Though both cats fought ferociously in head-on brawls, they each adopted slightly different styles.
The Dragon Cat was a pure exobeast. She lacked most of the genetic programming that the biotech researchers of House Laterna inserted into the genes of their organic products.
\"That's not necessarily a bad thing.\"
The Dragon Cat fought with natural instinct honed over millions of years of constant evolution. Going through the process of survival of the fittest ensured her species was very good at dealing with the threats on her native planet and environment.
In contrast, almost every aspect about Zeigra had been designed. The exobiologists and geneticists who cooked up his species had probably been messing around, but also incorporated many artificial improvements into his genome.
Many of those enhancements likely addressed combat against mechs. One of the biggest reasons why Zeigra had become so infamous was because he recognized the roles of different mechs and tried to avoid their strong points while exploiting their vulnerabilities.
Just like any intelligent huge cat, Zeigra preferred to ambush ranged mechs whenever possible!
This was a lot different from the Dragon Cat, who preferred to take out whatever mech was closer!
\"The Dragon Cat thrives on instinct while Zeigra is guided by his programming.\"
Ves had a feeling that this difference might prove crucial. What if Zeigra's bioprogramming contained hidden instructions?
The possibility that House Laterna's biotech researchers planted all kinds of backdoors and hidden orders into the Crown Cat's genes was very real!
Ves had studied some of the raw data that Lucky retrieved from House Laterna's research outposts in Eron and Asco. While he failed to interpret most of the data, he did get a sense of how much the local researchers interfered with the wildlife on the planet.
\"Almost every aspect is under their control.\" He concluded.
As much as Ves admired Zeigra's abilities and fighting prowess, he preferred to impart his Devil Tiger with a more primal design spirit.
With an X-Factor inclined towards ferocity, instinct and brutality, his Devil Tiger might fare a bit worse on the survival department, but the boost to its aggression reinforced its double-edged nature.
\"Maybe going with the lesser choice isn't so bad at all.\"
While the Dragon Cat had her shortcomings, Ves did not mind them all that much. One of his goals for the Devil Tiger was to design a mech that demanded the utmost from its mech pilot.
So what if his mech drove a mech pilot to death?! The only mech pilots who were going to be piloting his mech anyway would be a bunch of murderous Nyxian pirates!
As a one-off experimental project, the primary purpose of the Devil Tiger was to test his assumptions and confirm or disprove his guesses.
The more extreme he designed the mech, the more pronounced the results it returned!
On top of amplifying the extremes, the rumored ability of the Dragon Cat might prove to be a boon if the Devil Tiger was capable of imitating its powers.
\"Will it, though?\"
As far as he knew, no Aurora Titan produced by the LMC ever replicated Qilanxo's space barrier.
Could a mech even express the powers of its design spirit in the first place?
\"I don't know the answer.\"
He didn't have any evidence ruling this possibility out, but neither did he possess any proof that his Aurora Titans could summon space barriers either.
\"It's an interesting possibility nonetheless.\" Ves rubbed his chin.
As he thought about this question even further, he suddenly made a very significant realization.
What if.. he could instill his mech designs with design spirits based off other entities.
Entities such as.. mech pilots?
What if he transferred the spirituality of a dead or dying mech pilot and infused it into his mech?
\"That's just the start!\"
As soon as Ves came up with this notion, countless new ideas emerged from his imagination!
What if he created a dynastic mech where he continually infused the mech with the spiritual fragments of past generations of its mech pilots? How well would the mech perform if piloted by the latest generation of their family line?
What if.. what if he obtained a spiritual fragment or the complete spirituality of an expert pilot and implanted it into his mech design? Would the mech turn into an 'expert mech' that still expressed the power of one even if a regular mech pilot interfaced with the empowered machine?
If Ves somehow managed to make this radical notion into a reality, then he would in essence solve one of the MTA's biggest problems!
He'd be able to ensure the continuity of expert pilots or even ace and god pilots by perpetuating their abilities after their death!
\"This.. this is a game changer!\"
Ves started to breathe heavily. How could he have overlooked this direction?!
The possibilities were limitless, and so was their potential!