Ember Dragon

"boom--"

With the roar of the engines, the steam tanks were arranged in a tight formation, moving like moving mountains, with clouds of dust rolling in behind them.

Behind the armored corps, the Empire's infantry corps was also marching at high speed under the cover of tanks, approaching the city wall in an orderly manner.

In the sky, the wyverns flapped their wings, howled, and circled back and forth, like thick dark clouds in a storm, spreading towards Avundaldan.

The plains in front of the walls of Avender have been completely occupied by the Burning Legion. The Empire's offensive is like a horrific natural disaster, overwhelming and pressing towards the dwarves' fortress.

"damn it"

"This, these guys, really..."

In the face of such might, even the usually brave dwarves could not help swallowing, and their rough bearded faces could not help but show surprise and panic.

At this time, Ed had returned to the top of the city under the admiring gazes of his subjects. His heavy armor had become bloodstained, and the metal hammer was also stained red by the dragon's blood.

"It's His Majesty Ed!"

"Praise the Lord of the Mountains!"

"Did you see that? His Majesty killed more than a dozen Imperial Reptiles all by himself!"

"You are worthy of being our king! Long live His Majesty Eddard!"

Seeing Ed's return, the dwarves' morale was immediately boosted and they cheered.

On this battlefield raging with flames, the Dwarf King stood on the top of the wall of Avendeldan. His eyes were as sharp as torches, piercing through the smoke of war, and his broad shoulders seemed to be able to support the hope of the entire kingdom.

At this moment, even though he was facing countless enemies, there was no trace of fear on his face, and his eyes were filled with determination.

——This scene was just like the one fifty years ago when Ed faced Fadlan’s army alone.

But Ed's life was already shaky, and the Hammer of Stone was no longer in his rough hand. At this time, only the last 9,000 dwarf warriors were left in Avender.
The current situation is even more desperate than fifty years ago. The dwarves can only place their last hope on their king.

Ed's voice was deep and powerful, like the roar of a mountain, echoing off the stone walls.

“My fellow countrymen, today we are facing an unprecedented challenge. Those arrogant invaders want to trample our land with their iron lumps and destroy our homes with fire!
But I ask you, has the courage and determination of the dwarves been swallowed up by fear?"

The dwarves shouted, "No!"

The artillery fire was still fierce, but Ed didn't care. He just looked down from above, his firm gaze sweeping across the faces of every dwarf below him.

This is a battlefield, and the Empire's snipers don't care about the so-called "honesty".

Instead, they took advantage of the situation and pulled the trigger. More than a dozen bullets flew through the air and hit the dwarf king's head, heart and other fatal parts.

Immediately afterwards, several more shells fell from the sky, as if they had eyes, and smashed towards the top of the city where Ed was.

"Be careful!" a dwarf shouted in alarm.

However, Ed didn't even look at it, he just raised the war hammer in his hand high, and a huge mountain appeared behind him, blocking all the bullets and shells.

Bombs behind him exploded one after another, but Ed didn't care at all. He just shouted to himself, "Very good! We will never give this land that has been passed down from generation to generation to these greedy people!

Our hammers will crush their claws; our wrath will melt their armor! Long live the Mountain Kingdom! Avenderdan will never fall! "

The surrounding dwarf warriors clenched their weapons, tears in their eyes. Their emotions were instantly ignited by the king's words, and they let out deafening shouts.

"Avenderdan shall never fall!"

"Long live the Mountain Kingdom!"

"Wan Sheng!"

Ed's words were like a heavy hammer, hitting every dwarf's heart hard.

The dwarves knew that Avenderdan behind them was their lifeline, their only home, and the place where the shield dwarves had survived for thousands of years.

They were willing to give everything for this fortress and for the king.

The dwarves' voices echoed in the smoke-filled battlefield, interweaving with the distant artillery fire into a tragic symphony.

However, their shouts could not stop the attack of the Burning Embers. Ed's timing was very accurate. After he finished his speech, the Burning Embers were about to enter the dwarves' shooting range.

At the king's call, the dwarf warriors quickly regained their morale, made intensive preparations for the city's defense, and once again plunged into this tense war.

"boom!"

"Boom! Boom!"

As they moved forward, the steam tanks in the front row roared and fired, with their main guns continuing to bombard the outer perimeter of the city walls.

The shells created violent explosions one after another, and the magic shield outside the city wall began to ripple. Under the continuous bombardment, the bright yellow light gradually dimmed and flickered.

But the dwarves showed no fear at all. They mobilized the dwarven crossbows, catapults, stone-throwing cannons and other city defense weapons on the city walls and launched a counterattack.

"Smash them!"

"Let these evil dragon followers have a taste of our power!"

"All troops, listen to the order - shoot!"

Thousands of dwarf archers drew their longbows and shot rockets. Dense arrows poured down like a rainstorm.

However, these flaming arrows, which were extremely effective against orcs, pierced the cold armor of the steel behemoth but were completely unable to penetrate it. They could only leave a little white mark and were bounced off with a crisp "clang" sound.

“What a ridiculous counterattack”

"Is this all the so-called Mountain Kingdom has? Looks like we can go back and celebrate the Coronation Festival soon."

"Hahaha, this kind of attack is not as good as the spit sprayed by my grandma!"

"Charge! Kill them!"

The Empire's tank drivers sneered and were not even willing to spend any energy to activate their shields. They just charged forward nonchalantly under the arrows.

How could arrows designed to kill flesh-and-blood enemies defeat their war machines?

"boom--"

The tracks of the steam tank rotated at high speed, leaving clear ruts on the plain, and continued to approach Avondeldan.

"Damn, these iron lumps are as hard as obsidian!"

The dwarf general was furious but not discouraged, and hurriedly called out to the other city defense soldiers.

On the towering walls of Avender, the steel crossbows carefully crafted by the dwarf master craftsmen were aimed at the moving tanks.

The dwarves loaded their arrows, turned the capstan with great effort, gathered their strength, and shouted at the top of their lungs: "Fire! Pierce their iron lumps!"

"Swoosh--" A sharp whistling sound was heard, and the giant arrow more than two meters long tore through the air, turning into a silver light that cut through the sky and attacked the steam tank.

"Shh!"

The sharp cross-shaped arrow carried terrible kinetic energy and penetrated directly into the thick composite armor, nailing the driver in the cabin to his seat, causing the tank to stall on the spot and emitting bursts of gray smoke.

"boom!"

"Damn it, what bad luck!"

Another huge arrow hit the track, paralyzing the tank and making it unable to move.

The engineers following closely behind hurried forward to repair it and replace it with spare tracks, and the dwarves took this opportunity to shoot hidden arrows.

"Whoosh-"

An Imperial engineer who was replacing tracks was shot through the heart, but the engineers behind him continued to fill the gap.

As the common home of dwarven craftsmen, Avender is filled with sophisticated city defense weapons that always give invaders a hard time.

In the towering towers of the fortress, the dwarves activated the catapults carefully crafted by Master Trillant, hurling flaming iron balls - those were discarded weapons melted together.

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The iron ball drew a graceful arc in the sky, and with the sound of the air bursting, it fell into the armored cluster of the Empire.

"boom!"

Flames spread everywhere and metal fragments flew everywhere. The unfortunate steam tank was directly flattened and even the engine was burning. Then, there was an earth-shattering explosion.

Thick steam filled the field, and the steam tank had turned into a charred wreckage, emitting thick smoke.

Finally, the victory was achieved. The dwarves were overjoyed and cheered. They continued to throw burning iron balls at those damn "iron lumps".

Accompanied by a loud bang, another steam tank was hit and exploded on the spot, emitting puffs of green smoke.

Seeing this, Dror frowned and shouted into the intercom: "Don't underestimate the enemy! These tanks are the property of the empire!"

"Yes, General!"

The pilots responded quickly, and under the fierce resistance of the dwarves, they finally put aside their arrogance as imperials and began to attack the city with all their strength.

"Not only did they refuse to surrender, they even dared to fight back?!"

Looking at the wreckage of the tank in the distance, Bill in the cockpit of the "Emperor's Wrath" became furious and smashed the button hard.

As avid fans of steam tanks, the Dragon Vein Goblins feel much more distressed to see a tank destroyed than to see their own people being slaughtered!
It is a naked humiliation that these dwarves dared to use such crude and primitive weapons to destroy a sophisticated war machine!
This is simply unforgivable!

"Om-"

The runes inside the steam tank suddenly lit up and flashed continuously, and an indestructible force field shield gradually formed in front of the heavy armor.

Along with the whistling sound of the wind, another giant arrow broke through the air, but this time it was blocked by the force field shield and broke in mid-air.

Bill said angrily, "You want to hurt my baby? Damn dwarf, kill him!"

"boom!"

"Boom! Boom!"

The steam tank was like a wild horse that had broken free from its reins. Its main gun fired wildly with shorter shooting intervals. Even the gun barrel began to become hot and red.

Under the intensive firepower, shells fell on the city walls like raindrops. The shields outside the city walls flickered constantly and even tiny cracks appeared.

"Wow!"

As the last shell fell, the dwarves' magic shield finally collapsed under the weight and shattered into countless flickering particles of light before eventually dissipating.

The Empire's ogre artillerymen had been waiting for the shield to be broken for a long time.

They had already calculated the shooting angles, aimed at the large city defense equipment, loaded the shells, and were ready to go, just waiting for the opportunity to concentrate fire.

"boom--"

The next moment, artillery fire roared, the earth trembled, and flames and thick smoke filled the sky above the imperial position.

Hundreds of heavy artillery pieces opened fire at the same time. Countless shells streaked across the sky with trails of saliva, fell from the sky and landed on the dwarves' city defense equipment.

"Boom! Boom!"

"No! They are going to destroy our catapults!" The dwarves shouted in panic, but there was nothing they could do.

An explosion sounded, rubble and dust flew everywhere, the city walls shook violently, and even the mountains roared.

In an instant, the catapult carefully crafted by Master Trirant was blown to pieces, and even the tower collapsed on the spot. More than a dozen dwarf warriors were buried in the ruins, and their life and death were unknown.

Immediately afterwards, explosions occurred one after another, and the walls of Avenderdan continued to shake as if they were about to collapse.

None of the dwarven steel crossbows, arrow towers, catapults and other city defense equipment on the city walls were spared, and were all subjected to the precise and intensive concentrated fire of the Imperial artillery.

"boom!"

The steam tanks were only a hundred meters away from the city wall. They roared and roared, firing shells one after another, blasting huge holes in the city gates.

Machine guns were also firing continuously, pouring out bullets like a torrential rain, causing the dwarf defenders on the city walls to fall down one after another, and even fall off the city walls.

Behind the armored forces, the Empire's engineers and infantry corps advanced rapidly, and armored vehicles equipped with ladders drove in from the rear.

The offensive of the Burning Empire was orderly and even layered, like art.

The Empire's staff officers did not like to fill the gap with human lives - that was not cost-effective. They preferred to use steel and artillery fire to destroy the enemy's will and confidence first, and then occupy the city naturally.

Looking at the destroyed city defense equipment, the dwarf general knelt on the ground with a sad face, muttering to himself: "No, that is our city, that is the hard work of us dwarves"

"boom!"

A bomb fell right next to him, blowing the dwarf general away on the spot, leaving him dead or alive.

I saw ferocious shadows passing by on the city wall. They were flying dragons! They had come back!

"boom!"

Along with flying dust, a huge and ferocious black shadow slammed heavily onto the city wall. When the smoke and dust cleared, he slowly stood up.

That humanoid creature was more than three meters tall, and was covered in biological armor made of scales and exoskeleton. Under the armor were muscles that bulged like iron blocks.

His left arm is equipped with a bloodstained chainsword, and his right hand is holding an extremely exaggerated 27mm caliber grenade launcher.

The guy opened his mouth, revealing a ferocious smile on his scaly face: "Hahahaha, for Emperor Burning and the Empire!
Dwarves, repent before us, your flesh is weak!" The chainsaw sword spun at high speed, making a harsh noise.

This time, it wasn't just bombs that landed on the walls of Avenderdan, but also terrifying humanoid weapons, the ultimate creation of the Empire's biotechnology - the Vitagis Dragonscale Monk! (End of this chapter)