Reinforcements

Space warped along the surface, forming a barely perceptible spatial vortex from which the four players emerged one after another. Beneath their feet, the earth shuddered violently with a muffled groan. The ground cracked open into countless fissures like grotesque scars before collapsing inward, yellow sand pouring frantically into the chasms to form massive sinkholes. Far underground, countless bluespawn unleashed panicked shrieks and howls, clawing with all their might to escape. Yet none could break free from their subterranean cage; they could only watch helplessly as rubble and yellow sand buried them alive. Sand surged, rock fragments flew, and dust filled the sky, gradually swirling upward into a terrifying, all-consuming sandstorm. Staring at the fracturing, collapsing ground, Mantou couldn't help marveling, "That thing really is something else. Took out their whole damn nest in one go!" "That's the sheer quality of the Imperial Engineering Corps for you," Singo bragged before urging, "Don't just stand there gawking. Our objective's done—let's get out of here." In the distance, however, the evil dragon priest had already recognized these "old acquaintances" who had raided a Cult of the Dragon convoy days earlier and escaped his grasp. Fury erupted within him. These traitors had blown up the bluespawn hive right under his nose, inflicting catastrophic losses on the Cult of the Dragon! "Damned Imperials!" Hovering in midair, his deep blue cloak whipping in the gale, the evil dragon priest glared down at the ruined, collapsing earth. His eyes looked ready to burst with rage, sparks of wrathful electricity crackling within his pupils. "You... will pay for this! Vile mortals, face the wrath of Her Majesty Tiamat!" He thrust his dragon-headed scepter skyward, pointing it toward the distant players. Dark clouds churned overhead amid deafening rolls of thunder and crisscrossing flashes of lightning, as though doomsday had arrived. As if answering a divine call, the remaining bluespawn grew fanatical, electric arcs flashing in their eyes. They burst from the sand, dove from the sky, and sprinted across the dunes, lunging recklessly at the players. "Get lost!" Tiansheng Zhankuang swung his battleaxe in a savage horizontal cleave, bisecting several bluespawn lunging head-on. Surrounded by a dozen bluespawn, Tiansheng Zhankuang spun his long-hafted axe in wide sweeps, whirling his entire body until his arms were a blur, whipping up a tempest of axe blades. Every bluespawn that drew near was hacked to pieces. Lightning crackled, foul blood splattered, and severed limbs flew. Like a mobile meat grinder, Tiansheng Zhankuang efficiently cleared the surrounding bluespawn for his companions. Mantou drew two pistols, a ruthless expression on his face as he repeatedly pulled the triggers, bullets howling from the muzzles to punch through bluespawn bodies. Singo skewered a charging bluespawn ambusher with an arrow, pinning it against a rock face, and yelled over the roaring thunder, "Qiuyu, what about your Mass Teleportation?" "Can't use it! The area is affected by divine magic—space is in complete disarray—" Before Xiaye Qiuyu could finish, a hulking bluespawn stormlizard charged at her, lightning crackling wildly across its protruding horn. "Watch out!" Without a second thought, Singo notched an arrow and drew his bow on pure instinct. Whoosh—! An Arrow of Dragon Slaying tore through the air with a piercing shriek, skimming past Xiaye Qiuyu's cheek. Its razor-sharp cross-shaped tip shattered the stormlizard's horn instantly and drove straight through its skull. Unfazed, Xiaye Qiuyu calmly reached out a hand. A searing fireball condensed in her palm and detonated into a cluster of nearby bluespawn, blasting them into charred wreckage. "Mortals, tremble and cower before the blue dragon's thunder!" In the distance, the evil dragon priest raised his dragon-headed scepter. Thunderclouds gathered, amassing terrifying, monumental energy. Boom! A bolt of lightning as thick as a bowl crashed down, its violent fury swallowing Tiansheng Zhankuang whole. Enveloped in blinding arcs of lightning, Tiansheng Zhankuang roared toward the heavens in agony. In midair, he unfurled tattered bat-like wings, transforming once more into a terrifying pit fiend. Whoosh—! His long-hafted axe, cloaked in hellfire, cut through the sky and cleaved several bluespawn ambushers in two. Raging flames enveloped him, forcing back the frenzied monsters. "Awoo—!" A bluespawn ambusher burst from the sand, throwing up clouds of dust, and latched onto Tiansheng Zhankuang's back, sinking vicious fangs deep into his flesh. Tiansheng Zhankuang reached back with his left hand, seized the ambusher's throat, and ripped it off his back without regard for his own torn flesh. Crushing the beast's skull beneath his heel, he shouted to Singo, "There are too many of them! We can't hold out like this!" Singo loosed another shaft that punched through the chest of a bluespawn burrower, piercing its heart. "Hold on just a bit longer! I have a plan!" "Then hurry it up!" Mantou was tangled in close combat with another bluespawn ambusher. Electricity crackled across his body, frizzy sparks blowing his hair into an afro once again. With great difficulty, Mantou drew the dagger at his belt and drove it through the beast's head—only for another ambusher to pounce on his back and savage his neck, making him yelp in agony as blood and shredded flesh flew. "Close your eyes!" Singo yelled. Before his voice even faded, Mantou, Tiansheng Zhankuang, and Xiaye Qiuyu squeezed their eyes shut, paying no mind to anything else. Singo threw on a pair of specially made sunglasses, whipped a metamagic flash grenade from his pack, and hurled it high into the air. Bang! With a sharp crack, a miniature sun seemed to burst in the sky, unleashing a blinding brilliance. For hundreds of meters around, nearly every bluespawn was struck blind, stumbling about like headless flies. They crashed into one another or plummeted unsteadily from the air, screeching in chaotic disarray. "Let's go! Fly up, ignore everything else!" Singo activated a Mass Fly scroll. The four shot upward simultaneously, not stopping until they hovered hundreds of meters in the sky. Then, Singo unclipped a war horn from his hip, brought it to his lips, and blew with all his might— A clarion blast echoed across the horizon. In the distance, over a dozen crimson streaks shot across the sky like falling stars. Only on closer inspection could one tell—they were Redscale Conquerors clad in Skyfire armor, trails of blazing fire roaring from their backs! Mantou put on sunglasses and stared at the distant wyvern knights in shock. "Is that... the Skyfire Wyvern Bombing Flight? You can actually afford to hire them?!" Singo replied casually, "I was the former vice-commander of the Redscale Conquerors, after all. I still have some connections. A slacker like you who can't even get perfect attendance on guild quests wouldn't understand." Ear-splitting shrieks echoed through the air as armored wyverns cut across the sky, leaving crisp white contrails across the heavens as they soared toward the bluespawn. Trailing the howl of death, bombs rained from the bellies of the wyverns like hail, detonating in relentless succession among the hordes of bluespawn. Boom! Boom! Boom! Fiery blasts and dense smoke swallowed the ground. Before countless bluespawn could even see their enemy, bombs from above reduced them to charred fragments. An even denser barrage of detonations followed. Flames swept outward, creating a raging fireline hundreds of meters long that erupted with continuous concussions. The bombing flight operated with lethal efficiency; in just dozens of seconds, hundreds of bluespawn were wiped out by the aerial barrage. Yet the flash grenade's effect was fleeting. The creatures soon recovered from their blindness. Under the evil dragon priest's orders, they flapped their wings frantically and lunged toward the wyverns in the sky. "Useless trash! Catch up to them! For the glory of Her Majesty Tiamat!" the evil dragon priest roared in furious exasperation. Storm clouds spread wildly across the sky, and lightning crashed in pursuit, yet not a single wyvern knight was hit. The empire's standard-issue armor had undergone multiple upgrades, granting them terrifying speeds near the speed of sound. As the wyvern knights tore through the atmosphere, distinct shockwave ripples formed around them like concentric rings on water. Faced with these freakishly fast monsters, both the bluespawn and the evil dragon priest could only watch helplessly from afar, gnashing their teeth in bitter frustration. Yet that was not all. In the distant sky, a massive dark silhouette materialized out of nowhere, evidently dropping its cloaking magic—a wooden sailing ship nearly a hundred meters long, hovering in midair by magic as if drifting across calm waters. Broadside cannon barrels protruded from the flanks of the magical skyship, bearing down on the clustered bluespawn. Boom—! With an earth-shaking roar, pillars of fire erupted from the dark muzzles, pounding into the bluespawn below. In an instant, countless bluespawn were engulfed in fire, their lives reaped by the devastating elemental heavy cannons. Deep, blackened trenches gouged into the desert floor. Mantou's eyes bulged even wider. "A Magic Coin magitech battleship?! You pulled that here too? Those wooden ships are Charlotte's prized treasures!" Singo grinned. "Sorry, but I have some ties with Magic Coin too. They gave me enough face to dispatch a frontline battleship..." Boom! Boom! Boom! Under the combined bombardment of wyvern knights and the magitech battleship, the ground became riddled with craters and scorched ruins, littered everywhere with the blackened remains of bluespawn. Meanwhile, Singo and his party boarded the magitech battleship at leisure and met Mingyue, Magic Coin's vice-guildmaster, who was at the helm for this operation. Mantou eyed the elemental heavy cannons and clicked his tongue. "As expected of a powerhouse guild—loaded with cash. One of these cannons must run several thousand gold dinars, right? Aren't you afraid of losing the ship in some freak accident?" Mingyue smiled, answering with complete confidence, "This magitech battleship is enveloped in multiple layers of magical barriers. Any bluespawn that gets close will only die faster. "Even if we're outmatched, we can cast Greater Invisibility and warp away. Worst comes to worst, we can phase into the Ethereal Plane. We have nothing to fear." Mantou curled his lip. "Don't jinx it..." Right then, thunder crashed. Dense, dark clouds rolled across the sky and smothered the land, churning violently into a fierce tempest. Boom! Lightning tore through the heavens. Inside the storm, even the magical battleship tossed and groaned like a frail skiff in torrential waves. Suddenly, piercing alarms blared throughout the battleship. Red warning lights strobed as a player in the helm shouted, "Vice-Guildmaster! We're detecting an overwhelming energy fluctuation!" "How can that be?" Frowning, Mingyue watched the rolling storm clouds with a grim expression and hurried toward the bridge. "Initiate spatial warp immediately." The player looked back in panic. "N-No good! The surrounding Weave is fluctuating wildly—it's completely unstable! We can't warp right now, or the ship risks tearing apart inside the spatial conduit!" Mingyue gave crisp orders without hesitation: "Then activate maximum magical defenses." "Yes, Vice-Guildmaster!" Arcane circles flared across the magitech battleship one after another. Layer upon layer of magical shields and barriers enveloped the vessel, glowing with radiant, multicolored auras and humming with potent power. Suddenly, Mantou looked up, pointed at the distant storm clouds, and gasped, "Look! What is that?!" Through the churning storm clouds, a colossal silhouette surged, weaving like a leviathan through deep ocean waters, stirring up crisscrossing webs of lightning in its wake. Singo's expression changed abruptly, his face darkening beneath a heavy gloom. "That's... a dragon. An ancient blue dragon!" Boom! Thunder rumbled as a blinding lightning bolt carved through the heavens like a greatsword, illuminating the darkness and revealing the terrifying true form within the clouds. A colossal dragon nearly sixty meters long emerged high in the sky. Shrouded in deep indigo scales that gleamed under the lightning, the dread blue dragon slowly beat its wings. Lightning danced between its wingtips, and the storm trembled beneath its form in an overwhelming display of majesty. The evil dragon priest dropped to his knees, trembling with fervor as he cried aloud, "Praise be to the Thunder Tyrant, the Horn of Tiamat! The Dragon God who commands storm and sand!" Across thousands of meters, the blue dragon turned its gaze toward the party on the battleship. Electric sparks danced within vertical pupils, radiating undisguised contempt and murderous intent. Mingyue drew a sharp breath and yelled to the helmsman, "Run! At any cost!" In the next instant, thunder boomed as lightning shattered the sky. The ancient blue dragon was already looming before the magitech battleship. Wearing a savage grin, its vast wings cast a suffocating shadow over the dozens of people aboard. "Shameful traitors..." The ancient blue dragon parted its jaws slightly, blinding lightning and crackling arcs spilling from between its teeth. Boom! With an earth-shattering thunderclap, the magitech battleship was cleaved clean in two. Trailing thick black smoke, it plunged toward the ground, while nearly every player aboard was reduced to charred wreckage beneath the catastrophic lightning.