High in the sky, Laidesi rode his red dragon, clutching his chest.
Blood dripped from the wound across his torso—a blade slash carved out by Gareth.
Even after that single strike had pierced through two dragons and several Githyanki dragon knights, its residual force had still shattered his magical ward, impaling him straight through.
Fortunately, it had missed his heart. Even among wizards, the Githyanki possessed formidable constitutions, allowing Laidesi to survive his grave injury and barely manage to flee upon his red dragon.
Laidesi was a general of the Githyanki, in command of this very astral invasion.
With his flight, the battle was lost.
Yet Laidesi did not believe it was his fault, and he presumed the rest of his people felt the same.
Things were never supposed to go like this.
The original plan had been simple: arrive, fight a brief war with a faction of humans, and claim an expansive kingdom as their new domain.
From there, the Githyanki could begin breeding in vast numbers to conquer the plane.
Laidesi was intimately familiar with such operations; it was how they always did things.
Once their population swelled, they would rule this realm, pillaging all its resources back into the Astral Plane to nourish the Githyanki.
That was how the script should have played out. The Evil Dragon Goddess had explicitly promised as much.
Having collaborated many times before, Laidesi never doubted her word.
Yet right from the start, the script had gone completely off the rails.
The white-clad humans proved extraordinarily strong, far exceeding their projections and inflicting severe losses on the Githyanki. Even so, the casualties up to that point had remained acceptable. Once they secured their territory, they could recover their strength in short order.
What followed, however, defied all reason and common sense.
The land of an entire kingdom simply took flight and soared away, leaving behind an expanse that turned into an open sea.
The cities were gone, and all the supplies within them had vanished alongside the land. Their prize had disappeared into thin air.
Even the Evil Dragon Goddess seemed caught off guard. She left them waiting several days before issuing new directives, instructing Laidesi to lead the Githyanki overseas in search of the dragon clans native to this world.
He had expected powerful reinforcements, only to discover that the native dragons were living in far worse misery than the Githyanki themselves, with nearly every dragon visibly malnourished.
After that came integrating these dragons and establishing a base of operations overseas. Everything had gone rather smoothly—until they crossed paths with that terrifying Headless Horseman.
Compared to him, the dragon knights they took such immense pride in were nothing more than children.
Caught completely off guard, Astral red dragons and countless Githyanki were hacked to pieces by the headless warrior.
Upon witnessing his horrifying prowess, the overseas dragons who had already agreed to collaborate immediately turned fence-sitters, wavering back and forth.
Had Laidesi not still required their aid, he would have ordered the slaughter of every last overseas dragon and seized their Dragon Island for himself.
After much deliberation, he realized he could only rely on his own people.
Laidesi was forced to patiently investigate the Headless Horseman's background. Not only did he have to settle his kin overseas, but he also had to negotiate with their surrounding neighbors.
It was an utter humiliation. Across other planes, the Githyanki were conquerors; never before had they humbled themselves in such a manner. Yet as a legendary wizard endowed with enough intellect to judge the circumstances, Laidesi knew he had to endure for the time being.
Later, once the Githyanki had secured a firm foothold, Laidesi found his first allies—the ixitxachitl.
These demon-blooded monsters hit it off with him immediately. Demons thrived on chaotic slaughter, and the Githyanki desperately needed such abyssal creatures to help expand their dominion across the ocean.
Everything began returning to track, and Laidesi formulated tactics tailored specifically against the Headless Horseman.
A reckless brute was easy enough to counter.
Events unfolded just as he anticipated. The departure of the Master of the Dragon Tomb granted them the perfect opportunity.
Laidesi believed his plan was flawless, requiring only competent execution from his subordinates. Who could have imagined that instead of news of triumph, what arrived was an infuriated Headless Horseman?
Even with the initial tactic's failure, Laidesi was not without contingencies; he had prepared several alternative strategies against the headless foe.
Yet this time, Laidesi bore witness to Gareth at full power.
When fighting alongside Canggu, ninety percent of Gareth's focus was devoted to protecting his wife. For Canggu's safety, the dragon knight would instinctively use his own body as a shield.
This time, however, Gareth was no longer riding his wife, but an eight-legged giant steed.
This was a true mount, a comrade-in-arms, a tool—one that required none of Gareth's protective concern.
With his full attention unleashed upon the battlefield, Gareth became an entirely different being. The headless warrior seemed to possess hundreds of unseen eyes, making flawless split-second judgments no matter where an attack originated.
Several times, Laidesi watched linked fireballs engulf him entirely, only for Gareth to emerge unscathed from the thick smoke, cleaving through a dozen Githyanki with a single sweep of his blade.
The Headless Horseman could pinpoint the weakest seam in a saturated assault within a heartbeat, carving out a corridor with his long blade faster than any ranger could ever react.
And when Gareth charged, the chain-blade in his grasp turned into the scythe of the Grim Reaper, reaping swaths of lives with every sweep.
A single blow did not merely sever flesh in twain; it incinerated the soul into ash beneath purplish-black flames.
Tactics were useless. The Githyanki on the ground could not form ranks at all, with over a hundred trampled to death under any casual charge Gareth made.
Laidesi tried every possible means to halt Gareth, preparing to exploit the dragons' aerial advantage for an airstrike. Yet before he could act, wild gales swept across the sky, and endless dark clouds rolled in to envelop the Astral red dragons. Beneath that corrosive pall, the red dragons' scales began to smoke, drawing agonizing shrieks from the beasts.
A cloud of corruption spanning such vast scale was beyond the casting ability of a single individual. Laidesi frantically searched for the culprits, only to see five ghost ships surface from the sea.
Swarming specters circled their sails; it was their collective casting that had woven this wide-area spell.
Aige's Silent Night Pirates had arrived, serving as the final stone that crushed the Githyanki.
Knowing the situation was hopeless, Laidesi ordered a retreat without hesitation, abandoning tens of thousands of Githyanki to hold the rear while he led away all the ixitxachitl riders and dragon knights.
Yet as he was forced to lower his altitude to issue commands, Gareth leaped high into the air atop his eight-legged steed, hurling his long blade straight at him.
That single strike nearly took Laidesi's life.
Now, the Githyanki were severely crippled. Only ten thousand or so ixitxachitl riders remained, and a mere twenty-two Astral red dragons survived.
To suffer such devastating losses in just a few days could only be blamed on preparations made in entirely the wrong direction.
It felt as though someone were plucking the strings of fate, playing a dirge for the Githyanki.
Just as Laidesi thought he had reached the nadir of his misfortune and could sink no lower, a diminutive figure appeared before them, blocking their path.
Before he could even identify the newcomer, a brilliant, dazzling gold flared from the figure, stinging Laidesi's eyes so sharply that he had to squeeze them shut.
The red dragon decelerated, staring warily at the intruder with flame breath churning in its gullet.
Meanwhile, Laidesi sensed the stranger's perception locking firmly onto him.
As a legendary wizard, Laidesi knew all too well what that meant: the slightest rash movement on his part would invite an onslaught of devastating spells.
Yet how could the locking distance be so immense?
An ordinary spell possessed a range of forty to fifty meters. Powerful wizards or bloodline sorcerers could employ methods to extend that range, but at most, it reached around a hundred meters. Air-to-ground strikes were effective precisely because most spells could still plummet to earth even after exceeding their effective range, suffering only from degraded accuracy.
At this moment, however, Laidesi stood at least five hundred meters away. The reach of the stranger's perception was absurd. Could he truly cast a spell from five hundred meters out?
Impossible, utterly impossible. At such a distance, even an arrow could hardly find its mark.
Alas, that suffocating sense of crisis still smothered Laidesi, leaving him paralyzed with dread.
On the other side, Anbaixiu sat upon his Golden Throne, having long since locked onto Laidesi from afar.
If an ordinary wizard's spellcasting prowess was rated at ten, the threshold for a legendary wizard was at least a hundred. A sham like Anbaixiu had originally sat at a mere eighty, but augmented by the Golden Throne, his casting capacity could reach five to six hundred—and climb even higher if he was willing to burn through his precious gold.
Numbers were merely a broad approximation and could not definitively measure combat prowess, but they granted Anbaixiu an overwhelming edge. His casting range defied conventional logic; even separated by several hundred meters, he could effortlessly lob several volleys of linked fireballs.
That white-haired Githyanki flying at the very front had to be the leader of these toads. Mark it down as their poor luck: as the first batch of enemies to appear, they would serve splendidly to make his name renowned.
The magic mirror was recording right now, and users across other mirrors were surely watching the live broadcast.
For the sake of business, he could not afford to bungle the performance.
Thus, shedding his usual amiable, business-first persona, Anbaixiu addressed the Githyanki with solemn majesty: "Invaders from the Astral Plane, to think you have come to join the fray as well. Bringing an entire army just to slay me—isn't that a touch too grandiose?"
Laidesi was utterly bewildered. What on earth was this person babbling about?
Drifting closer to take a sharper look, Laidesi caught sight of Anbaixiu's skull.
A lich? Why was he blocking their path?
Laidesi remained baffled for a long moment until his eyes fell upon the palm-sized island below.
Surely not... Could this creature truly believe the Githyanki were trying to seize his territory? Did he think they hoarded any scrap of trash they came across?
A plot of land that tiny could barely fit the Githyanki standing shoulder-to-shoulder; who would covet such a thing?
This was truly a case of dogs bullying a fallen dragon. When had the Githyanki ever endured such an indignity? How dared a mere lich make trouble before them?
After scrutinizing the area repeatedly, Laidesi confirmed there were no ambushes nearby—merely faint traces of undead aura on the isle. Only then did he sneer at Anbaixiu, "What an idiot. I despise the undead above all else, and you've thrown yourself right into my path!"
It was time to vent his pent-up rage!
Just as Laidesi was about to order the lich torn to shreds, Anbaixiu spoke again: "Wait. Do you truly wish to make an enemy of me? I have never intended to provoke conflict; every time, I act purely out of self-defense."
Laidesi sensed that something was amiss. Was the lich showing weakness?
He had leapt out to provoke them of his own accord, when staying hidden would have kept him safe, and now he was backing down?
Refusing to waste any more breath, Laidesi barked, "Tear his bones apart and burn his island to cinder!"
Roaring ferociously, the red dragons lunged forward. Anbaixiu let out a sigh loud enough for all to hear: "You forced my hand."
Anbaixiu raised his right hand, and the heavens suddenly blazed with blinding radiance.
Laidesi looked up, his right hand trembling so violently in horror that he dropped the staff he relied upon for his very life.
By Ao, what in the world is that?!
Hundreds of meteors plummeted from the sky, blanketing every last Githyanki beneath them.
It was Anbaixiu's long-prepared premier epic spell—Hundredfold Meteor Swarm!
Chapter 385