fatal threat against the relatively young and inexperienced phase lord! As long as the Tireless Engine and his son weren't stupid, the best and most logical decision they could make was to back off and allow the raiding human mechs to retreat without any further incident. Yet all of that became moot because General Ark failed to inflict the decisive blow that could frighten the phase lords into giving way! The mech general felt crushed by his near-success. 'Almost' succeeding yielded certain results that were still very favorable to the strike force. The Cleansing Light in full Giantstayler Mode at least managed to burn through a lot of segmented azure energy shields to deny the alien full coverage and also burned its way through the crucial spatial barrier. The effective neutralization of L'Koi's energy defenses meant that it became a lot easier for the strike force to inflict permanent and telling damage onto the nunser phase lord. L'Koi still enjoyed the protection of his raiment, which was equivalent to transphasic hyper armor system of a first-class mech, but that was much easier to deal with for the gathered Larkinson expert mechs. They just needed to target the weak points and get past the armor layers in order to inflict real physical damage. Of course, the expert mechs still needed to put in a lot of work in order to actually threaten the phase lord's life. L'Koi was larger than several mechs put together, so the expert mechs either needed to damage a lot of biotissue, or inflict enough penetrating damage to the brain or another well-protected organ. Ark and the other Larkinson expert pilots had already gained a good idea of L'Koi's temper. While the young nunser phase lord was indeed a cut above other nunsser warriors, he was not as tempered and experienced as his father. He also valued his life a lot more than his courage. L'Koi had just become a phase lord. He had a whole new life ahead of him as a mighty god among the native aliens. Why should he risk his life to defeat a bunch of expert mechs when he had not even begun to develop his potential as a deity? The massive blow inflicted by the Cleansing Light had most definitely spooked the phase lord and caused him to lose much of his confidence as a 'god'! It turned out that even after his body grew larger and tougher, he could still be killed like a common nunser if he bumped into the wrong opponents! The alien phase lord had already tried to put a lot more distance between himself and the expert mech that was almost responsible for burning through all of his defensive layers. The transphasic hyper axes that he had thrown out just earlier automatically spun around and looped back to his position. L'Koi caught the spinning axes in an obviously trained motion, but his stance had already switched from an offensive one to a defensive one. It was clear that L'Koi had already lost most of his courage! His heart was not in the battle anymore! In this regard, General Ark had produced a fantastic result. The threat posed by L'Koi was not as great as it was before. Even the warships and phasefighters hovering in the background reduced their activity for fear that one of their errant shots might actually strike the phase lord's raiment. The massive blow that the Lionheart had struck against L'Koi also dealt a major blow to the morale of the Girard Fleet. The growing doubts, fears and hesitation would definitely have a negative impact on the performance of the surrounding aliens. They became significantly easier to manage so long as their morale did not recover in the next few minutes. In short, General Ark's amazing feat had given the remaining expert mechs a much better chance of making it out alive! This was a feat to be celebrated, but General Ark's mood did not reflect this positive outcome at all. Dismay marked his expression as he felt anything but a winner after he had inflicted the most powerful attack that he had ever channeled through a mech in his career up to this point! "I failed…" "Rwoar…" A tired and deflated-looking Noah returned from the Cleansing Light and hopped back inside Ark in order to rest. The companion spirit had tried to pump as much power into the plasma sword as possible. He had worked hard to make the attack succeed, and while his efforts largely got rewarded, the failure at the very end struck the spiritual lion just as hard as his principal! For a moment, General Ark lost complete awareness of his expert mech, the other expert mechs, L'Koi and all of the other elements of the battlefield. His mind had entered into a pit of despair as his 'near-success' continually mocked and taunted him for his inability to pull off his entire attack. The last-second pushback that Ark failed to guard against had ruined his moment of splendor! He could still remember how his bottleneck had become so frail that it only took a small amount of effort to completely break it apart and attain his breakthrough. Yet because of his failure to anticipate and respond against L'Koi's surprising decision to throw his twin axes, General Ark had missed out on completing a deed that would have become a part of his glorious legend! This final failure at the end devastated Ark because he had lost the closest opportunity to break through to ace pilot in this battle, and perhaps for the entire duration of the current campaign! His bottleneck had firmed up with a vengeance. Whereas it previously felt as if it had turned into a paper screen that could easily be torn with the slightest of touches, now it had turned into a solid alloy wall that could not be broken no matter how many times Ark banged his head against the surface! The negative consequences of the earlier overloaded attack also didn't help. He had pushed his Cleansing Light so far that it had become busted. Many small and complicated internal components had been pushed so far above their tolerance levels that they had exploded or fizzled out. Ark's willpower had only temporarily forced them to stay intact, but as soon the true resonance receded, reality came back with a vengeance! His Lionheart was not in a good shape either. The mech supplied a lot of power to the weapon, so the power lines and energy transmission systems had endured a huge load that damaged a lot of internal components. The expert command mech might not look too damaged from the outside, but its internal situation had become a lot messier! General Ark no longer had the confidence that he would be able to maintain the performance of a high-tier expert mech. This was why his earlier move had been such a gambit for him. If he succeeded and managed to break through, then he had no doubt that his forced resonance at the ace mech level would have magically repaired all of the overstressed internal components and even make them a lot stronger in the process! Yet because he failed to break through, Ark became stuck with the consequences of his own actions. His combat effectiveness had dropped so much that he wouldn't be of any use in the fight against L'Koi anymore! Venerable Orfan, Venerable Vincent, Venerable Imon and Venerable Kolak were on their own going forward! By attempting to play the hero and betting everything on a single power move, General Ark effectively lost all of his capital and could no longer participate in the game anymore. It would already be a challenge for him to keep the Lionheart in a good enough condition to safely retreat to the stealth carrier hiding further away. Had he made the right choice? Did he proceed with an action that benefited him the most at the expense of imperiling his subordinates and comrades? Ark conceived of this entire operation for the purpose of putting him to the test. He had been so confident that he would be able to pull off a grand feat and successfully overcome his bottleneck in a magnificent blaze of glory. He had invested so much in this attempt. He had willingly separated himself from the rest of the 77th Warborn for the purpose of allowing him to fight without the amplification provided by his subordinates. His Lionheart had indeed lost a lot of combat effectiveness due to this risky decision, but it had also allowed him to rediscover what it was like to pilot a mech by himself and bring him closer to his own power as opposed to the strength borrowed from the belief of so many people. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚 When it came down to it, Ark's true motivation had been to break through by relying on his own power for the most part. Sure, other factors such as Noah, the Lionheart and the Illustrious One contributed to his attempt, but that still did not take away from the fact that Ark had almost managed to pierce his bottleneck by 'himself'. Yet almost was not enough in this instance. As Ark continued to wallow in his malaise, he could already feel the disappointment and recriminations from the other Larkinson expert pilots. They were all high-tier expert pilots like himself. They all knew what he had done and how his failure put them all in trouble. There was no need for them to exchange any words because their willpower already communicated their true feelings. "I'm a failure…" Fortunately, Ark at least possessed enough sense to slowly pick himself up and focus on the job. "What do we do, Ark?" Venerable Imon asked. The male Ingvar sibling did not express much resentment towards Ark. To him, failure was a natural part of life. Everyone failed once in a while. Imon was much more interested in addressing the immediate future rather than retreading the recent past. "I have done my work." Ark said in a measured tone. "L'Koi's energy shields and spatial barrier are gone. It is up to you to pick up where I have left off and beat the phase lord so badly that he no longer wishes to pursue us anymore. It will be harder for you to cope with him without my attempts to distract him, but you can do it. Those transphasic axes are deadly, but their reach is short and their wielder can't swing them all that quickly." Just as the remaining four combat capable expert mechs were ready to resume their fight, a sudden change occurred! Patriarch Reginald actually transmitted a warning over the command channel!" "Ark, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Ark and Reginald had fought alongside each other often enough for the former to trust the latter without reserve. The Lionheart already started to juke away before Reginald could finish his words! General Ark did not need any further motivation to desperately move his expert mech to the side as he could already feel the approach of a very acute threat! "Ah!" Ark's deep connection with his second skin mech caused him to experience a piercing pain on his arm! Outside of his cockpit, the Lionheart's right arm suddenly broke apart at the elbow as a fairly large and sharp polearm had almost pierced through the back of the high-tier expert mech! Fortunately, the Lionheart had ultimately evaded quickly enough to sacrifice an arm. As for the weapon that had almost impaled the expert mech, it had already come to an abrupt stop before L'Koi. The phase lord recognized the weapon and immediately tossed aside his precious transphasic axes to grip the recently developed spear that looked a bit too long and thick in his arms. The Tireless Engine had actually passed his Saint Piercer to his son! "WHERE IS YOUR COURAGE, MY SON?! I AM ASHAMED OF YOU! IT IS NOT A FAULT TO FLINCH AWAY FROM A POWERFUL ATTACK, BUT IT IS A SIN FOR A GOD TO LOSE YOUR CONFIDENCE ON THE BATTLEFIELD. TAKE MY ARMS AND REDEEM YOUR HONOR BY SLAYING THESE INSOLENT HUMANS! DEMONSTRATE THROUGH YOUR ACTIONS THAT YOU WILL NOT ALLOW THIS PATHETIC COLLECTION OF FAILED GODS TO CLAIM VICTORY OVER YOU! FIGHT, OR LIVE IN DISGRACE!" The admonishment lit a fire in L'Koi's heart. The phase lord's doubts and fears burned away. The powerful alien only had fury and indignation in his eyes!