Ves felt as if he had turned into a beast!
Much of his calm and rationality as a mech designer had taken a backseat as the more primal part of his cognition had been brought to the fore!
His extremely exaggerated physical condition made him feel as if he had become stronger than any human.
Not just Ves, but any human that suddenly transcended the weakness of his own physique and started to match the size and physical strength of mechs would feel the same!
Mechs played a huge role in human society. They were the mainstay fighting machines for several centuries, and they had developed a strong and extensive image of martial might in everyone's mind.
For Ves to transition from a puny human to a genuine phase lord was such a significant transformation that he could not help but get lost in his newfound power!
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Ves threw himself at the bots that entered the testing chamber on a continuous basis!
He punched the metal exterior of the bots without fear of breaking his own knuckles. The relatively soft and thin metal layers easily deformed whenever he punched or kicked them with his limbs!
Though the bots soon started to resist more actively and try to attack him from multiple directions, his spatial barrier easily blocked the attacks.
The forces exerted by the bots were not that strong at the moment, and their lack of transphasic properties made it very difficult to exhaust the spatial barrier!
"HAHAHAHAHAl SO THIS IS WHAT IT IS LIKE TO FIGHT LIKE A MECH!"
Previously, he had only been able to feel what it was like to possess the combat power of a mech by going on a Mastery experience.
Even then, he was only able to hitchhike in the mind of a mech pilot, making it so that there was an extra layer of separation between himself and the powerful machines.
This was no longer the case!
Ves' entire body had turned into the equivalent of a transphasic biomech!
Although there were still many differences between his current state and a real biomech, there was enough resemblance that he had the illusion that he could fight and win against an actual machine!
"STRONGER! I NEED THEM TO BE STRONGER!"
The mechers obliged. They had already gathered enough data on Ves' current state to develop a much more accurate estimate of how much he could handle.
"Send in the second-class battle bots." Jovy commanded after he had studied the data.
The weak bots all disappeared from the testing chamber.
Soon, a dozen stronger and more well-equipped bots had entered the fray!
Half of them were armed with rifles while the other half was armed with various melee weapons.
Ves could immediately tell that these were serious battle bots that could pose an actual threat onto second-class mechs.
That meant that their threat to him was not negligible!
It appeared that the mechers were so interested in testing his current limits that they were willing to take a few risks.
"Get ready, Ves. Don't forget that you can command us to stop at any time if you cannot take it anymore. Do not try to fight past your limit."
"I'M NOT THAT FRAGILE, JOVY. JUST START ALREADY!"
The ones with ranged weapons quickly started to open fire onto Ves!
Most of the initial attacks did not exert that much strain on his defenses. Even if he removed his spatial barrier, he had a high degree of confidence that his abnormally dense and phasewater-reinforced body could resist the attacks for a time.
What surprised Ves was that a few of the ranged machines were actually armed with transphasic weapons!
The laser beams and gauss rounds inflicted significant damage to his spatial barrier, making it so that Ves could not ignore their threat.
Ves tried to move and evade, but he found out that he lacked the grace and finesse of a true light mech.
His movements were clumsy and clearly marked by lack of systematic training.
He was unable to dance around the battlefield like the light mechs he had designed in the past.
Phase lords were not meant to be swift and agile!
Their body cultivation focused on promoting their size, mass and phasewater concentration so that they could become absolutely titanic powerhouses that could crush everything by relying on brute force alone!
Dodging was not their style. If they couldn't withstand powerful attacks, then they just needed to make their bodies big enough!
What that meant was that Ves realized that he was not necessarily able to gain the upper hand when he fought against equally-sized mechs and machines, at least when it came to physical performance.
However, a phase lord possessed more advantages than a massive body!
The appearance of a full squad of battle bots was a signal that Ves should no longer stick to simple methods.
He needed to utilize the comprehensive abilities of a phase lord in order to beat this challenge!
"COME!" Ves shouted!
The bots armed with swords, spears and shields jogged forward while maintaining a solid line.
This made it harder for Ves to isolate them and eliminate them one at a time.
It was a good thing that Ves did not intend to confront them first.
He concentrated for a moment and activated all of the phasewater in his body at once!
For whatever reason, it had become a lot easier for him to pull off this step!
Crack!
Ves instantly disappeared from his place and quickly appeared behind the row of ranged bots that were pointing their rifles in the wrong direction!
Though the bots responded remarkably quickly by turning around, Ves was too close to let them have their way!
"DEATH!"
He utilized his raw power to grab and tear one of the ranged bots apart, only to get blocked by an energy shield.
"THAT WON'T STOP ME FOR LONG!"
Ves instinctively concentrated on his fist and caused it to gain transphasic attack properties.
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