Chapter 271: Chapter 270: One Shot to Break the Army, Killing the Chicken to Scare the Monkey

At this very moment.

「Outside Aino City.」

Dust and smoke rose and the ground trembled as a vast and mighty army marched.

At the very front of the column, thousands of Earth Dragon Cavalry maintained a neat and orderly formation, advancing like a forest of spears!

Black banners with red-lacquered designs depicting ferocious, blood-red wolf heads, accented by icons of bows and arrows, were raised high!

The Blood Wolf Longbow Banner!

It represented the ’Eternal Hunting God’!

It was said that in the distant past,

this great deity would often take the form of a blood wolf, roaming freely through the barren lands of the mortal world...

...to seek out its favored prey!

At this moment, at the front of the Tewa Kan military column, a Warrior chief, identifiable by the two feathers he wore, sat atop his Earth Dragon.

His eyes, wolf-like, sinister, and narrow, squinted as he gazed at Aino City in the distance.

"Aino City, we’ve arrived!"

A cruel, meaningful smile couldn’t help but spread across his face.

"Heh... Pathetic people of Aino..."

"I can’t wait to offer their hearts to my lord!"

"Kill them all! Slaughter the city!"

The Earth Dragon Cavalry roared in celebration like wild beasts.

Their expressions were filled with delight and bloodlust!

For them, this incredibly long war, which had lasted for five years, was finally coming to an end!

Slaughter every last person from Aino!

Loot their city dry!

Destroy this city-state!

And with that...

...bring this war to a perfect conclusion!

Then, laden with glory and gold, return to Tewa Kan City to feast and celebrate!

The Earth Dragon Cavalry daydreamed like this, chatting cheerfully!

But just then, at the very front of the formation, an Earth Dragon Cavalryman looked up at the sky.

"Wait, look..."

"Is there something... floating above Aino City?"

he asked, pointing with a confused expression.

"Looks like it..."

"What is that?"

The Earth Dragon Cavalrymen all raised their heads.

At this distance, they could just faintly make out the Ghostly Flood Dragon, appearing and disappearing within the clouds and mist!

"This..."

The Warrior chief looked up, his narrow, cold eyes suddenly focusing.

For some reason, the moment he laid eyes on the Ghostly Flood Dragon, his heart leaped violently!

It was as if someone had struck a heavy drum right in his chest.

He drew a sharp breath.

This feeling gave him a very bad premonition.

’Could it be a secret weapon of the Aino people?’

’But... I’ve never seen them use it in any of the previous battles.’

’Forget it... Regardless, I should report it to His Highness the Prince first... This thing just makes me feel uneasy...’

These complex thoughts flashed through the Warrior chief’s mind like lightning.

However, at that very moment, his pupils suddenly constricted!

An icy chill, like an electric shock, shot up his spine!

An indescribable shiver of fear surfaced in his heart!

Immediately after, the Warrior chief could clearly see that near the giant, unidentified flying object in the sky above Aino City, within the thick, white clouds that looked like cotton...

...a bewitching, bizarre, and ominous crimson light suddenly began to flicker!

VMMMM!

Like a full glass of red wine spilling across a clean tablecloth, the white clouds were instantly stained a vast swath of crimson!

An astonishing sense of danger sent alarm bells ringing in his mind!

"This is bad..."

But he was out of time to react!

In the very next instant!

RUMBLE!

A deafening, thunder-like sound shook the land for dozens of miles!

—The main cannon of the Ghostly Flood Dragon roared to life!

At the same time...

WHOOSH!

A crimson beam of light—carrying astonishing Spiritual Qi, filled with the shrieks of living souls, as magnificent as fresh blood, and containing furious power—thundered forth!

It was as if a crimson meteor had lit up the sky, plummeting toward the earth at extreme speed!

With a great tear, the vast expanse of thick, white clouds was rent apart in an instant before the crimson beam, like the parting of the Red Sea!

[Hell’s Anthem]

"Defend!"

In the center of the army, a look of horror appeared in Prince Tewa Kan’s eyes!

He manifested his true bloodline form. Dark red wolf fur sprouted from his body, and in a brief instant, Prince Tewa Kan was completely enveloped in it.

But that was all he could do!

Because the speed of [Hell’s Anthem] was simply too fast!

BOOM!

A hundredth of a second after Prince Tewa Kan’s transformation was complete,

the crimson beam descended from the sky and slammed into the dense ranks of the Tewa Kan army!

RUUUMMMBLE!

It was as if a thermobaric bomb had detonated right in the center of the army!

Searing hot, seemingly endless, terrifying flames of blood descended upon the earth!

SZZZ! SZZZ! SZZZ!

The temperature of the blood-flames was high enough to incinerate rock to ash, let alone a human body.

At the epicenter of the blast, nearly a thousand Tewa Kan soldiers were turned to ash in an instant—their flesh and blood were instantly drained away, their bones weathered and crumbled into a fine, grayish powder!

And in a way... such a death was a blessing.

After all, given the lethality of the blood-flames, the soldiers at the epicenter fell into an eternal sleep before they could even register the pain.

The ones in the outer zones suffered a far more miserable fate!

The violent explosion and shockwave shredded the army’s orderly formation in an instant!

WHOOSH!

A gale swept through, sending Tewa Kan soldiers flying through the air before they crashed back to the ground!

"Help me..."

"It hurts!"

"The pain is killing me!"

Their faces were pale as they let out miserable wails.

The shockwave from the explosion had caused severe internal injuries to their limbs and organs—the slightest movement produced a searing pain.

Most of them had already sustained irreversible tissue damage.

Sixty percent of the victims, if they didn’t receive effective medical treatment, would die a miserable death within the next week from symptoms arising from organ damage!

VMMMM!

A few moments later, the crimson beam gradually faded.

On the ground, a massive, perfectly circular, scorched mark was branded deep into the earth...

The sound of wailing echoed without end!

The maimed soldiers who had survived, their faces filled with horror, crawled on the ground, letting out shrill screams!

Their faces were masks of terror and shock!

It was obvious... this army had already lost its ability to fight!

An army broken by a single shot!

The anthem of hell has been played!

...

「Aino City.」

「The Obsidian Walls.」

More than ten of Aino City’s former high-ranking leaders were gathered here.

Before opening fire, Su Ye had specially sent a Communication Talisman...

—to inform them to come and ’observe the ceremony’!

It seemed the effect was quite good, wasn’t it?

The Aino leaders present were pale-faced and trembling, plunged into a deep silence.

Vmmm.

A terrifying thought, impossible to suppress, surfaced in their minds!

"Huuu..."

"If that blast... had been aimed at Aino City...?"