"Iron Dragon Wings!!"
Tom shouted loudly.
The light of the battle formation flared brilliantly.
In the next instant, a semi-transparent dragon-scale shield formed from multiple kinds of energy condensed in midair!
At the same time—
Within the Third Battalion's arcanist corps, dozens of ice-type, earth-type, and defensive arcanists began chanting in unison. Layer upon layer of energy barriers rapidly rose outside the battle formation!
Boom!
Boom boom boom—!!!
The feathered storm slammed violently into the stacked defenses!
Explosions rang out without pause. Ice walls shattered, rock bulwarks collapsed, and energy shields rippled violently!
The warriors within the formation turned pale; blood spilled from the corners of many mouths. Yet the formation itself did not waver in the slightest as they clenched their teeth and held firm!
Seeing that a single strike had failed to achieve decisive results, the gargoyle lord's ferocity intensified.
It raised one hand flowing with dark-gold radiance, five fingers curling in a phantom grasp.
Across the battlefield, countless fragments of stone and metal debris seemed to answer its call, lifting into the air.
They converged and compressed, forming three gigantic spears over a hundred meters long, their tips gleaming with a cold light capable of piercing anything.
"Die!"
The three colossal stone spears tore through the sky with piercing shrieks, plunging down in a triangular formation toward the core of the Iron Dragon battle formation—and toward the arcanist corps behind it!
"Iron Dragon's Fury!!"
Tom's eyes sharpened as the battle formation instantly shifted from defense to offense!
A massive dragon phantom, formed from the combined power of hundreds of elite warriors, roared out from the formation, spewing a pillar of flame straight at one of the stone spears!
The arcanists swung their staves, and extreme frost surged forth, condensing into crystalline ice chains that wrapped tightly around the second spear.
Under Andrew's command, the mercenaries of the Tenth Battalion unleashed their abilities—fireballs, wind blades, lightning, psychic shocks…
A dazzling torrent of attacks surged toward the third spear.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three thunderous explosions erupted almost simultaneously!
The flame pillar neutralized one stone spear outright. The ice chains froze the second layer by layer before follow-up attacks knocked it off course.
The third stone spear disintegrated midair under the dense barrage of abilities.
But this was only the beginning.
The gargoyle lord's assault came like a relentless storm, without pause.
At times it triggered spikes to erupt from the ground; at others it summoned gargoyle phantoms to dive from the sky; then it would unleash vast gravity fields to suppress everything below.
Every single attack carried a Grandmaster's grasp of the laws, its power shaking heaven and earth.
On the human side, the Iron Dragon battle formation—working in concert with the arcanist corps and mercenary units—pushed the advantages of coordinated group combat to their absolute limit.
Tom, a Grandmaster Level 1 powerhouse, commanded from the center, his transitions between offense and defense smooth and flawless.
Commander Andrew led the mercenaries with flexible maneuvers, filling gaps in the formation wherever needed.
Aaron, Tetra, and the other Master-rank powerhouses also joined the formation, contributing their strength.
The battlefield completely transformed into a brutal exchange between the gargoyle lord and the elite human legion!
The flashes of energy explosions lit up the blood-red sky, while shockwaves continuously flattened already shattered mountain peaks.
Both sides were consuming their strength at an astonishing pace.
Though the gargoyle lord was terrifyingly powerful, faced with a tightly organized, well-coordinated human army that also held an overwhelming numerical advantage, it could not break through for the moment.
The human legion, meanwhile, was only barely holding on—the glow of the battle formation gradually dimmed.
Master-rank powerhouses on both sides began engaging in mobile duels, every clash ferocious beyond measure.
This was a battle of attrition—whoever could endure to the end would prevail!
…
Through the swirling smoke and blazing energy, Raine watched the brutal, magnificent battle unfolding in the sky, his heart filled with shock—
And with an even fiercer desire to grow stronger!
It took so many elite warriors just to hold back a single mid-tier Grandmaster gargoyle lord.
Then what of those above—Epic-rank, Legendary-rank, even Sanctuary-level existences?
Power… he needed greater power!
Not just temporary bursts, but true strength that belonged to him alone!
He tightened his grip on the bloodcore in his hand.
The battle raged on.
Above the Bloodhowl Highlands, multicolored lights interwove like dazzling fireworks.
Yet beneath that splendor, lives were being extinguished every single second.
Still, the human battle flags snapped fiercely in the gale, never once falling.
Whether human Masters or alien Masters, all had been driven into a blood-red frenzy, holding nothing back.
Every collision boomed like thunder, energy storms twisting and tearing the sky itself.
This horrific war dragged on for an entire day!
…
The gargoyle lord watched as its high-end combat power suffered repeated losses and its ground forces were devastated.
Even the Netherflame Beast it had driven chose to flee—only to be met with the humans' fearless counterattacks…
At last, unwillingly, it issued the order to retreat.
They ultimately lacked the resolve to fight to the last soldier.
As the retreat horns sounded, the remaining alien forces withdrew from the highlands like a receding tide!
Though the four gargoyle guards were unwilling to accept it, they knew the situation was beyond saving.
Outside the highlands, they tangled with human powerhouses for quite some time, attempting to reclaim the corpses of Yobir and the other prodigies.
In the end, Aaron—driven completely berserk—forced the issue despite grievous injuries and personally slew one of the gargoyle guards!
Only then did the remaining three guards flee, burdened with boundless hatred and humiliation.
Thus, the bloody offensive and defensive battle centered on the Bloodhowl Highlands finally came to an end!
Looking out across the land, the once-treacherous highlands were now utterly ravaged, corpses piled like mountains!
Of the nearly one hundred thousand human soldiers who had taken part in the battle, fewer than half survived.
And they received no further news whatsoever regarding the disappearance of Army Commander Hegros.
The two high-tier gargoyle lords who had vanished alongside him were likewise unheard from.
Though the battle for the highlands ended in victory, the human army had lost far too much!
The survivors dragged their battered bodies and stood silently on the blood-soaked slopes.
They looked up at the banner of the Seventh Division, Scarlet Wall Patrol—tattered, yet still stubbornly flying.
In their eyes were exhaustion and sorrow, but also a spark that refused to be extinguished—
The faith to fight until the very last moment!
Raine searched for his companions amid the mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
From beneath a heap of shadowclaw beast carcasses, he dragged out the nearly suffocating Matthew.
The two continued searching through the wreckage scattered across the mountainside.
At last, beside a collapsed shelter, they found Kyle, Gore, and Pros.
Old Gore had lost his iron hook, his aura weak and fading.
Seeing Raine, dissatisfaction crossed his pale face as he coughed up blood and scolded him.
"You little bastard… you really don't value your life at all!"
"Do you even know what you were doing?!"
He was reproaching Raine's suicidal fighting style.
In his view, any forbidden technique exacted an enormous price—one that could easily damage the foundation, or even sever the future entirely!
Raine could hear the concern in his words and only smiled tiredly.
The heaven-defying part of Blood Devourer was precisely this: as long as there were enough bloodstones, power could be gained safely.
But he couldn't explain that, so he could only respond vaguely.
Kyle said nothing, merely raising a trembling hand to pat Raine's shoulder.
Despite all the danger, not a single one of them was lost!
The five of them were the survivors of the village—and the closest of kin by blood.
At that moment—
Tom, Tetra, Aaron, Black Falcon, and the other powerhouses landed nearby one after another.
Every one of them was wounded, yet they all gathered around Raine immediately.
Without a word, Black Falcon grabbed Raine's wrist. A gentle flow of Nex poured into Raine's body as he carefully examined his condition.
Aaron and the others watched from the side.
After a long while, Black Falcon finally released him, letting out a long breath tinged with the scent of blood.
Then he stared at Raine with an expression as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Incredible… not a single sign of life force depletion, and no damage to your foundation either…"
"You brat… how is your life this tough?!"