Chapter 105: The Charge of the Behemoths
The Shattered Plains lived up to their name.
The orbital drop of the Titans had caused a localized earthquake.
Deep jagged fissures tore through the dry earth. The air was choked with thick dust and the panicked trumpeting of the surviving War-Behemoths.
Lord Vorian staggered to his feet. His heavy iron-gray armor was caked in dirt. He stared up at the twenty-meter-tall golden machine standing directly in front of him.
The Titan did not move. Its massive broadsword rested lightly on its shoulder. Its glowing blue visor looked down at the trembling noble with emotionless mechanical judgment.
"They are made of Star-Metal," Vorian gasped, his voice cracking with sheer disbelief. "He dropped them from the sky like stones."
The Ivory Legion was entirely broken!
The thousand mammoth-class elephants had been charging at full speed. When the Titans hit the ground, the vanguard of the elephant charge collided directly with the indestructible metal frames of the mechs.
It was a catastrophic physics lesson.
Dozens of the massive beasts lay dead or dying. Their anti-magic iron plating crumpled inward. The heavy siege ballistas mounted on their backs were snapped into splinters and became useless.
The surviving handlers desperately whipped the remaining elephants. They tried to turn the massive panicked animals around, but the chaos was absolute.
"Reform the line!" Vorian shrieked, waving his broadsword wildly. "Behemoths, push forward! Use your mass! Crush the machines!"
The handlers obeyed. They drove their heavy iron hooks into the thick hides of the remaining War-Behemoths.
The colossal elephants roared in pain and fury. They lowered their massive iron-plated tusks and charged directly at the golden wall of Paladin-Mechs!
The Titans did not brace for impact.
[System: Melee Protocol Engaged.]
[Unit: Titans (Tier 3 - Elite Construct)]
[Action: Broadsword Sweep.]
The Titans swung their twenty-foot Star-Metal broadswords simultaneously.
They did not aim for the thick iron plating on the elephants’ heads. They aimed low!
The massive blades cleaved through the dust cloud and struck the front legs of the charging War-Behemoths. The Star-Metal cut cleanly through the anti-magic iron greaves and the thick bone of the massive beasts.
The front line of the Ivory Legion collapsed instantly!
Hundreds of the colossal elephants pitched forward, their front legs severed. They crashed nose-first into the dirt with deafening ground-shaking thuds.
The momentum of their charge threw their handlers and the heavy ballistas violently over their heads. This sent men and wood smashing against the unyielding legs of the Titans.
The Titans stepped forward and crushed the fallen handlers beneath their massive boots. They raised their broadswords again, preparing to systematically dismantle the remaining trapped Behemoths.
"They are too strong!" a Royal Captain screamed from behind Vorian. "My Lord, the anti-magic plating does nothing against pure Star-Metal! We have to retreat to the main infantry line!"
Vorian gritted his teeth. His resurrection had cost him his entire fortune, and now his newly purchased army was being butchered in the dirt! He looked back toward the massive crescent-shaped formation of the three hundred million conscripts miles away.
"Retreat!" Vorian roared. "Fall back to the mages!"
The surviving elements of the Ivory Legion scrambled desperately to turn around. Handlers abandoned their wounded beasts and fled on foot.
High above the slaughter, Lucifer watched from the balcony of Zephyria.
He rested his iron gauntlets on the stone railing. He didn’t look triumphant. He looked incredibly focused.
"They are breaking," Elara noted as she stood beside him. The Twilight Sovereign’s iridescent armor caught the faint light of the setting sun. "Vorian is running back to the safety of the main army. The Titans easily crushed the heavy cavalry."
"The Titans were the hammer," Lucifer corrected smoothly. His void-swirling eyes tracked the retreating mass of men and elephants. "But I don’t want them to retreat to the safety of the mages. I want them to die in the open."
He didn’t order the Titans to pursue. The twenty-meter mechs were devastating in a static line, but they were not fast enough to run down fleeing cavalry across an open plain.
Lucifer tapped his comms rune.
"Isolde," Lucifer commanded.
"I am here, Warlord," the Winter Sovereign replied instantly.
Isolde was not flying. The Dragon Queen stood in her human form on the highest battlements of the Citadel. Her ice-crystal gown glittered.
Behind her, the fifty thousand Glacial Wyrms roosted silently. Their massive wings were folded tight against their diamond-hard scales. They were waiting for the command to burn the sky.
"The enemy vanguard is retreating," Lucifer stated. "They are trying to merge back with their infantry. Cut them off."
Isolde’s pale lips curled into a sharp predatory smile.
"With pleasure," the Sovereign hissed.
Isolde raised her pale hands high into the air. She didn’t shout. She didn’t issue a vocal command. She channeled a massive concentrated pulse of pure commanding draconic mana directly into her brood.
The fifty thousand Glacial Wyrms reacted simultaneously.
They did not roar. They simply dropped off the walls of the floating city.
It was a terrifying silent avalanche of white scales! Fifty thousand dragons plummeted through the sky and aimed directly for the gap between the retreating Ivory Legion and the main Royal Army.
"Incoming!" a Royal scrying mage screamed from the infantry lines. He pointed a trembling finger up at the falling cloud of dragons.
The Wyrms hit the ground.
They did not land gently. They slammed into the dirt. Their massive weight kicked up a secondary cloud of dust. But they didn’t stay on the ground.
The moment they landed, the fifty thousand Wyrms opened their jaws and unleashed their breath attacks!
It was not focused beams of liquid frostfire. It was a massive sweeping wave of absolute magical cold. The concentrated freezing breath washed over the empty plains. It instantly turned the dry dirt and rocks into a solid impenetrable glacier!
A massive fifty-foot-high wall of jagged razor-sharp blue ice erupted from the ground. It stretched for miles across the plains.
The wall perfectly severed the battlefield! It completely blocked the retreating Ivory Legion from reaching the safety of the main Royal Army.
Vorian hauled back on his reins. His destrier skidded to a halt just yards away from the towering wall of ice. He stared up at the massive smooth surface.
It was heavily warded by draconic magic and far too thick for his exhausted men to break through with standard weapons.
"We are cut off!" Vorian screamed in absolute panic. He spun his horse around.
Behind him, the golden wall of the Titans was slowly and methodically advancing. The Titans did not rush. They marched with the terrifying inevitable rhythm of an execution squad. Their broadswords were raised.
Vorian and the surviving elements of the Ivory Legion were completely trapped between an indestructible ice wall and an advancing wall of Star-Metal!
"They are boxed in," Sarah observed from the Spire. Her starlight aura pulsed with relief. "The Warlord has isolated the command group."
Lucifer did not smile. He didn’t celebrate the tactical victory.
He opened his Dimensional Vault.
He reached into the dark spatial rift and pulled out the Heavy Aether-Rifle he had taken from the Armory. It was a massive sleek weapon designed for the Cryo-Vanguards and lined with glowing blue runes. Lucifer handled the heavy rifle effortlessly with one hand.
"Elara," Lucifer said quietly.
"Yes, Lucifer," the Twilight Sovereign replied and stepped closer.
"I am going down," Lucifer stated. He checked the firing mechanism of the rifle. "Vorian survived the Umbra because I wasn’t there to ensure the kill. I will not make that mistake twice."
Elara nodded. "I will secure your landing."
Lucifer stepped onto the railing of the balcony.
He didn’t use Void Step. The distance was too great for a single teleport. He activated the Zephyr’s Grace Emblem.
Lucifer launched himself off the floating city.
He plummeted five thousand feet toward the Shattered Plains. The wind roared past his dark armor. He streamlined his body and aimed directly for the trapped and panicked mass of the Ivory Legion.
He didn’t use magic to slow down. He aimed for the largest target on the ground.
A massive heavily armored War-Behemoth was thrashing wildly near the ice wall. Its handler was desperately trying to keep the beast under control.
Lucifer hit the Behemoth!
He landed directly on top of the massive elephant’s iron-plated skull. The physical force of a Level 50 Warlord hitting a target at terminal velocity was devastating.
CRUNCH!
The heavy anti-magic iron plating crumpled instantly. The colossal beast’s skull shattered under Lucifer’s boots. The Behemoth died instantly. Its massive legs buckled as it collapsed heavily into the dirt.
Lucifer stood on top of the dead beast. He didn’t stumble. He deactivated the speed emblem and raised the heavy Aether-Rifle.
The surviving knights and handlers stared at him in absolute shock. The Warlord had just dropped from the sky and crushed their largest siege weapon by stepping on it!
"Kill him!" Vorian shrieked, pointing his broadsword at Lucifer. His voice was cracked and frantic. "He is alone! Shoot him!"
A dozen Royal crossbowmen scrambled to raise their weapons. Their hands shook violently.
Before they could fire, the space directly in front of Lucifer tore open.
Elara materialized from a dark swirling Void rift. The Twilight Sovereign had used the Void Tether ability of her Mythic armor to teleport instantly to Lucifer’s location.
She landed gracefully on the dead Behemoth. Her dark iridescent armor absorbed the sunlight. Her Twilight wings snapped open, casting a terrifying shadow over the terrified crossbowmen. She leveled her violet-flaming spear.
"You will not touch him," Elara declared. Her voice rang with absolute celestial authority.
The crossbowmen dropped their weapons and fell to their knees in terror.
Lucifer ignored them. His void-swirling eyes locked onto Lord Vorian.
Vorian was sitting on his destrier, twenty yards away. The noble’s face was completely drained of color. He looked at the Warlord holding the heavy rifle, and he looked at the Mythic Valkyrie standing guard.
"You..." Vorian stammered. His bravado entirely shattered. "You are not a mortal."
"I am the end of your House," Lucifer said smoothly.
He raised the Aether-Rifle. He didn’t aim down the sights. He trusted the heavy destructive magic of the weapon.
The Carnage Core on his hip pulsed. The ruby-red light flooded into the rifle and completely overrode the blue aether-runes. The True Damage enchantment locked into the firing chamber.
"No! Wait!" Vorian screamed. He threw his hands up in a desperate and futile gesture.
Lucifer pulled the trigger.
The heavy rifle roared! A blinding solid beam of crimson light ripped across the twenty yards.
The True Damage ignored Vorian’s enchanted iron armor. It ignored his magical wards. It ignored the heavy destrier he was sitting on.
The crimson beam punched a perfectly round cauterized hole straight through the center of Lord Vorian’s chest! The beam continued through his body, punched through the horse, and struck the solid ice wall behind them.
Vorian’s eyes widened in sheer unadulterated shock. He looked down at the massive hole in his breastplate. He didn’t even have time to cough.
The noble slumped backward, slid off his dead horse, and hit the dirt with a heavy final clatter of armor.
[Target Eliminated: Lord Vorian (Level 42)]
[Status: Permanent Death Confirmed.]
Lucifer lowered the smoking rifle.
He looked around at the surviving elements of the Ivory Legion. The handlers, the knights, and the mages were all staring at the smoking corpse of their commander.
The Titans had closed the circle and were standing completely still. Their broadswords were raised. The massive ice wall blocked their retreat.
They were completely hopelessly trapped!
Lucifer dropped the empty Aether-Rifle. It clattered against the dead Behemoth’s armor.
"The Vanguard is dead," Lucifer announced. His voice echoed clearly over the silent and terrified survivors. He crossed his iron gauntlets over his chest. "Drop your weapons. You belong to Obsidian now."