The Thornbearer possessed an extrely powerful attack thod. Its entire design was based around delivering fast and powerful stabs. Any ch that got struck even once would definitely receive a painful blow. The chance would be great that such an attack could easily breach through the armor of its opponent.
Once that happened, the performance of the damaged ch would definitely beco impaired, thereby giving the Thornbearer an even greater chance of succeeding in its next attack!
The Heart of Victor could not allow itself to get stabbed even once. Yet instead of pursuing the more prudent course of action and assuming a more defensive posture, Lyain Kepper sought to lay a mark on the enemy ch with each exchange of blows!
Though it was extrely difficult for any ch or ch pilot to divert the course of a powerful and rapid spear stab, it was not impossible to pull off this risky move.
As long as the spear attack failed to hit its mark, the Heart of Victor always gained a brief window of opportunity where it could use its chainsword to land a fierce blow on the Thornbearer!
The only issue was that the frontal armor of the spearman ch was too strong!
If the Heart of Victor landed the sa attack on the Zenomon Gamma, the axeman ch would have lost a decent amount of armor integrity.
The Thornbearer on the other hand was the product of a collaboration between a spearman ch specialist and a defensive specialist. The latter invested a considerable amount of attention and resources in making the Thornbearer as difficult to damage as possible!
[Even though the Thornbearer is not in a good situation at the mont, it is still not a great concern for Team Voiken. Their spearman ch's excellent armor system provides it with an enormous degree of fault tolerance. It will take forever for the Heart of Victor to penetrate through its opponent's thick frontal armor at this rate. In the anti, the Thornbearer's ch pilot can keep varying its attacks in order to land a successful attack.]
[The Heart of Victor's is almost just as heavy as the Thornbearer but its defenses are definitely a tier below. The disparity is quite glaring and fully demonstrates the difference that a defensive specialist can make. Mr. Dulo Voiken deserves great credit for implenting such strong defenses with limited resources and severe ti constraints!]
Though Ves briefly beca concerned about the snail's pace of progress his competition ch was making, he beca more reassured when he saw that the Heart of Victor maintained the upper hand throughout these exchanges.
Sure, the swordsman ch only dealt light damage with each successful attack, but so far the Thornbearer failed to succeed even once.
The difference was very glaring, and that made this sight so perplexing!
The more knowledgeable ch designers and ch pilots among the crowd were able to understand this current sequence of events much better than all of the layn.
The ch designers clearly understood the strengths of the Thornbearer and expected the ch to hold a clear advantage in this duel. Although the Heart of Victor was also a respectably strong ch, it was supposed to experience a lot of trouble when fighting against an opponent with much greater weapon reach!
anwhile, the ch pilots tried to imagine how the battle would unfold if they were sitting in the cockpit of the Heart of Victor. They quietly admitted that they wouldn't have been able to hold out nearly as long as Lyain Kepper.
Many of them knew their way around with a sword, but it was practically a superhuman feat to parry so many powerful and threatening spear stabs in a consistent manner.
[Has Lyain Kepper broken through already?]
[That's impossible! We would have been able to witness a manifestation if that happened. From what I can see, the Heart of Victor isn't being affected by forced resonance at all. It's operating well within its existing paraters.]
[Then how can the Heart of Victor defy all of your earlier analyses and hold out so well against the Thornbearer? The strengths of the two chs should be well-known by now! I don't see the Heart of Victor moving any faster or performing any stronger attacks.]
[It's not the ch that has changed… it's the ch pilot.]
Lyain Kepper's abrupt increase in skill and judgnt did not go unnoticed. It began to dawn on more and more people that he was fighting way better than he used to in the first three rounds!
While Lyain was already a good swordsman ch pilot, the skill he displayed this ti was insane!
An occasional feat of brilliance might not be that special, but pulling off a high-risk maneuver on a consistent basis was impossible at this level!
The only other conclusion that people could make was that Lyain Kepper had broken through to expert candidate, but that was clearly impossible. There were no signs of a breakthrough, and if the man had already broken through beforehand, he would have been barred from participating in the fourth round of the tournant!
After ruling one possibility after another, the expert comntators finally settled on a single, improbable explanation.
[If we assu that Mr. Lyain Kepper is still the sa ch pilot as before, then an external factor must be responsible. The only explanation that makes sense is that the Heart of Victor is making up the difference.]
[But how? It's a ch, not an autonomous warbot!]
[Perhaps… we have unfairly judged Swordmaster Ketis' design capabilities. The swordsman ch that she has designed is more effective than what is obvious from the surface.]
Though not everyone agreed with this explanation, more and more people began to co around to Ketis again.
The results were just too dramatic this ti! The only reason why the Heart of Victor hadn't defeated the Thornbearer already was because the latter was too tough.
Even so, after getting struck for over forty tis, its chest armor was already bearing a lot of scars!
In fact, Lyain Kepper would have preferred to attack the arms like he did the last ti, but the Thornbearer recovered too quickly for that. He had no choice but to attack whatever was convenient, which resulted in a lot of spread attacks.
Still, the current trend was highly favorable for him. As he actively cooperated with his living ch, he gained a massive boost to his fighting capabilities and his sword style.
He was not only able to react faster and more precisely than before, but also executed all of his sword techniques with far greater skill than he had ever thought!
It was as if Ketis was directly conveying a portion of her superhuman fighting skills to him. Though Lyain did not reach the level of an expert pilot because of this powerful influence, his performance already exceeded the limit of a mortal pilot and firmly placed him in the territory of an expert candidate!
With the help of all of this borrowed skill, Lyain beca a champion beyond compare who could pretty much outfight any other regular ch pilot based on skill alone!
As the Heart of Victor continued to neutralize every threatening stab attack without fail, Ves briefly glanced to the woman responsible for making it all possible.
Ketis may look calm as she held her Bloodsinger in her arms, but Ves could sense her will being exerted.
The biggest reason for her difficulties was that Sharpie wasn't around her anymore! Her companion spirit had left her greatsword and quietly slipped into the chainsword of the Heart of Victor.
Ordinarily, this was impossible to pull off. A ch designer was only able to extend a piece of themselves to their masterwork products.
Ketis managed to circumvent this rule, though. She had conducted an experintal blood ritual on the chainsword that essentially allowed her to form a bond with the ch weapon.
A weak bond, but a valid one nonetheless. This connection allowed her to pass Sharpie on to the weapon and massively enhance Lyain's piloting abilities!
In fact, the Heart of Victor did not need to rely on this demanding trick in order to augnt Lyain's performance. The ch already possessed this functionality itself and was able to strengthen and optimize his sword style to a lesser degree.
"I thought you wanted to save this trump card for the finals." Ves quietly said.
Ketis gritted her teeth as she continued her exertion. "The Heart of Victor alone can't fend off the Thornbearer by itself. It needs my help."
Ves reluctantly agreed with her judgnt. He could see that Team Voiken truly designed an excellent ch. Their Thornbearer's comprehensive strength should have been enough to defeat most swordsman chs!
Yet if Sara Voiken and Dulo Voiken were allowed to leverage their own specialties to increase the performance of their chs, Ves and Ketis should be allowed to do so as well!
Nothing needed to be said about his own specialty. The Heart of Victor already provided a lot of active assistance to its ch pilot.
It was Ketis who was truly capable of revolutionizing the performance of her swordsman chs. Though her toolbox of solutions was still limited at the mont, she was already capable of boosting the performance of individual chs to an insane level as long as she was willing to make an effort!
She made the greatest possible use of all of her relevant advantages to give the Heart of Victor a powerful boost in effective performance, so much so that the power of her contribution exceeded that of any other ch designer in the tournant!
Only a swordmaster was able to provide so much active and direct assistance to a ch pilot!
The Thornbearer did not passive accept this slow march towards its own defeat. Its ch pilot, who was highly-skilled with wielding spears, kept varying the speed, force, timing and direction of its attacks in order to throw off Lyain's predictions.
Yet no matter how much the Thornbearer tried to surprise its opponent, the Heart of Victor managed to parry every confounding attack with as much ease as before. It was as if Lyain was able to read the mind of his counterpart in real ti!
Crunch!
After inflicting yet another successful sword strike, the Thornbearer's armor simply couldn't take it any longer. Its sturdy chest had already beco riddled with scars, but the latest slash had parted its final armor layer and exposed its internal structure!
Lyain did not relent even as the Thornbearer grew more desperate.
The spearman ch's erratic counterattacks did not avail it at all as the swordsman ch skillfully resolved these threatening attacks and stabbed its sword inside the exposed wound.
Smoke began to escape from the widening hole as the internal structure incurred more and more damage.
Surprisingly, the Thornbearer managed to hold out for five more minutes as its internal architecture was extrely well put together. Even if its entire left section had been savaged, it still retained 70 percent of its combat power!
Yet that did not change the outco at all. The Heart of Victor continued to perform as if an expert candidate was in control, and such a level of strength was more than enough to defend against any desperation attack the Thornbearer might unleash.
The ch never pulled out any further surprises. This was no surprise to Ves as he already understood that this was a ch that concentrated all of its strengths onto its basic paraters, particularly attack and defense power.
Its ch design didn't have any room for trump cards or other surprises. It was just an extrely good basic ch that just happened to et its nesis.
What was most egregious about the Thornbearer was that it was so dedicated to performing the strongest stabs that it was highly inefficient or even completely unable to perform any spear moves. The ch was unable to slash or sweep with its spear because its thick armor layout was too tough, inflexible and confining!
After an agonizing display of torture, the Heart of Victor finally managed to land the killing blow onto the Thornbearer.
[Team Larkinson… has advanced to finals. The Heart of Victor has successfully toppled the Thornbearer!]
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