Translator: AnubisTL
Jieming, recovering from the shock of the earlier attack's power, nodded with a smile.
Under normal circumstances, a wizard's invasion of a plane unfolds in multiple stages.
Beyond the initial intelligence gathering phase, the two most critical stages are the initial landing battle and the current protracted war phase.
These stages are both crucial and challenging, requiring a delicate balance: demonstrating the wizards' threat without causing the indigenous inhabitants to underestimate them.
The landing battle had already instilled sufficient confidence in the Flamefrost Plane's indigenous inhabitants. This round of combat aimed to deliver a crushing blow.
Only by subjecting the indigenous inhabitants to moderate pressure and fear could they be compelled to take the wizards seriously.
Under such pressure and fear, the indigenous inhabitants would spontaneously mobilize their forces to the fullest extent, plunging themselves into a protracted war with the wizards.
This required the high-ranking wizards to maintain a precise balance.
For instance, while the recent attack appeared overwhelmingly destructive, every wizard present knew it had been deliberately restrained.
It's important to remember that spells can be manipulated even after they've been cast.
Take that lava giant-targeting spell from earlier. By simply adjusting the cannon's angle slightly, it could have carved out a scorched zone hundreds of kilometers long and over a dozen kilometers wide across the Flamefrost Plane.
If the spell's duration had been extended and the cannon's arc widened, it could have razed the entire plane.
In that scenario, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say the entire lava giant race could have been wiped off the Flamefrost Plane.
But such an act would have served no purpose other than forcing Lava Giant King Karamos to detonate the plane's origin in a desperate suicide pact.
On the battlefield, the awe-inspiring spectacle of countless lava giants being instantly annihilated by the "precision destruction spell" struck the hearts of every living creature on the Flamefrost Plane like a thunderous hammer blow.
This power, far surpassing their comprehension, gave them their first true taste of terror.
The allied forces of lava giants and Snow Monsters, abandoning all pretense of resistance, cast aside their long-standing grudges and mutual distrust. They scattered in utter disarray, fleeing in unimaginable panic like a receding tide toward their respective homelands.
This was precisely the "hunt time" the wizards had long awaited.
On the wizard "ship" plane, Commander Augustine's voice, transmitted through the magic net terminal, rang out calmly and decisively in the ears of every wizard: "All units, advance! Pursue the routed enemy and maximize the harvest of war materials and living specimens!"
The moment the order was given, Jieming, Viola, and the other logistics wizards who had been standing by on the "ship" plane immediately activated their flight spells. Like a swarm of death spirits descending from the heavens, they plunged once more into the scorched earth of the Flamefrost Plane.
No longer confined to the rear lines, they joined forces with the combat wizards, transforming into a relentless torrent of death that relentlessly pursued the fleeing soldiers of both races.
As a third-tier wizard, Viola radiated a powerful mana aura that acted like a beacon in the darkness, naturally attracting the scattered low-level battle wizards across the battlefield.
Their eyes gleaming with dependence and awe for the strong, they instinctively gravitated toward Viola, forming a temporary squad of over a dozen wizards. They followed her deep into enemy territory, reaping the spoils of war.
Jieming naturally stayed by Viola's side, his goal being to capture as many prisoners as possible for later research.
"These fools! How dare they pursue us!"
After casually slaughtering several hundred scattered lava giants, their squad encountered a still-organized group of retreating forces.
This remnant of the lava giant army, led by a fourth-tier lava giant general, numbered approximately several thousand, including over a hundred second-tier lava giants and several third-tier lava giants.
The fourth-tier general's lava eye burned with fury. Seeing that the wizards numbered only a dozen, with Viola, a third-tier wizard, being the highest-ranked among them, it was an utter humiliation for him as a commander to be relentlessly pursued by such a small force.
Consumed by humiliation and rage, the fourth-tier lava giant unleashed a deafening roar.
Its voice, accompanied by a volcanic eruption, reverberated across the horizon.
It abruptly halted its retreat, its lava eye, now tinged crimson, locking onto Jieming, Viola, and the others.
"Counterattack! Kill these lowly invaders!" it bellowed.
The colossal figure, radiating terrifying power, pivoted like a locomotive and charged directly at Jieming's squad.
Behind it, the thousands of lava giants that had been fleeing, now ignited like a powder keg by their commander's fury, coalesced into a surging heatwave. Roaring with renewed ferocity, they turned back to re-engage the battle!
After a brief moment of surprise, the wizard squad swiftly reorganized.
"Axi, Locke... take on those third-tier lava giants!" Viola commanded calmly.
Several second-tier wizards immediately obeyed, their rune staves flashing with vibrant light as they precisely locked onto their targets.
Without hesitation, Viola's body erupted in a dazzling radiance as she directly confronted the fourth-tier lava giant commander.
The power gap between them was significant. While wizards excelled at fighting opponents of higher tiers, lava giants were a combat-oriented race recognized by Master Alvin himself. Defeating one quickly would be no easy task.
Viola moved with fluid grace and efficiency, her body tracing elegant arcs through the air. Each surge of energy was accompanied by an icy chill.
Instead of directly confronting the fourth-tier lava giant head-on, Viola relied on her speed and predictive abilities to constantly weave through the gaps in its attacks, seeking its weaknesses and draining its strength.
The remaining hundred or so second-tier and several thousand first-tier lava giants were naturally assigned to the two remaining second-tier wizards and the eleven first-tier wizards, including Jieming.
As Viola charged toward the fourth-tier lava giant, she couldn't help but glance back at Jieming's group, a flicker of undisguised worry in her eyes.
After all, according to standard wizard combat doctrine, while first and second-tier wizards could maintain a dominant position against creatures of the same tier through their superior spellcasting prowess, being able to take on a hundred enemies alone was already considered the mark of an elite among elites.
Yet now, Jieming, the other second-tier wizard, and the eleven first-tier wizards faced a staggering several thousand lava giants!
This included over a hundred second-tier elites.
The disparity was overwhelming. Even for wizards, facing such an absurd number of enemies would exert immense pressure.
Every step felt like walking on thin ice; a single misstep could mean death.
Viola was particularly concerned about Jieming. Though she knew he had previously studied lava giants, he was still only a first-tier wizard.
Viola even considered drawing more third-tier lava giants to relieve the pressure on Jieming's side.
However, before she could act, Jieming displayed combat prowess that left her utterly astonished!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As Viola glanced back anxiously, the six autonomous floating cannons orbiting Jieming like wings instantly sprang to life upon receiving his command, unleashing their full firepower!
Each cannon was a miniature turret, its internal mechanisms glowing with swirling energy as it precisely targeted the hundreds of first-tier lava giants charging toward Jieming.
The muzzles erupted in searing beams of energy and missiles, forming an impenetrable net of firepower!
The high-speed charging first-tier lava giants faltered under the floating cannons' pinpoint strikes.
Energy beams pierced their rocky bodies, lava blood splattering as one lava giant after another was either blasted into oblivion by concentrated fire or scattered by the relentless barrage.
With astonishing efficiency and perfect coordination, the six floating cannons effortlessly suppressed the hundreds of first-tier lava giants swarming him, even halting their advance and significantly reducing the pressure on the other wizards.
What astonished Viola even more was that, facing such a massive horde of enemies, Jieming hadn't cast a single offensive spell!
Instead, he focused his energy on casting high-frequency sound wave spells to support his floating cannons.
Jieming wore a peculiar bracelet on his left wrist, embedded with ten crystal-shaped rune-imbued magical artifacts.
Driven by his mental power, these ten talisman crystals flashed in rapid succession. With each flash, a wide-area high-frequency sound wave spell pulsed outward from the crystals.
This sound wave spell, specially chosen by Jieming, was invisible and intangible, yet it delivered devastating blows to the lava giants' internal structures, particularly their resonance chambers and auditory mineral crystals.
Hundreds upon thousands of lava giants clutched their heads and howled in agony under the relentless barrage of high-frequency sound waves.
Their massive bodies trembled uncontrollably, the lava flowing within them surged erratically, and their movements became sluggish and rigid, temporarily stripping them of their ability to attack.
Jieming suppressed the thousands of lava giants before him by continuously unleashing high-frequency sound wave spells!
Naturally, Jieming's tactic of standing his ground and indiscriminately suppressing the enemy with sound waves made him a "thorn in the side" for many of the lava giants.
For these creatures, instinctively sensitive to sound vibrations, Jieming's actions were nothing short of provocation!
Almost all the lava giants, whether they were attacking other wizards or being suppressed by floating cannons, instinctively focused their fire on Jieming!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Apart from the distant third-tier lava giants and the fourth-tier lava giant commander, the remaining lava giants, between attacks, roared furiously at Jieming, the "source of interference."
They spewed scorching lava projectiles and summoned razor-sharp earth spikes from the ground, bombarding the sky above Jieming like an unrelenting storm!
"Watch out!" Viola's panicked cry echoed from afar.
But Jieming showed no intention of retreating.
Before everyone's eyes, Jieming was instantly engulfed by the overwhelming barrage of attacks.
(End of the Chapter)
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