Chapter 106: Battle Dragon! You Have a Younger Brother Now!

Chapter 106: War Dragon! You Have a Brother Now!

The reactions to what had just occurred varied widely among the different factions—shock, fear, anger, and a sense of inevitability.

Liu Shaoyu understood clearly that what appeared to be a simple crushing of a warship was far more complex than it seemed. Only he truly knew this. The warship had not been crushed by brute force; this was evident by examining the debris.

The edges of the broken fragments were remarkably clean and smooth; the breaks did not look like the result of external crushing pressure.

In fact, this was due to a device embedded in the War Dragon’s surface armor. It was a vibration amplitude synchronization system. In a fleeting moment, this seemingly simple mechanism synchronized the particle vibrations with the warship’s shield, then used the shield’s generation system to induce subtle vibrations throughout the entire ship.

Though it appeared simple, this kind of vibration was extremely energy-intensive. The War Dragon utilized two power supply systems. The first was a conventional energy system used by current warships in operation. The second was a direct current energy input derived from ice mines.

This dual power system ensured that the War Dragon could sustain itself through one or more battles or missions without interruption.

Even so, the War Dragon was colossal. Its palm alone measured 20 kilometers in length, and its overall height reached a staggering 210 kilometers.

Such a massive size clearly defined its role in battle. It was well-known that moving larger objects required exponentially more power. Therefore, the secondary power system was primarily reserved for non-combat operations, while all combat functions were powered by the ice mine energy.

The sheer presence of Liu Shaoyu piloting the War Dragon was a formidable deterrent, fully justifying the machine’s imposing stature. This display began to sow seeds of doubt within the Crusaders.

"My God! What... what is this? A demon?" Some Crusader soldiers were already starting to panic.

But this panic quickly gave way to fury. The faith of the Crusaders forbade any wavering. Some of the more zealous soldiers, like Payne—the Crusader Legion Commander—were barely able to contain their eagerness to engage.

Payne was not reckless; otherwise, he would not be sitting in his command seat today. He believed he would hold this position for a long time, perhaps even ascend to a role aboard the largest carrier ship behind them.

In some respects, Payne might be considered a scoundrel, but when it came to faith, no one was purer.

He was a complex man with a simple soul—at least, that was how God might see him.

"Oh! God! What are we to do!" cried Krahn.

As for Krahn, the Knight Commander, he was unpopular except to Payne. No one understood how this pretty-faced man had risen to his current rank. In the Chinese military fleet structure, the Knight Commander was equivalent to the first officer.

If not for knowing Payne was unmarried, others might suspect Krahn was his son. As for illegitimate children, under the strict household registration system, such notions no longer existed.

Some even dared to speculate whether Krahn was Payne’s partner. Seeing Krahn’s body twisted in fear, some were convinced of this speculation.

"If that’s the case, we must activate the Holy Judgment Knights ahead of schedule," Payne murmured, though Krahn knew it was an order.

Krahn did not question Payne’s commands; his duty was simply to obey.

"Holy Judgment Knight formation, deploy," Krahn relayed the command through his operational channel. Upon receiving the order, several massive warships positioned at the rear of the Crusader fleet began to move.

Liu Shaoyu, ever vigilant, could not miss this change and narrowed his viewing range. He could clearly observe the maneuvers of those starships.

Judging by their size, they resembled transport vessels. Their position was indeed within the logistics formation, but Liu Shaoyu sensed something more complex at play.

In an instant, a massive surge of electrical currents appeared inside the otherwise empty transport ships.

Though numerous, these currents moved as a single entity, resembling...

"Initiate protocol," Thomas read Liu Shaoyu’s unmasked neural analysis and was the first to provide an answer.

Yes! The activation system.

At this moment, Liu Shaoyu remained within the Crusader fleet formation. Following the recent events, the fleet had adjusted its formation centered on him.

Liu Shaoyu found himself encircled by a vast ring. This was not a true encirclement, as space has no absolute up, down, left, or right, nor a single plane. If he wished to escape, countless directions remained open. This dispersal was more like...

When two people fight in the street, bystanders form a circle around them, containing the confrontation. That was exactly the feeling Liu Shaoyu had now.

The hangar bays opened, and ten transport ships revealed their cargo—mechanical beings.

Heaven help! These were... mechas?

Their appearance was unmistakably mecha-like, but...

No, they were different from traditional mechas. They resembled... War Dragons! My God! War Dragon, you have brothers!

Liu Shaoyu’s stunned exclamation sounded absurd, but the reality was equally bizarre. The design, the appearance, combined with preliminary scans...

Hmm, there were still differences. Liu Shaoyu examined the data panels before him. The War Dragon’s defining feature was that it was a living organism; its metallic exterior was merely an external armor layer on its skin.

The ten machines of the Crusaders were purely mechanical constructs.

The distinction lay in their structural principles. The War Dragon moved like a human body, utilizing muscle contraction, stretching, and skeletal movement. The Crusader’s so-called Holy Judgment Knights—though Liu Shaoyu preferred calling them “those things”—were driven entirely by metallic skeletal frameworks.

The difference was stark.

Despite their fully humanoid form, the Holy Judgment Knights’ metal armor had many vacuum-sealed sections. Constructed from an unknown alloy, they were lightweight but genuinely heavy armor.

To Liu Shaoyu’s eyes, it looked as if ten enormous knights clad in ancient European armor were charging at him.

The War Dragon’s outer armor had been described as a soft metallic material with plasticity rivaling that of skin. This represented the pinnacle of Earth Federation technology—or rather, now the Republic of China’s most advanced science.

Each metal molecule was connected to a microcomputer network, meaning Liu Shaoyu could encode and rearrange the molecular structure. This coding translated into specific structural transformations.

For example, the metal could liquefy. This ability effectively meant possessing a mass of liquid metal that could morph into any conceivable shape.

Beneath this soft metal layer lay a solid, yet extremely thin, metal layer that formed the external armor’s structural shape.

As for its purpose...

Liu Shaoyu withdrew a slender weapon from the armor slot on his back.

"They say it can fire energy comparable to an orbital cannon," he mused, aiming the weapon at one of the Holy Judgment Knights.

A word to readers:

I recommend a friend’s novel, *Treading Beyond the Heavens* by Eternal Melody (http://.cn/book/331680). Searching for his origins, he embarks on a journey to find his family. To trample his enemies beneath his feet, he longs for immense power. In a vast world filled with the strong, demons roam rampant, and a bloody path unfolds—who will dominate the fate of all?

I’ve read it and found it quite good, a solid fantasy novel. If you’re interested, it’s worth a look.