"Yes! It's me!"

The captured bearded man thought he had found a lifeline and excitedly tried to stand up and walk over.

But as soon as he stood up, the foxman soldier guarding him struck him heavily with the stock of his bowgun, forcing him to crouch back down on the ground in pain, not daring to run around anymore.

Afterwards, the bearded man gave Alvis a look of confusion and hopeful expectation. Although he didn't understand why the former stowaway was with a bunch of monsters, he clearly realized that appealing to their old acquaintance was his only chance of surviving amongst this fully armed regiment.

Alvis walked over coldly, his grey eyes devoid of emotion, his hands clasped behind his back gripping a riding crop.

"You…don't remember me? I let you board my ship for the cheapest price," the bearded man said hurriedly, reminiscing about the past in hopes of being spared.

"Then why were you captured by my subordinates?"

"This…" The bearded man recounted, "Ever since that fire-breathing dragon burned down Oakenburg, those of us left could only flee by ship. The Morey military then took control of all the vessels, turning us into reserve sailors who had to follow their orders."

"Then the war began. At first the military made us transport supplies between Oakland and Potan City once a week, but now it's every two days. To avoid dragon attacks they make us work at night, which is how your troops captured us."

Alvis cracked a faint smile. "Once a week became every two days? Seems the allied rear lines have major logistical issues."

He had no doubt that the Empire and Morey Kingdom had sufficient resources to sustain the day and night consumption of over a hundred thousand troops - uranium ingots and magic crystals must be as abundant as sugar beans.

But the backward transportation on the Morey Plains and the gradually flooding rivers made the roads increasingly difficult to traverse, with nearly all supplies piling up in Oakland and only able to inefficiently reach the front lines.

"Cornet probably reports the supply shortages to Imperial Headquarters every day. The staff officer think it's simply a shortage issue so they frantically ship more to Oakland, but it never actually gets forwarded to the front."

As for directly shipping by sea to the battlefield, nobody wants to risk having their transports knocked out by hammer drake's shells or Raphael incinerating them without a second thought.

Transport ships can't hide in underground fortifications, and the loading/unloading process takes considerable time and requires them to remain stationary.

"Does my answer satisfy you?" The bearded man asked, seeing Alvis smile and feeling hopeful he might survive.

But after getting the answers he wanted, Alvis ignored him, turning to give some orders to the foxman soldiers before leaving under the escort of rat dragons and blood wyverns into the flickering night flames.

"Move!"

As the bearded man blankly watched his retreating back, the foxman soldier roughly kicked him from behind. The other demi-humans aimed their bowguns threateningly. "Get up! Hands on your heads! All of you, move!"

The humans didn't dare disobey, obediently following the lead foxman soldier.

Soon they arrived in front of a towering hammer drake standing amidst the scorched earth.

"This…"

The bearded man looked on in horror as the massive beast feasted ravenously - not just on slaughtered cattle and pigs, but live morverns, horses, crunching bones and tendons in its maw. The gloomy firelight flickered nearby as distant rumbles of late summer thunder rolled, like a depiction of hell on earth.

The fox soldier approached the hammer drake and spoke a harsh phrase in Draconic. The monster then turned its gaze towards the bearded man and the others.

"If I die, I hope to rest beneath the soil," the bearded man murmured inwardly the prayer from the forbidden Book of Revelation as his body grew numb.

…

In the southern outskirts of Erl, the battle escalated.

The Imperial Allied forces clearly had no intention of giving the dragon kin any respite. After ending the second offensive at 6pm, the third offensive began at 8pm.

Battle dragons continuously released flashing spells from above, while gryphon knights indiscriminately threw bottles of flashbang potions to illuminate the battlefield as bright as day!

The forward-deployed ranks of magic artillery batteries near Oakenburg's southern suburbs were densely arrayed, their organ pipe-like barrels rapidly firing and retracting in an unending barrage. The entire area was under saturation bombardment, with muzzle flashes continually blinking in the night like firefly swarms.

Underground, the rat dragon Hil felt the constant quaking of the surface, the whole fortification shaking as if on a small boat in heavy seas.

"Leader Hil, the humans have gone mad, relentlessly shellshocking for four hours straight!"

The scout blood wyvern flew in trembling from outside to report.

Hil stood before the table examining the defensive line map, with the witch Saphirette and the dark priest Paladin seated nearby. The black dragoness Zenny had entered Erl to prevent battle dragons from directly bombing the city center.

"Why hasn't it stopped yet?"

Hil had grown completely numb to the thunderous bombardment after initially flinching at the first explosions of magic artillery, having endured the shelling for over a day and night now.

"The Empire is rich," said Evan, Shena's eldest son, standing off to the side.

He had been dispatched for gilding duties, as the twelve noble families had never before been involved in military affairs, and now the Crimson Dragon also strictly prevented human interference in such matters.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

But now the tide of the war was growing increasingly perilous and dire. Raphael could no longer be so picky, accepting any able body on the front lines as every bit of manpower counted.

Evan raised his hand. "The Empire solved its food cultivation problems through magic, then invested its liberated labor and resources into education. This gave rise to talented individuals across many fields. Their combined efforts improved virtually every aspect of the Empire. Social resources continuously accumulated, the population exploded, providing even more builders and laborers for further development in a positive feedback loop - resulting in the formidable military force we now face."

Hil gave the brown-haired human a sidelong glance. "And you still dare betray humanity to side with us?"

"Esteemed dragon kin leader, you can't look at it that way," Evan smiled. "As powerful as humans have become, we are still fragmented and divided. Every family, every individual is isolated and exclusionary. Selfishness is the permeating truth of human society - the bloodlines of the selfless have long been eliminated by history's tides."

"So no matter how strong humans become, it is still only a small faction controlling the majority of resources. The commoners and petty merchants are mere decorations and cogs - the latent wealth stripped from them far exceeds what's in their own accounts."

"It's just like with you. The crimson dragon's glory shines dazzlingly bright, and you dragon kin bask in that radiance. But from what I know, your lifestyles are little different from slaves. Without the crimson dragons, you can scarcely claim to have a self-identity."

"So we're willing to take this gamble. Rather than lose our foundations and flee, only to be bled dry and slowly reduced to commoners by Morey's ruling class devastated by losses."

As Evan finished speaking, the constant shaking of the underground space finally subsided, the thunderous explosions gradually fading until only a ringing in the ears remained.

Hil furrowed his brow and called over a blood wyvern. "Tell the kin at every position to prepare for battle! The humans are going to charge up! The hammer drakes watch for air attacks."

He then grabbed the map and his bowgun leaning against the wall, ready to head out.

As he was leaving, Hil turned to Evan. "Our dragon kin's loyalty is not something that can be measured by your human notions of selfish profit-seeking. Our master is our sole driving force to live on."

With that, he entered the winding tunnels towards the front lines.

"Incurable," Evan scoffed dismissively. He had hoped to try prying apart the crimson dragons' defenses, but Hil was single-mindedly devoted to being loyal to Raphael, not caring at all about his own life or interests.

However, the dark prest Paladin then unexpectedly objected. "To slander and mock those selfless individuals by assuming selfish gain is the only purpose of life. How laughable it is for someone without any principles to vacillate for profit, utterly unworthy of basking in golden glory!"

Evan looked at the pitch-black faceless figure in surprise. Paladin had not uttered a single word since arriving, utterly indifferent to the crumbling underground fortifications.

"Don't be afraid, little boy," Saphirette said impassively in reassurance. "The old geezer often says nonsensical things. He's even older than Saphirette, so his mind not working properly is normal."

Evan could only politely smile with his noble upbringing, while Paladin fell silent once more.

...

The battlefield outside was particularly brutal.

The Imperial Allied forces, especially the Morey Punitive Corps soldiers, fought with reckless abandon - charging forward against the sweeping dragon flame breaths and fixed artillery batteries.

Akunirlyas and his elite regiments pushed ahead together. Directly in front were three interconnected fortresses forming an overlapping defensive network, with kobolds inside firing bowguns and other weapons at any passing humans.

"What's the situation?" Akunirlyas asked the scout soldiers.

"Lieutenant, those forts are a tough nut to crack," the scout reported, crawling into a rapidly dug earthwork trench.

"I tried attacking with maximum bowgun firepower, but got no reaction. The sapper Phineas says they're constructed from reinforced mud - with at least half a meter of alloy plating lining the interior. Conventional uranium explosive weapons can't do much damage. The firing ports use a wide-angle design to hit enemies from multiple angles, we can't flank around them."

Akunirlyas listened calmly to the report. His regiment's deputy officer and accompanying staff immediately offered suggestions:

"As the vanguard of the vanguard, we only have a little over two hundred men here. Why don't we wait for the following troops to arrive before concentrating fire?"

"No, we're deliberately advanced as an arrowhead. According to the map, we should be the farthest protruding 'point'. The friendly forces behind are likely still engaged with enemies elsewhere - no reinforcements will arrive for at least an hour."

"What about calling in the gryphon riders for support?"

"They're as armored as turtles. Only higher-six-tier spells from battle dragons might be effective. Do the gryphon knights' weapons differ from ours?"

Overall, no one wanted to retreat. Morey soldiers were certainly brave and martial - it was just the high command who were habitually timid and indecisive. Under Cornet's leadership, their troop quality even exceeded the Imperial soldiers.

"What if we send in a suicide squad to charge up to the forts and lob explosive potions through the firing slits?" someone suggested.

But the scout immediately rejected it, as the slits were three meters off the ground - too high for even a leaping toss.

"I'll give it a try," Akunirlyas spoke up.

"You, sir?" The other soldiers looked at him in surprise. Indeed, only someone of his over two-meter stature might be able to manage it.

"No way!" the deputy officer objected. "You're the regiment Lieutenant! You can't risk charging in a suicide attack. Let me and second lieutenant Zora go - he can hoist me up."

But Akunirlyas had made up his mind. "This isn't a discussion, it's an order. Hand over all your explosive potions!"

Military commands cannot be defied, no matter how outrageous.

Unable to object further, the soldiers and officers retrieved their amber alloy elliptical potion bottles filled with liquid uranium kept stable by alchemical arrays.

Akunirlyas threaded the potions together with twine into a large loop and stuffed it into his waist pouch.

To trigger the potions, all he needed was to expose the liquid contents to outside air - either by shattering the bottles or hastily uncorking and tossing them in an instant.

After making these preparations, he charged straight out of the trench without a backwards glance!

Immediately, a volley of uranium rounds came shooting at him! But thanks to his accelerated reflexes and speed from blood enhancement, Akunirlyas easily evaded them as he advanced on the first fortress!

The rest of the regiment's soldiers scattered to cover outside, using their bowguns to suppress the enemy fire from within the fort. Meanwhile, some other daredevil troops also began crawling forward.

The bowgun crossfire grew increasingly dense, yet Akunirlyas maneuvered nimbly as if dancing - dodging with every ounce of effort, though some shrapnel grazed his body. But not a single wound opened, only depleting some form of "vitality".

"That divine blood enhancement is really helping!"

Akuniryas felt grateful inwardly, as the wondrous boon from trying to slay the dragon continued to bless him on the battlefield. His flesh seemed to transcend physical limitations - no external injury could impede his movement, not even being hit by magic bombardment.

Yet he sensed a vague limitation - if the damage accumulated past a certain threshold, even he could not avoid death, like from an evil dragon's breath weapon.

A terrifying wave of heat rushed towards him!

Unable to bear the rapidly approaching human, the kobolds in the fort unleashed their dragonbreath cannon - its cone of flames sweeping across the field in an instant.

Seeing the towering man engulfed in flames, they sighed in relief. But then a burning human figure suddenly charged out!

He ran in great strides before leaping, deftly pulling the potion stoppers mid-air to accurately pitch the bottles through the narrow firing slits.

KABOOM!

After a tremendous explosion, thick smoke billowed from the fortress' crevices - the small fortification had been breached.

Another thunderous blast sounded as Akunirlyas looked over to see the regiment's suicide squad had also successfully destroyed a second fort, though over half were killed in the process.

He patted out the dragonfire on his clothes and sprinted towards the final fortress.

...

Deep underground nearby, Paladin suddenly raised his head, a few tendrils of vines unfurling from his robe before rapidly retracting.

"?"

Evan turned his head quizzically, unsure what caused the odd old man's strange behavior.

"Saphirette is puzzled, as Paladin has never lost composure before," the witch remarked, also watching.

Paladin then began murmuring as if in a trance: "The divine-born has appeared...even is one with the blood of the moon...has my eons of prayer finally been answered?"