"Tusa." Ves spoke over a communication channel. "You've run enough laps now, but you have yet to show how fast the Dark Zephyr can really move. Try and resonate with your mech and activate the resonance ability that is associated with the flight system."
"Roger that, Ves."
Venerable Tusa had received prior instructions on how to activate a resonance ability. He not only had to send a specific command via the neural interface, but also had to hone and excite his will in a way that allowed it to connect with a specific component or section of the mech.
While the Dark Zephyr incorporated two key resonating materials that defined its greatest extraordinary capabilities, the expert mech also incorporated some lesser resonating materials.
They were mostly responsible for empowering the expert light skirmisher with more basic and standard resonating abilities.
One of them was boosting the performance of the flight system at an extraordinary level. While the resonating material responsible for enabling this capably wasn't particularly strong or valuable, anything that enabled an expert pilot to empower a portion of a mech with willpower was already useful.
The rear of the Dark Zephyr began to glow a lot brighter. The visible emissions escaping from the flight system grew larger and began to glow in light blue as the entire section became affected by true resonance!
In an instant, the Dark Zephyr accelerated 40 percent faster, and it was only ramping up as Venerable Tusa began to get accustomed to exercising his willpower in this manner. Even though the strain was starting to get to him, he became swept up by the rush of zipping around even faster!
In the end, the Dark Zephyr's acceleration had peaked at 80 percent beyond its regular maximum. While this was far from record-setting, it was still a game changer if Venerable Tusa employed this capability well!
Gloriana frowned as she noted some worrying signs from the telemetry transmitted by the expert mech.
"It's not advisable for Venerable Tusa to sustain this extreme degree of acceleration. The flight systems are starting to show actual strain. The Dark Zephyr will require extensive servicing if Tusa keeps pushing it at its limits."
Ves shrugged. "This is a small price to pay compared to the alternative. Speeds like this can win battles."
In fact, the Dark Zephyr was circling around so fast at the moment that it was faintly having difficulties trying to maintain its circular path.
"Alright, now try out the maneuverability of your new expert mech! Let's see how well you can dance around the battlefield."
"I was waiting for this!"
The Dark Zephyr no longer ran boring laps. Instead, it started to follow a more irregular path. It zigged and zagged around while still being affected by its active resonance ability. Though Venerable Tusa found it surprisingly hard to control his expert mech, its movements were both quick and agile!
Its evasion ability became even stronger once Tusa activated the boosters placed throughout the frame of the Dark Zephyr. The small but powerful boosters only had to activate briefly to push the entire mech in a completely different direction!
The performance of the boosters was so great that Venerable Tusa was confident that he could dodge nearly every incoming attack that he was aware of! With multiple boosters placed on the back, front and sides of the mech frame, he could fully choose which direction to evade.
"Hahahahaha!" Venerable Tusa laughed even as his brain came under a lot more stress than before. "I'm untouchable in this state!"
"Are you willing to put that to the test?" Ves spontaneously asked.
"Sure!"
"Then get ready."
Ranged mechs armed with specially-prepared laser rifles began to take aim.
The energy output of the weapons had been deliberately lowered to an extremely low magnitude. Not even a third-class mech would sustain any significant damage from getting hit by a low-energy laser beam.
This allowed the Larkinson mech pilots to feel free to fire their weapons with abandon. Even if their weapon discharges hit the mechs holding position on the opposite side of the sphere, no harm would be done.
"Fire!"
Hundreds of colorful but mostly harmless laser beams converged onto the Dark Zephyr!