I Was a Loner, but My Class Got Summoned to Another World…-Chapter 501: Avalanche of Fangs

Blood continued to spill across the battlefield as powerful demon knights clad in armor joined the fight. They wielded magical devices that flared with unpredictable effects.

Reynar could see their blue skin, laced with veins glowing with mana, likely the result of some twisted experiment. Their roars rallied more demons, who still poured endlessly from the portals.

Stone-winged gargoyles screeched as they launched themselves into the air once again. By now, the wards were slowly coming undone, and this was the opening the beasts had been waiting for.

The ground trembled as packs of wolves and other creatures advanced, crashing into the defenders who still held their ground despite Valeria's orders.

Reynar, grim at what he was seeing, spurred his Breeze Roc forward. Sunlight blazed along his sword as he charged it for the next attack. He waited until the weapon burned like a miniature star before diving into the fray.

He struck the nearest creature with a perfect slash, cleaving it in two and burning those around it in a burst of radiant fire. By now, he had trained his Roc not to fear his flames, knowing they healed the great bird instead of harming it.

The Roc's wings beat furiously, scattering the fire across the swarm and fanning the blaze higher. Meanwhile, Reynar carved a blazing path through the thick of the enemy, determined to shield his soldiers from being overrun.

Valeria watched the prince surge forward recklessly. With a sharp command, she sent her panther, Noire, to stop him before he plunged too deep. The great beast lunged with impossible speed, shadows wrapping around the Roc to hold it back from driving straight into the enemy's camp.

"Hey, what are you doing!" Reynar demanded, though he did not fight back. He knew Noire could easily put him down with a single sweep of her powerful paws.

"Relax, prince. I told you all to stay back. I have my own plan here, and you'll disrupt it if you push in too far!" Valeria's tone was sharp but steady. She had not wanted to reveal her strategy for fear of eavesdropping magic, but the boy was heading straight toward her trap.

Overhead, her raven Night shrieked twice, as if signaling. His wings unfurled wide, feathers raining down in a black curtain that struck the demons trying to cross, forming a line that dared them to go further.

The storm of feathers shredded some of the enemy, but their true purpose was to hold back the humans from rushing forward recklessly, just as the prince nearly had.

Reynar, now halted, nodded in understanding and pulled his Roc back. Without needing her to explain, he realized Valeria's scheme and warned his soldiers not to repeat his mistake. Seeing that her dragon had not yet entered the battlefield, he guessed her plan had to do with that.

It did not take long for the demons to notice. Seeing only the prince and Valeria with a small number of soldiers guarding them, they pressed forward greedily. It was obvious bait, but they didn't care; killing either one would guarantee them glory.

Soon, so many fiends had gathered that even Reynar felt uneasy. He could handle dozens, perhaps even fifty, but they came in the hundreds, limited only by the space available to cross.

Then it happened.

The ground shuddered violently, and everyone, Reynar included, felt it. A massive cone began to form beneath the battlefield, forcing even the prince to retreat several steps if he wished to survive what was coming.

"Damn it, next time tell me! We have the hero Marie's communication crystals now; we aren't apes."

Reynar's anger wasn't for himself but for his men. He knew some had advanced too far to escape the ground splitting open, the collapsing earth dragging everything toward the center.

"Don't worry. Those who didn't listen will be helped…" Valeria clicked her tongue, though her eyes never left the battlefield. She, too, carried one of the communication crystals, but she had yet to activate it.

Not because it was new or difficult to use, but because doing so meant she would have to speak with Logan.

And that was something she was not ready for, not when he had bested her tenfold. Not that she was bitter about it. In truth, she was proud.

Proud to see a student surpass her in a matter of months, proud to know the lessons she gave had borne such fruit. She longed to see how much further he had come, but the battlefield was calling her back, each clash drawing closer to her own lands.

Meanwhile, the soldiers who had been caught by the collapsing ground and dragged toward the gaping maw of her dragon were not abandoned. Saber and Noire leapt tirelessly across the shifting earth, pulling men to safety with powerful sweeps of their bodies.

The two great cats saved anyone within reach, dragging soldiers back from the brink of certain death.

The ground split wider, rumbling like a beast awakening beneath the battlefield.

Dust and ash shot into the air as a vast, jagged fissure fully opened, pulling demons and debris alike toward its center.

After having its fill, the earth erupted.

A colossal maw burst upward, its teeth like ivory spears, snapping shut around dozens of shrieking demons. The force of its rise from the pit shook the battlefield, scattering friend and foe alike. It was the cause of the large sinkhole that was nearly one hundred meters wide.

Valeria's trap was, in truth, her dragon, who was lying in wait beneath the surface.

The dragon let out a piercing roar that thundered across the forest ruins, vibrating through stone and wood, drowning out even the screams of the dying.

Its sharp, amber-colored scales glowed with golden light as it used earth elemental magic to pull in its prey. Its massive wings began to flap, causing a windstorm that pushed back all those flying, whether they be gargoyles or the empire's troops and allies, to keep them away from the fight.

"I knew it…" Reynar whispered, eyes widening as his Roc beat its wings furiously to keep them from being crushed. He had never fought beside a dragon before, so this was new to him. This, in particular, was well known, one of the first to be truly tamed and was always with its master when in battle; this time, however, it remained hidden until the perfect moment.

Valeria stood calm amid the chaos, her violet eyes glowing as she raised her hand. Noire and Saber returned to her side; their work of saving soldiers was complete.

Night was the only one still in the fight; it circled above, cawing triumphantly as the dragon's shadow blotted out the battlefield.

"Now," she said, her voice carrying like a commandment.

The dragon lunged forward, its great jaws crashing into the massed fiends who had gathered and were still coming through the portal; some of the portals could not keep up with the change in mana and disappeared instantly.

It was to be expected that the dragon not only fed on meat but also had a special organ that was superior to a mana stone or crystal; it constantly devoured mana and processed it almost instantly to feed it to the dragon. That is why they were apex predators, unrivaled by any creature except the spirits themselves.

The demons who were previously eager to claim glory were devoured instantly, their cries cut off before they even knew what happened.

As for the other creatures, like the Lava-wolves, armored imps, and even gargoyles, they were either too weak or slow and had to resort to fleeing.

Many of them were crushed beneath the dragon's feet and tail.

Reynar could not deny it; the trap was one he should have known when he saw the tamer.

Valeria even warned them before she baited the horde into one place, then unleashed her greatest weapon at the exact moment they were most vulnerable.

And as the dragon tore through the enemy lines with such ease that Reynar felt something shift inside him, he felt useless for the first time.

The battlefield was chaos, but in a mere moment, the tide changed course.

Valeria's dragon plowed through the fiends like an avalanche, scattering even the most disciplined and strongest demon knights. Its tail whipped out, crushing a line of wolves, while its talons raked deep trenches through the ground, tossing demons aside like toys in a quick grave.

Yet many of the demon knights did not falter. They caused their glaives to pulse brightly as runes lit up, causing the earth to settle.

The mighty beast roared in fury, shaking the battlefield, but these demons held firm.

That was when Valeria's sharp voice cut across the noise. "Prince Reynar! Has Omar not delivered the new weapons to you yet?"

"The hero of alchemy? No, I haven't seen him today... why do you ask?" The prince answered but before he got his reply, he saw Valeria take out a pistol, something the hero gave her and start shooting.