The appearance of the Green Dragon Queen instantly changed the situation between the two sides, which had originally been facing each other from afar with roughly equal momentum.
In this world, the role of a supreme individual was decisive.
"Dong! Dong!"
"Woooo—"
On the forest's side, the army began beating war drums and blowing horns.
The monster army swiftly moved into action.
At the very front of the formation were the most numerous troops: goblins.
They were also the worst-equipped unit in the monster army.
Most of their weapons were short knives, short swords, and wooden shields. Very few wore metal armor. Most only had vine armor, and only a tiny number of stronger goblins appointed as assault squad leaders wore leather armor.
As temporary auxiliary troops swept into the Green Dragon Army, their greatest role was to serve as the first wave of expendable material in battle.
However, their poor equipment was partly the result of reasonable resource allocation, and partly because of practical limitations. Fine weapons and sturdy armor were often heavy, and for the vast majority of goblins, whose bodies were not especially strong, their advantage lay in agility, not strength or stamina. Even if they were given better gear, it might only weigh them down.
"Roar!"
"Kill all humans!"
"Kill all humans!"
Although the auxiliary goblin corps received very ordinary treatment, their morale was extremely high.
One by one, they clutched their crude weapons and stared viciously toward the human defenders on the pass wall.
Once they crossed this natural barrier, they would be able to march straight to Barry without obstruction.
If the city fell, they too would enjoy the fruits of victory.
The wild goblins were willing to be swept up into the Green Dragon Army not merely because of the draconic worship flowing in their blood. Part of it was also because their restless savagery was at work.
Their very genes seemed to crave violence, slaughter, and the venting of physical desires.
Yet as individuals, they were not powerful. Only when mixed into a group could their wildness be fully ignited.
And right now, the Green Dragon Army was undoubtedly the most powerful monster army for hundreds or even thousands of miles around.
"ROAR!"
From within the clouds came a majestic dragon roar.
Every monster that heard that sound trembled.
That was the command to attack from their mighty master.
The goblin corps at the front moved first.
Under the command of relatively elite goblin squad leaders, groups of goblins spread out like scattered ants and began advancing toward the pass.
Behind them, the formal troops of the Green Dragon Army advanced toward the entrance of the plain in orderly fashion.
Viewed from above, the plain before the low mountain range and the Jade Forest was gradually being swallowed by a terrifying dark tide.
The entire land trembled faintly beneath the monsters' march.
Across the mountains, hidden magical cannons slowly adjusted their aim.
Each magical cannon was concealed within the mountain itself, further hidden and protected by formations. It was impossible to discover them by sight alone.
Around each magical cannon, crews were making final adjustments. These were control teams specifically assigned to operate the cannons.
War had been absent for more than a hundred years. Although small-scale conflicts had never stopped during that time, none of them had reached the point where magical cannons were needed.
So for this generation of army mages, this was also their first time truly using magical cannons outside of training.
"Internal acceleration array inspection complete!"
"All clear."
"Charging array operating normally!"
"…"
Although the voices were orderly, everyone's breathing inside the mountain space had unconsciously grown heavier.
Their heartbeats had also begun speeding up beyond their control.
An indescribable emotion—part tension, part fear, part excitement—surged uncontrollably from the depths of their hearts.
The arrival of war had been so sudden.
Only half a month ago, they had still been living peaceful military lives.
After receiving the military order, they had barely had time to process it before appearing on this frontline battlefield against the monster army.
No one knew what would happen next, or whether they would see tomorrow's sun.
But if they claimed to feel an especially strong sense of real fear, that would also be a lie. After all, they were standing here now without having come into close contact with a single monster yet.
So what they felt at this moment was more of a tangled, complicated mixture of emotions.
They could only use busyness to suppress their wild thoughts.
Clack, clack, clack—
After the final adjustments were complete, the magical cannon slowly extended a short distance out from the mountain.
Then professional range-finding mages began locking in the angle and target.
These military mages were different from ordinary mages. They did not possess especially powerful frontal combat ability. Instead, they had highly specialized spell configurations.
Linking Spell, Eagle Eye, Rangefinder, Premonition, Cooling Chant…
Most of these spells would not be very useful in ordinary adventuring combat, but when combined with a magical cannon, they could unleash destructive power far beyond imagination.
The chief gunner, now linked to the magical cannon, calmly watched through the magnified effect of Eagle Eye as the monster troops at the very front slowly advanced.
His field of vision became incredibly broad.
The entire plain lay before his eyes. Looking closely, he could even see faint dotted lines in his vision. This was an effect built into the magical cannon, marking its optimal attack range.
They still had not entered the magical cannon's optimal firing zone…
He silently calculated in his mind.
And just as he had learned in training, the monster army had also kept up with the times.
The monsters were spread out in small squads and large detachments crossing through one another.
It was clearly impossible to hit the enemy's densely packed main formation with a single shot.
They seem to understand the firing range of magical cannons?
That thought suddenly flashed through the chief gunner's mind.
But there was no more time to think about it. The first batch of monster troops had already crossed the firing line in large numbers.
Clack, clack, clack!
With the control team working in perfect coordination, the several-meter-long body of the magical cannon slowly lit up with flowing mana.
Countless streams of mana surged from the base along the cannon barrel, rapidly gathering at the muzzle.
Bzzzz!
A fierce wind rose from the front.
The light inside the cannon muzzle gradually grew dazzling, finally reaching a terrifying brightness.
The next instant—
Boom!
Without any warning, that light shot out violently.
In a single instant, the shell became a straight violet rainbow across the sky, crossing more than ten kilometers before landing in a relatively large goblin detachment.
Rumble!
The moment the shell hit the ground, it exploded, and a violent shock engulfed a hemispherical area a hundred meters around it.
Once the light faded, only a huge crater remained in the ground.
A detachment of several hundred goblins had been annihilated by that one shell, leaving behind only a crater full of mangled flesh.
And all of this had happened in less than a single second.
Seeing the actual combat power of the magical cannon, even the members of the control team were momentarily dazed.
They also operated magical cannons during regular training, but they had never had so many living targets as practice.
Moreover, because the cost of use was not low, they had not practiced that many times, let alone at full output.
The first control team fired, opening the battle.
Very soon, dazzling impact shells began falling all across the plain before them.
The earth split open. Trees were uprooted and hurled dozens of meters into the air. Corpses were scattered everywhere, mixed into the dirt.
"So… so strong!"
On the wall, the soldiers and adventurers looking ahead all swallowed at once.
Their panic over the opening of war was suddenly replaced by surging excitement.
With such powerful magical cannons guarding this place, the enemy would never cross the plain and reach them.
Only some senior officers and adventurers remained relatively calm.
First, the magical cannons Barry had installed had decent attack range, but their core destructive power was not actually that terrifying.
More importantly, magical cannons had their own limitations.
Their positions were relatively fixed, and the enemy could target and destroy those locations. In addition, magical cannons had their own coverage range. Too high, too far, or too close would not work.
They only had a middle-range attack zone.
And their biggest flaw was that they directly consumed mid-grade magic crystals and had a fairly long cooldown period.
Their power was indeed impressive, but anyone who thought they alone could keep the Green Dragon Queen's army dozens of miles away was simply dreaming.
Besides, the first goblin corps being slaughtered were only cannon fodder. If they consumed magic crystals and forced magical cannons into cooldown, they had already fulfilled their mission.
Thinking this, some experienced commanders had already begun directing their subordinates into action.
Boom!
The mountain suddenly trembled.
Nearby soldiers steadied themselves and quickly looked toward the source of the commotion.
Some with better memories instantly paled. That was the location where a magical cannon had just fired.
"Did the magical cannon malfunction?"
"Everyone in Castor Squad, take your weapons and follow me."
Captain Castor frowned and quickly ordered his men into motion.
The commotion just now was most likely not caused by a magical cannon malfunction. After all, it had only fired once and was nowhere near overload.
To him, it felt more like an explosion caused by another attack.
In the sky, several enormous wyverns were quickly crossing the battlefield, diving down from the clouds at terrifying speed.
Nearby magical cannons quickly locked onto them, but the wyverns were too agile. After several shifts in midair, they shook off the shells.
Thud!
A wyvern landed precisely at the location of the magical cannon.
Once a magical cannon officially attacked, the concealment formation around it would rapidly weaken.
Nearby adventurers and soldiers tried to stop the wyvern.
But the wyvern, nearly ten meters long, swept its tail once and sent dozens of people flying.
Then its wings beat out a hurricane, sweeping toward the magical cannon's location.
From afar, numerous spells and arrows struck its tough hide. Some were directly deflected, while others exploded without leaving a single wound.
"So strong…"
Some low-level adventurers collapsed to the ground, despair written across their faces.
Against a giant beast like this, ordinary people were truly powerless.
Fortunately, high-level adventurers soon arrived as reinforcements.
"All professionals below Level 3, withdraw from this area!"
"Leave this to us!"
From atop a giant eagle, a warrior dressed in golden armor leaped down and smashed onto the platform. Then he waved his hand, commanding the others to leave.
Seeing the wyvern summon another hurricane, the warrior leaped forward. His greatsword also swung out a blade wind more than ten meters long, cutting toward the wyvern.
Across the hill battlefields, similar battles had already broken out everywhere before the monster army had even drawn close.
Some soldiers and adventurers had their lives taken before they could even react.
The magical cannons began suffering losses.
Of course, the flying monsters launching these charges did not gain much advantage either. Many high-level professionals had already been stationed not far from the magical cannons, waiting precisely for these agile monsters to enter their attack range.
On the main battlefield, the magical cannon barrage continued.
One red crater after another appeared like festering wounds across the earth. Every wound represented the death of countless lives.
Deep within the clouds, the Green Dragon Queen, leader of the monsters, showed no change in expression.
The deaths of thousands of goblins were not even enough to make her glance downward.
Nor did she look toward the flying monsters throwing themselves like moths into flame to destroy the magical cannons.
She only gazed calmly toward a point in the distant air.
And yet there was nothing there.
A flicker of mockery passed through her jewel-like eyes.
"Still hiding, even now?"
"Don't tell me you think you are well concealed."
As soon as she spoke, the seemingly empty space trembled.
Then space itself seemed to shatter.
A figure slowly stepped out from within.
It was an old man whose entire body radiated an aura of decay.
The moment he appeared, his eyes locked tightly onto the Green Dragon Queen in the distance, and his body began to tremble.
"I have waited for this day… far too long."
As the old man spoke, a smile appeared on his face.
"So it is you, Erich Zevier."
"A skulking insect hiding its head and tail. So you are still alive."
The mockery in the Green Dragon Queen's eyes grew even stronger.
During the final stages of the war more than a hundred years ago, this mage known as the Spellweaver had been the one to oppose her directly on the main battlefield.
But decades after the war ended, according to her intelligence, news of his death had spread.
Did he truly think such little tricks could deceive her?
She was a genius among true dragons.
More than a hundred years had passed. The other party was already old and withered, while she, a noble true dragon, had stepped into an even stronger realm.
Spellweaver Erich Zevier stared fixedly at the green dragon. His eyes shone with hatred carved deep into the bone. On his weathered face, muddy tears flowed from his eyes.
During the last war, in order to draw him away from the main battlefield, this sinister green dragon had relied on intelligence provided by an insider and found his family.
That day, his wife, his children, and their guards had all died beneath her poisonous mist.
And although he received the information in advance, he had never once left the main battlefield from beginning to end. He only continued silently slaughtering large numbers of the Green Dragon Army's middle- and high-ranking forces, and countless people were saved because of it.
It could be said that the Zevier family's postwar status in Coldemerald Province had been founded on the decision he made back then.
"Of course I am still alive. For more than a hundred years, I have been thinking of every possible way to kill you, beast."
Pain flashed across Erich Zevier's face, but his words grew even colder.
As a leader, he believed he had a clear conscience.
But as a husband and father, he could never forgive himself.
After the peace treaty was signed, there had been countless times when he wanted to assassinate this green dragon alone, but every time, the higher authorities had persuaded him to stop in the name of the greater good.
If he personally tore up the treaty, it might reignite war around Coldemerald Province. When that happened, tens of thousands of people could lose their homes and families because of him.
At that time, the war had already dragged on for far too long. Too many humans had grown sick of it. He could not become that sinner.
So he had used every method available to drag out his life for more than a century.
Fortunately, he had finally waited until today.
"Humans. Such shallow creatures. A mere century, and you speak as though it were some unforgettable eternity?"
The Green Dragon Queen shook her head lightly.
"Ridiculous. Truly ridiculous."
~~~