The Mech Touch

Ves arguably made a very stupid decision.

He threw himself into a needless fight.

Why should he go through all of this trouble to fight the infamous Azure Tornado Dragon by himself?

He was a mech designer, not a soldier!

There was no need to prove his mettle in battle!

Even if he managed to become a phase lord by accident, that did not necessarily mean he should make use of this gift.

It was completely dispensable for him to develop his combat acumen when his primary job was to promote the growth of professional soldiers!

For example, Ves had become quite impressed by the previous hunting team. Captain Gheri and the rest of her top hunting team had developed their skills and capabilities as standard mech pilots to the extreme.

He was confident he could unlock or increase their potential in several different ways. From using the transcendence glow to force their breakthroughs to designing custom masterwork mechs, he could turn these seasoned but declining veterans into rising mainstays of the Larkinson Clan!

Yet instead of doing that, he donned the RA's nanosuit and fearlessly jumped outside his shuttle in order to confront the Azure Tornado Dragon in person!

It sounded absolutely crazy and he was pretty sure his wife would have done everything in her power to discourage him from going through with this plan.

Yet it was exactly because Gloriana happened to be elsewhere that Ves took the chance to let loose his restraint and follow his whims!

Ves had a side of himself that only reached its peak when he put himself in a difficult position.

His blood ran hot and his mind became more active than ever.

Many more ideas filled his head, a few of which could potentially lead to amazing new insights that could substantially enrich his work!

Ves decided to challenge the Azure Tornado Dragon not because he wanted to beat his chest or satisfy his ego, but because he wanted to gather more data to further his research!

His status as a phase lord was not the most important aspect about him in this fight.

While it was handy to possess a strong and powerful body that could endure a lot of attacks, his actual plan was to challenge the Azure Tornado Dragon as a qi cultivator and an artifact cultivator!

Ves wanted to compare his own ability to control the element of water with the powerful mutated beast's own inherent control of the same E energy attribute.

Compared to monotonously exploring and practicing the many facets of water on a boat, it was much better for him to spar against a powerful creature that had developed an amazing affinity and talent for this element!

The more the Azure Tornado Dragon demonstrated its mastery over the water element to Ves, the more he could experience the greater potential over its uses.

Each additional trick would add another clever application to his toolbox. This would enable him to utilize the water element a lot more thoroughly in his upcoming mech designs!

Besides, he was not just doing this for himself.

His large eyes turned towards the flute that had grown to match his current scale.

The replica of the Oceancaller expressed a growing desire to dominate the adversary. Killing was in its nature, and nothing made it happier than to be used for its original purpose!

Though Ves had made the decision to never let this artifact push him into behaving like the Mistress of the Oceans, he still had to take certain actions to manage his relationship with his flute.

It would be too much of a waste for him to bury the potential of this high-level artifact!

The best he could do was to satisfy the Oceancaller's every now and then. Ves vowed not to become its slave, but that did not mean he had to treat it as an object.

He was still interested in developing a mutually beneficial relationship with the artifact.

Just like how his mech pilots built a deep and intimate synergistic bond with their living mechs, Ves had hoped that he could turn the Oceancaller into a powerful companion and partner.

"ARE YOU EXCITED, OCEANCALLER?" He asked in his exaggeratingly loud voice that he still needed to modulate.

The Oceancaller's artifact spirit was not developed enough to produce a more sophisticated response, but the runes overlapping its metallic exterior started to grow brighter than before!

Ves' gigantic face smiled as he could feel that it became easier for him to access the Oceancaller's various powers.

Though he only mastered a tiny fraction of the application of its 360 runes, it was incredibly helpful for him to obtain additional support.

To be honest, he was not that confident that he could beat the Azure Tornado Dragon in its own game.

Ves was a mech designer whose domain largely comprised of life and mechs. He could not make thorough use of either of these strengths during this fight.

Despite these shortcomings, Ves was confident that his remaining abilities were enough to defeat this powerful beast!

Even if he was wrong, it ultimately did not matter if he ended up getting beaten up by the angry reptilian beast.

This was not a real hunt. One of the reasons why he possessed no fear was because the Bluejay Fleet guaranteed his survival!

The mechers might allow Ves to get beat up by the powerful mutated beast in order to teach him a painful lesson, but they would never allow a critical tier 3 galactic citizen to perish in such a stupid occasion!

Since this was the case, he might as well abuse this privilege and test his fighting capability against an opponent under a more controlled environment.

It was better to figure this out today than when his true enemies ambushed his troops and forced him to defend his life in a real life-and-death battle!

As his body kept plunging towards one the tributaries of the large river delta of the Chasseur Continent, the Azure Tornado Dragon suddenly whipped its massive head and gazed at the rapidly approaching giant humanoid figure.

The power of air and water grew thicker around the beast as it interpreted the humanoid figure's approach as an aggressive challenge.

The beast opened its toothed maw and uttered a powerful roar that instantly formed a small hurricane that blasted a lot of water into the air!

Soon enough, Ves' surroundings became murkier as the clear skies became filled with a torrent of violent water streams.

Ves instinctively activated his Kelsis organ and formed a full spatial barrier. The whipping water streams failed to strike his nanosuit-covered body, though the forces were too weak to inflict any significant damage to his body.

Splashing him with water was just the prelude to this fight. The real reason why the Azure Tornado Dragon summoned a hurricane was to take control over the environment!

As Ves continued to fall, he could see the glint of cunning in the wild beast's eyes.

The Azure Tornado Dragon's prior behavior suggested that it was one of the more intelligent and rational among the mutated beasts of this planet.

Ves couldn't help but agree with this assessment now that he confronted the powerful creature directly.

He stretched out his massive arm and pointed the artifact flute straight into the dragon's direction!

"I CHALLENGE YOU, BEAST! DEFEAT ME, OR DIE!"

There was no need for Ves to engage in any further discourse with a savage beast. As Ves was on the verge of crashing onto the marshy ground, he activated all of the phasewater that was coursing throughout his true body and concentrated at a very specific coordinate.

A loud pop sounded through the air as his massive body suddenly disappeared from its place.

An instant later, his gigantic body appeared just twenty or so meters on top of the Azure Tornado Dragon's lengthy body!

SPLASH-CRACK!

His feet plunged through the shallow water and struck the side of the mutated beast's slippery body!

The force of Ves' descent was so strong that several scales as well as a chunk of flesh got pulverized by one of his feet!

Though Ves had tried to inflict a more serious blow by striking the center of the mutated beast's body, the Azure Tornado Dragon reacted quickly enough to push most of its body out of the way.

As a beast with aquatic roots, it was most at home in a water environment. It had only evolved the ability to fly when it had mutated.

This meant that Ves had just entered the Azure Tornado Dragon's home turf!

This became clear pretty soon as the water resistance arrested his downward motion and caused him to touch the bottom of the river.

Suddenly, the water currents started to thicken and strengthen as the Azure Tornado Dragon took control over the surrounding area.

The water pressure rose, making it harder and more strenuous for Ves to move his body.

Ves had to overcome the increased water pressure in order to move around.

Though his true body was physically strong enough to push against the increased forces, he could forget about moving around quickly.

There was another problem with his current environment.

How the hell was he supposed to play the Oceancaller when there was only a thin pocket of air inside his spatial barrier?

He smirked. It would be a joke if a high-level artifact that commanded the power of water could not be played in an aquatic environment!

As the Azure Tornado Dragon swam in the distance and continually tried to make sense of its latest challenger, Ves calmly brought the flute to his lips and began to play it not by blowing the air with his mouth, but by directly channeling the air element!

Though Ves had only gotten started with understanding the air element, he learned just enough to play the flute no matter the environment!

His entire aura changed as the Oceancaller began to demonstrate its power.

The Azure Tornado Dragon exhibited obvious surprise as Ves usurped over the nearby water.

The mutated beast still commanded most of the surrounding river water, but this was the first time the dragon encountered an opponent who successfully deprived a measure of its control.

The creature momentarily looked surprised, but then became enraged.

Nobody was allowed to usurp its territory!

The Azure Tornado Dragon had long ago regarded itself as the sovereign of the rivers and skies.

It had defeated many waves of those strange metal machines that came to challenge his right to rule over its territory.

Each of them had either been beaten to the point where they could only run away in desperation or got torn apart by its powerful tornadoes!

The angry dragon surged forward and began to form a whirlpool that encompassed the weak sphere of water controlled by its humanoid adversary.

The whirlpool started out weak, but under the persistent effort of the Azure Tornado Dragon, it began to gain in speed and power.

Ves became more and more disoriented as he struggled to maintain his pocket of calm. It became increasingly more difficult to maintain his current water pocket when the surrounding currents constantly tried to make it spin around!

When Ves attempted to move around, he found that he had already become fixed in place. The forces exerted by the whirlpool effectively kept him trapped in a spinning water cage!

It also became a lot more difficult for him to observe the surrounding environment. The Azure Tornado Dragon inserted air into the whirlpool, causing its boundaries to become filled with blinding and disorienting bubbles.

Any other beast or mech that became trapped in this empowered whirlpool would have likely turned into a trapped and cornered prey for the Azure Tornado Dragon!

Though Ves knew he could teleport himself out of this difficult place, he wanted to try and see if he could get out by beating the dragon at its own game.

The question was how he could make that happen.