Noah wasn't surprised that the members of the Empire knew a lot about extinct and ancient creatures. Shandal had lived for so long that he had probably had the chance to study many different species that didn't manage to survive the passage of time.
Instead, what astonished him were the various features of the beast that didn't match the records concerning that species.
There weren't many pieces of information about Tyrannosaurus and their various kinds, but Noah was sure that they didn't have wings. Those two pairs of massive claws didn't match any legend.
Also, the fact that it radiated the aura of a quasi-rank 6 hybrid made that creature appear even more dangerous.
Noah and the others were already on the other side of the battlefield by then. They didn't know how fast the creature was, but they were quite confident that it wouldn't chase them so far away.
After all, the Wardens were there to defend the borders of the Empire. They had already shown that they wouldn't advance further because their task didn't concern any territory outside of its domain.
Still, they remained there, inside the shining magical beast that glanced at them with a challenging gaze.
Noah turned to look at the other higher-ups near him. He had to admit that he didn't know what to do in that situation, but his allies knew far more than him in battle formations.
His focus was on the cultivators in the solid stage of the fifth rank since their judgment was bound to be accurate.
Elder Julia, Elder Regina, and Andrew Elbas wore curious expressions as they inspected the blue beast. They felt that its power surpassed the limits of the fifth rank, but they were also sure that it couldn't compare even to the weakest rank 6 existence in the world.
The Tyrannosaurus seemed weaker than rank 6 magical beasts at the bottom of the lower tier, but it was stronger than any of them. The main question in their mind was whether it was stronger than all of them when fighting together.
The battle between the human troops continued to rage on the ground, and only some of those cultivators had the time to notice the massive blue figure that had appeared above them.
As for the heroic forces of the invaders, they remained still, waiting for the leaders of the three armies to decide if the battle formation was something that they could face.
The fact that there were only those heroic cultivators on the scene wasn't a case. The invading forces had gained more territories to manage in the new continent after the defeat of the Empire.
That forced many experts in the heroic ranks there to handle tasks that human cultivators couldn't even hope to face.
Yet, the three organizations could still deploy them in the war and deal with the consequences of their absence in those territories later. After all, the worst that could happen was the return of those areas to a wild state. That could lead to the destruction of structures built in the past years.
Of course, defeating the Wardens now could only benefit the invaders. Also, their temporary retreat would lead to many casualties in the human cultivators fighting on the ground, which was something that any organization always wanted to avoid, if possible.
That didn't mean that heroic cultivators had to risk their lives to save some human assets. Still, there were methods to test the power of the creature without overexposing themselves.
"A battle formation is inherently weaker than a real creature," Andrew said. "We might test its stability and see if it holds."
The rank 4 cultivators backed down at those words. They didn't want to remain too close when the higher-ups launched spells.
Instead, the Elders of the Council stepped forward and deployed the golden shield that they had used to fend off the explosions of the blue pillars.
Then, Andrew, Elder Regina, and Elder Julia stepped forward to cast spells toward the massive blue creature.
A giant made of water, hundreds of wind blades, and a series of peculiar worm-like puppets appeared in the air and shot toward the Tyrannosaurus in the distance. The energy that those spells radiated as they flew created large cracks on the sky that recovered only a few seconds after their passage.
The creature didn't move. It only unfolded its broad meat wings and waited for the spells to arrive.
The attacks trembled when they neared the battle formation. It was as if an external force was affecting them and shifting their trajectory so that they would land on the wings.
The wind blades were the first to give in to that external force and fly toward the wings. Every heroic cultivator on the scene kept their eyes fixed on Elder Julia's spell only to see it disappear inside the blue light radiated by the creature.
The giant suffered from the same foreign force, but it managed to grab one of the Tyrannosaurus' claws while that pull tried to drag it inside the wings too. The beast though lowered its head and bit the spell's limbs off to remove its handhold.
The giant disappeared inside the meat wings too, and the limbs still hanging on the beast' claw soon turned into "Breath" that dispersed in the air. Even Andrew's spells had failed to do anything to the battle formation.
As for the worm-like puppets, they reached the Tyrannosaurus and coiled their bodies around its claws to avoid the suction force of the wings.
The creature lowered its head again to free itself from that spell, but the puppets started to bite its radiant skin in a desperate attempt to enter its body. They even exploded whenever the maws of the Tyrannosaurus were about to destroy them.
Their detonation could only slow the creature down for less than an instant, and eventually, all of them exploded to give enough time to one worm to pierce the surface of that battle formation.
The last puppet managed to stab its head inside the creature before the Tyrannosaurus reached it and forced it to explode too. That final detonation caused a series of ripples to spread across the entire beast.
However, the ripples soon stabilized, and the Tyrannosaurus began to shine with a brighter light. Even its power appeared to have increased after that quick exchange.
It wasn't much stronger than before, but that detail didn't escape the focused minds of the rank 5 cultivators of the invading forces. Each one of them understood that the battle formation could heal itself due to the energy absorbed by the wings.
A voice that carried multiple tones came out of the Tyrannosaurus and spread through the sky. "You had to go through me if you want to enter the Empire!"
The Wardens challenged the invaders openly, but none of the higher-ups moved.
It was evident that the words of those soldiers had a deeper meaning. They wanted to scare the attackers off or bait them into getting close again.
They ended up being effective since the leaders of the armies turned and ordered a full retreat.