Through this deep and intricate form of teamwork, the swordsman mechs simultaneously managed to penetrate the thick stone exterior of their prey with greater ease than normal!
Though the effect was not as smooth as they wished, Captain Gheri and her fellow Swordmaidens rejoiced when they saw that their weapons were effective at cutting through the beast's stone armor.
The only issue was that the Giant Stone Eater was already beginning to repair the damaged rock by filling up the gaps, the Monster Slayers just commenced another run where they managed to inflict multiple wounds.
Each time the relatively fast and agile mechs struck, they always reserved a part of their power in case they needed to evade a powerful counterattack.
However, the larger and clumsy beast failed to respond adequately to the close assaults.
Aside from the rock shard rifles which appeared to find it much more difficult to stay on target against mechs that made fast lateral movements at closer ranges, the only other offensive tool was the explosive rocks thrown by the catapult arms.
Seeing that the mechs had come so close, the catapult arm made an extreme move and threw the explosive rocks down at exceedingly steep angles!
BOOOOM! booooom!
Though the targeted Monster Slayers weren't entirely able to escape the blasts at such close range, the explosions happened to inflict a lot of damage to the mutated beast's rock armor!
The results were clear to everyone. The affected stone armor had partially shattered. A web of cracks ran through the surface. The extent and magnitude of the cracked stone made it a lot harder to restore them to their former conditions.
"Hah! The stupid beast has done more damage to itself than our greatswords. If we can fool this monster into doing this a dozen more times, we'll be able to crack its armor in no time!"
"Don't celebrate too soon." Captain Gheri frowned as she beheld the Giant Stone Eater with greater vigilance than before. "Its intelligence isn't as low as it looks. It has gotten close to evolving to a calamity beast. We need to maintain our vigilance. Do not hesitate to absorb your attacks the moment you see anything wrong."
Although the Swordmaidens valued the importance of maintaining control, it became more and more challenging for them to rein in their aggression.
They had so much power at their disposal now that they had developed an extensive degree of cooperation with their mechs!
In the heat of battle, their urge to prove the strength and commit to more serious attacks continued to grow stronger.
However, the harsh and brutal training of the Swordmaidens always emphasized the need to maintain control.
Aggression was good, but only when they leashed it and kept it under their control.
From the moment they released their control and gave in to their more primal and savage urges, they would lose the majesty and deliberate swordsmanship of the Swordmaidens!
This was how the 6 aggressive Swordmaiden pilots ultimately managed to shackle their bloodlust.
The Swordmaiden Sword Style's more extraordinary moves all required a high degree of control in order to pull them off. Any smidgen of inattention could cause a complicated move to lose its support, thereby making it difficult to produce extraordinary results through ordinary means.
Ves was able to witness this in the cockpit of one of the Hymenopterans.
The more he studied Ketis' work over the past year, the more he figured out the general working principles behind this novel new combat approach.
"It is remarkable how these mech pilots are able to fight like quasi-expert pilots, but... mech pilots outside of the Swordmaidens will face an uphill battle in trying to replicate this feat." He concluded.
The Heavensworder pilot in the cockpit nodded. "We have all tried to study and practice the new methods devised by Swordmaster Ketis. Theoretically, other swordsmen should be able to do the same, but somehow it is only the Swordmaidens who have succeeded so far. We hope that we may be able to master it in time after we continue to polish our skills and willpower in challenging hunt, but we may have to grind away for years before we can reach the level of Captain Gheri and her sworn sisters."
It was not easy for these ordinary mech pilots to overcome their lack of talent. It did not help that they had aged past the prime of their lives. This was a common characteristic among the mech pilots who chose to transfer to the side branches.
Though the continuous exposure to E energy radiation should gradually increase their chances of breaking through, an increase in probability did not translate into a certain outcome.
In a galaxy where the enemies of red humanity constantly grew stronger and more threatening, it was incredibly useful for standard mech pilots to become as effective as quasi-expert mech pilots in battle!
Ves fully recognized the value of Ketis' work and hoped that she would be able to flesh it out so that it became more accessible to mech pilots outside of her own posse.
Just as he thought about how he could help Ketis improve her latest work, his eyes suddenly widened as Blinky detected a surge of earth energy!
"Watch out! The beast is about to make a big move!"
The sensitive living mechs had already issued their warnings to their mech pilots a split-second before.
Captain Gheri's prudence paid off as the cautious Monster Slayers neatly turned around and sprinted away from the threatening beast as fast as possible!
Even so, the Giant Stone Eater channeled a lot of power onto its left side. This section happened to feature a lot of stone armor that had been cracked by its own explosive rocks.
From the moment the earth beast channeled a lot of power into this damaged section, the cracked stone armor exploded from its body and showered the nearby area with lots of heavy stone chunks!
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Though most of the Monster Slayers were nowhere close inside the area of effect, one of the machines got struck by multiple powerful blows at once!
Not only did the shards manage to penetrate the vulnerable rear armor, but one of its legs also got struck, causing it to deform out of shape!
"Mech down!"