Chapter 924 Blow to the Face
A dragon’s power was not to be underestimated!
In particular, once the prideful dragons learned to engage in guerrilla warfare themselves, the expedition army’s casualties began to skyrocket.
Upon learning that the ordinary dragonborn and locals were incapable of threatening the fully-armed magical machines, the First Grade dragons let go of their dignity, put away their pride, and turned themselves into guerrilla soldiers. These dragons started to hara.s.s the scouts of the army frequently.
They soared toward the adepts in flights of three to five and left soaring just as quickly. They never tried to approach the magical machine army, only ever keeping a close eye on the eyeball machines. They used the native tribes to draw out the eyeball machines before they took to the skies and use their sharp claws and boiling breath to destroy the machines.
They didn’t linger either when the army sent chariots after them. They scattered and escaped with their superior speed, never getting drawn into a fight with the goblin chariots.
If any of the goblin commanders became impulsive and dared to chase after them with a goblin skyship; hehehe, these scattered dragons would immediately converge upon them the moment they left the reinforcement range of the army, teaching the goblins a vicious lesson with their powerful might.
Even with an adept defending the skyship, these ordinary goblin planes could not endure the attacks of two or three First Grade dragons!
Moreover, there were often some Second Grade dragons hidden amid these First Grade dragons.
After losing two goblin skyships and three clan adepts, the higher-ups in the Mothership finally prohibited the adepts from pursuing ‘fleeing’ dragons.
After tasting the sweetness of victory and seeing that the adepts were no longer taking the bait, the dragons became even more daring with their actions.
Some Second Grade dragons also gathered together in flights and repeatedly attacked the magical machine army.
They didn’t try and charge into the army but instead flew along with the goblin machines, waiting for a chance. If the chariots dared to move out and create any s.p.a.ce within their formation, the dragons would rush down and raze their ranks with their terrifying breath. Occasionally, the dragons would also play a game of cat-and-mouse with the skyships in the air.
Though these actions didn’t cause too much damage to the enemy, they effectively delayed the marching speed of the army.
Most of the goblin chariots could only gather around the golem dragon and advance at a snail’s pace. If it weren’t for the expedition army consisting mostly of magical machines, as well as their non-reliance on energy supplies, they might just have been brought down by the constant hara.s.sment of the dragonflights.
The expedition that the Crimson Clan had organized this time was a dragon-hunting game to begin with. Though their blade seemed pointed at Fourth Grade Toril, every Crimson adept knew that it was nearly impossible to capture or kill that Fourth Grade dragon. At the very least, the Crimson Clan in its current form did not possess the ability to do so.
As such, the purpose of startling the dragons was actually to gather all of the dragons to make it convenient to catch them all in a single strike.
That was why the expedition army was in no hurry to push forward. Instead, they continued to maintain their slow marching speed, slowly teasing out more and more dragons. As the number of dragon lords that joined the attacks increased, as many as a hundred dragons actually gathered together at its peak.
Numbers gave rise to courage!
They might not have dared to a.s.sault the magical machines when their numbers were few, but now that they had a hundred dragons, their confidence inevitably began to swell.
The metal dragon might have the might of a Fourth Grade, but it was slow and could not fly. As long as they didn’t get close to it, would they, with their tough skin and exceptional flight ability, fear a bunch of human adepts who only dared to hide inside their metal cages?
The ma.s.sive dragonflight gathered in the plains known as the Northern Wastelands and stood in the way of the magical machine army.
An unprecedented and earthshaking war immediately broke out!
The adept expedition army had brazenly traversed through the territories of so many dragon lords and destroyed the lairs of seven dragons. Such infuriating actions had naturally incited the unanimous fury of the dragon lords.
It wasn’t just the victims themselves. Even dragon lords who had heard of this news from thousands of kilometers away had rushed out of their lairs and hurried day and night for this war. Of course, they had not come alone. Every dragon lord brought with them a group of dragonborn guards.
As all the dragon lords gathered, they managed to bring together a dragonborn army of over six thousand soldiers!
Of course, apart from the main dragonborn force, there were also nearly thirty thousand Dragon Cultists and two hundred and sixty-thousand native servants.
The dragon lords grew even more confident with such a large army. The flights that patrolled around the magical machine armies became more active and even more aggressive.
At this point, the army no longer marched forward. Instead, they chose a slightly more open field and established their defensive line. Goblin chariots and goblin skyships formed an impenetrable steel wall with the golem dragon at the very center.
Meanwhile, the Mothership hovered above the golem dragon, shielding it from attacks from above while also functioning as the command center!
In all truthfulness, the adepts were the initial aggressors, and the dragon lords were the ones who were forced on the defensive. However, with the apparent shift in power between the two parties, the strategic dynamic of the battlefield was instantly overturned.
No one knew when, but the dragon lords had become the aggressors, and the adepts from afar were now the defenders. Both parties met upon the Northern Wastelands and started their absolute deathmatch.
After a few simple rounds of probing and exchanges, the dragons were finally unable to suppress their burning desire for revenge; they launched a full offensive.
This morning, the dragonborn, Dragon Cultists, and native tribes hastily finished their breakfast and rushed out from all their hiding spots in the surroundings. They gathering outside the Northern Wastelands in great numbers.
The one hundred dragons also took to the skies, circling and flying above. The roars of the dragons would not stop.
Under the orders and threats of the dragon lords, the native tribes gathered together into a ma.s.sive horde, charging wildly at the towering steel line in the depths of the Wastelands.
Forest trolls, quillboars, ogres, ratmen, wild goblins, swamp things, mountain giants, hill dwarves, gnolls, kobolds, hairy rhinos, giant beemen. One by one, rare species that were rarely ever seen in the outside world roared and charged at the looming magical machine army.
Some of them rode on forest wolves, dashing across the landscape. Some beat their wings and flew across the earth. Others shook their muscular bodies and roared as they lumbered forward, while more sprinted ahead in packs.
For a moment, the Northern Wastelands became a display of the native species of Lance, making for an eye-opening sight!
Unfortunately, this was a war!
Moreover, it was the cruelest and most b.l.o.o.d.y of all wars– a planar war!
The magic energy cannons started firing with over a kilometer between them and the enemies. The ninety-seven goblin chariots gathered around the golem dragon, forming a metal defensive line that stretched for an entire kilometer.
When the enemies stepped within the radius of the chariots’ attacks, all the magic energy cannons on top rapidly charged with energy. They trembled furiously as black and red energy fireb.a.l.l.s rose into the air, cutting elegant arcs across the sky and crashing into the tide of creatures in the distance.
The skyships in the air also blazed with flames as goblin missiles whistled toward the crowd along with the fireb.a.l.l.s.
It was a rain of energy fireb.a.l.l.s and goblin missiles at the very start of the battle!
In all honesty, the natives of Lance had probably never seen such a beautiful and awe-inspiring scene. Many creatures which were in the middle of their charge couldn’t help but slow down their movements, raising their heads to behold this magnificent sight with bated breath.
They watched as the pretty fireb.a.l.l.s and roaring metal sticks approached from a distance until they finally landed in their midst.
It was almost as if their world suddenly collapsed in the very next second. The constant explosions filled their ears, and their eyes were flooded with the images of erupting red light and the shredded bodies of their companions.
The native creatures that had survived the extreme heat and violently explosive shockwaves were still devoured by the waves of fire. These creatures had most of their bodies instantly vaporized by the multiple crashing streams of elementium. The occasional limb that avoided the most intense of the elementium explosion was be reduced to cinders by the fires dancing through the sky.
Only those who were fortunate enough to be at the edge of the explosions could leave with their body parts intact.
However, as the magical fires started to ignite everything that could catch on fire, the frontline turned into a fearsome field of flames. There was no longer a path of retreat for them.
While the surviving natives still swayed between their fear of the destruction and their joy in surviving, rows of towering magical machines stepped into the flames, brushing past the smoke and appearing in their line of sight. These metallic monsters raised their arms, and black barrels appeared at the ends.
They strode forward, firing beams of nearly translucent energy.
Compared to the magical beams with their unique effects, these transparent energy beams were more destructive and had a shocking penetrative effect.
There was no such thing as an elementium counter or magical immunity. Pure-energy beam attacks like these had even more horrifying offensive strength!
It didn’t matter if it was the tough skin of the trolls and ogres, the mortar armor of the quillboars, or even the thick fur of the hairy rhinos. None of them could stop the energy beams from penetrating.
A b.l.o.o.d.y hole that ran through the bodies of the creatures would appear where the beams traveled. They could not be blocked, and they could not be dodged.
For a moment, these survivors still could not understand what was happening. Their bodies were riddled with holes by these ‘invisible attacks,’ and they crumpled to the ground, soaked in blood.
The momentum of the war was forcibly halted by such terrible bloodshed the moment it started!