The Dark Zephyr Mark III entered into a temporary stalemate with his unseen enemy.
The ace light skirmisher had repeatedly evaded the lethal superdimensional-tipped tentacles of the presumed deathborn leader.
It was one thing for Tusa to rely on his skill, experience, intuition and other factors to make the right decisions time and time again.
Yet he visibly improved his response over time!
When the Dark Zephyr Mark III had transitioned from mere movement into dancing, the ace light skirmisher seemed to mock his incapable adversary!
Tusa actually thought that his ace mech's increasingly provocative movements would have enraged the deathborn leader to the point of revealing other means.
Unfortunately, the unseen enemy was too smart and rational to fall for this trap.
The deathborn leader had instead decided to cease its unproductive attacks and chosen to back off, but not entirely.
Tusa's eyes remained sharp as he could vaguely sense that his current enemy had never truly departed from the vicinity.
Instead, this formidable adversary had chosen to circle around the Dark Zephyr Mark III.
Neither side appeared ready to make any drastic moves.
Though Saint Tusa deeply wanted to bypass this threatening opponent and approach the orbital fortress that carried the superdimensional siege cannon, he saw no hope of doing so at this time.
The only contribution he could make was to keep this unknown alien powerhouse occupied!
Just as the deathborn leader sought to impede the Dark Zephyr Mark III, the ace light skirmisher also effectively kept the enemy in place!
It was hard for him to determine whether maintaining their current state benefited one side more than the other.
Tusa personally judged that it was absolutely vital to keep this frighteningly powerful alien away from the bined fleet.
After all, the First Sword Mark III was currently busy with defending the most crucial human vessels from the threat posed by the superdimensional siege cannon. She could not engage in a duel against this alien leader while still fulfilling her current assignment!
As such, the Dark Zephyr Mark III continued to circle around while remaining on guard.
The ace mech did not pletely maintain a static position.
Tusa could feel his immediate opponent gradually shifting into different directions.
The Dark Zephyr Mark III followed the enemy's movements while making sure not to get too close.
This went on and on to the point that it reminded Tusa of a dance.
Though the dance did not follow any clear patterns, Tusa still imagined that he had found a mutual rhythm with his alien 'dance partner'.
During this ambivalent ritual, Tusa constantly began to learn more about his adversary.
Though he had never verbally municated with his alien adversary, he somewhat began to develop a clearer and more defined impression of his enemy by reading the enemy's moves.
This was a more subtle form of intelligence gathering.
Saint Tusa prided himself for his eyesight and his ability to read his enemies.
This standoff granted him a better understanding of the deathborn leader.
They were drastically different in nature. They held very little mon ground and it was doubtful whether they could understand each other's language.
Yet despite all of these barriers, Tusa felt he was constantly learning more about the temperament of his current dance partner.
At the same time, he imagined that his adversary felt similar. Tusa could not stop himself from exposing different pieces of information.
Though he did not consider himself to be a particularly private individual, Tusa still did not want this new enemy to develop a thorough understanding of himself and his ace mech.
Perhaps he needed to make this dance more interesting.
The Larkinson ace pilot tried to e up with ideas. He was not in a hurry to make a move. So long as his enemy remained passive, he was still doing his duty.
He thought he would have more time to e up with a plan.
Yet just when he thought this stalemate would drag on without excitement, the surrounding space suddenly experienced a drastic shift!
Tusa widened his eyes as he witnessed the surrounding dark miasma getting displaced by a rapidly-expanding wave of extremely abundant life energy!
He immediately recalled the gambit that Ves and his fellow mech designers had prepared.
"THEY DEPLOYED THE NEW BIOMECHS ALREADY?!"
This was too soon!
Something severe must have happened outside of the Dark Zephyr Mark III for the Saint mander to choose to detonate this particular payload in advance!
The Saint Kingdom surrounding the ace light skirmisher flared brighter as Tusa forcibly channeled all of his willpower into keeping the eruption of life energies at bay.
He could vaguely sense that not only was the dark miasma being displaced by a huge amount of positive energies, but the deathborn had also been driven mad as well!
These mindless beings eagerly devoured the free-floating vitality, only to grow sick and bee forcibly drained by the poisonous seeds that they had inadvertently swallowed.
The weakest deathborn could not sustain this dramatic consumption. They perished quietly or exploded violently, releasing large amounts of life energy that the deathborn previously tried to digest.
The slightly stronger ones among them managed to keep themselves together, but only for a limited amount of time.
This was because they found it extraordinarily difficult to restrain their instincts.
They deeply wanted to devour their fellow deathborn brethren!
There was absolutely no sense of kinship or mon development among these savage and primitive deathborn.
The shift in behavior was widespread!
Even though an observant individual could deduce that the life energies were extremely problematic, the bottom feeders of the deathborn race could not see or think so much!
Their entire reality only existed a few dozen meters around them at best. When they saw so much attractive energies floating right beside them, how could they not reach out and attempt to take a bite?
Whether they bit into free-floating E energy or tore into the intangible bodies of their fellow brethren, the deathborn pletely failed to keep themselves in check!
The changes happened so suddenly that Tusa was not the only one caught off guard.
His 'dance partner' pletely forgot about their mutual game and became pletely paralyzed by the unprecedented changes happening in every direction!
More deathborn succumbed to their hunger and instincts, and more deathborn got torn apart due to these reasons!
So much of their essence got converted into life energy that almost nothing remained of the surrounding dark miasma!
The oppressive darkness had disappeared a lot faster than anyone could have imagined, only to make way for a different kind of oppression.
This time, the sudden saturation of positive energies pletely changed the mood in this corner of space!
The Dark Zephyr could not control himself and began to absorb the surrounding energies.
At first, the living mech behaved as if he was drowning in a gigantic tub of pure tonic, yet seconds later, the ace mech quickly began to experience a form of sickness that forced him to suspend his current activity.
"THIS VITALITY IS POISONOUS."
Fortunately, whatever trap buried in the free-floating life energies failed to affect the living mechs as severely as their intended prey.
While the Dark Zephyr and other living mechs could not defuse the poison at a fast rate, they at least weren't susceptible to their most dangerous effects!
This caused them to experience a growing sense of frustration. Their spiritual foundations deeply desired to absorb these energies. They could benefit enormously from all of this potency. Yet because the energies were riddled with dangers, they could only stand aside and let it all flow away!
Saint Tusa did not feel too upset or regretful about this. "YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PLAN, PARTNER. NONE OF THESE ENERGIES BELONG TO US IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE ONLY GROWTH THAT MATTERS IS THE ONE THAT WE HAVE EARNED THROUGH OUR OWN EFFORTS."
Not every living mech or mech pilot was able to maintain such a sober mindset, but Saint Tusa held no illusions about the truth of power.
Instead of letting himself get distracted by imagining what he could do if his ace mech absorbed all of these energies, Tusa became a lot more interested in his dance partner's reaction.
The exponential explosion of vitality had temporarily stripped away the dark miasma that the enemy used as its home ground.
While the overabundance of life energies generated a different form of oppression and interference, the Dark Zephyr Mark III at least managed to gain a clearer overview of his surroundings than before!
Amidst all of the churning flows of life, the corpus of the presumed deathborn leader finally became visible.
He, or it, looked more monstrous than Tusa expected.
A thin but highly concentrated layer of negative energies still clung to the exterior of the body of a dead and inplete body of a greater phase whale.
Though Tusa was able to ascertain that this formidable 'native god' was definitely dead, the strong concentration of death energy invigorated it with an unnatural form of life or unlife.
This could only be a form of Messier 87 style necromancy.
The heavily injured and half-rotted body appeared as if it had been posing midway until it had turned into an unholy vessel for a blasphemously powerful existence.
Tusa had heard the theory that the deathborn leader was a powerful True God that projected himself into a distant vessel in order to meddle in the affairs of the Red Ocean.
Right now, he became almost convinced that this theory was accurate!
The clear view along with the alien's own reaction towards the drastic shift in environment all revealed clues that supported this particular theory!
Though Tusa was not able to observe any direct and conclusive evidence that could definitively shut this debate, the odd behavior and reactions of his dance partner all pointed in this direction!
The only oddity was that the alien leader did not make any move to restrain the deathborn under its dominion from devouring all of the poisonous life energies.
Was it because the changes happened too quickly?
Or was it because the foreign True God simply did not care?
Tusa did not think his side had managed to cripple the other side with this gambit.
Even though it looked as if it had done exactly what Ves and the others intended, the continued threat posed by this alien powerhouse had not diminished all that much!
In fact, it looked as if the deathborn leader became intrigued by the sudden changes more than anything.
The more nonchalant this key enemy behaved, the more Saint Tusa started to grow apprehensive.
The Dark Zephyr Mark III began to circle around the stationary leader.
The ace mech did not attempt to get any closer. He merely hovered close enough to keep this silent enemy under observation.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Tusa wondered.
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