Elven cultivators

The hustle and bustle of Steelmane City seemed to vanish at that moment.

On the inner fortress walls, everyone's eyes were fixed on the three enormous figures high in the sky.

A feeling of stagnation I had never experienced before pressed down heavily, making even breathing difficult, and my chest felt like it was stuffed with a wad of soaked cotton.

"What is that?"

"An airship... but where can you find an airship this big?"

"Even the largest airships aren't a tenth the size of this thing!"

Everyone was utterly shocked.

The enormous structure before us could easily be described as a castle.

But when have they ever seen a castle that flies in the sky?

This is absolutely unbelievable!

Urk snapped out of his daze, immediately suppressing his shock, and turned to shout, "Quickly gather all troops to meet the enemy!"

Whatever those things high up in the sky are, they're definitely up to no good.

The most urgent task is to stop them!

Several messengers practically tumbled down the city wall, their hoarse commands quickly echoing throughout the inner fortress.

Steelmane City was boiling over again, like a cauldron of iron being stirred up.

Large numbers of troops began to converge from barracks, streets, and drill grounds, and surged towards the inner fortress along the main road.

At the same time, on the west side of Steelmane City, a gray-brown torrent shot into the sky, breaking through the dust rising from the ground and rushing into the air.

That was an air force.

One by one, fully armed orc soldiers rode their beasts and soared into the sky.

Their mounts were as sturdy as mountain rocks, with broad, thick, membranous wings extending from both sides of their backs. The wing roots were as thick as tree trunks and covered with thick, short, grayish-brown hair.

That's a camel-winged beast.

These aerial mounts, renowned for their endurance and ferocity, along with the flying legion composed of well-trained soldiers, constitute the Steelmane Tribe's most prized elite force.

The sight of nearly a thousand camel-winged beasts taking off should have been spectacular and awe-inspiring, but when they climbed to the same height as the three Flying Star Towers, the entire flying army appeared extremely small in front of those behemoths, like moths flying towards a giant tree.

Even the shadows cast were completely swallowed up by the tower's shadow.

The leading officer, steeling himself, spurred his mount forward, hovering about two hundred meters from the tower. He signaled his men to prepare for attack, then shouted at the top of his lungs, "This is Steelmane City! Identify yourself immediately, or don't blame us for being impolite!"

The sound carried far into the open air.

However, what responded to him was a sudden, deep hum.

The three towers suddenly lit up.

Dark golden light emanated from the patterns on the tower walls, climbing upwards along the layers of eaves and converging between the suspended bronze bells at the top of the tower.

The next instant, a dazzling burst of light suddenly exploded, sweeping across the entire sky like a golden torrent.

The camel-winged beast riders who were surrounding the tower were instantly engulfed by the light.

They felt something explode in their field of vision, and everything went white.

Screams, cries of alarm, and the frantic neighing of startled mounts erupted simultaneously.

The camel-winged beast was jolted and thrashed violently in the sky by the sudden dizziness and excruciating pain.

In an instant, hundreds of orc soldiers were thrown off their mounts.

They plummeted from the sky, their limbs flailing futilely in the air, crashing onto city walls or streets with dull thuds, turning into pools of bloody, mangled mud, with shards of armor and severed limbs scattered everywhere.

More orc soldiers clung tightly to the reins, but were still being tossed about by their crazed mounts.

They roared and tried desperately to calm the camel-winged beast, but the latter, like a blindfolded insect, darted wildly through the sky, crashing into the mounts of its fellow riders, their wing membranes tangling together, leaving behind a trail of blood, flesh, and broken feathers.

The entire air force was completely paralyzed in a single encounter.

Without giving the orc soldiers any time to react, the three towers made another move the next moment.

Suddenly, the three-legged golden crow statue at the top of the tower lit up, and a crimson-gold light emanated from inside the statue, spreading along the bird's beak to the tips of its wings.

Immediately afterwards, a blazing Golden Crow True Fire erupted from the bird's beak, transforming into a fiery line that stretched across the sky, sweeping across the chaotic herd of camel-winged beasts.

Wherever the flames passed, the gray-brown camel-winged beasts and orc cavalry burned together.

Before they could even scream, they were instantly reduced to clumps of charred ashes, which fell to the ground like a silent black rain.

The nearly one thousand air force troops were almost completely wiped out in just a few breaths.

The orcish high command on the city wall watched this scene with eyes wide with rage, their expressions filled with shock, anger, and horror.

"Damn it! What is that?!"

"Stop standing there! Quickly, destroy those towers!"

"We absolutely cannot let them attack again."

In a single encounter, they wiped out thousands of elite troops. It's hard to imagine the devastating casualties that would have occurred if those three behemoths had attacked the ground forces.

The orc leaders present quickly realized this and were about to take action to shoot the three towers down from the sky.

However, before they could take any action, they were horrified to see the three towers that had been hovering motionless in the air suddenly tilt at a slight angle and then swooped down toward Steelmane City below.

In an instant, an overwhelming sense of oppression enveloped the entire Steelmane City, making it seem as if even breathing became difficult.

The dark golden tower, accompanied by a muffled whistling wind, resembled three colossal mountains descending from the sky, crushing towards the ground.

One of the towers faced directly at the inner fortress wall, casting a huge shadow over the entire wall and the buildings behind it.

The expressions of the orc leaders changed drastically instantly.

"Retreat!" Urk roared, leaping backward first.

Zul followed closely behind, his figure transforming into a shadow as he retreated far away.

The other orc leaders also scattered and fled.

Faced with the ferocious impact of such a colossal creature, even a legendary-level expert dared not directly confront its power.

Scar, the only one with that ability, hesitated for a moment before choosing to play it safe and retreating far away.

It's best not to take any risks before you know the true condition of the tower in front of you.

boom!

The deafening crash of the tower colliding with the city wall echoed throughout the city.

The rubble and dust swirled up like waves of earth whipped up by a storm, sweeping outwards and engulfing the surrounding buildings.

The towering city wall collapsed instantly without any doubt, the bricks and stones shattered into dust, which sprayed out from the cracks along with the ash and dirt.

The tower's base was wedged into the ground, carving out a deep trench that crushed the entire section of the city wall, along with the remaining battlements, into the ground.

At the same time, two other towers also crashed into different locations in the city, causing houses to collapse, flames to shoot into the sky, and deep craters to be created in the streets.

The arriving army, along with the houses, was crushed into the rubble.

Screams and cries mingled together, sounding particularly jarring amidst the billowing dust.

The entire Steelmane City trembled violently under this attack, as if it had been gripped and shaken by an invisible giant hand.

Urk landed on a pile of rubble behind the city wall, turned around and looked down, his eyes wide with fury.

As far as the eye could see, the surrounding area had been reduced to ruins.

Countless buildings were reduced to rubble in the impact, and the tribe suffered heavy casualties.

Scar, who was watching this scene, twitched slightly at the corner of his eye and suddenly felt that his decision just now was quite wise.

Byron was completely dumbfounded. He was so shocked by the scene before him, which looked as if it had been ravaged by a natural disaster, that his mouth was agape and he couldn't speak for a long time.

Before they could recover from their shock, a huge door opened simultaneously at the base of all three towers.

Immediately afterwards, a tidal wave of enormous humanoid puppets, covered in armor and wielding golden maces, surged out.

They trod over the broken bricks and stones, their steps orderly and heavy, sweeping in all directions.

Following closely behind were numerous soldiers dressed in different types of armor.

They were of different appearances and from different races, yet they were in perfect formation, exuding a fierce aura, and followed closely behind the Yellow Turban Warriors, charging out in all directions.

The orc army, which had just suffered heavy losses, had no time to catch its breath before being thrown into disarray by the oncoming enemy forces and forced to retreat in defeat.

The moment the Yellow Turban Warriors appeared, an orc elder recognized these alchemical puppets unique to the Silver Moon Clan and was immediately filled with shock and anger.

"They're puppets of the Silvermoon Clan!"

"Damn it, how did they get here?!"

"Those three towers... belong to the Silvermoon Clan?"

All the high-ranking members of the Steelmane tribe, including Urk and Zul, were both angry and bewildered.

I've never heard of the Silvermoon Clan possessing such a massive transportation system!

More importantly, these three towers are so huge that they should be very conspicuous. How did the Silvermoon Clan manage to bypass all the outposts and defenses, avoid all detection along the way, and arrive at Steelmane City silently?

They were completely baffled.

Scar was equally filled with doubt and uncertainty.

They never expected that the Silver Moon Clan would have such a method hidden.

Keep in mind that the Steelmane Tribe only declared war two days ago.

In such a short time, they were able to assemble tens of thousands of troops and send them across thousands of miles, bypassing layers of sentries, and silently and directly into the heart of the Steelmane tribe.

This level of war mobilization and troop transport capability can no longer be described as simply "fast"!

Faced with these two factors, terrain, distance, fortifications... all become meaningless.

If the Silvermoon Clan so desires, they can strike right at the enemy's lair.

Even though Scar wasn't an expert in military affairs, he understood how terrible such methods could be in war.

Traditional defense lines, sentry towers, and scout networks are rendered useless in the face of this leapfrog delivery capability.

In that instant, he realized that the clan's intelligence about the Silvermoon Clan contained a major error.

The latter's formidable military strength has far exceeded everyone's expectations.

The Steelmane Tribe is likely to suffer a great loss today.

Even if they eventually manage to defeat the Silvermoon Clan, the capital city, which the Steelmane Tribe has built up over hundreds of years, will be reduced to ruins.

The worst possible outcome... would be a complete defeat.

Urke had clearly thought of the same thing.

He stared intently at the figures pouring out of the tower, his face draining of color bit by bit.

Not long after declaring war on the Silvermoon Clan, most of the Steelmane Tribe's troops had already been transferred to the border area.

The remaining garrison in the city numbered less than 50,000, and many of them were wiped out by a surprise attack from the Silvermoon Clan.

Furthermore, with the enemy already invading the city and no longer having the advantage of defending it, they were no match for the Silvermoon Clan.

It can be said that from the moment these three towers appeared above Steelmane City, the outcome of the battle between the two armies had already been decided.

The only chance to turn the tide now is to eliminate the enemy's command structure.

Once the enemy's high command dies, the soldiers and puppets will fall into chaos without a leader, and they might still have a chance to fight back.

Suddenly sensing something, Urke abruptly raised his head, his gaze passing over the smoke and fire of the battlefield and landing on one of the towers.

Seven or eight figures appeared in the sky above the tower.

The leader, dressed in a moon-white robe and with long, pale gold hair, stood there quietly, exuding an otherworldly aura that seemed completely out of place amidst the surrounding smoke, dust, and shouts of battle. He appeared to be in another world, making him impossible to ignore.

The moment their eyes met, the anger in Urke's chest flared up like ignited oil, burning and erupting fiercely.

He tilted his head back, his voice almost squeezed out between his teeth, containing an undisguised murderous intent.

"Anton Silver Moon!"