The purple-robed adept that personally killed the Third Grade dragon knight seemed to be a bloodline adept. He once again turned into a monstrous purple-eyed giant, standing above the air as the purple eyes on his body continuously shot out hundreds of terrifying purple beams. Each individual purple beam might not have been very powerful, but when a hundred of those beams were concentrated on a single person, their might was incomparable.
Greem also suspected that these purple beams had some sort of special magical effect. Otherwise the green dragons wouldn't avoid them as frantically as they were. It was almost as if the dragons themselves couldn't be immune to the effects, even with their amazing physiques.
That green-robed female adept also appeared to be an impressive individual. With a twist of her body, she turned into a terrifying Flying Venom Dragon and forcefully fought with the dragons.
Flying Venom Dragon? Purple-Eyed Giant?
Greem quickly scanned through his mind and found the relevant information.
Flying Venom Dragon. A magical creature of the poison attribute. A hybrid dragon that could go up to the Fifth Grade. If one were to truly trace its roots, it was not a pure-bred dragon. In fact, it was one of the tens of thousands of hybrid dragon races that the dragons had created.
It was rumored that the dragons' unbridled lust and Ultimate Transfiguration, that allowed them to transform into any race, had allowed them to continue undertaking their ambitious plan of ‘seeding’ the worlds, regardless of size or race. Thus, unique hybrid dragons with dragon bloodlines could be found on almost any material plane.
And the Flying Venom Dragon was one of many hybrid dragon races!
They looked just like a green dragon that had been skinned. The surface of their bodies were covered with a layer of pungent and viscous green liquid instead of scales, and their most powerful weapon was their terrifying venom spit. If one were to look at the racial traits of the two dragons, the toxicity of the flying venom dragon's poison was three times that of the green dragon's, while its corrosiveness was five times that of the green dragon's.
Perhaps because they were too ugly, the progenitors of the green dragons, the Emerald Dragons, refused to acknowledge their identity as a branch of the green dragons. This caused a feud between the flying venom dragons and the source of their bloodline– the green dragons.
Also, both of these dragon races had the same progenitor and source of bloodline. This meant that as long as the flying venom dragons continuously devoured their progenitor green dragons, they would be able to rapidly strengthen their bloodline powers. Every time a flying venom dragon met a green dragon, a massive battle to the death would ensue!
The purple-eyed giant seemed to be a branch of the Ancient Giants.
In the period of time when the multiverse had just been born, and the order within the planar worlds had yet to be established, the most powerful race active amongst the worlds were all varieties of giants.
Sand Giants, Evil Giants, Hundred-Eye Giants, Hermit Giants, Forest Giants, Solar Giants, Oceanic Giants, Cloud Giants, Flame Giants, Stone Giants…
These terrifying giants, that easily reached a hundred meters tall, had ruled the material planes for up to a million years. Sadly, with the change of the planar laws, their powerful strength turned into a burden instead, and the giant races quickly retired from the stage of history.
While most of the powerful Ancient Giants had vanished, their bloodline had passed down over the tens of thousands of years, creating powerful bloodline creatures.
Today one could still find Frost Giants, Storm Giants, Hill Giants, Cyclopes, and Hundred-Arm Giants in the material planes. These were all giants with the blood of Ancient Giants.
However, Greem had never heard of the purple-eyed giant that the purple-robed adept had turned into. He had reason to suspect that this was most likely a mutated bloodline that resulted from some sort of magical pollution.
This meant that this was a mutated bloodline that had come out of a magical laboratory!
Greem could see the shadows of the ancient Hundred-Eye Giant and the Beholder in this purple-eyed giant. As for whether there were even more odd bloodlines in the mix, that was not something that Greem could tell.
Chapter 233
Blood and flesh was everywhere on the ground.
The dragons roared in the skies.
The witcher-knights used to be unstoppable in their own plane, but had finallly been forced to bow down before the might of the evil adepts.
They, who had never experienced the cruelty of planar wars, could only charge forward with their hot blood and reckless valor. Still, they were unable to smash apart that translucent light barrier glowing with elementium radiance. Meanwhile, they were subjected to a rainfall of violent spells, tragically falling one after another.
There were as many as 3,900 witcher-knights that had made it through the forest of death and to the tower. However, with the activation of the war tower, their numbers quickly dwindled. It was merely a fantasy to dream of breaking apart the tower with just their physical bodies!
The entire battlefield was soaked in a storm of blood as the witcher-knights fell to the ground one by one, screaming and struggling.
There was no longer a single patch of untouched land around the tower.
There were only exploding fireballs, sizzling acid swamps, and blinding lightning prisons…
Countless heads, with their expressions of shock frozen on their hideous faces, were kicked about by the scrambling knights as they ran about. Numerous broken corpses with all kinds of symptoms of death laid haphazardly about the scorched earth and pools of blood. Flesh and charred bones mixed with all sorts of filthy substances, leaving none of the corpses recognizable to anyone.
Shattered longswords, twisted runic bows, fragmented colt corpses, as well as the broken bodies of knights… they were everywhere on the battlefield, leaving an indelible mark on any who the saw scene!
Compared to the battle between the powerful in the skies, the battle on the ground no longer affected the outcome of the war today. The future of this plane rested solely on the backs of those shapes in the sky!
The activation of the war tower hadn’t only given the adepts a platform to exert their strength to the fullest. More importantly, it used its powerful control over elementium to forcefully create a free zone around the tower that freed the adepts from the effects of the local planar laws.
Here, the adepts from another world no longer needed to endure the fetters of the planar laws. They could finally use all of their abilities. When the Fourth Grade Holy Knight Willis magnificently appeared in the skies before the adepts' tower, a strange illusory silhouette appeared before his path.
It was Adept Sarubo's soul projection!
Due to the upper limit of powers within this plane, Sarubo could only exhibit prowess equal to the peak of Fourth Grade, even if he projected all of his strength here. It might not sound like much of an advantage! However, this was a Fourth Grade projection with the vast knowledge and mind of a Sixth Grade Great Adept.
Thus, when the two finally clashed, even the intense Third Grades’ battle instantly lost its spotlight.
If one said that low-grade adepts still relied on the might of powerful spells or physical strength to fight with enemies, then the battle of high-grade adepts was a matter of manipulating, utilizing, and countering with planar laws.
The Fourth Grade human-shaped soul projection stood silently in the air. No matter what methods Willis used, he was unable to even touch it. Be it the poison mist dragon breath of the dragon beneath him, or his own violent and ferocious knight battle techniques, they would all pass through the projection, blasting the tower behind instead.
It was like… like that human projection didn't even exist on this plane!
As Willis contemplated how to change this helpless situation, the counterattack arrived.
The projections attack took the form of numerous grey beams. Every time one of these beam
s landed on a green dragon or dragon knight, it instantly caused the affected limb to wither and the blood and flesh to die. The terrifying aura of death could only be neutralized by life energy several times greater than the aura.
Willis' powerful knight battle techniques had lost their advantage against these odd death beams, and his fragile human form could not resist corrosion by these death energies. With no choice left, Willis roared and transformed into a massive green dragon with fine scales covering his entire body. He had to use his tough and resilient dragon scales and his powerful life energies to delay the damage of the the death energies.
Besides the death beams, the projection also continuously shot out sharp bone spears. Each spear had powerful penetration abilities and could drill a hole through the tough dragon scales. Almost instantly, the Third Grade Green Dragon Aufreyr had been riddled with holes and fell with from the sky with a cry of agony.
A one-sided fight. A completely one-sided fight!
Even though the two were both at the Fourth Grade, the projection’s strange abilities were enough to crush Willis in all aspects. After all, Willis only had his overpowering physical strength. Based on Willis' combat style, Greem was sure that he had an extremely unique dragon bloodline.
This knights' leader, respected by all witcher-knights, was most likely a half-dragon. Moreover, the fact that he was able to successfully cross the threshold into Fourth Grade probably had much to do with the dragon blood flowing through his body.
Given this, it seemed that the Dragon Valley behind the knight's kingdom wasn't as simple as he previously thought!
The witcher-knights on the ground were no longer a threat to the war tower. Under Fügen’s lead, all of the adepts joined hands and cast a terrifying large scale spell. A single monstrous ice crystal bombardment later, and a Second Grade green dragon was sealed within a three-meter-thick ice crystal.
With the powerful addition of the war tower, the already disadvantaged green dragon squad was instantly thrown into disarray. The three green dragons who remained, with the dragon knights still on their backs, were chased about by the terrifying monsters that the two adepts had turned into. Defeat was just a matter of time for them.
Thirty minutes later, following a pained dragon roar, the Green Dragon Willis fell from the sky. His large dragon wings had been shackled by white bone-chains that had appeared out of nowhere.
However, the projection didn't take the opportunity to dive down and deal the killing blow. Instead it raised its head and gazed at a large cloud on the horizon. He spoke coldly, "Are you not going to act after looking on for so long? Since when did ambushing from the back become a habit of you dragons?"
The white clouds in the sky dispersed.
Two exceptionally large dragons revealed themselves.
Streamlined dark green dragon scales, wicked and terrifying horns, large wings covered with fine scales, powerful hind legs, and their gigantic snouts filled with sharp teeth…
Judging from the dark color of their dragon scales and their tremendously powerful dragon's aura that caused others to tremble in fear… these two were Fourth Grade Dragons.
Unlike Willis and his mixed-bloodline, the two dragons that appeared now were actual Fourth Grade dragons. Moreso, they were adolescent dragons at the peak of their life cycle.
The majestic dragon in front slowly beat its wings as it hovered in the sky. Its large amber eyes stared unblinkingly at the projection before it. Respectfully, the dragon said, "O powerful adept, the Taerar Green Dragons greet you!"
The words the dragon spoke were naturally in Dragontongue. Most people wouldn't understand it, but how would the adepts known as 'servants and guardians of knowledge” not be able to comprehend?
The war tower’s bombardment had paused under instructions from Adept Fügen. The skies regained their peace.
Both parties involved in the war looked at the projection as well as the two dragons that had arrived.
In this sort of cruel planar battlefield, the true determining factors in the conclusion of this war were these powerful individuals. No matter how intense the battle below was, or how many casualties, once the powerhouses on your side fell, turning the tides was but a simple matter!
It wasn't just the adepts within the tower that were waiting silently for orders from their leaders. Even the bloody and frantic radiant-knights below had stopped their attacks and gazed at the sky, waiting for their fates to be decided.
No. Not just their fates, but also the fate of this entire plane!
"The Taerar Green Dragons? I seem to have heard this name before. If I'm not mistaken, they are… they are the subordinate race of the Thalgus Emerald Dragons!" The projection hesitated for a second.
Although the adepts could understand Dragontongue, it was still difficult for them to speak in the language. This had to do with the vocal chord structure of dragons as well as their unique pronunciations. Thus, Adept Sarubo's projection could only reply with the commonly used language of the adepts.
"Your vast knowledge deserves my respect. I, the clan leader of the Taerar Green Dragons, Raistlin, am here because I wish to bring away my clan members!"
"Only your clan members?" There was a toying tone to Adept Sarubo's words.
"Only my clam members!" Green Dragon Clan Leader Raistlin's words were incomparably firm.
With a dragon’s voice, even their whispers would be thunderous in the ears of normal people. Not to mention Raistlin had roared out these words firmly like he was making an oath.
Under the war tower, in the forest and on the hills…
Countless witcher-knights, spellbreaker knights, and radiant knights looked at each other when they heard this, but no one knew what the dragon and the adept were talking about. Only the few green dragons and Willis, whose wings had been bound and was struggling to get up, understood Raistlin's words.
"No… we cannot give up!" Willis struggled to raise his head and roared loudly with all his strength, "They are all my subordinates, I cannot abandon them like this. Lord father, we still have a chance of victory! If we work together, we will definitely be able to defeat these evil adepts… "
Adept Sarubo's projection smiled coldly as a wicked and chilly grin appeared on his face.
Raistlin bent his body slightly, calmly looking at the struggling Willis with his large eyes.
"Willis, my child, are you still unable to recognize your identity even now? These humans are only your subordinates and your men. But now the ones facing death are your actual clansmen! Do you intend to let Aufreyr and Ysondre die for a bunch of your subordinates?"
An expression of agony and struggle appeared on Willis' face.
He looked around him and saw the green dragon Ysondre frozen within a thick ice crystal, as well as Aufreyr lying in a pool of his own blood with white bone spears still stuck in his body.
Willis closed his eyes painfully. Large tears trickled down his face.
Even though he didn't want to acknowledge it, he knew it very well. They had lost this war!
This plane had lost all hope!
Chapter 234
The dragons left!
Even the three dragons that had been wounded took to the skies with the help of their companions. They disappeared on the horizon without even looking back.
None of the dragons turned to explain the situation to the witcher-knights and naturally none of them tried to help the knights retreat.
The resolve of the witcher-knights instantly crumbled when they saw the dragons take to the sky and leave. Be it the two abandoned dragon knights, or the numerous wounded witcher-knights, all they could do was stare wide-eyed as the cruel reality unfolded before them.
Their past glory and valor was now scattered to the winds, never to be regained!
A deep and rumbling horn rang out, signaling the surviving knights to finally start their retreat!
For a moment the entire forest was filled with the frantic witcher-knights, fleeing like hounds that had
lost their homes.
They no longer cared about their injured companions or their knight's honor amidst their panicked retreat. They threw away their swords and knives, took off their armors, and drove into the woods, running away from this tragic land of defeat without ever turning back.
The adepts did not pursue the defeated knights. Instead they withdrew all of their remaining forces back into the war tower and started to distribute amongst themselves the jobs to be done.
The reason the adepts weren't in the pursuit wasn't because they were generous individuals. Far from it. In fact, it was because there was no need for the adepts to do so.
When the rulers behind the scenes of this plane had actively abandoned them, these witcher-knights were no longer a threat. If the witcher-knights were allowed to live, it was very likely that they would surrender to the adepts once the their rule had been solidified. Then the adepts would instantly get their hands on an elite group of subordinates!
…………
Fifty kilometers away, a group of green dragons crouched on top of a tall cliff, silently gazing in the direction of the tower.
"Lord Father, why did you give up such a good opportunity earlier? The enemy was only a single Fourth Grade adept. With the strength that we had, we could easily have taken him down!" Willis asked angrily.
It was clear that he was still extremely upset about Raistlin's decision.
"You are still too young. You understand too little about the adepts!" Raistlin turned his large dragon head slightly, "Singe, you tell him!"
As a clan elder, the Green Dragon Singe was also the dragon prophet of the clan.
Almost every dragon clan would have a dragon prophet of their own. Moreover, the prophet's status was only below that of the clan leader. They were also the main, no, the only way the dragons could communicate with the great Dragon God!
"Cough, cough… " The Green Dragon Elder Singe finally spoke, "Willis, you cannot blame your father for his decision. That terrifying adept was not someone we can deal with. He is not a Fourth Grade Adept. Rather, he is a… a Sixth Grade Great Adept!"
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