Rat dragon Hil was scurrying back and forth through the underground works.

"What's the situation?" it asked the kobold operating the fixed artillery turret.

"Lord Hil, the humans are utterly reckless, and those dragons and gryphons keep bombarding us from above without giving us a chance to poke our heads out for an accurate shot."

Hil fell silent for a moment. The hammer drakes couldn't keep using their cinder shells endlessly; they needed rotations to go eat meat and recover.

A blood wyvern came to report, "grand Commander, several of our supply lines to Erl have been severed by those gryphons constantly attacking our rear."

"And what of that gold dragon?"

The rat dragon raged - what was even the point of fighting if supplies couldn't be secured?

"You mean Nicole? She's been too terrified to leave the city. The hammer drakes have to be fully committed to combat with no time to deal with her. With the master and Lord Arnold absent, we're powerless against her for now," the blood wyvern reported regretfully.

Hil considered calling in Old Flame for a saturation bombing run, but feared the gryphons and battle dragons perched above would simply kill this old dragon on the spot.

"Have the Heretic Wing elites try to regain air superiority, see if they can get supply convoys through," it eventually decided to attempt.

In a bunker near the outskirts.

The black dragon Zenny and Saphirette were resting and recuperating. Zenny had earlier tried to bypass Erl via the Molton River to sabotage Cornet's flagship dirigible, but was beaten back before even not off the town's suburbs by anti-air artillery and battle dragons.

"Are the humans really that formidable? I didn't feel that way back on strife plain," Zenny said with lingering trepidation as she licked her wounds, the Imperial Allied forces' dense firepower taking its toll.

"That's civilization for you," remarked the black priest Paladin, usually a figure of silent austerity, drawing Zenny and Saphirette's gazes.

He still wore his pitch-black robe of unadorned linen canvas, the only embellishment a single eye embroidered on the back, his head concealed within the shadowy cowl.

"Or one could say, the laws of matter," Paladin intoned with a preacher's hallowed cadence. "The material world we all inhabit together, this kingdom founded on physical substance - be they dragon, human, demi-human, demon, or deity - all who exist within it must abide by its rules."

"The fleshly form is the basis of life itself. Inflict damage beyond its threshold and disintegration is inevitable. In other words, when it comes to mortal combat between living beings, whosoever commands greater force is the 'stronger' one."

"And the source of ultimate power lies in this world itself! We must draw energy from nature to survive, to train further, to study warfare. Whichever race can leverage material resources most adeptly holds sway over greater might."

Paladin picked up a bowgun lying nearby, opening the chamber to reveal a uranium cell within.

"You see? This is the natural substance humans have mastered: energy. You did not fall to humans, but to the forces of nature itself. Humanity's prowess does not stem from racial superiority, but from outmatching the outer tribes in harnessing the law of matter's power - energy."

Zenny and Saphirette exchanged bewildered looks, unsure why Paladin was suddenly waxing philosophic.

"You three!"

A kobold messenger came scrambling down into the bunker entrance, clothes smeared in soot.

"The front line's in dire straits! Our lines are being incessantly harried and bombarded by those wyverns and gryphons. At this rate, we'll have trouble holding back the human advance. Please do something to drive off or divert some of the enemy's air power!"

Zenny's golden eyes constricted sharply before she nodded. "No problem, we'll head out shortly."

The kobold messenger hurriedly clambered back out to also alert the hammer drakes to adjust their cinder shell trajectories.

After the dragon kin departed, Zenny gingerly lifted her massive draconic body, taking great care not to sweep furnishings with her tail.

"Zenny, Saphirette is too drained to be of help…" the little witch said feebly. "I expended too much mana fortifying barriers against those fiends' bombardment earlier."

"You just rest up," the black dragon reassured with a smile.

Then she turned to Paladin. "Dearest priest, will you be joining the sortie this time?"

The black robe swayed slightly left and right. "Toxic dragon, I am a messenger of the divine, not a participant in worldly strife."

But his dismissive words did not offend the dragon or mage. Zenny said resignedly, "Very well, can't expect much from an old bone like yourself anyhow. I'll go greet those gryphons and mutant dragons myself."

"And stop calling me toxic dragon! I am Black Wing."

With that, Zenny crawled towards the surface exit tunnel. The kobold engineers hurriedly cranked the mechanisms to raise the massive steel blast door, allowing sunlight to flood in alongside smoke, thunder, and screams.

The black dragon let out a shrill roar, propelling herself towards the frontline battlefield with the aid of flight magic, while the black paladin remained seated in silent.

…

"Enemy dragon sighted! Identifed as the black dragon Zenny, an Imperial golden warrant criminal responsible for over a hundred interceptions and massacres of critical logistics corps!"

The purple dragon's transparent helmets immediately detected the distant black speck, their built-in eagle eye spells zooming in to recognize Zenny's visage.

"Engage!" ordered the flight leader, accelerator chains abruptly retracting to fuse the main and auxiliary wings into one broad surface as the draconic body pitched into a dive.

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Zenny had barely taken flight before being locked onto by several incoming lightning bolts, which she deftly intercepted with shadow shots. But the purple dragons soon swarmed her in a three-on-one melee.

"Damn it!"

Zenny quickly found herself embroiled in an uphill battle, the purple dragons' numerical advantage granting them absolute superiority.

She first attempted to dogfight them in the air, flying evasively while launching shadowy arrow strikes.

But two of her shadow arrows were quickly intercepted by ice lances, the third evaded through the purple dragons' agile flying techniques.

Their retaliation came swiftly after.

Immolating Blaze, Dark Meteor Swarm, Frost Pierce!

Explosive bursts, parabolic arcs, linear trajectories - the three different attack vectors sealed off all avenues of escape for Zenny. The over-tier-six spellpower was overwhelming, the absolute ceiling for offensive magic whose immense mana costs only migratory dragons could sustain.

"How are these guys so strong!"

Zenny hadn't expected the purple dragons to fight with such ruthless precision, meticulously accounting for every detail and leaving no openings - trapping her in a killing field within just two or three volleys.

This could be blamed on Raphael; humans had been emergency drilling their battle drakes to treat him as the theoretical worst-case threat. Dracologists and trainers universally agreed that facing the evil dragon demanded utter flawlessness. His formidable melee prowess meant getting your tail caught in his jaws spelled certain death.

Trained to such lofty standards, the purple dragons effortlessly overpowered Zenny, leaving her no opportunity to retaliate.

Watching the three spell barrages converge for a lethal strike, the black dragon had no effective means of evasion. She had already expended her blink spell earlier, miscalculating the distance and leaving no blind spots to duck into.

"It's over."

The kaleidoscopic magical glare reflected in Zenny's despairing golden eyes as she could only try manifesting an arcane barrier in feeble defense.

BOOM!!

Suddenly, a deafening percussion of aerial bombardment roared out! Looking up, Zenny saw it was a barrage of cinder shells fired from afar, smashing into the dark meteor swarm and allowing her to bolt through the gap before the frost and ravaging firestorm consumed her previous position.

The cinder shells rained down relentlessly from all directions. The hammer drakes had ceased attacking the human artillery batteries and advancing infantry, instead prioritizing the gryphons and purple dragons.

"No, I can't possibly fight under these conditions," Zenny realized, watching the unending salvos of incandescent energy bombarding the skies, the gryphon squadrons unleashing terrifying lightning bolts like raging thunderstorms that electrified the very clouds.

The battle dragons fired salvo after salvo of over-tier-six spells to intercept the cinder shells, residual arcane embers raining down like fiery precipitation.

At the frontmost battle line, the carnage was even more horrific. Human mage-crystal cannons relentlessly pounded the defensive ramparts while rank after rank of infantry - each wielding bowguns rivaling tier-four offensive spells - surged forward. Every inch of ground had been bombarded over a thousand times.

"The humans are unstoppable!"

Zenny couldn't help thinking this at the sheer density of the barrage. No other race could unleash such staggering force within just an hour - the very earth had been flattened and cratered several meters deep, uranium and arcane detritus seeping into the bedrock to render it a blighted wasteland.

And this was merely a campaign force of just over a hundred thousand - less than a tenth of the Imperial military's standing forces.

Zenny gazed in horror at the hellscape of the battlefield before turning tail and retreating back underground.

She wasn't a coward like Nicole, but faced with such an insurmountable force, she could only despair.

…

"Leader Hil! We can't hold out much longer!"

Within the forward underground bunker, a battered blood wyvern flapped its tattered wings in pained report:

"The human mana cannons are impregnable. Neither the hammer drake from the flanks nor air support the supply convoys coming up from the southern outskirts are safe from their killzones. All we can do is hope the shells don't land on us - praying is our only countermeasure."

Hil raged, "Why aren't the hammer drakes attacking the human artillery positions?"

The kobold messenger replied cautiously, "You previously ordered them to prioritize joining the Heretic Wing elite in driving off the human air forces. But they still haven't succeeded, so the hammer drakes can't go after the mana batteries - they have to deal with the more immediate threat first, or they'll be picked off one by one."

"They still haven't driven them off?" Hil could scarcely believe the lack of efficiency. "It's just over a thousand gryphons and three purple dragons! The humans still have three more they haven't deployed, and you can't even handle that meager number?"

"Leader, ever since the opening aerial battle ended, the humans seem to have quickly grasped how to counter the cinder shells. They've figured out the trajectories and can intercept most of the attacks. The purple dragons aren't getting their armor shredded in close-quarters like last time against the hammer drakes, so they're maintaining speeds rivaling the master's - making them extremely difficult to hit."

Hil's brow furrowed tighter as the human war cries and clashing grew louder all around. "What about the Heretic Wing's forces?"

The kobold and gravely wounded blood wyvern exchanged helpless looks before responding, "The Sinister Wing's elites proved no match for the humans. That witch used herself as bait earlier and carelessly expended nearly all her mana to the artillery barrage. The black dragon's large frame made her an easy target for focused fire. That old man didn't seem to have any real power. And the werewolf captain took all the mercenaries and followed Alvis's retreat."

"Tch!" Hil spat venomously on the ground. "These are supposed to be the elites? Touting themselves as so exceptional, so powerful - only to be taken out after the briefest showing."

"Nothing to be done," sighed a lizardman who had remained behind, reloading the fixed artillery emplacements. "Those captains were just individuals. There are limits to an individual's might. We never dared confront the humans' armies head-on even back on Strife Plains."

Hil scoffed disdainfully, "Hmph! The excuses of the weak! My master could annihilate entire human kingdoms single-handedly!"

The lizardman flicked out his forked tongue. "Then hurry and summon your master! Let he come slay those purple dragons and gryphons, then go slaughter those damned, crafty soldiers... shotting miss again... is not right?"

Hil's tone dropped a few notches. "My master has more important matters to attend to. This is strategy… No, it's no use. Fall back! To the outskirt fortress cluster!"

Under the covering fire from the manacrystal artillery and air forces, the human infantry had advanced to within just a few dozen meters of Hil's position, uranium bowgun rounds pulverizing the fixed artillery emplacements!

Akuniryas, empowered by divine blood, had spearheaded the vanguard - the dragonbreath artillery cannon's blanket immolation and shrapnel from detonating uranium shells unable to destroy his flesh, merely depleting his "vitality" and granting terrifying resilience.

"Anyway..."

He tumbled past an energy beam, then dove clear of most of the steel ball bearings exploding from a uranium shell detonating beside him.

"...I have just one thought in mind now: To reclaim Oakenburg!"

Steadying his stance, Akuniryas disregarded the whizzing shards and adjusted his bowgun to its absolute maximum output!

The immense energies concentrated into a single potent beam, the uranium power cell in the chamber instantly drained as the focused blast punched through the rampart - already bombarded thousands of times by the mage-crystal barrage.

KABOOOM!

The collapsing wall kicked up a huge dust cloud obscuring the interior, the westering sunlight unable to penetrate and reveal any potential ambushes lurking within.

But Akuniryas strode fearlessly into the breach, steadily advancing while suppressing the depths with sustained railgun fire, rapidly hot-swapping fresh uranium cells.

His combat boots crunched over shattered alloy plating as he made his way through this first line of enemy defenses.

Activating a handheld daylights lantern revealed a scene of scattered disarray - maps, expended bowguns, and depleted uranium cells littered about alongside the shattered corpses of a few dead dragon kin.

"They fled?"

Venturing deeper, Akuniryas discovered the tunnels linking to further underground spaces had been demolished, cave-ins of rubble and soil blocking the passages.

He halted to catch his ragged breath, the exertion and damage to his vitality finally catching up as weakness set in, prompting him to want to sit.

But he resisted the urge, instead retrieving a mage-crystal signal flare pistol to fire a green illumination rocket indicating the area was clear.

Watching the smoke trail arc overhead as the flare symbolized the position secured, Akuniryas felt confident in reclaiming his homeland.

"When I'm retired, I'll settle down in Oakenburg and fondly reminisce about my youthful days of service," he finally permitted himself to collapse onto the floor, staring up at glimpses of blue sky peeking through the black smoke-choked haze as sleep overtook him.