The Blue Dragon's Head

Aside from the monks of the Shaolin Temple, the most conspicuous were the Dragonscale Marines of the Machine Cult. Tall and robust, clad in bio-armor, wielding chainswords and bolters, they roared as they charged toward the evil dragonspawn. Among these Dragonscale Marines, Gangtie Kuangchao had undergone the highest degree of modification, possessed the finest equipment, and bore the most striking appearance—nearly five meters tall, a mouth lined with sharp teeth, and muscles rounded like iron spheres. At the very least, he was already far removed from ordinary humanity. "For the Emperor!" Gangtie Kuangchao bellowed in fury. Whirling his high-speed revving chainsword, he brought it crashing down, splitting a bluespawn godslayer's dragon-skull shield cleanly in half from top to bottom. The bluespawn godslayer thrust its head forward, seeking to bite Gangtie Kuangchao, but a gun barrel of exaggerated caliber jabbed out, pressing flush against its throat. *Bang!* Accompanied by a colossal blast, brain matter splattered out. The bluespawn godslayer's head was riddled with holes by the shot, blood and brains spurting everywhere. Behind Gangtie Kuangchao, several bluespawn ambushers pounced with fierce roars, only to be flung away one-handed by immense strength, tumbling across the ground again and again. "Brother Zhankuang, let me!" Not far away, another Dragonscale Marine grinned savagely, raising a heavy warhammer and bringing it smashing down upon those bluespawn ambushers. *Crack!* Accompanied by the crisp snap of shattering bones, the heads of the bluespawn ambushers burst apart like blossoms, splintering into pieces all over the ground. Gangtie Kuangchao exchanged a grin with him, then plunged back into the swarm of dragonspawn, wildly swinging his chainsword. A single sweep reaped several evil dragonspawn, a true display of effortless slaughter. This band of Dragonscale Marines was like a razor-sharp dagger thrust violently into the dragon horde, tearing its battle line to shreds. Several Dragonscale Marines had even chosen to airdrop behind enemy lines just to relish the thrill of wreaking havoc across enemy territory. Beyond the unaligned skirmishers and lone stragglers, the players also featured prestigious powerhouse guilds like the Machine Cult, Magic Coin, and Wangquan. Steering colossal airships and mechs, they crushed their way through the evil dragonspawn with overwhelming force, sweeping forward unstoppable each time. *Boom!* Accompanied by a deafening roar, a thick pillar of light blasted toward the earth, instantly engulfing several evil dragonspawn and leaving only incinerated ash strewn across the ground. Immense shadows fell upon the land. Seeing everything before them darken, people hurriedly looked up to find battlecruisers hovering high in the sky. Each was nearly a hundred meters long, resembling great whales swimming through the air. Gathering in fleets, they formed a spectacular sight that took one's breath away. With them came rapidly spreading clouds of steam. The billowing vapor churned like ocean tides, gradually blanketing the battlefield until only the faint silhouettes of the giant ships could be discerned. Faced with such massive steel behemoths, even the brutal, arrogant evil dragonspawn felt instinctive terror. They could not help recoiling, letting out hoarse growls and whimpers. In the distance, the evil dragon priests brandished their scepters, screaming themselves hoarse: "Damned useless trash! Brainless beasts, can't you see? That's just a heap of scrap metal! Get moving!" The power Tiamat had bestowed upon her priests poured forth. Heavy black fog drove the evil dragonspawn, rendering them even more bloodthirsty, frenzied, and heedless of death. "Roar—" Accompanied by harsh, raspy shrieks crackling with static electricity, over a hundred storm wyverns swarmed around a sky battleship. Flapping their wings erratically, they sought to rip open the warship's armor with razor claws and fangs. Yet against the hardened alloy, the bites and scratches of these storm wyverns left only faint white scores. The storm wyverns spewed dazzling blasts of Lightning Breath at the airship, but to no avail. Arcs of electricity crackled and snapped, yet the battleship remained unscathed, even gathering the electrical energy they discharged to recharge its own elemental cannons. Spurred by the calls of the evil dragon priests, the storm wyverns attacked with growing fury, throwing themselves recklessly against this "gentle giant" that had yet to strike back. Inside the bridge, however, the tech-priests calmly manned their consoles. Red lights flared and flashed across the warship as a cold synthesized voice sounded: "Multiple enemy targets detected approaching. Initiating repulsion field—" *Boom!* Accompanied by a colossal roar, a crimson shockwave erupted outward from the sky battleship. The forceful concussion instantly blasted away every storm wyvern clinging to the vessel, causing many to vomit blood and break their fangs amid endless shrieks of agony. Yet the Machine Cult's counterattack had only begun. The mechanical voice droned on: "Acquiring enemy targets. Confirmed targets: eleven... twenty-three... thirty-six... fifty-seven..." Red targeting beams lanced from the ship, painting the vulnerable heart regions of nearly every storm wyvern within seconds. The next instant, a volley of over a hundred armor-piercing shells burst forth, instantly piercing the chests of the storm wyverns and tearing through their hearts. Missing virtually none, it swept away the blue-dragon-like monsters in one fell swoop. The storm wyverns flapped their wings feebly a few times before their eyes glazed over, tumbling one after another from the sky toward the earth. Before the pinnacle creations of the Empire—masterpieces marrying cutting-edge technology and magic—even these ferocious bluespawn were no different from common sparrows or wild geese. Over on the side of the Magic Coin guild, the magic battleships crafted by the wizards lacked the exaggerated killing efficiency of the Machine Cult, but thanks to formidable magical enhancements built upon mountains of gold, they could unleash firepower equivalent to sixth- and seventh-circle evocation spells. Beams of radiance and fiery blasts pulsing with immense magical power rained from above, blasting countless evil dragonspawn into the air. Meanwhile, players from the Wangquan guild had secured control over many steam tanks. Piloting these colossal iron beasts, they rampaged through the dragonspawn hordes, bombarding them relentlessly until the rams on their prows were thoroughly soaked in blood. The players were no longer what they used to be. The fools who once fled in panic from goblins had now become a force on the continent of Feanso that none could ignore. No matter where they were deployed, this army of over a million class-holders exerted a terrifying influence. They were even qualified to reshape the landscape of the continent of Feanso—and indeed the entire Material Plane. In this war, the players' arrival proved decisive: in just several tens of minutes, thirty percent of the evil dragonspawn that had crossed onto the northern rim of the Locke Great Rift Valley were annihilated. Had the evil dragonspawn not been so overwhelmingly numerous—practically endless—the army of the Cult of the Dragon might truly have been routed in short order. "Damned Imperials!" Across the Locke Great Rift Valley, Jude watched this unfold with eyes nearly splitting with rage, his hand on the scepter trembling slightly. The Archbishop of the Blue Dragon Sect spread his arms and raised the dragon-head scepter high, shouting in fanatical fervor: "With a greedy tongue, I extol Your name—Tiamat! Spoke of Ruin! Supreme Queen coiled in the Nine Hells! "Let my ambition be as the deluge of Your descent, drowning the dust of cowardice! With treasures shall Your throne be raised; with white bones shall Your sacred path be paved! Let mortal wails become hymns offered unto the one and only Mother of Dragons!" *Rumble!* Before his words had faded, lightning rent the sky, illuminating half the heavens. Heavy dark clouds gathered, forming massive horns, blue scales, and pulsing lightning—the clouds had shaped themselves into the visage of a colossal dragon head. "Praise the Mother of Evil Dragons!" "A miracle!" Every devout follower of the Cult of the Dragon looked up to the sky, their eyes burning with fanatical reverence—that was the blue dragon head of Tiamat, known as the Head of Greed and Ruin. Across the Locke Great Rift Valley, the allied soldiers grew tense at once, shouting, "Watch out! The cultists are going to unleash divine magic!" "Block it!" The wizards from the City of Myriad Laws raised their staves in unison and chanted incantations. A colossal barrier of magical light rose with a rumble, standing between them and the heavens. The Empire's dragon-pact sorcerers hovered in midair, conjuring walls of fire, while the paladins of the Kingdom of Seleucia held high their holy blades as brilliant auras of protection surged into the sky. Joining forces, the allied troops wove their disparate powers together. Spell lights intersected and blended, ultimately forming a colossal barrier spanning thousands of meters. And high above, the blue dragon's head moved! Under the gaze of countless eyes, the blue dragon's head emerged from the storm clouds and leaned down. Fierce electric sparks flickered within its slit-pupiled, abyssal-blue eyes, churning with boundless thirst for ruin. The blue dragon slowly opened its maw. Blinding lightning shone from between its fangs, crackling bolts coiling around its jaws, while a thunderous drone that sent shivers down the spine vibrated in its throat. *Boom—* The next moment, countless bolts of lightning erupted, tearing through the heavens before converging into a terrifying deluge of lightning that crashed down upon the allied magical barrier. In a single instant, the barrier, stacked over a dozen layers deep, was torn through like brittle paper, failing to offer even the slightest hindrance. The lightning breath surged onward with terrifying might, sweeping across the allied positions, swallowing, shattering, and obliterating everything in its path. The lightning breath slammed into the fiercest section of the frontline. Allied soldiers and evil dragonspawn alike were engulfed by the thunderbolts, reduced to charred husks across the ground within seconds. The lightning breath swept across steam tanks. The iron-forged behemoths burst apart instantly, melted by the searing heat generated by the electrical current, exploding into blackened wreckage with thunderous bangs. The sky battleships in the air retreated at maximum speed the moment the breath weapon fired, rushing toward the rear. Yet the lightning breath followed them like a shadow, branching into several bolts. Like swift leopards, the bolts struck toward one of the giant sky battleships at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye. *Boom!* The seemingly indestructible warship was cleft in two in an instant, bursting into flames and plunging toward the earth trailing thick black smoke. Among chromatic dragons, the breath of a blue dragon was the most potent, and Tiamat's blue dragon breath epitomized the forces of ruin and death, capable of destroying any mortal thing in the world. Jude spread his arms, laughing maniacally amid the swirling lightning. His half-human, half-dragon face, encrusted with scales, looked ghastly in the glare of the thunderbolts: "Insignificant insects! This is the power of Lady Tiamat! You shall all be reduced to ashes in thunder and lightning!" The lightning breath plowed across the land again and again, tearing through the allied forces. Even metallic dragons in the sky, upon taking hits from this terrifying breath, were scorched black from head to tail, crashing to the ground with agonizing wails. Seizing this rare opening, the evil dragonspawn surged across the rift, wildly assaulting the allied battle line. The allies attempted to muster a defense, but under the ceaseless onslaught of lightning, they were utterly incapable of mounting effective resistance. Just then, disciplined battle cries echoed from the distance. "With an iron fist uphold order; the Dragon Lord above all!" A host of paladins clad in reddish-gold heavy plate and gripping spears appeared in the distance, led by a young blond man—they were the Dragon Oath Paladins, and at their head stood Anthony, the Judgement Knight. Anthony held his spear high, his gaze austere as he bellowed, "The time to dedicate ourselves to His Majesty Cassius has come! For the Empire! For the Dragon Lord!" "For the Dragon Lord!" the Dragon Oath Paladins roared in unison. Though only numbering a few hundred, their aura was overwhelming. Before the echo died away, plumes of golden fire rose from their bodies, coalescing in midair into a massive red dragon. The flames raged furiously, radiating scorching heat that distorted the air. Yet this was not all. Misha unfurled her dragon wings and soared into the sky, a thrilling brilliance flashing in her golden eyes. "Supreme Cinder Emperor, Lord of Anzeta, Wielder of Catastrophe—grant me power enough to stand against Tiamat!" She extended her hand, pointing toward the phantom red dragon in the air. Intricate runes manifested behind her, and a surge of mighty power flew from her fingertips, fusing into the phantom red dragon. "Roar—" As this power surged into it, the red dragon phantom swelled several times larger. Flapping its wings, it ascended high above the cloud layer to confront Tiamat's blue dragon head across the expanse, releasing an earth-shattering roar. The red dragon phantom opened its gaping maw, spewing a pillar of blazing white fire that blasted toward the blue dragon head Jude had summoned. In an instant, lightning and fire collided and intertwined. The clash of the two forces triggered a cataclysmic explosion; powerful shockwaves swept across the sky as sparks of electricity and streams of flame scattered in all directions. In the distance, Adrian had been watching the battle with bated breath, but for reasons he could not explain, as though possessed, he raised his longsword. A pillar of golden light surged into the sky—the power of the Sun God! The golden light merged into the red dragon phantom. Delicate golden patterns instantly spread across its crimson scales, and flecks of golden light blossomed within the fiery breath spewing from its mouth, making it burn as bright as the sun. *Boom!* At last, the breath poured forth by the red dragon phantom overpowered the lightning breath, driving it back and entirely scattering the blue dragon's head high in the heavens, dispersing that wicked, chaotic divine power into the sky.