Translator: AnubisTL
The elite lava giant charging at the forefront didn't even have time to swing its battleaxe before hundreds of energy bullets pierced its entire body.
Its sturdy rock-like flesh, riddled with holes like cheese struck by bullets, instantly became riddled with countless perforations.
Then, with an internal explosion of energy, it detonated with a thunderous boom, scattering into a heap of rubble and lava.
Jieming's relentless barrage continued without pause. Like an inexhaustible war fortress, he unleashed a relentless assault, obliterating every lava giant that dared approach his defensive zone.
Meanwhile, apart from the wizards focused on operating the node's main energy cannon, all other wizards unleashed their long-prepared and devastating spells.
Curses, acid rain, gravity fields, spatial rifts...
A myriad of supremely powerful spells erupted simultaneously across the entire defensive line!
In an instant, elemental radiance completely obscured the sky, transforming the world into a magnificent war symphony composed of death and destruction.
The war escalated to its most intense phase almost instantaneously.
Despite Jieming's frenzied assault, the wizards were steadily retreating.
The supposedly impregnable defensive line crumbled like a fragile sandcastle before the seemingly endless tide of lava giants, quickly compressing to within a few hundred meters of the defense nodes.
Within mere moments, the layers upon layers of exhausted bioweapon legions were completely overwhelmed.
In that brief span, countless lava giants, ignoring the lethal yet insufficient energy cannon fire and spell attacks around the nodes, breached the battlefield's perimeter and surged deep into the camp's interior.
Inside the third defense node, Jieming no longer seemed as excited as he had been at the start of the battle.
Instead, he appeared remarkably calm.
Though he was busy manipulating the Great Light Phase to eliminate the enemies before him, his face showed no trace of panic or tension.
After firing several precise energy bullets, shooting down lava giants attempting to bypass the bioweapon defense line and scale the node's magical formation, Jieming even had the leisure to ask a wizard operating another energy cannon nearby during a brief lull in the fighting, "Can we stop them? These giants that are breaking through?"
The wizard, a seasoned second-tier wizard, wore the same almost detached calm as Jieming.
While swiftly adjusting the cannon's angle, he shook his head with a hint of resignation. "How could we?"
He paused before continuing, "Considering the node's maximum security as our top priority, and while maintaining our current defensive perimeter, we can only hope to eliminate a portion of the first wave of the assault."
He pointed to the distant, charging giants. "As for those flanking us from the sides and rear... we have no choice but to let them pass."
"Our top priority is the security of the node. All we can do is exhaust the enemy's forces as much as possible and ensure the node itself isn't directly destroyed."
The other wizards, having overheard Jieming's conversation with the second-tier wizard, remained remarkably calm.
Their faces showed no fear, no despair, only a focused determination to carry out their mission.
After all, each of them had received direct orders from the command center.
This mission was to "assist in combat," not to "intercept the enemy."
This meant that from the very beginning, the camp's orders had prioritized the safety of the wizards themselves and the security of the node as the paramount conditions.
As for the enemies bypassing the defensive lines... that was a higher-level strategic consideration, beyond the purview of frontline operators like them.
Moreover, as time passed, Jieming began to notice an even more peculiar aspect of this battle.
Though the battlefield roared with elemental brilliance and thunderous explosions, resembling a life-or-death struggle that would determine fate, the actual engagement felt surprisingly perfunctory.
"It's like an old married couple going through the motions of their marital duties..." Jieming muttered to himself.
For instance, the three fifth-tier wizards stationed at the camp hadn't lifted a finger! With their power, they could have instantly annihilated any enemy breaking through the defenses or even turned the entire battlefield upside down. Yet they remained mere observers, silently watching the chaos unfold.
Similarly, despite the overwhelming number of lava giants swarming the field, Jieming's keen observation revealed that the highest-tier opponents they faced were only second-tier and third-tier lava giants. The more formidable fourth-tier combat units, capable of causing widespread destruction, were conspicuously absent.
It wasn't that these high-tier lava giants hadn't joined the assault. On the contrary, Jieming didn't even need to see them; he could sense their presence lurking behind the lava giant legion, the high-tier lava giants remained hidden in the rear ranks.
Though the lava giants radiated intense qi, they remained obediently at the rear, their eyes wide as they watched their giant subordinates charge forward in relentless waves.
Even those lava giants that had breached the defense lines seemed to ignore the defense nodes entirely. Their "objective" was clear: to charge straight ahead without hesitation.
As if each node wasn't an obstacle to be overcome, but merely a "road sign" pointing toward some distant goal.
It was obvious to anyone watching that the entire defense node was now nearly surrounded by countless lava giants.
Both the front and rear lines had been breached, yet Jieming still had the leisure to chat with the wizard beside him, his curiosity piqued by technical matters.
"Speaking of which," Jieming said, precisely controlling a biomechanical behemoth equipped with the "earth pulse" skill to crush a massive Rock Giant into pulp. He then casually shifted the topic to the second-tier wizard, "this 'temporal stability anchor' is remarkably effective."
He marveled, "To withstand such massive temporal interference in such a short time... I wonder which great master's handiwork this is? The intricacy of its rune structure and energy conduction is unlike anything I've ever seen."
Jieming was signaling his desire to exchange knowledge, a common practice among wizards.
In the wizarding world, expressing curiosity about technical details and initiating discussions was considered a normal "pastime" among their community.
This also subtly indicated that Jieming genuinely felt no pressure.
After all, despite being surrounded by enemies, the lava giants weren't targeting the node as their primary objective.
Jieming even had the impression that if the node hadn't blocked part of the lava giants' path, the charging giants wouldn't have given it a second glance.
However, the highest-ranking wizard among them, a second-tier wizard, shook his head regretfully.
He apologized to Jieming, "We didn't install the temporal stability anchor. It... has been stably present at this node for a very long time."
He paused, his voice carrying an unreadable emotion. "All we need to do is activate it and combine it with our own spells to form a complete defensive system."
"Oh?" A flicker of curiosity flashed in Jieming's eyes.
So, this thing was already in place when it was designed?
But there was no time for further discussion.
The moment the second-tier wizard finished speaking, a more chaotic and piercing alarm suddenly blared from the rear of the node formation—specifically, from the flank of the protected area where Jieming and the others were stationed.
Jieming didn't need to turn around. His keen senses immediately detected the icy elemental energy surging from behind.
The fact that such a clear elemental aura could be felt from this distance meant the wizards in the Frostdark Realm were facing the same situation.
"Hmm? If that's the case..." Jieming blinked, suddenly realizing something.
Before he could fully process his thought, his prediction materialized:
The lava giant legion that had broken through the front lines and the snow monsters that had bypassed the other defense line from the Frostdark Realm—both terrifying in number—had collided head-on!
Although the camp's protective magic array remained active, preventing the monsters from making physical contact, the problem was that both sides carried energy fields capable of freezing time!
Then, at the instant the terrifying monster legions' gazes met...
The two time-stopping energy fields, stretching from the plane's edges to its center, collided simultaneously!
!!!
At that moment, there was no earth-shattering explosion, not even a flash of energy.
Only an unimaginable distortion at the most fundamental level of time itself!
Jieming and the other wizards, having activated the temporal stability anchor beforehand, were largely unaffected directly.
But Jieming could clearly sense that at the instant the energy fields converged, the entire plane seemed to undergo an indescribable, fundamental transformation!
Rumble...
At the same moment, the atmosphere of the Flamefrost Plane began to tremble violently!
Jieming's pupils contracted as he looked up in shock at the distant sky.
The sky was collapsing!
(End of the Chapter)
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