Max and Nico pushed forward together, punching a hole through the War Walkers so that they could isolate a group for the Koleska to focus fire on.
It didn't take long for the Arisen Army to realize what they were doing and to send more Command Walkers to deal with them instead of letting the two giant Mecha tear through their lines.
[Boss, I've come up with a new setting for the barrier on your shield. Give this a try when the Command Walkers start firing, and you can't dodge.] Nico informed Max as she sent over a configuration file to Cleansing Light.
[What is it supposed to do?]
[It should cause carrier wave instability in the energy beam. If it hits the shield at an angle, it should deflect off without you having to take the brunt of the damage.]
Now that sounded useful. You could never dodge every shot, but it was much easier to angle his shield to deflect shots away from him the way he would do with a solid blade. The only question was how much of his power supply those efforts would consume.
If it wasn't too high, he could do it indefinitely, but that seemed unlikely. Even if it reduced the damage by half, it would make for an effective trick, though, and there was a chance that he could use it to deflect shots into other enemy units.
He could almost feel the frustration from the Arisen reinforcements as he moved behind a cluster of lighter War Walkers to break their firing lanes, but it was obvious that their main goal was to approach him in close combat anyhow.
Once they were at fifty kilometres, only a few seconds away in a space battle, Max set his Disruptors to maximum spread and blasted a path between himself and the Command Walkers.
Nico moved to follow right on his shoulder, and the two Mecha charged into the ranks of the Elite Arisen units, with Max's shield blocking the incoming fire. It was a chance to test the new settings, and the War Walkers would only get one chance to hit him where he couldn't dodge while charging.
The first blast from the Command Walkers hit the angled shield exactly as Max had intended and went careening off into a crowd of light War Walkers, cutting through three of them before dissipating.
[Twenty percent shield usage.] Nico reminded him.
That was much better than taking the hits directly, and his System Functions were happy to show Max how to angle his shield to make the shots hit other nearby units when possible.
A second shot hit the shield and deflected wide of the battle, dispersing in space, and then Max was in melee range, slicing down at a Command Walker with his blade while his Defensive Lasers burned holes in its chest.
Beside him, Nico's four blades were overwhelming her opponent with attacks, and the Command Walker was in full retreat.
That seemed to be the secret to duelling the Command Walkers. They had limited ability to deal with rapid attacks, despite their advanced skillset, so they could simply be overwhelmed and defeated.
That was the style that Max switched to next. He struck out with his shield and made three quick sword attacks with a flick of his wrist, none of them heavy enough to cause real damage but enough to throw the Command Walker off its routine and send it scrambling to defend itself.
It seemed that they didn't know which attack was going to be the most dangerous one, so they treated them all as a lethal threat.
Max followed up the final swing of his blade with a pulse from the Disruptor, punching a hole in the torso of his opponent, then kicked it backward into the next rank of Command Walkers as a shield for his advance.
Now that it was disabled, the Arisen units showed their fallen comrade no mercy, blasting it apart to get at the Mecha behind it before Max could get into their ranks again.
They didn't get the chance to stop him before a round from Nico's Mass Driver exploded in their ranks with a small-scale fusion detonation that made Max duck behind his shield to avoid having the radiation and shockwave scramble his controls.
The entire wing of Command Walkers was eliminated in an instant, leaving Max standing in the open while Nico's opponents retreated to find a better way to deal with the flurry of blades from the hostile four-armed Mecha.
Max rejoined his wingman and took stock of the battle. The Arisen was definitely losing, and the newly trained Pilots were getting the hang of separating and encircling them so that they could eliminate the War Walkers in manageable groups instead of spreading their firepower across the entire front line.
[If I am correct, the Arisen Fleet will call them back and sound the retreat in under one minute.] Nico informed Max, followed by an attack plan to eliminate more Command Walkers before that happened.
Max set his Disruptors to two combined beams and aimed them to the sides of the current group. As soon as Nico fired her Mass Driver, Max fired, and the Command Walkers scattered.
The problem was they no longer had anywhere to go. The detonation of the round wiped out everything that was too slow to react, and the twin Disruptor beams tore through the others, leaving only a few crippled units still active.
As Nico had predicted, the damage threshold was met, and the Arisen fleet called back their forces only seconds later before vanishing into nothingness.
[That disappearing act is starting to get annoying, but at least we are starting to understand the combat doctrines of their army. Once we know what it takes to make them retreat, we can learn what makes them not appear in the first place.
From what I understand, they have passed by entire species with their attack pattern, putting them further down the priority list or too far up the threat list. If we can put ourselves somewhere that does not warrant attack priority, we can make life much easier in this sector.] Max informed Nico as the Koleska force began to organize for their return to base.
[One step closer to victory.] Nico agreed as she set a course back to Santa Maria.
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