Sigma/Star

Chapter 139: A Blinding Light

Rex weaved between every blow that came his way. The massive Mahari was fast, regardless of its size. The lack of cannon on its back certainly assisted with its mobility compared to its brethren behind it, but Rex was always one step ahead. He hadn't gone back in for a strike though, and Ardwen watched him from a distance with a bizarre curiosity. It was difficult to figure out exactly how the youth could predict the attacks so well, especially considering how Shotuku had explained Rex to all of them. This was a relative novice, poorly trained, who couldn't stand up to Porter.

And Porter had struggled against a Mahari. He had done it alone, that was true, and he had certainly won, eventually, but it didn't mean he hadn't found it difficult. Ardwen had thought that single feat of defeating a Mahari had been a spectacular accomplishment for the time, but it had taken Porter all of his cumulative experiences and his years of Goliath training in the academy before he had been able to pull it off. What was Rex then? Was this why he had made Shotuku so excited?

There could only be one possible explanation left for Ardwen: chi. It was something he was not familiar with on a personal level. Neither he nor Raul had any latent powers that would manifest through their Goliaths. They had tactical skill and technical skill, but couldn't be granted any further power. Their life could power their machines, but it couldn't do anything beyond that.

Everything Ardwen had seen performed had always stunned him. The things Porter and Chase had been capable of, the power Marian held or the ferocity packed within Riya's body, all of it was phenomenal and terrifying and destroyed everything Ardwen thought about reality every time he saw it. Even Nami, who seemed only to have some minor exceptional abilities, was still a miracle. For a tactician to be able to command a strike that he knew could weave or curve, that was unprecedented. Nobody could plan for that or build a defense for it, and yet, compared to Porter or Riya, it was practically nothing.

"Not fair at all," Rex yelled over the comm network, and Ardwen glanced up to see the shiny Goliath finally attacking back. Rex had deflected one claw, driving it into the Earth and temporarily burying it with the momentum the creature generated. He was now lunging through the air, leaping off the forearm of the Mahari on his path to the beast's jaw. His broadsword swung hard across its face, smashing into its chin before dragging across the bottom of its head, slicing into some of the flesh that dangled down.

But the monster's head was significantly tougher than that. It was largely machine and armor, with only scraps of skin stretched tightly across fragments of it. It would take something far more powerful if Rex wanted to penetrate its defenses, and Porter had had to use a unique strategy in the past to puncture its heart. Rex's clouded mind would never see that far ahead. He would just try to murder it, however he could. That was the data Ardwen had on him from the tapes. That's what he was expecting, and while he had briefly hoped that maybe, just maybe, Rex would somehow be able to break through, he now had to go back to his original thought: this was a terrible thing.

Rex had no inherent strategies. If you couldn't overpower a Mahari, and nobody other than Marian probably could as far as Ardwen knew, it was going to take some sort of tactful approach. Brute strength was not going to take out something nearly twice the size of a Goliath. Bahari were enough of an issue, and while their biologically-infused machinations were slightly weaker than the average Goliath, they were still tough, and that toughness definitely scaled with size.

This fact was becoming increasingly more apparent as Rex duelled with the beast. He would continue to avoid each swipe at his machine, but his counters would bounce off harmlessly. Each time he failed he seemed to grow a little angrier, and the next retaliation blow would come even faster, a bit harder, and yet still nothing happened. He could not break through a monstrosity.