Star Origin Descends (Part 2)

After confirming once more that there were no issues with the mechanical soldier squad, Feng Xiao turned around. "Prepare to engage. Activate the Eight-Gate Ship Cannon, adjust power to 25%, and launch a concentrated strike against the orc army!"

Ilde signaled his understanding and immediately turned to operate the controls.

ROAR!

Nearly ten thousand vanguard kobolds were the first to storm the city walls. Three thousand long-blade wielders cut down two waves of the enemy instantly before becoming locked in a chaotic melee!

"Kill!"

The long-blade wielders and the surrounding soldiers roared, clashing directly with the kobold units that had managed to land in small numbers. Severed limbs began to fly through the air.

Kobolds without weapons used their sharp claws to easily tear through the soldiers' leather armor, pulling out their entrails. Before they could even instinctively shove them into their mouths, a flash of steel swept by, and their ugly heads went flying.

More than a dozen soldiers thrust their spears in unison, killing several kobolds, only for their formation to be torn apart in an instant by an elite kobold!

Flesh and blood splattered everywhere!

From the very first moment of engagement, the battle descended into a brutal, white-hot frenzy.

It was kill or be killed; facing the barbed, blood-grooved claws and crude weapons of the orcs, there was no such thing as being wounded without dying.

Just as the vanguard units were scaling the walls in small groups, a piercing wolf howl suddenly rang out. The commander, who had been observing the battlefield, saw his expression turn grave in an instant.

Even some of the soldiers showed traces of fear on their faces.

Wolf Riders—the most common type of shock cavalry among the orc tribes. While their combat prowess wasn't considered top-tier among all orc cavalry, their notoriety was the most widespread.

They were numerous, fought with ferocious disregard for death or pain, and were incredibly cruel and capable.

They were the stuff of nightmares for countless humans.

Sure enough, as the howling faded, over fifty thousand hyena-men riding three-meter-tall dire wolves charged out from the rear, brandishing various weapons.

They lacked any semblance of formation, yet they exuded an incredibly insane and bloody aura.

The dire wolves moved on all fours, their sharp claws kicking up shattered stone with every frantic stride, while foul-smelling saliva dripped from their maws filled with jagged, stinking fangs.

"Black Cliff Knights!"

The commander immediately turned to issue the order. The next moment, two thousand powerful knights encased in silver armor charged out from an opened secret passage.

Even their sturdy horses were wrapped in dense iron plating, with simple magic runes faintly visible.

The knights radiated a Level 10 energy signature, and their warhorses were at Level 5; combined with their specialized armor, they could even hold their own against Level 15 opponents.

"Knights! Our home is right behind us!"

"Kill!"

The two thousand knights surged with battle aura, charging toward the ferocious Wolf Riders in a crescent formation.

Before the knights had charged even three kilometers, a sliver of light suddenly pierced the sky. The heads of the Mage Corps and the Knight Order within Black Cliff City both had their expressions change drastically!

The shaman at the center of the orc army also looked up, his face filled with terror.

Extreme magical fluctuations!

Unheard of!

The source... was the sky!

Indeed, the Star Origin's undisguised cannon charging had alerted all these indigenous powerhouses.

"Emergency stop! Retreat! Retreat!"

The Knight Commander shouted urgently. With a warrior's keen intuition, he knew that if the knights continued forward, the entire order would be wiped out!

In a flash, eight brilliant beams of light tore through the clouds, striking the orc army and the Wolf Riders that had already broken away in an instant!

The so-called magical energy between heaven and earth suddenly solidified, then began to converge frantically.

RUMBLE!

Terrifying energy flames and shockwaves expanded in unison; the massive explosion caused the entire plain to tremble slightly.

After the extreme energy riot subsided, the hundred-mile plain, previously stained black by blood, had completely vanished, replaced by eight massive craters scattered across the land!

The orc army had long since disappeared, replaced by vast amounts of fire and thick smoke, where countless charred remains and mixtures of earth and stone could be seen.

All of Black Cliff City fell into silence. Everyone stared at the scene, dumbfounded, their faces filled with disbelief.

Even the surviving kobold vanguards who had climbed the walls stood frozen in place, staring at the vast, smoke-filled plain.

The Knight Commander and Mage Corps leader, who had been the first to retreat, seemed to sense something. They looked up at the sky, their pupils suddenly contracting.

Then, more and more people noticed the anomaly in the sky, and the city erupted into an uproar!

The Star Origin, roughly two thousand meters long, slowly emerged from the clouds like a mountain of steel. Its streamlined, alloy-clad hull was wreathed in mist, radiating an aura of dominance.

A terrifying energy fluctuation filled the entire plain. The Star Energy, far superior to common natural energies like magic, sent a shock through everyone present.

"That is... that is an incredibly powerful alchemical construct. Its combat power far exceeds a Ninth-Rank professional; it has even reached the Saint-tier!"

The Mage Corps leader said in shock, his tone filled with incredulity.

As a rare branch of mages, alchemists possess a vast array of abilities. The creations they forge are terrifyingly powerful, yet they are correspondingly difficult to promote.

An alchemist capable of crafting such a formidable creation is typically referred to as an Alchemist Master!

The commander reacted immediately, his expression turning uneasy. "There are only four Alchemist Masters in the entire human race, and they are all distributed among the three great empires."

"Then which race does the Alchemist Master behind this creation belong to?"

Goblins? Or dwarves?

Or perhaps someone from the legendary sanctuary of mages: the Sky City?

Unlike the high-ranking officers, the low-level soldiers, though aware that this was an alchemical creation, were still overcome with excitement and knelt in large numbers to kowtow.

They believed this was a divine creation sent by the gods to save them.

This left Feng Xiao and his two companions feeling an indescribable sense of awkwardness, though they did not linger to show off and quickly departed.

It had merely been a casual volley of artillery fire; using that to posture would be unjustifiable. Finding treasures capable of elevating their ability levels was what truly mattered.

Nevertheless, Feng Xiao still deployed several stealth surveillance mechanical units to record data.

A1 Starport had provided plenty of such equipment.

Watching the Star Origin submerge back into the clouds and roar away, the commander finally relaxed, then shook his head with a bitter smile.

The Autses Continent is home to countless races, with the weakest among them numbering fewer than a million.

The strongest are always the same.

The three peak races: the Dragon Race, the High Elf Race, and the Titan Race.

Next are the ten powerful races, which include the Beast Demon Race, goblins, dwarves, Nature Elves, humans, and others.

However, due to internal strife and the three great empires being in a state of perpetual war, the overall strength of the human race ranks at the bottom of the ten powerful races.

Even the elite of ordinary races can suppress the human race.

Originally, this would not have been an issue, yet the human race occupies the Central Plains, one of the fifteen most fertile regions of the Autses Continent.

As humanity gradually weakened, trouble arrived.

The various orc tribes and the Heavenly Demon Empire, one of the ten powerful races, launched a war against humanity simultaneously.

Commander Hei Ya knew that it was not just this major frontier city under attack; almost all major cities were suffering from frenzied assaults.

Many had even been breached, and he surmised that this was the reason the kingdom's reinforcements had been blocked.

"Sigh... humanity... do we truly possess no racial talents?"

The commander muttered to himself.

This sentence was overheard by Feng Xiao and his companions through the mechanical equipment.

"We do... a soul and mind capable of infinite sublimation, as well as incredibly powerful tolerance and creative inspiration..."

Feng Xiao watched the powerful magical beasts fleeing in panic around them, his face calm as he seemed to answer his own question.

And most importantly...

The determination to rise from the ashes!