The incendiary shells and the fire burning over the space barrier and in the surrounding terrain spooked caused a lot of difficulties. In particular, all of the burning and smoke choked out the beast riders riding atop the sacred gods.
As blessed people who have inherited their optimized genes from former CFA officers, they possessed a considerable capacity to hold their breaths. However, they still faced difficulties if their lungs stopped for a couple of minutes straight.
Their brains still needed oxygen to function!
A tactical officer offered a suggestion. "Captain, Qilanxo's energy barrier isn't able to seal up their entire surroundings. It's still leaving out a gap for air to circulate. If we launch our poison shells, we can incapacitate the beast riders."
Dr. Tillman studied the physiques of the blessed and cursed people extensively. While both possessed a considerable natural resistance against poison, the blessed people enjoyed much weaker protection, only able to rely on their optimized baseline human genes.
The dwarves were considerably more resilient in that regard. Up to now, the exobiologists still hadn't been able to formulate a sedative that could knock a dwarf unconscious without killing him right afterwards.
Several minutes went by as the sacred gods managed to move out of the firestorm with difficulty. Flames still burned above the space barrier, but the propellant almost ran their course.
"Alright. Load in three poison shells and fire them at these coordinates. Let the wind waft underneath the space barrier and take effect."
The space barrier blocked all physical damage and most forms of energy attacks, so detonating the poison shells above it would see most of the active elements blown away.
So instead, the Vandals proceeded to fire the poison shells a short distance away and let them release their invisible and odorless gas into the surrounding terrain.
The wind quickly blew them into the middle of the sacred gods. Due to the miniscule size of the poisonous particles, the individual energy fields that empowered the scales of the sacred gods and covered the position of the beast riders had no effect!
The protection offered by the energy field mainly defended against threats that could be seen with the naked eye. Against this invisible and insidious form of attack, neither the sacred gods nor the beast riders suspected anything amiss in the limited air.
"The beast riders are being affected by the poison gas."
Blurry footage from their long-ranged sensors detected abnormal behavior from the beast riders. With the concentration of gas blowing through their positions, the chosen of the gods should have been knocked unconscious by now.
However, while the blessed people atop the sacred gods swayed in their saddles, they somehow managed to stay conscious.
The beast riders of Pairixan and Qilanxo were least affected of all!
"The poison gas achieved limited results! The beast riders are withstanding the effects of the gas!"
"Fire the remaining nine poison shells immediately!"
A short time later, the concentration of poison increased to a level that wouldn't have knocked a human unconscious, but outright kill them if they casually inhaled the air!
Yet the beast riders remained conscious and breathing even if they encountered difficulties. The sacred gods all roared in anger, with some of them even starting to blow at the air in order to disperse the foul air.
"How are the beast riders still alive?! We threw enough poison in there to kill a thousand humans!"
None of the doctors and exobiologists on staff knew the answer. They all shook their heads or peered at the footage in an attempt to solve the puzzle. So far, none of them held any luck!
Ves frowned deeply at the resilience shown by the beast riders. Battles between sacred gods was fraught with danger, so it didn't surprise him that the beast riders enjoyed additional protection.
However, this abnormal resistance against poison went beyond everyone's expectation!
What was so special about the connection between the sacred gods and their chosen? Why did it surpass the capabilities of the connection between mechs and their mech pilots?
While everyone came up with their own guesses, Ves believed the key to their heightened performance lay in their man-beast connection!