CHAPTER 948: THE UNYIELDING FURY

Meat for the strong.

Dirtclaw had learned that phrase from his lord.

Just then, a howl echoed from the dense forest behind him.

This time, however, Dirtclaw didn’t tense up. A look of ease washed over his grizzled face.

A moment later, Dace emerged from the trees, mounted on his frost wolf.

"That’s the last heretic in this sector," Dace said, dismounting. He walked over to the corpse and, out of habit, prodded the demonic wolf to make sure it wasn’t playing dead.

He jabbed his trident under its head, lifting it to reveal the deep puncture wounds in its neck. A clean kill. "We should continue the sweep north."

"Brother Dace, your aura is almost as strong as mine now," Dirtclaw growled, a hint of respect in his voice. "Nothing like constant warfare to make you grow stronger, right?"

Dace nodded. Since arriving in the Emerald Dream Realm, he had thrown himself into training and combat, finally reaching Alpha peak and earning the right to challenge for the lord level. But he had no confidence he could actually make the leap.

"At our level, I think talent might matter more." Reaching Alpha peak had given Dace his own insights into the nature of power, and he didn’t entirely agree with Dirtclaw’s kill-to-level-up philosophy.

"Hehehe, you’re not wrong," Dirtclaw chuckled. "I mean, if someone like Lady Lorelia can make it to the Legendary level, talent has to be the most important thing there is."

At the mention of Lorelia, both of their eyes lit up. Among the stoneheart horde’s Wardens, she was the one they knew best, the one they’d watched grow up. Her ascension to the Legendary level had given all the Alpha peak warriors like them a huge confidence boost.

Before, the Legendary level had seemed like a distant, impossible dream. But Lorelia’s success gave them a sliver of hope.

Maybe, just maybe, if we push a little harder, we can make it too.

That was the thought simmering in all their hearts.

"You hear the news?" Dirtclaw asked, shifting back to his gnoll form. He slung the Alpha-level demonic wolf over his shoulder and leaned in closer to Dace. "My lord has opened the Heroic Altar again. You were one of the first to follow him. Did you get a slot?"

"I did," Dace confirmed. "Once we’ve cleared the heretics from the continent, I’m heading back to receive the Legacy."

The Legacy of the Heroic Altar was a secret known only to the horde’s upper echelon. Rendall, Onyx, Earthshaker, and Delilah were the first to receive it, and their power and talent had skyrocketed as a result, a fact that made the other elders deeply envious. Now that Orion was opening it again, the available slots were the hottest ticket in town for the horde’s command staff.

"Hahaha! I didn’t get assigned one, but I used my battle achievements to buy a slot from the horde’s Vault," Dirtclaw boomed. "We’ll go back together, brother."

As one of Delilah’s lieutenants, he’d gotten the news first and had been the first one in the Emerald Dream Realm to redeem a slot. A battle-maniac like Dirtclaw was never short on battle achievements, and he’d been hoarding them, waiting for something good to show up in the allied forces’ vault. Now, with more than enough points saved up, he’d cashed them in instantly.

The thought of raising his potential again made him feel even more certain he could reach the Legendary level.

"Heard there are thirty slots reserved for the younglings in the horde," Dirtclaw added, his voice dropping to a gruff, fatherly tone. "I already pulled some strings with an elder to get my two pups into the youth camp."

He puffed out his chest. "Hope they make their old man proud and earn one. If they do, I won’t have to worry about their future."

At the mention of younglings, the murderous glint in Dace’s eyes softened into a look of warmth and longing. "My youngest is in the youth camp too. I imagine he’ll be in the running this time. It’s going to be a madhouse. All the elders who got wind of the news are probably rushing to get their own kids in."

Dace mounted his frost wolf, and the two warriors rode side-by-side, heading towards the sounds of the next skirmish.

"I also heard a rumor that one of the Wardens who just returned is preparing to build some kind of special structure," Dirtclaw said. "They say it can raise our potential, too. No idea if it’s true."

"Hope it is."

"Yeah, that would be something else."

The West, Kasenna Sea

As the horns of war sounded, a new round of slaughter began.

Countless Sea Race warriors from a dozen different species surged through the dark waters, clashing with the enemy in the bottomless depths.

Streamlined bodies flashed and vanished in the gloom. Every other moment, a cloud of blood would blossom in the darkness, and a shimmering rain of dislodged scales would drift towards the surface.

But before they could break the waves, they were obliterated by stray water cannons and wind blades crisscrossing the churning sea, forcing the remnants back into the deep.

In the sky, dragons beat their massive wings, gliding and roaring. They were met by swarms of rotting, undead exotic beasts, their bodies wreathed in necrotic energy. Among them were even the skeletal forms of bone dragons.

The war raged from the depths of the sea to its surface, and from the surface to the sky. Both sides had committed their main forces, locked in a brutal stalemate of mutual annihilation.

The sheer intensity of the battle shocked the hidden powers observing from the shadows.

"Looks like they’re out for blood."

"More than that. Feels like there’s some serious bad blood between them."

"We knew the faction that took Dusk Continent was strong, but I never expected these newly arrived dragons to match them."

"This is getting more and more interesting..."

"What do these dragons even want?"

On the front line, Isabella stood atop her colossal dragon as it flew low over the water, her voice amplified by magic, ringing out across the battlefield.

"This is our home! We will defend this land with our courage and our steel, with our swords and our shields, with our fangs and our claws!"

"We will meet this challenge with unyielding fury and kill every last invader!"

"We will make our enemies drown in their own blood and fear, and cast them into the abyss of their nightmares!"

Leonidas Palace

Watching Isabella’s performance on a projection, both Leonidas and Orion looked stunned.

"Hey, Alexander," Leonidas said, turning to the spymaster who was casually sipping his wine. "Did we totally misread this girl before?"

He was genuinely impressed, and Orion felt the same way. He had never seen this side of Isabella.

"What’s so surprising?" Alexander replied without looking up, his tone matter-of-fact. "The world Isabella comes from uses a different combat doctrine. It’s centered on armies acting as a single, devastating unit. Besides knights and their mounts, their warfare is all about large-scale battle formations and massive, overlapping auras."

Alexander had expected this all along. To him, it wasn’t a surprise at all. It was simply a fact.