Chapter 93: Air-to-Ground: The Importance of Air Superiority

The night sky was dyed red by the glare of raging flames.

Behind Garos's wings, high-temperature flame currents surged, carving a trajectory like a crimson evil star across the sky, while sparks generated by the friction of fine scales on his wings against the air surrounded his body like a rain of stars.

He circled slightly.

The flame currents at the tips of his wing bones slowly dissipated, and his body hovered in the high sky, looking down upon the ogre territory from above.

As the flames and shockwaves gradually dispersed.

They revealed a landscape scarred and devastated, with a scorched and shattered surface.

The ogre territory looked as if it had undergone a baptism of artillery fire; the ground was covered with dense, shocking deep craters, and cracked fissures radiating outward like branching twigs made the entire surface seem on the verge of shattering.

One by one, ogre warriors, their heads and faces covered in dust and ash as if they had been smoked and scorched, climbed to their feet.

Their injuries were not severe, because the explosions rarely landed directly on them; most fell on the ground beside them, and although the resulting flames and shockwaves were powerful, they were not enough to directly cause the ogre elite warriors to suffer severe injuries.

Karu, the Gluttonous Demon whose life force burned as vigorously as a furnace, also stood up.

He walked out from the ruins of the Wang Zuo that had already collapsed.

Only a few insignificant wounds marred his iron-cast, muscular body; those exploding scales that did not land directly on him caused little harm.

"Ogres, you have invaded my territory and challenged my majesty."

Garos's dragon eyes narrowed into vertical slits, revealing a dangerous gaze.

"The attack just now was merely a warning."

"Kowtow to me, submit to me, and I will forgive your offense against me, granting you the opportunity to become my kin; or else, you will howl in the flames and turn to ash."

The dragon's voice, like muffled thunder, rose from the sky and reached the ogres' ears.

Ordinary ogres looked at one another, their eyes showing some timidity; they were still shaken by the bombing just now and felt the dragon before them was somewhat terrifying.

The elite warriors and sorcerers surrounding the Gluttonous Demon Karu.

Their faces showed no fear; they simply looked toward the strong and towering Gluttonous Demon leader.

Karu brushed the dust and dirt from his body and spoke in a rough voice: "Your attack cannot even make me feel pain; the Chewing Bone Clan will not submit to a weak dragon."

Garos narrowed his eyes slightly, and his dragon wings rose again.

"It seems you have not grasped the meaning of a warning."

As he spoke, his dragon wings suddenly trembled, and dark-red flame currents erupted from the tips of his crystal bones like a volcanic eruption.

The Red Iron Dragon's body traced a crimson arc across the night sky, diving down to sweep over the Chewing Bone Clan.

This time, the ogres were prepared.

The elite warriors nearby hoisted large boulders beside them, or gripped spears, drew powerful bows, and launched a ground-to-air counterattack.

Boulders, spears, and crossbows broke through the air, thrown and shot toward Garos.

The two-headed ogre sorcerer possessed the talent of dual casting; its two heads chanted different spells simultaneously, constructing two different spells at once.

A mass of gray-black mist spat from its left mouth, condensed into an ominous mark, and then vanished into the air; its right arm rose, crackling with arcs of electricity that gathered at the fingertips and then shot outward.

Weakness Curse!

Chain Lightning!

The curse locked onto Garos directly through sight and landed on his body, forming a layer of grayish light on his scales, but this light vanished in an instant, dissipating immediately.

Dragons naturally possessed outstanding curse resistance.

Having adapted to the Cliff Serpent Dragon's Fire Curse, Garos's curse resistance had increased significantly, rendering him completely immune to ordinary curses.

Looking at those stones, spears, and crossbows.

Garos casually flicked his dragon wings; amidst the roaring explosion of flame currents, his body instantly turned in mid-air, pulling out a sharp angle of nearly ninety degrees, dodging them all; even the fastest Chain Lightning could only trail behind him, unable to touch him at all.

"Get down here!"

The Gluttonous Demon Karu let out a low roar, his arm muscles bulging as he hurled a massive metal warhammer, smashing toward Garos like a cannonball.

Garos spread his dragon wings flat and easily and casually sidestepped to avoid it.

His body was strong, and at first glance, he should not have been skilled in speed, but because of the evolution of his Sky Comet Wings this time, his maneuverability now surpassed his strength.

Air-to-ground.

And he possessed terrifying speed and explosive power.

Garos held an absolute advantage.

In the blink of an eye.

He swept across the sky, diving down again over the Chewing Bone Clan.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

The second wave of exploding scales was even denser.

Those dragon scales, bearing the color of a branding iron and radiating intense heat, tore through the air with a piercing shriek, falling upon the ogres once more.

This time, the ogres displayed astonishing tactical proficiency.

With the presence of a Gluttonous Demon in the ogre clan, although the warriors' wisdom remained dull, influenced by the Gluttonous Demon leader's aura, they became enlightened in matters of war; their tactical proficiency was self-taught and surged dramatically.

The elite warriors quickly formed a circular defensive formation.

They interlocked their heavy steel shields, constructing a metal dome over their heads.

The exploding scales struck the shield surfaces with deafening roars; flames rolled, and shockwaves knocked blood from the noses and mouths of the warriors on the outermost ring, but the formation never broke.

In the center of the formation were the ogre sorcerers.

They cast buff-type spells, further amplifying the strength and defense of the ogre warriors.

"Caught off guard the first time, they could respond swiftly the second; the ogres of this clan are completely different from ordinary ogres. Judging by their equipment, which fits their size, there must be alchemists within the clan; otherwise, although metal ores are abundant in the wilderness, without alchemists, it would be very difficult to forge weapons and armor."

Garos felt even more tempted by the Chewing Bone Clan.

Of course, the most important factor was still the Gluttonous Demon.

All the changes in this clan stemmed from the birth of the Gluttonous Demon.

Karu dealt with the explosive scales even more easily, even somewhat perversely.

It opened its blood-filled maw wide and inhaled fiercely.

The airflow churned like a storm, sucking in and swallowing every single dragon scale flying toward it!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Muffled thunder-like explosions rang out from its stomach; its belly swelled and contracted again and again, until finally, Karu let out several burps smelling of sulfur, having consumed all the flames and shockwaves.

"Not enough to eat, little dragon!"

Karu patted its distended abdominal belly, making a pounding sound.

Having successfully countered Garos's second wave of attacks, its confidence soared, feeling that Garos was nothing special.

Garos's expression remained unchanged; he simply turned in a spiral and dove down for another extreme-speed sweep.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The third wave of explosive scales arrived, shaking the defensive battle formation until it staggered; the Ogre Warriors' arms trembled violently, their skin split, blood constantly seeping out, their mouths and noses overflowing with blood from the shock, while the Ogre Mages' healing and amplification could not keep up with the dense frequency of attacks at all.

Before they could catch their breath.

The fourth and fifth waves of bombardment descended one after another as Garos soared and swept past.

The roaring of explosions rose and fell; clumps of flames shot into the sky, like continuous thunderclaps exploding on flat ground, like miniature suns rising slowly from the earth's surface.

The Bone-Chewing Clan lacked effective ground-to-air countermeasures and could only passively take the beating.

Since the goal was subjugation and not to directly bomb these warriors to death, Garos controlled the quantity of explosive scales, so the bombardment was not overly intense.

But even so.

By the time the seventh wave arrived.

Many of the Ogre Warriors were bleeding from all seven orifices, the bones in their arms snapping with a crack, no longer able to hold on; they were blasted flying apart, the defensive formation shattered into pieces, and the Ogre Mages in the center, needing no further attacks, had already exhausted their spirit and magical energy one by one, collapsing to the ground like rotten mud.

The Gluttony Demon Karu's belly was perfectly round.

Having swallowed too many explosions, it had reached its limit in the short term.

Facing the seventh wave of bombardment, it no longer swallowed the explosive scales; its slowed speed was insufficient to dodge, so it could only withstand them with its body. Its tower-like frame became stuck full of sharp scale fragments, skin split and flesh torn, its surface covered in scorched black marks.

(End of Chapter)