Since the dispersed pattern wasn't working for the Disintegrators, Max switched them to stronger beams, leaving himself without area of effect weapons since the explosions of the Mass Driver rounds weren't working here for some unknown reason.
The concentrated beam of the Disintegrator vaporized three of the smaller red demons at once, turning them to nothing but ash that seemed to float in the air for a few moments before being blown away.
That was more like it. It wasn't affecting as many as before, but it was still enough to deal some real damage to the enemy.
Max locked blades with one of the six armed violet demons, then laughed at its hiss of annoyance as he rotated to the side, and the overhand swipe of the claws all tore through empty air where he had been.
His shield slammed the creature to the ground, and a stomp from the mighty foot of the twenty-metre-tall Mecha crushed the monster's skull, earning him an appreciative cheer from the red demons.
If the rules of this place were tailored to the way these creatures wanted to fight, it made sense that none of their large-scale weapons worked and that the Cutter hadn't fired a single round. Max was too busy to check on what was happening on the bridge, but under normal circumstances, they should have at least deployed the defensive weapons to keep the enemy away from the hull.
There had been no announcement that the ship was under attack, though, and his Mecha should have given him a warning if the ship's shields were taking damage. It was standard programming for space battles since losing the mothership could leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere, literally, with very limited life support.
The sound of the rapid-firing Mass Drivers was still steady, though, so it didn't seem that any of the Innu had fallen or stopped fighting, and Nico certainly hadn't lost quite so quickly.
Max checked his sensors and saw that she had moved over closer to the cargo bay door, and a mountain of bodies was forming around her thanks to the efforts of the Innu killing anything that tried to flank her.
That allowed her to fight one on one or two on one as Max was about to be doing again, while the smaller Mecha kept the cannon fodder at bay.
The battle seemed to pause for a moment as two enormous red demons landed in front of Max. Each was twice as large as anything that they had faced so far, standing over twenty-five metres tall and dwarfing the Mecha with their massive wings.
It was as if the whole world was holding its breath as Max stared down the Demons, who were idly twirling their massive two-handed blades while they contemplated how to deal with this enemy.
Nico stepped up to join him, and the two demons smiled, then took a step apart, giving each other room to fight.
That was good enough for Max. He placed his blade on top of his shield and charged his opponent. The two blades met in a shower of sparks, and a mighty fist brought him to a halt, nearly taking out the barrier on his shield but leaving a trail of blood along the ground as the Demon drew its hand back.
It only took a moment for the hand to heal, but the Demon didn't wait. The downward strike of its blade threw blood through the air, followed by a flash of light as the energy barrier on Max's shield collapsed.
The shield itself was holding up well, but the capacitors were blown out. It would be out of commission for a while, but it was still an effective shield for a few more hits, at least.
Max struck out at the Demon's head, forcing it to lean back, then dropped his shoulder and turned the strike into a downward chop that cut a deep furrow into the Demon's left side, adding more blood to the battlefield.
The echoing roar that it let out was not pain, and Max sensed nothing of the sort in its thoughts. Instead, the Demon was enraged that someone made it bleed. In its mind, that was the greatest insult to its prowess. It made others bleed, not the other way around.
But its methodical attacks didn't slow, and Max was forced back as the jagged blade glided down his shield, then abruptly changed directions, going for his legs.
Max kicked the Demon's arm as the blade swung past him, sending it to the end of the chain, attaching it to its owner's wrist, and then unleashed his Mass Driver into the giant Demon.
Now it was truly enraged, both at being disarmed and at being shot. The red demons seemed to take the use of ranged weaponry as a cowardly insult and a dishonour to the art of combat.
If Max had been trying to enrage the creature, he would have succeeded beyond his greatest expectations. The flurry of strikes that followed the attack, which had completely disabled the creature's left arm and only narrowly missed blowing its chest apart, shattered Max's shield and nearly knocked the blade from his hand.
After this battle, he was definitely following their lead and chaining that blade to his arm. The hand of the Mecha had a magnetic lock that should be enough to keep it from being disarmed, but only the wide pommel had kept it in his grip this time.
Max discarded the shield and rolled backward to avoid the next slash of the Demon's blade. The maneuver took him over a corpse, and Max grabbed a cruelly hooked blade off the fallen violet Demon as he passed, allowing him to switch to a two-handed fighting style.
The hooked end would make for an excellent disarming tool, but Max had another plan. He hadn't gotten to try out the freezing liquid yet, as it was on the forearm blades, and he didn't want to get into the grappling range of a monster that was stronger than his Mecha. But, if this worked out as planned, it would be the perfect opportunity.
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