Chapter 6534 The Amphis Extremis The Amphis Extremis was an imposing mech up close, as it should be, as it was a powerful ace mech. Ketis appreciated the opportunity to examine this relatively new machine up close. Master Benedict had only managed to complete the design and fabrication of this machine recently, so it had yet to show off its power too much on the battlefield. The brief skirmishes between different scouting and raiding elements were not enough to give the Amphis Extremis room to showcase its full might. Saint Linda Cross was obviously very happy to pilot such a powerful mech. "Do you regret that it isn't a living mech?" Ketis asked. "The other ace pilots in the virtual meeting all preferred to commission a living mech from my clan." Saint Linda Cross shrugged. "I can understand the temptation, but just like my patriarch, I am not looking to fight alongside a machine-turned-friend. Here in the Cross Clan, we believe that glory must be earned through our own efforts. If we let our machines decide our actions, we will ultimately grow dependent on them. What happens if we lose our living mechs one day? We already saw a preview of that by witnessing how badly Jannzi Larkinson reacted to the death of her living mech." "That was an extreme case, Linda. Jannzi Larkinson developed an extreme attachment to her living mech. She stood out so much in this regard that it accidentally led to the development of the Carmine System. Most of the mech pilots in our clan are able to cope with the loss of their battle partners relatively well. They often describe it as losing a pet. It is something to mourn about, but not something worth giving up your life for. I think the lessons you learn and the companionship you gain from piloting a living mech is worth far more than the pain you will feel from losing it in battle." Though Ketis did not particularly choose to become a shill, she didn't like how Saint Linda dismissed the value of living mechs so readily. The older ace pilot merely smiled in response. "Reginald and I have built our careers off piloting mechs that don't backtalk against us or second-guess our decisions. There may be times where teamwork can produce better results, but we are mech pilots who grew up in the old Cross Clan. Back in the Garlen Empire, we were taught that only power is supreme. Technology, wealth and troops are all secondary in comparison. As long as we are skilled and strong enough, it is natural for everything else to fall in line. Those who put technology and other factors first are short-sighted because their success and failure is tied to the availability of external variables. We must never develop this weakness." That was an extreme opinion that Ketis never expected to hear from Linda Cross, who was often regarded as a considerably more intelligent and reasonable champion than Reginald Cross! It turned out that all of the old school mech pilots from the Garlen Empire were the same. The newer generation of expert pilots that emerged after the Cross Clan entered the Red Ocean were not so fixated on glory and martial supremacy. It was a pity that they had yet to become powerful enough to challenge the dominance of the old timers. Seeing that there was no way for Ketis to convince Linda Cross to look at living mechs in a more favorable way, the swordmaster decided to change the subject. "The weapons of your Amphis Extremis are quite interesting. What has stood out the most to me is that your mech is wielding a flail instead of a chained sword. The aesthetic design is certainly... inspired." "That is correct. The female ace pilot smiled when she turned and took a look at the menacing appearance of the ball attached to the chain of the handle. "I was doubtful at first, but the Wrecker Skull soon won me over. Master Benedict added a surprisingly playful touch to the weapon by shaping the weighted ball in the form of a metallic skull. The asymmetrical shape happens to add more unpredictability to my swings. It also helps to induce more fear as skulls also have similar meanings to the native aliens." The Wrecker Skull was a fitting name given that the skull-shaped ball truly looked as if it could be used to crack apart the heads of enemy phase lords! "Why did you decide to switch from attaching the chain with a ball instead of a sword?" Ketis asked. "If you chose to stick with the latter, I could have forged a special blade for you that is thick, sturdy and capable of cutting through lots of matter." "There are multiple reasons why the main weapon of my ace mech is a ball. Back when I was still an expert pilot, my resonance strength was not strong enough to generate enough mass for a blunt object to break apart the armor of mechs or starships. I needed to rely on a sword to more easily cut through armor and solid matter. Now that I have become an ace pilot, I no longer need this compromise anymore. With the help of my Saint Kingdom, I can amplify the mass of my ace mech and any other weapon by ten times or more. I can rend apart the hulls of smaller starships and obliterate any expert mech that gets hit by a solid flail strike." As a swordmaster, Ketis still couldn't stomach how easily Linda abandoned her sword for a flail. "There are still advantages to wielding a sword even if you have managed to break through, Linda. Your reality-defying ability to amplify the mass of any weapon can help you cut through hardened materials much easier. You don't need to rely on sharpness at all in order to slice apart your enemies. You can just rely on the superior mass and momentum of your weapon to do most of the work." Linda shook her head. "I know what you are talking about, but swordsmanship is not for me. I have witnessed Venerable Dise in action enough times to know that I can never catch up to her in terms of pure skill. Besides, wielding a flail with a weighted ball is more suitable against the current enemies we are fighting against. My Amphis Extremis can easily exhaust the transphasic energy shields of alien warships because the more massive ball allows me to amplify its bashing power much further. The same goes for the spatial barriers of enemy phase lords. As a mech designer, you should know why this is the case." "I do. Ketis replied. Transphasic energy shields did not behave like physical armor. The former was much less susceptible to getting 'cut' or 'pierced'. Swords and spears behaved the same as blunt objects in most cases. Only special technology and materials made it possible for such weapons to actually penetrate through energy shields without exhausted its total energy reserves. The Cross Clan did not have easy access to these kinds of goodies. Therefore, the effective conventional solution to increasing a mech's attack power against energy defenses was to employ a heavy blunt weapon instead! The flail and other blunt weapons largely relied on maximizing the kinetic energy to produce exaggerated levels of impact damage against their targets. In other words, bigger numbers translated into more damage! These properties and the relationships between them made it far more logical for the Amphis Extremis to exchange its sword for a blunt weapon. She and Master Benedict chose the flail over other weapons due to Linda's habit of using long chains to increase the versatility of her melee combat operations. "The length of the chain can extend quite far if need be. Linda explained. "I have yet to show off the full length. Master Benedict and his partners worked hard to find a transphasic hyper alloy that can allow them to reduce the size and thickness of the chains while still making it resistant to breaking. This helps with packing a longer chain in my mech." One of the criticisms of the original Amphis was that its chained sword could only be thrown up to a certain length. The new ace mech addressed this persistent issue and probably managed to solve the problem quite well by utilizing chains that were much smaller and thinner! This significantly increased the range of the 'melee' strikes of the Amphis Extremis. Yet this was not the only weapon in the space knight's arsenal. "The tower shield has seen little improvements aside from making use of superior exotics and hypers." Ketis remarked as she tried to figure out if there was anything special about its design. "Master Benedict and I do not think the tower shield needs to be anything more." The Crosser ace pilot answered. "A solid enough tower shield should be able to resist a lot of weapons fire, but the main reason why it is so unsophisticated is because I can rely on it to stay in one piece if I use it as a battering ram. The forces that I can generate from a full charge is enormous if I make active use of my Saint Kingdom. The collision is too powerful. A high-tech tower shield that is integrated with all sorts of tech will shatter apart despite the strengthening derived from true resonance due to the presence of too many weak points. I do not have as many fears if I can freely abuse the physical shield of my Amphis Extremis." That also made sense. The favorite tactic of an offensive space knight was charge forward and weather all of the remote attacks with its protective tool before using it to crash right into their targets! Offensive space knights were quite similar to lancer mechs to an extent. Aside from a flail and tower shield, the Amphis Extremis gained an additional weapon system. A pair of shoulder-mounted rapid-fire kinetic multi-barreled hyper machine guns graced the mech frame. They were designed to follow the contours of the widened shoulder plates, so they did not ruin the silhouette of the Amphis Extremis. Thick ammunition containers were mounted on the back, which was designed to be easily removed or replaced by a logistical mech under field conditions. "I mentioned earlier that my Saint Kingdom can amplify the mass of anything without affecting inertia or whatever. This works for something as large as my entire machine to objects as small as the metal bullet of a gun." Saint Linda briefly explained. "It seemed too good of an opportunity to add these multi-barreled machine guns to mech. Don't underestimate this relatively low-tech weapon. It can launch rounds at a high rate, and my control over them is good enough to be able to aim each muzzle at individual targets. Combined with the fact that I can easily increase the mass of every bullet by ten times or more, I can use this cheap and small ammunition to shred entire swarms of alien phasefighters, especially if my resonance strength grows stronger in the future. They are also good at intercepting a large amount of missiles or even solid kinetic projectiles when I become stronger." This completely solved one of the greatest disadvantages of a melee mech like the Amphis Extremis! Even if an ace mech was able to rely on its Saint Kingdom to crush multiple weaker targets at a time, it was still a lot more wasteful than relying on machine guns to do the job "What about targets other than small craft?" "The rapid-fire machine guns are also fairly effective at wearing down energy shields or punching through armor, though I can run out of ammunition quickly in those cases. That is what my flail and tower shield are for. Master Benedict offered to add more weapon systems to my Amphis Extremis, but I refused because this is all I need to handle all of the enemy types deployed by the native aliens. I don't want to compromise the integrity and reliability of my mech any further by adding redundant stuff." Ketis nodded in agreement. "You have made a good choice. You have put together a perfect combination of weapons to employ against the native aliens." As an ace mech that largely conformed to the offensive space knight archetype, the addition of the shoulder-mounted machine guns rounded out its attack options and massively increased its usefulness on the battlefield! The Amphis Extremis was anything but a pure defensive bulwark that could do nothing else but take a lot of hits! It was designed to dish out as much damage as it could withstand, if not more!