After the Floating City arrived in a brand-new plane, the wizards and the apprentices they had brought began preparing for the coming war.
As they prepared and adapted to the excessively active Water Element of this plane, a massive pale-yellow barrier rose around the entire Floating City, protecting them securely.
The Stitched Beast Legion and Puppet Legion in the lower half of the Floating City also began awakening one by one. The Stitched Beast Legion recovered from its sedatives, and savage roars echoed throughout the underground space.
Every Puppet Core in the Puppet Legion was fitted with magic ore crystals for charging. Powerful magical energy filled the magic channels within their bodies. Granite Golems, Rock Golems, Iron Golems, Earth Element Golems, and more—these organized puppet forces were all awakened.
Unlike the portable Elemental Golems used by Taylor, the Elemental Golems in the Puppet Legion had been prepared in advance with stronger, more powerful bodies and superior energy sources. These specially made bodies granted them greater strength.
Granite Golems and Iron Golems had always been the absolute mainstay of wizard puppet legions. The raw materials used to make these two kinds of golems were common across many planes. Combined with the toughness, immense strength, and adaptability to various environments granted by their materials, Granite Golems and Iron Golems had always been beloved by wizards.
The sorcery rune enchantments and sorcery array enchantments on Granite Golems and Iron Golems were all focused on strengthening defense and increasing power. The neutral magic enchantments on their hands or weapons allowed them to directly strike the bodies of elemental creatures.
A single Granite Golem could rival a Level 2 Wizard Apprentice, while an Iron Golem could even fight a Level 3 Wizard Apprentice on equal terms.
This was partly due to the effects of enchantments, but their materials were also extremely sturdy. Though they were nominally made of granite and steel, their bodies actually contained other special stones and magical metals.
Throughout the long wars of planar invasion, Granite Golems and Iron Golems had successively defeated Alloy Golems, Golden Golems, Wooden Golems, Earth Element Golems, Fire Element Golems, Water Element Golems, and a whole series of other golems, becoming the most practical, versatile, reliable, and affordable golem types in the eyes of wizards.
The Puppet Legion sent by Krite was also awakened one by one. Aside from the standard Rock Golems, Granite Golems, and Iron Golems, there were also over a hundred Magic Mechs serving as the backbone of the legion.
The Magic Mechs developed by Krite were based on Iron Golems. More magical metals had been added to their physical bodies, turning them into semi-magical metal bodies with stronger magical guidance capabilities. Then, portions of construct arrays were simplified and exposed through enchantments upon these Magic Mechs, making them a bargain-bin version of construct puppets.
Merely the Stitched Beast army and the more central Puppet Legion displayed by this Floating City were enough to make those impoverished Black Wizards stare greedily, practically drooling.
While the wizards and their apprentices were still adapting to the changes brought by this plane, and while the Stitched Beast Legion and Puppet Legion were gradually reviving and becoming active, several enormous Sea Tornadoes suddenly rose from the ocean and slammed into the Floating City as if they possessed minds of their own.
The pale-yellow protective barrier around the Floating City suddenly lit up. After the Sea Tornadoes struck it, the two sides remained locked for a moment before the tornadoes weakly collapsed into pools of seawater and fell away.
Then the previously bright and sunny weather abruptly changed. Dark clouds rolled in, thunder rumbled, and enormous waves rose from the sea below as a massive, indistinct body emerged from the ocean.
The Sea Giant held a Golden Trident. His blue-green upper body was covered in fine scales, both beautiful and imposing. His face bore dense, beard-like tentacles and two pairs of vertical pupils. The Sea Giant had no nose, only a turbine-like mouth full of sharp teeth, making him look savage and terrifying.
His lower body merged with the sea, while his enormous upper body alone stood nearly two hundred meters tall.
The Sea Giant raised the Golden Trident that symbolized his authority. Behind him, seawater condensed into a trident over a thousand meters tall. With a sweep of his huge hand, the gigantic seawater trident smashed into the Floating City's pale-yellow protective barrier once more.
"Boom!!!"
The violent collision sent tremendous tremors through the Floating City. Even Taylor, adjusting things within the tower, found it difficult to stand steadily and nearly lost his footing.
The Stitched Beast Legion stationed below howled in misery.
"Hmph!!!"
A cold snort exploded in Taylor's mind. It was a subtle application of spiritual power. Looking out through the tower window, Taylor saw only a majestic figure in white robes waving a staff as blue lightning thousands of meters wide crashed down upon the colossal creature holding the Golden Trident.
Sensing the incoming lightning, the Sea Giant was horrified. He could feel that the other party seemed stronger than him, and he hurriedly raised his trident.
The entire ocean seemed to overturn. Under the reinforcement of his power, the terrifying currents became a seawater shield shaped like a mountain.
The lightning was fast, but the Sea Giant's reaction was no slower. The two collided in an instant.
The terrifying lightning, thousands of meters in diameter, slammed into the mountain-sized shield of seawater. The shockwave raised by their collision nearly shattered the apprentices' eardrums. The heat carried by the lightning frantically vaporized the seawater, yet the wave shield reinforced by the Sea Giant's power still desperately held on beneath the bombardment.
When the lightning dissipated, the seawater shield that had once been as solid and massive as a mountain had been reduced to a thin film of water, looking utterly laughable.
In the aftermath of their clash, the surrounding seawater boiled with vaporized heat, and white mist continuously rose. Beneath that white mist, enormous sea beasts, fishmen, and other creatures killed by the collision's shockwaves had all floated belly-up, motionless on the surface.
Even the Floating City, protected by its barrier, was rocked from side to side by the aftermath of their exchange.
What terrifying lightning. Were the invaders really this strong?
The Sea Giant's four eyes contracted into four thin black lines. He could not understand why the invaders had found this plane, much less launched an invasion. He did not believe this plane possessed anything worth coveting.
Moreover, the other party was stronger than him. That lightning strike had clearly been casually unleashed, while he had needed to respond with utmost caution.
This was also the gap between wizards and native powerhouses. Wizards received broader knowledge and truths. They mastered more skills, skills that were more comprehensive, versatile, and powerful. They controlled and used every bit of power with perfect precision.
Most native powerhouses had never left their own planes. They spent their days trapped within a single world, either complacent or blindly exploring alone. Their use of power was too crude, their techniques were singular and insufficiently comprehensive, and in terms of overall strength, they were far inferior to wizards of the same level.
Given the same amount of power, a native powerhouse might turn it into a launched fireball. It would look imposing and radiate heat, but its actual lethality would be low. A wizard, however, would turn it into a fine ray that directly pierced and annihilated the enemy.
The fireball and the ray consumed the same amount of power, but their effects and destructive force were completely different.
That was why the Sea Giant had treated the lightning with such caution. One portion of power used in a spell cast by a wizard was equivalent to the effect he could only achieve with four or five portions of power.
His use of power was far too crude.
This work's statistics are still not very good. I hope all readers can leave more positive reviews in the comments section and help improve its performance.
Before you continue