Scalding smoke.
Weak wails.
And a maze corridor flooded with blood!
Without a doubt—
This place was practically hell! Looking at the Sewer Corridor strewn with severed limbs, Arakdo felt both exhilarated and immensely fortunate!
Luckily, he had made the most, most, most correct decision of his spider life back then—submitting at Lord Demon Lord's feet.
Otherwise, the Earth Dragon Clan and humans of today would be the Weave Shadow Nest of tomorrow! Worthy of Lord Demon Lord—
He was terrifyingly powerful! "Lord Demon Lord, we've arrived."
Arakdo lowered his head, his deep, hoarse voice filled with respect and humility.
Riding atop the giant spider's back, Leon nodded with an imposing air, then stared straight ahead without blinking.
In the corridor behind him, more than four hundred Skeleton Spider Cavalry and over a thousand Diggers were packed tightly together. Their rattling and chirping shook the heavens and earth!
Though their group combat ability was questionable, they were more than enough as an impressive backdrop.
Just as the players had been heatedly discussing on the Official Website, the battle between the humans and the Earth Dragon Clan had already ended.
Amid the rolling smoke, only two figures remained standing.
At that moment, a sharp-eyed Skeleton Soldier limped over to Leon from nearby.
"Lord Demon Lord! I am your most, most, most loyal servant—"
"No need."
Seeing the clumsy Skeleton Soldier swaying as it tried to bow, Leon raised a hand and skipped that unnecessary bit.
"Briefly explain the situation here."
Long Xing Bai Li coughed awkwardly, patted his skeletal frame, and climbed to his feet.
"As you command."
It took roughly two minutes for Long Xing Bai Li to recount what had happened when they had stumbled across the scene while grinding monsters.
Though Long Xing Bai Li had no idea how these people had ended up fighting, Leon pieced together most of the story from his description and his own knowledge.
Most likely, the four-legged snakes had made too much noise while moving around, while the humans aboveground had all been jumpy as frightened birds. The two sides had somehow blundered into a fight.
What Leon had not expected was that the residents of Silverpine Town were so wild. They had brought several hundred kilograms of explosives into his maze and lit them all at once as though they were out on a plain! Luckily, it was not TNT, only improved Black Powder used for mining. Otherwise, it would have been more than Silver-level magic—it would have been at least Gold-rank Burst Magic!
"Being uneducated is terrifying..."
Leon sighed inwardly, then nudged the spider beneath him with his heel, signaling Arakdo to move forward.
Within the pungent smoke, a human and a lizardman faced each other tensely, their auras drawn taut like unsheathed swords.
The instant Leon appeared on the battlefield, both men's expressions shifted slightly as they turned toward him in unison.
"You are..."
A De Lai was the first to break the silence.
Though Cave Spiders were no good, that sunny, handsome face still made him entertain a sliver of unrealistic hope.
Maintaining an air of grandeur was part of a Demon Lord's self-cultivation.
Leon said nothing. He merely patted Arakdo's head lightly, signaling him to introduce him.
As the foremost strategist of the Weave Shadow Nest, Arakdo immediately understood. Without another word, he straightened up and roared sternly.
"Impudent! Why aren't you kneeling before Your Majesty Demon Lord?!"
Leon glanced at the mount beneath him. He wanted to complain that Arakdo was trying too hard and sounded like a villain, but then remembered that he was a villain, so he kept quiet.
"The Demon Lord?!"
Upon hearing the visitor's identity, A De Lai went pale. His whole face turned white, and his voice trembled along with his knees. "Y-you... you're the Demon Lord?!"
The Demon Lord had truly been resurrected! And he was standing right before him! His legs gave out, and he really did fall to his knees, his eyes filled with despair.
Unlike the sensible A De Lai, Ze Like, who stood opposite him, was not nearly as clever.
The instant he heard that Leon was the Demon Lord, his amber eyes turned blood-red.
The entire lizardman seemed to enter a blood frenzy. With a roar, he charged Leon recklessly.
"I'll kill you! Aaaaah!!!"
A bronze-colored aura wrapped around his body and flowed along the crescent-shaped blades.
Seeing the charging lizardman, Arakdo did not wait for Leon's command before spitting out a mouthful of old phlegm.
"Guh—impudent!"
Before the words even landed, sticky spiderwebs swept in with the wind.
Blinded by rage, Ze Like neither dodged nor evaded. The power of the Dragon God Faction's "qi" coursed through his body as the twin blades in his hands whirled like a storm, slicing the sticky webbing into several pieces! Arakdo had not expected him to be so strong. His spider body shuddered, and he nearly turned around and fled.
That was his natural enemy, after all!
If Lord Demon Lord had not been sitting there as steady as a mountain, he would have already made a run for it.
"Die!!!"
Only five steps remained.
Ze Like channeled all the power of qi in his body into his blades, glaring furiously at the Demon Lord.
Just as he was about to cut off that head from atop the spider's body, a terrifying force slammed straight toward his face, forcing him to raise both blades in defense.
Clang—! The ringing crash of metal echoed through the entire maze corridor. Ze Like felt searing pain in the web between his thumb and forefinger, while his bones went numb as if they were about to snap! His amber pupils abruptly focused. When he looked clearly at the person before him, his face first froze in shock, then despair, before he roared again in uncontrollable fury.
It was Okdo!
The Champion Warrior of the Earth Dragon Clan!
The one blessed by the Dragon God! That Demon Lord had not only defiled his corpse, but also his soul!
"Aaaah! I'll kill you!" Ze Like charged forward recklessly, swinging his twin blades, only for Okdo to casually block him with a sword in one hand.
After all, Okdo was the pride of the Earth Dragon Clan and had possessed peak Steel-level strength in life.
If he had not been blinded by rage, if he had not been ambushed and struck in a vital spot... a battle-hardened warrior like him could never have lost to a Bronze-level fighter.
Those mere five steps were like an uncrossable chasm. No matter how hard Ze Like tried, he could not break through!
Watching the lizardman roar in fury, Leon rested his chin on the arm braced against his knee and stared at him expressionlessly, as though looking down at an insect making its final struggle.
"Do you people have no other lines besides that one?"
There was no doubt about it.
This guy was merely a pawn sent out to die. Leon truly had no interest in wasting words on him.
But after he had provoked him so blatantly, that high priest hiding in the shadows... should not be able to keep hiding any longer, right?
Just as he thought that, a savage Dragon Roar indeed came from afar, blasting toward him like a cannonball! Having already anticipated the move, Leon immediately revealed the Magic Wand hidden beneath his sleeve and completed the casting in the shortest time possible.
"Wall of Atmosphere!"
Rapidly circulating air formed a translucent wall fifteen meters in front of him!
Seeing the Bronze-level spell used by the Demon Lord, Mo Er La Ge burst into arrogant laughter.
"Useless! My Dragon Language Magic specializes in dealing with half-baked elemental types like you—"
Before his arrogant laughter could fade, the shockwave that struck the Wall of Atmosphere dispersed without a trace.
A stunned expression froze on Mo Er La Ge's face, making him look as though he had seen a ghost.
His Dragon Roar—
Had actually been blocked?! How was that possible?!
Leon could not be bothered to explain the principle. Simply put, the high-speed circulating gas had formed a weak vacuum zone in the middle, preventing the sound waves from passing through.
Most Dragon Language Magic dealt physical damage. Though their destructive power was astonishing, they were not difficult to defend against as long as one used the proper countermeasure.
Estimating that the man's mana was nearly exhausted, Leon directly gave Bond an order.
"Go, Bond."
"Hungry..."
Bond gripped his spear and let out a hoarse growl as he charged toward Mo Er La Ge.
With barely any mana left, a trace of fear finally appeared on Mo Er La Ge's face.
But he was, after all, a Steel-level high priest. The power he commanded was not limited to roaring and shouting.
"Dragon Engine—!"
A low chant like a Dragon Roar escaped his mouth. The muscles beneath his scales suddenly began to swell, and within just two breaths, his body had expanded by a full size! Not intending to give him the chance to transform, Bond thrust his spear fiercely forward.
Yet something beyond everyone's expectations happened. The lightning-fast spearhead struck as though it had hit a steel plate and snapped into several pieces! Bond immediately released the spear, kicked off into a backward leap, then stomped on a rifle with a bayonet stuck into the ground and began loading Black Powder on the spot.
Mo Er La Ge roared and rushed at him, his swollen foreclaw slamming down at Bond like the steel plate of a dough press.
Had Leon not cast a spell in time, firing a Bone Spear that dragged Mo Er La Ge aside and forced him to change direction, Bond's head would likely have been smashed like a watermelon.
Abandoning the rifle, Bond continued retreating and kicked up a saber into his hand.
The fluid combat left the players dumbfounded. If their movements had not been sealed, they would have wanted to applaud on the spot.
"Damn?!"
"A battle mage?!"
"6666!"
"This game's AI is seriously impressive!"
One Leaf Knows Autumn, who was watching the battle, was equally wide-eyed.
Especially after seeing the skill used by the NPC, he gained an even deeper understanding of Calamity Online's power system!
Leon had not expected the high priest to be so troublesome, so he stopped caring about the etiquette of a duel and waved his hand.
"Dismount! Pick up the guns!"
As he spoke, he released his control over the players.
One Skeleton Soldier after another immediately flipped off their spiders and rushed to pick up the equipment scattered across the ground.
In just a few breaths, more than four hundred Skeleton Soldiers had armed over forty Skeleton Musketeers.
Seeing that some players had already figured out how to use the muskets, Leon pointed at the giant lizard tangled in battle with Bond and gave the order without hesitation.
"Fire!"
"Blow him to pieces!"
Before you continue