The Fist of Defiance completely dominated the ancient phase whales that were free to move and fight. How could 5 of these powerful native gods possibly overpower the Invictus when they failed to do so when they had 6? Perhaps they might have a chance if they could inflict material damage onto the god mech, but the resonance-empowered armor-grade superdimensional alloy plating proved to be completely impervious to their attacks for the time being! It was not for lack of trying. The ancient phase whales worked together to launch spatial blades that were sharp and powerful enough to cut moons in half. They tried to turn the fabric of space into a pretzel in an attempt to trap the god mech into a self-contained area that looped back into itself. They spawned terrible-looking tentacles from their organic bodies. Not only did they swing enough force to generate massive earthquakes if they struck the side of a planet, but the ancient phase whales had also transplanted their superdimensional teeth on the tips and sides of those tentacles! The latest measure probably had the best chance of damaging the Fist of Defiance, but the god pilot merely laughed and overcame their threat through a combination of brute force and excellent evasion! The Fist of Defiance’s intuition was so sharp that no attempt to trap or envelop his god mech worked. If he wanted to, he could easily evade every tentacle strike. He did not always bother to do so, though. At certain times, his Invictus ignored the teethed tentacles slamming into its direction so that it could punch an ancient phase whale in the most direct fashion possible! Even so, before the tentacles could even come close to the god mech, they slowed down and lost a bit of momentum as the Fist of Defiance’s God Kingdom sapped their strength. When the high-grade superdimensional teeth struck the exterior of the seemingly tiny god mech with cataclysmic force, they failed to inflict anything more serious than dents or scratches! Even that was just a temporary condition as the god pilot utilized his supreme willpower to reverse this cosmetic damage! The ancient phase whales began to despair when they witnessed the fatal combination between a god pilot’s supreme willpower and the incredible divine properties of ’godbone’! The alien gods conveyed expressions of outrage and blasphemy as they continually failed to inflict any lasting damage onto the fast and practically invisible superdimensional god mech. The disparity in power between the two was so great that there was no need to describe in detail how the Fist of Defiance completely bullied the ancient phase whales. The old ancient leaders continued to activate more and more esoteric phasewater organs. They also mutated their massive true bodies in real-time in an attempt to inflict more physical damage, but neither of these measures worked! The Fist of Defiance was one of the worst enemies they could have fought against. The decision to station him in a central star node that was likely to get ambushed by a powerful alien strike force was a stroke of genius. Out of all of the god pilots that excelled at fighting while outnumbered, the Fist of Defiance was among the best! The Invictus was famed for withstanding brutal hits and still keep going. Before he ascended to a god, the Fist of Defiance had already become famous for seeking out punishment for the purpose of training his willpower to resist attacks as best as possible! Since the god pilot was already able to resist all sorts of damage and malevolent effects before his god mech received a superdimensional upgrade, his ability to withstand everything the ancient phase whales threw at them had only become more powerful! Using superdimensional materials, even in a relatively rudimentary fashion, against phase whales was like using insecticide against bugs. The Invictus had literally become an ancient phase whale’s worst nightmare! It continued to smash aside all forms of spatial manipulation as if they were little more than light breezes. The god mech also resisted every form of physical damage no matter whether it was pure force or empowered by superdimensional teeth. The longer the Invictus fought, the more the battle began to resemble an execution. As one ancient phase whale died after another, the enemy soon lost hope of salvaging any sort of victory from this risky operation. To their credit, none of the ancient phase whales turned coward and tried to run away. They were too old and stubborn to allow themselves to violate their racial pride. Besides, the greater spacetime bubble trapped both humans and invaders in the same star system. This was one of the major flaws of employing such a measure. The aliens couldn’t even run away if they wished! It soon became obvious that the Invictus actually grew weaker as the fight dragged on. After three ancient phase whales got punched so violently that hardly any of their brain tissue remained intact, the Fist of Defiance no longer regarded the remaining native gods as a serious threat. The Invictus slowed down. The God Kingdom lost its intensity. The Fist of Defiance no longer pulled off any flashy power moves. To outside observers, it looked as if the god pilot had simply grown bored at the fight. At this point, he no longer fought for the thrill of challenging himself. He simply fought the remaining enemies out of duty and to end this botched alien operation as quickly as possible. Despite losing his fighting spirit as enemy resistance grew feebler, the Fist of Defiance undeniably maintained his superiority on the battlefield. Even if the surviving ancient phase whales accomplished a breakthrough or relied on desperate measures to temporarily boost their combat power, the Fist of Defiance’s fighting spirit would only surge back to its previous height, causing him to squash down any elevated resistance with overwhelming force! "The poor aliens." Ves expressed his mock sympathy at the invading ancient phase whales. "I don’t know how many of these old and big bastards still remain alive in the Red Ocean, but losing 12 of them will definitely represent a serious loss of strength to the Red Cabal." The one-sided beatdown caused the native aliens to look like imbeciles, but Ves knew that it could have easily gone worse. Experience more tales on freewebnovel The Fist of Defiance would have struggled a lot more if the Red Association did not find a way to quickly apply superdimensional matter to his god mech. The so-called ’godbone’ was probably the greatest weapon of the phase whale race. It also happened to be their greatest weakness. Ves did not dare to imagine whether the Fist of Defiance would have been able to defend the Yernstall Central Star Node by himself. Perhaps he might have been able to mount a resistance if he relied upon the grand work-level superweapons that had to be stationed in this central star node. However, there was no guarantee whether these secret superweapons could help overcome the defenses of 6 ancient phase whales working in unison. At worst, the Fist of Defiance and the defenders may be able to squash the ancient phase whales, but end up with an utterly ruined star system as the humans failed to stop the ancient phase whales from wrecking all of the expensive infrastructure! A pyrrhic victory would have been rather devastating for the war effort! Ketis’ actions therefore played a much more significant role than everyone previously realized. This battle had just elevated the significance of superdimensional matter to a greater height. It was not an exaggeration to claim that superdimensional matter may literally be the savior of red humanity! By the time the Fist of Defiance finished off the last phase whale by punching the top of its skull so hard that it shattered and caused pieces of transphasic bone to pierce into the softer brain matter, the Invictus did not even bother to hunt down the panicking warships that accompanied the native gods. The mechs and warships of the Red Association and Red Fleet had already begun to engage them in battle! Now that they had lost the protection of the ancient phase whales, the alien warfleet quickly found itself outgunned, outnumbered and completely stuck inside core enemy territory! The Fist of Defiance left in order to kill the ancient phase whales responsible for generating and maintaining the greater spacetime bubble and finding a way to shatter this barrier with his superdimensional fists. "So… that happened." "It appears so." His assistant said. Ves fell into thought. "The strategic value of superdimensional matter has skyrocketed after this. Opening up a new breach into the Blue Dimension has become a much higher priority than before. Everyone will literally regard Ketis and the Heavensword in her possession as the only ones who can save our people from extinction." "That is… a pretty accurate assessment, if I may say so myself, boss. I think all of those high-and-mighty politicians and statesmen will react aghast when Ketis resists any attempt at retreating to the rear in order to preserve her ability to give humans another chance of harvesting superdimensional matter. Only the god pilots and Star Designers should be able to understand a swordmaster’s need to hone herself in battle." Ves had a feeling that Ketis’ importance within the upper hierarchy of red humanity was about to gain an enormous boost. So much so that many of his plans related to her may need to be shoved aside. He had a good feeling that Ketis may eventually drift away from the Larkinson Clan due to the excessive attention and honors she was about to receive going forward. That was okay. Ves always aimed for this kind of outcome. He just did not expect the consequences to be so dramatic. He underestimated the impact of harvesting strange new resources from another dimension. Ketis had also employed excellent judgment by using other sources of information to make a targeted breach into the Blue Dimension. She could have easily opened up a portal into a dimension that hardly offered anything stronger than mid-grade exotics! A part of Ves felt a little jealous that Ketis earned a huge amount of respect and appreciation by serving as the essential link in providing the Fist of Defiance with a superdimensional god mech. He quickly squashed this impulse. This was an immature way of thinking. He should feel happy that Ketis succeeded beyond their wildest dreams! The more people obsessed over Ketis, the less they paid attention to him, allowing him to operate with greater freedom and less meddling. Nobody should know that Ves also possessed the capacity to open up a gateway into the Blue Dimension! It ultimately did not matter too much if Ketis gained more power and started to gain delusions of grandeur. The Larkinson Clan shouldn’t rely so heavily on Ves’ leadership and initiative to maintain its prosperity. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎 The rise of a second leader of great power and renown would make the clan a lot more robust and able to withstand serious setbacks. Besides, no matter how Ketis developed from here, Ves doubted that she would abandon her friendship with her mentor and benefactor. They were bound by trust, honor and the Mech Designer System. A principled swordmaster would never become ungrateful to him and stab him in the back. "I wonder how many other god mechs have received superdimensional upgrades." Ves mused. "The mechers managed to harvest an awful lot of it during the first run. Even if much of it turned out to be low-grade superdimensional matter, they broke down so many floating mountains that there has to be more. What do you think, Gavin?" His assistant shrugged. "This is not my specialty. If I have to make a guess, I think the Huntsman should have received at least one superdimensional spear, if he hasn’t stolen one of those Saint Piercers already. Maybe the Evolution Witch received a large sample in order to research a method to integrate superdimensional matter into a biomech like her Geneforger."