With Lian losing consciousness, the battlefield did not stop, but instead reached its bloodiest moments.
The Abyssal River Drake stared for a few moments in the direction where Lian had been taken.
Its golden eyes were shining like two burning suns.
It could sense the presence of the Devourer egg, but now dozens of powerful humans were standing between it and its target.
A deep roar came from its chest, suddenly all the red veins on its body lit up.
First one... then dozens of veins, and then its entire massive body, the sound of scales cracking echoed across the field.
Cracks formed between the black scales, and red energy burst out from within them; energy that even burned the air.
The monster’s mana pressure suddenly multiplied several times, the soil beneath its feet melted, and red winds around its body turned into a vortex.
[ Abyssal River Drake has entered Berserk state ]
As a Fallen one, it was normal for this monster to have a berserk state.
But this was not something the awakened ones were happy to see, instead their frowns and worries multiplied.
Even until now, they had barely been able to gain an advantage over this monster, and now it had entered that damn berserk state?
But besides being very bad news, it was also good news, because it meant that now less than ten percent of this monster’s health bar remained.
"...Berserk." One of the level 31 commanders whispered with a pale face.
Valerian also held his spear tighter.
"Everyone keep your distance!" But his warning was late.
BOOOM!
The Drake disappeared like lightning, and the next moment, one of the level 32 commanders had no chance to react.
A massive claw passed through his mana shield, the shield shattered, the armor split, and the commander’s body was thrown into the air like a rag doll, and after hitting the ground, it did not move again.
And another awakened one had lost his life...
At the same time, the monster’s massive tail spun like a deadly whip, three level 20+ awakened ones did not even have a chance to scream.
Their bodies fell several dozen meters away on the ground.
The Drake no longer had any trace of reason or restraint, every attack was only for killing.
Valerian brought his spear down with all his might, the spear hit the monster’s neck with a deafening sound.
The scales broke, but at the same moment, the Drake’s claw also hit Valerian’s shoulder.
The sound of bones breaking was heard, and Valerian was dragged dozens of meters on the ground, and even his S-rank spear cracked.
Blood flowed from the corner of his lips, and he got up with heavy breaths.
"Really... you damn monster..." He was not lying if he said that this damn Fallen one in front of him was the strongest monster he had ever fought.
On the other side of the field, Elizabeth lost her last mana shield, the monster’s claw split her shield in half, and the pieces of the shield scattered on the ground.
She was forced to hold her sword with both hands, but despite all the pressure... no one retreated.
This time the situation was different, the humans had the numerical advantage, and the mages from behind the field were continuously casting buffs and debuffs.
The mana artillery was firing without stopping, and the close-range units also did not give the monster a chance to breathe every time it attacked.
Only less than ten percent of this damn monster’s health bar remained, if they continued like this, they could finally kill it.
And finally, that is exactly what happened.
Slowly... the Drake’s massive body became covered in wounds.
Dark red blood flowed from the broken scales, one of its horns broke, its right claw was wounded, and its breaths became heavier than before.
Valerian suddenly smiled.
"Now is the time..."
Elizabeth understood what he meant, she attacked from the left flank at full speed, her sword hit the Drake’s leg, and the monster’s balance was disrupted for only a fraction of a second.
That one moment was enough, the mages shouted.
"The chains!"
Dozens of mana chains emerged from the ground, this time not one... but several mages had activated them simultaneously.
The monster’s massive legs were locked for a moment, and the level 30+ commanders attacked from three different directions at the same time.
The Drake roared and threw two of them with its tail, but that delay... was Valerian’s opportunity.
He poured all his remaining mana into his spear, the spear began to shine, the mana pressure was so high that the ground around him cracked.
His voice echoed across the entire field.
"Heaven Piercing Lance!"
The next moment... the spear split the sky like a column of blue light, its speed was so high that no one could see its movement.
Only... the sound of flesh being torn, the spear passed through the Drake’s right eye, shattered its skull, and came out from the back of its head.
The monster remained completely still for a few seconds, let out a roar that was heard for kilometers around.
Then... its massive body slowly leaned forward and with a sound that shook the ground... fell on the plain.
Silence... a heavy silence covered everything.
Then... shouts of victory rose from all the walls of the Base.
"We won!"
"We killed the commander!"
"We survived!"
Some awakened ones sat down on the ground right there, some were crying, some were just staring at the monster’s massive corpse.
The war... was finally over.
At that same moment, blue system windows appeared before the eyes of all the Base members.
[ Emergency Quest Completed ]
[ Base #3 Successfully Defended ]
[ Rewards Obtained ]
[ +10 Fragments ]
[ +100 Stat Points ]
[ +1 Level ]
A few seconds later, another notification appeared.
[ Quest Rewards Reduced ]
[ Reason: External Military Intervention Detected. ]
A few people looked at the notification in surprise, one of the senior officers sighed.
"The main reward was two hundred and fifty Stat Points."
Some turned back in disbelief.
And he continued.
"That’s the system’s rule, if the base completes the Quest on its own, it receives the full reward."
"But when external forces play a role in completing the mission... part of the reward is deducted."
Everyone nodded, no one complained, if the reinforcements had not arrived... there would be no base or life left to receive any reward.
Even now, their casualties were high, and those who had survived were truly lucky.
Besides, even though the Quest reward had been reduced, everyone knew that the government was going to give them large financial rewards for today.
On the other side of the field, a few of Valerian’s forces were looking around in surprise.
"We didn’t get anything?"
"The notification didn’t appear for us."
Valerian also closed his empty system screen and gave a calm smile.
"It’s natural, this Quest belonged to Base #3, we only came to help."
No one else said anything, but disappointment could be seen on their faces, saving lives was a good deed, but they would have been happier if they had received a reward for it too.
A few minutes later... Kain entered the base with the native prisoner.
The native was still unconscious, but that was enough for whispers to spread everywhere.
"A human?"
"Really a human? He doesn’t look familiar? Where is he from?"
"What is that armor he’s wearing?"
"A native?"
"Impossible..."
"Does this world still have humans?"
Less than ten minutes later... the entire base had heard the news.
Valerian and Elizabeth personally came to where the prisoner was being held, both looked at the white-robed man’s face for a few moments without speaking.
Valerian was the first to break the silence.
"Where did you find him?"
"In an ancient ruin, and not me, Lian captured him." Kain answered quietly.
Both commanders were silent for a moment.
"That same boy again..." Elizabeth whispered under her breath.
"Lian? Who is he?" Valerian frowned.
"The hero of this base." Then without exaggeration, she summarized the events of the past few hours.
From destroying a large part of the monster army, and finally... to holding the Abyssal River Drake until the reinforcements arrived.
The more she explained... the more serious Valerian’s face became, and at the end, he just said quietly.
"All of this... was done by an eighteen-year-old boy? If that’s true... his talent is truly monstrous." He thought for a few moments and then added.
"I want to meet him personally later."
"He’s in the medical center for now, he hasn’t woken up yet." Elizabeth answered.
"Then we should deal with this native matter first." Their gazes fell on the native again.
Two days passed.
The war was over, but the medical center was still busy, hundreds of wounded were being treated.
In one of the quiet rooms... Lian was lying on a special treatment bed.
His body was almost completely bandaged, healing crystals were slowly infusing mana into his body.
Next to the bed... Seraphina was sitting on a chair, over the past two days, she had come almost every few hours to check on his condition.
Most of the time, she had stayed there.
At that moment, the door opened and Kain entered.
"Are you feeling better?" Seraphina looked at him and asked, she knew Kain’s condition was not good either, and something had happened to him out there.
"Yeah, my wounds were nothing compared to him." Kain gave a faint smile.
"So you found that ruin, huh?" The girl asked curiously.
Kain nodded and then told the story of the ruin, about finding it, about the two native humans, about being wounded, and how Lian had arrived in time and saved him.
But about the sacred spring... the class upgrade... the race change... and the title Born of Light... he did not say even a single word.
That secret... for now, would remain only between him and Lian, and when he finished...
"A native human..." Seraphina said quietly, she still found it hard to believe.
"So this realm might really be different from all the previous ones." And a few moments later, she asked.
"Besides that... did you find anything special inside the ruin?"
Kain shrugged.
"I’m not sure, Lian took a few treasures, but we haven’t looked at them yet."
"So the ruin wasn’t that special..." Seraphina sighed.
Kain laughed.
"Why are you disappointed? The three races that had closed off the area are gone."
"After things calm down completely, we can explore up to a thousand kilometer radius and even further."
"That’s when the real and cooler ruins will start."
Seraphina also smiled quietly, maybe... the main adventure was just on the verge of beginning.
The morning of the third day...
Sunlight was coming through the window into the room, a quiet calm had covered everything.
Lian’s fingers moved slightly, then his hand trembled, his eyelids slowly opened.
The image in front of him was blurry at first, but gradually became clear.
The first thing he saw... was Seraphina, her head resting on the edge of the bed, she had fallen asleep there from exhaustion.
He was finally awake...