The roar of magic and the clash of swords and blades played like a symphony on the city walls.
The battlefield had reached a fever pitch as time went on.
A young warrior had just used his spear to stab a jackal-wolf person off the wall. Before he could retract the spear tip, a goblin sprang out from the side and plunged a short sword into his abdomen.
Blood flowed across the paving stones on the city walls.
Beyond the city walls.
A red giant dragon soared in the sky, its target aimed directly at the rear of the legion.
The monsters below noticed the creature sweeping across the sky and hastily lifted their bows and arrows to aim at it.
However, what awaited them was a scorching, deadly torrent of flames.
"Hephaestus, clear the way with Dragon Breath!"
The red dragon, while flying swiftly, bent its neck and spit down volcanic-hot flames like magma.
Heaven-punishing flames descended like the sword of Damocles, dispensing judgment to all living things.
The monsters were engulfed by flames, unable to extinguish them even as they rolled on the ground.
Hephaestus flew at incredible speed.
However, the two-legged flying dragon that had disappeared earlier seemed to have heard some sort of summons and flew out from nowhere, heading straight for Hephaestus to try to intercept it.
"Magic Missile!"
Gauss rose and waved his wand, releasing more than a dozen magic missiles, forcing the pursuing flying dragon to slow down.
"Woo! Wooo!"
The sound of the horn grew clearer.
Outside a camp of beast skin tents, dozens of ogre warriors with fierce auras stood like iron towers, while several creatures wrapped in black fog waved bone staffs in unison.
Sitting on Hephaestus’s back, Gauss suddenly felt a heavy pressure envelop the air around him.
"Roar!!"
Hephaestus let out a loud roar.
It seemed that some sort of invisible magic array had been triggered.
The powerful magic power everywhere forced its body to grow heavier and heavier, and despite constantly flapping its wings, its flight altitude was gradually decreasing.
"Is it some kind of aerial restriction array?"
Gauss roughly guessed the methods they were using.
If Hephaestus had reached adulthood or if it were a full-grown red dragon, this aerial restriction array might not be so effective, but at this moment, an incomplete Hephaestus couldn’t resist the legion’s magic array’s constraints.
Affected by the powerful magic array, Hephaestus was forced to make an emergency landing.
Behind Gauss, Abelhard’s gryphon fared even worse.
While Hephaestus barely managed a landing, the gryphon plummeted into the ground. Fortunately, gryphons are tough creatures, and although it was a crash, it was still able to shake its head and struggle back to its feet.
"Cough, cough."
Abelhard appeared somewhat disheveled.
He quickly joined Gauss and the others.
They hadn’t even reached their target when the magic array’s effects forced them down prematurely, and now a mass of monsters blocked their way to the enemy’s main tent.
These creatures seemed to understand Gauss and his companions’ intentions, their crimson eyes glaring at them.
"We’ll have to fight our way through."
Gauss tightened his grip on the white magic wand in his hand.
The others also clutched their weapons.
Though some mishaps occurred, their mission needed to proceed.
"Water Manipulation."
The Holy Water granted by the Lake God slowly divided into countless tiny water threads, spiraling around the team.
Like a rapidly spinning water shield sphere, it securely protected Gauss and his companions inside.
Aaliyah and the others were familiar with this.
Only Abelhard, cooperating with them for the first time, looked around at the nearly impenetrable water thread network with surprise.
He sensed a profound power within.
Was this divine power?
Abelhard had heard of some of Gauss’s past achievements.
However, he was skeptical back then.
It wasn’t that he doubted Gauss’s ability and talent, as the Adventurer’s Guild wouldn’t promote a newcomer without merit for no reason. But tales of the Lake God’s blessing and miraculous acts didn’t concern him.
He thought they were merely eye-catching publicity stunts.
Until he saw the holy water threads infused with divine power did he realize everything with Gauss was genuine.
"Attack!"
Gauss and his companions moved forward decisively.
The monsters charged at them like moths to a flame, brandishing weapons.
Yet before they could approach the humans, those thin sharp needles of water pierced through their skulls, eye sockets, throats, and chests.
The water threads left unobtrusive little holes in their bodies as they took a few more steps forward before collapsing like puppets with their strings cut, their dark red blood gushing out from numerous small wounds, quickly dyeing the frozen ground beneath them.
"Thud, thud, thud!"
Monsters continuously fell only for more to charge forward recklessly.
If someone could break free from the constraints of the aerial restriction array and look from the sky, they would witness an astonishing sight.
Gauss had carved a bloody path through the monster legion.
They sprinted quickly.
Leaving behind them a path covered in blood, crushed flesh, and severed limbs, red, white, and green fluids flowed like small streams on the ground.
"Boom!"
Not all monsters were mindless cannon fodder.
The casters among the monsters collectively released spells.
Just like a human caster team, these monster legion casters were also well-trained in cooperation, and their spells often combined and stacked to create effects akin to a magic array.