Chapter 7340: Getting Schooled If the initial version of the Ixith Goliath functioned like a giant siege engine that was most suitable to smash fortifications apart, then the transformed version was clearly a lot more optimized to massacre enemy champions! The loss of so much bulk did not diminish its lethality in the slightest. Instead, it had become a much more threatening opponent against the remaining human combatants due to how much faster and more nimbler it had become! The other Goliath strains had never exhibited any transformations where they drastically altered their biological configurations. This had caused red humanity to develop an assumption that no Goliaths were capable of transforming into different forms on the battlefield. Unfortunately, they were wrong. The Goliath Hive never showed off this capability in the past because it was simply not worth it to include such a costly and complex ability to large versions of cannon fodder. The Ixith Goliath was special. The value of the Incubator spawn vastly exceeded that of its lesser kind. The timing was excellent. The defenders had used up a significant amount of resources to damage its original form. The Level 8 Goliath had also utilized its massive form to smash enough orbital fortresses to deplete the current quadrant. While it was still possible for the remaining fortified space stations to relocate and fill up the gaps in the orbital defense network, this was a very slow and cumbersome process, and could not be relied upon for the remainder of this battle. Not that it mattered this time. The transformed Ixith Goliath became a much smaller target, so large guns would find it a nightmare to land a single hit at longer ranges. Combined with the megavoribug’s vastly improved mobility, many long-ranged armaments had lost their effectiveness when employed against this enemy! "Our hit rate has dropped to single digits! Its flight is too fast and unpredictable!" "Be careful not to hit our allies! Friendly fire will only make everything worse." "Where are our gravitic energy generators? We need to slow it down at all costs! It is tearing apart the giants!" The Ixith Goliath prioritized easier targets over tougher ones. While the Rubarthan ace mechs did their best to block and fight back against the transformed Goliath, the transformed alien creature exhibited a great amount of cunning. It flexibly utilized its sinuous alien form to circle around the ace mechs so that it could strike at more vulnerable targets. Currently, those targets consisted of the Ascended Giants. The Ur-Titans had become a high priority to the voribugs! Their superdimensional arms tore gaps into its exoskeleton, but they had also suffered damage in return. All of the Ur-Titans fought with damaged raiments at this time. Prior claw strikes had damaged their superdimensional armor plating, making it easier for the lethal Goliath to pounce on them and tear their remaining protection apart! The Ascended Giants became alarmed, but they did not panic. They grouped up and tried to leverage their numbers against the Ixith Goliath, yet the megavoribug still took advantage of its significantly greater bulk and size and accepted all of the incoming attacks in order to grap hold of another Ur-Titan! The elite soldier turned human phase lord roared and counterattacked with his superdimensional halberd, but just like his predecessor, the many-limbed Goliath forcibly took hold of the shaft and utilized its superior strength to wrench the weapon from the giant’s gauntlets! "No! My weapon!" The Ixith Goliath did not hesitate to turn the weapon around and plunge its razor-sharp tip straight through the chest plating! Seconds passed as the Level 8 Goliath violently utilized its stolen implement to savage and tear apart the human phase lord’s true body! The remaining Ascended Giants became horrified. The changes happened too quickly. In one moment, the Ixith Goliath presented itself as a massive but fairly clumsy insect. In the next moment, it had become a leaner, meaner and far more lethal killing machine! It was clear that the Ixith Goliath’s second form was far more suitable in dueling against enemy champions. Perhaps it was trying to work its way up to defeating the Rubarthan ace mechs that had done an adequate job of harassing it, because the Ixith Goliath went out of its way to collect the precious medium-grade superdimensional halberds! Ves and the other soldiers grew especially alarmed when the Goliath’s body grew malleable enough to the point where it could integrate the shafts of both stolen halberds into its forelimbs! The halberd blades had essentially taken over the role of its claws! "It... it is stealing our weapons!" "It is worse... the Goliath is assimilating them. We are in for a much more dangerous fight." Ves grimly concluded. "Sir! I am ordering our giants to withdraw!" The Divine Harpoon urgently transmitted to his superior. "We are not equipped to fight against this Goliath! The scope of this battle has vastly exceeded our mission parameters. Its threat level has skyrocketed now that it has acquired its latest set of weapons. I insist that you accompany us as well." The Dark Apostle frowned. He did not want to retreat, especially after seeing two of his subordinates getting carved apart in front of his eyes. What kind of warrior would he be if he allowed himself to lose his courage after witnessing such an insulting display? Yet warriors that foolishly charged towards an opponent while being heavily outmatched never tended to live very long. The main reason why he hesitated about this decision was because his situation was a lot better than the others. He was the only giant that possessed a set of full high-grade superdimensional gear. The defensive properties of his raiment was vastly superior, and the sharpness of his Withering Sting exceeded that of the stolen weapons. As the leader of the Phase Lord Department, the Dark Apostle felt a strong sense of responsibility for his subordinates, both living and dead. He could not allow himself to back off when he still had a chance to exact revenge on this monster! Still, just because he maintained the resolve to fight did not mean he had lost all of his rationality. "Ves. Do you think we have a chance?" "Difficult to say, really. Our gear is superior, but our overall strength and scale is subpar. The transformed Goliath is still very large and strong. If your skills and intuition are not up to par, the enemy will wrench the Withering Sting from your grasp before you know it. Even if we set aside this possibility, those superdimensional halberds pose a credible threat against your life. Sure, they are only made out of hull-grade superdimensional alloys, but the megavoribug is already amplifying their performance with its stolen resonance." An important question came to mind. What was stronger, regular armor-grade superdimensional alloy or resonance-empowered hull-grade superdimensional alloy? Ves did not possess the answer! His best guess was that the former was still superior, but that the gap between the two had become a lot smaller due to the reality-defying effects of extraordinary willpower. Even at just 30 laveres, that was enough to make the superdimensional halberds exceed their original parameters. It was very much possible for those weapons to perform as if they were a quality grade higher than before! If this was the case, then the only piece of equipment that wouldn’t easily get cut apart by those weapons was the Withering Sting. Made out of the most scarce and precious weapon-grade superdimensional alloy, this was an artifact that was designed to cut or pierce through most other superdimensional equipment! "I am going in." The Dark Apostle finally decided. He couldn’t fully explain his decision. He simply felt he needed to go forth and test his might against this powerful adversary. Strangely enough, Ves did not object to this reckless decision. "Go. I will assist as much as I can." Strange energies began to course through the Withering Sting. Even though the Ixith Goliath managed to purge all of its afflicted biomass, Ves did not think it had developed an immunity against the withering curse. Vitality remained essential to this creature. The less life force it possessed, the weaker it became! As the Dark Apostle charged forward, he understood this truth as well. He did not stick to a straight trajectory, but instead began to curve around in the hopes of catching the enem from an oblique angle. Unfortunately, the Ixith Goliath was not stupid. It paid visible attention to the leader of the giants, whose larger size and better-quality equipment caused him to stand out from his subordinates. When the Ixith Goliath began to swing both of its halberd-tipped limbs, the Dark Apostle felt himself come alive like never before! He relied on his skill and intuition to deflect one of the halberds while moving his body to the side just so that the other halberd glanced off the side of his raiment. "Tch." More claws struck his raiment, but the Dark Apostle managed to block half of them, transferring pulses of withering and darkness energy through the limbs. Since the Ixith Goliath’s ordinary claws were unable to inflict any effective damage against the high-grade superdimensional armor, the alien creature simply didn’t bother to use them anymore. Instead, it concentrated on wielding its two integrated superdimensional weapons that it had just nicked from the Ascended Giants. To see their own weapons used against them pissed off Ves and the Dark Apostle to no end. These were rare and highly coveted weapons of great value! To have them fall into the hands of the enemy was a massive failure and one that should never be repeated. The Ascended Giants needed to figure out how to prevent scenarios like this from occurring in the future, because they really couldn’t afford to give enemy aliens access to more superdimensional arms. "Be careful, sir!" The Ixith Goliath rapidly took the measure of its opponent. At the same time, it became increasingly more proficient in the use of the integrated halberds. Its skills and judgment improved with every passing second. The Dark Apostle quickly found himself overwhelmed as he struggled to fend off two weapons striking at him at the same time. It was already a struggle for him to block one of the superdimensional halberds. He did not possess the speed, strength or limbs to block the other weapon at the same time! All of this fighting started to take a toll on his equipment. While the Withering Sting only received a few very minor scratches and grooves, his superdimensional regalia was faring a lot worse! The armor-grade superdimensional alloy should have been able to block the hull-grade superdimensional halberds with a reasonable amount of confidence. However, because of the Ixith Goliath’s stolen resonance, it was able to inflict significantly more effective damage than when the Ur-Titans wielded the halberds! This was absurd! The entire identity and basis of strength of the Ixith Goliath was based on stolen property! Though the Dark Apostle felt indignant about it, his raiment was rapidly accumulating more and more marks of damage. The thickness of his raiment granted him a decent buffer, but that meant nothing if he failed to turn this situation around. The Dark Apostle steadily became overwhelmed by the unceasing attacks. His spearmanship did not grant him any solutions on how to gain the upper hand. His foundation as a warrior was too shallow. He possessed excellent equipment but lacked the extensive skillset, combat experience and beastly intuition that expert pilots and ace pilots naturally accrued during their heroic journeys. It was situations like these where one’s shallow foundations became exposed. Though Ves and Blinky did their best to help by cursing the Ixith Goliath, their efforts proved far too marginal due to the same obstruction they encountered the last time. "The Ixith Goliath has become a lot more resistant to the withering curse." Ves found out! "It has shrunken its body and concentrated its remaining life force across a much smaller body. It is much harder for the withering curse to take root under such hostile conditions. The enemy’s willpower has also become much more adept at countering the power of darkness. This... this is an opponent that learns and improves at a rapid rate! Its growth... outpaces ours!" This was the first time that Ves encountered such a difficult adversary! As a mech designer obsessed with Mutual Growth in Adversity, he actually found it deeply uncomfortable to be dominated by an insectile alien race that exemplified design philosophy better than himself! In other words, he was being schooled by the mutated voribugs!