Chapter 977: Breaking the City

Fifteen armored warships split into three formations while flying, silently heading toward the Demonkin tribe, and quickly reached the designated battle position.

The three formations surrounded the Demonkin tribe from the north, east, and south; the Second Division, First Regiment responsible for the east side began accelerating ten li away, entered the Abyss Knights' patrol zone, and sped toward the city wall.

Although there were Invisibility Fields and Soundproof Force Fields, the armored warships made no sound while flying, but the Demonkin learned the lesson and added Purgatory mages skilled in True Knowledge or Detection techniques, as well as Demonkin warriors with flying mounts, to the patrol.

They periodically looked around, forming a reconnaissance system with the naked eye.

This tactic was barely effective.

Previously, on several occasions the armored warships were discovered early by the Demonkin tribe, causing the Duke Guard some minor trouble.

The armored warships surged to about five li from the city wall, when a burst of flame suddenly rose from the ground and exploded.

Bang!

The fireworks-like flame explosion rang far, and the entire Demonkin tribe boiled over.

The armored warships were spotted.

"Accelerate!"

The commander of the Second Division, First Regiment decisively ordered the five armored warships under his command to fly at full speed; the Invisibility Field and Soundproof effect failed at high speed, fully exposing them to the Demonkin's sight, and directly ahead a squad of Demonkin hunters riding dark‑winged giant eagles.

These fearless hunters rode the giant eagles in a charge, roaring, drawing bows or raising spears to strike the armored warships.

Leading them was a legendary Demonkin.

His refined iron spear, like a flash of black lightning, struck the armored warship instantly, actually piercing the Resistance Field.

With a clang, the spear was deflected by the armor, leaving only a scratch.

The legendary Demonkin's joy turned to astonishment in an instant; his full‑power strike, which even a Chosen Champion would fear, could not pierce the enemy's armor. The other Demonkin hunters' arrows and spears failed to penetrate even the Resistance Field, all being blocked.

"Ram them to death!"

The armored warships kept accelerating, even refusing to fire the onboard Electric Light Cannon and explosive energy machine gun, instead ramming the dark‑winged giant eagle at full speed.

The giant eagle's wingspan was seven or eight meters, but against the sixty‑meter armored warship it was like a sparrow, its straight‑line speed slightly slower. By the time the Demonkin hunters reacted, there was no time to dodge, watching helplessly as the massive warship crushed down.

A burst of crackling, the dark‑winged giant eagle and the hunters on its back were shattered, feathers and flesh clinging to the front of the armored warship, then instantly blown away by the raging wind.

"Form a line, disperse, descend!"

The five armored warships surged to three li from the city wall, quickly spreading into a single‑file formation, but instead of fully extending the distance as before, they reduced the formation to half its usual size, concentrating within five hundred meters, and at over three hundred meters altitude opened the bottom armor so the soldiers could jump down.

The Duke Guard opened fire while still in mid‑air.

Long trenches were dug into the ground below, separated by iron chevaux‑de‑bataille and fences, forming barriers to stop the enemy's advance.

Every hundred meters, rock towers resembling forts were erected.

These tall sturdy towers were set with rune arrays by Purgatory mages, and stationed spearmen, archers, and Purgatory mages on the tops, able to engage the Duke Guard from a distance.

Rocket grenades and mortar shells rained down, dense as raindrops.

The firepower covered a radius of half a li.

Within the area there were five trenches and four towers; the Demonkin hiding in the trenches looked up at the sky, terror in their eyes, but could do nothing.

Boom—

The explosion's flames and shockwave flooded the area, instantly killing most of the Demonkin, and the ground was overturned by a layer.

The trenches were filled, and the towers collapsed after only a few seconds.

Only one tower raised a black barrier amid the flames, and the silhouette of a Legendary High‑rank Purgatory mage appeared atop it, raising a staff to resist the sky‑borne bombardment.

"Second Battalion, Third Battalion, bomb it open."

A command rang in their helmets; the Duke Guard units belonging to those two battalions obeyed without hesitation, weapons aimed at the black barrier—explosive energy guns, Lambo Gun, Rocket Launcher, and mortar guns—each soldier fired at full force, and snipers pulled grenades from their belts and threw them.

The various attacks fell like rain.

In an instant the black barrier collapsed, exposing the Demonkin on the tower to the terrible firepower; everyone except the Purgatory mage was instantly reduced to ash.

The Purgatory mage's shield activated, but it only bought half a second before they fell into the dust.

The entire tower was razed to flat ground.

When the explosion's aftershock subsided, the Duke Guard landed, quickly locating their comrades to reform formation and seize the area.

"Attack!"

In half a minute they eliminated the Demonkin approaching from all sides, and the commander issued the attack order.

The whole regiment advanced in unison.

Rocket Launchers and mortars bombed a path, destroying fortifications; machine guns swept the dense oncoming enemies; explosive energy rifles focused fire on fast‑approaching Demonkin elites; they steadily advanced toward the city wall, and the Demonkin's defenses and resistance could not hinder the Duke Guard's progress at all.

Kurgos's figure appeared on the city wall.

He scanned the distance with cautious eyes, did not join the fight immediately, but dispatched more troops to block the enemy.

The Demonkin outside the east wall were gathered and surged toward the Duke Guard like a tide.

However, this only slowed the advance.

After a few minutes.

The Second Division, First Regiment had already closed to fifteen hundred meters from the city wall; another half‑li forward and the wall would be within Rocket Launcher range.

And this had already cost the lives of tens of thousands of Demonkin.

Woo— Woo— Woo—

A low horn sounded atop the city, and Kurgos could no longer hold back, summoning the armies from the south and north as well. The Duke Guard, now attacked on all four sides, felt pressure surge, their advance stalled, trapped in place.

Meanwhile, the east gate flung open.

The ground trembled.

A wave of Abyss Knights surged out, their numbers growing without end. The evil energy aura on them linked, forming a dense evil‑energy shield, like a black wall that broke through fences and iron chevaux‑de‑bataille, charging toward the Duke Guard.

Leading them was a Chosen Champion!

At this moment the Duke Guard's momentum was halted, trapped in an encirclement; although they could eliminate more enemies each second, letting the Abyss Knights reach them would mean certain annihilation.

The Abyss Knights charged at full speed, drawing ever nearer to the enemy lines.

The Duke's Guard sensed the threat, immediately redirected the firepower of one battalion, and opened fire as soon as the Abyss Knights entered range.

The first salvo of rockets roared in, striking the evil‑energy protective shield and exploding.

Amid the deafening explosions, the shield only trembled a few times before stabilizing again, still far from collapse. The Abyss Knights seized the chance to charge another two hundred meters, then came under a second wave of rockets, along with additional grenades.

Boom—

The evil‑energy shield shook violently, yet held steady.

"Full‑speed charge!"

"Kill these scum, sacrifice their blood to our lord, and avenge our clan!"

The Chosen Champion at the front shouted a roar that echoed across the battlefield. The evil energy of tens of thousands of Abyss Knights erupted at full force, reinforcing the shield like a black torrent that surged over the Duke's Guard positions.

By then, the Abyss Knights had closed to within five hundred meters.

The Thundercast Celestial Soldier commander ordered that only one battalion remain to fend off enemies from other directions, while three battalions turned to fire a saturated barrage at the advancing Abyss Knight legion.

But it seemed too late.

The Abyss Knights charged wildly under a hail of gunfire, while the Chosen Champion poured out his evil energy without reservation, even exhausting his soul to keep the wavering shield intact.

The distance between them shrank rapidly to less than a hundred meters.

The Duke's Guard and the Abyss Knights could now see each other's front‑line faces; the Demonkin's eyes had turned blood‑red, having suppressed their rage for too long, craving a brutal slaughter to unleash their hatred and thirst for enemy blood.

"Finally…"

The Chosen Champion leading the charge let out a reckless laugh: "Hahaha… all die for me!"

The boiling‑like evil energy almost reached the Duke's Guard; their fully enclosed helmets concealed their faces. If the Chosen Champion could see through the visors, he would find none of the nearby enemies looking panicked—rather, they bore an uncanny calm.

"Teleport."

A calm, decisive voice sounded within the helmets.

Each Duke's Guard breastplate flashed with magical light, activating an enchanted Five‑ring Teleportation, a near‑instant effect; their figures vanished in unison, leaving only an empty battlefield.

The Chosen Champion's laugh abruptly stopped.

On the city wall, Kurgos's expression also froze.

Over the past month, when the Duke's Guard wiped out the Demonkin tribe, many wounded soldiers triggered the armor's built‑in teleportation, but every Demonkin who witnessed it died, never getting the chance to report it to Kurgos.

The storm armor forged by Lei En concealed its enchantments deep within the plating; the concealment was superb, and ordinary eyes could not discern it.

If Kurgos's aide, the Grand Mage Yorgen, were still alive, perhaps he could spot some clues.

But Yorgen had long since died.

Kurgos had not anticipated that these human armors were all enchanted with Five‑ring Teleportation; the cost was so high that a normal Transcendent Army would never spend money on it.

"Where are the men?"

The Chosen Champion was on the brink of madness, yet the charge was too fast to halt immediately.

It was like exerting all one's strength against empty air; both body and mind left the Abyss Knights in extreme distress.

"Watch the sky!"

"Spread out!"

Kurgos roared from the city wall, his voice drowning out everyone else.

The Abyss Knights instinctively looked up, seeing five armored warships materialize a kilometer above; even at that distance they sensed intense energy fluctuations.

Moments earlier, the armored warships had deployed the army onto the battlefield, then vanished again instantly.

Until today, the armored warships had only handled transport and never fired when attacking the Demonkin tribe, giving the Demonkin the false impression that these flying fortresses lacked firepower and served solely to ferry enemies.

So when the battle began and the warships disappeared, Kurgos and the Demonkin army paid them no mind, ignoring them.

Now the armored warships finally bared their fangs!

Each warship mounted two Electric Light Cannons and twelve blast‑energy machine guns. At this moment, the barrels of ten Electric Light Cannons ignited, the massive currents blindingly bright, all charged to the limit, firing ten cannon shells.

The Electric Light Cannon shells, over a meter in diameter, traveled faster than lightning, striking the ground in an instant.

Boom—

The ten shells exploded simultaneously, producing an earth‑shaking roar.

The Electric Light Cannon's bombardment mode requires twelve seconds to charge, has the lowest firing rate, consumes the most energy, yet delivers the greatest power, reaching the Nine‑ring Technique. Ten Nine‑ring Techniques struck together, nearly matching a Star Destroyer's main cannon shot.

The Abyss Knights' evil‑energy shield was pierced instantly.

A terrifying energy burst.

It was as if an earthquake struck; the ground within a kilometer collapsed, and the over ten thousand Abyss Knights within turned to ash instantly, including the Chosen Champion, who was utterly annihilated by the horrific bombardment.

The blast wave struck the tribal city wall, causing the entire wall to shudder violently, and the Demonkin atop it struggled to stay upright.

Each Netifu Demon's face turned pale, eyes filled with endless terror.

Kurgos's expression was as still as water.

He had made many preparations for today's battle and still kept a contingency, but against such foes it seemed of little use; the chance to turn the tide was almost zero, at best a death sentence.

"Lord…"

"Sir!"

Surrounded by the chieftains of various tribes, Kurgos called anxiously, awaiting the Chosen Champion's next order.

Do we fight to the death, or each flee for our lives?

Kurgos opened his mouth to speak, when a trembling voice shouted, "They're coming again!"

In the high sky, the warships' Electric Light Cannons flickered with current again, clearly recharging.

This time the barrels aimed at the wall.

"Run quickly!"

The Demonkin army's morale collapsed; the wall descended into chaos, caring nothing for the Chosen Champion standing nearby, only seeking to flee as far as possible.

The Demonkin in the tribe also fled like headless flies.

Kurgos burst into a rage.

Then, Kurgos saw armored warships appear in the sky to the north and south, five on each side, and the Electric Light Cannon atop them was nearly fully charged, its barrel aimed at the walls, clearly intending to utterly destroy the tribe's defenses.

Fifteen armored warships, with a single volley, could kill more than half the tribe's people.

What the hell!

Kurgos cursed inwardly, instantly turning into a massive crimson torrent that surged skyward, dashing westward at speed, while shouting loudly, "Aiken, if you don't come out now, don't blame me for backing out; our agreement is null and void!"

However, nothing happened.

Kurgos's words received no reply; moving at extreme speed, Kurgos covered dozens of li west of the tribe in a few breaths, fleeing while looking back, and saw clusters of dazzling Electric Light Cannon projectiles falling.

In the massive explosion, the tribe's walls collapsed with a thunderous crash.

The metallic fortresses lowered their altitude, and squads of humans clad in silvery armor descended, surrounding the tribe from three sides and launching a simultaneous assault.

"My tribe is finished."

Kurgos felt excruciating pain, then, with no lingering attachment, flew west at full speed.

But after flying only a few hundred meters, Kurgos halted again as a portal opened ahead; a human youth in mithril light armor with a red great cloak stepped out, his expression calm, and, barehanded, blocked the path.

(End of Chapter)