One alarm after another blared from the speakers hung along the streets, the alchemical arrays etched on them activated to continuously loop amplification spells.
Erl had not experienced warfare since Raphael, so at this moment the civilians all thought their kinsmen were launching a war of reclamation, unwittingly stopping their work to take shelter.
Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!
Blood wyverns took off from everywhere, flying south.
On the ground, kobold warriors surrounded the hammer drakes, their advantageous and swift steps carrying them to the front lines.
But the battle had already begun.
Three purple battel dragons turned invisible as they approached, immediately detected by the blood wyverns who kept their thermal vision active!
One of them shrieked a warning, and the squad nearest the city turned back to report.
The remaining fifteen blood wyverns formed a formation to try intercepting them.
"Roar!"
Several blood breath attacks spewed towards the now visible battle dragons.
But these breath weapons paled in force and speed compared to lase breath, allowing the purple dragons to easily evade.
"Just fifteen mongrels in total, likely hostile dragon kin. Use indiscriminate lightning spells to annihilate them!"
The squad captain swiftly assessed the interceptors through his transparent helmet and issued orders to his companions.
The other two purple dragons abruptly accelerated, rapidly separating from their captain to encircle the enemy in a triangle formation.
Their claws gathered energy as devastating lightning began coalescing within.
After their attacks proved fruitless, the blood wyverns noticed those slender human dragons with massive wings seemed to be preparing some great technique.
They wasted no time, immediately flapping their four wings to retreat.
The patrolling bloods were never ordered to fight to the death, their duty was to raise the alarm and slightly delay the invaders, which they had fulfilled.
But these crimson winged beasts hadn't flown far before the lightning prison fell!
The thunderballs conjured in the battle dragons' claws connected with each other, finally releasing a terrifying lightning storm into the sky.
The striking thunder rained down rapidly like wind, the entire airspace baptized by the thunderstorm!
"Stop!"
The captain only allowed the lightning prison to form for four seconds before calling it off.
The purples ceased their spell, the thunderstorm gradually dissipating to reveal the clear sky once more.
Those fifteen blood wyverns had vanished without a trace, only the occasional falling charred flecks allowing the combat drakes to inspect their spell's damage.
They immediately reformed their formation, the captain looking quite satisfied with his draconic alloy armor: "The latest product from the design institute is quite impressive, worth the 1.3 million imperial eagle investment."
Lightning spells had never before reached tier 5 power, only tier 4 at maximum.
But the dragon threat always loomed, so the imperial mages researched combination techniques to stack spells up to tier 5.
The downside was its indiscriminate area-of-effect would harm the casters themselves, so the armors for battle dragons continually updated to finally achieve complete immunity to lightning elemental damage.
"Next, descend low and fly into enemy territory! Use firestorms and searing blasts to destroy all facilities along the way!"
"Yes sir!"
The purples immediately descended into the scattered woodlands, their claws continually casting as raining fire began burning everything on the ground.
"Warning! Detecting larger hostile signatures!"
The transparent helmets locked onto the heat signatures of the hammerdrakes the instant they appeared, captain immediately alerting his team.
The battle dragons gained altitude to see the enemies attempting to encircle them from three directions.
"Use lightning bolts to probe the main force head on."
Six orange-yellow lightning arrows shot forward just two seconds after the captain's order.
The frontal force had the most hammerdrakes at four.
Facing the diving attack from above, they fearlessly hunkered down to tank the lightning bolts with their carapaces.
The tier 3 lightning arrows proved ineffective against the innate magic resistance of the hammerdrakes' shells, not even leaving a scratch.
The battle dragons felt a sinking feeling, not expecting their commonly used lightning attacks to fail.
"Watch out for that red dragon diving from above. Tempest, handle anti-air while Blaze and I get in closer to cast!"
The captain didn't order an aerial detour, afraid of getting bogged down by surrounding enemies or wasting an opportunity to cull the limited dragon kin forces.
The purple called Tempest immediately took to the skies to guard against attacks from above.
While the captain and Blaze conjured spheres of corruption and frost explosion, diving down!
The rapidly expanding miasma of virulently corrosive dark energies prepared to engulf the seemingly sluggish hammerdrakes below as frost condensed around them, ice flowers ready to bloom!
This would all happen in an instant. However, the hammerdrakes' trio of crimson, amber and emerald vertical slits had been intently fixed on the misshapen dragons above, their gazes full of carefully concealed ferocity and cold calculation.
Just as the battle dragons' spells manifested, whether the decaying corruption or frozen explosions able to bypass the hammerdrakes' shells, several afterimages suddenly flickered before their eyes then vanished.
"What?"
"Blaze! Evade airborne hostiles! Tempest, provide support!"
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The wave of dark miasma and frost explosions dissipated uselessly into the air.
However, the captain's transparent helmet kept locked onto the hammerdrakes. The moment their insectoid legs explosively propelled them out of view, he immediately alerted the others!
Blaze looked up in disbelief to see a hammered fist descending right before his eyes!
The hammerdrakes' exquisitely powerful physiques allowed them to approach supersonic speeds - too fast to evade through reaction alone.
The massive hammers struck nothing as the drakes plummeted back down, heavily planting themselves on the ground to reacquire their targets.
Blaze was forced to teleport back beside Tempest while the captain, seemingly not willing to use ability, could only desperately fend off the subsequent onslaught from the remaining three.
He activated the chains connecting his wings, barely managing to rapidly ascend a short distance to dodge the second drake's attack before the chains lost their luster.
Yet the hammerdrakes' carapaces now sported a pair of translucent fey-like wings each, minutely adjusting their trajectories as the captain remained the focus.
The third hammered straight into the captain's right claw - the sheer blunt physical trauma utterly devastating.
The alloy armor's designers had only accounted for the drakes facing magical attacks, leaving them unprepared against overwhelming kinetic force.
As such, the captain screeched horrifically as one of his claws disintegrated into a bloody mist of pulverized scales and armor.
But the fourth hammerdrake's assault still loomed, the captain completely unable to evade as it aimed squarely for his back to send him plummeting.
"Shadow chains!"
"Ice lances!"
Tempest and Blaze's aid arrived!
Pitch-black chains dripping with putrescent corpse oil lashed out, attempting to bind the hammerdrake but immediately snapping apart against its incomparable impact force!
The ice lances manifested alongside in an inverse position to bar the drake's path, but still proved futile as the explosive dust coating its three fists detonated in sequence, instantly shattering the lances into shards.
However, these efforts slightly reduced the hammerdrake's momentum, allowing the captain to narrowly brush past its final devastating blow.
"Haah! Never faced such creatures before…got careless!"
Captain briefly resolved the crisis before hastily gaining altitude to regroup with his companions. His transparent helmet displayed that his right claw had lost the condition to act as a spell catalyst, severely reducing his firepower by half.
His internal mana reserves were down to 53%, insufficient for self-regeneration to fully repair his wounds.
The alloy armor's uranium energy reserves were down to 34%, and the accelerator chains on his wings had malfunctioned, reducing his speed by 30%.
"Should we continue fighting or retreat?"
Just as this thought arose in the captain's mind, a familiar energy fluctuation snapped him back to focus.
"Such a strong wave peak, is that crimson dragon approaching?" He urgently looked upwards, but the sparse clouds showed no sign of wind—not an indication of that dragon's arrival.
"Then what is this?"
He couldn't help but turn his gaze toward the ground.
After a series of skirmishes, the other two dragon kin squads hadn't seized the opportunity for a sneak attack, instead hastily repositioning to secure key locations. The battle dragon squad now found itself encircled on three sides.
The previously disregarded kobolds emerged from behind the hammerdrake vanguard, forming ranks with their little claws tightly gripping dragonbreath artillery cannons pointed straight at them—Raphael's radiant breath was coalescing.
The next moment, a hundred cannons fired in unison!
"Retreat!"
Given the choice between counterattacking or retreating, the captain chose the latter, unable to risk further losses here.
The enemy had formed an array continuously outputting overwhelming firepower to suppress them. Any reckless counterattack risked being hit and losing mobility, leaving them vulnerable to being picked off one-by-one by the hammerdrakes.
They evaded the barrage while fleeing southward.
Tempest and Blaze suffered no major injuries, nimbly weaving through the crossfire.
But captain, hampered by his malfunctioning accelerator chains and the agonizing pain of his severed claw, reacted too slowly, sustaining minor grazes. The accumulated wounds gradually sapped his strength and slowed him down.
Icicles, fireballs, and arcane arrows continuously fired from Tempest and Blaze's claws weakened the dragonbreath artillery's barrage as they drew further from Erl's city center.
Yet the hammerdrakes, who had been coldly watching with seeming indifference, finally made their move.
They leaned forward, using two sets of hammerfists to brace against the ground while the fists nearer their heads began secreting explosive powder to coat their entire forearms.
The hammerdrakes then revealed their gaping maws.
Their mouth structure resembled a snake's, connected by ligaments to open up to 180 degrees. Their entire head unfurled like an orange peel towards the airborne combat drakes.
The next instant, their fists plunged into those gaping jaws, filling them with the explosive powder. Then a third esophageal tube apart from the respiratory tract began concentrating energy from within, preparing to unleash it.
Kaboom!!
A high-energy explosive orb suddenly blasted from the hammerdrake's mouth!
Cinder shell, the war machines' trump card!
Its body recoiled from the tremendous blowback, feet barely anchored to the ground by the bracing fists to just stagger slightly.
But then the second shot followed, and the third!
With every shot the hammerdrake's body instinctively reared back, dragging a long furrow into the earth.
The overhead battle dragons felt the gathered force was no less formidable than that crimson dragon.
"Captain! The enemy has unleashed a far more powerful attack! Our alloy armor can't possibly withstand it!"
"And it's overlapping crossfire, blanketing the entire airspace! Unless we have that dragon's speed, there's no evading it!"
Hearing his comrades' urgent voices, the captain turned to see those explosive orbs comprised of rock fragments, energy, flames and powder had sealed off their escape route, screaming through the sky towards them at tremendous speed!
"No choice then, attempt to confront!"
That was his only option left.
But failure meant being helplessly engulfed.
Tempest and Blaze faithfully followed the order, beginning preparations for a greater than tier 6 spell.
The captain could only use his left claw as a catalyst, struggling to synchronize with his companions.
Soon the greater than tier 6 spell fusing the four prime elements of ice, darkness, fire and lightning into a single warding shell coalesced around the purple drakes through their efforts.
Those extremely unstable energies soon collided against the warding!
"Hold it together! Pour in all your mana!"
The captain's vertical slits were wide, intently focused on the outside as each impact on the warding seemed to strike his heart.
The thunderous roar in the air grew ever louder as mana, energy and force continually poured in until finally, at a certain moment, a massive explosion erupted!
The shockwave from the aerial detonation swept away everything around them! The kobolds were inevitably blown away while the hammerdrakes hunkered down, shielding against the rocks and branches flung about.
A white smoke screen dissipated into the air as the severely battered combat drakes burst through, drenched in blood as they fled towards the Oaklan base.
"Mana reserves 12%, uranium energy 3%?"
The captain's shattered transparent helmet displayed this final data reading.
The alloy armor had activated its built-in shielding at the last moment, allowing them to avoid complete physical annihilation that would strip their ability to return.
But this was their absolute limit - the prohibitively expensive alchemical armors covering the combat drakes were now tattered ruins, a few shards of scrap iron dangling precariously from their wings.
Apart from Tempest, the accelerator chains between the other purple dragons' wings had snapped, reverting them to their original quad-wing forms.
"Fly! Hurry!"
The three purples hastened their escape. As long as they survived, the loss of equipment was negligible.
But they hadn't gone far before the captain abruptly halted.
Tempest and Blaze looked at him uncomprehendingly until they noticed the reason.
A golden dragon backlit by the sun, its entire body radiating holy brilliance, now blocked their path.
Arnold narrowed his eyes carefully studying the three mangled purple humanoid dragons before him, puzzled by their unusual coloration.
"I'll take them alive for research."
With that thought, he extended a fingertip to cast a draconic spell.
"Beware! The enemy dragon is attacking!" The captain warned his companions upon seeing Arnold's shoulders twitch.
Tempest and Blaze immediately began conjuring defensive spells.
However, no grand, resplendent attack manifested. Only furtive serpentine tendrils of amber lightning abruptly materialized in the void, insidiously snaking towards the purples.
Blaze was a newly enlisted combat drake whose lack of experience caused all his focus to remain fixed on Arnold, leaving him blind to the snaring lightning.
"What is this!? Lightning? Help!"
The amber tendrils ensnared him—arms, wrists, wing-joints, neck, upper and lower jaws, all entwined by the lightning serpents.
The purple dragon struggled, but those were ethereal lightning constructs, freely shifting forms to maintain their grip.
The constant jolts of electricity stimulated Blaze's body as the immaterial lightning penetrated scale by scale, the overwhelming paralysis gradually robbing him of consciousness.
"Tempest, go!" The captain immediately decided.
Tempest looked at Blaze, increasingly constrained by the growing lightning coils until he could no longer break free, before mournfully following the captain's retreat despite his dread.
Seeing the remaining two purples continuously unleash tremendously powerful spells at him, Arnold deftly evaded and dispelled each crackling lightning chain as the captain drew ever nearer and another one flew farther.
Just as the captain was about to reach him, the purple suddenly vanished without a trace.
"Blinking?"
The golden dragon turned to see them reemerging at the horizon's edge, rapidly distancing themselves.
Blaze had completely lost consciousness as the lightning serpents fully bound and solidified into golden chains, dragging him down.