Chapter 7463  Mutual Progression

Saint Davia Stark had no idea how her initial target was able to blink away in the nick of time, but she did not believe that she would miss again.

This was especially the case now that she knew that the enemy possessed this capability!

Her attention narrowed into a razor sharp arrow that pointed straight at the orven phase lord.

The alien leader in question did not let down his guard. He continued to hold his alloy shield as if his life depended on it, which was a very prudent action on his part.

The intensely glowing Amaranto Mark III made no secret which target she intended to strike next!

Saint Stark disdained to play any misdirection games. She believed too much in the firepower of her mech and her own skill in marksmanship to resort to any dirty moves.

For a moment, nothing else mattered in their minds except each other.

Davia Stark's intuition told her that her chosen target most likely possessed the ability to blink to safety yet again.

Yet the only way for him to succeed was to predict her timing correctly.

She did not know how her adversary was able to do so with such accuracy, but she refused to believe that he could read her like an open book.

Seconds passed as both sides remained on standby.

This could not last as the Amaranto Mark III and her Instrument of Vengeance had reached close to full charge.

Both the remarkable archemech and the luminar crystal rifle lacked the strength to contain so many energies at such elevated levels for a long duration of time.

Perhaps the story might be different once the Amaranto received her much-anticipated superdimensional upgrade, but that was probably at least a year away from happening.

For now, Saint Stark felt increasing pressure to pull the trigger before her own machine started to melt and malfunction.

Her mind momentarily blanked before she abruptly pulled the trigger!

Once again, the area around the ace marksman mech and the space around the living mech and her target seemed to darken as an enormous magenta energy beam cut through the distance!

Davia had channeled all of her pride, fury, indignation and will to succeed into her attack, causing it to become more powerful and persistent than the previous attack!

Such a strike would have definitely been able to pierce through multiple defensive layers before inflicting a serious or even crippling injury to a mere lesser phase lord!

Yet…

"She missed again!"

"What is happening?!"

"The interval is even shorter this time! Only 0.544 seconds passed between the enemy phase lord blinking away and the ace mech launching her shot!"

"These phase lords have evolved!"

A single split-second evasion may have been a fluke.

Twice was not a fluke. It was a pattern.

The orven phase lord may not look that impressive compared to his peers, but he had most definitely gained at least one major upgrade!

All of the alien phase lords gained confidence in this display of spatial prowess. Their traversal speed increased while they relied on their energy defenses to block incoming attacks.

Everyone began to take the enemy a little more seriously. The Larkinsons had grown too accustomed to fighting the enemy cannon fodder. They finally realized that the ones stationed across the border may not necessarily be so inadequately trained and equipped.

Multiple warships began to divert a hefty amount of processing power into analyzing the possible new strengths and capabilities of the approaching lesser phase lords.

One of their fastest conclusions was that not all of the native gods received cutting-edge goodies.

While all of them wore thicker and more advanced raiments, the ones worn by the orven phase lord and a handful of other alien champions possessed distinctive traits that were absent in others.

Technological propagation was highly inconsistent among the native aliens.

Since the Larkinsons struggled to update all of their low-ranking and high-ranking mechs to the newest and most advanced specifications, the problem was at least ten times worse among the major alien races!

After analyzing all of the data, the Saint Commander immediately issued an order to Saint Stark.

"Your targeting priorities have changed. Give up on your current obsession and clean up the phase lords that appear to be less well-equipped. The probability that they can evade your attack by relying on an apparently automatic response is significantly lower."

The ace marksman mech scowled inside her cockpit.

She hated the fact that she failed twice in a row. She wanted to take out that smug orven phase lord even more than before!

Yet she knew that pursuing her current target would not benefit the greater picture. The Saint Commander's new instruction made sense, and Stark hated this fact.

Her pride screamed at her to disregard the Larkinson Matriarch's orders, but she ruthlessly clamped down on those selfish feelings.

She was a soldier!

She knew her duty. Achieving victory and limiting the losses suffered by friendly forces ranked higher than finally getting a hit on that annoying orven champion.

"FINE." She grumbled.

She obediently began to target one of the enemy phase lords specified by the Saint Commander.

As her Amaranto Mark III began to charge up for another precision strike, the ace mech no longer glowed with strong emotions anymore. Its radiance largely remained white and clean, indicating that Saint Stark simply could not muster any particularly strong feelings at this moment.

This was not just because she felt disappointed in herself, but also because her intuition told her that her new target did not pose as much as a challenge anymore.

This time, a pure white bright light beam cut through the space in between!

No more surprises occurred as the attack successfully shattered the targeted phase lord's spatial barrier and physical defenses.

There was even enough power left over to burn deep into the nunser phase lord's true body and cause him to recoil in pain!

"Finally!"

"So not all of the alien phase lords can blink away before getting hurt."

This was encouraging news!

Though the Amaranto Mark III failed to achieve a one-hit kill, the ace marksman mech already began to charge up her next attack in order to finish the job.

Of course, the opposing side would not make that easy. Now that he had lost his spatial barrier and gained a large hole in his raiment, the nunser phase lord deliberately flew behind his fellow native gods, hoping to rely on their bulk to shield him from a lethal blow.

Saint Stark huffed at the cowardly but logical response. If she still possessed the capability to bend her energy beams, then she might have attempted to finish the job anyway.

Perhaps she may still be able to do so even if she no longer had the option of resonating with Opticonium.

It was situations like these that she missed the ability to surprise her opponents by hitting them from unexpected angles.

In comparison, the classic combination of HeatMate and ChargeMate sounded much more underwhelming in comparison.

This was especially the case now that the Larkinson Clan no longer abided by the rule that prohibited deep integration between mechs and starships.

Since the Amaranto Mark III often fought by drawing directly on the energy reserves and heat capacity of friendly vessels, some of her conventional shortcomings no longer applied anymore!

HeatMate and ChargeMate only became relevant if the Amaranto detached from the hull of a starship or large installation and fought by herself.

Though there were a number situations where the Amaranto had done so in order to occupy more favorable angles, these situations mostly occurred in the later stages of a battle when the greatest danger had already passed.

Perhaps Saint Stark should approach the Design Department after the battle issue a request to swap out HeatMate and ChargeMate with a more interesting key resonating material.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK, AMARANTO?"

"GO FOR IT. I FEEL QUITE JEALOUS AT THE DARK ZEPHYR AND THE MINERVA FOR OBTAINING IMPRESSIVE NEW RESONATING ABILITIES. I HAVE HEARD THAT THE NEW VERSION OF THE PROMETHEA IS ALSO IN LINE TO RECEIVE AN IMPRESSIVE UPGRADE. WE CANNOT AFFORD TO FALL BEHIND."

Saint Stark mentally reminded herself to have that talk before returning her focus to the battle.

The Amaranto Mark III's subsequent shots no longer missed, but did not achieve any particularly astonishing results either.

The enemy phase lords clearly knew what they were getting into when they chose to engage with the Larkinsons.

Their upgraded raiments could take a greater beating and they relied on their undamaged comrades to block her linear aim.

Nonetheless, the ace marksman mech still played a very useful role. She not only exerted a large amount of pressure against the phase lords in the open, but also degraded their defenses on an incremental basis.

It was extremely impressive that a junior ace mech possessed the capability to break a phase lord's spatial barrier from an extended range.

Once broken, it took a lot of time and effort to revive this barrier. Unless the phase lord in question possessed numerous defensive phasewater organs, it was pretty much impossible to do so within the span of a typical battle!

Saint Stark did not need any further instructions to focus on breaking barriers over completing any kills.

She knew her place. Her ace mech only had to act as fire support during this particular engagement.

The Larkinsons had other assets on hand to deal the finishing blows.

Two of the assets finally made an appearance once the enemy phase lords were about to fall upon the Tortuous Scream.

The First Sword Mark III and the Riot Mark III both emerged into space and flew straight towards the incoming threats!