Ves began to work right away after his meeting with the Saint mander.
Before he proceeded to bring the Poison Willows into existence, he first chose to spread the Last Defiance Technique among a select few champions.
Ves recognized its immense danger to an unskilled or undisciplined practitioner, yet that was no reason to keep it buried. He believed that the strongest batants of the bined fleet possessed the qualifications to learn this technique.
Of course, a few days might not be enough for them to thoroughly master the Last Defiance Technique, but he did not want to deprive them of a means to turn the tables on the enemy just before a critical battle.
Since everyone was busy at the moment, Ves did not insist on holding a face-to-face meeting. He simply requested a virtual meeting and waited before a pair of projected forms made their appearance.
"Saint Dise. Fiery Axe. Thank you for accepting my invitation on short notice. I have recently e into the possession of a new and powerful technique that may prove useful to you and other warriors. I have already sent a pair of couriers to you that are tasked with delivering a secure datachip right into your hands. I would like to ask you to be careful about accessing the virtual documents as the reading material can be very dangerous in the wrong hands."
The projections of both the ace pilot and the strategos showed interest. Anything that demanded this level of security was most definitely serious in nature.
"What technique do you want us to learn?" The female giant impatiently asked.
"It is something called the Last Defiance Technique…"
Ves summarized his understanding and interpretation of the contents of the Last Defiance Manual over a span of 5 or so minutes.
He did not explain anything specific enough that eavesdroppers could use to practice the technique themselves. That was not necessary as the women could study the detailed theories and explanations in their own time.
He merely shared enough words to give them a broad understanding of what he was about to gift them. That was already enough to astonish the female warriors.
"Will it truly work for Ascended Giants such as us?" The Fiery Axe asked.
Ves nodded. "I can guarantee it. The Last Defiance Manual is universal enough that it can be used by practically any extraordinary being. Phase leaders are not exempted from this. You just need to figure this stuff out yourself in order to make sure you get it right. Strictly speaking, there is no single Last Defiance Technique. It is a template that you can tweak to your individual preferences and circumstances, though the dangers of changing any parameter is very dangerous if you are lacking in both experience and prehension. The better the configuration and execution, the greater the power and the lighter the consequences. A high degree of mastery can pletely allow you to consistently punch above weight while only needing to take extended vacations after every fight."
Though the Fiery Axe became progressively more excited after hearing all of that, Saint Dise still maintained a strong degree of caution.
"That sounds like the best-case scenario." The ace pilot responded. "What if we fail to measure to this high standard?"
"As I have told you earlier, improper or excessive use of the Last Defiance Technique will cause you to overdraft your life and the foundation of your strength. The drain is so overbearing that your vitality, willpower, spirituality and more may bee shattered beyond recognition. Perhaps you can mend some of the cracks, but others remain so severe that you can never restore them for the remainder of your life. This is why I do not dare to spread this technique to anyone. I have expressly chosen the two of you for the first trial because out of every batant in the bined fleet, I can think of no one who is more qualified to study this manual."
"I am… honored to earn your trust." Fiery Axe said. "It may be too late for you to give it to me now. I have browsed cultivation methods and techniques before, but many of them are so academic that I have barely made any progress to this day. I am a fighter, not a nerd."
Ves smiled at that. "I applaud your prudence. Overconfidence is absolutely dangerous when it es to stuff like this. However, I think that you may find yourself in a better state than you think after you have read the texts for the first time. It is true that the Last Defiance Manual is filled with plicated theories, but you do not have to understand all of the underlying mechanics to execute the simplest versions. A pure warrior invented the Last Defiance Technique. Greater knowledge and prehension certainly helps, but what is more important is that you possess the heart and courage of a warrior that desires to achieve victory at almost any cost. As long as you fit this description well enough, you will find that much of the principles of the technique are intuitive in nature."
That caused the Fiery Axe to look a little more reassured.
"If that is the case, I will try my best to learn it so that I can pull it off in the next battle. Do you expect us to do so, sir?"
"Not necessarily." Ves shook his head. "I am not in a hurry. Treat it as a trump card. If the opposition is not threatening enough to justify its use, then I would rather see you fight normally. The whole point of this desperation technique is to reverse an impending defeat. The same technique will produce much more inferior results if the pressure is not as great, but the negative consequences will not be that much lighter. If you are not confident in your proficiency, then please do not take any excessive risks. You can always try next time."
The female strategos nodded, though whether she would truly hold herself back in this scenario remained to be seen. Ascended Giants persistently tended to overestimate their capabilities.
It had taken a lot of effort for Ves and red humanity to chip away at this defect, but their work was far from plete.
"What do you expect from me?" Saint Dise asked after the giant had fallen silent.
Ves turned to the other projected form. "Ascended Giants such as the Fiery Axe may not be the smartest beings around, but their greatest advantage is their fault tolerance. Their huge true bodies are filled with more mass and energy than entire starships. This gives them an extremely generous buffer that will take a long time before the drain reaches the point of no return. In other words, they can afford to make mistakes. Your conditions are different. If the giants are mostly about quantity, then you are all about quality. Your extraordinary willpower has evolved to an impressive degree, but its absolute volume is not that impressive if I am being honest. This is one of the reasons why you are so reliant on an ace mech to draw out your full potential."
This was the nature of a mech pilot.
A human, even a highly evolved one, could never match a battleship in terms of raw power.
Yet a human paired with a well-designed machine that just happened to fill up many of the former's shortings could produce synergies that could make the bination petitive against many warships!
"Does the Last Defiance Technique also drain my ace mech along with myself?" Dise asked next.
"It depends." Ves said without much elaboration. "You should read the manual yourself. You will find your answers there. What is undeniable is that you will bear the greatest burden. The good news is that saints such as you are exceptional in many ways. Out of all of the ace pilots on hand, there is no one who has stood out more when it es to exercising control and mastering profound techniques. That makes you uniquely qualified to master what I am giving to you. I have little doubt that you will learn this technique quickly and gain a respectable degree of proficiency in a very short amount of time. Even if your reserves are not as great as an Ascended Giant, your superior skill, control and discipline should allow you to suspend this technique before it crosses the line where you suffer permanent damage to your foundation."
He placed a great amount of expectations onto Dise's shoulders, but she truly deserved his trust.
"I see now why you have turned to me as opposed to Tusa, or worse, Rosa." Dise mildly responded.
He shrugged. "To be honest, I think that Tusa also has enough control over himself to try it out as well. You are just a much better choice for the first wave of trials. If it turns out that even you cannot fully remain in control when you execute the Last Defiance Technique, then I can forget about spreading it to others for the foreseeable time. As for Rosa Orfan… it will be a plete disaster."
Saint Dise could not possibly disagree with this assessment.
"Any further questions?"
Ves continued to offer a bit more clarification before he finally ended the meeting. He did not want to be too involved in this matter.
He considered this trial to be a test balloon of sorts. He wanted to see if the Fiery Axe and Saint Dise could rely on their efforts to master and make proficient use of the Last Defiance Technique.
If they could not do so without requiring a lot of handholding from Ves, then that proved that this dangerous technique simply was not worth the trouble of spreading to other high-ranking batants.
In any case, now that he had pleted this chore, he transited over to a Terran bat carrier and personally explained his intentions to the Second Elf and other Terran officers.
His audience expressed a bit of skepticism towards the plan.
"I must admit that I do not understand anything about this design." Caracalla Shuku said as the elven leader gazed at the projected form of the Poison Willow. "From what you have described, this variant loses much of its effective bat potential in order to set a trap for the deathborn."
"That is true, but the potential returns are much greater." Ves responded. "There is no guarantee that this will work, but if it does, a handful of Poison Willows can potentially eradicate almost all of the deathborn that are currently roaming in this entire star system! This exaggerated possibility makes this venture worthwhile. I am not asking to convert all of the Woodsap mechs that are still available. I don't have time to convert them one by one anyway. I just want to convert a third of them or so. This way, you still get to have enough Woodsap mechs to prove your worth in battle, but there will also be experimental versions that seek to explore a different way of pleting our objectives. If this works, then that will multiply the value of the Arboreal Project."
The Second Elf could not possibly ignore that last part. The collaboration project between the Larkinson Clan and the Terran Alliance had spawned the so-called Green Coalition.
As a new group of politically active Terrans that sought to enact great change in their society, the Greens depended heavily on the success of his Woodsap mechs.
Anything that could expand its strength, utility or overall value directly translated into greater power and influence for the coalition that sought to integrate Gaia into the fabric of the Terran colonial alliance!
Caracalla Shuku did not make a judgment on his own. He instead turned to the local scientists and experts in order to consult their opinions.
He would have preferred to contact his superiors and much more knowledgeable experts back home, but due to the ongoing munications blockage in the Hypeh-Tekas System, he had little choice in the matter.
While Ves respected the petence of the biomech designers and other biotech experts stationed on this carrier, he knew as well as anyone here that the Terrans did not dare to station any authoritative experts on this hull.
Not every high-ranking scientist or engineer was as crazy as Ves for volunteering to take part in dangerous campaigns and expeditions!
The consequences of that was that the scientists advising the Second Elf did not understand all that much either.
They pletely failed to decipher the true properties of the Poison Willow. All they saw was a weakened version of the Woodsap mech that strangely grew a bunch of incredibly energy-rich fruits.
Their inadequate understanding of hyper technology and E-technology caused them to pletely overlook the more esoteric aspects of the variant design.
In the end, they had little choice but to take Ves at his word and assume his latest work would perform as promised.
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