Chapter 870 - 572: Obtaining the "Star Core" and the Iron Thorns Legion
Chapter 870: Chapter 572: Obtaining the "Star Core" and the Iron Thorns Legion
"The Holy City." Austin pointed in a direction.
Hearing this, Raylo sheathed his sword. He patted Lightning’s neck. "Let’s go! We’re returning to the Sunset Forest!"
The Giant Dragon flapped its wings, soaring away amidst the wailing of tens of thousands of believers whose faith had just collapsed. It left behind only a severed Divine Statue, a burning church, and a "Demon legend" that would soon spread madly throughout the Empire.
At this moment, deep within the Holy City thousands of miles away, the very instant the Light Deity’s statue was cleaved in two, a pair of tightly shut golden eyes seemed to sense something and slowly opened a slit.
At the edge of the Sunset Forest, ancient trees towered into the sky, forming an ocean of leaves that undulated like waves.
Ten thousand meters up in the sky.
Austin Sage sat cross-legged on Lightning’s broad back, pinching the newly acquired Star Core in his hand as if toying with an ordinary glass bead. He suddenly raised an eyebrow, a gleam of sharp light flashing in his eyes.
"We’re here."
Austin Sage pointed to a spot below and tapped lightly with his fingertip. The clouds ahead parted as if pushed aside by a pair of invisible giant hands, revealing the scene below. Raylo followed his gaze. Amidst the sea of trees, a long, winding black snake was slowly slithering forward.
It was the Iron Thorns Legion.
Tens of thousands of soldiers clad in Black Iron Heavy Armor marched in neat formations. Their advance was utterly silent, save for the clanking of colliding Armor and heavy footsteps, exuding a suffocating aura of killing intent. At the very center of the procession, a gigantic prison cart pulled by sixteen Earth Dragons was particularly eye-catching.
On top of the cart sat a massive, specially made iron cage. Its bars were densely engraved with Demon-Banning Runes that flickered with a dark red glow. Curled up inside the cage was a behemoth. It was an adult Blue Dragon, slightly over a hundred meters long. Yet at this moment, it looked so miserable that one hardly dared to look directly at it.
Two black chains, as thick as a grown man’s thighs, ruthlessly pierced through its scapulas, pinning it dead to the floor of the prison cart. Most of what should have been blue Dragon Scales had been forcefully stripped away, exposing the bloody, dripping flesh beneath. Even more shockingly, the blood oozing from those wounds wasn’t bright red; instead, it took on an eerie, dark purple hue and emitted a foul stench. It seemed to lack even the strength to lift its head, with only its faintly heaving chest proving it was still alive.
ZZZT!
Raylo felt a tremor beneath him. An incredibly violent surge of Thunder Element instantly erupted from Lightning’s body. Seeing a fellow kin tortured so brutally, Lightning’s reason snapped under the weight of its fury in an instant. A low roar rolled from its throat, and its originally clear blue slitted pupils now flashed with lightning.
"Don’t rush," Raylo said, patting Lightning’s scalding hot scales, his voice as cold as ice. "Sage, aren’t you going to lift a finger against this ten-thousand-man legion?"
He turned to look at Austin Sage.
Austin Sage yawned. "You want my old bones to intervene in such a petty scene? I’ll leave the stage to you this time, kid!"
Raylo stood up, his hair dancing wildly in the high-altitude astral winds. He looked down at the ant-like legion below, without a single shred of pity in his eyes. "Lightning, flatten them from the front."
"ROAR!" Lightning responded with a low bellow.
"Coal Ball, those carriages are carrying Giant Crossbows aimed at Giant Dragons, and they’re laced with poison. Your mission is to dismantle them as quickly as possible."
Coal Ball stood up straight, eager to give it a try.
"Moonlight." Raylo looked at the large white cat perched on his shoulder. "That Legion Commander is at the Catastrophe Level. I’ll leave him to you. End the battle as fast as you can."
Moonlight licked its paw.
"Strike!"
Following Raylo’s command, a deafening BOOM rang out. Lightning fiercely flapped its wings, its massive body plummeting like a Meteorite. Shrouded in a sky full of Thunderbolts, it dive-bombed toward the legion below!
On the ground, in the Vanguard Camp of the Iron Thorns Legion, a Thousand-man Commander on horseback was vigilantly patrolling his surroundings. As the Empire’s ace legion, they maintained a high level of alertness even while on the march.
Suddenly, his warhorse grew restless, snorting and stomping its hooves haphazardly. A terrifying sense of oppression descended from above. The Thousand-man Commander subconsciously looked up, his pupils instantly shrinking to the size of pinpricks. The originally clear sky had somehow turned into a blinding, profound blue. That wasn’t the color of the sky; that was... a Thunderbolt!
"Enemy attack!"
The shrill roar had just rushed out of his throat before it was drowned out by a colossal boom.
RUMBLE!
A terrifying Thunder Pillar, tens of meters thick, struck straight down into the Vanguard Camp’s formation like the Celestial Deity’s Spear of Judgment!
The earth cracked and dirt churned. Those suits of Solid Black Iron Armor were as fragile as paper toys in the face of the Catastrophe Level Thunderbolt. Hundreds of soldiers were struck instantly, collapsing to the ground lifeless before they could even let out a scream. Immediately after, a hundred-meter-long blue Thunder Dragon crashed heavily onto the ground with world-destroying momentum!
BANG!
A shockwave expanded outward in a ring, uprooting trees within a radius of hundreds of meters.
"ROAR!" Lightning howled up at the sky, its sound waves rolling like thunder. Its thick Dragon Tail swept out, wrapped in crackling electrical arcs, smashing a squad of heavy cavalry that tried to charge forward into a pulp of flesh and horsemeat.
"It’s a Giant Dragon!"
"Damn it! Prepare the Dragon-Hunting Crossbows!"
The legion was instantly thrown into chaos. However, the Iron Thorns Legion was an elite force after all. After a brief moment of panic, officers at all levels began frantically roaring out commands.
"Hold your ground! Do not panic!"
"Crossbowmen! Prepare immediately!"
In the middle of the procession, the black tarps covering dozens of carriages were violently thrown open, revealing the hideous Dragon-Hunting Crossbows beneath. These ballistas were five meters long and forged entirely from Refined Steel. Every single Crossbow Arrow was as thick as a Long Spear, the arrowheads glinting with a dark blue, venomous luster. Dozens of burly, bare-chested soldiers strained to turn the winches, aiming the Fine Steel Crossbows at the rampaging Lightning.
"Ready!"
The Command Banner in the commander’s hand was just about to fall.
"Meow!"
A soft, floaty cat’s call abruptly rang in his ear. The commander froze. The very next second, he watched in horror as the space around him suddenly shattered like a mirror.
CRACK! CRUNCH!
Accompanied by the teeth-aching sound of twisting metal, those indestructible Fine Steel Crossbows were crushed and squeezed as if by an invisible giant hand. The snapped bowstrings lashed out like the Grim Reaper’s whip, frantically striking the surrounding operators.
"Ah! My hand!"
"The ballistas... the ballistas are broken!"
Amidst a chorus of agonizing screams, a black cat strutted out of thin air, gracefully stepping onto a shattered ballista carriage. It kicked a piece of scrap iron away in disgust and then opened its mouth.
WHOOSH!
A bizarre suction force erupted. The scattered Refined Steel wreckage on the ground, the spare Crossbow Arrows, and even a few intact carriages all transformed into streaks of light and were swallowed whole into its stomach. After doing all this, Coal Ball let out a burp. Its silhouette flashed, and it vanished into thin air once again. It left behind only a group of dumbfounded, empty-handed soldiers who fell into despair as they faced the Thunderboltous Giant Dragon sweeping through the entire army.
"Bastards!"
A furious roar rang out from the center of the legion. Beside that massive prison cart, a burly man clad in Dark Gold Full Body Armor shot into the sky. He wielded a Two-Handed Giant Sword, his entire body blazing with dark red Fighting Spirit flames. His aura was so potent that it directly dispersed the Dragon Mighty radiating from Lightning.
This was the Legion Commander of the Iron Thorns Legion, an Empire Marquis, and a Catastrophe Level powerhouse—Garrosh!
"Where did you beasts come from, daring to hijack the Empire’s prison cart?!" Garrosh’s eyes bulged with rage. He raised his Giant Sword high as his dark red Fighting Spirit condensed into the phantom of a roaring Blood Lion. "Die!"
Moving as fast as lightning, he bypassed the chaotic battlefield entirely and slashed his sword toward Lightning, who was currently massacring the soldiers. This strike contained boundless Catastrophe Level Power; if it landed, even a Catastrophe Level Giant Dragon’s defenses would be torn to ribbons.
However, the very instant the sword’s edge was about to fall, a streak of silver light silently blocked his path.
CLANG!
The sound of colliding metal echoed into the clouds. Garrosh looked up in shock. Right in front of him, a slender Silver Giant Dragon hovered in mid-air. Its entire body was covered in streamlined silver scales that reflected a cold radiance in the sunlight. A pair of enormous membranous wings unfurled, with Moonlight faintly flowing across their surfaces. A pair of pale gold dragon eyes looked down on him from above—just as one would look at a bug awaiting Judgment.