Chapter 3276: Avenger Dwarf (1/2)

Ves always wondered how a prime mech would fare against a genuine expert mech.

The answer was that the contest would turn extremely lop-sided right away.

The ‘duel’ between the Valkyrie Prime and the Burza Fens just proved it. Although the Valkyrie Prime was not in its home element at the moment, its performance against the dwarven low-tier expert mech was downright shambolic!

Once again, Unending alloy came to the rescue.

The Valkyrie Prime was essentially a prime mech upgrade to a regular Valkyrie Redeemer design. Its performance was better but the improved parameters were still in the general range of a standard mech. The only abnormal factor was its absurdly tough armor system.

Even that had weaknesses. The joints, transition areas and flight system were vulnerable hotspots that Venerable Joshua was doing his best not to expose them to the Burza Fens!

Though the expert mech was no longer in its best shape, its expert pilot appeared to be fueling it by continually generating an endless amount of hate towards the evil tall folk!

As an expert pilot himself, Venerable Joshua was aware how unreasonable his kind could be and how dangerous it was to fight against a riled-up demigod.

He had no choice, though. The Golden Skull Alliance was spread too thin and the other friendly expert pilots already had their hands full keeping multiple dwarven counterparts busy.

Therefore, as much as it was unfair to challenge a real expert mech with just a prime mech, Venerable Joshua had to step up. Right now, he could do nothing except get passively beat up, but as long as his Valkyrie Prime lasted for a long-enough time, then that was already enough!

“Why. Won’t. You. Break!” The angry dwarf shouted as his Burza Fens chopped with great force, only for the mech to almost lose its grip on its weapon due to the deterioration of its damaged arm and finger mechanism. “ARRGGH!”

“Battle Criers, keep resume fire on the Burza Fens!”

With Joshua acting as a great decoy, the surviving Battle Crier mechs had rallied together again at a further distance. They began to employ their still-powerful luminar crystal rifles to fire continuous slicer beams in the direction of the Burza Fens.

The dwarven expert mech that was fueled by anger wasn’t making it easy on the ranged mechs. The expert axeman mech was not only moving around a lot, it did not forget about using its laser carbine to pick off the Battle Crier mechs one by one.

The earlier slaughter had resumed, if at a slower rate. The Valkyrie Prime attempted to poke its spear against the laser carbine several times, but the Burza Fens never let the prime mech pull off its move.

The basic parameters of the two mechs were too far apart! The Valkyrie Prime may hold a defensive advantage, but the Burza Fens possessed an undeniable edge in power and speed! This meant that the expert mech permanently held the initiative. It could retreat whenever it wanted to and force its opponents to fight on its terms.

This was exactly what the angry dwarven expert pilot was doing at the moment. His expert axeman mech may be failing in trying to chop the Valkyrie Prime to pieces, but its attacks were still achieving at least some results. The joints were starting to show signs of wear and the constant heavy kinetic impacts on the exterior continually inflicted concussive blows to the internals.

As long as the Burza Fens kept wailing at the Valkyrie Prime for a minute or two, the latter would naturally stop working as its internal architecture turned to mush.

“One way or another, I’m going to crack open this shell of yours and peel you out like an unborn chick!”

It was all that Joshua could do to keep his mech as intact as possible. He stopped utilizing his prime mech’s spear entirely and just focused on blocking the powerful attacks with its Unending alloy shield.

The greatest threat he needed to pay attention to was whenever the Burza Fens attempted to circle around the Valkyrie Prime in order to attack the latter’s rear. The flight system was almost every flight-capable mech’s greatest weak point and it was no different in this case.

“This.. might not be going as planned.” Joshua gritted his teeth as he tried to resonate as much as possible with his prime mech.

It didn’t help much. A resonance shield supported by prime resonance was so weak that a single hefty axe strike was enough to shatter it to pieces!

Though Joshua tried to deepen his bond with the Valkyrie Prime and commune with the Superior Mother, there was only so much these tricks could do for him. The basic power gap was too big and he and his fellow Penitent Sisters had already exhausted themselves to pull their battle formation.

“I need backup here!” He requested over the communication channel. “This pissy dwarf here is really determined to take revenge for all of the buddies that I’ve killed!”

“Please stand by, Venerable Joshua. All of our expert mechs are preoccupied but help is on the way.”

“That’s not going to be enough! Unless you can direct a huge amount of Transcendent Punishers or Eternal Redemptions to pound this hostile expert axeman mech to pieces, my prime mech isn’t going to last much longer!”

“We are trying our best to find options for you. Please hold on for a minute if possible.”

“I’m not sure if I’ll last a minute!”

The Burza Fens whacked at the shield of the Valkyrie Prime so many times with resonance-enhanced blows that the protective equipment actually began to warp and deform from the continuous blows!

Eventually, the shield actually snapped out of the Valkyrie Prime as the grip that held it together onto its arm had actually snapped from the excessive forces acting on its much-abused surface.

“Oh hell.”

In the next dozen exchanges, Venerable Joshua and the rest of the Larkinson Clan finally learned that even Unending alloy had its limits.

The Burza Fens and its expert pilot performed true to their Avido Berserker heritage and began to gain more power and momentum with each strike it landed.

Every heavy axe attack it made caused the Valkyrie Prime to bounce away. Joshua did nothing to stop this because it not only bought his poor mech some time, but also bled away some of the force.