Chapter 362 Authority (1/2)
It was only after walking past numerous winding corridors and passageways that Joshua finally arrived at the rear half of the huge floating craft.
The Gale had a crew of sixty-seven individuals, twelve of whom were maintaining and monitoring the core. Joshua also spied quite a few servicemen wandering back and forth to observe and collect data on the warship's performance.
They were either a specialist in spellcasting or engineering; their faces were somber as they inspected every corner of the ship. Naturally, none of them even felt the warrior walking past them.
The two enchanted core units of the Gale was in the middle of the ship slightly towards the bow, where the armor was thicker. It was also an ease of supplying energy that most of its key components were placed up front, while the rear half was the boxy space that acted as the cargo hold to transport armed personnel and supplies.
The cargo hold was huge, and the design was enough to fit two standard regiments of sixty soldiers including their armaments. It could also be modified to accommodate more if need be.
And right now, Joshua suddenly stopped in front of the cargo hold and frowned.
The atmosphere was being twisted by a scorching airflow, and a clearly visible wave of steam was surging towards his direction, dispersing water particles. The warrior could clearly feel the moisture in his skin burning while his clothes become a scorched yellow.
”That's not just heat—the fire elements are raging!”
Clicking his tongue, Joshua glanced sideways at the silver-haired lass behind him. Now he finally understood why Ying had a terrible expression—if Black has been spreading heat of this level, even the bodies of the Divine Armaments would be affected.
”Next time come running if something same happened.” Joshua shook his head and patted hers, while walking crisply into the cargo hold. ”If the temperature keeps rising, the hull would be damaged and it will be a disaster.”
The cargo hold was behind a magical door with identification ability. Joshua, the ship's owner and the highest authority onboard, could curtly open it.
He quickly saw the behemoth that was Black.
Now almost twenty-meters tall, it was curling up and lying on the floor uncomfortably, albeit taking up half the space of the hold. The heat that easily ignited cinders spread from its body, and the warrior could see shreds of embers in the air.
Black, however, was still prone and unconscious. Otherwise, it would have been leaping around happily and licking Joshua violently at least twice, as its routine.
”It's an instinctive defensive mechanism—it's simply too ill.” Joshua saw through its symptoms and diagnosed it in one glance. It was almost trivial.
He turned to the girl and said, ”Ying, give me the Shapeshifting Pendant.”
”Alright!” Ying quickly took out the V-shaped pendant and handed it to him, before asking tentatively, her eyes showing worry, ”Master, how's Black?”
”It's fine—that much is obvious from its active flames. Now it is in something like a dream-walking state.”
Feeling the pendant's magic, Joshua nodded and grunted. ”Ying,” he called out to the girl once more. ”When I transfigure Black into a more normal size, go to the storage to get some iced mint leaves to feed it. It's remarkable in counteracting dizziness and discomfort of high altitudes—this ship must have some.”
He then quickly walked to Black.
The Shapeshifting Pendant did not need to be worn. The user simply had to activate its magic, and where it was placed would not matter. Still, it would need the user themselves to trigger it, but since Black was still out Joshua had to act in its place.
It would have been much easier to treat the half-dragon's airsickness with it being smaller.
When Joshua reached the dragon's flank, the temperature was positively volcanic. A golden vein was streaming amidst its black scales; it contained the intensity to melt metals.
The warrior knew that it was its blood—the Gold-tier heir of primordial dragons was no longer an ordinary existence but a genuinely extraordinary one. Now, even its blood wasn't purely the essence of life but the carrier of tremendous power.
The blood of old dragons usually mentioned was this—one that contained life as well as unimaginable power. Still, it would be difficult for anyone without draconic blood inheritance to utilize it.
Placing his hands on its scales, Joshua adjusted his own breathing rhythm and shifted his own aura willfully to suppress Black's self-defense mechanism.
Supreme power and Gold power was not just a star away but a complete domination over the other, and it was the same even if it was man against dragon. Joshua's red-black aura now flashed, spreading through the suffocating atmosphere.
Immediately, the heat waves that surged through the cargo hold immediately stopped as the pure lifeforce suppressed it. The temperature also swiftly plummeted, and Black became noticeably comfortable. The molten circuits on its body dimmed and its contorted expression also softened.
Satisfied by what he saw, Joshua pulled his hand back. ”That's good enough.”
Even when dragons slumber, the mana within their body would still be unleashed outside to prevent the approach of other creatures. There were powerful ones who slept for centuries, and the landscape of their habitat would slowly be influenced by years of magical power and form into swamps, lava lakes, ice pools as well as forests.
It also acted as an alarm and protection while blocking weaker spells automatically, the latter of which includes the power of the shapeshifting pendant. Therefore, Joshua had to disperse its instinctual defense mechanism to shrink it.
But as the warrior held the necklace aloft and prepared to activate it at the still-unconscious half-dragon, he suddenly stopped.
Ying who had been watching all along quickly noticed it; she asked a wordless question with her emerald gaze. She soon found that, even if it was just his side profile, Joshua had a bizarre expression.
Man, dragon, and Divine Armament stopped moving at the same time.
The entire cargo hold was quiet. With the whistling hot air gone, the dragon and the warrior's heartbeats could be heard.
Logically, the beast's heartbeat should have been much louder, but at present, it was the warrior's heartbeat that had overlapped the dragons'. It was curiously distinct, and even louder than the whirling of the battleship's engines.
Ba-dump!
The deep, powerful sound of blood pumping echoed throughout the cargo hold. Joshua pulled his right hand that held the pendant to press on his own chest doubtfully.
”What… What's this?”
He had felt the gushing of an unknown power.
It was not aura or Order. Neither did it came from his body, faith, or soul.
This abnormal power seemed to have been there all along, here to stay as long as Joshua existed.
”… Authority?”
The warrior quickly comprehended the basis of the power in an instant even as he continued feeling its urgent flow around his body. ”The Steel Residue… The gift from Illgner—It's moving now?”
And why?
Joshua was an Supreme-tier champion. From a certain point of view, his body was an armed fortress. Every joint, bone, muscle and vein were streaming with an unimaginable lifeforce that created all sorts of unique effects in perfect order as he breathed.