Chapter 384 – Sacred Beast Heavenly Hound
Thousands of magic towers 100 meters high, with round bases and spherical rooms at the top which could accommodate 30 people, rose straight into the sky. Their surfaces were covered with magical runes and at the moment, the runes were brightly lit, making it look like there were thousands of fire pillars in Sky City.
Each magic tower shot out dozens of lights directed at their neighboring towers, connecting them to form a huge magic circle.
Over Sky City, thick clouds billowed, where thunderbolts struck across the air and electric dragons meandered. These dragons, made from pure thunder energy, were ten kilometers long each with heads as large as mountains and crackling bodies. Every time one poked out from the thunderclouds, numerous lightning bolts would be released.
Of the thousands of magic towers, there were 49 special ones evenly distributed around Sky City. A little higher than the rest and also a little wider, they housed the mages responsible for controlling the Thunderstorm Formation.
In the other towers, magic stones were in piles and there were only a few mages to look over them. However, the 49 special towers contained not only a large number of magic stones but also a thunder mage. Thunder Magus was a hidden profession, so one could imagine how difficult it was to gather these thunder mages, and this was only possible thanks to Reck and Lucas, who showed their old faces around to ask for help; that was just how rare people of hidden professions were.
The 49 special magic towers controlled 49 thunder dragons. One by one, they attacked the Heavenly Hound army into utter misery.
Every time a thunder dragon struck, it sent down countless lightning bolts capable of killing almost any existence below level 50. After all, they burned up so many magic stones. Although the number of Heavenly Hound soldiers entering Sky City was large, it couldn’t stand against such crazy consumptions of magic stones. In just ten-something minutes after Thunderstorm Formation came into effect, over a hundred thousand soldiers were struck into scattered groups.
“Stupid!” A Heavenly Hound general cursed in fury. Seeing a bolt, he came to meet it head-on and was struck into trembling all over, his heath dropped by half in a split second.
“a.s.semble!”
Since the group of captains and deputy captains of the Heavenly Hound Corps were stopped by Iron Eagle, Lin Xi, and the others respectively, they could only give orders to the first-rank generals under them. After a discussion, they realized they’d all be struck into nothingness if they didn’t take down Sky City soon and decided to gather the soldiers immediately.
During the discussion, several generals were also thunderstruck by misfortune, hence the look of extreme irritation on their faces.
The remaining several hundred thousand Heavenly Hound troops quickly a.s.sembled, during which several tens of thousands more were killed. Right after they had gathered in one place, some of them dressed in Yin Yang mage robes stepped out to the front.
Holding their staves, these Yin Yang mages mumbled some kind of incantation, and a moment later, black fog drifted out from each staff.
“Arooooo…”
A mournful, desolate howl came from the black fog. The fog then expanded rapidly, enveloping the entire Heavenly Hound army.
When the lightning bolts fell into the black fog, it was like small pebbles falling into a big river, causing only faint ripples. As the black fog grew thicker, a pair of blood-red eyes slowly appeared in it.
The pair of pupils were five to six meters wide inside the long and narrow eyes. As soon as they took a clear shape, an oppressive, cold, and murderous aura swept through the field. From the Holy Spirit Island, Fatty shuddered fiercely the moment he saw those eyes.
“What the h.e.l.l?” Fatty exclaimed.
“It’s a Heavenly Hound, the sacred beast Heavenly Hound,” Next to him, the knowledgeable Reck informed as he recognized the eyes at a glance.
“Arooooooo…” Another roar cleared up the black fog. A monster 100 meters long, covered in black fur, except for its red head, with a pair of wings behind on its back, and a long nose appeared before everyone.
“This is the Heavenly Hound?” Fatty looked at it in surprise and pouted. “So ugly.”
Since the Heavenly Hound Corps was named after the creature, Fatty wasn’t surprised they would summon it, he was only curious to see that there was such an ugly monster. Perhaps noticing Fatty’s disdainful eyes, the hound issued a resounding roar, and forcefully bearing the sky full of bolts, it charged towards the Holy Spirit Island.
When the Heavenly Hound was summoned, all the mounts of the Heavenly Hound Corps disappeared, apparently for some reason having merged into this sacred beast.
“Heh, gotta hand it to them. When their Heavenly Hound secretly snuck into our Xuanhuang to make a fuss, it was stopped by the sacred beast White Tiger and almost beaten to death after a fight so intense that only its soul could flee back in panic. I didn’t expect they could reuse it in this way,” Lucas mocked with a laugh.
“A fellow who was able to escape from a sacred beast is not simple, ahh…” Fatty looked upset.
With a mad roar, a haze of black miasma swept out from the Heavenly Hound’s wide-open mouth. At the very front, the Overlord League bore the brunt of it. Tens of thousands of players disappeared in an instant, leaving only Jiangdong’s LittleOverlord running out with several subordinates, cursing nonstop.
“The Heavenly Hound swallows the sun1, this thing can swallow mountains in one bite. Aren’t those guys trying to die by standing in the front?!” Reck was furious.
After swallowing tens of thousands of players in one go, the Heavenly Hound howled excitedly and directed its scarlet eyes at the Holy Spirit Island. To be precise, its gaze was fixed on the huge Source Origin below the Holy Spirit Island and at the very center of Sky City.
Suddenly, a bolt rumbled across the sky, introducing a gigantic claw that swatted down at the Heavenly Hound. The claw sparked with lightning, the result of a thunder mage controlling a thunder dragon in the Thunderstorm Formation to deal with the hound.
Throwing a disdainful glance at the incoming thunder dragon’s claw, the hound shot out two whiffs of black miasma from its wings that accurately hit the claw and smashed it in an instant.
A miserable cry resounded from the sky. Large ma.s.ses of lightning burst out from the Thunderstorm Formation and randomly struck various parts of Sky City. Although the injured thunder dragon quickly recovered its claw by using the energy in the formation, its anger was aroused. It kept roaring at the Heavenly Hound.
Each of the 49 thunder dragons in the Thunderstorm Formation had the power of the 9th enhancement Saint realm. However, this was nothing in comparison to a sacred beast, even if the other was only a semi-disabled one. The 49 thunder dragons attacked in turn, burning magic stones in the magic towers to rain down lightning bolts, but this could only slightly hinder the pace of the hound a little, unable to hurt or kill it.
Since the thunder dragons couldn’t stop the Heavenly Hound, the latter brazenly charged towards the Holy Spirit Island as players hastily got out of its way. Having learned the lesson from the example of the Overlord League, no one dared to challenge the beast’s appet.i.te.
“Long live the Heavenly Hound. Kill. Kill. Kill!” The mountless Heavenly Hound soldiers arranged into a neat formation and also rushed towards Holy Spirit Island.
Boom! The bolts from the storm fell even more densely. Instead of attacking, the thunder dragons mysteriously disappeared inside the formation.
“Old man, don’t you have a so-called can-kill-even-Divine-experts deadly poison? Take it out.” Fatty began to get a little anxious.
“If I had that thing, I would have killed this d.a.m.ned hound long ago” Reck glared.
“Can’t anyone outside come back?” Fatty placed his hopes on Lin Xi and the other experts fighting outside.
They had long seen noticed the hound since its emergence, but each was too entangled by their opponents to find a chance to rush out for the rescue.
“Should we just teleport back? Just Azure Dragon City is fine.” Fatty came up with another idea. s.p.a.ce-jumping Sky City to any main city in Xuanhuang would certainly disturb the sacred beast there that could kill a semi-disabled sacred beast Heavenly Hound with a paw smash.
“What are you so panicked for? It’s not like we can’t stop it.” Reck couldn’t bear Fatty anymore and shot him a glare, seeming very confident.
“You think we can afford to use the magic stones as we like just because we have a little more? There are still many wars to fight in the future!” Fatty yelped.
Sky City suddenly rumbled and quaked. The Thunderstorm Formation enveloping it slowly disappeared, revealing a clear sky.
“What’s going on?” The rest of the players were horrified. Without the Thunderstorm Formation, the strength of Sky City’s side alone was simply not enough to resist the attack from the enemy.
Crackle!
A lightning bolt suddenly slashed down on the Heavenly Hound. The latter’s casual expression suddenly stiffened, and the area on its body that was struck was scorched black.
A ma.s.sive thunder dragon 10 kilometers long appeared in the air. Its body was not thick and only wrapped in faint electric wisps. Its emergence wasn’t as grand like the 49 thunder dragons before, but at the sight of this thunder dragon, the eyes of the Heavenly Hound showed apprehension for the first time. As if seeing its nemesis, the hound stopped and stared intently at the dragon.
The dragon’s lithe figure traveled gracefully. Unlike the cautious Heavenly Hound, it just swept the opponent a glance, then held its head high and let out a loud roar that shook the heavens and earth.
“Raaaaaawrr…”
Along with this long, s.h.i.+ll cry, thunderbolts appeared. They were only as thick as arms with the long ones over 10 meters long and the short ones only a meter long but were filled with the breath of destruction that it seemed as if every each of them could completely pierce through Sky City. This was the combined power of the previous 49 thunder dragons, all compressed into one body, so overwhelming that even the Thunderstorm Formation itself couldn’t withstand it and had to disperse.
“Arrooo!!”
The Heavenly Hound roared furiously and spread its wings. Its body suddenly expanded to a kilometer long and hundreds of meters high as it growled at the thunder dragon. Thick black miasma materialized on the hound’s head. Amid the black air, there was a human figure with a fuzzy face holding a bizarre weapon.
1. The phrase that sums up the terrifying ability to swallow things of the Heavenly Hound (Dog) in Chinese mythology.↩