Chapter 135

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Chapter 135: Understanding

The last bit of dark cloud scattered from the sky, water vapor and dust gathered and dispersed in the vibrating space, under the command of the weather controller Druid. Behind the clouds, the sun rose high, shining in the sky of Aryan just as it used to, only previously obscured by the dark clouds.

The sunlight that had been blocked in the air finally descended, casting the shadows of the aerial battlefield onto the ground of Bailing Town. The first light of the day shone on the Dragon Knights, dressing them in golden armor.

Groups of five Dragon Knights charged towards the gathering place of Obituary Bird and stone demons, forming small teams in a wedge formation, each line wide enough and agile. Dozens of Dragon Knights began their charge, gliding down on their flying dragons with spears in hand, heading towards the enemies along each line segment.

The drones that had completed their containment mission retreated, the self-destructing drones carried out the final wave of attacks. With a series of explosions, many stone demons had their wings blown off, falling to the ground. Some shock drones withdrew, creating space for the Dragon Knights to charge forward; while those that had built electric cages moved towards each other, carrying the struggling Obituary Bird in the cages, crashing into the nearest cages.

The electric cages collided, causing the stored electricity in the drones to explode simultaneously, raising the voltage sharply at the moment of impact. A bright electric light flashed in the sky, resembling exploding stars in the distance, turning the Obituary Bird in the electric cages into charcoal instantly. This scene looked somewhat similar to when the Griffon Legion captured the Little Devils, causing a number of Obituary Birds too close to the exploding electric cages to suffer, with crackling electric sounds and the smell of burnt flesh filling the air as bird feathers scattered in the sky.

However, most flying creatures remained unharmed, paying no attention to the fallen companions, their crimson eyes fixed on their prey nearby.

The stone demon charged towards the nearby troops without any skill or defense—it seemed like they didn’t need any. Their stone bodies were so hard, standing over two meters tall with muscular appearances filled with actual stones, incredibly heavy. If these meteorites fell to the ground, they could definitely smash through houses, leaving deep craters. The Dragon Riders’ long spears, in comparison to the stone demon, looked like thin twigs. The collision between them was like hitting a brick wall.

The Obituary Birds extended their sharp claws, accelerating towards the Dragon Riders, raising their bodies as they got closer. These creatures always hunted from above, their claws capable of crushing a fragile skull. Helmets were useless against them. In countless Decaying Disasters in the past, Obituary Birds grabbed countless heads with helmets, crushing both head and helmet together. They would snatch up knights in iron armor, fly into the air, and then release them, smashing them on the ground. Bodies inside heavy armor were still vulnerable flesh, not like canned goods that needed opening, just smashing the can was enough.

The stone demon had a stiff expressionless face, while the Obituary Birds’ expressions were chilling— their mimicry of beings from the Primary Material Plane was not perfect at this point. Their human-like eerie faces looked like a mix of crying and laughing, a twisted, animalistic expression. Only the desire for slaughter flickered in their eyes, all monsters alike in their primal hunger.

Demons and Dragon Riders charged at each other, both sides moving at high speed, rapidly shortening the distance between them. The Dragon Riders weaved a precise web of attacks, looking like traps catching insects from afar. However, with their fierce opponents and limited spears, spectators held their breath anxiously, many civilians covering their mouths, worried the web would break in the clash.

This was only the situation on the ground; from such a distance, observers could barely grasp the danger. The howling winds above could easily cut off a Dragon Rider’s ears if not for their helmets. If people on the ground saw the spears in the riders’ hands clearly, they would probably scream in shock.

The long spears had no spearheads.

Every long spear was designed for the most convenient grip, the shape of the spear matching perfectly with the Dragon Riders’ gloves, lightweight to prevent slipping, wielded with agility. These long spears, just like the Griffon Legion’s shields, were all handcrafted by artisans, a product of researchers’ wisdom and effort—yet they had flat spear tips, making anyone looking at the point doubt its effectiveness.

They were shorter compared to traditional spears, as if a meter had been cut off, with no visible spearheads. If standing directly in front of a Dragon Rider, you could see the flat and hollow cross-section. It didn’t look like an effective weapon by any means, but the knights wielding them showed no fear.

The enemy drew nearer, even closer.

Four meters, effective distance.

The group attacking the Obituary Bird raised their long spears, facing the stone demon’s dragon riders with their spears held high. The team attacked by two mixed monsters crisscrossed their long spears, just enough to defend themselves and not harm their comrades. Their long spears were only about one and a half meters long, but four meters was the effective distance.

Buzz!

It’s hard to describe this sound, I can’t find the right onomatopoeic word for it. Maybe because most onomatopoeic words imitate human voices or long-existing natural sounds, there is no precedent for such a newly created unique sound. It’s a bit like the sound of a buzzing bee’s wings, a convergence of a certain high-frequency vibration, turning into a long "buzz – ".

Countless long spears were unsheathed.

They didn’t have traditional "sheaths" in the conventional sense, but there’s no word more accurate than "unsheathed". The translucent glow rushed out from the hollow cross-section, the over one-meter-long spears shot out nearly three meters of blade, emitting a cold light. They were as thick as the long spear, and as blunt as the half spearhead. At first glance, they looked as cute as glowsticks.

Soon, the oncoming demons proved that these spears were not as harmless as glowsticks.

The demons stared at the riders on the dragon’s back, thinking that the clash and impact would happen several meters ahead. The Obituary Bird’s claws made a pouncing gesture, carelessly thrusting their bloated bellies onto the protruding spear tips. The sharp light blades pierced into their bodies, with a thickness and length disproportionate, as if bamboo skewers pierced through roasted birds.

The wound was small, the pierced Obituary Bird barely reacted, like a chopped eel tail still wriggling. No problem, the dragon riders’ hands were steady, they only needed to gently wave the long spears.

That doesn’t require much effort.

A quarter of the spear is solid, and Dragon Riders only need to bear a quarter of its weight. The rest of the spear is quite light and sharp. The runes densely engraved on the spear can trap extreme heat in a beam less than four inches in diameter, with only a slight warmth outside the beam and enough heat inside to instantly melt flesh and blood. The Dragon Rider swung the Magic Longspear, cutting the Obituary Bird in half as if slicing butter with a knife.

It happened so quickly that it seemed like the Obituary Bird rushed to its own demise by running into the spear. The beam waved in the air, making a buzzing sound like an incandescent lamp. The broken body of the Obituary Bird fell to the ground, its wounds steamed dry by the high temperature, dying quite cleanly.

The beam also struck the stone body—first cracking, then widening, and finally shattering, like a knife stabbing and breaking hard candy. A real long spear would bend and break under such force, but the Magic Longspear’s tip is pure energy, so even if it couldn’t eliminate the flying stone in one shot, the wielder wouldn’t fall due to the recoil.

These expensive Magic Longspears are worth their price. The exquisite craftsmanship allows the long spears to be charged while Dragon Riders are in action, converting kinetic energy into magical energy storage. As long as they fight while moving at high speed, these magic devices don’t need to worry about energy running out.

Obituary Birds are strong in close combat, typically hunting solo young dragons and griffins in their natural environment. The falling stone demons are a headache, consuming numerous weapons in the past. These two creatures couldn’t get close and ended up as fragments.

However, those fragments caused some trouble.

The shattered stone demons exploded, sending shards flying. Even the large fragments retained their momentum and could still make a Dragon Knight stumble. The Dragon Riders vigorously wielded their long spears, trying to cut the stone demons multiple times before impact. The remnants clattered against the Dragon Riders’ armor, sounding like a downpour on a canopy.

Blood suddenly sprayed as a Dragon Rider clutched a wound and fell straight down. The high-speed stone fragments were as sharp as shrapnel at close range; the Dragon Rider was torn at a critical point, and within a few minutes, he would bleed out.

Magic Archer Atlantic, who was aiming at the ghostly fires, spotted the falling person. She pulled her bow, a frosty magical arrow gathered on the bowstring, and aimed at the wounded person.

There is a basic attacking magic arrow used to target the ghostly fires, and another one used to aim at the falling dragon riders.

The arrow of icy coldness flew out, accurately piercing the shoulder of the dragon rider. It created a wound the size of a grain of rice, with icy power instantly sweeping through the entire dragon rider, freezing him in an instant. The bleeding wound was sealed by ice, his rapid breathing and heartbeat frozen, all his physiological activities slowed down immensely, temporarily thwarting the steps of the Death God.

A thick layer of magic ice spread from the wound, rapidly enveloping the entire falling body. The dragon rider finally landed on the ground, the impact causing the entire ice cocoon to bounce, without harming the person inside. The medical team on the ground hurried towards the location where the ice cocoon fell, before the ice layer disappeared, they would take the dragon rider to a place for comprehensive treatment.

"Wizard, prepare!" Tasha commanded.

Her keen eyes had already seen something new in that crack.

Flames lit up the passage between the abyss and the Primary Material Plane, this time it wasn’t just the light ghostly fires. A large group of quadruped creatures were eagerly squeezing out, their skin resembling magma.

Another old friend seen in the Ancient Mage Tower, the Fire Salamander.

They appeared larger than the guards in the Mage Tower, with their fiery red mouths wide open, the high heat from their mouths blindingly bright. The falling flesh shield demon had already destroyed most of the Needle Thorn Forest, warriors were engaged in a fierce battle not far from the falling point on the ground battlefield, the fighting had become intense. The intense flames spewed by the Fire Salamanders were not as easy to deal with as the ghostly fires, even with protective talismans, their flames would have a huge impact on the warriors in the heat of battle.

This cannot happen. The team ready to put out the fire is all set. Wizards are watching closely where the Fire Salamanders will fall. They have their spell materials in hand, ready to cast the spell to deal with this rain of salamanders. Huge fiery creatures are falling from the sky, like meteors.

Crack!

The Fire Salamander with its mouth wide open falls to the ground, turning into a bloody pancake.

Tasha, "…"

Is this some kind of demon’s strategy?

"New monsters have landed! Dozens of Fire Salamanders have arrived in Aryan. They are still not moving, but we must not relax!" The host reports nervously, "They are starting to move slightly… Oh! One of them disappeared! Do Fire Salamanders have invisibility powers? Wait, it seems…?"

The wizards, looking at the flattened Fire Salamander pancakes, appear unsure of what is happening. The Fire Salamanders, flattened in various positions, are struggling slightly on the ground. After a few seconds, they stop moving and disappear.

It’s that demon disappearing act after death.

"Um," the host paused for a moment, "It seems like they, fell to their deaths?"

Several wizards slowly opened their mouths, watching as the Fire Salamanders fell like raindrops and crashed to the ground one by one.

"Fire Salamanders can walk in magma, excel at climbing, and spew flames that can melt steel. People think of them as a subspecies of dragons. But their bodies themselves are not very resilient." Victor’s voice sounded a bit mysterious, somewhat cheerful, as he tried to defend a fellow countryman who died so quickly upon entering the scene, "Not every demon focuses on resilience, you know."

"So why would a troop that isn’t good at surviving impacts choose to parachute in?" Tasha looked at the cross-border suicide mission with a subtle expression, as if watching a grand, arduous journey of a sea-jumping hamster that had crossed two dimensions.

"For the Abyssal army, are you really expecting organization and discipline? Their only strategy is ‘if you can squeeze through, then hurry up and squeeze through’." Victor shrugged, "I remember one year, the portal inexplicably opened up in the far north, and all the will-o’-wisps froze to death as soon as they stepped out; now that was a sight to behold."

Tasha felt she further understood why the Abyss with all its cheating abilities had never been able to dominate the Primary Material Plane.

The position of the teleportation portal in mid-air was truly cause for celebration, indeed.

This offbeat interlude bought Aryan’s defending army a few hours of peace; only hours later, a new breed that couldn’t be killed crawled out.

Large pieces of fabric floated in mid-air, resembling cloaks favored by past adventurers, able to shield from the elements with hoods that covered faces, appearing tattered after enduring wind and rain. The newly appeared demons seemed like cloaked individuals, their hoods opaque, concealing their faces inside.

As they appeared in mid-air, the wind lifted these cloaks, revealing only empty space beneath, as if filled with black mist. Two bony hands extended from the sleeves, with joints far more numerous than those of humans, visible up close.

Once you get close enough, you’ll realize that the cloak isn’t made of fabric, but of tattered membranes.

That’s their actual bodies.

Whispers rustled within the cowl, as the joints of their many hands contorted into gestures impossible for humans, the glow of a spell beginning to brew within those hands. The lowest and most numerous casters among the Abyssal Demons started to make their appearances.

This is a Demon Spirit.

Some have mistakenly called them Abyssal wizards, which greatly angers the true wizards. The casting abilities of Demon Spirits fall between innate spells and actively cast spells. Throughout their evolution, they usually only possess one spell, making them more like "Abyssal apprentices." At the end of their evolution, depending on their casting tendencies, they may transform into succubi, Mind Demons, reapers, or Magic Demons. But that is a story for the future.

Just like on the Primary Material Plane, casters are quite rare among the profession of Abyssals. Out of a thousand Demon Spirits, only one might advance to become a Magic Demon. Most of their casting abilities end up as support, not much different from the innate magic used by other demons.

However, at this stage, there are definitely more Demon Spirits than apprentices.

Even the simplest spells, when reached in a certain quantity, can cause huge troubles.

The cloaks drifted downward, looking weightless, like jellyfish floating in mid-air. Their casting postures were similar, with their gaunt hands raised high, as if holding something above their heads.

The fireball went from the size of a bowl to the size of a pot, lightning stretched between the dry hands, ice crystals gathered in the air, and a black spear began to grow from the end. There are four types of spells used by the Demon Spirit: fireball spell, lightning spell, ice cone spell, and spear of darkness. When all four types are used together, the scene becomes quite spectacular.

Without a unified command, each prepared spell was cast directly, falling like a rain shower.

The warrior rolled to dodge a black spear that fell near her feet. A large Little Devil she was battling stepped on it, cutting off half its foot, then roared in anger. A bowman busy aiming could not dodge the fire and was protected by a barrier that helped him escape quickly. Lightning caused a short circuit in a reconnaissance drone, causing it to crash. A Shaman who had already activated a protective rune was injured and immediately attacked the Demon Spirit casting ice cones.

A large number of spells… with no aim, very scattered.

Lightning struck the ground, creating a scorched circle less than a meter in diameter. A fireball hit an ordinary tree less than a hundred meters from the battlefield, slowly licking the non-fireproof vegetation with its flames. A corner of a building in the distance was hit by an ice cone, and a war correspondent quickly avoided the falling roof. The spear of darkness was projected onto an unlucky squirrel, which squeaked tragically and met its end.

These spells were thrown around everywhere, causing no particularly large disruptive attacks on one hand, and also making it difficult to defend against them uniformly. The Demon Spirit was like a plastic bag in the wind, too scattered to be dealt with by having Professionals move to fight them, which was clearly not appropriate.

The forefront army was used to prevent this situation.

The core of the battlefield was primarily the domain of the Professionals. They fought fiercely once more, suppressing most of the monsters within this circle of the battlefield. The outer perimeter of the core was mainly occupied by an army of ordinary people waiting. They assisted the Professionals in identifying and patching up any gaps, having enough numbers to form a huge encirclement, cutting off the battlefield and protecting Aryans, who were civilians outside.

There were not enough magic communication devices for everyone, but at least each team commander could contact each other through them. The network formed by watchtowers and drones monitored the entire battlefield from sky to ground, displaying the images on suspended screens in the command post. In this less life-threatening situation, Tasha delegated responsibility to various staff and commanders, who could see every second of changes on the battlefield, make decisions, issue orders, and witness the outcomes of their strategies firsthand.

Tasha’s clone here continues to do the computer work, responsible for recording and calculating the most complex machinery.

Demon Spirit’s spells do not require materials or complicated incantations. They do not have teachers or textbooks, their knowledge comes from instinct. The trade-off is that their spells are limited in variety and take a long time to prepare. These low-level demon casters are not smart, they will cast any prepared spell, so Tasha can keep track of the preparation time for each Demon Spirit’s spell, down to the second. She marks these times on each drop point so that the approaching troops can calculate the absolute safe time to approach the Demon Spirit.

The single soldier magic devices found in the ruins below the capital cannot be widely distributed among all armies yet, but they have alternatives.

Formerly, Professionals bought blessed silverware at a high price, where one bottle of holy water could only bless one weapon. That’s not the case anymore. The blessed holy water from the Pastor of Saro has been integrated into weapon manufacturing processes, similar to mass-producing fire protection amulets. The holy water can be maximized on assembly lines. Fine steel is used on the blade, where the weapon’s attack part is just about touched. This minute sacred attribute is modest but practical. Industrialized sacred steel is used for swords, spears, battle axes, and most practically, crossbow bolts.

The crossbows themselves are blessed with divine power, and every arrow fired from them has a weak anti-evil power, not lethal but capable of briefly incapacitating low-level demons. The crossbow bolts target the furthest foes, once hit, surrounding soldiers immediately move in for the kill.

Fire, lightning, ice, darkness, these spells briefly appear all over the battlefield, often not able to come around for another round before extinguishing. Groups of Demon Spirit are unstoppable, but they cannot unite; scattered Demon Spirit caused various chaos in the past Decaying Disaster, but when one side controls the entire battlefield, this chaos is quickly extinguished at the bud.

The throughput of Abyss Passage is limited, so the Abyss Legion, skilled in sea battle tactics, has to resort to adding fuel tactics. As pawns in this tactic, Demon Spirits of this level of monsters are not substantial enough.

This is the home turf of the Aryan beings.