Chapter 1205
Fran's Sky Dragon Rider Technology
Chapter 1205 Fran's Sky Dragon Rider Technology
Outside Ash Slope City.
The poisonous fog billowed, and the wind was filled with a corrosive, damp, and cold smell. On the city walls, almost all of the city's capable high-level combat forces had arrived.
The necromancers who were just discussing Mortalius in the inner hall are now standing atop the city wall, each wearing a robe and carrying a bone staff, with layers of undead guards and poisonous fog arrays behind them.
Standing at the very front was Uz, the mage who had been ordered to guard Ashhill City.
He was tall and thin, his body consisting of nothing but a pale white skeleton, but he was draped in a heavy black-purple royal robe, with a dark gold crown hanging above his head, and layers of magic chains and bone ornaments dangling from his chest.
The staff he held in his hand was particularly eye-catching.
It was an extremely long obsidian staff, its shaft seemingly forged from countless twisted bones, with several alien skulls and curved horn-like structures supported at its top, and eerie blue necromantic flames slowly flowing between the bones.
Uzi stood at the highest point of the city wall, looking down at the mid-altitude mountain road in front of him, which was covered by poisonous fog and deathly aura.
At the end of that mountain path, Mortalius, riding a bone dragon, had already arrived with his army to rule Ash Slope.
His face was mostly covered by a matte black breathing mask, revealing only the upper half of his face. His eyes were deep-set, and his gray-amber eyes were unusually clear in the poisonous fog. On the exposed skin and the side of his neck, the bluish-black veins could be vaguely seen.
He wore a set of heavy gray-black armor, the plates thick and without any fancy decorations. In his hand, he always held the same height long-handled scythe, the Plague Lord's exclusive weapon—[Silent Scythe].
Below Mortalius, an army was advancing towards Ashhill City.
At the front were large numbers of skeletons and rotting corpses clad in tattered armor, wielding spears, sickles, scimitars, and bone shields, advancing in layers through the poisonous fog.
The middle section consisted of an assault force composed of bone beasts and corpse riders. The monsters twisted by necromancy caused the mountains to tremble, while the rebels and undead cavalry riding on their backs were all filled with murderous intent.
Further back came the astonishingly large main force of the resistance, human warriors clad in crude gas cloaks and homemade protective gear, mixed among the undead army, pressing forward along with this dark, overwhelming force.
The strangest thing is that although the entire army was huge, it was not chaotic.
They seemed to be tightly gripped together by an invisible hand, advancing, pausing, turning, and forming ranks with great order. It was not the scene of a typical undead uprising where everyone rushed forward, but rather a thoroughly well-trained war legion.
On the city wall, Uz looked down at Mortalius and the army behind him, and the ghostly blue soul fire in his eye sockets suddenly twitched.
After a moment, the Archmage slowly spoke, and his tone did not immediately reveal anger, but instead carried a trace of extremely pure appreciation.
"The Plague Lord... truly worthy of being the successor personally nurtured by His Majesty."
"Among the eight major factions of the necromancy, he has now at least pushed the Flesh and Despair systems to the level of pioneers, and on this basis, he has awakened his own unique plague symbol."
The moment those words were spoken, the expressions of many people on the city wall changed.
Because they had already recognized them.
At this moment, what was wrapped around Mortalius was not just a single necromancy spell, but two high-level secret techniques that had been clearly marked—[Undead Army] and [Undead Domination].
This secret technique can only be performed by the Necromancer Forerunners, and the so-called Forerunners, when converted into the Terra lineage stages, are equivalent to [Dominators]; Nikel, the current overlord of the Abalus plane world, is a Necromancer Grand Forerunner, which is equivalent to [The Crowned One].
The Archmage was also a pioneer, and he was a Grand Warlord and Necromancer Duke who was proficient in all eight factions—Eternity, Signs, Destruction, Void, Change, Despair, Forging, and Flesh.
On the city wall, Uz gazed at the skeletal dragon and finally spoke slowly, his tone carrying a clear sense of scrutiny:
"Motalius, it seems you have been preparing for today for a long time."
"The complete materials for the Bone Dragon can only be produced by the dead mountain veins around the highest peak and the ancient dragon burial ground. Ordinary people can't even get close, let alone drag out the entire dragon skeleton and reconstruct it. It seems that you have really gone to great lengths to deal with His Majesty Nikel in order to get your hands on something like this."
"However—you're not the only one with a bone dragon."
The moment the words left his mouth, Uzi slammed the bone staff in his hand down.
The next moment, a sealed platform behind Ash Slope City suddenly lit up, and the magic array on the ground cracked layer by layer. Accompanied by waves of death energy and bone powder rolling up, an equally enormous bone dragon was forcibly summoned from the depths of the city.
That thing was even wider than the one under Mortalius's command. Its entire skeleton had a dark gray to black metallic color, thick dragon horns, and its chest cavity and spine were filled with necromantic nails and magic array bone plates.
This is clearly not a hastily assembled piece of equipment, but a genuine weapon of war that has been maintained, honed, and strengthened over a long period of time.
Uzi took a step forward, leaping directly onto the back of the bone dragon, and confronted Mortalius across the rolling poisonous clouds above Ash Slope City.
At this moment, the tense atmosphere on the city wall eased slightly.
Because the Magician himself went up there.
The fact that Uzi went up there means that, at least in their own view, the initiative in this battle is still firmly in Ash Slope City's hands.
High in the sky, Uzi looked down at Mortalius opposite him. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly across the battlefield thanks to the necromancy spell.
"Motalius, you have indeed lived up to His Majesty Nikel's years of cultivation by getting to where you are today. But you had better understand one thing: you are not facing a mid-altitude outpost, but the true ruling order of the entire plane."
"You may be able to defy a few lords, but in the end you cannot defy the overlord, much less your father."
Uz's tone grew more somber as he spoke, clearly intending to thoroughly disrupt Mortalius's mind before the actual battle.
"His Majesty Nikel picked you up from the Pale Peak, raised you, and nurtured you from an infant into the Plague King you are today. For this reason, you should understand better than anyone else that the peaks are peaks because they are born at the top of the world and possess the power to determine all life and death."
"You should belong at the peak, but you choose to bow your head—how incredibly foolish!"
"You're standing outside Ashhill with these peasants and undead rabble, which looks impressive, but if you really think you're qualified to challenge the overlord, then you're overestimating yourself."
"It's not too late to stop now."
"Step back, surrender your military power, and apologize to His Majesty Nikel. With your bloodline, your talent, and your past status, perhaps you can still save your life."
"But if you continue to be stubborn and insist on rebelling against the master of the peak, then what you will lose here today is not only your army, but also your life that should not have been wasted on peasants."
Mortalius listened without even changing his expression.
He sat on the back of the bone dragon, his face behind the breathing mask revealing no expression, only his gray-amber eyes, as cold as ice formed deep within the poisonous fog.
The next moment, he slowly raised the [Silent Scythe] in his hand. The blade of the scythe pointed diagonally at Uzi in front of him, and also at the well-defended military formation of Ash Slope City, while his voice carried coldly through the poisonous clouds and wind.
"Stop talking nonsense and get to work."
In response to the Sorcerer's nagging, Mortalius chose to fight directly.
As soon as he finished speaking, Mortarius yanked the reins sharply.
The skeletal dragon beneath him immediately let out a piercing shriek that seemed to tear through the air. Its head lunged forward, and it spewed out a stream of gray-green dragon breath.
The dragon's breath was not simply flames, but a torrent of poisonous mist, death energy, and corrosive energy. It seemed to burn through the air wherever it passed, and it hurtled straight toward Uzi's location.
Uzbekistan is certainly not slow either.
Almost at the same instant Mortalius launched his attack, the bone dragon beneath his feet also raised its head, the magic array bone plates between its chest and throat bones glowing simultaneously. Then it unleashed a deep blue, almost black, necromantic dragon breath, like a long river formed from ghostly flames and bone dust, which crashed fiercely into the dragon breath opposite it.
boom--!!!
The two dragon breaths collided head-on in mid-air and exploded on the spot.
On one side was plague and corruption, and on the other side was necromancy and destruction. The shockwave from the explosion directly ripped apart the large swath of poisonous clouds above, and the air was filled with poisonous fire, bone dust and remnants of magic. Even the outermost towers and high walls of Ashhill City were shaken.
At the same time that the bone dragons were exchanging blows in the sky, a full-scale war broke out on the ground.
Mortalius's undead army was the first to press forward.
The skeletons and rotting soldiers at the front row accelerated almost simultaneously the moment the war drums fell. They charged towards the defensive positions outside the city walls, stepping on poisonous mud and rubble, their spears, hooks, and bone shields forming a continuous line.
The corpse riders and bone beast cavalry behind them spread out from both flanks, taking advantage of the terrain to fiercely penetrate into the outer defenses of Ash Slope City.
Ash Slope City was also well-prepared.
On the city wall, crossbows fired in unison, a barrage of black bolts raining down on the undead army below. The bolts were coated with poison and necrotic fluid, and if they hit, even if they didn't shatter the skeletons, they would be enough to wipe out the human resistance fighters in the back ranks.
At the same time, the necromancy arrays buried outside the city gates were activated one by one, the earth cracked open, and the corpse armor guards and bone spike puppets that were originally buried underground waiting for orders were reawakened. They carried giant shields, heavy hammers and bone-chopping knives, and crawled out of the ground layer by layer, fiercely attacking the front of Mortalius's army.
The middle section quickly turned into a mess.
Undead clashed with undead, bone beasts clashed with bone beasts, and rotting corpses and armored warriors fought fiercely together.
The human resistance, under the cover of Mortalius's forces, continued to advance. Some carried crude but heavy poison hammers, some carried modified black fire muskets, and others carried medicine canisters and incendiary bottles, specifically targeting the densest areas of the enemy ranks.
Soon, the entire mountainous area outside Ash Slope was thrown into chaos.
The crisp cracking of bones breaking, the muffled cracking of rotting corpses being cleaved, the explosive roar of poisonous fire leaping wildly in the wind, and the necromancers' relentless chants and incantations all mingled together.
……
……
Xia Xiu stood silently at the edge of the battlefield, as if he had been detached from the chaos, even though he was standing right in front of a battlefield of corpses charging, bone beasts trampling, and poisonous fire raging.
But none of the two sides in the conflict realized that, above their heads and in the blind spot, stood a true bystander.
Xia Xiu didn't rush to make a move, but instead focused on watching the show. As he watched, his gaze subtly changed.
To be honest, this bone dragon is truly extraordinary.
Judging by their size, skeletal strength, necromancy reaction speed, and dragon breath output alone, they are no longer ordinary war undead, but rather high-level aerial combat weapons that have been heavily modified.
If we calculate based on a more intuitive combat strength assessment, each bone dragon is roughly equivalent to two Mr. Night.
This is already an incredibly advanced technology, but what Xia Xiu cares about is not how powerful they are.
These two bone dragons are not merely flying undead forcibly pieced together by necromancy; they are essentially composite weapons combining the body of an undead dragon with the structure of an aerial dragon rider.
The key to enabling these composite weapons to fly and fight lies in the high-speed operation of their internal steam-exchange pumps.
Xia Xiu's gaze pierced through the bone dragon's thick bone armor and layer of necromantic fire, quickly locking onto the crucial power nodes below the chest and spine of both sides.
If that thing were to be compared to a conventional mechanical system, it would be roughly equivalent to the engine, power unit, and core power system of a fighter jet. However, for aerospace weapons like dragoons, the function of the [steam interaction pump] is even more complex and at a higher level.
It is a switch that is half biological and half magical.
It extracts the remaining dragon-like structures and necromantic energy from the bone dragon's body, compressing these into a high-density power flow that can be driven.
On the other hand, through magical circuits embedded in the spine, thoracic cavity, and wing bones, this power is redistributed to the entire skeletal dragon's flight skeleton, dragon breath cavity, dragon rider control interface, and even protective barrier.
"The dragoon technology of the Franco Cavalry..."
Xia Xiu was no stranger to the dragoon technology of the Fran.
After all, the Kingdom of Heaven and the Fran think tank [Saint Genevieve] had already signed a legitimate military alliance treaty, namely the Dragon Slayer Alliance.
According to the agreement, any attack by a dragon-like creature on one of the signatories is considered a common threat to both parties, and both parties must provide military support and assistance when conditions permit.
On this basis, the Heavenly Kingdom think tank Eden and [Saint Genevieve] also exchanged some of the underlying genealogical spell codes, including some small-scale civilian dragon rider technologies and some military dragon rider technologies that could actually be used on the battlefield.
It is precisely because of this that he is even more certain that the core modification ideas of the two bone dragons, Uz and Mortalius, do indeed bear very obvious traces of the military lineage of the Farron dragon riders.
Moreover, it wasn't just some peripheral fragment or a low-level, stripped-down version; it directly encountered the core technology of the Sky Dragon Cavalry at the [Dominator] level.
"How did the Fran family get involved in this kind of thing?" Xia Xiu rarely wondered.
"Could this be a super-large dragon's lair...?" This was the only reason he could think of for the Fran lineage to be involved in this matter.
After all, for the Franz lineage, the dragon is proof of its lineage!
Dragons are a vital strategic resource for the Fran. Wherever there are dragons, the Fran's vanguard of dragon slayers will spawn.