Chapter 987: Helpless Air Battle! Stunned Into Shock!

"Quick, block it!"

Seeing this, the Iron Horn Holy Son immediately used a sound-amplifying spell to shout.

The incoming crossbow bolts were simply too many.

Each flying warship carried over a dozen bed-crossbows with a range of ten kilometers; besides these, there was also a newer type of powerful crossbow with a range of seven to eight kilometers—there were even more of these, mounted on the lower deck of the flying warships.

And there were hundreds of such flying warships!

This was truly a barrage of ten thousand arrows!

The entire sky was filled with crossbow bolts!

These bolts carried explosive flame, and from the ground, they looked like a line of fire—no, a sea of fire!

Because these bolts weren't fired in a single line, but in many lines at once.

And after one volley came another, then another!

On the Iron Horn Empire's flying fleet, countless magicians stepped forward, ready to act.

The bolts still had several seconds to fly over!

They had more than enough time to react!

On the flying fleet, Eighth Rank warriors also leapt out, carrying heavy shields, ready to block the bolts.

"Wind Shield!"

On one flying ship, numerous magicians combined their power to cast a large defensive spell.

Just as they finished this defense spell, a dense hail of crossbow bolts slammed into it.

"Boom!"

Each bolt struck the massive wind shield, and the explosive flame detonated violently—but was firmly held back by the shield.

"Blocked!"

The magicians had barely breathed a sigh of relief when another endless wave of bolts arrived behind them.

"Boom~~"

"Boom~~"

The explosive flames kept detonating; the dense bursts shook the giant wind shield to its core.

But many explosive flames didn't detonate—they simply burned where they landed.

"It's failing!"

The magicians all cast spells together to reinforce the shield, but the explosive flames had already merged into a continuous sheet.

"Boom!"

Finally, the merged explosive flames detonated fully, utterly destroying the magicians' large wind shield.

"Danger!"

The magicians all turned pale.

"Shield up!"

The warriors ahead, seeing the situation turn dire, raised their shields.

"Crash!"

One crossbow bolt, carrying tremendous force, slammed into an Iron Horn warrior's shield—and shattered it clean through.

The bolt pierced through the Iron Horn warrior's body, carrying him backward and knocking down a whole group of Iron Horn warriors.

Then, the explosive flame detonated!

"Watch out—these are enchanted arrows! The rear penetration is terrifying!"

A magician shouted.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

More bolts rained down, felling countless warriors; the explosive flames ignited into a blaze, setting the entire flying ship ablaze.

"This ship is lost—jump!"

The Gao Jie magicians on the ship leapt off.

The low-rank magicians stood frozen.

Fifth- and Sixth-Rank magicians, even if they couldn't fly, could still slow their fall with magic and survive.

Low-rank magicians had no such ability.

But more and more bolts struck this ship, the explosions grew larger, and the entire vessel was nearly consumed by fire.

"Crack!"

Finally, the ship's magical runes were destroyed.

The entire flying ship began plummeting rapidly!

"Escape, now!"

The Iron Horn warriors on board all jumped off.

Jumping meant death; staying meant death.

These Iron Horn warriors, who just moments ago had been discussing how to burn, kill, and loot in the Eternal Night Capital, now cursed that they hadn't grown wings!

This was the first flying ship to crash!

"Look! Look!"

At this moment, in the other empires' battle formations on the ground, the eastern formation was closer—and its warriors all looked up, watching this rare aerial battle on the Continent of Gods!

Aerial battles like this were extremely rare on the Continent of Gods.

Flying ships were mostly used for reconnaissance and transport.

Wars involving flying ships were usually fought between their magicians.

And this battle here was true aerial combat.

On one side, crossbows fired across distances of several kilometers, striking the opposing flying warships.

The mages on the other side had no such long-range attack capability and could only defend passively!

Do not underestimate those crossbow bolts.

Some mages used magic to intercept the bolts, yet could not stop them at all.

In today's Flame Empire, not only are the bows and crossbows enchanted, but even the iron arrowheads bear magical runes.

These are enchanted bolts!

Enchanted bolts exhibit astonishing penetration and stability during the latter half of their flight.

Otherwise, every one of Iron Horn Empire's flying ships carried countless mages—ordinary arrow volleys could never break through their defensive circles and fire nets.

Of course, many crossbow bolts were still intercepted.

These mages mostly blocked the first, second, and even third waves of bolts.

But they couldn't withstand the Blazing Fire on the bolts themselves!

The bolts behind them simply weren't stopped.

"It's falling! It's falling!"

On the ground, millions of warriors watched this aerial battle; they didn't yet know who was fighting whom, but when they saw some flying warships struck by dense volleys of bolts, spewing Xiong Xiong flames as they plummeted, each one eagerly watched the spectacle like a crowd at a spectacle.

"Look! Another one's down!"

"Everyone aboard must be dead—so many are jumping ship."

"Except for powerful mages and warriors, jumping down means death."

"Yes…"

"This is terrifying—if we were aboard a flying ship and caught in such an ambush, we'd have nowhere to flee!"

Some warriors watched with trembling hearts.

"The Iron Horn Empire is under attack!"

At this moment, on the flying ship packed with numerous Ziyuzhu Sect disciples and generals, everyone witnessed the attack on the Iron Horn Empire's fleet.

"What's happening? Where are the Iron Horn Empire's Sacred Domains?"

Among these Ziyuzhu Sect disciples, the lead Sacred Domain disciple frowned.

"Who is attacking the Iron Horn Empire? Their crossbow range is astonishing—and what is this fire on the bolts?"

One Ziyuzhu Sect disciple fired off a string of questions.

This flying ship was still far away; even with their sharp eyesight, they could not make out the Flame flags on the Flame Empire's warships.

They only saw endless streams of crossbow bolts, wreathed in flame, continuously surging toward the Iron Horn Empire's fleet.