CHAPTER 78: AIRSHIP MERGE

KEVIN VALESMITH

8 MONTHS AGO

It’s been half an hour since the battle against the Elysian army started. During our pursuit of the airship that is responsible for kidnapping the princess, we were intercepted by three more airships that are designed for war. Each and every enemy airships unleashed their strongest units at their disposal: which are dragon knights. There are roughly forty of them that flew and bombarded us with their fire breaths.

Too bad for them, I have a backup of five airships that contain dragon knights from our very own Dragon Knights Academy. The Emperor granted me permission of commanding fifty-three fourth-class dragon knights, seventeen third-class dragon knights, and two second-class dragon knights. Sadly, I do not have any first-class dragon knights in my arsenal in this battle. My first-class dragon knights who are namely Alphonse Faradeiss and Danielle Keine are out of the battlefield as they are dealing with Elysia’s Lothar Pendragon. One of my best first-class dragon knights, which is Xenon Wingate, is confined in a hospital. 

Even though I don’t have control over the Alterra’s best, we have the upper hand in this battle as we outnumber the Elysian Dragon Knights. That is a given fact since Alterra is the number one producer of dragon knights on the whole planet.

Fireballs, rocket projectiles, bullet storms, and various magical missiles hurled around the skies. The vast Sargusian Forest was showered with countless sparks that made wildfires all over the area. Airships bombarded airships with their artillery, dragons fought dragons with their specialized bombs, and dragon knights fought dragon knights with their weapons. Their spells, guns, and swords did the talking as we are very much at war with the other country.

“Wraith, use your Magma Dragon to burn that airship on the left flank! Octavius, negate and intercept all magical projectiles that are approaching on the west! Windstrafe, use those rocket launchers to bombard that Tropica Dragon!”

That was just three out of the one hundred commands I have assigned my troops to obey. I also control magic knights and general infantry soldiers that are in charge of boarding the enemy airships, so I don’t expect I’ll be resting my mouth sooner or later. I can already feel my sore throat and my mouth is about to dry out of saliva any minute.

The enemy airships are retreating due to the fact that we greatly outnumber them, but they continue to fire back. They are trying to protect the target airship, at all cost, even making the Elysian warships circle around that vessel that is suspected to have the princess.

“Commander, we can’t breach through their defenses!” One of the dragon knights reported. “We need more firepower!”

“I see that,” I answered back to the dragon knight. 

Well, I’m not blind. I can see that we are dominating this battle against the Elysian army, but all the enemies do is to focus their forces in defense while protecting the target airship and fleeing at the same time. They are attempting to hit three birds with one stone, and they are quite succeeding about it.

I have an ace on my sleeve. I am in possession of Alterra’s most advanced battle airship, which is S.S. Eaglecrest. In terms of speed and firepower, nothing can stop this big bad metal boy to destroy any adversary.

I immediately went out of the command room of the airship, and my dragonoid rockstar Rius followed me. We went to the top main deck of the airship and gazed upon the enemies and allies fighting around the view. As the pressure of the wind makes my admiral uniform flap, I held my chest and synchronized my heart to the heartbeats of my dragonoid.

“Firepower? Say no more.” I put a smile on my face. “Activating Vesryn Pulse!”

In an instant, my Dragonoid Rius transformed into a giant lizard that is standing on two feet. Its red scales are still visible, but there is golden spartan armor that covers eighty percent of its body. It has a round shield on its back, and attached to it are a couple of dozens of gigantic weapons such as swords, axes, maces, and spears. Unlike most dragons, my dragon is not capable of flight as it does not have any wings. But I worry not because this weakness was offset by my dragon’s tremendous firepower and versatility in combat. It is a Warlord Dragon.

“Graaaaaaah!!!!” My Warlord Dragon made a warcry that echoes around the air battlefield.

“Let’s do this, Rius!” I shouted out loud as I crossed my arms. I put my dark shades on as I readied myself to show off my awesome power. “Unleashing restraints to bloodline magic: Dragonmend! Combine with the mighty airship!”

“Graaaaaaaaaah!!!” The Warlord Dragon roared, signaling its supremacy around all dragons in this place.

My Warlord Dragon’s body was immediately showered with golden particles, and these golden particles attached itself to my very dragon. Now that my dragon is a giant golden silhouette, it immediately shrunk until all that's left to my dragon is a golden orb on the size of a baseball. This glowing orb flew a few meters upward, then immediately dived to the core of the airship in lightspeed.

In a half of a second, the whole battle airship S.S. Eaglecrest was engulfed with golden light. Slowly, the airship mechanically transformed and molded its own set of dragon claws, dragon legs, long dragon tail, and a dragon head wearing a helmet of a spartan. S.S. Eaglecrest itself is now considered a gigantic dragon as my Warlord Dragon combined itself with the airships’ core. This gigantic dragon with the size of multiple aircraft carriers, traveling with the speed of sound and having heavy equipment of war is now called a Warlord Airship Dragon.

“GRUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHH!!!” The gigantic dragon roared, making a sonic wave around the area. All other dragons were pushed back just because of the supersonic shout.

This is the first time I’ve used my Dragonmend powers to an advanced airship. Most of the time, I fuse my Warlord Dragon with a tank, and that only gives him an additional cannon on his back. I am glad that the S.S. Eaglecrest is actually compatible with my Warlord Dragon and my Dragonrend bloodline magic. Emperor Sirius Elkyria must have known it beforehand, that is why he let me borrow the most powerful airship he possesses just for this dire situation.

All the Elysian dragons and dragon knights stood in awe with Rius’ ultimate form. They couldn’t believe their eyes that such power of Alterra exists. Those expressions from the enemy’s faces are filled with hopelessness and fear.

“Woohoo! That’s our commander!” My ally dragon knights cheered. “You guys are dead now!”

“Shall we eliminate all enemy dragon knights in one go, master?” My Warlord Dragon telepathically talked to me.

“No, let’s stick to the mission. Rescue the princess first, then we’ll flee while eliminating them all.” I answered back.

“Rog’.” 

I flapped my uniform as the wind breeze came through me. I pointed my index finger, targeting the three gigantic enemy warships that are surrounding the target airship. Then, I shouted the magic that is the harbinger of the enemy’s doomed fate.

“Warlord Strike: Big Bang!”

In an instant, the Warlord Airship Dragon presented all the weapons in its arsenal. Cannons deployed, rockets aimed, laser turrets locked on, and machine guns started their motors. In just two seconds, my gigantic dragon unleashed each and every weapon he possessed, with gimmicks on each and every shot.

The cannons unleashed iron balls, which upon impact, spawns spiky missiles that launch itself from the ball. These spiky missiles explode upon any contact. On the other hand, the rockets exploded in midair, revealing clusters of hundreds of swords. Each of the swords hit its designated target and blasted upon impact. The laser turrets released green, red, and blue lasers that do not travel in a straight line but on a zigzag trail. These types of lasers are homing lasers that follow their target in lightspeed. Lastly, the machine guns did not launch normal bullets, but armor-piercing spears that passed through the hulls of the enemy battleships.

All three giant airships were put down in an instant, destroying their engines and making them explode. I also had some of my projectiles intentionally hit the wings of the target airship to slow and halt their movement.

The airship that allegedly kidnapped the princess started to lose altitude as it is no longer in the right shape to fly. Slowly, the airship made a soft landing on the vast forest of Sargus, making gigantic trees fall down in a simple impact with the ship.

“Target ship is down!” I announced to my radio earpiece. “Proceed on checking the airship!”

“Roger that, commander!” The dragon knights flocked around the crashed airship, and most of them proceeded to check the target ship on foot.

Seeing that all the enemy airships collapsed in one go, the Elysian dragon knights scattered like scared rats, retreating like there’s no tomorrow. They have completely abandoned their duty and they no longer wish to fight. They are only focused on their own survival.

“They’re just a bunch of cowards after all,” I said as I jumped down from my gigantic airship dragon and made a superhero landing a few meters away from the crashed target airship. 

Since the enemies no longer intend to fight at all, I disabled my Dragonmend and Vesryn Pulse respectively, making my Warlord Dragon back to his human form Rius. Rius followed me like a loyal servant as we approach the crashed airship.

After five minutes, the dragon knights that checked inside the airship went out with good news. It’s Princess Serenity Elkyria, and she’s completely safe from the kidnappers. She seems to be uninjured and fine, except for the bruises and marks that were the cause of the kidnappers cuffing and restraining her.

“Dragon knights!?” The teenage princess was shocked and awed upon seeing us. “Are you my father’s soldiers!?”

“Yes, your highness. You are safe now.” I genuflected.

“Thank goodness!” The princess cried.

I ordered the dragon knights to deliver the princess to safety. Now that the mission is a success, it’s time to go home. But I have to inform my subordinates Alphonse and Danielle first about the good news. I just hope that they are doing well as much as we do here.

“Princess Serenity Elkyria has been secured. What’s your status? Over.” I said through my radio.

“Senor Valesmith, we have a problem-” It was Danielle who answered my call, but I was immediately distracted due to a peculiar turn of events.

The crashed target airship opened its platform, revealing a man that should not be here in the first place. He is a person with saint-like aura, golden bright hair, and he’s wearing white regalia and a bright diamond crown. This man is Emperor Michael Eldritch himself, and he personally came to see me.

Making his entrance on the very same airship that is responsible for the princess’ kidnapping makes it obvious that he is responsible for all of this. If I can apprehend him right here and right now, all evidence in regards to the kidnapping will point to Eldritch. He will have no escape from this situation.

“I got a positive ID on Emperor Michael Eldritch. He’s completely alone, and his army is fleeing. I’m going to apprehend him for the kidnapping of the princess. You can now disengage and withdraw from your fight. Stay alert and good luck, over.”

I turned the communication out just before Danielle could reply.

All allied dragon knights in the vicinity readied themselves for battle. There are about twenty dragon knights and twenty dragonoids surrounding the evil emperor. Not even a Pentagram Knight can have a way out of this, especially that the enemy is facing a Pentagram Knight-level dragon knight like me. 

But… 

Instead of being scared, Michael Eldritch gave out a smile. And then, his irises became crimson red, and his sclera became clear black.