The next few days pushed Saint Stark to her limits.
The Stewards Siasia took their responsibilities of ntorship seriously. Given the current war climate, the saints did not wish to relent in their attempts to bring Davia Stark up to a more satisfactory standard.
"rcy in training is nothing less than cruelty during these tis." Alo ruthlessly said. "We will keep you here for as long as the power reactor of your ace ch can last. There will be no rest or respite because our enemies will not give you any. You may employ whatever asures you can muster in order to fend us off. Do not hold back. You may try to kill us. You will not succeed, but attempting to do so is a good way for you to hone your killer instincts."
What ensued was a training session as well as a torture session!
The Lamia Kailamassu continued to collide against the Amaranto Mark III's ch fra with deliberate and unstoppable force!
Each ti, the bulky ball-like dual-pilot ace ch maneuvered around at speeds belying its considerable mass and volu. Its stature may be a fraction of the size of a phase lord, but Stark had an illusion that its force and montum were equivalent to that of a greater phase lord!
Fortunately, the Stewards Siasia understood exactly how much physical force the archetal fra of the Amaranto Mark III could endure.
It was admittedly not much. If not for the strong reinforcent properties of archetal, the Amaranto Mark III would not have been qualified to engage in lee combat against opponents of the sa level!
"Pathetic!" Alo admonished as the Lamia Kailamassu evaded the plasma bayonet thrust with disturbing ease before bouncing the lighter and feebler Amaranto away like a pinball! "Is this the best you can do?! Your reflexes are too dull! Your experience in defending yourself at close range is worse than that of an expert pilot! Your judgnt is too prone to deception! Any martial phase lord can cripple your ace ch with a single successful teleport strike. A greater phase lord can snap your proud machine with a single attack, masterwork or not! He wouldn't even need a Saint Piercer to make it happen!"
The Amaranto Mark III recovered control over her trajectory and attempted to bring her Instrunt of Vengeance to bear against the circling Lamia Kailamassu.
The dual-pilot ace ch had just distanced itself from the ace marksman ch and appeared to be building up a lot of montum.
This was a fantastic chance for the Amaranto to lean towards her strength and let loose a shot!
Saint Stark began to grin as she resonated with her oversized luminar crystal rifle. She
already commanded her companion spirit to possess the Instrunt of Vengeance while also beseeching Ylvaine to help her predict her tricky opponent's highly tricky evasive
maneuvers.
At the sa ti, she resonated with the ChargeMate that was integrated into her ace ch to speed up the accumulation of power in her luminar crystal rifle.
Stark did not bother to resonate with HeatMate as that would slow down the previous effort and induce unnecessary strain. Her machine still remained relatively cool and had just begun to glow brighter as the ch fra's vast amount of hyper materials began to pull in the power of light.
She also drew out a lot of additional power from the supplentary Endex System Version 3.0. More and more E energy got pulled in before being converted into pure electrical energy that facilitated the charging rate of the Instrunt of Vengeance. There was no way the Stewards Siasia would allow the Amaranto to charge her primary weapon to her limits, but Stark did not consider this possibility in the slightest. Instead, she just wanted to build up as much of a charge as possible in two seconds or less so that she could give her opponent a nice whack.
Yet before her Instrunt of Vengeance built up a 10 percent charge, the Lamia Kailamassu teleported forward in defiance of the Amaranto's Saint Kingdom and smacked straight into the archech, causing her to tumble away in a humiliatingly easy fashion!
That was not even the worst that happened!
The dual-pilot ace ch charged at an angle that wretched the Instrunt of Vengeance away from its owner!
The luminar crystal rifle helplessly spun into the distance as a result. It took quick thinking on Davia Stark's part to use her Saint Kingdom to arrest the weapon's launch and pull it back to the Amaranto.
Stark did not give up on using her rifle as it was ant to be wielded. She resud the charge, but the Lamia Kailamassu did not ss around and imdiately flew close before smacking away the rifle from the Amaranto's hands yet again!
The junior ace pilot grew incredibly irritated! She felt as if her sparring partner was constantly splashing water in her face!
"Let get off a shot!" She snarled in frustration.
Alo's response was direct. "No."
"Why not?!"
"Why train in an area that you already excel at? We all know how good you are at eliminating enemies from afar. Training your marksmanship at this stage will not make you that much stronger. Your shortcomings are too great, but unlike other marksman chs, the unusual construction of your machine has blessed you with a stronger ch
fra than normal. You have never taken full advantage of that. We must correct that as soon as possible. The longer you remain a sitting duck against enemies at close range, the less you deserve to launch any shots. DEFEND YOURSELF!"
The sparring session continued. The Amaranto got knocked was a miracle that its more delicate parts hadn't shaken loose. Each ti, Saint Stark tried her best to evade the charge attacks.
She failed every attempt.
so many ti
hat it
The twin saints remained rciless. They held in back when it ca to inflicting damage, but they had no qualms about employing their greater strengths to ensure their ace support ch smacked the Amaranto around like a ragdoll ti and ti again.
It was an interesting if punishing exercise for the first 10 minutes, but as the sparring session stretched on for an hour, Stark had accumulated a lot of frustrations!
The two Rubarthan ace pilots had not limited themselves to physical therapy. They had also begun to use their overlapping Saint Kingdoms to induce ntal hallucinations onto
Stark!
In one mont, the Amaranto looked ready to thrust her plasma bayonet into what would hopefully be the Lamia Kailamassu's trajectory.
In the next mont, the ace marksman ch froze for an instant before resuming her attack, which the Lamia Kailamassu easily managed to evade!
Davia Stark wanted to rely on her intuition to predict the Lamia Kailamassu's attack angle, but Alo and Jeri's Saint Kingdoms had abruptly pulled at her ntal scars, causing her to confront the horrors she had witnessed in the past.
Though Stark had tried her best to extricate herself from this forced recollection, she still remained distracted for several crucial seconds!
Though Stark had already instructed her living dch to take control as quickly as possible and act according to her best judgnt, it simply did not work out as well as
she hoped.
As much as the Amaranto had learned from her ace pilot, the living ch was fundantally unable to match the skills, judgnt and supernatural intuition of a
genuine saint.
The performance of the Amaranto rely matched that of a well-trained if unimaginative elite ch pilot at best.
The living ch was no different from a child in front of a pair of ace chs that had reached the cusp of godhood!
Aloretzi and Jerivern steadily ramped up the usage of their Saint Kingdoms. They even began to employ additional asures to add to the confusion.
The Lamia Kailamassu engaged in infrequent and unpredictable teleport hops. The machine could appear in any direction. It could show up right in front, to the side, down
below or even behind.
What was worse was that its teleportation module was so confounding that it could even switch the orientation of the Lamia Kailamassu!
For example, when the dual-pilot ace pilot charged from the front, it could instantly teleport behind the Amaranto while simultaneously turning her 180 degrees around, allowing her to launch straight into the unexposed rear of the Larkinson ace ch while retaining most of her inexplicably reversed montum!
This was an incredible cheat!
With the help of two sources of extrely potent true resonance, the Lamia Kailamassu's teleportation module was able to violate the laws of nature to a baffling
extent.
It did so in complete defiance of Davia Stark's Saint Kingdom!
The domain field might as well not exist by how domineeringly her adversary pulled off
one reality-defying feat after another.
"I need to catch my breath!" Stark complained. "Can you give a minute to rest and
thin?"
"No. The enemy will never let you off, so neither will we. It is better for you to falter now
than later."
The Stewards Siasia had been truly serious about abusing the Aranto until she had completely expended her energy reserves!
Stark began to regret the most recent upgrades. The first-class power reactor and vastly more effective energy cells kept the Amaranto Mark III Revision 2 going a lot longer than
before.
Combined with the 'renewable' electrical energy generated by ChargeMate and the Endex System Version 3.0, the ace marksman ch was loyally fulfilling her purpose in keeping her fed with lots of energy as long as possible!
Though Stark found it tempting to employ tricks to drain the energy reserves of her ace ch faster, she resolutely refused to do anything that cut this punishing sparring
session short!
The sparring session reached its second hour, then its third.
The Amaranto Mark III's energy reserves finally started to reach a distressing level, but
the machine was still able to fight, not that it mattered.
The only consolation was that Saint Stark was gradually able to learn how to cope with
the repeated ntal and physical abuse.
She gritted her teeth, but instead of complaining about the torture, she kept herself
silent and worked hard to perform better than before.
Her ace ch gradually found ways to lesson and mitigate the consequences of getting
slamd by the Lamia Kailamassu.
She learned how to anticipate the charging attacks to a better extent. She learned how
to reduce the impact damage. She learned how to arrest the Amaranto's tumbling faster. She also learned how to keep hold of the Instrunt of Vengeance.
Her Saint Kingdom played an indispensable role. The Amaranto alone could not do it.
Stark had gradually co to realize that the only way to defeat an effect empowered by
a Saint Kingdom was another effect empowered by a Saint Kingdom! Stark did not attempt to weaken the Lamia Kailamassu. It was hopeless for her to
directly contest her will against two peak ace pilots.
She instead focused on empowering the defenses and other physical paraters of the
Amaranto Mark III.
This produced much more successful results as she was still able to retain her dominion
over her own ace ch!
At the sa ti, Saint Stark's growing fury and frustrations caused her ntal
fortitude to grow.
She tried everything to block the ntal intrusions, and she found that strong emotions
was a good shortcut to mitigate the unwanted hallucinations.
The stronger her anger, the more effective her defiance!
Her determination to retain his focus beca an increasing obsession to her. The Stewards Siasia had repeatedly humiliated her by making her vulnerable ti and ti again.
There was a limit to how much Saint Stark wanted to be reminded of her flaws and
vulnerabilities!
"GET... OUT... OF... MY... HEAD!"
Saint Stark miraculously managed to push away the 'non-lethal' ntal intrusion
entirely as her fury exploded!
Her rebuke ca accompanied by a dazzling explosion of light that turned the Amaranto
Mark III into a giant flashbang!
Though it did not stop the Lamia Kailamassu from colliding into the ace marksman ch shortly afterwards, at least Stark managed to protect her awareness this ti! "Good job, Davia! It took you long enough. I was afraid it would have taken you 4 hours to
figure out how to defend your mind and will." "SCREW YOU, ALO!"
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