The Mech Touch (Web Novel)
chapter-6108

6108 Drowning In Sap

It was a lot harder for the Promethea to light the seed cannons on fire.

They were directly attached to the main trunk, which meant that the Emperor Tree was able to support them and reinforce them to a much greater extent.

The Emperor Tree had learned its lesson from last time and made a conscious effort to reinforce all of the improved seed cannons.

Whenever the Promethea launched a resonance-empowered purple beam at the cannons, only the ones that got directly struck initially managed to catch fire.

The flames did not spread as easily as with the branches and leaves. There was nothing in the vicinity that was easily flammable, so the resonance-empowered flames had to put a lot of effort into lighting the adjacent seed cannons on fire.

In the meantime, the Emperor Tree not only channeled a lot of wood energy to suppress the purple flames, but also began to employ an even more effective measure to dose the flames.

"Its spraying water onto the flames!"

"That's not water. That's tree sap!"

A slightly murky liquid substance spilled out of newly formed cavities above the flames and relied on gravity to spill over the purple flames.

Ordinary water and liquids shouldn't be able to dose Venerable Isobel's resonance-empowered flames, but the tree sap was different!

They not only concentrated a lot of wood energy, but also channeled the formidable consciousness and vitality of the Emperor Tree.

The sap proved to be surprisingly effective at dousing the purple flames!

Venerable Isobel struggled to resist the fire-repellant properties of the sap, but the Emperor Tree was so immense that it could easily drown any fire with an outrageous quantity of liquids!

The Promethea attempted to start fires elsewhere by targeting the seed cannons positioned higher up the trunk, but the Emperor Tree simply employed the same solution again.

Isobel and her expert mech both grew incredibly frustrated at their opponent.

The Emperor Tree was bullying their efforts to start a fire by relying on its much more immense size!

Isobel had no idea how much sap was contained inside the tree. The trunk was larger than most titanic man-made structures built onto planets. Only orbital elevators were much taller and thicker than the aboveground portion of the Emperor Tree.

Yet that was only a fraction of what made up the calamity plant. According to the analysis of the samples taken from the Emperor Tree, the biotech researchers estimate that the root structure was much larger than the trunk itself!

All of that wooden mass could store a lot of tree sap and other liquids. Trying to outlast the Emperor Tree by hoping that it would run out of juice before the expert mechs reached their limits was a hopeless dream.

"What an outrageous alien tree!" Venerable Joshua spoke even as his Everchanger's resonance shield was struggling to withstand heavy impact after heavy impact. "How are we supposed to burn the entire tree when it has a huge reservoir of water and tree sap at its disposal?"

"We can't." Venerable Dise concluded. "Look at where the tree sap is falling. They are being reabsorbed by the Emperor Tree's roots. It is almost a closed loop. The tree is never going to run out of this stuff."

The three of them may be expert pilots, but Joshua, Dise and even Isobel could not possibly defeat the Emperor Tree in what amounted to a battle of attrition.

They needed to inflict greater damage than what the tree could regenerate, but that was difficult when it was just too damn big and rich with resources!

"Wait. This isn't my full power. I have yet to employ Kiroshi. Let's see how much more difficult it will be for the tree to douse my flames when my companion spirit is fanning them this time!"

"Ya ya!"

A purple flaming cat emerged out of her head and began to enter the Ignitronn rifle in a familiar motion.

The Promethea briefly took aim before pulling the trigger.

A considerably larger and more powerful resonance- empowered purple fire beam struck the main trunk!

A small fiery blast emerged from the impact site as the energy beam instantly blasted apart a heavy seed cannon.

Flames already began to spread from the impact site as Kiroshi immediately went to work. The companion spirit had already done this sort of job many times.

Compared to those instances, it became even easier for Kiroshi to enhance the surrounding flames while also channeling Isobel's formidable willpower.

Normally, Kiroshi had to do her work many kilometers away from her principal. Though the cat was still able to do her job under those circumstances, it was much easier for her to maintain a solid connection under the current circumstances.

What was even better was that the interfering effects of Solus Gas were completely unable to break the bond beyond human and companion spirit!

The two were essentially the same being, so the connection between them could not be blocked so easily.

"Ya! Ya! Ya!"

Kiroshi made an immediate difference by spreading the King Killer Flames a lot more effectively than before. The companion spirit wandered across the exterior of the main trunk, lighting every heavy seed cannon on flame whenever possible.

Of course, the Emperor Tree did not allow the companion spirit to have her way. More and more sap poured out of gaps from above. Many flames became suppressed before disappearing entirely, but Kiroshi herself was not that easy to suppress!

"YAAAA!"

The cat released more purple flames and redoubled her efforts to light the tree on fire even as tree sap constantly tried to drown the companion spirit.

A struggle ensued as the Emperor Tree's efforts reduced the spread of the purple flames, but found itself unable to prevent portions of its bark and heavy seed cannons.

With the help of Venerable Isobel's willpower, Kiroshi successfully kept its flames alive, but they could only remain alight in her immediate surroundings.

Any flames that broke out further away were fundamentally unable to sustain itself due to the tree's persistent efforts!

The Promethea wasn't making progress fast enough. The First Sword and the Everchanger were doing worse and worse. They needed to change their strategy in order to gain the upper hand!

"I have a plan." Venerable Joshua spoke.

"Explain."

"We can't stay here. We need to relocate to a position where most of those seed cannons won't be able to bombard us anymore. The only place I can think of is right next to the trunk. We should get so close that most of those cannons simply can't drain our defenses anymore because they can't aim in our directions anymore."

"That is dangerous. The Emperor Tree will most certainly lash out in order to keep us away from its trunk."

"Do you have any better ideas, Dise? If we keep lingering at this distance, our resonance shields and subsequently our armor will collapse!"

"..."

"We get close. We defend our position. We help the Promethea burn down this tree. What do you think, Isobel?"

"It is workable." The female expert pilot responded as she continued her efforts to spread her flames across the trunk. "We will see what the tree throws at us next."

The three expert mechs advanced forward. Their speeds were so high that they reached the trunk faster than the Emperor Tree could form a proper response.

The size of the calamity plant worked against it for once. Just like how mechs landing on the exterior of a warship could not be targeted by a lot of gun batteries anymore, it became a lot more difficult for the heavy seed cannons to target the three mechs!

"Let's try to drill or burn our way to the center of the trunk!"

Many heavy seed cannons had fallen silent as they were unable to angle their barrels to target the mechs that had come too close.

The First Sword and the Everchanger worked together to clear our the heavy seed cannons directly in front.

The Promethea began to burn the surrounding heavy seed cannons. With Kiroshi's help, the tree sap was unable to prevent all of the seed cannons that could pose a threat against the expert mechs from getting cut or burned down.

Joshua, Dise and Isobel did not leave it at that. The First Sword's Decapitator and the Everchanger's Heartsword began to dig into the layers beneath the bark.

"Yaaa!"

Kiroshi assisted in the effort by drying out and burning down the wood that was in the way.

It was difficult to make progress as the Emperor Tree released even more sap in order to stymy the efforts of the three expert mechs.

Progress was slow, but steady. Getting close appeared to be the right decision as the Emperor Tree was not able to do as much to stop the mechs from drilling into its massive trunk.

However, the calamity plant still retained a few options.

"Watch out! It's about to slap us with its branches!"

The Emperor Tree possessed a lot of branches, some of which were long and flexible enough to strike at the current position of the expert mechs.

Crunch!

The three machines hastily moved aside as a pair of long and leafy branches collided against the damaged and partially burned side of the trunk!

Though the branches ultimately missed, they successfully diverted the expert mechs, thereby stopping them from drilling any deeper into the trunk.

More branches began to slap down from above. The constant motions gradually forced the mechs to back away from the trunk.

That was not a good development for the expert pilots as their machines entered the firing angles of an increasing amount of heavy seed cannons.

Constant impacts drained the resonance shields of the three machines yet again.

"Isobel! You need to burn down those branches! I doubt the Emperor Tree is able to cover them all with sap!"

"On it!" The other expert pilot replied as her expert rifleman mech began to light up a lot of branches and leaves.

There was no need to divert Kiroshi away from his essential mission to burn towards the center of the trunk. Venerable Isobel and the Promethea alone were already sufficient enough to burn down the threatening branches.

The downside was that there were so many of them that it would take a significant amount of time before the Promethea had managed to neutralize these threats!

The Emperor Tree did not intend to give the expert rifleman mech the time to strip away its majestic branches.

"Incoming! The purple mechs have returned!"

Isobel frowned as her Promethea quickly redirected her firepower.

The branches needed to get burned, but the purple wooden mechs had to go as well!

Purple fire beam after purple fire beam began to blast and burn the elite wooden constructs.

Much to Isobel's surprise, the wooden mechs did not catch fire as easily as before. It was only after they received a second energy beam that they finally started to burn down in earnest!

"The Emperor Tree covered its purple mechs in tree sap. We need to evaporate that first before the wooden mechs are able to catch fire."

This was a small obstacle, and one that Isobel quickly adjusted to by dialing up the power setting of the Ignitron rifle.

The firing rate had slowed down, but every purple mech got taken down without exception!

At this rate, the Emperor Tree would quickly lose its elite mobile units. There was no way it could turn the tide if this was the extent of its measures!

A much brighter light shone from above.

Before the expert pilots could wonder what that was all about, the Promethea suddenly received a powerful blow from behind!

Isobel's concentration instantly broke as she hastily tried to put the Promethea on guard!

If the Promethea's resonance shield was not in good condition, that hit could have put a dent onto the expert mech's armor!

"AH! Who hit my mech?!"

"It wasn't me!" Joshua quickly said.

"My mech did not come close to the Promethea." Dise defended herself.

If those two weren't the ones that launched a sneak attack on the Promethea, then what in hell struck Isobel's expert mech?

Isobel tried to focus on threats that could come from every direction. Her eyes widened as her intuition completely failed to warn her about an ebony wooden mech that silently snuck from below and collided against the bottom of the Promethea's resonance shield!

"What is that?!"