Fierce Battle

Kasa tore through the ranks unopposed, until Duoluo stepped onto the field himself to stand before him. As a retainer carrying dragon blood, this dragonblood hobgoblin stood a full four meters tall. His heavily muscled frame was coated in scales, making him seem like a giant before ordinary soldiers. Yet before Kasa, a frost giant in the prime of his life, the top of the hobgoblin's head did not even reach the giant's waist. In stark contrast, Duoluo looked more like a puny dwarf. Facing such a formidable foe, Duoluo showed not the slightest hint of fear. He barked sharply: "Foolish giant, I will have your life!" He sprang up violently, hoisting the Bloodfire Battleaxe above his head and chopping straight down toward the frost giant's skull. Clang! A crisp sound of clashing metal rang out. The Bloodfire Battleaxe collided with Winter's Roar, showering blinding sparks. Duoluo had put everything into the blow, pouring his entire body's strength into the strike. Yet Kasa merely held his battleaxe horizontally with a single arm, effortlessly parrying the attack with the flat of the blade. "Such a feeble attack—where did you get the nerve to fight me?" Clang! Veins bulged along Kasa's thick, muscular arm. With a sudden burst of force, he sent Duoluo hurtling more than ten meters backward. Duoluo rolled several times across the ground, his arms numb from the tremendous impact and his entire body sapped of strength. *What terrifying strength.* Bracing himself on his battleaxe, he gritted his teeth and pushed himself up from the ground. Yet the howling of the wind and the roar of a giant came crashing down from above. "Die! You pathetic weakling!" Kasa had no intention of giving his enemy a chance to recover. Leaping forward in another overhead cleave, Winter's Roar descended with unstoppable force, cleaving straight toward Duoluo's head amidst a screaming tempest. If this blow connected, Duoluo's sturdy, scale-covered body would surely be split in two like paper. Looking up at the axe blade rushing into his vision, Duoluo's pupils constricted violently. He managed to choke out only two words: "Save me!" Just as the battleaxe was about to strike home, an invisible barrier materialized in front of Duoluo. It was a Wall of Force. The battleaxe struck the force barrier with monstrous force, letting out a deafening boom that sent ripples through the surrounding space. Not far away, Trump calmly raised his staff in his left hand while his right gripped Bennett's Wisdom, which gleamed with arcane light against his chest. "Oh? Magic?" "Haha! Feeble wretches who rely on outside spells aren't even worthy of facing me!" Kasa bared his teeth in a savage grin. Hefting Winter's Roar, he vaulted effortlessly over the force wall and landed directly behind Duoluo. "Duoluo, hold this frost giant off!" Without hesitation, Trump activated the dozens of magical items on his person. Magical radiance shimmered around him in brilliant harmony as spell after carefully prepared spell poured from his hands and surged into the dragonblood hobgoblin. *Enlarge, Haste, Shield, Protection from Energy, Bear's Endurance, Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace.* In just a few breaths, the dragonblood hobgoblin's frame swelled to nearly eight meters tall, matching the frost giant before him almost foot for foot. Layers of magical shields enveloped his body, cloaking him in arcane power as every attribute within him skyrocketed to unprecedented heights. Duoluo panted heavily, feeling the power surging through his veins, and roared in exhilaration: "Damn it, Trump, why didn't you use these tricks earlier?" "Hold him off?" "I feel like I could slaughter him right now!" Duoluo unleashed a roar toward the sky and charged at Kasa. Brandishing the Bloodfire Battleaxe—which now looked like a mere handaxe in his enlarged grip—he chopped down savagely toward the frost giant's massive head. Clang! The ring of metal on metal echoed once more. The battleaxe was parried by Winter's Roar yet again, but this time Kasa had to use both arms to withstand it, and was even shoved slightly onto the back foot during the clash. Seizing the opening while the two were locked in place and unable to maneuver easily, Trump aimed several searing spheres of flame at the frost giant. *Greater Fireball.* After years of modification by Trump, this upcast Fireball had reached the level of a fifth-tier spell. Not only did its condensed flames far surpass ordinary magic in destructive power, but it was also fused with conjuration elements, allowing it to track and lock onto targets within a certain area. Yet Kasa merely tilted his head slightly, easily evading the precise fireballs. His evasion, however, caused the force in his hands to slacken slightly. Duoluo seized the opening, slashing forward with a violent horizontal sweep. The Bloodfire Battleaxe tore through the air, cleaving straight toward the frost giant's neck. Trump's next spell followed immediately. *Slow.* Space and time warped around the frost giant, slowing his movements drastically. Kasa scrambled backward, but under the spell's influence, he could not dodge entirely. The axe blade, moving almost fast enough to leave an afterimage, sliced into his skin. A long cut opened along the right side of his cheek, trickling icy, deep-blue blood. "It has been a long time since I last bled." "Magic or not... this is somewhat entertaining." Kasa carelessly wiped away the blood on his cheek. A savage grin spread across his rugged face, and his eyes burned with a fanatical lust for battle. "I'm going to kill you both!" ... "For the Kingdom of Cinders!" "Slay the enemy!" "Everfrost endures!" While Duoluo and Trump were locked in combat with the frost giant chieftain, the armies of both sides were engaged in a ferocious clash. The hobgoblins poured a relentless hail of bullets and artillery shells into the frost giants, while the giants raised their beast-bone shields and charged into the dense fire. Once these colossal brutes breached the lines, they easily shattered dozens of soldiers at a time. Yet several frost giants also fell during their charge, their bodies riddled with bullet holes and shrapnel. Heavy armored ogres held the very front line for the Kingdom of Cinders. Though far shorter than their northern kin, they were stouter and more heavily built, managing to hold their ground against several charges from the frost giant cavalry. Wasteland landwyrms slammed into tundra landwyrms with deafening crashes. These colossal beasts had finally met their match, though the wasteland landwyrms imbued with dragon blood were generally larger and capable of overpowering their northern relatives. In the sky, aerial units like chimeras and wyverns dove again and again, turning the battlefield into a boiling sea of fire and stalling the frost giants' advance with roaring blazes. Yet they could not completely avoid boulders hurled by the frost giants, nor being dragged from the sky by leaping giants. Once brought down to the earth, their deaths were essentially assured. Baya even pinned a female chimera to the ground. Emulating his older brother, this frost giant warrior snapped three of the chimera's vertebrae with his bare hands, drawing roars of approval from the frost giant warriors. "Baya!" "Our champion!" "You are the Little Bonebreaker!" Soon, smoke and the stench of blood blanketed the entire battlefield. The corpses of hobgoblins, ogres, wyverns, and even frost giants littered the wasteland. This evenly matched, brutal clash had once again turned the war-torn wilderness into a slaughterhouse.