The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7181

Chapter 7181: Enlightening Duel

"Chief Councilor Ves Larkinson of the Upper Council has won the first of four duels of his ongoing leadership challenge! After a long and punishing fight, he has vanquished over the Unshakeable King of the Ur-Titan Phalanx by relying on excellent utilization of his superior equipment!"

"The Unshakeable King has proved he possessed an edge in terms of fighting skills, combat experience and endurance, but his inability to inflict enough damage to his well-armored opponent has led to his demise! The pressure of the duel proved the better of him. The more setbacks he suffered, the more he lost his composure, which proved to be a detriment when fighting against a high IQ opponent such as the renowned Devil Tongue. Trying to use your own companion spirit to kill the companion spirit who invented them in the first place is pure folly! In the end, the former strategos of the Ur-Titan Phalanx did not necessarily lose because he was the inferior fighter, but because he was arrogant and failed to respect his opponent’s depth of solutions."

"The chief councilor has already gone off to a good start! The fact that a ’mech designer’ has won a fair duel against a professional soldier and a recognized champion such as the Unshakeable King while keeping most of his raiment intact is a clear indication of his strength. His approach to combat may be very different, but it only proves that the Ascended Giants still have a long way to go before they can become omnipotent on the battlefield. This singular duel has exposed that the combat doctrines of the Ascended Giants, more specifically the ur-Titan Phalanx, are still far from reaching maturity. Equipment matters!"

The shocking outcome continued to spread among a restricted circle of people.

Not all of them had the authorization to watch the live view of the secret duels, so they could only obtain hearsay from other people.

This was why many of them grew shocked and surprised when they learned that a mech designer who may have been involved in many battles but always let his mech pilots fight on his behalf had won a personal victory!

The duel was clean and the mech designer won without suffering crippling injuries!

He not only defeated his opponent, but completely demolished the Unshakeable King until his head flew from the rest of his body!

Many soldiers and warriors knew how difficult it was to win a fight in such a convincing fashion.

Whatever the case, Ves Larkinson had unambiguously proved with this victory that he was already one of the strongest human phase lords in the Red Ocean,

Unless other major powers secretly cultivated their own army of human phase lords, Ves could take pride in his ability to kill what many Ascended Giants considered to be their second-strongest fighter!

This feat alone was enough to win over many Ascended Giants, especially the ones who harbored reluctance towards the current direction of the Phase Lord Department.

As brainwashed as they may be, not all of them had lost all of their old wits and common sense. They still retained the awareness of their human identity, and also understood how idiotic it would be for them to defect to the native aliens.

Even if they no longer identified themselves as human, they still recognized their ancestry to their old race!

To them, their desire to go independent was more benign. They simply considered themselves to be children who had grown old and self-sufficient enough to leave the home of their parents. They wanted to set off into the wilderness and build their own town and society that existed as a distinct pocket adjacent to red humanity.

Ves sought to win over this group of optimists first. It was not enough for him to kill ardent traitors such as the Unshakeable King. He knew he needed to obtain solid backing from a large enough group of Ascended Giants to truly assume control over the entire Phase Lord Department, so he and the Dark Apostle had taken great care to abide by their honor and fight without relying on excessive technology.

Of course, they couldn’t help but take advantage of innovative and exotic solutions. It would be stupid of them if they threw away all of their advantages for the sake of vanity.

Their first victory vindicated their approach.

"Good work, chief councilor!" Eliza Mo Ragadan greeted the Dark Apostle as returned to the temporary base in order to rest and recuperate. "Our doctors are already waiting to receive you in the next hall. They have prepared stores of phasewater and special rations that should be able to promote cellular regrowth and fatigue recovery of a man of your exceptional physique."

The Dark Apostle did not deign to talk to the mortal. Blinky flew out instead and faced his chief of staff.

"How are the initial reactions from the people in the know?"

Eliza smiled back in a particularly satisfied manner. "You exceeded their expectations. Most of them expected you to lose your first match. They thought you chose to challenge the Unshakeable King first so that you can face him at your best and minimize the chance of accidents. They did not truly think that a mech designer of all people could defeat one of the stronger champions among the Ascended Giants, though you managed to do so by taking the Unshakeable King by surprise with your special exploding spear. The manner in which you turned the battle around has drawn critique. This was not an honorable move."

"Victory washes away all doubts." Ves huffed through Blinky’s manifestation. "I stayed within the rules, and that is enough. If the Ascended Giants did not want my other self to toss out a weapon that just happens to be primed to explode, then they should have added in this clause. It is their negligence that they failed to account for all technological possibilities. Besides, this move came at a hefty cost. The Dark Apostle had to finish the rest of the fight without his main weapon."

"I am told that the reactor that sustained the plasma spear was already beginning to run out of energy."

"It was a considerable burden to carry it around during the duel. Unlike mechs, phase lords cannot implant a power reactor inside their body... not unless they still want to fold and unfold their bodies afterwards."

"That is technically true, but the output is... mediocre." Ves responded. "I also intended to keep it in reserve as another backup option. At worst, I intended to shock the Unshakeable King to paralysis with this organ."

"My other self is about to undergo treatment and stuff. Is there anything else I should know before I join him and begin our preparations for the next duel?"

"What of it, Eliza?"

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify