"Lieutenant Colonel Robert, the command ship has sent a message, we are to raise to level two alert."

The captain of the Empire’s steam airship is generally held by a lieutenant colonel, after all, although steam airships are large and carry more people, they cannot compare to large surface ships, Colonel Brown is a special case.

"Unidentified flying object?"

"Is Colonel Brown seeing things? Is Admiral George just letting him mess around?"

Lieutenant Colonel Robert took the Magic Energy Telegraph, looking displeased. Level two alert is not something activated lightly, the entire ship’s crew must be mobilized to enter combat readiness, every exercise leaves a few boiler workers exhausted.

Afterwards, each boiler must be shut down in turn, and the ash cleared, a vast undertaking.

To Robert, North America is the British Empire’s back garden, the skies here pose no threat to them, only France and the German Federation have steam airship technology, not even Tsarist Russia does.

In the known world, no nation could silently deploy this massive steam airship across the entire Atlantic to North America.

"Sir, should we prepare for battle?"

"Are we defying orders?"

Lieutenant Colonel Robert cursed "idiot" irritably, instinctively leaning towards the porthole to look outside, where dense glass portholes showed nothing but thick clouds, hinting at an impending heavy rain.

"Send a telegraph to the command ship, remind everyone to activate the Lightning Avoidance Array, and also inquire about the ’possible’ enemy; could it really be a giant dragon?"

Robert’s tone carried some sarcasm, laughing by the end, filling the captain’s room with mirth, as people derided a certain colonel who rose through his father’s connections.

As for Lieutenant Colonel Robert’s jest? No one took it seriously.

If it were inland North America, dragons might exist, but here on the East Coast, discovered two hundred years ago, how could there be dragons?

Amid mockery, the steam airship suddenly shook violently, followed by darkness rapidly filling the view outside, a huge, dark red pointed object slowly moving forward.

Soon, eyes more massive than the entire porthole appeared, majestic vertical pupils sweeping the entire ship with an awe-inspiring pressure.

Robert’s mouth opened instinctively, wanting to shout immediately, but fear gripped him like an invisible Throat Choking Hand, strangling the words at his throat.

The giant dragon suddenly beat its wings, flying out of his view.

In a daze, Lieutenant Colonel Robert seemed to see a hint of mocking humanity on the dragon’s face.

Followed by a loud rumble.

The massive steam airship seemed to be brushed by the giant beast’s body, the whole ship tilting to one side, with personnel onboard spinning like in a windmill, frantically grabbing onto objects to stabilize themselves.

From the outside, the dragon maintained an elegant, slow flight sideways, its tail covered in scale armor and sharp bone spurs lightly flicking the airship before moving away.

In the next moment, sharp spurs created a long narrow gash in the airship’s "belly," the violent airflow instantly sucking out debris and bodies inside, scattering them midair.

Among them, Lieutenant Colonel Robert was included by chance.

Freed from the armored airship’s confines, Robert finally had the chance to see the entirety of the so-called "unidentified flying object"; it appeared far smaller than the fleet flagship "London," commanded by Colonel Brown, a giant ship 250 meters long, equivalent to three Titanics.

His ship was also over a hundred meters long, far longer than that dragon.

But it was a dragon!

Compared to the airship fleet’s self-proclaimed "King of the Sky," it was the undisputed Monarch of the Sky for thousands of years. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Perhaps a round of bombing from steam airships could kill an Ancient Dragon with enough White Crystal Bombs, but the issue now is that the fleet isn’t equipped with enough anti-air weaponry.

"We’re finished."

The pessimistic mood barely had time to spread before the terrifying feeling of weightlessness and the chill of high altitude swallowed all of Robert’s thoughts.

In his last moments of consciousness, Robert vaguely saw the giant ship "London" opening fire.

Shells exploded on Losa’s scale armor.

"Hmm, a bit itchy."

Losa could have avoided it, but deliberately took a hit to test its power.

The unfortunate Ladon being killed by human military firepower left Losa wary of human military destructive power in this era.

But now it seems Ladon was unlucky due to lack of preparedness, caught by large caliber enemy guns, unlike him, hit by small guns extended out from giant airship portholes.

"Still, Ladon was quite weak, they say Ancient Dragons grow stronger with age, Ladon appears to have disproved that."

Inside London.

"Colonel Brown, our number three turret is ineffective against the giant dragon!"

The junior officer exclaimed anxiously.

Admiral George pushed aside the already panicked Colonel Brown, issuing orders: "Pass my order, deploy Ironclad Ship’s anti-air defenses to support, all accompanying Casters to ascend immediately, London represents the Empire’s visage, absolutely cannot be lost!"

Boom!

Violent explosions swept in with shock waves, blowing the steam airship fleet into disarray, two unlucky ships crashing together, one airship bow reinforced with a ramming horn puncturing the belly of another like a steel knife.

"Admiral, it’s the York that exploded!"

Colonel Brown, sweat pouring, frantically devised a plan: "General, we can’t rely on surface ships’ anti-air firepower, we must save ourselves. That dragon is not our enemy, let’s use a supply ship to distract it while the main force escapes?"

Steam airships are advanced weapons of the era, with no one having considered developing anti-air weaponry, surface ships’ anti-air guns were no better than those of the air fleet.

Admiral George sneered: "What do you take the dragon as? A mindless beast? A hunting dog chasing meat? That’s at least an Ancient Dragon, can’t be fooled by a supply ship."

He continued, ordering loudly: "But you’ve reminded me, immediately activate the loudspeaker, I want a proper talk with our uninvited guest."

Even if talks fail, they must buy time.

If they can delay until the accompanying mages are ready, a mere dragon would be shredded by the British Empire’s war machine.

Besides, those lunatics at Big Ben were considering building a "Dragonbone Giant Ship" weren’t they?

They’d only been hindered by the lack of vibrant dragon bone remains, preventing construction.

This dragon ought to suffice.

...

Losa hurriedly beat his wings, evading explosions in the ammunition depot.

The terrifying shock wave left even Losa feeling somewhat dazed; these steam airships are essentially massive mobile ammunition stores, packed with countless bombs.