On the ground, more than forty giant dragons soared rapidly from the Slan Empire’s camp, joining the battle in the sky. Meanwhile, the Texi Empire unleashed a dense, dark cloud as griffin riders, thunderbird riders, blazing pegasus riders, gale giant eagle riders, and even a few rare dragon riders—nearly ten types of flying mounts—charged upward. For the first time, both sides unleashed their full aerial might without reservation, launching an unprecedented aerial showdown.

The sky became a battlefield of magic duels, with dazzling, high-powered spells of all kinds unleashed in rapid succession as if they cost nothing. Both sides fought with true fury. The various flying mounts of the sky knights unleashed their innate abilities from afar, hurling deadly attacks across great distances. In the crisscrossing chaos, the airborne knights swung their weapons, using their mounts’ speed to launch all-out assaults—slaying enemy knights, gravely wounding enemy mounts. The slightest misstep could mean being struck down by stray magical blasts.

A giant dragon had just bitten off a griffin’s head when the dragon rider atop it seized the chance to decapitate the griffin rider. In the blink of an eye, six or seven thunderbird riders surrounded him from all directions in a frenzied assault.

In the melee, a dragon rider was caught off guard as a thunderbird’s iron claws tore him from his dragon’s back. Flailing and screaming, he was flung far away, and several thick, violet-blue bolts of lightning struck him midair almost simultaneously, instantly turning him to a charred husk that plummeted to the ground. The now riderless dragon went berserk, tearing two thunderbirds and their riders to pieces, but more thunderbirds and griffins surged forward. From within the encirclement came the dragon’s unwilling, furious roar. Thunderbirds or griffins and their riders kept falling, but soon dragon blood splattered the sky, and the exhausted dragon plummeted toward the ground, with relentless lightning and fireballs chasing it down for the kill.

Even the dragon riders dared not claim invincibility in this chaotic melee. The fall of a single dragon rider pair often meant a dozen other types of sky riders perished alongside them. Despite both sides fighting with utter abandon, the Slan Empire suffered unprecedented, devastating losses since the war began.

In the rear command post, the strategists observed the aerial battle through a combination of Eagle Eye and Water Mirror spells, and without exception, cold sweat instantly drenched their backs.

In just a quarter of an hour, fifteen giant dragons and more than twenty dragon riders had fallen. The Texi Empire’s price was also steep, losing nearly half of its aerial forces, and even its few dragon riders perished.

With such massive casualties, everyone worried: after this battle, would the dragon race unilaterally revoke the dragon knight pact between humans and dragons? After all, dragons were extremely difficult to breed—fifteen dragons represented nearly the entire new generation of the dragon race born in sixty years. To lose them all in a single human war was a devastating blow to a race whose numbers barely exceeded ten thousand.

On the ground, the clash of a million-strong armies stirred up waves of blood. War drums thundered and piercing horns blared. The two armies’ tidal formations collided, leaving corpses in their wake. The front-line soldiers charged forward, weapons raised, while the ranks behind gradually spread out, forming wave after wave of assault lines. The centurions issued charge orders in turn, and the soldiers could only grit their teeth and press on, with fresh troops surging from behind. To retreat even half a step meant being trampled into pulp by countless feet.

Cavalry formations crashed into enemy infantry or cavalry formations. The shouts, clashes, screams, and the clang of weapons on the battlefield blended into a death symphony, as the Reaper grinned and harvested souls amid the blood. At low altitude, magic and arrows collided fiercely. Fire, water, earth, ice, wind, and even necromancy spells burst forth in deadly displays. Mages on both sides intercepted enemy spells while desperately casting powerful magic at the opposition. Occasionally, a spell would land in the crowd, instantly clearing an open space, only to be filled again by the melee. There was almost no need to aim—any random strike could claim a dozen lives. Powerful spells plowed swathes of death through the masses.

The clouds above twisted with magical chaos. On one side, black clouds coiled, flickering with countless writhing lightning serpents; on the other, fiery clouds boiled like molten lava, not unlike superheated fireballs.

“Morgan, the mage corps is preparing a forbidden spell—it’s too dangerous, retreat now!” Arthur’s voice swept past Morgan’s ear as the fire dragon Michael streaked by the upper right of the gold dragon Gold Coin. Behind Michael, a massive black dragon gave chase, the two dragons weaving wildly through the sky in a deadly pursuit. The Texi Empire also possessed a few dragon flutes, allowing them to form their own dragon riders.