“My proposal is simple. You fight those guys head-on. Don’t hesitate to throw your cannon fodder at them. After all, their lives mean nothing to you, right?”
“I need you to draw their attention while I launch a surprise attack from behind.”
“We both look forward to seeing the destruction of that human army, don’t we?”
Ethan licked his lips, his eyes gleaming as he stared at Black Dragon Komait.
The latter pondered for a while before slowly speaking, “Why should I believe you? If I agree to this, commit all my resources to fighting those humans, and you don’t show up… wouldn’t my situation be even more perilous than it is now?”
Ethan nodded and replied, “I agree, verbal promises are indeed not very credible. All I can promise you is…”
“As a fellow dragon, the threat those humans pose to me far outweighs yours. Even if I wanted to deal with you, I’d do it in a much more straightforward manner.”
After sizing up Ethan for a while, Black Dragon slowly nodded.
“My kin…Ethan, the mighty Black Dragon Lord Komait accepts your alliance proposal. Tomorrow, let those damned humans taste the wrath of a provoked dragon!”
Komait’s angered voice echoed, shaking loose countless pebbles from the rock walls.
Just as Ethan had said, his hatred for the Riverside pests far outweighed his wariness towards Ethan, a fellow dragon.
After successfully forming the alliance, Ethan took his leave to return to his dungeon.
Following his orders, the army in the dungeon began to gather and then set out towards Mist Forest.
…
Mist Forest, Riverside military camp.
At the command of Lord Ghöst Hughes, a dark, massive army began their assault on the swamp-dwelling monsters.
For this extermination mission, Riverside had deployed nearly thirty thousand soldiers and a substantial number of support personnel.
Boom!
Continuous, powerful magic artillery rained down on the brutal swamp beasts.
They were lizard-like creatures with snake-like bodies and wings.
Bulky, tough-scaled, their mouths were sharp like two massive swords.
Although they were swift and virtually silent when they moved, occasionally emitting a terrifying aura, they fell in heaps, wailing in their bloodbaths, as frail as straw under a scythe when faced with Riverside’s magic weapons.
A deafening roar reverberated through the air as a jet-black alligator leaped from the water, slamming mercilessly into the soldiers up front.
A splash of bright red blood scattered in the air, as a soldier was torn to shreds. 𝑂𝓋𝗅xt.𝑐𝞸𝓂
But before the alligator could fall back into the water, a spear of lightning pierced its chest, breaking the tree trunk behind it, and pinned it to the ground.
The swamp erupted with terrifying roars.
From the far end of the swamp emerged a wave-like black line – a monster army, bellowing and charging towards Riverside’s forces.
“Prepare for battle!”
Ghöst Hughes’ calm and decisive order rang out again.
At his command, thousands of archers pulled their bowstrings taut, aiming at the oncoming monsters.
Whoosh!
The sound of arrows piercing the air was deafening.
A hailstorm of arrows immediately engulfed the monster horde.
Whether it was the swift arrows or the deadly crossbow bolts, hundreds of monster lives were snuffed out in an instant.
Screams echoed as hordes of monsters were drowned in slaughter.
Yet, even so, the alligator-formed wave showed no signs of stopping its charge, instead becoming even more frenzied.
“Keep attacking, don’t give these beasts a chance to catch their breath!” Ghöst Hughes ordered once again.
Thousands of archers promptly turned their arrows towards the wave, launching their attacks, while the remaining wizards began chanting their spells, casting their magic.
Beams of blue light shot out, accurately hitting the monsters.
Boom!
An explosion resounded, mud splattering in every direction.
The monster-formed wave finally started to disintegrate due to the massive casualties.
Next, several dozen heavy crossbow carts burst from the flanks, quickly loading and arming their bows while they were still five to six hundred meters away from the monster horde, then simultaneously releasing their bolts.
Sharp arrows transformed into blue flashes of lightning, rushing towards the monster horde, and within a blink of an eye, they had pierced through hundreds of monsters at the forefront.
The rain of arrows instantly caused significant damage to the monster army, with countless monsters wailing and collapsing in death.
However, the following onslaught of monsters was too overwhelming.
Even though Riverside held a definite advantage in the casualty rate, they couldn’t stop the overwhelming tide of monsters, and the battlefront kept inching closer towards Riverside’s side.
“Where is the Enchanted Infantry? Get them to hold the front!” yelled Ghöst Hughes as he noticed the encroaching monster horde.
He couldn’t allow these fodder monsters to deplete his stockpile of arrows any longer.
The Enchanted Infantry was Riverside’s most potent weapon in a meat-grinder battlefield like this one.
“Mmmmm-”
A long bugle call echoed throughout the camp, following Ghöst Hughes’s command.
One by one, soldiers clad in heavy armor, bearing large shields and spears, slowly emerged and took their places on the front lines of the battlefield.
Their armor was etched with intricate runes, and each soldier had a ring hanging from their shoulders and chest.
As they marched, the dull thud of their footfalls echoed, causing the entire war fortress to subtly vibrate.
They then took defensive positions, squatting and readying themselves for battle.
A faint white glow began to shine on the armored soldiers, and wisps of milky-white elemental energy appeared, combining and condensing in the air into fist-sized white spheres.
“Fire!”
The commander’s bellow signaled the launch of the white spheres across the sky towards the distant monster horde.
The spheres exploded amongst the monsters, flipping and decimating large numbers of them, and even blasting some straight into corpses.
“Roar!”
A leader-level Dual-headed Serpent roared angrily from afar.
Its bulging muscles and wide-open mouth revealed the terrifying icy and fiery auras shooting towards Riverside.
Boom!
The two terrifying magmatic flames collided with the white spheres, resulting in a devastating shockwave that engulfed the area.
Scores of soldiers were thrown into the air, with some blown into pieces, meeting their untimely demise on the spot.
The Dual-headed Serpent didn’t fare any better as one of its heads was blown off, half its body obliterated.
However, it was, after all, a B-level leader monster, and even with such severe injuries, it didn’t lose its will to fight.
“Argh—”
With a harrowing scream, the Dual-headed Serpent dragged its half body, using all its strength to charge towards Riverside, hoping to land a fatal blow amidst the chaos.
“Release the arrows!”
Another round of arrows rained down, and the Dual-headed Serpent was hit with countless arrows once again.
But it continued to crawl forward, gritting its teeth, spewing out fire rays that claimed the lives of scores of soldiers each time.
Amidst a clear cracking sound, a series of transparent ripples suddenly appeared under its feet.
Then, a thick vine emerged from the ground, instantly coiling around the neck and body of the Dual-headed Serpent.
The Serpent let out a cry of pain, its massive body writhing in an attempt to break free from the vine’s constraint.
However, more and more vines sprung up from the ground, tightening their grip even more.
Sensing the imminent danger of suffocation and death, the Serpent swung its head desperately, but it couldn’t shake off the vines that ensnared it.
In the end, it let out its last mournful scream.
Boom!
Its massive body fell with a loud thud, crushing several nearby monsters and a multitude of towering trees.
On a distant branch, a tall elf carrying a longbow and a staff stood watching the fallen Serpent with a cold gaze.
Seeing the Serpent fall, Ghöst Hughes showed a relieved smile and laughed at the tall elf, saying, “Well done, great druid from the Forest of Elves, truly a man who lives up to his fame!”
However, just as his words fell, a strange low moan suddenly echoed from behind him.
Ghöst Hughes’ face changed abruptly, and he swiftly turned around, only to see a blurry shadow approaching fast – an enormous spider over five meters tall.
“Spider Queen?”
Upon seeing this giant spider, Ghöst Hughes’ pupils constricted, and his eyes were filled with intense wariness.
This monster was powerful enough to rank within the top three under the Black Dragon’s command, causing enormous casualties to the Riverside army every time it appeared.
The Spider Queen was extremely ugly, with two heads, a slender body, a triangular abdomen, and two pincers covered with barbs.