The earth trembled, and the air echoed.
This was the battlefield where Dinosaur People fought foreign races.
Humanoid creatures battled humanoid creatures.
Giant Beasts battled Giant Beasts.
On the battlefield, these ancient races competed in true brute strength.
The Dinosaur People might have been weak at first, but under the blessings of their faith, their bodies had long since become exceptionally powerful.
Some Dinosaur People appeared to stand only four meters tall, yet when they exerted themselves and their muscles bulged, they could even hurl Serpent monsters more than ten meters long through the air.
With a single punch, they could crush the heads of certain foreign races.
The powerful individuals among the foreign races were no different.
However, compared with the Dinosaur People, who possessed skin as hard as rock as though protected by the earth itself, the Serpent People and oceanic races were somewhat weaker.
Though the Serpent People lacked strength, they possessed sharp venomous fangs and agile bodies.
Those sharp fangs could pierce the hard stone-like skin of the Dinosaur People and their blood kin. Once venom coursed through their bodies, the fiercer they fought, the sooner it claimed their lives.
Not to mention that the Shark People among the oceanic races were no less imposing than the Dinosaur People in either strength or size.
A punch against the Shark People's smooth, resilient skin could dissipate nearly half the Dinosaur People's force.
Fortunately, Shark People needed to keep their bodies constantly hydrated. After arriving on the scorching land, they required large numbers of sea beasts to transport water and "water" them at all times.
As a result, Shark People could always be seen growing weaker and weaker as the battle continued.
But compared with all that, the overwhelming numbers of the two foreign races attacking together created a gap that could not be overcome.
What was more, the Dinosaur People had previously fallen into an ambush by the two races and lost more than half of their able-bodied warriors.
Thus, the Dinosaur People kept suffering defeat on the battlefield and had already retreated to the vast plains below the mountain range where their settlement lay.
On the battlefield, the Dinosaur People were desperate.
Yet behind them lay their people's future and descendants—the only bloodline they had left.
As though driven by the resolve to make a last stand, the Dinosaur People actually fought more fiercely the further things reached this point.
Though it was somewhat like trapped beasts making their final struggle.
The casualties suffered by all three races in this war had already become enormous.
No side could possibly retreat.
The Serpent People and Shark People knew that if they missed this chance, they might need hundreds or even thousands of years before finding another opportunity to exterminate the Dinosaur People.
And the Dinosaur People knew even more clearly that they could not retreat. Retreat meant the extinction of their race, and it also meant losing control of the hunting grounds throughout the southern half of this land.
The intelligent races that had emerged from primitive origins had existed for far too short a time.
The three races were not particularly populous, but food in the primitive world was exceedingly scarce. Not to mention that all three were Giant Beast races.
They needed vast amounts of food, while prey was always scarce.
Therefore, for any of them to expand their race, they needed more territory and had to exterminate every threatening race they could see.
That was the reason for the long wars between the three races, and indeed among countless races across this world.
The ocean was vast, but the races within it were even more numerous.
The Shark race not only faced threats from other oceanic races; logically, they should have focused more on the seas that were better suited to their survival.
But perhaps the Serpent People's promise had been tempting enough, because the Shark race had actually come ashore this time.
Ultimately, it was because the Dinosaur People had turned their attention toward the shallow seas as hunting grounds over the past century, successfully angering the Shark People.
Although the Serpent People also possessed maritime territory, they had evolved from oceanic races in the first place. Compared to them, the Shark People were far less able to tolerate the Dinosaur People's influence expanding from land into the sea.
That was why the two races had joined forces to besiege the Dinosaur People this time.
On the battlefield, the Dinosaur People's decline became increasingly apparent.
Large numbers of Primal dinosaur Giant Beasts died without end, then were devoured by the Giant Beasts of the other two races.
The weaker Dinosaur People died in droves as well, becoming spoils of war for the other two races.
The Dinosaur People had slowly retreated to the Sacred Mountain they had never abandoned from ancient times until now.
"Has our race truly reached the end of its life?"
Countless Dinosaur People on the battlefield were gripped by such despairing thoughts.
And they grew ever more desperate.
"O great God of Lava and Earth! Please save your people!"
Countless Dinosaur People cried out in their hearts.
It was their only spiritual pillar amid despair, and also their final expectation of faith in life's dying song.
Would the god answer the Dinosaur People's expectations?
The answer was yes.
As blood dyed the entire earth red, amid the prayers and cries of countless Dinosaur People, the Sacred Mountain behind their battlefield—the mountain where they had lived their entire lives—began to tremble as a whole.
This tremor was fiercer and more obvious than the shaking and roars of the battlefield.
The countless creatures fighting had initially assumed it was merely the earth shaking from the battle itself.
But gradually, some bloodthirsty humanoid creatures came to their senses.
They discovered that the tremors beneath their feet nearly made them unable to stand.
At the same time, huge boulders began rolling down from the towering mountain range in the distance.
In confusion and terror, countless creatures looked toward the towering mountains.
The Dinosaur People saw the elderly and weak Dinosaur People who had originally taken refuge atop the mountain beginning to rush toward the foothills below, where the battlefield lay.
They moved with astonishing speed. Were they coming to reinforce the battlefield?
No. They were fleeing to avoid being accidentally harmed by the god's awakening.
The earth continued shaking for quite some time, and it only became more intense.
The frontline warriors and Giant Beasts of the other two races also noticed this anomaly and began retreating one after another.
They were frightened, and they knew what they might soon face.
Gods existed in this world!
Moreover, the gods of the other two races had revealed themselves to them many times before.
It was simply that gods were mostly unwilling to move. With their kin hunting for them, they naturally became indolent.
This was a primitive world, and its so-called gods were naturally primitive as well. Their thoughts were simple, and they obeyed the lazy desires of their biological instincts.
Thus, once these so-called gods had "tools" they could use, they rarely showed themselves.
For ordinary lives, perhaps they would never see a god's form even once in their entire lives. Only priests close to the gods and the leaders of their races were fortunate enough to see them often.
But never having seen one did not mean that "ordinary lives" felt no fear or reverence for the existence of gods.
Not to mention that the humanoid leaders commanding the two races' armies surely knew how terrifying gods could be.
What besides a god could cause such violent rumbling of the earth and shaking of the mountains?
Thus, the moment the anomaly appeared, the two races withdrew and gathered together under the command of several powerful individuals.
Did the Dinosaur People have a god?
At the very least, the Dinosaur People had always claimed so. Besides, their race itself was powerful.
After all, personal strength was the foundation for establishing oneself in this world. The fact that they and the Serpent People had separately occupied the northern and southern halves of this continent spoke for itself.
But whether they had a god or not, once a war of extermination like this had been mobilized, there could be no reconciliation unless the Dinosaur People could truly summon their god.
But were gods so easily summoned?
Besides, even gods had differences in strength.
The so-called gods of some weak races were merely somewhat stronger Giant Beasts.
During the struggle for racial supremacy, the other two races had killed quite a few foreign-race Pseudo-Gods through their own strength alone.
What was more, they firmly believed their own gods were the strongest. Therefore, despite their fear, neither race withdrew. They chose to wait.
The disturbance might be immense, but before they saw whether this god was truly invincible, they would not simply leave like this.