Giant Dragon Lord: Starting from Daily Intelligence

Chapter 606: Chapter 445: The Great Army Gathers at Black Stone Territory

One Viscount in particular had failed to participate with his troops. After the war, the Duke dispatched ”Frosty Winter” Elvin with the Thunder Dragon Knight Order to pass judgment. The Viscount was stripped of his title and beheaded on the spot.

A week passed quietly.

The mobilization of the Northern Territory’s army was nearly complete.

「That afternoon.」

A clear, resounding dragon’s roar echoed from the horizon, instantly drowning out the clamor of tens of thousands.

The roar was filled with power, like a king announcing his arrival.

Raylo’s pupils constricted slightly as he looked up at the sky.

A massive black dot in the distance grew rapidly as it approached.

It was a Thunder Dragon, its body over a hundred meters long!

And on its broad back stood an imposing figure, straight and solid as a mountain.

Gaius had arrived.

The Thunder Dragon landed smoothly, and the gale it kicked up sent the banners snapping in the wind.

Gaius leaped from the dragon’s back, his heavy war boots landing on the ground with a dull THUD.

The Thunder Dragon Knight Order arrived behind him.

”Marshal Gaius.”

Raylo stepped forward.

Gaius nodded.

He wasted no time on pleasantries.

”Relay my orders,” Gaius’s voice rang out.

”Tomorrow morning, all Lords and Domain Level Powerhouses are to report to my tent for a war council.”

”I will personally command this war.”

”His Highness Raylo will be the Army Overseer.”

”Anyone who delays, shows cowardice, or disobeys orders—regardless of their status—will face military justice!”

His words were sharp and decisive, and everyone present could feel the suffocating, deadly aura that washed over them.

At that moment, with the arrival of the legendary marshal, the gears of war began to turn with a deafening roar.

「The next morning.」

The sky had not yet fully brightened.

Inside Marshal Gaius’s command tent.

”Iron Blood” Luke, Marquis of Nu River.

Chief Court Mage Herast.

”Red Blade,” Marquis Kadar.

In addition to them, dozens of other Lords and generals were present.

The atmosphere was tense.

These great figures, normally so high and mighty, now sat ramrod straight, their gazes fixed on the head of the council tent.

There, a massive map of the Jade Swamp was spread across a long table. Beside it stood the figure who inspired awe in all of them.

Gaius.

He had changed out of his battle armor and wore only a simple tunic, but his presence had not diminished in the slightest. If anything, he was even more intimidating than when clad in steel.

His gaze slowly swept over everyone present.

”Everyone.”

Gaius spoke, his voice steady and clear, instantly capturing everyone’s undivided attention.

”I don’t believe I need to explain why I’ve gathered you here. The Jade Swamp is a dagger hanging over the entire Northern Territory—indeed, over the entire Kingdom. We have no room for retreat.”

His finger tapped lightly on the map.

He tapped a region in the western part of the Jade Swamp, one heavily marked with red ink.

”According to reliable intelligence, the Snake-men in the swamp are performing a wicked ritual at this location. They have dug a Mass Grave and are about to activate a Blood Sacrifice Array in an attempt to reach the Catastrophe Level.”

”Their commander-in-chief is a Six-armed Snake Demon, an extremely powerful being at the Peak of the Domain Level.”

Gaius’s words were devoid of emotion, a simple statement of a cold, cruel fact.

”Once it completes the blood sacrifice, the Jade Swamp will have one more Catastrophe Level entity. For us, that would be an absolute cataclysm.”

The temperature in the command tent seemed to drop a few degrees.

Even a battle-hardened veteran like ”Iron Blood” Luke wore a grim expression.

”This is not the first time our Thunder Dragon Duchy has gone to war with the Swamp Demons of the Jade Swamp. You are all experienced, so I will not belabor the point.”

”My plan is simple,” Gaius said.

”A conventional advance will only let the Swamp Demons drag us into an endless war of attrition. So, I have decided to concentrate all our elite forces into a single decapitation unit!”

”We will advance on the Mass Grave at top speed...”

”I, along with the Domain Level Powerhouses present here, and His Highness Raylo’s Giant Dragons and Giant Legion, will form the sharpest of daggers. We will tear through the Snake-man defensive line at top speed and slay the Six-armed Snake Demon!”

”As long as the ritual is disrupted and the Snake Demon is slain, the remaining rabble is nothing to fear!”

A decapitation strike!

A simple, brutal, yet incredibly effective tactic!

These words instantly ignited a fire in the hearts of all the powerhouses present.

This was especially true for ”Iron Blood” Luke and ”Red Blade” Kadar, whose eyes blazed with intense fighting spirit.

”I agree!”

Marquis Luke slammed his hand on the table and roared in his booming voice.

”Count me in!”

Marquis Kadar slammed his greatblade onto the floor, producing a loud, metallic crash.

”I concur!”

”We will obey the Marshal’s command!”

For a moment, the tent was filled with fervent excitement.

Gaius raised a hand, pressing it down through the air, and silence returned to the tent.

”Good.”

He looked at Raylo.

”Your Highness Raylo, your aerial forces—the Giant Dragons, Griffin Knights, and Pegasus Knights—will be responsible for clearing any threats in the sky and guiding our path.”

”Yes! No problem!” Raylo replied in a deep voice.

”Luke, Kadar, Herast... you will be with me, as the edge of the blade.”

”Yes, sir!”

”As for the rest of the army...”

Gaius’s gaze swept to the other Lords.

”You will engage the Snake-man Legion head-on and disrupt the ritual!”

”As you command!”

The orders were given one by one, clear and precise.

”Since there are no objections.”

Gaius rolled up the map and turned towards the entrance.

”Then, we move out immediately!”

”Our target: the Jade Swamp!”

As his voice faded, his tall figure vanished through the tent’s entrance.

「Half an hour later.」

Outside the Black Stone Territory, an army tens of thousands strong began to break camp and assemble.

At a single command, the vast military formation began its slow advance.

A torrent of Knights, phalanxes of infantry, a train of supply wagons...

Like a waking behemoth, it marched in a mighty procession toward the Jade Swamp.

And at the head of the army, high in the sky,

Raylo rode Lightning, with the Golden Dragon Sun flying at his side.

Behind him, a flight of Griffin Knights and Pegasus Knights followed in close formation.

Gaius and the other Domain Level Powerhouses were positioned in the center of this elite vanguard.

They were the cold glint on a dagger’s tip, ready to be the first to plunge into that unknown land of death, a place shrouded in a dark green miasma.

The army’s vanguard soon reached the edge of the Jade Swamp.

A nauseating stench—damp, putrid, and laced with sulfur and blood—washed over them. The sunlight seemed to weaken as it passed through the thick miasma, casting the entire swamp in a sinister, eerie gloom.

Strange hisses and roars echoed from within the swamp, as if countless pairs of malevolent eyes were watching them from the shadows.

The dark green miasma hung like a perpetual, heavy fog over the Jade Swamp.

The stench in the air—a mixture of rotting plants and boggy mud—was all-pervasive, seeping into every soldier’s nostrils and fraying their nerves.

”Maintain formation! Scouts, spread out on the flanks! Pegasus Knights, double your patrol radius!”

Ed’s booming voice echoed among the troops.

In the sky, Raylo’s aerial unit demonstrated astonishing efficiency.

Lightning, the mount beneath him, seemed to revel in the tense, pre-battle atmosphere.

Fine arcs of electricity occasionally leaped from his body, instantly charring any mindless, fist-sized Blood Rot Mosquitoes that drew too near.

The Golden Dragon Sun flew silently alongside, the faint light and heat radiating from its body dispelling the surrounding chill and bringing a measure of comfort to the Knights below.

SKREEE!

A sharp cry tore through the sky.

The Griffin Knights had spotted a target.

Dozens of Swamp Winged Serpents with rotting wings suddenly burst from a patch of dark green woods, their target the Knight Order marching on the ground below.

The Griffin Knights coordinated flawlessly. In a standard diving attack, their sharp claws and the Knights’ Long Spears easily ripped through the fragile bodies of the serpents.

At almost the same moment, the Pegasus Knights scouting ahead were also harassed.

A swarm of Ghost-faced Bats emerged silently from the shadows of a giant tree’s canopy. The Spiritual Shock they emitted was powerful enough to instantly give an ordinary soldier a splitting headache and break their will.

But the highly trained Pegasus Knights gave the bats no chance to draw near. They hurled volley after volley of Flying Spears. Before the hundred-strong swarm could even get close, more than half were impaled. The remaining thirty or so scattered and fled.