Half a dozen Goliaths flew forward while surrounded by at least hundreds of thousands of voribugs. There was no rigid order to their formation. The Goliaths moved forward at their own pace while their attending voribugs flowed around them as if they acted as a biological parody of an energy shield. The Goliaths made a profound impression on the humans. Each of them appeared monstrous in very different fashions. The Hive Princess who crafted them and shaped them into specialized organic fighting machines most definitely possessed a sense of savage artistry. Their advance meant that the skirmish had entered its most dangerous stage. All units went into high alert. More reserves were being readied while ships such as the Tarrasque had begun to arm their weapons in case they needed to open fire due to an unexpected development. Yet despite preparing so many reserve forces, the Goliath did not sustain any form of bombardment. This was odd. As the Goliaths crossed an invisible threshold, the Rubarthan defenders finally sent out numerous champions, one for each enemy Goliath. Among them were a mix of expert mechs as well as a single Ascended Giant. They all separated from each other and approached the Goliaths that they had been designated to fight against. What was notable was that they received no backup and no reinforcements. The orbital defenses and other defensive units deliberately diverted their fire from the Goliaths. "It seems eerie." Ves voiced. He had moved to the command center of the Tarrasque by this time. Lord Richard Brownstone still accompanied him, but they were now joined by the Divine Harpoon. The strategist did not see fit to deploy on the battlefield this time. "The Goliaths are preparing to fight separately from each other." The Ascended Giant said. "What is interesting is that our expert mechs and one of my Faceless Giants are reciprocating." Lord Richard Brownstone offered clarification. "This is how most skirmishes have developed over the week. We have noticed that whenever the mutated voribugs send its Goliaths, the enemy Hive will adjust the deployment of its swarms based on our response. If we try to deploy more expert mechs or ace mechs than necessary to defeat a single Goliath, then the voribug swarms will go crazy and assault our champions like mad. Just imagine it. Millions if not billions of bugs will abandon all sense of strategy and order so that they can madly crash into our high-ranking mechs for the purpose of clogging them up and draining their resonance shields. Demigods or not, no demigod can withstand this kind of pressure for long." Ves frowned. That sounded like a really scumbag way to win a 'duel', not that it could be called this way due to the interference of so many voribugs. "So what does that have to do with the current pattern?" He asked the Rubarthan mech designer. The Brownstone scion adopted an uneasy expression. "Through trial and error, we have found out that if we send out a single champion that is on the same level or weaker than the overall power level of the Goliath, the voribugs will form an unusually lenient response. Their assault on our defensive platforms will slacken. They will send only a handful of millions of voribugs to escort their Goliaths. They will even retreat and refuse to press their attack despite how extensively the Goliaths have managed to damage our high-ranking mechs. If we try to stack the deck in an unreasonable manner, then the Goliath Hive will deploy larger swarms and attack with greater ferocity, causing our forces to incur greater damage." "So you formed an unspoken accord with the Goliath Hive." The Divine Harpoon spoke in a half-accusing tone. "The bugs used a combination of incentives and punishments to train you into helping them test their Goliaths in individual combat." Lord Richard Brownstone spread his arms. "I am not in charge of the defense of Philaster Crestia III. I can tell you that the commander in charge here has made the most rational choice. Our primary objectives are to hold this territory as long as possible and buy time for the Rubarthan Pact to enter into a stronger war footing. I can tell you that our defenders here are not the only ones who are 'cooperating' with the Goliath Hive in this manner. The forces tasked with defending all of the other fortified star systems under attack by this hive have made the same choice." This was a consequence of lacking enough power. The mutated voribugs paid a lot of attention to their human adversaries, and were willing to keep them around longer if they could give their Goliaths high-quality sparring partners. A minor lull descended on the battlefield as everyone's focus shifted to the stronger units as opposed to the weaker ones. It was as if most of the mechs, warships, orbital platforms and enemy voribug swarms did not matter anymore. While neither side ceased fire, they fought at a lower intensity, as if they were only fulfilling their duty in a perfunctory manner. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚 "They look powerful." Ves remarked as he created separate projections that highlighted every visible Goliath. "Only 4 of them have shown up this time, but each of them possess a distinctive look and dare I say design philosophy. How strong are these Goliaths?" His Rubarthan liaison had a ready answer for that. "The four are all equivalent to a mid-tier expert mech or high-tier expert mech in strength. We currently rely on a combination of different sensor systems to capture a large amount of emissions that change depending on the strength of the Goliath in question. So far, we have done the math and formed a simple 10-point scale to quickly categorize the threat level of every voribug monstrosity." Lord Richard created another projection that showed a line divided into many pieces. "According to our unnamed scale, a Level 0 Goliath has not been seen, but presumably exists. Level 1, 2 and 3 are reserved for Goliaths that have yet to match the strength of a low-tier expert mech. While the mutated voribugs have never deployed Level 3 or lower Goliaths in any of our star systems, we believe that many juvenile and growing Goliaths at least have to pass through this stage before reaching maturity. The scale may also be applied to exceptionally powerful non-Goliath voribug subspecies, but that is still in discussion." The Rubarthan pointed to the next three blocks. "Level 4, 5 and 6 correspond to Goliaths that are roughly equivalent to a low-tier, mid-tier and high-tier expert mech. The division is rather rough, as the Goliath base their strength on different principles that defy easy comparisons. Nonetheless, we have done our best to tweak our models in order to give our soldiers a reliable means of gauging the strength of an enemy Goliath. A high-tier expert mech can defeat a Level 5 Goliath with relative ease. A mid-tier expert mech has a low chance of defeating a Level 6 Goliath. It is only when our expert mechs are much better matched against their Goliath counterparts that they receive an appropriate challenge. Not equal, but better. A high-tier expert mech should be able to defeat most Level 6 Goliaths while incurring light to moderate damage." That sounded strange to Ves. "If that is the case, then isn’t the threshold of a Level 6 Goliath set too low?" "No." The Rubarthan liaison replied. "We tend to deploy our expert mechs as solitary units because their capacity to generate collateral damage is high. Our expert pilots are too honorable to commit friendly fire. They will not be able to fight without restraint if too numerous people are in the way. The voribugs do not share these concerns. The Goliaths readily crush and kill the voribugs that are ostensibly on their side. Friendly fire is simply not a word that exists in their alien dictionary. This means that the Goliaths can always count on the assistance of cannon fodder bugs, making them significantly harder to defeat. A Level 6 Goliath paired with millions of voribugs can still give a high-tier expert mech a run for its money." That caused the newcomers to fall into thought. "So what are the levels of the enemy Goliaths?" "The enemy hive has dispatched 4 Goliaths. Two of them are Level 5, and one of them happens to be Level 6. What is rare is that the mutated voribugs have also dispatched a rare and expensive Level 7 Goliath. Level 7 to 9 correspond to the strength of a junior ace mech, a senior ace mech and a peak ace mech respectively. The Goliath Hive has yet to produce and deploy a Level 8 or Level 9 Goliath as of yet, but it is only a matter of time before the enemy Hive Princess is able to produce monstrosities that can give our stronger champions a serious challenge." It was not easy for the mutated voribugs to develop a Goliath that was powerful enough to fight against an ace mech or a lesser phase lord. Such organisms had to rely on exceptional biological endowments in order to stand a chance. However, Ves did not underestimate the power of biotechnology. The existence of calamity beasts had proven that it was still possible for purely organic or biotechnological life forms to challenge or even defeat a human ace mech. "This uncomplicated level scale is quite convenient." He said. "I think it may even see widespread adoption, especially when it can be applied to a large variety of enemies. It is more convenient than constantly equating the strength of certain enemies to high-ranking pilots at various stages of development. Does the scale extend to Level 10?" Read first on *‌.‌o‌‌r‌g‌ "Yes." Lord Richard slowly nodded. "We have reserved this for Goliaths or any other voribug that has accumulated enough power to pose a serious threat against a god mech, especially when attended by an astronomical amount of voribugs. Currently, we speculate that the Devourer Queen is the only existing voribug that has reached Level 10." That was a reasonable deduction. It was already outrageous enough that the mutated voribugs could mass produce Level 4 to 6 Goliaths. The very limited showing of Level 7 Goliaths indicated that the mutated voribugs were not able to mass produce stronger insects. As for Level 10? Please. If the mutated voribugs could produce True God-equivalent organisms, then they had already won the Voribug War. As Ves looked into Lord Richard Brownstone’s eyes, he could see multiple clues. "You’re afraid." "Yes." The Rubarthan mech designer responded. "We know too little about the mutated voribugs. We do not know where they came from, who designed them and what their upper limit may be. The unknown presents the most frightening possibilities. We cannot rule out the possibility that as long as the voribug race continues to develop, it may one day have the ability to produce Level 10 Goliaths. Perhaps a single one of them is a joke in front of a god pilot, but what about a dozen of them? What about a hundred? Numbers have always been their greatest advantage." The Rubarthans had no choice but to take this possible threat seriously! This was why they were so eager to be proactive. They hated the passive approach because that would give the mutated voribugs all of the time they needed to further their development. This was also why they felt so helpless in the Philaster Crestia System. The Goliath Hive had practically house-trained the defending forces into following its rules. Ves knew for a fact that the local garrison not only held more expert pilots in reserve, but also enjoyed the protection of an ace pilot. Yet none of them had made an appearance so far. The Rubarthans were afraid of provoking an overreaction from the opposing bugs. Although Ves understood their plight, he did not think it was appropriate for them to maintain this stance for a longer period of time. The defenders had already lost most of their fighting spirit!