Looking down at Singo's severed body, Mantou first let out an instinctive, gloating chuckle before adopting an exaggerated display of grief, reaching out a hand. "Sing-dog, I will avenge you—"
To his surprise, a translucent figure drifted up from the corpse. "Cut the fucking melodrama! If this keeps up, we're all gonna get wiped!"
"You're not dead?"
"Soul Amulet. Lets you exist in spirit form for fifteen minutes after bodily death. Didn't expect to use it so soon."
"Wait—tilt your head!"
"Holy shit!" Mantou instinctively ducked aside.
A ray thick with necrotic aura grazed his ear and struck a human not far away. The man's flesh and blood shriveled in an instant, reducing him to a gaunt, desiccated corpse.
Mantou turned his head and saw the ancient green dragon flapping her wings, hovering in midair. She was shrouded in a storm dense with acid and toxic mist, her narrow, needle-like slit pupils glowing with the eerie light of necromancy.
At her flanks, six will-o'-wisps drifted ceaselessly like horrifying specters, poised to devour mortal souls at any moment.
Green dragons were natural spellcasters, and Ulrichia, known as the "Toxic Emerald," was undeniably among the foremost of their kind.
As an ancient dragon, she had mastered spells from the schools of necromancy and illusion, possessing attainments no lesser than an archmage's.
Ulrichia reached her talons into the void and drew forth a scepter forged of white bone and skulls, casually giving it a sweep.
In an instant, countless malevolent spirits surged forth from the pool of blood with shrill wails, scrambling to pounce on the mortals. Unaccustomed to such horrors, the civilians were possessed by the evil spirits and transformed into Ulrichia's puppets.
Their eyes turned bloodshot and saliva dripped from their lips as the possessed humans lunged maniacally at their former comrades and friends. Beneath terrified gazes, they tore into necks and cheeks, ripping away great mouthfuls of bloody flesh.
"Stay away from me!"
"D-Don't come any closer or I'll shoot!"
"Who the hell are you?!"
"Get off him, now!"
Desperate screams like these echoed without end.
Yet the fate of these possessed humans was almost invariably to be gunned down in panic by their comrades, only for the malevolent spirits to slip free from their spent hosts, laughing eerily as they bolted toward their next targets.
Mantou loaded an enchanted bullet and blew one of the evil spirits apart with a loud bang, wailing, "How the hell are we supposed to fight an ancient dragon boss like this? She has crowd control, she has damage, both her physical and magical resistances are maxed out, and she can summon adds! This is completely unplayable!"
In his soul form, Singo drew a dagger and drove it through an oncoming spirit, causing it to instantly burst into luminous fragments and burn from head to toe.
"Right now, there's only one word: stall! According to the intel I gathered, our main force will breach the city any minute now. Lure her out of the breeding grounds and into the outer city. When the time comes, we hit her from inside and out, and let the Machine Cult's fleet blast this ancient dragon into slag!"
"Alright!" Mantou, Xiaye Qiuyu, Tian Sheng Zhan Kuang, and the other players chorused in agreement.
Xiaye Qiuyu stared at the distant ancient green dragon and let out a deliberate cold sneer. "Was that foolish green dragon your spawn? Burning his heart to cinders... felt pretty good."
"It was you! Arrogant mongrel, how dare you lay a hand upon Tiamat's people!" Irrepressible fury erupted from Ulrichia's eyes, her glare at the dragonkin sorceress burning with boundless wrath and hatred.
In an instant, several rays imbued with necrotic energy shot forth, each carrying destructive power sufficient to end a mortal's life. But Xiaye Qiuyu thrust out one hand, dragonfire surging from her palm to erect a thick barrier of energy in midair.
Boom!
The two opposing energies clashed, triggering a violent explosion. The spilling necrotic energy washed over nearby humans, causing them to rapidly age and wither.
Xiaye Qiuyu didn't dare hesitate for a moment. Her eyes flickered as she swept her right hand; flames tore through space like a savage beast, carving out a rift leading to the surface.
Under the altar's influence, long-distance spatial teleportation was impossible, but piercing through to the ground above was well within her power.
"Let's go!"
Xiaye Qiuyu flew straight into it. Tian Sheng Zhan Kuang leaped up and plunged into the flaming portal, with Dawei Tianlong, Langlibaitiao, and the other players diving in right behind them.
Enraged beyond measure, Ulrichia snapped her wings, bearing down toward the portal amidst surging malice and a dreadful tempest.
Under the ancient green dragon's wrath, the entire cavern quaked relentlessly, stone raining from the ceiling and sending the human sacrifices scurrying in panic. But at this moment, Ulrichia could no longer see those insignificant sacrifices. She had only one desire:
To slaughter every last one of these Imperials who dared kill Grutar and desecrate Tiamat—leaving none alive!
"You won't escape—"
Seeing the ancient green dragon lunging like a mad beast, cold sweat drenched Mantou as he scrambled toward the portal in frantic haste.
"Wait for me!"
Just as the green dragon's mouthful of fangs was about to snap shut around him, Mantou's body slipped through the portal, emerging on the surface of Forest Hawk City's main district.
"Who are you?! Why have you broken into the main district? The battle outside is raging, yet you flee here?!"
"Wait, they're intruders!"
"Seize them! Execute them if necessary!"
Seeing the disturbance, the wyvern riders in the city brandished their weapons and swooped down toward them amidst the whistling wind.
"Looking to die!"
Tian Sheng Zhan Kuang planted himself before the group, roaring to the heavens as he raised his battleaxe overhead and brought it sweeping down. The immense force cleaved an incoming wyvern clean in two, splashing blood everywhere.
"Impudent wretches! How dare you slay the guards of Her Majesty the Dragon Queen!"
"Show no mercy! Kill them all! Offer their blood to the great Mother of Evil Dragons!"
The guards shouted furiously. Steering all kinds of dragonbeasts and brandishing their weapons, they surged in from all directions, encircling the group.
Xiaye Qiuyu calmly surveyed her surroundings and pointed north. "We break out to the north and rendezvous with the main force!"
Several rays of fire shot from her fingertips, instantly impaling the dragonnel rider at the forefront. Its coat erupted into flames, and it collapsed amidst shrill screeches.
Immediately after, Dawei Tianlong and Tian Sheng Zhan Kuang, two top melee players, charged north.
"Insolent monsters, you dare block my way?!"
The nearly six-meter-tall, bald monk bellowed in rage, swinging fists the size of clay pots. Like a sledgehammer, he ruthlessly smashed every living creature before him into mangled chunks of flesh.
Meanwhile, Tian Sheng Zhan Kuang unleashed a booming war cry, swinging his blood-stained poleaxe and turning himself into a mobile meat grinder, whipping up a tempest of slaughter.
In just a few breaths, the northern side of the encirclement was strewn with corpses, blood flowing like rivers. Over twenty elites of the Cult of the Dragon collapsed into pools of blood.
The other players followed behind the pair, breaching the cordon of dragon cult guards and fleeing toward the north of the city.
Yet right at that moment, accompanied by rumbling reverberations, the ground trembled violently. Cobweb-like cracks spread across the street, growing wider and wider as they chased after the players.
Looking back over their shoulders as they ran, the players were filled with terror.
"That's..."
"No way... could it be—"
Boom!
Shattered stone, dirt, and dust shot skyward. A colossal, monstrous silhouette broke through the earth and burst out from below, rearing its head with a deafening roar.
"Roar—"
"Damned Imperials!"
Amidst the billowing dust, two dark-golden pupils flickered with eerie light. That murderous gaze seemed to pierce through space, pinning itself upon every player and sending chills down their spines.
"That's... Lady Ulrichia!" a guard shouted in shock, pointing at the figure in the sky.
Soon, however, an adjacent building collapsed from the violent tremors, and falling masonry and dust instantly buried him.
"Move!"
Dragon wings unfurled from Xiaye Qiuyu's back as she soared north at top speed.
Dawei Tianlong channeled the ki within his body, using Step of the Wind to vault across rooftops and sprint away.
Mantou raised his arm high, the contract mark on the back of his hand glowing crimson. The wyvern Noodles appeared in midair, and with a single leap, Mantou landed on its back, gliding forward swiftly.
The rest of the players also employed every trick at their disposal, scrambling toward the north in desperation.
"Thinking of running?"
The ancient green dragon slowly flapped her wings, first climbing nearly a hundred meters into the air, then swooping down toward the players as she roared, "Imperials! I will tear you into ten thousand pieces and subject you to eternal torment—"
With her dive, a fierce storm swept through. The streets were plunged into chaos as if struck by a natural disaster; wherever the enraged green dragon passed, everything was obliterated.
Buildings and houses along both sides of the street collapsed one after another. Civilians scattered in sheer panic as Ulrichia skimmed across the surface at terrifying speed.
Fixing her eyes on the trailing players, she slowly opened her bloody maw, a cluster of eerie green light roiling deep in her throat.
Boom—
The next instant, a thick torrent of eerie green energy erupted from her jaws, piercing straight through space and engulfing those players.
The moment they made contact with that breath weapon, their flesh and bone were completely annihilated, leaving behind only a plume of vaporizing mist.
"Dodge!"
"Noodles!"
Mantou yanked the reins, twisting the dragon's head and forcing the wyvern into a barrel roll, banking sharply to the side.
The eerie green torrent grazed past the wyvern's chest, leaving a charred, dull mark across its belly.
Immediately after, the breath slammed into the buildings ahead, punching straight through a dozen walls in an instant and reducing the complex into crumbling ruins.
Flying through the rolling smoke and dust, Mantou patted his chest and exhaled. "Holy shit, that was close. I almost got turned into ash."
But right then, an overwhelming aura bore down from behind. The wyvern beneath him shuddered violently, whimpering, and Mantou felt his heart drop.
Trembling, he turned his head around. The ancient green dragon was glaring at him with chilling malice, the corners of her mouth curving into a cruel sneer.
Whoosh—
A colossal dragon claw, enveloped in a terrifying gale, swiped straight toward him with thunderous momentum.
A player caught in the tempest was shredded by the hurricane in the blink of an eye, flesh and blood flying everywhere in a gruesome death that made Mantou's hair stand on end.
"Holy shiiiiiit! Noodles, screw it, dive straight down!"
Mantou shrieked, pulling tight on the reins and pressing his body flat against the wyvern's back, plummeting almost perpendicular to the ground.
Fortunately, as an ancient dragon, Ulrichia was massive and far less agile than Noodles.
Mantou and his wyvern plunged rapidly, diving into the clouds of dust to evade the swatting dragon claw, escaping the storm's reach at the final second without being sucked in.
Behind them, however, over a dozen unlucky players met horrific deaths, torn apart by the tempest and reduced to mangled scraps mingling with the smoke and debris.
Dawei Tianlong channeled his ki, leaping across falling debris in midair as he dodged and wove frantically. But the ancient green dragon snapped open her cavernous jaws and lunged straight for him.
Crunch!
A crisp snap echoed as the bald monk's rock-hard muscles were crushed. Blood sprayed wildly as his body was corroded by the toxins in the green dragon's mouth.
In mere moments, Dawei Tianlong was reduced to a spray of shredded flesh and shattered bones.
Whoosh—
Steering the wyvern, Mantou burst out from the billowing smoke and dust. Looking at the towering city walls in the distance, his face lit up with joy. "We're almost at the outer city!"
Relying on his formidable perception, Tian Sheng Zhan Kuang caught the cacophony outside the city: the rumble of cannon fire, the roar of steam engines, and impassioned battle cries of "For the Empire!" and "For the Emperor!"
"Listen! That's our main force! They're assaulting the city!"
"Hurry, keep moving!"
Under the ancient green dragon's relentless pursuit, fewer than ten players remained alive within Forest Hawk City. All were elites among their peers—at least when it came to running for their lives.
"In that case—I'll finish you all together!"
Flapping her wings, Ulrichia ascended hundreds of meters into the sky and hoisted the dragon-headed scepter in her talons.
"Treacherous Imperials, tremble before the divine might of Her Majesty Tiamat!"
"Mother of Five, Master of Scales and Claws! May Your wings eclipse all realms, and may all creation kneel before the Dragon's Might!"
In an instant, the phantom of the five-headed dragon in the sky was reignited. Pairs of slit pupils flared with deep, eerie light as endless torrents of fire, lightning, frost, and acid poured down from above, coalescing into a terrifying elemental storm.
Boom!
A player was struck down from midair by lightning, instantly charred black, while another nearby was enveloped in flames, reduced to ashes amidst agonized shrieks.
A burly fighter player was frozen solid by frost embodying the white dragon's power, unable to move as rime coated his skin.
Ulrichia cackled maniacally. Leaping forward eagerly, she crushed the frozen fighter into icy shards with her massive talon.
Just then, a cool, crisp voice rang out from the distance.
"Ulrichia!"
The ancient green dragon turned her head. Sensing an unfamiliar pressure potent enough to rival her own, her brow furrowed as her expression grew grave.
Far off in the sky, a red-haired, gold-eyed dragonkin girl hovered in midair, meeting her gaze with icy detachment.
Beneath her stood Adrian, bathed in brilliant golden light, and Duke Franz, shouldering an exaggerated greatsword. Both were staring down the distant ancient green dragon as if facing their mortal enemy, their eyes burning with fury and hatred.
Chapter 793