The Fight between the Divine Arsonist and the Ekstrom Goliath kicked off withoutexchanging any banter first.
This was not too unusual during the Red War, but it was also not unheard of forparticularly martial phase gods to taunt and engage human ace pilots as worthyadversaries.
Even if they did not exchange any words, their strikes and their defensive maneuversalready conveyed their mutual respect towards each other.
Yet when the Ekstrom Goliath launched its opening strike by letting loose an enormousbarrage of organic missiles, it did so with the sole determination of executing its orders.The alien creature possessed an ugly face that was characterized by adisproportionately large mouth.
It was not designed to smile or convey any particular emotions. Its pitch-black eyesgazed at the Ascended Giant as if the latter was no different the high-ranking mechsthat the Goliath Hive had previously fought against.
Though a single biological missile did not give the Divine Arsonist much cause forconcern, the quantity was rather big.
Hundreds of them spread out like a flower before slowly converging onto the advancingAscended Giant.
That was not a reason to give the Divine Arsonist much cause for concern. He thoughtabout activating his flamethrower, but decided it was better to save the propellant.
The Ascended Giant maintained a confident expression as the fleshy missiles struck hisspatial shield with unrelenting force!
Though the Divine Arsonist slowed down his advance, by the time the torrent of missileshad been expended, the human phase lord emerged from this initial barrage with not asingle scratch on his raiment!
His spatial barrier remained intact, though it looked a bit shakier than before. It had doneits job in a magnificent manner.
"Good exchange." Ves murmured as he inspected the data in front of a work station."Those organic missiles are all transphasic, right?"
Lord Richard nodded. "Every megavoribug that we have encountered so far istransphasic. We believe that it is due to the fact that their direct competition reliesheavily on phasewater as well. The bodies of phase leaders have them in abundancewhile all modern high-ranking mechs are composed of transphasic alloys.""Superdimensional technology is also trending." Ves added. "That is the superchargedversion of phasewater technology. I don't think the mutated voribugs have access tosuperdimensional matter, so the only way their Goliaths can remain competitive is toinvest heavily into organic phasewater applications."
Red humanity gained access to superdimensional matter through Ketis.
The latest haul was quite considerable and should be enough to convert many peak acemechs and god mechs into superdimensional versions of themselves.
The native aliens had their own source of superdimensional matter. Ves and otherpeople even suspected that the phase whale race mastered the ability to generatesuperdimensional matter, but they had yet to find any proof.
Whatever the case, Ves did not think it was likely that the mutated voribugs could gettheir hands on any superdimensional matter aside from plundering it from defeatedenemies, so their Goliaths had to rely on other solutions to defend againstsuperdimensional arms.
Before the Divine Arsonist could get close enough to plunge his superdimensional-tipped spear into the Ekstrom Goliath's formidable body, hundreds of thousands ofvoribugs left the giant creature's side and began to approach the advancing AscendedGiant.
The Divine Arsonist grinned beneath his fully covered raiment. "I have been waiting forthis! Taste my flames, you filthy bugs!"
His large 1.5x flamethrower had already been fully primed. Numerous safety measuresensured that its propellant remained safe from accidental ignition even if the weapon gotjostled or damaged.
The nozzle in front began to spray a fiery orange spurt of flames that engulfed all of thevoribugs in a wide 160 degree cone!
"Hahahahaha! Burn! Burn! Burn!"
The spreading heat and the sight of so many burning bugs stimulated the DivineArsonist!
He derived a strong sense of satisfaction from starting up a conflagration that quicklysnuffed out the lives of so many voribugs within a dozen seconds.
The custom flamethrower commissioned by Tamsham O'Reilly had not been designed toeradicate bugs, but it appeared well-suited for the job.
The Ascended Giant could easily adjust the width of the nozzle to disperse its flames orconcentrate it into a narrow jet.
Naturally, it was incredibly stupid to do the latter. He had widened the nozzle to the limit,allowing the fiery flames to disperse right in front of the Faceless Giant.
Though the flames burned up a lot of voribugs, the enemy did not appear to bediscouraged.
The swarm quickly adapted to this attack by dispersing and flanking the Divine Arsonist.While the Ascended Giant was still able to burn up a lot of bugs, the problem was that hewas unable to do so as effectively as before.
The flamethrower used up the same amount of propellant, but only burned a fraction asmany bugs as before.
The Divine Arsonist eventually decided to pull his finger away from the trigger.
This immediately emboldened the voribugs and caused them to converge directlytowards their enemy!
The Divine Arsonist's spatial barrier blocked their passage and prevented their bites andclaw strikes from inflicting much damage.
The damage inflicted by all of the voribugs was much less than the organic missileslaunched a short time ago.
This was because the cannon fodder bugs did not contain any phasewater.
Attacks devoid of empowerment derived from phasewater or superdimensional mattertended to perform especially poorly against transphasic energy defenses.
However, that did not mean the Divine Arsonist could ignore the swarming bugs!
It only took a few seconds for a thick layer to form around his spatial barrier. Not a singlegap existed as bug after bug enveloped his shielded form like it was a hive!
The combined mass of this ballooning organic ball started off small, but expandedquickly to the point where the flight of the Ascended Giant became affected.
Not only that, but the visual blockage along with the messy organic signals generated byso many bugs almost completely blinded the Divine Arsonist!
However, before this flesh ball could continue to hinder the Ascended Giant, the DivineArsonist activated his flamethrower and spun around so that he could spread his white-hot flames in every direction.
A huge amount of bugs instantly burned into a crisp!
The Divine Arsonist managed to kill so many voribugs that not a single insect clung tohis spatial barrier at this time.
Yet just as he was about to enjoy the view, the Ekstrom Goliath was already chargingstraight in his direction!
The gigantic bug did not let the sacrifice of so many voribugs go to waste. He hadalready begun to charge forward. With his wicked horn pointed straight at the AscendedGiant, it was clear that he would not stop until he rammed it directly through its target!The Divine Arsonist grinned!
"So be it! Let's see whose horn is sharper!"
He put away his flamethrower and began to charge forward while bracing his spear.
The Divine Arsonist had great confidence in his weapon, especially after it had receiveda relatively small but incredibly crucial superdimensional upgrade.
The observing humans watched the two combatants carefully.
"He's underestimating his adversary and overestimating his weapon." Ves mildlycomplained. "I am not sure what a Level 7 Goliath is capable of, but any organism thatcan fight against an ace mech possesses its own advantages.”