The cold night wind slapped Arthur's face hard. The armored steam train sped at maximum speed, cutting through the dark forest of Sylveria like a giant, unstoppable bullet. The screeching sound of iron wheels grinding against the tracks sounded like the screams of a mechanical monster.Arthur stood on the roof of the second carriage. His physical capacity, which was at sixty percent, made his balance absolutely perfect even though the train was shaking brutally. He kept an eye on the trees around the tracks, making sure no patrol troops were chasing them from behind.The door of the weapons carriage below him was kicked open.Bramble stepped out onto the connecting deck between the carriages. The giant weasel laughed so loud it overpowered the sound of the steam engine. In his hands, he held a new weapon whose design made absolutely no sense.It was a giant sword, measuring six feet long, but the blade was not smooth. The sword blade consisted of a thick steel chain with sharp, serrat

Goliath roared until it spewed acid splatters from its three wolf mouths. Its voice created a shockwave that cracked the marble floor of the square. The thirteen-foot-tall monster did not wait for Arthur to approach. It charged forward on its four tiger legs, swinging the spiked chain in one of its right hands straight at Arthur's head."You have three minutes left, damn it," Arthur yelled while ducking to avoid the chain's slash. The wind from the chain blew his hair back hard."Spread out, wtf," Arthur commanded his group. "Aim for its legs and eyes. Do not let the acid from its mouths hit anyone, damn it."Kaelen darted to the left. The Elf prince no longer used a rifle, he went back to using his longsword. His eyes briefly glanced at his father on the stage, but he bit his lip and forced his focus onto the monster in front of him."Focus, Kaelen, wtf," Bramble snapped as he ran to the right. "If you die getting stepped on by this monster, your dad is going to get decapitated too,

The explosion of pure golden light swallowed everything. Its rumbling sound was unlike that of a gunpowder bomb, resembling instead the roar of thousands of dragons of light, shattering eardrums. Because the distance was literally zero centimeters, the damage was absolute and could not be blocked by any magic.General Valerius's majestic royal armor, forged from high-tier steel, melted instantly like a cheap candle. Malakor's cursed black sword, tightly gripped in Arthur's left hand, shattered into pieces, turning into disgusting clouds of shadowy dust. The shock wave from the explosion hurled Valerius's body into the air like a broken rag doll.The supreme elven general was thrown sixty feet backward. His body rolled across the black marble, smoke billowing from his scorched skin, before finally crashing into the iron pole where his older brother was chained.Arthur coughed violently, vomiting fresh blood mixed with black clots. He fell flat on his back on the palace stairs. His left

The Broken Plains used to be an expanse of green grasslands that was the pride of Eldoria's southern border. But tonight, the place had turned into a frozen mudflat decorated with black craters left behind by explosive magic. The sky above them was still glowing an intensely blood-red color.One hundred thousand elite Sylverian soldiers stood in layered defensive formations across the plains. On their right wing, tens of thousands of rebel dwarves from the remnants of the Khaz Grom cartel had built makeshift sandbag barricades. The dwarves had arranged hundreds of steam cannons and homemade machine guns with their muzzles aimed straight ahead.On top of a wooden watchtower hastily built in the middle of the formation, Lyra stood facing the expanse of darkness. The human girl wore a leather armor cloak that was far too big for her body. In her hand, she held a magic megaphone connected directly to the helmets of all the elf and dwarf commanders on the field."Tighten the front lines, w