Battles with cold weapons were no less brutal.
The ironclad rule that “an inch longer is an inch stronger,” deeply ingrained in every fighter’s bones, was of course indispensable. But if one had to name the beastmen’s greatest strength in combat, it was their sheer physique.
With their exaggerated muscle mass and bone density, any single beastman dropped into Xuefei’s original world would shatter records across multiple categories. They could crush the forest’s king—a tiger—with a casual squeeze of their hand, and only colossal mammoths dozens of meters tall were worthy mounts for them.
This time, they hadn’t unleashed those “trump card” mounts. Yet in raw combat power, this force represented the absolute elite of the beastman army.
Gerdun swept his massive hand through the air, and the beastmen’s roars swelled from guttural growls to thunderous bellows. They hefted their weapons and charged toward the carriage’s position. Their rough, broad soles dug deep into the soil, churning the ground in their wake into a muddy wasteland, as if a devouring tornado had swept through.
“Rawr! Rawr! Rawr—!”
Their eyes blazed with feral light, fangs bared in savage grins. Beneath the pallid sky, their coarse hides gleamed with a dark luster, crisscrossed by scars of every size—badges of honor they wore with pride.
At the vanguard of the charge, dust billowed three meters high, forming a mobile rampart like a fortress wall that swallowed all in its path. Any human army faced with such a tidal wave of beastmen would cast aside helmets and armor, fleeing in panic. If battle proved unavoidable, their only end would be pulverization into bloody paste beneath axes and warhammers.
And yet, directly in the path of this unstoppable charge, a cluster of purple-red flames flickered into view.
What was that?
An enemy? Hilarious! Hahaha!
As if our mighty army could be halted by some puny fire a stiff breeze could snuff out. They wouldn’t even need their weapons—its pathetic struggle couldn’t slow their trampling advance!
Indeed, it was merely a clump of purple-red flames, burning steadily before the halted carriage. Some inert, pervasive force seemed to radiate from it, or perhaps it was an otherworldly eye fixed upon the beastman horde.
The lead beastman whirled his battle-axe into a vortex, shattering the notion that greater size meant less agility. He launched skyward like a soaring mountain, poised to crash down as a meteor upon landing.
“Hahahaha! You Demons are all talk! Let me taste your blood!”
But…
What in the world…?
Why, after leaping into the air, had he yet to descend? Time itself felt sluggish. The vanguard beastman sensed some force impeding his fall.
Hold on…
Why couldn’t he summon any strength? Why couldn’t he even turn his neck, yet his vision spun wildly?
Round and round it went—one rotation, two, three…
Only when his whirling gaze fell upon the massive body sprawled below, twitching headless with a geyser of blood erupting from the ragged stump of its neck, did the vanguard beastman comprehend…
His pupils weren’t dilating merely from shock.
Time hadn’t slowed. He had landed…
“That’s… my… body…”
Decapitation had ended his fight in the blink of an eye.
Impossible.
Even against the Heavenly Wings, we could’ve closed the distance. Why…?
Defeated in a single instant, too swift for the naked eye to follow…
Xuefei offered a faint smile. Nightfall hadn’t yet arrived, but she had already become the beastman army’s nightmare.
Was this the Evil Dragon’s power?
Her hands took on the form of the Demon Dragon’s claws, wreathed in purple-red blazing flames. Wherever they struck, nothing remained but the world’s finality.
“Terminus Fire.”
“Can’t go all out, so this’ll have to do~,” Xuefei muttered under her breath. In the span of a heartbeat, several more beastmen rode her dragon claws straight to hell.
It was all Laer’s fault for holding her back—damn her. For now, she could only infuse her arms with the power that had given her hell during the first playthrough’s battle with the Evil Dragon.
Terminus Fire was the flames of ultimate destruction—the Dragon Clan’s most potent breath weapon. No forge could contain it; even the gods dreaded its might.
Xuefei had originally planned to hose the beastman army with a parabolic barrage of Terminus Fire. No such luck now, but it still made for a devastating melee enchantment.
In Prince Gerdun’s eyes, that group of valiant beastmen vanguard fell row by row like towering walls crumbling into shattered ruins, transforming into a cruel mountain of corpses. Blood streamed down to form vivid crimson rivers that rolled over hills of mangled flesh amid the reek of death.
“It must be Demons. It has to be… Demons!!”
“Quick, attack the carriage! Capture the Snake Demon Princess—now!”
In his desperation, he realized the enemy’s fighting force consisted of only a single person. As long as he could stall for time and seize that Snake Demon Princess, he could still taste the sweet fruit of victory.
But how could his army break through?
It felt like a deadly Domain had descended. Even when they formed an encirclement, they couldn’t close in on that tiny carriage convoy.
No—our foes weren’t just one?!
Whenever the troops managed to edge close to the carriage concealing the princess, purple-red vines would erupt from the earth below, like bewitched water weeds that dragged them straight into the ground!!
What kind of power was this?
The Demon Race?
Even the Evil Dragon wasn’t this formidable. Impossible. This had to be a dream, right? Heh heh heh…
But Gerdun had little time for such thoughts. Suddenly, agony exploded in his ear.
“Awooooo—! Die!”
Gerdun bared his fangs in a furious roar. The greatsword at his waist surged with his erupting mana, morphing into a blade radiating destructive power—no inferior to siege weaponry. This was the Beastman Clan’s ancestral weapon. Legend held that his grandfather had cleaved straight through the elves’ vaunted vine walls with it!
Slaying this puny Demon spawn would be child’s play!
Yet… he realized then that his greatsword was gone…
No, it hadn’t vanished. Rather…
He widened his eyes and saw it clearly.
There, standing before him, was a smirking girl. Alluring and adorable as she was, with his ear freshly severed and pain lancing through him, Gerdun knew only terror.
She wore an ornate black-and-white Lolita gown. In place of long gloves, her arms had become dragon claws exuding an ominous aura—not a single drop of blood marred them. Gerdun was certain: one swipe from those claws meant instant death.
Beneath the scrutiny of her scarlet dragon eyes, the bold defiance welled up in his throat and died there. With a casual pinch of those claws, she pulverized his so-called Ancestral Treasured Sword.
Shards of the Ancestral Treasured Sword clattered across the collapsing platform. The four beastmen beneath him had long lost consciousness, slumped half-kneeling with bloodied spears impaling their chests, propping their limp bodies upright.
Most unforgettable of all was her flowing silver hair, whipping in the wind.
“Scram.”
Xuefei said softly. Yet that Demonish figure branded itself forever into their souls.
Gerdun offered no retort. He didn’t even have time to beg for mercy…
“Tell your clansmen this: dare to show such disrespect to Dragon King again, and next time, it will mean the end of the beastmen nation.”
“……”
Gerdun paid no heed to his severed left ear—the mark of his shame—as he led his routed beastmen remnants in a panicked flight. Only when the bloody hill faded from view did the survivors halt for a brief respite. Xuefei’s battle form would haunt their nightmares for life.
~~~
At that moment, behind Xuefei, the one called Okate brushed past the attempts to stop him and emerged from the carriage, taking in the full scene.
No one noticed how his expression toward Xuefei gradually crumbled…
Even fewer saw the fierce glow emanating from his eyes, now pure silver.
“Okate” smirked.
“Lord God, it seems I’ve found something delightfully surprising.”
