Chapter 7261: The Ekstrom Strain

Ves felt the need to shake up the Rubarthan defenders.

The Goliath Hive was too heinous. Not only did it break the fighting spirit of the Rubarthan soldiers, it also turned them into unwilling accomplices to an organic weapon development program!

There was no way anything good would come out of letting the Goliath Hive dictate the rules.

The defenders continually got worn down while the Goliath strains entered into a high-speed iterative development period.

The expert pilots and ace pilots of the Rubarthan Pact earned very little glory by defeating the Goliaths.

This was due to how easy it was for the mutated voribugs to grow another Goliath, especially if they were Level 6 or lower in strength.

Every high-ranking mech pilot possessed a story. Their legend started when they first piloted a mech in a professional capacity and continually became more remarkable as they made more achievements.

Expert pilots, ace pilots and god pilots were the protagonists of the human race during the Age of Mechs.

Even when red humanity transitioned into the Age of Dawn, this reality had not yet changed.

Many people looked up to these honorable and noble heroes.

The rise of a high-ranking mech pilot was a cause for celebration.

The demise of any of them was a tragedy that deserved to be mourned.

A similar dynamic applied to the phase leaders of the native alien races.

Aside from phase whales, every phase lord was an exemplary member of an alien race.

Only the most outstanding, privileged, successful and determined aliens gained the opportunity to transform into a phase lord, and only the strongest among them were able to survive the process.

Each phase whale and phase lord assumed the identity of a god, if only a minor one at the start.

As soon as they transcended their mortality, they had joined the true leadership class of the alien societies of the Red Ocean.

Mortals did not possess the qualification to question their gods.

They were only expected to worship and obey.

As such, the champions of both sides respected and acknowledged each other as honorable and worthy foes.

They had many reasons to hate and despise each other, but they never questioned each other's worth.

They were existences that transcended normality. They were all heroes or gods.

Even as they killed each other, they respected their opponents because they all built up their own unique legacies.

The same could not be said for the Goliaths. They were very clearly mass produced champion units that did not earn their strength, but received their endowments from birth. They did not have to work hard or risk their lives to get ahead. They were incredibly young and did not develop any unique capabilities that they could call their own.

Combined with the fact that all Goliath strains possessed shortcomings that made them weaker than their counterparts, there was no way to earn glory from killing these giant bugs.

The Goliaths may have been gifted with sapience, but their independent thinking only extended as far as utilizing their natural gifts in battle.

They did not possess any names as far red humanity knew and did not possess any personality worth noting. They were giant organic drones who only cared about fulfilling a single purpose.

Given all of these conditions, how could an expert pilot possibly earn a large amount of glory from defeating them? It was difficult to derive any satisfaction from beating a Goliath when a nearly identical superbug showed up the next day.

"The novelty of defeating a Goliath has worn off the first few times." Lord Richard Brownstone explained. "Our expert pilots were initially eager to prove their skills and accrue more experience, but after repeated attacks, they are beginning to despise these challenges. Each victory rings hollow as the Goliath is nothing special. What is worse is that the mutated voribugs are learning from us. The enemy is actively adapting their Goliath strains to make them harder to defeat with known methods. No expert pilot wants to get countered like that. Their willingness to deploy onto the battlefield and meet the challenges has collapsed."

Ves could sense that from the projections of the battlefield. The expert mechs flew at a moderate pace and did not radiate any form of impatience.

The only exception was the sole Ascended Giant that had entered the field. The Faceless Giant had emerged with a loadout that conformed to a modest scale of 1.5x.

This did not sound like much, but a phase lord was still a phase lord.

As Ves analyzed the Faceless Giant's gear, he noted that it was not too exceptional.

The transphasic hyper raiment and spear were all standard issue and were optimized for mass production.

Perhaps the only remarkable aspect about the spear was that the tip was comprised of mid-grade superdimensional alloy.

Now that the Phase Lord Department had fallen into his hands, the Red Collective no longer maintained their blockade on superdimensional matter.

Although the current treatment afforded to the Faceless Giant was minimal, the addition of a small amount of superdimensional alloy resulted in a massive increase in lethality and penetration power!

This was the basic loadout of a combatant of the Faceless Giant Phalanx.

The Ascended Giant in question also chose to add optional modules to his loadout.

For example, he opted to mount large capacity shoulder-mounted missile launchers on his raiment.

These were not the slim missile launchers that possessed very limited capacity and strict payload limits.

The Ascended Giant was larger and could accommodate bigger modules.

Even so, the human phase lord chose to enter the battlefield with a lot of firepower at the beginning.

Curious.

Aside from that, the Ascended Giant that had received the privilege of being the first to fight against a Goliath also carried a large flamethrower in his arms.

The large flamethrower added another major burden to the Faceless Giant as he had to carry a sizable propellant tank mounted on his lower back.

"Who is he, Harpoon?" Ves asked.

"The Divine Arsonist." The strategist of the Faceless Giant Phalanx replied. "Formerly known as Tangshan O’Reilly, he has a penchant for fire and loves to wield a flamethrower with a large propellant tank. I proposed his name when the local commander asked us whether we wanted to test the mettle of one of our Ascended Giants against a Level 7 Goliath. He is not particularly strong or exceptional, but he is particularly suited to fight against the voribugs."

"Why him and not yourself?"

The Divine Harpoon smiled. "I have no desire to earn this glory, as meager as it may be. My harpoons are reserved for more formidable enemies. Besides, I am not as good at clearing swarms as the Divine Arsonist. He at least has a solution against the cannon fodder that surrounds the largest Goliath."

The Divine Arsonist appeared brash and confident. His flamethrower was already armed and ready to spread powerful propellant. While the Goliath on the opposite side was considerably larger and more intimidating, the Faceless Giant was determined to claim its life!

Ves directed his attention to the Goliath in question.

"Your man is up for a serious challenge." Lord Richard Brownstone said. "The Ekstrom strain is known to be large and fairly well-protected. It is a formidable brawler that can use its large horn for charge attacks and claws for primitive grappling moves. One of its most notable features is that it possesses a thick exoskeleton that comes in multiple layers which it can replenish by devouring voribugs. This slows down the Ekstrom Goliath, but allows it to endure a great amount of damage. It is not completely helpless against distant enemies either. It possesses a strange backmounted organic missile launcher that can quickly replenish its ‘ammunition’ by devouring other voribugs. The organic missiles are not that strong, but they are dangerous enough to wear down mechs and other assets."

"The Ekstrom Goliaths don’t appear to excel at dueling." Ves analyzed the powerful bug. "Even if he has grown to Level 7, this guy shouldn’t have the speed and agility to keep up with real duelists. His missile launchers are good against ordinary targets, but they are probably not that good at taking out other champions. Perhaps the only noteworthy aspect about this strain is its endurance. It can keep up its defenses and continually fire missiles so long as there is enough cannon fodder within its reach. This is a strange hybrid between a melee unit and a fire support unit."

Ves did not feel as if this was a particularly good design. The Ekstrom strain was equipped to fulfill two different jobs, but because it tried to do both at the same time, it was not able to do either of them particularly well.

What was the Goliath Princess thinking?

Maybe she wanted a Goliath that wouldn’t remain useless if he was unable to get close to its target.

Although Ves despised the Ekstrom strain as a design, he did not dare to look down on a Level 7 Goliath.

This was an organism that the Goliath Hive had painstakingly grown to such a formidable extent.

Its strength had surpassed certain organic limitations and reached a form of biological transcendence that Ves would soon be able to witness for himself.

As much as Ves looked forward to the duel between the Divine Arsonist and the Ekstrom Goliath, he also had to pay attention to the other Goliaths.

He hadn’t forgotten about his secret mission.

Ever since he determined that corrupting a Goliath voribug was the best way to capture it alive, he had begun to think which strain was the most suitable choice.

The Ekstrom strain did not seem like a good choice.

It looked like a feisty and combative Goliath that was large, strong and difficult to restrain.

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Its large body and harder exoskeleton also meant that it took a lot more darkness energy to corrupt this big bug.

Perhaps the only advantage of choosing this strain over the others was that it was relatively slow and unable to run away before the process could be completed.

Ves wondered whether it was better to corrupt a weaker or a more powerful Goliath.

A Level 4 Goliath would probably succumb quickly. Yet the lack of value of such a weak insect may make it difficult if not impossible to trace the coordinates of its Hive Princess.

A Level 7 Goliath on the other hand must definitely maintain a stronger connection to the Goliath Princess.

Such a big beast represented a bigger investment. Its higher life level also meant that its spirituality was a lot stronger. This likely translated into a stronger connection with its progenitor.

However, corrupting such a powerful creature would not be easy. Ves needed to prepare a powerful device that could overcome the Goliath’s powerful resistance against spiritual attacks.

Prolonged physical contact would be necessary, but the challenges were great as it would be difficult to immobilize a Goliath without killing it entirely.

Choosing the right Goliath to corrupt was therefore vital.

Ves believed that he only had one shot at this. Once he tried and failed to corrupt a Goliath, the Hive Princess would definitely take notice.

The Goliath Hive could quickly adjust the Goliath strains to become a lot more resistant towards this form of subversion!

Even if that was not possible, the Goliath Princess could always implement a failsafe that would cause the targeted Goliaths to perish and disintegrate before the corruption process was complete.

Ves narrowed his eyes. There were many possible ways he could botch an attempt, so he needed to do everything right the first time.

He was already cooking up a design for his corrupting tool in his head. As soon as the material shipments arrived, he was ready to develop a weapon that should lend more credence to the Dark Apostle’s name.

"I can’t wait."

Even if Ves did not get to wield this weapon in person, the Dark Apostle would definitely like this toy.

This was enough to satisfy the kid inside Ves!

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