Chapter 269: The Bone Dragon! Invading the Hinterland
"Arrogant blue maggots!" the Water Element Ogre roared, raising the spiked hammer in his hand, his eyes flashing with malice.
"Wait!"
Gagaran raised an arm to block the Water Element Ogre and looked up at the White Mist Witch before them.
"What exactly does that Lord intend to do? Is he making us go to war with the Blue Maggot Tribe?"
With a light flicker, the White Mist Witch's figure appeared before Gagaran. She looked up, meeting his serious gaze. "What the Lord wants to do is not for you to speculate."
"Since the other side wants a fight, then let's have one," she said with a nonchalant tone.
This caused the already irritable Water Element Ogre and Earth Element Ogre, who had been bottling up their rage recently, to break into savage grins.
Gagaran couldn't help but clench his fists, his gaze fixed coldly on the White Mist Witch. At such a close distance, he was confident he could heavily wound or even kill her with a single blow.
But he couldn't do that just yet.
As a Warrior, he would not yield to anyone!
But Gagaran needed to figure out what that man truly intended to do.
When he recalled the aura that had suddenly erupted from the man not long ago—an aura that could only be described as terrifying—Gagaran couldn't help but shudder inwardly.
If he had been uncertain before, then at that moment, Gagaran knew for sure. Even if he got an opportunity for close combat, he, a Warrior, would still be no match for that spellcaster.
Could it be that man had surpassed the "Heroic Realm" and become...
The first figure that appeared in Gagaran's mind was the legendary "Guardian of the Empire" from the Human Empire where he had previously stayed.
No!
That detestable man absolutely could not have reached that Realm.
Gagaran shook the thought from his head. That man was indeed very strong, but if he joined forces with the other strong individuals in the hills, they should be able to defeat him.
"Hey, hey, what are you thinking about? That look in your eyes just now was very dangerous, you know," the White Mist Witch said, narrowing her eyes at Gagaran.
"Hmph." Gagaran snorted coldly. "I'm afraid you don't get to call the shots for that man."
The White Mist Witch paused and withdrew her gaze.
*Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!*
Suddenly, a dense volley of whooshing sounds came from the direction of the Blue Maggot forces. They didn't have the complicated situation the ogres were facing.
Countless arrows pierced the air, appearing as a dense swarm in everyone's vision before raining down, causing the ogres, who had just barely managed to stay quiet, to erupt in roars and pained cries.
The White Mist Witch, Gagaran, and the others naturally dodged such an attack with ease.
"They attacked first. Now we have to fight, whether we want to or not," the White Mist Witch said, her voice tinged with excitement.
Compared to the staid Green Leaf Witch, the White Mist Witch's personality was clearly more capricious, the type who thrived on chaos.
A hint of resignation appeared in Gagaran's eyes. Just as he was about to speak...
*BOOM!*
A roar thundered from above them.
A colossal shadow flew over from behind the ogre forces and appeared in the center of the battlefield.
On the Blue Maggot side, cries of panicked alarm were the first to be heard, as they all looked up at the sky in fear.
In the sky, a massive figure about three meters tall with a pair of bony wings spanning six meters beat the air, creating a powerful gale and a piercing, whistling sound of bone against bone.
It was a construct made entirely of bones, countless bones linked together, mimicking the great race with long necks, four legs, and wings—a dragon!
Tang Zheng stood atop the bone dragon's head, his gaze indifferent as he looked down on the scene below.
"What is that..."
"An Undead!"
"It's an Undead!"
Voices filled with fear and panic rang out continuously from the Blue Maggot forces. The bone dragon's terrifying appearance, in particular, caused many a blue maggot to instantly lose their will to fight.
The Undead have always been beings that the living fear and oppose!
This bone dragon before them was a species of Undead that most people, and even entire races, had never even heard of.
This was an extremely rare Undead creature. Even Evileye, in her more than 200 years, had only heard of them but never seen one.
Because of the traits possessed by a bone dragon, they were nothing short of a calamity for the spellcasters of this Otherworld.
A bone dragon itself is only level 16. Its pure strength isn't very high; an adventurer of Mithril-rank or above would have the power to fight one.
But it was precisely this kind of low-level Undead that possessed the ability to be immune to all magic below the sixth tier. And that level of magic was already at the level of an "aberrant."
Given the talent of a human or even other races, being able to master fifth-tier magic already made one an outstanding genius, let alone sixth-tier magic.
At this moment, it wasn't just the Blue Maggot side.
Gagaran and the others also wore expressions of astonishment.
The White Mist Witch's mouth hung open as she looked at the figure standing on the bone dragon in mid-air, her eyes filled with fear and reverence.
Her Master's power was like the Abyss; the more she understood, the more she could feel that bottomless terror.
"All spellcasters!"
"Attack the Undead in the sky!"
The bone dragon was at an altitude that normal bows and arrows could not reach. The commander in the Blue Maggot forces calmed down and hurriedly roared the order.
The Blue Maggot Tribe possessed considerable talent for spellcasting. The royal family, in particular, held the rare mental-type spellcaster jobs.
In an instant!
Streaks of magic flew up from below, slamming into the bone dragon, which made no attempt to dodge.
Before the spellcasters could rejoice, all the blue maggots showed expressions of disbelief. The magic they had released landed on the bone dragon but produced no effect or damage whatsoever, like a stone sinking into the ocean.
The emotion of fear spread among the blue maggots.
"You're done attacking. Now, it's my turn."
Tang Zheng stood on the bone dragon's head, raised his arm towards the Blue Maggot forces below, and began chanting in a low, raspy voice:
"Thunder Dragon!"
Blue lightning suddenly coalesced on his arm, which then began to emit a blinding white light. A dragon-shaped bolt of lightning formed in mid-air and then crashed down.
*BOOM!*
The astonishing lightning dragon streaked through the sky like a blue meteor, so fast that the spellcasters in the Blue Maggot forces had no time to cast any defenses.
They could only watch helplessly as the electric current exploded in the center of their ranks.
Powerful lightning swept through the area!
"No..."
The Blue Maggot commander only saw a flash of white before a shockwave erupted, blasting her through the air and slamming her into the distant ground.
Intense pain surged through her entire body. The spreading electric current had charred her smooth skin black.
The Blue Maggot commander's catfish-shaped mouth continuously spewed fluid and mangled flesh. In her blurring consciousness, she could only hear the miserable screams and wails of her kinsmen.
A Blue Maggot force of 500 had suffered nearly a hundred casualties from a single "Thunder Dragon," and the entire unit collapsed.
[Experience Gained: 71]
[Experience Gained: 75]
[...]
[Experience Bar: 348923/410000]
Tang Zheng glanced at his stat panel. He had gained around 7,000 experience at once.
"Capture the living blue maggots and keep advancing," Tang Zheng said from atop the bone dragon to the White Mist Witch and the others below.
The Water Element Ogre and the Earth Element Ogre beat their chests and let out excited roars.
For the Ogre race, who worship strength, the power Tang Zheng had displayed had made the two of them submit completely.
The group continued to advance.
The defensive line established by the Blue Maggot Tribe was easily crushed and broken under Tang Zheng's powerful assault.
The power of fifth-tier magic was simply not something ordinary soldiers of the Blue Maggot Tribe could withstand. Meanwhile, the magical attacks released by the tribe's many spellcasters were completely unable to cause any damage to the bone dragon.
This situation created a near-total steamroll. Even though Tang Zheng didn't engage in excessive slaughter, he still gained a large amount of experience.
Before long.
Tang Zheng, leading the Ogre legion, had already invaded their Hinterland.
Although the Blue Maggot Tribe's reproductive ability was strong, their population was not large, only about 6,000 individuals.
This situation arose for two reasons: one was the small number of males—meaning only two members of the royal family—and the other was the issue of food.
*Whoosh!*
The bone dragon's bony wings flapped, creating gusts of fierce wind.
Below was a group of Blue Maggot soldiers desperately defending a cave entrance. There were fewer than 200 of them. The general, Beibeibei, stood at the very front, clad in magic armor perfectly forged for her race.
"Everyone, defend this position to the death. Buy time for the King to escape!" Beibeibei gripped the weapon in her hand, staring intently at the human in the sky.
If she hadn't witnessed all this with her own eyes, Beibeibei would never have imagined that the entire tribe's legion could be defeated in such a short time.
This human's power was too great!
That Undead creature that could resist all magic attacks, and the fifth-tier magic he unleashed, which surpassed the power of the fourth tier...
This was a level of power that could no longer be overcome with sheer numbers.
"Planning to make a final stand? Or are you buying time for your King to flee?" Tang Zheng's cold, raspy voice drifted down from mid-air.
This made Beibeibei's heart tighten.
It wasn't hard to guess.
The Blue Maggot Tribe only needed one male and one female to ensure the race would not perish. As for the other tribe members?
Blue Maggots were, in fact, cold-blooded creatures.
Tang Zheng remembered that in the light novel, the Blue Maggot Tribe had easily sacrificed a force of over three thousand to save their prince.
In the eyes of the blue maggots, as long as the tribe could survive, individual lives were unimportant.
"Human, you control the Undead..." Beibeibei gripped her weapon, shouting in anger.
But before she could finish, a commotion suddenly erupted from behind her, causing Beibeibei's heart to leap in alarm. She frantically turned to look.
She saw a peculiar creature—a purple, silkworm-pupa-like worm with six or seven warty legs on its upper body—crawling out from the cave behind them.
"King!" Beibeibei cried out, both shocked and flustered, upon seeing the figure.
(end of chapter)