The hybrid army had far more assets than the invaders. The Outer Lands were the home of the Legion. That organization could deploy the full power of two entire cities against those enemies.
The human army had twelve solid stage cultivators, but the hybrids featured more than twenty assets at the same level. Moreover, those existences had a body in the upper tier, so their overall prowess surpassed what humans could reach.
However, the pagoda was a teleportation matrix. More troops could arrive in that region as long as the invading organizations were willing to deploy reinforcements.
Noah had the shape of a black dragon with two massive wings. An armor of scales and spikes covered his real body, and his claws resembled swords when he waved them toward his opponents.
His roar marked the beginning of the fight. The hybrid army shot toward the cultivators, and Noah was in the frontline. He didn't know if Theodora had planned that, but the situation didn't allow him to care about that outcome.
Noah wasn't protecting his home. He was fighting to gather enough experience to approach the breakthroughs. His body also needed nutrients to reach the upper tier, so he wanted to burn and eat as many enemies as possible.
The human army didn't let that sight scare them away. They weren't members of guilds. Each of those cultivators belonged to large organizations, and they were willing to die to bring honor to their force.
Noah dived toward the mass of liquid stage cultivators. His wings and claws released a storm of slashes whenever they moved through the sky.
Those attacks featured the entirety of Noah's law, but they weren't on the level of his actual slashes. He wasn't using his swords in that form. His offensive featured his sheer physical strength, dark matter, and the meanings carried by his darkness, but it didn't involve any personal art.
The cultivators in front of him began to disperse when they saw the storm of slashes approaching their position. Those attacks already bordered what liquid stage cultivators could face. They almost breached into the solid stage in terms of power.
Before the storm could crash on the enemy army, one of the solid stage cultivators separated from the rest of the leaders and shot toward the incoming attack.
A wave of fire shot out of his figure when she waved her hand, and the storm of slashes crumbled under the might carried by her simple attack.
The scarlet flames burned anything on their path. They destroyed the slashes and used the energy dispersed by their form to expand. A massive fire soon appeared between Noah and his opponent, but that sight didn't make him slow down.
Noah barged into the fire and spat flames of his own. A wave of darkness spread among the scarlet attack and fought for the ownership of that area. Yet, the two abilities seemed to be at the same level, so they didn't manage to overcome their opponent.
"The Rats have told us what happened to Charles and Cassandra," The woman said as she stretched her arm toward the flames. "You have roamed freely for too long. I, Felicia, will avenge my companions and bring honor to the Crystal City."
Felicia had the aspect of an old woman with long white hair and yellow eyes. Her white robe had purple flames drawn on its edges, and a large token hanged from the belt that kept her clothes still.
Noah couldn't understand the meaning behind the symbol on the token. It didn't seem to express an actual word. He guessed that only the members of the Crystal City could comprehend its value.
The expert tightened her hand, and the flames began to expand. The scarlet radiance exploded into currents that shattered large chunks of Noah's draconic body and burnt the dark matter that they released.
Noah promptly summoned his swords. The dark world expanded around his figure again, and the flames burnt it. Yet, the clouds covering his front legs resisted that influence and continued to modify his body.
The claws on his front legs had stretched after the workshop modified that body part. Their sharp figures radiated the same aura as the Demonic Sword and the white blade. Noah had annexed the two weapons to his draconic form.
When Noah waved his limbs, he launched a wave of slashed that pierced through the wave of scarlet flames. Singularities also formed whenever the two types of attacks touched each other. Noah's blows had the power to give birth to wonders.
Felicia soon understood that nothing in her law could allow her to stop those attacks. The singularities would appear for less than an instant anyway. Her priority was to defeat the massive dragon.
Her flames morphed. They transformed into a huge fan that could cover Noah's giant body. The weapon featured fiery marks that depicted specific months and seasons.
"Summer flame," Felicia said, and the fan launched an attack that made Noah stop his offensive.
A wave of scorching flames had hit the side of his body and had destroyed his right wing. His fantastic technique had already reached its limits against a cultivator stronger than Charles.
"I will continue until your armor crumbles," Felicia said as she opened and tightened her hand again.
The flames transformed again. They became fiery spears that pointed toward Noah and stabbed his massive body. Neither of them could reach his actual tissues, but his technique grew unstable under that constant offensive.
Noah slashed, roared, and launched flames. He didn't care if his form would lose. He only minded that his power increased during the fight.
Felicia was fighting to stop that from happening. Her flames could transform into anything that she could imagine, but their density couldn't stop Noah from barging into weaker troops.
The expert saw how Noah didn't care that his opponent was a solid stage cultivator. His body protected him from most attacks, so he would focus the weaker troops from time to time.
Noah always tried to use his flames to accumulate enough energy for the breakthrough of his body. He had to gather nutrients now. That battle was only an excuse dictated by his need for evolution.
Felicia didn't let Noah do as he wished. She shot in front of his attacks and summoned a wall of flames that protected her underlings from incoming attacks.
Noah launched his flames and wing attacks, but his arms remained free. When Felicia completed her structure, she shot inside it and hid her presence among her fellow troops.
Noah didn't let that trick surprise him. His arms continued to launch slashes that the fiery wall couldn't completely block. Trains of energy flowed toward his body, signifying that his attacks were managing to kill his opponents.
Suddenly, the wall of flames transformed into a giant reptilian mouth that bit on Noah's neck. He didn't expect that attack, and his speed was too low to avoid it anyway.
The mouth severed Noah's draconic head, but the wave of dark matter that came out of it fended off the flames for an instant. The technique broke at that point, and Noah found himself among a fire that had the power to kill him.