Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 252 - 251 - Breath of Fire

"Preparation time has come to an end.  The battle begins."  The deep voice boomed over them all to the point it shook the bones of the cultivators.  The sky lit up with 10 columns of light.

Lind looked from the outer wall as the 10 pillars curved until they met in the middle of all 10 coliseums.  The pillars retracted from their bases until a multicolored disc hovered in mid air.  It began to spin until it slowed down and Lind finally saw who they would challenge.

A bright crimson wedge glowed at them while their violet no doubt glowed back.

Lind felt a rumbling in his bones as the wall to the west opened up and they saw the landscape of their foes.  He frowned when he saw a hellish landscape mixed with a dark cavern behind it.

"A subterranean landscape filled with magma and darkness.  It is a difficult place to assault."  Lind nodded to Cara's assessment.  She was still near him but now there were messengers ready to relay his commands if needed.

He had Forged rather old fashioned call tubes that enhanced the audio within to carry to its destination.  Jade stones were not handy and Lind had not grasped how they worked quite yet either.

Imprinting a slip was fairly straightforward but making stones with other functions would stake some research.

Lind manipulated Qi to increase his vision but frowned when he saw little movement.  Where was the group fighting against them?  He looked above but did not see any sign of gliders or other ways to bypass flying restrictions.  Finally he looked at the border as a flow of magma stopped just shy of crossing into their area.

He saw it cool instantly and formed a bridge.  He was truly fascinated by how it all worked but would he see bodies now?  Moments passed but no one appeared.  Lind sighed as he realized why.

"They are hiding as well.  They want us to come to them."  It made sense.  If a territory like that had been theirs, why not use the violent nature of the magma as a natural shield and build on it.

Lind smirked as an idea came to him.  He touched the massive cannon next to him and pulled on the Qi flowing in it.  Unlike anyone else, he had all 6 elements at his command so he could launch attacks no one else could.

Pressure built to a massive degree that even Cara felt some fear until the end surged in Qi.  Torrential thunder and lighting exploded out of the cannon.  Earth and water Qi seemed predominant to Cara.

"What is that?"  Lind smiled at her question and made a small scale version in his hands.  Shock flooded her as she recognized it.

"A torrential tropical storm?!"  It was a storm strong enough to reshape coasts if it was powerful enough and Lind had just created one with the artifact.  Lind nodded as the large ball of Qi flew across the skies.

It went into their enemy's entrance and steam billowed from it, yet it did not stop.  Suddenly, a piercing scream came from that connection as steam blew outwards in all directions.

Trees near the entrance were stripped of their leaves and then began to turn black just from what she could see.

"What was that?!"  Cara could feel the heat from their wall which spoke of how badly that steam could kill a cultivator even at the Iron Tier.

"If you take extreme heat and smother it with earth then douse it in cold water, it causes explosive steam to escape due to the temperature difference.  Add Qi on top of that, and well…you can see."  Indeed, the once simple bridge was now completely battered and cracked.  Farther in, the once deeply glowing magma stream was now almost completely dim.

One attack.  All it took was one attack to completely change the balance of the battle.

"Master Frey, should we attack?"  One of the young men near the messenger tube spoke up but Lind shook his head.

"That is still a field of death.  Think of it as a breath of fire right now.  It is cooling but the heat should far exceed most of our defense.  Only a cultivator that mastered their fire element or had an earth tempered body have a chance of passing through that.  Water Qi would be consumed at least double the amount to perform simple Arts."  Lind's revelation made many quickly understand that while his attack was powerful, it could not completely neutralize the lethal danger of the once flowing magma stream.

Before too much time passed, figures finally began to appear and Lind noticed most of them had fire Qi fonts or a combination of earth, air, and fire.  It made him realize that was true of his own side.

They mostly had water, earth, and light on average.  Lind was an exception but honestly he could have been put anywhere.  Could it have been Elder Quin that dictated where they arrived or some other mechanism?

The more Lind saw, the more he wanted to just study the constructs themselves.  Yet, he had no time to indulge as a large force amassed at the bridge to cross into their territory.

He had stripped away their original idea and being stuck in a cavern was a sure death.  Attack was their only chance.  He waved his hands and messages were relayed to various areas in the fortified city.

The traps would not work too well as whether by design or luck, the bridge was near the very channel of open space the traps would have guided invaders to.  They could still contain any attempt to encircle the fortress but Lind was unsure how much that would work before they figured out the safe radius to work in.

He saw a few of the cannons start to glow nearby but he knew the others were not as comfortable using his artifacts.  The power would be far less, yet the reach should still work quite well.

Indeed, a torrent of earth exploded out followed by pure water at another.  He smirked as a mass of mud was created instantly on the safe path.  His compatriots had studied the trap map heavily in the time remaining and now put the knowledge to use.

The people coming at them seemed to not slow as they diverged around the mud until one of them exploded upward out of control.  Lind had laid several kinds of traps.  One set was more distraction to slow them down like pitfalls or the old rope snare to pull someone into midair.

While mortals would be threatened, World Realms would simply find them a nuisance.  The earth Qi cultivators would especially sneer at such traps.  Even so, that was all they were.  The true traps were made of stable Qi layers that would trigger the moment someone came near or tried to remove the more obvious traps.

Those layers would normally only be earth, air, and water given the environment they had, but Lind's ability to Forge changed that entirely.  His fire traps were basically useless, but an explosion was still a powerful force that could cause serious damage.

That kind of trap went off several times before someone on the opposing side figured out the trigger.  Lind saw that while some were heavily injured, no one died nor was ejected.  He was unsure if they had to kill their opponents or simply knock them out.

"Let's see what they think of this."  Lind closed his eyes and touched a part of the wall.  He felt connected to his creation once more and changed the condition of his traps.  Since they figured it out, it was better to go for the maximum result.

A massive burst of light flashed but the wall quickly erected a dark shield to protect the people on them.  Cara was floored as she could see the far too bright light Qi above the shield.  On the field of battle, screams and curses flew but when the light settled, she was shocked.

The light had done more than blind their opponents, it made them react instinctually to protect their eyes and try to run back to the cavern, yet they got disoriented and triggered far more traps.

Some had lost arms and legs, but no one had died by some miracle.  A crimson glow covered those members and they disappeared.

Lind now understood.

"We have to incapacitate them at the very least or they will not be eliminated.  I leave it up to all of you how far to go, but be wary of any rules for malicious actions."  His warning was likely going to be ignored but it was a good reminder for the chaos about to come.

The cannons were powerful, but they took time to gather energy.  In that time, their foes would cross the battlefield to reach them.  With fire and earth at most of their command, it was clear the first wall would be taken once enough got close to them.

"Advance!"  A call went out from a woman with brilliantly violet hair drew Cara's sharp eyes and she suddenly pointed her out.

"It is their leader!"  Lind looked but his Eyes disagreed.  There was a sigil on the woman's cheek, but it felt like nothing to him.  He quickly scanned the rest but a final count only showed about 50 or so people coming at them.

"I don't think so, I think they made a copy."  Lind felt confident and it was not a bad idea.  There was no rule against it and it had been employed in reality as well many times.  A King stood on the battlefield but he was just a decoy while the real King commanded from a tent somewhere.

Cara nodded as she trusted Lind more than others after sparring with him.

"Still, she can organize them, so she is a target regardless.  Let's see what we can do."  Lind smiled as his cannon charged with a different combination of elements.  The pressure was not nearly as powerful but Cara felt dread standing near it.

A dark ball of energy flew from the mouth of the weapon and she wondered what he had created.

It flew in the air and their enemies cast several Arts at it but it did not even slow down until it was right over them.  A clap of thunder roared as all beneath were flattened.  Normally, it would be horrible but the fresh pile of mud flew outward under what was clearly a gravity attack.

Many of those still near the large pile were buried in the mud instantly and could not rise.

Cara was terrified that Lind had come up with that so perfectly.  Crimson glows revealed more enemies being retired but he only got maybe 7 to 8 of them.

The cannon went dark and the attack ended on the battlefield.  It had still been connected!  She always learned new things when he used Qi in ways she had never heard of.

Lind was exhausted and took an elixir to recover.  Those 2 shots took all he had, the first more than the second, but the results could not be argued with.  At least 15 enemies were gone and not a single person on their side had fallen.

"They are pulling back, Master Frey."  He nodded but he looked up and noticed the time dial was still there.  He did not like that.  There had been no mention of a time limit but he doubted the dial would be there for no reason.

"Get ready, I assume they will come back at us but if it gets close to sunset, fall back to the mid wall."  All nearby looked at him in confusion.  They were winning, why would they have to fall back.  "None of the people facing us had a darkness element and half of them are missing.  Where are they?"

His words made them all understand.

The battle was about to change drastically in their enemy's favor.