The Mech Touch

The fight between the Ascended Giants and the alien phase lords continued to descend into a spiral of mutual destruction.

Ur-Titans and Flesh Choppers hacked apart the raiments and body parts of their gigantic alien foes.

The enemy phase lords thrust their Saint Piercers through the superdimensional armor and straight into the vital organs of their human counterparts.

Phasewater-infused blood spilled from both sides in such enormous quantities that it could easily fuel the birth of several new phase lords!

Unfortunately, no one had any chance of collecting the precious fluids. The battlefield was too intense and the interference from many different factors made it extremely hazardous to collect the spilled phasewater.

As for the growing amount of orphaned superdimensional weapons and armor, both sides tacitly ignored it all for the time being.

Anyone who dared to scavenge the spoils before the battle had ended would definitely suffer the wrath of the opposing side!

The battle had reached a red-hot stage. The champions and soldiers from both sides could not afford to divert their attention to priorities that did not involve beating their adversaries.

In the minds of the Ascended Giants and phase leaders, the ones who would ultimately get to claim all of the precious superdimensional spoils would be the side that managed to repel their opponents from this location.

Both sides still happened to maintain enough confidence that they would be the ones to gain superiority on this field!

Yet as time dragged on, the momentum shifted in the favor of the representatives of the Red Cabal.

While the Ascended Giants managed to kill and wound plenty of lesser phase lords, they suffered slightly more casualties in return!

What was worse was that the Fiery Axe and her fellow giants had not only failed to kill one of the two greater phase whales, but also struggled to constrain this formidable alien powerhouse!

Even if the second greater phase whale was not as outstanding as the Blackwater Summoner, his size, speed, strength, judgment and phasewater organs all placed him substantially ahead of the giants.

This qualitative difference may have been diminished due to the need to maintain a small-enough scale to wrap himself in superdimensional armor, but that did not change the fact that his phasewater concentration was much higher!

Such differences mattered, especially in confrontations against other phase lords!

"We can't hold this big whale back!" The Fiery Axe had no choice but to admit her failure. "He's too fast and strong! Our attacks hardly inflict any damage even if we manage to get past his Saint Armor!"

Though the greater phase whale's large and expansive raiment bore a growing number of marks and tears, the fat aquatic body underneath remained largely hale and healthy!

Modest cuts failed to do more than scratch the surface of the thick phase whale's physique. The majestic alien creature's own biology inherently provided a great amount of resistance to such attacks.

Only deeper strikes could pose a serious threat against a genuine phase whale, but the native god in question would never give the Ascended Giants any easy openings!

Until the giants managed to land a serious enough blow against this greater phase whale, the alien gods firmly grasped the upper hand!

This made the duel between the Dark Apostle and the Blackwater Summoner a lot more important.

The leaders of their respective forces demonstrated a capacity for combat that far exceeded their subordinates.

As long as one of them managed to vanquish their direct opponent, they could easily help their surviving subordinates clean up the remaining enemies!

The Dark Apostle clearly understood this reality, so he had been setting out to kill or at the very least repel the Blackwater Summoner from the beginning.

Unfortunately, beating this formidable greater phase whale was easier said than done!

The Blackwater Summoner clearly knew what he was doing. He also happened to possess the strongest comprehensive performance out of all of the giants and phase leaders on this battlefield.

His speed was fast, though his agility was inferior due to his greater mass and density. That said, his true body was considerably larger and heavier, enabling him to resist even more attacks than the other greater phase whale!

Though his combat experience was lacking, he demonstrated excellent familiarity and control over his high-quality phasewater organs.

He consistently evaded the Dark Apostle's spear strikes or deflected them with the help of his armor-plated tentacles.

Yes, tentacles.

This appeared to be a standard solution for phase whales who wanted to add extra appendages to their bodies.

If phase whales wanted to manipulate tools like humanoid creatures, the most versatile way for them to do so was to grow or implant tentacles across their bodies.

The tentacles of the Blackwater Summoner happened to be very threatening, as the greater phase whale had installed sharp, triangular blades onto each of their tips!

The length of each tentacle was considerable. This transformed the Blackwater Summoner into a surprisingly effective melee duelist. Though his skill in utilizing them was not top-notch, he had so many sharpened tentacles at his disposal that haphazardly thrashing them around already made it virtually impossible for the Dark Apostle to stave off injuries!

Even if he was the only phase leader on this battlefield who wore a genuine armor-grade superdimensional raiment, the tentacles converted into customized Saint Piercers had already scratched and dug into the high-grade armor plating quite a bit!

The Dark Apostle constantly had to pull back and adjust his combat tactics in the face of such a large and deadly opponent.

This was nothing like the phase lords that red humanity had fought and defeated with ease in the past.

The Red Cabal clearly paid close attention to the Red War and fully respected the rapidly-improving forces of the human invaders.

The Blackwater Summoner did not let his pride and arrogance get in the way of learning from the humans!

Not only had he completely abandoned the outdated mode of combat that revolved completely around fully unfolding one's true body, but he also invested in the development and production of a very human-style raiment that just happened to be fitted for a phase whale!

Ves in particular felt alarmed about this observation.

He vastly preferred it when the alien leaders and soldiers were still full of themselves. Their immense pride in their primitive alien technology and customs made them a lot easier to defeat. Their self–defeating attitudes was a very big reason why the outnumbered red humans were able to stall the native aliens for so long!

Yet as the Red War continued to exact a disproportionately greater toll on the major alien races, even the fossils in charge of the Red Cabal had no choice but to admit that their human opponents were better at waging war!

For these arrogant alien gods to set aside their pride and earnestly learn from the humans was difficult, but incredibly rewarding!

Just the raiment worn by the Blackwater Summoner alone made it a lot more difficult for the Dark Apostle to land any solid attacks!

"Damnit, Ves! You are the mech designer here! Have you spotted any weak points on the enemy's raiment? This damn whale-sized Saint Armor and its many tentacles keep getting in the way!"

Blinky shook his head. "I am sorry, but there are no glaring weak points that stand out. I can already tell that a human Senior or Master Mech Designer contributed greatly to the development of this raiment. The traitor has not only managed to draw out much of the potential of alien-grade superdimensional matter, but did not hesitate to employ ingenious or expensive solutions to plug all of the obvious weak points."

"Tch! Those cosmopolitan scum!"

The Dark Apostle charged forward yet again. With the Withering Sting in hand, the powerful D-arm yearned to spill alien blood and corrupt that majestic whale-like true body!

Yet before the giant leader could succeed in his charge attack, the tentacled greater phase whale responded by opening a modest cavity on his raiment before spurting a jet of black liquid from his maw!

Controlled by the Blackwater Summoner, the spurt of dangerous liquid took on a life of its own. It rapidly flattened into a pancake shape and formed a makeshift shield!

The Dark Apostle forcibly aborted his charge. He had to expend a great amount of effort and energy to evade the temporary shield.

However, the liquid shield did not remain static, but actively sought out the giant leader!

The tip of the Withering Sting ultimately grazed the obstacle, causing a small amount of blackwater to coat the surface.

The superdimensional alloy that got into direct contact with the blackwater immediately started to release heat and particles!

The blackwater acted like an extremely potent form of acid. Its corrosive properties vastly exceeded that of regular phasewater! Some unknown property not only caused it to turn pitch black, but also eat through one of the most resilient forms of superdimensional alloy with a surprisingly degree of ease!

"What is this blackwater stuff!" The Dark Apostle bewilderingly asked. "How can something as stupid as this eat into a weapon that is made out of the toughest material in the Red Ocean?!"

Blinky coughed in response. "Technically speaking, the alloy formula does not make use of pure weapon-grade superdimensional matter, but instead blends it with a variety of exotics and hypers. The latter two introduce a lot of necessary and helpful attributes, but their inclusion also reduces the absolute toughness and resilience of the material. My theory about the blackwater is that this substance is able to work so effectively by degrading the weaker materials in the alloy."

In truth, he was not quite certain. He needed to perform detailed tests to be sure, but absent any hard data, this was the explanation that made the most sense at the moment.

Whatever the case, the Blackwater Summoner showed why he had earned this name by repeatedly spitting out foul and dangerous blackwater that continued to damage the exposed portions of the Superdimensional Giant Regalia and the Withering Sting.

Combined with the sharpened tentacles and other advantages, the Blackwater Summoner constantly put the Dark Apostle on the back foot!

The latter's lack of weapons and disappointing versatility left him with very few means to gain the upper hand against his older and stronger opponent!

The Blackwater Summoner did not underestimate the Dark Apostle. The greater phase whale took his opponent extremely seriously. He did not hesitate to drain his unknown reserves of precious blackwater just so that he could exert a lot of pressure from the start of their duel.

At this point, the Dark Apostle was hoping that his alien opponent would run out of blackwater eventually, but the greater phase whale did not waste his resources.

Although drops of blackwater frequently flew into the depths of space, the vast majority of the liquid that the Blackwater Summoner spat out firmly remained under his grip!

Much of the blackwater continued to obey his direction. They turned into shields to block attacks or took on the shape of nets in order to force the Dark Apostle to move away.

These displays of power became increasingly more oppressive as their quantity increased!

The more blackwater appeared on the battlefield, the more their summoner reshaped it all into a living, morphing army!

Due to the need to avoid direct contact with the dangerous fluid, the Dark Apostle had lost any hope of going on the offensive. He could not even defend against the blackwater head-on for fear of corroding his gear and true body!

He could only focus on evasion and try to stay away from this nefarious substance. The longer this persisted, the more the Dark Apostle grew disheveled!

"This is ridiculous! Ves! Do something!"

"Oh?" Blinky couldn't help but grin. "You need my help now? I thought that you insisted that you are a big boy and that you can take care of your enemies yourself."

"This is no time for games! My men are dying and my precious weapon is continuing to get damaged! I know you can launch a counterattack, so hurry up and do whatever is necessary!"