402: Chapter 389 The Flying Dragon Strikes

A demoralized legion trudged across the wilderness.

No one in the legion raised a flag; officers and Soldiers alike kept their heads bowed, their steps as heavy as if stones were tied to them.

They were the Coalition Army that had been defeated at Green Valley.

When they first withdrew from Green Valley, there were more than ten thousand, but their numbers had dwindled under the relentless pursuit of the Assault Team, leaving just over two thousand now.

The commander sat atop a Mutated Rhino-Ox, looking around at the despondent Soldiers with a mix of loneliness, resentment, regret, and a hint of self-mockery.

There were thirty thousand Soldiers defending Green Valley. It wasn't that Novak didn't want to deploy more, but the space on the mountain top was limited and could only accommodate thirty thousand.

Recalling Novak's solemn warning to "not underestimate Lake," and how he had mocked the Lake Soldiers for being foolish and waiting for death before the battle, the commander pulled the Mutated Rhino-Ox to a halt.

The adjutant walking blankly beside him noticed the massive figure in his peripheral vision had vanished. He turned around in confusion and saw the Pack Rhino stopped a few paces behind, then hurried back.

"What's wrong, sir?"

The commander lowered his head in silence.

The adjutant seemed to understand something and comforted him, "It's not your fault. No one expected Lake's Magic Crystal Cannons to have such a long range."

The commander gave a faint, somewhat bleak smile. "Not my fault?"

"Marshal Novak warned me that the range of Lake's Magic Crystal Cannons was uncertain, but definitely far beyond common sense."

"How did I respond?"

"Even knowing Lake had long-range Magic Crystal Cannons, because I didn't see them in sight, I didn't take a single precaution."

The adjutant opened his mouth to argue, but after thinking for a while, he realized the facts were exactly as the commander said.

The two fell silent, with only the breeze and the heavy footsteps of the Soldiers around them.

After a long time, the commander jumped down from the Pack Rhino's back. "I'm not going back."

The adjutant was stunned. "Where are you going?"

"I have failed Marshal Novak's trust. How can I show my face back there?"

Sensing the death wish in the commander's words, the adjutant said anxiously, "Sir, if every defeat required suicide, then..."

"Enough." The commander waved him off, his arm stiffening in the air for a moment before dropping to his side. "Defeat doesn't always necessitate suicide, but this time is different. This failure was due to my own stupidity and negligence."

"No, sir, you..." The adjutant suddenly heard the whistle of an object cutting through the air overhead and instinctively stopped talking to look up.

The white clouds in the sky were thick, hiding the source of the sound.

The commander also looked up, puzzled. "Such a sound... a high-level flying magic beast?"

"But... I don't recall any nearby kingdom possessing a high-level..."

Halfway through his sentence, the clouds were suddenly churned, and a moment later, a magic beast dove out with its wings spread.

It was covered in layers of scales, even on its pair of wings. Its lower jaw was hideous, reflecting a metallic luster that seemed to proclaim its owner's brutality. Its limbs were also strange; its two hind legs resembled those of land beasts, while its front legs were perfectly integrated with its wings like a pterosaur.

The massive silhouette of the magic beast was reflected in the commander's dull eyes as he muttered, "A Wyvern..."

...

The Lake Assault Team was ordered to hunt down the Coalition Army.

The captain dared not delay. After replenishing ammunition and replacing fallen members, he immediately pursued in the direction the Coalition Army had fled.

The Coalition Army hadn't been fleeing for long, and the Assault Team caught up in about half an hour.

Although the Assault Team had been reinforced, their numbers were still far fewer than the Coalition Army. Logically, if the Coalition Army simply turned back to counterattack, they could wipe out the pursuers in no time.

However, the commander worried that Lake reinforcements were close behind. Coupled with the shadow left by the snipers, he decisively picked a few hundred men to act as a rearguard and continued to flee.

The commander's speculation was both right and wrong.

Lake did have reinforcements, but they weren't combat units; they were a supply train responsible for transport. However, the snipers had indeed followed, so his order wasn't entirely wrong.

A small group of a few hundred men naturally couldn't stop the Assault Team's advance and was quickly wiped out.

Afterward, the Assault Team didn't resume the pursuit immediately. They waited for the supply train to arrive and replenished their ammunition before setting off.

When the pursuers appeared in sight for the second time, the Coalition commander repeated the tactic, leaving men behind to cover the retreat.

The two sides continued this cycle repeatedly.

After annihilating yet another rearguard, the captain sat on the grass holding his gun, waiting for the supply squad to arrive.

A team member scooted over. "Captain, I heard the factories in Keton City are breeding a kind of magical creature. It can carry more weight than a horse and run faster too."

"Where did you hear that?"

Another member chimed in excitedly, "More than that!"

"That creature can run without eating grain, and it never gets tired!"

The captain asked in confusion, "Is that even a magic beast? No matter how powerful a magic beast is, it should get tired, right?"

"I don't know about that, but that's what I heard anyway."

Hearing this, the captain snapped back to attention and said sternly, "This is a military secret. Where exactly did you hear this?"

The member was startled and looked panicked. "I... I really just heard it."

"I'm asking you where you heard it from!"

Sensing the severity of the situation from the captain's harsh tone, the member muttered timidly, "Just... heard it from someone... someone..."

Seeing their reaction, the captain understood what was going on. "Do you have family members working in the factories in Keton City?"

The two members remained silent, but their fearful expressions answered the question.

"This is no small matter..." the captain said gloomily.

He was a bit troubled.

His team members' families had leaked military secrets. As their superior, he technically had a duty to report it. He knew their family situations well; their livelihoods depended entirely on the factory and the legion's pay.

If the superiors found out, the members would be dismissed from military service, and their families would be forced to leave the factory.

If that happened...

The captain's thick eyebrows furrowed, reflecting his inner conflict.

The member stole a glance at the captain's face and finally realized how stupid he had been.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly stood up. "Captain, I'll confess to the superiors myself when we get back!"

The other member also stood up. "Me too!"

The captain looked at the two of them for a long time before standing up with his hands on his knees. "I'll be the one to speak. My instructor is an officer in the Third Army. I'll plead with him... maybe there's a chance."

"Re... really?" Avoiding dismissal was obviously the best outcome, as their current lives depended entirely on the factory and the legion. They asked expectantly.

"I don't know," the captain sat back down on the ground, annoyed. "You've read the recruit handbook issued by the legion; the military regulations are very strict."

Recalling the numerous regulations in the handbook and the "violators will be severely punished by military law" warning at the end, the light that had just appeared in their eyes slowly faded.

"I'll do my best." The captain saw the supply team appearing in the distance with their horses. He stood up to comfort the two and then gathered the Soldiers to collect ammunition and continue the pursuit of the Coalition Army.

As they gradually approached the heartland of the Coalition kingdoms, the flat terrain began to roll, and the mountains by the roadside grew taller.

The Coalition Army had lost Soldiers repeatedly, but they still numbered in the thousands. The forest paths were too narrow for them, so they took the main road. The Assault Team did the opposite; with fewer than a thousand men in total, the captain thought for a moment and decided to abandon the main road and take the mountain paths through the forest.

Although it was their first time in a foreign country, the Assault Team was not troubled by unfamiliar terrain.

On the eve of preparing to accelerate the frontline advance, Domit had instructed the Soldiers to use drones to map out an extremely detailed map of the entire territory of the Coalition kingdoms.

The captain took out the map and looked at it for a while, then led his team through the forest.

This was a shortcut. It would have normally taken at least an hour to catch up with the Coalition Army, but after only twenty minutes of running on the mountain path, they saw the Coalition legion marching along the wide dirt road through the gaps between the trees.

"Speed up."

Having been blocked by a few hundred men every time, the captain had long been frustrated. Now that he had a chance to get ahead of the Coalition Army, he naturally wouldn't let history repeat itself.

Speeding to the front of the Coalition Army, the captain ordered the Soldiers to set up a position at the edge of the forest, waiting to open fire with full force as soon as the Coalition Army entered range.

As the Coalition Army approached, the captain spotted an enemy riding a Pack Rhino, dressed far more noble than the Soldiers.

The commander-in-chief?

The captain couldn't help but feel excited.

If he could successfully take him out, it would definitely be a great achievement. Perhaps it could even lessen their punishment and save them from being dismissed from the legion.

Unable to resist the temptation, the captain moved forward alone to close the distance and lay in ambush at the edge of the forest.

His reasoning was that since it was the enemy commander-in-chief, he would surely be heavily guarded, so getting closer would increase the probability of a kill.

"Get ready. Open fire on my shot."

After giving the order through his Bluetooth headset, he adjusted his breathing until it was steady. Feeling he was in peak condition, he closed his left eye and pressed his right eye against the scope.

The red dot on the lens silently adjusted its angle. After locking onto the target's head, the captain became incredibly focused, waiting for the target to step into range.

The Coalition Army was completely unaware of the danger and continued walking into the trap.

Almost there, almost... Huh?

The target suddenly stopped, spoke a few words with the officer beside the Pack Rhino, and then jumped down from the beast.

Did they spot us?

Impossible.

The captain's suspicion was dispelled when he saw the other Soldiers continuing toward him as if nothing had happened.

Then why?

He felt puzzled, but since he couldn't ask the person directly, he could only continue to wait patiently.

After a while, the target and the officer suddenly looked up at the sky together.

The captain was a bit bewildered. What on earth were they doing?

What was so interesting in the sky? Had a god descended again?

After thinking for a while to no avail, the captain also looked at the sky, searching for the source of the target's abnormal behavior.

Clearly, the Coalition commander and his adjutant, being Professionals, had perception far superior to the captain's.

The two heard the sound before seeing anything. As the Wyvern dove out of the clouds, its formidable power allowed them to see every detail of it immediately.

In the captain's field of vision, however, there was only a small black dot.

The black dot slowly grew larger. Only when it was less than a hundred meters from the ground did the captain realize it was a magic beast, yet he still couldn't see its specific shape.

Only then did the captain realize he had binoculars.

He took the binoculars from his lower back and put them to his eyes. In the magnified image, the details of the magic beast's body were clearly visible.

"Is this... a flying magic beast?"

"It's flying toward the Coalition Army. Is it their reinforcement?"

The captain's heart grew heavy, and he began to hesitate about his ambush.

A rifle's range was limited. If the flying magic beast simply flew a bit higher, the Assault Team would be slaughtered without any way to fight back.

While keeping the binoculars trained on the flying magic beast, the captain contacted the rear.

"Report: the enemy has aerial magic beast support. The Assault Team cannot resist. Requesting to postpone the ambu— Oh no, we've been spotted!"

Seeing the flying magic beast hideously open its mouth, with fire glowing in its dark throat as if condensing a fireball, the captain instinctively turned and shouted to his rear, "Get out of the way!"

Then he leaped up and fled frantically to the side.

"Boom—" The fireball seemed to have hit the ground and exploded.

The captain slowly slowed down, his eyes filled with confusion.

Why did the sound... feel so far away?

Stopping by a tree, he looked around in confusion, searching for where the fireball had landed.

It wasn't where I was just ambushing, and there was no fire near my team members. Did it miss?

No trees were burning near his team either. Was the aim really that far off?

?!!!

When his increasingly bewildered gaze swept over to the Coalition Army, his pupils constricted.

...

Lake Command Post.

After listening to Domit's report, Zhang Mu said with great interest, "So you're saying a single round of Wyvern Fire from Ganno's Wyvern unit wiped out all several thousand of the Coalition's remnants?"

Domit nodded. "According to the intelligence sent back by the frontline Assault Team, the Wyverns are confirmed to belong to Ganno's Bauhinia Legion. This raises two questions.

Ganno is the reinforcement invited by the Coalition. Why did they annihilate the Coalition forces, who should be their allies, immediately upon arriving on the battlefield?

Additionally... the Bauhinia Legion isn't equipped with Wyverns. In fact, Marshal, you already know this."

Zhang Mu said thoughtfully, "So the Wyverns were temporarily assigned?

Logically, an elite legion from the Ganno Empire should be enough to easily wipe out Lake. There's no need for this.

Hmm... there's too little information to figure out the reason. Let's set that aside for now and deal with the Wyverns first."

Saying this, Zhang Mu looked at Domit. "Have the physical data on the Wyverns been collected?"

"We observed them from a distance using drones and found that the individual strength of a Wyvern is quite limited.

Just as the two Archdukes said, they can release magic, but the power is average. However, when there are many of them, the destructive power of their simultaneous Wyvern Fire shouldn't be underestimated."

"How many Wyverns did they bring in total?"

"According to the intelligence, about 300 came in total."

"300? That's it?" Zhang Mu was somewhat surprised.

"That's quite a lot. Wyverns are a dragon subspecies, and the breeding process is very difficult. These 300 Wyverns probably represent more than half of the Ganno Empire's assets."

Zhang Mu thought for a moment. "True. Lake has only accumulated 5,000 Griffins over a thousand years, and Griffins are much easier to breed than Wyverns."

"Exactly." Domit replied, then asked solemnly, "Marshal, what should we do now?"

"Why ask me? You are the supreme commander on the battlefield."

"I understand. In that case, could you please go to the scene to investigate, Marshal? Our drones can't get close enough to observe the Wyverns."

Domit knew that Zhang Mu's Invisibility technique was extremely powerful, so much so that even Saint-level experts couldn't see through it.

Zhang Mu stood up from the wooden chair and patted his buttocks. "Alright then.

By the way, it's time to bring out the anti-aircraft guns."

"Understood."