The lightning birds actually inflicted considerably more damage to the components of the Elemental Lord while the machine was in flight.
The lack of grounding caused the golden current to bounce around inside the mech frame a lot longer, thereby disrupting the internals to a considerably greater extent!
If not for the fact that every lightning bird not only carried the power of destruction but also the power of creation, the repeated strikes would have caused the vulnerable internal systems to fail a lot sooner!
Even so, the restorative effects of the tribulation lightning only provided the greatest benefits when the mech components only sustained light to moderate damage.
Any part that had either broken down completely or sustained serious damage could not be magically restored to full functionality again!
