Chapter 298: Assault

The moon outside the Crimson Spire was torn to pieces.

When Naimi Xisi folded his dragon wings and landed on the observation platform, he saw exactly this scene. The blue dragon Abu Longruisi circled the eye of a sandstorm thirty li away, its jagged spine piercing the clouds, violet‑purple lightning coursing between its dragonbones. Each bolt that struck magnetized tons of sand and gravel into sharp crystal spikes, which sang a sandstorm's melody in the gale.

"Seventh calibration complete," Ba Su's hoarse voice came through the transmitting rune array, the red‑robed mage's chest seal oozing tar‑like substance, "but the Crimson Eye has left monitoring worms in the energy conduits, those data streams..."

Juan Ce Long's tail tip swept over the ink‑crystal rune, and the entire spire's three‑dimensional structure erupted in his mind. Thirty‑six thousand Arcane Power conduits glowed like veins, of which seven hundred forty‑nine were replaced with his draconic sigils. Yet deeper in the energy conduits, the monitoring code implanted by the Crimson Eye masqueraded as harmless data streams—those eyeball‑shaped energy orbs blinked once every thirteen seconds.

"Continue your performance, Ba Su," Juan Ce Long etched a counter‑prophecy incantation in draconic on the stone wall, "Remember not to show your hand before the relief forces arrive."

A sharp metallic scraping sound suddenly pierced the sea of consciousness. Juan Ce Long whirled his head; his golden vertical pupils pierced the fifty‑li sandstorm, spotting the iron‑jaw fortress's steel war wagons gathering under moonlight. A group of priests slit their palms with daggers, dripping burning black blood onto the Skeleton war banner, and the blood droplets turned into screaming shadow spiders upon hitting the ground.

They bore the Dark Sun holy emblem on their bodies.

"Interesting. The Dark Sun Church actually sent someone to intervene? The madman's followers truly defy ordinary logic," Naimi Xisi squinted, clearly surprised by the appearance of a Dark Sun priest.

Finally, at dawn, a thunderous roar shattered the night's silence.

"Come out and die! Murderer of my daughter!!"

When Abu Longruisi's third eye opened within the thunderclouds, the Crimson Spire's Arcane Power alarm shattered into fragments. The blue dragon's jagged spine pierced the clouds, violet‑purple arcs leapt between its dragonbones, magnetizing sand and gravel into millions of floating crystal spikes. Naimi Xisi circled the summit of the Crimson Spire, leisurely watching a giant dragon approach from afar.

The first wave of lightning struck thirty seconds later. "Ba Su's voice came through the transmitting rune array, the red‑robed mages were sprinting between towers, adjusting the alchemical cannon to an anti‑air angle," "Recommend activating the seventh chain barrier."

Juan Ce Long's tail tip traced three silver arcs in the air, and a honeycomb‑shaped shield instantly materialized on the spire's outer wall. This was the Mage Tower's protective array, each hexagon radiating the brilliance of a different magical school. The blue dragon's spherical lightning crashed down with a roar, but upon striking the shield it fragmented into raw magical energy, flowing along the Arcane Power conduits into an underground cage, the ultimate convergence point of over twenty living furnaces of the Crimson Spire—a bio‑energy mana pool.

"San Ta Lin infantry formation, move into firing zone three!" A red‑robed mage's warning was drowned by explosions. The iron‑jaw fortress's Skeleton war banner had been planted on both sides of the spire, heavy infantry bearing tower shields etched with a siphon spell advanced steadily, while Dark Sun priests behind the line chanted blasphemous prayers.

The Skeleton war banner of the iron‑jaw fortress pierced the eastern sand dunes. Thirty siege crossbows simultaneously lifted to a forty‑five degree angle, their poisoned bolt clusters glinting dark‑red in the moonlight—arrows soaked in the blue dragon's saliva, anti‑magic projectiles. Lord Ge Lu Ma Ke stood atop a steel war wagon, the Dark Sun holy emblem casting a blood‑colored sheen on his breastplate.

"Fire!" At the moment the lord swung his sword, the priests slit the throats of prisoners of war. Blood seeped into the sand, forming Xi Rui Ke's smiling totem, and the crossbow bolts were wreathed in black flame as they left the string. The blue dragon's roar and the thunderstorm descended together. Abu Longruisi folded his wings into a cone, diving from a kilometer high, targeting the silver giant dragon perched atop the tower.

Naimi Xisi collided head‑on with the blue dragon's breath; the rainbow shield refracted the energy into seven schools of magic: an Abjuration silver shield deflected the primary shockwave, an Evocation blaze rebounded toward the left wing of the iron‑jaw fortress, and three crossbows were reduced to scrap metal in the explosion.

"Second wave! Living furnace at full power!" Ba Su tore open his charred cuff, revealing a broken arm. The red‑robed mage cohort drew an inverted pentagram on the ground, the alchemical cannon pouring liquid mithril into the fissures. The sand abruptly rose into spikes, threading two hundred San Ta Lin soldiers into a blood‑flesh candy skewer—terrain deformation triggered by channeling the blue dragon's lightning into the ley lines.

"Tsk, a bunch of savages dare attack my Crimson Spire!" Ba Su spat, the Sai Er necromancy master thumped his staff heavily on the ground; deep within the spire's foundation, the cries of ten thousand ghosts resonated. Simultaneously, the spell that concealed the tower spirit faded, and the Crimson Eye instantly detected the San Ta Lin incursion.

"In the name of Sazastan!" He roared, tearing the rotting flesh from his left arm to reveal a violet crystal set into the bone. Thirty‑seven mithril skeletons rose from the Summoning formation, each bone etched with the red‑robed mage guild's insignia—Sai Er's standard "Authorized Undead Combat Unit."

The iron‑jaw fortress's vanguard cavalry slammed into a wave of white bones. The warhorse's iron hooves shattered the front row of Skeletons, but the crushed bone shards burst, releasing ink‑green toxic mist. Within three breaths, fifty heavy‑armored knights convulsed back into reanimated corpses, bone vines with barbs sprouting from the seams of their armor.

"Second sequence, corpse‑bag projection," Ba Su drew rotting runes in the air with his staff tip. The tower spirit's Crimson Eye immediately obeyed, the spire's outer wall opening hundreds of firing ports, spouting glass spheres filled with corpse fluid. These biochemical weapons from Sai Er's Undead factory detonated over the enemy ranks, drenching the San Ta Lin soldiers in poisonous rain; their skin rotted instantly, becoming fresh material for the undead army.

Lord Ge Lu Ma Ke roared from the steel war wagon, "Purify with holy fire!" The Dark Sun priests hurriedly raised their obsidian holy emblems, but as Xi Rui Ke's dark flame touched a Skeleton, the undead eye sockets suddenly ignited with the red‑robed mage guild's Crimson Runes—an anti‑countermeasure embedded in the necromancy unit instantly activated, converting the blasphemous flame into phosphorescence that fortified bone.

"Damn it, you mother‑f***ers insist on using negative‑energy holy fire!" Ge Lu Ma Ke shouted, wishing he could pry open those priests' heads to see what they had inside.

The tower spirit's mechanical voice echoed over the battlefield, "Unauthorized intrusion detected, executing Sai Er Wartime Special Regulation Article 14." The spire's foundation extended twelve bone‑dragon vertebrae forming a conveyor, continuously ferrying coffins to the front. Each coffin that exploded gave rise to three heavily‑armed corpse wizards; these undead, bearing the red‑robed insignia, deftly formed battle formations, using barbed bone shields to block the iron‑jaw fortress's siege hammer.

!

Abu Longruisi tried to sweep the undead with lightning, but found the blue dragon's breath deflected by the tower spirit's defensive matrix. The Crimson Eye projected blood‑red holographic text onto the spire's surface: "Pursuant to Article 3 of the Ennoak Magical Conflict Convention, protection is afforded to registered military Undead."

The red‑robed bureaucracy. "Naimi Xisi sneered as he swept across the battlefield, his dragon claws slashing, attempting to ambush Ba Su's shadow‑lizard cavalry. Juan Ce Long noticed a corpse‑wizard with a Sai Er military tag hanging around his neck—clearly a red‑robed recruit who fell in battle last week, now turned into an efficient necromancy weapon."

(End of Chapter)