Chapter 792: Slaughter Before the City Wall
“They’re coming.”
On the towering walls of Linying City, Ulrichia had already sensed the approaching human force in the distance. She let out a cold laugh, her voice sharp as a blade, and barked orders to the Dragon Beasts and Cultist Orders below:
“Attack! Crush these pitiful humans! Let them witness the might of the Dragon!”
A deep, resonant blast echoed from the Dragonbone Horn atop the city wall—its surface etched with ancient Dragon Tongue runes. The sound, long and piercing like a dragon’s roar, sent shivers through the air. The followers of the Dragon Worship Cult erupted into frenzied ecstasy.
“For Tiamat!”
Over a hundred evil Dragon Priests raised their Dragonhead Scepters in unison. Black light surged across the battlefield, a wave of malevolent power that seeped into the very ground, driving the Dragon Beasts into a bloodthirsty frenzy.
Dozens of shadowy figures swooped through the sky—Wyverns, Forest Lesser Dragons, Toxic Spotted Lizards—forming a chaotic aerial swarm. They flapped their wings erratically, their rasping, guttural roars filling the air.
The human army stood on high alert. At the front, a noble officer raised his sword and bellowed:
“Defensive formation! Prepare for the charge of the Two-Headed Dragons!”
Years of battle against dragons, Dragon Beasts, and Dragonborn had taught these soldiers how to face a dragon horde’s dive. The front-line warriors swiftly raised their great shields, interlocking them into an unbreakable, impenetrable wall of steel.
Behind them, soldiers gripped long spears, bent bows, loaded hand crossbows, or turned winches to crank the massive dragon-hunting trebuchets. Thick bolts—finger-thick, tipped with cross-spiral arrowheads—were loaded onto the machines, ready to be launched.
The roars grew louder, more deafening, as the dragon horde descended like a spreading storm cloud, darkening the sky.
“Huff… huff…”
The soldiers breathed heavily, their faces glistening with sweat. It dripped from their brows, ran down their cheeks, and soaked their palms—clenched tightly around shields, bows, and crossbows.
When the distance closed to a mere hundred meters, the noble officer slashed his sword downward, roaring:
“Fire! Fire—riddle these filthy crawlers with arrows!”
“Swoosh—”
Before the command even faded, a storm of arrows erupted from the human front lines. They arced through the sky in perfect, deadly trajectories, descending like a torrential rain upon the airborne horde.
In an instant, the first dozens of Dragon Beasts were skewered, their bodies pierced through like porcupines. They screamed in agony, writhing midair before plummeting to the ground.
One unlucky Wyvern was struck by a dragon-hunting crossbow bolt. The cross-shaped arrowhead tore through its hide, flesh, and organs, bursting out from its back in a spray of blood and entrails. Scales scattered like shrapnel. The creature twisted in midair, lifeless, before crashing down.
After the volley, hundreds of Dragon Beasts fell from the sky, riddled with arrows. More arrows remained embedded in the earth, like a forest of steel thorns.
Yet even amidst such carnage, the frenzied Two-Headed Dragons pressed forward without hesitation—charging headlong into the human line, their roars wild with bloodlust.
“Roar—!”
As the monsters drew near, the soldiers tightened their grip on long spears and great shields, muscles tensed, ready for the inevitable assault.
In mere breaths, the horde plunged into the front lines—Wyverns, hybrid dragons, and toxic lizards slamming into the shield wall with terrifying force.
The noble officer swung his sword, his voice thundering:
“Kill them! Cut them down!”
“Die!”
“For Fadalan! For humanity!”
The Dragon Beasts flailed their wings, opened maws dripping with blood, bared rows of jagged teeth, and lashed out with razor-sharp claws and venomous tails.
At the moment of impact, a dozen long spears thrust through the cracks in the shield wall—sharp, gleaming, cold as ice—stabbing straight into the necks and chests of the beasts.
“Die!”
“Roar—!”
Dust flew. Blood sprayed. The sound of flesh being pierced, soldiers’ battle cries, and the beasts’ dying screams all merged into a cacophony of war.
Hundreds of Dragon Beasts were torn open, their entrails spilling out, their bodies collapsing in heaps. Some soldiers’ rifles pierced through the beasts’ backs, their barrels stained crimson.
The front-line shield bearers were covered in blood—faces twisted in fury, one hand wielding a battle axe, the other a longsword, hacking at the necks of Two-Headed Dragons.
The Dragon Beasts suffered heavy losses.
But they were far from weak. Many of them had gathered toxins and acid in their throats, and just before diving into the human lines, they unleashed their venomous breath.
“Splash!”
The corrosive acid ate through shields in seconds. Soldiers’ hands were melted away, their flesh dissolved to reveal bone—skeletons left standing, screaming in agony.
“Ah!”
“Die!”
Pain-filled cries erupted as more soldiers were struck by the toxic spittle of Toxic Spotted Lizards. Their eyes bulged, faces turned purple, and within moments, they choked on poison-laden blood, collapsing lifeless.
The horde tore through the human defenses with acid and toxin, surging through the gaps in formation.
“Push forward! Don’t let them break through!”
The noble officer raised his shield, stepping forward to fill the breach. With a single slash, he severed the head of a Toxic Spotted Lizard.
He was Baron Jevan Ford, a noble from the southern lands of Seleucus. Once he had lived in a grand manor, a happy home, a life of comfort. But the arrival of the Dragon Worship Church had destroyed it all. After the dragon plague, his manor burned to ash, his wife and daughter devoured before his eyes—while he could only watch, helpless, as his guards fought to the death to save him.
Now, he would risk everything—his very life—to declare war on the Church, on the five-headed monster of Hell.
“Die!”
Jevan roared, charging forward. His blade plunged straight into the throat of a Forest Lesser Dragon.
“Spines—!”
Hot blood and venom splattered across his face. He stood bathed in crimson, eyes blazing with rage—like a warrior risen from the depths of hell. He blocked a claw strike with his shield, then swung his sword again, severing the dragon’s wing.
“Filthy beasts! All of you—die!”
But then—a sharp, piercing wind.
A venomous tail lashed through the air, striking from behind.
The tail hooked into Jevan’s back, tearing through flesh and organs, then piercing through his chest. The stinger, slick with blood, gleamed coldly.
“Puff—”
Jevan spat blood, turning his head with effort. Before him stood a massive, emerald-green Wyvern, roaring wildly, its foul maw snapping toward his skull.
A twisted smile curled Jevan’s lips. His face, smeared with blood, bore a final, grim expression.
“Even if I die…”
With the last of his strength, he drew his sword, using his body as bait—both hands gripping the blade, driving it deep into the Wyvern’s throat.
“I’ll drag you all to hell with me!”
“Shink—”
The longsword pierced through the Wyvern’s neck, emerging from the back of its head. Blood gushed like a fountain.
The two fell together, locked in a final embrace. Even as he died, Jevan’s fingers remained clenched around the hilt—his bloodshot eyes fixed on the five-shadowed dragons above, burning with defiance.
Soon, the battlefield was piled high with broken corpses. Blood pooled across the ground, mixed with melted armor and shattered weapons. The soldiers could no longer hold formation.
They fought in brutal, hand-to-hand combat—individual wills against Wyverns and Forest Lesser Dragons, each man fighting for survival.
Within moments, over a thousand soldiers lay dead, consumed by dragon fangs under the relentless onslaught.
Seeing this, Adrian let out a furious roar. With his most elite guards at his side, he charged into the front line. His silver sword blazed with radiant light.
“For the Eternal Lord of Light! Let us purge these abominations!”
He swung his longsword—golden light flared into the sky, slicing through the air. A single arc cleaved several Wyverns into pieces. Sunlight beams shot out like spears, impaling multiple Forest Lesser Dragons.
His arrival turned the tide.
Seeing that miraculous light, the front-line soldiers found new fire in their hearts. Frenzied, they surged forward, charging the Two-Headed Dragons—unafraid of claws, unhesitant against fangs, fighting with pure will.
The tide turned.
The dragon horde was shattered. Beasts screamed in pain as they were lifted into the air, only to be brought down by the waiting dragon-hunting crossbows.
Bodies littered the ground. Blood flowed like rivers—human and dragon alike—painting the earth in crimson. The scene was horrific.
Standing atop a small hill of Dragon Beast corpses, Adrian raised his golden longsword high. His voice boomed across the battlefield, echoing with power:
“Soldiers! These evil dragons cannot defeat us! We are the Children of the Sun God!”
“The Eternity’s Radiance protects us! The Great Deity watches over us! Under the sun’s light, no force can conquer the people of Fadalan!”
“May the heavens guard Fadalan!”
At that moment, the ground trembled violently. From the mist beyond, deep, rumbling roars and piercing cries echoed—thunderous, overwhelming.
“Gods…”
“What… is that…?”
The soldiers stared into the fog, eyes wide with shock and fear. They could not believe what they saw—the sheer number of Dragon Beasts was beyond imagination, enough to make their knees shake.
One by one, massive shadows emerged from the mist—vast, towering, their auras so powerful they seemed to swallow the sky. Like moving mountains, they stretched across the horizon, radiating an oppressive, suffocating pressure.
Among them: Forest Land Drakes, Swamp Giant Dragons, Guardian Dragon Beasts, Hammerhead Dragon Beasts—each at least four or five meters long, weighing several tons.
No one knew how many were there. These were not natural creatures—each was a mortal life sacrificed to summon.
Ten thousand? Twenty? Fifty thousand? A hundred thousand?
One thing was certain: this was no natural phenomenon. Such a concentration of apex predators could only mean catastrophe.
When tens of thousands of Dragon Beasts charged together, the ground cracked open like a fissure. Dust billowed into the sky. The earth itself seemed to shudder.
Among the shadows, towering figures loomed—Dragon Blood Colossi. On their backs, evil Dragon Priests waved their scepters, arms wide, grinning fiercely.
“Humans! Tremble before the might of the Mother of Monsters!”
Green Dragons took flight, wings flaring. They hovered in the sky, roaring triumphantly, their breaths poised to unleash lethal, armor-piercing blasts—ready to rain destruction upon the earth.
The Two-Headed Dragons regained momentum, clustering around the Green Dragons, drool dripping from their jaws.
Even Adrian felt a flicker of fear.
The sight before him was too terrifying—endless waves of Dragon Beasts bursting from the mist, like an unstoppable flood.
Just the muffled thuds of their footsteps and the cacophony of their roars were enough to make ordinary men collapse in fear.
But then—a deafening thunder.
From behind, a colossal resonance tore through the battlefield, drowning out all other sounds.
“Boom!”
“Boom! Boom!”
Shells—trailing smoke and flames—ripped through the sky, weaving a net across the heavens. They tore open the air, spiraling into the dragon horde.
Boom!
Explosions erupted across the battlefield. Flames spread like wildfire. Dust soared skyward. Charred flesh fragments flew in all directions. One artillery barrage wiped out hundreds of Dragon Beasts in an instant.
Then, in the distance, a shimmering glow lit up the horizon. A fleet of massive skyborne battleships emerged from the clouds, their transparent forms slowly revealing their true, armored colors—clearly long-prepared.
“Ground-Strike Weapon Preparation—”
Hundreds of barrels beneath the battleships lifted upward, cannons aimed at the dragon army. Each muzzle brimmed with glowing orbs—charged with terrifying elemental energy.
The air warped violently, waves of energy rippling through space like water in a lake.
“Fire!”
“Boom—”
A chorus of thunderous booms echoed as countless beams of blinding light erupted from the cannons. They crossed and interwove in midair, then struck the horde.
Explosions never ceased. The ground cracked open into giant craters. Superheated light beams reduced entire dragons to ash.
The barrels continued sweeping—unrelenting, merciless—slicing across the battlefield, carving deep, charred gorges into the earth.
The Dragon Beasts screamed, roared—but could not escape. They were torn apart, reduced to dust, powerless against the distant fleet.
For the first time, the human soldiers witnessed the full might of the Mechanical Cult.
They stood frozen, stunned—eyes wide, mouths agape—as if witnessing a miracle.
“Gods…”
“What power…”
“Are those monsters… sent by the Sun God? Are they angels?”
Roars echoed. Flames from explosions. The glow of energy cannons—too bright to bear.
The soldiers could barely keep their eyes open.
(End of Chapter)
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