"Arrogant Blue Maggot!" the Water Elemental Ogre roared, lifting his spiked mace with a murderous glint in his eyes.
"Wait!"
Gagaran raised his arm to block the Water Elemental Ogre, looking up at the White Mist Witch in front of them.
"What exactly does that lord intend to do? Does he want us to go to war with the Blue Maggot tribe?"
The White Mist Witch's figure flickered lightly, and she appeared before Gagaran, meeting his serious gaze with a solemn look of her own. "What the Lord does is not for you to speculate."
"Since the other side wants to fight, then let the war begin."
An indifferent voice rang out.
This caused the already irritable Water Elemental Ogre and Earth Elemental Ogre, who had been harboring pent-up rage, to grin savagely.
Gagaran couldn't help but clench his fists, staring coldly at the White Mist Witch. At such close range, he was confident he could heavily injure or even kill her in a single strike.
But he couldn't do that yet.
As a warrior, he would never submit to anyone!
But Gagaran needed to figure out what that man was actually planning.
Thinking back to not long ago, when that man suddenly emitted an aura that could only be described as terrifying, Gagaran's heart couldn't help but tremble.
If he couldn't be sure before...
...then at that moment, Gagaran knew that even if he found an opening to get close, as a warrior, he would still be no match for that Magic Caster.
Could it be that the man had surpassed the 'Hero Realm' and become...
The first person that came to Gagaran's mind was the legendary 'Guardian of the Empire' from the human Empire where he had previously stayed.
No!
That hateful man couldn't possibly have reached that Realm.
Gagaran shook the thought from his head. That man was indeed strong, but if he allied with other powerhouses in the hilly regions, they should be able to defeat him.
"Hey, hey, what are you thinking about? Your eyes looked very dangerous just now," the White Mist Witch said, narrowing her eyes as she stared at Gagaran.
"Hmph."
Gagaran gave a cold snort. "I'm afraid you can't make decisions for that man."
The White Mist Witch paused and withdrew her gaze.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Suddenly, a dense sound of breaking air came from the direction of the Blue Maggot troops. The other side didn't have the complicated internal situation the Ogres did.
Arrows pierced the air, appearing in dense clusters in everyone's vision before raining down. The Ogres, who had barely managed to stay quiet, began to roar and cry out in pain.
Faced with such an attack, the White Mist Witch, Gagaran, and the others could naturally dodge with ease.
"The other side made the first move. Now we have to fight whether we want to or not," the White Mist Witch said with a hint of excitement in her voice.
Compared to the steady Emerald Leaf Witch, the White Mist Witch's personality was clearly more flighty—the type who loved to see the world in chaos.
Helplessness flickered in the depths of Gagaran's eyes. Just as he was about to speak...
Boom!
A roar echoed from above the crowd.
A massive shadow flew over from the rear of the Ogre troops and appeared in the center of the battlefield.
The Blue Maggot troops were the first to let out cries of panic, each looking up in fear.
In the sky...
...stood a massive figure about three meters tall, with a pair of skeletal wings spanning six meters. It flapped in mid-air, generating powerful gusts of wind and a piercing skeletal whistle.
It was a collective entity composed entirely of bones. Countless bones were linked together, mimicking the great race with long necks, four legs, and wings—a Dragon!
Lyle stood on the head of the Bone Dragon, looking down with an indifferent gaze.
"What is that..."
"Undead!"
"It's an Undead!"
Fearful and panicked voices rang out continuously among the Blue Maggot troops. The terrifying appearance of the Bone Dragon, in particular, caused many Blue Maggots to instantly lose their will to fight.
Undead had always been existences that the living feared and opposed!
The Bone Dragon before them was an Undead species that most people, and even most races, had never even heard of.
This was an extremely rare Undead creature. Even Evileye, in her over 200 years of life, had only heard of them and never seen one.
Because of the Bone Dragon's specific traits, it was practically a disaster for the Magic Casters of this world.
The Bone Dragon itself was only Rank 16. Its pure strength wasn't that high; adventurers of Mithril-rank or above possessed the power to fight a Bone Dragon.
But despite being such a low-Rank Undead...
...it possessed the ability to be immune to magic below the sixth-tier. Magic of that level already belonged to the Realm of the 'Outliers'.
With the talent of humans or even other races, being able to master fifth-tier magic already made one a Genius among geniuses, let alone sixth-tier magic.
At this moment, it wasn't just the Blue Maggots.
Gagaran and the others also wore expressions of shock.
The White Mist Witch opened her mouth, looking at the figure standing on the Bone Dragon in mid-air, her eyes filled with fear and respect.
The Master's strength was like an abyss; the more one understood it, the more one could feel that bottomless terror.
"All casters!"
"Attack the Undead above!"
At the height the Bone Dragon was flying, normal arrows could no longer reach it. A commander in the Blue Maggot troops calmed down and quickly shouted the order.
The Blue Maggot tribe possessed a decent talent for spellcasting, especially the royalty, who mastered the rare psychic system caster classes.
In an instant!
Spells flew up from below one after another, slamming into the Bone Dragon, which didn't bother to dodge at all.
Before the casters could even feel happy, to the disbelief of all the Blue Maggots, the magic they released hit the Bone Dragon's body without producing any effect or damage, as if sinking into the ocean.
Fear began to spread among the Blue Maggots.
"Now that you've finished your attacks, it's my turn."
Lyle stood on the Bone Dragon's head, raising his arm toward the Blue Maggot troops below, chanting in a low, raspy voice:
"Thunder Dragon!"
Crackle—Snap—
Blue electric light suddenly condensed on his arm, then gradually emitted a blinding white light, before forming a dragon-shaped bolt of lightning that crashed down from mid-air.
Boom!
The stunning Thunder Dragon lightning streaked through the air like a blue flash. It was so fast that the casters in the Blue Maggot troops had no time to cast defensive magic.
They could only watch helplessly as the current exploded in the center of their formation.
Powerful electric light swept across the surroundings!
"No..."
The Blue Maggot commander only felt her vision go white, followed by a shockwave that sent her flying, crashing into the ground in the distance.
Intense pain flooded her entire body. The current from the spreading lightning turned her smooth skin charred and black.
Liquid and bits of flesh were coughed out of the Blue Maggot commander's catfish-shaped mouth. In her blurred consciousness, she could only hear the screams and wails of her kin.
With just one 'Thunder Dragon' spell, nearly a hundred casualties were inflicted on the 500-strong Blue Maggot unit, and the entire force collapsed instantly.
'Experience gained: 71 points'
'Experience gained: 75 points'
'...'
[Experience Bar: 348,923 / 410,000]
Lyle scanned his attribute panel; he had gained about 7,000 experience points in one go.
"Capture the living Blue Maggots and continue the advance," Lyle said from atop the Bone Dragon to the White Mist Witch and the others below.
The Water Elemental Ogre and Earth Elemental Ogre beat their chests and let out excited roars.
For the Ogre race, who worshipped the strong, the power Lyle displayed had already made them completely submit.
The group continued their advance.
The defensive line established by the Blue Maggot tribe was easily destroyed and broken under Lyle's powerful offensive.
The power of fifth-tier magic was simply not something ordinary Blue Maggot soldiers could withstand, and the magic attacks released by the many Blue Maggot casters...
...were completely unable to cause any damage to the Bone Dragon.
This resulted in a near-total slaughter. Even though Lyle didn't engage in excessive killing, he still gained a large amount of experience.
Before long...
...Lyle, leading the Ogre army, had already invaded the heartland.
Although the Blue Maggot tribe had a strong reproductive capacity, their population was not large, numbering around 6,000.
This was due to two reasons: first, the number of males was too small—there were only two members of the royal family—and second, the issue of food.
Whoosh!
The Bone Dragon's skeletal wings flapped, creating gusts of wild wind.
Below was a group of Blue Maggot soldiers desperately guarding a cave entrance, numbering fewer than 200. General Beebeebee stood at the very front, wearing magic armor custom-made for her race.
"Everyone, hold the position to the death!"
"Buy time for the King to leave!" Beebeebee tightly gripped her weapon, staring fixedly at the human in the sky.
If she hadn't witnessed it with her own eyes, Beebeebee would never have imagined that the entire tribe's army could be completely broken in such a short time.
This human's power was too great!
That Undead creature that could resist all magic attacks, and the fifth-tier magic he released that surpassed fourth-tier power...
...this level was no longer something that could be defeated simply by relying on numbers.
"Planning to make a final stand?"
"Or are you buying time for your King to flee?" Lyle's cold, raspy voice came from mid-air.
This caused Beebeebee's heart to tighten.
This wasn't hard to guess.
The Blue Maggot tribe only needed one male and one female to ensure the race's survival. As for the other tribespeople?
Blue Maggots were actually cold-blooded creatures.
Lyle remembered that in the light novel, the Blue Maggot people could easily abandon a force of over three thousand just to save their prince.
In the eyes of the Blue Maggots, as long as the tribe could survive, individual life and death were not important.
"Human, you who control the Undead..." Beebeebee gripped her weapon and shouted in anger.
But before she could finish, a sudden commotion broke out from behind, startling Beebeebee. She frantically turned her head to look back.
There, a purple, silkworm-cocoon-like worm—a strange creature with six or seven prolegs on its upper body—crawled out from the cave behind.
"King!" Beebeebee cried out in surprise and panic upon seeing this figure.