Chapter 177 They Have... Machines?

'Not as powerful and incredible' was a gross understatement of the difference between the Gold Grade Shield and my red energy, of course.

There was no bloody way a mere nanoparticle gold grade shield could even come close in replicating the red energy, and I wasn't in the very least shy in vocalizing my opinions.

"Mimic? It's like a little five year old boy mimicking the actions of an NBA veteran doing a full Tomahawk 360 degree slam dunk!" I snickered at the Ancestor mercilessly.

"Yes. But imagine what you can do if you have this shield as your cover…" The Ancestor let his words trail and smiled enigmatically at me.

My jaw dropped.

He was right.

That shield was my ticket to being able to absorb enemy mechas openly!!

It was not a strong enough cover for me to be able to absorb white mechas though, much less gold mechas. But with it, I would be able to freely absorb blue mechas and at large enough numbers, it would still be awesome!

I could already see it.

Me carrying a huge tower shield and charging deep into enemy lines, smashing mechas left and right, absorbing tens, hundreds maybe even thousands of mechas!

And if the Ancestor managed to pull off a debut for a Platinum Grade version of the shield…

"Ancestor… You're a genius!!" I exclaimed and began my shameless complete 180 turnaround in my attitude towards him.

"I know I am." The Ancestor said as a matter of factly and tried to sound as nonchalant. However my sharp ears detected a slight trace smugness in his voice. "I designed it within seven days. No other designer in the Federation could do that.

"Seven days? Did you design this shield just for me?" I asked him, feeling touched.

"For you, yes. And for me. And for the Federation. The stronger you are, the stronger the Federation is. You are, after all, one of the Dragons that would help us rise." The Ancestor said frankly.

I nodded in appreciation of his words and his openness. I preferred people like him who openly declared their desire to make use of me, and made it clear up front.

To such people, I was more than happy to reciprocate their openness in kind.

"I will do what I can. But though I may owe you and the Federation many things, I will not sacrifice myself." I said solemnly.

The Ancestor laughed out loudly at me and said nothing.

At that moment I had no idea just how perfectly he was manipulating me.

He saw exactly how vicious I was to those who killed those I loved, and he knew that as soon as I developed feelings for any of the members of the Federation such as Emma and Bruce, there was absolutely no need for him to even try to make me be loyal to the Federation.

My ties and my attachment to those people would automatically make those who harm them my enemies, and would lay waste to them without even a second thought.

And if ever they had to be sent into the frontlines, then even if I had to kill a million enemy mechas, I would fight, and kill, to keep them safe.

"Anyway. Use this nanoparticle tech to stay on the defensive AND offensive. We'll be fine as long as you don't run out of energy." The Ancestor said. "How long can you last?"

"Against a thousand blue mecha level attacks? At this point probably a full twenty four hours. Against a hundred white mecha level attacks? Probably less than an hour." I gave a rough estimation.

"That's good enough. If all goes well, we will be out of the area within half an hour." The Ancestor said. "Let's go when you're ready."

I spent a few more minutes fiddling with the nanoparticles to get used to them, and when I could control them freely, I took a deep breath and proceeded forward.

We stayed within the cockpit quietly as my sea urchin mecha dove deeper into the Pacific Ocean towards the coordinates given by the Ancestor.

The minutes rapidly ticked by, and very soon, I could feel my strength returning to its peak.

I opened my mouth to tell them that I was ready to face whoever and whatever when all of a sudden…

KAAAAAAAAGHHH!! BOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!

Hundreds upon hundreds of small beads struck us with startling power and then exploded with even greater strength!!

The first few layers of my white mecha armor instantly disintegrated!

"Holy smokes!" I shouted in shock.

"They are here." Bruce Pang said calmly. "This is their standard opening volley. Black Air Beads, highly reactive in salt water."

"Their standard opening volley can destroy seven freaking layers of white mecha armor??" I shouted incredulously.

"WHAT? YOU LOST SEVEN LAYERS ALREADY??" Bruce Pang shouted with even greater shock.

"I damned well di-"

KAAABOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!

KAAABOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!

Even more explosions rocked my sea urchin and this time, they cleanly snapped a few of my sharp spikes!

I gritted my teeth and rebuilt my white mecha armor, quickly reabsorbing all of my spikes and turning into a perfectly smooth and spikeless sphere.

I've lost three percent of my energy within that first ten seconds.

If things went on at that rate, I would run out of energy in five minutes!

"Attack." The Ancestor ordered calmly. "Piss them all off and capture their attention. Then release your drones to my control. I will get the treasure and be back within ten minutes."

"I won't last more than five minutes at this rate! If I capture all of their attention, I won't last three minutes!" I shouted at him in panic.

"You must last ten minutes. Our lives are in your hands." The Ancestor said calmly and then completely ignored me as he focused on his drones.

"Insanity!" I muttered as I started to unleash my area of effect attack.

Close to a thousand laser cannon barrels protruded out of my sphere and I unleashed five ferocious volleys at full strength while rotating wildly to hit as many of those yet unseen Horse Gavarels as possible.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Faint and muffled explosions could be heard all around us.

It was then that a thought finally struck me.

"Explosions? They have… machines??"