Deathwing was the largest dragon in the world. Whether in terms of power or size, he far surpassed other dragons, including the other four Dragon Aspects.
Aiden had experienced the "Spine of Deathwing" battle in the game. A 25-man raid team standing on one of the plates of his back wouldn't feel too crowded. Now, it was even wider than two basketball courts—but fraught with danger, because this armor encased the most dangerous creature in Azeroth.
After a dive, Deathwing prepared to attack. Seeing these tiny heroes scattering, he thought they were nothing special. But just as he was about to catch Aiden, the latter suddenly disappeared before his eyes.
Not only him, but the other heroes also vanished at the same instant.
Deathwing was stunned for a moment. He recalled that just now, for a split second, he felt an anomaly, as if he was bound by time.
"Time magic?"
"You fools dare to come onto my back?"
Deathwing quickly found the disappeared heroes. They were actually on his back!
"You think this will keep me from hitting you? How naive!"
Deathwing roared. Suddenly, several huge, fiery red tentacles burst out from his back. Between the armor plates, countless seemingly burning slime creatures swarmed towards Aiden and the others from all directions.
"Tsk tsk," Morgana stood on Deathwing's back, watching these slimes that moved at about the speed of a normal person walking. "I like opponents like this the most."
She pointed her finger, and a large area in front was instantly cursed by dark power. Boiling black water gradually corroded the slimes, and many of them turned into part of the dark power before they could even leave the area.
Nocturne then pounced towards the giant tentacles growing beside them. He constantly shifted between physical and ethereal forms, dodging all of the opponent's attacks, and then easily cut killed the tentacles.
Kayle guarded Aiden's side, clearing out other opponents who tried to approach, while Karthus cast spells to support the others.
"These opponents aren't anything special." They resisted so easily that Morgana even had time to mock.
Deathwing was furious. He rolled his wings and suddenly dove headfirst, like a spinning top losing control, rushing towards the earth at high speed.
If ordinary heroes faced such a dangerous maneuver, they would have been thrown off long ago, but these were not ordinary heroes. Each of them was a transcedent, and each of them could fly.
Aiden summoned several vines, securing them to the seams of Deathwing's armor, linking them together.
The view in front of him spun wildly. Just as they were about to approach the ground, Deathwing finally spread his wings, raised his head, and let out a burst of hearty roars, almost skimming the ground before soaring back into the sky.
He thought that even if this couldn't throw everyone off, it should at least make them suffer a bit, right?
But it didn't.
Deathwing in the game wouldn't perform such high-difficulty maneuvers. He would just tilt to the left or lean to the right. No one would be thrown off except for newbies on their first raid and players with terrible network lag.
Aiden certainly knew that this was not the game mode, although the monsters that spawned on Deathwing's back were indeed those from the game. These slimes and tentacles were products of the fusion of his power and the Old Gods' gifts. These parasites should have been very powerful, but the elementium armor hindered the exertion of these powers. So, although they looked dense and numerous, they posed no threat to this group of transcedent heroes.
One must know that even the weakest here was a demigod, and Aiden himself possessed Titan authority.
"Keep going!" Aiden said, "I'm almost done."
"He's still ten kilometers away from Los Angeles."
Kayle reminded him from the side.
"That's enough." The Scepter of Sargeras in Aiden's hand was radiating light. It was reading the model of the elementium armor plates on Deathwing's back. Although these armor plates were pieced together from several pieces, they were all considered one defense system. As long as the reading was completed once, all the elementium armor on Deathwing's body could be removed at once.
And after removing the elementium armor, Deathwing would become very fragile. The subsequent battle would be much easier!
Deathwing noticed that these heroes were unharmed, and he was immediately enraged.
"Your tenacity amazes me, but it's worthless! I will make you see your city destroyed with your own eyes, and all life will turn to ashes in my wrath!"
He flapped his giant wings and flew towards Los Angeles at an even faster speed.
His power prematurely triggered the disaster of the World Pillar's fragmentation. On the coastline of the Land of Justice, the sky is full of huge waves.
With a crisp "crack," the armor plating, which could withstand almost all spells and attacks in the world, was as soft as tofu before the blunt-headed short staff.
The power that directly influenced the rules spread out, and in that instant, Deathwing felt the hooks that held the armor plating inside his body suddenly tear his flesh, rolling outwards.
"Impossible, this is impossible!"
Deathwing simply couldn't accept this fact.
The cultists of the Twilight's Hammer had spent countless hours mining precious elementium ore, and finally forged this set of plate armor to protect his body. This magical alloy could even resist the power of the Dragon Soul, and its powerful defense allowed him to fear no enemy in the world.
But now, this armor hadn't even truly faced any enemies, and it was actually destroyed by a short staff!
At this moment, he remembered N'Zoth's warning to be careful of Aiden's scepter and gem. When facing him, either retreat early or make a quick decision, and never get too entangled.
But with the opponent on his back, he had completely cut off the possibility of a quick victory.
Deathwing initially didn't even notice that Aiden was using the power of the scepter!
Now he had finally personally witnessed the effect of this seemingly ordinary scepter.
"Enough, let's go!" Aiden retracted the short staff and flew away from the dragon's back with the other heroes. The shattered elementium armor plating disintegrated on Deathwing's body, then scattered to the ground. Without the cover of the armor plating, the true condition of Deathwing's body was exposed before them:
His body was cracked everywhere, and crimson flames and burning blood spewed out from those cracks.
Without the elementium armor on his back, Deathwing's fragmented body was presented in such a shocking way.
"What a mad black dragon," Kael'thas sighed from the side. Everyone else nodded in agreement.
Anyone could imagine the immense torment of having cracks all over one's body.
For power, he could actually endure such pain; no wonder he eventually fell into madness!
They sent signals to the Painsmith and Skybreaker airships. Ziggs on the airship received the order and immediately ordered the gunners to aim and fire.
The magnetic rails on both sides of the mag-rail cannons flickered with electricity, and then the two cannons fired almost simultaneously. The muzzles spewed out pale blue plasma, and almost no one could capture the trace of the shells flying out; it was too fast!
The shells, carrying enormous kinetic energy, shot towards Deathwing in the air at a speed of more than ten times the speed of sound. The straight-line distance between the two was less than five kilometers, which meant that for mag-rail cannons with an effective range of over two hundred kilometers, the gunners could easily hit the target without much aiming or correction. Moreover, Deathwing's body was so huge that hitting him was not much different from hitting a fixed target.
A strong sonic boom came from the air. The shells formed a straight line, and in just one second, the first shell hit the target. The rate of fire of the mag-rail cannons was incredibly astonishing, and in just a few breaths, both airships had exhausted all of their shell reserves.
The results were equally amazing—Deathwing was initially furious when his armor was torn apart. He realized that these heroes had left his back, and immediately turned back from the air, using his powerful dragon breath, claws, and spells to strike back and let them see his true power.
But the large body inevitably caused turning difficulties. He only slightly tilted his body, and the attacks from the Skybreaker and Painsmith came one after another.
These shells, which were actually only as thick as arms, originally weren't even qualified to tickle Deathwing. Even without the elementium armor, such shells couldn't possibly cause him any trauma—unless he was lucky enough to hit a cracked part of his body.
But those were just ordinary shells.
These now were not ordinary shells.
A shell slammed into Deathwing's back, deeply penetrating it, and then the Valoran Federation's most advanced explosives detonated violently inside Deathwing's body, blasting the surrounding flesh and blood everywhere.
Before Deathwing's nerves could transmit this pain to his brain, more shells surged in.
"Boom boom boom…"
A series of explosions comparable to firecrackers rang out incessantly. Dozens of shells all hit Deathwing's left side, back, and wings.
Immense pain swept over him, even more intense than the cracks in his body.
Deathwing roared again and again. He lost his balance and fell from the sky.
Pain and hatred made the desire for destruction in his heart soar. At this moment, he only wanted to launch the Cataclysm here and destroy everything in this world.
But N'Zoth stopped him.
"Leave here, Deathwing, and carry out your original mission! Immediately!" N'Zoth's cold voice directly entered Deathwing's mind.
The only Old God was also extremely annoyed. It had repeatedly warned Deathwing to be careful of Aiden before, but this crazy and arrogant guy didn't listen at all, and instead took the initiative to provoke him.
"No! I want to destroy them!" Deathwing had completely lost his mind, to the point that he even ignored N'Zoth's orders.
"You should—obey!"
N'Zoth's immense mental power rushed towards Deathwing's brain like a landslide, bringing even more intense pain than being torn apart by dozens of shells, but it truly woke up the "Destroyer."
Deathwing couldn't disobey N'Zoth's orders at all. He regained his stability just before crashing to the ground, and flew up again, enduring the severe pain. He turned his head and saw Los Angeles, which was almost within reach. He could already see the soldiers working busily on the city walls, adjusting artillery and operating defense towers, preparing for battle in an orderly manner.
These people were originally no threat to Deathwing. He felt that he could easily destroy this floating city, but there was no longer a chance.
Because he saw the same weapons as on those two airships on the city walls.
"The Twilight Hour is approaching, I will let you see the true Cataclysm!"
Deathwing roared, and after saying this, he frantically flapped his wings and rushed towards the Endless Sea without looking back.
His body was still billowing with smoke, and burning blood dripped from the air, still scorching everything around it when it fell to the ground. Even if it fell on the sea, it would make the surrounding seawater evaporate and boil.
But no matter what, Deathwing had escaped, and Los Angeles was saved.