Three flame war elephants, each standing roughly a hundred meters tall, materialized as suddenly as three great mountains. Even the monsters lurking within the Forest of the Dead trembled at their presence. The horrifying aura could be felt clearly from several hundred yards away—nothing at all like what ordinary legendary creatures could produce.
"How did they get here so quickly?"
Yuan Tiexin stood atop the city walls, his face dark with grim shadows, his mind full of confusion.
According to intelligence from the Celestial Mechanism Pavilion, the Star Ring had dispatched a massive army, but it should have taken several more hours for them to reach this location. Organizing that many forces required time, and simply marching them here was an enormous logistical undertaking in itself.
A few hours might not have been enough for the Pavilion to complete a full defensive setup, but it would have been sufficient to establish an initial defense for Stone Forest City—especially with the recruitment of the city's NPCs.
Even if the Star Ring wanted to take Stone Forest City by force, it would be a grueling affair. The Pavilion could simply drag out the battle and wait for more reinforcements.
But now the Star Ring had not only arrived far ahead of schedule—they had also deployed three legendary creatures...
All three flame war elephants bore glowing divine runes across their bodies, clearly empowered by some form of external force. They were nothing like ordinary summoned beasts.
And the elephants were only part of the problem.
Beside them, over a hundred Star Ring spellcasters were channeling their mana, funneling it toward dozens of radiant energy stones suspended at the center.
Under the players' infusion of mana, magic formations began to materialize on the surfaces of those energy stones. The formations interconnected, continuously absorbing ambient magic from the surroundings. The sheer volume of gathered mana was enough to roil the air across a range of over a thousand yards.
If an average guild's experts were watching, they might have guessed this was some devastating fourth-tier spell—perhaps comparable to a large-scale fourth-tier destructive magic.
But Yuan Tiexin knew this was nothing "comparable" to fourth-tier. This was the genuine article: the fourth-tier forbidden spell-level Ancient Magic Elemental Destruction.
That thing was the Star Ring guild's most treasured heirloom!
The energy stones operated in sets of twelve. As long as players channeled their mana into them, the Ancient Magic Elemental Destruction could be unleashed, and it could be used repeatedly. The destructive power scaled with the number of stones—every additional set of twelve raised the output by one full tier.
A single set of twelve produced fourth-tier magical power. At twenty-four stones, the power reached the level of a fourth-tier forbidden spell. Naturally, the mana requirements on the users also increased, and the cooldown after each use grew longer.
The last time the Star Ring guild had activated these energy stones was during the assault on a key stronghold held by a dark faction, and they had only deployed seventeen stones.
But now there were a full twenty-nine. The destructive force was unquestionably at the forbidden spell level—its power comparable to a weaker fifth-tier spell. Destroying the defensive magic formation of a basic-tier city would pose no difficulty whatsoever, since a basic city's defensive formation could only withstand fourth-tier power. Anything reaching the fifth tier would simply overwhelm it.
And the most critical asset of any city was its defensive magic formation. Players were essentially helpless against such formations. Even an army of over a hundred thousand fighting for an entire day and night would barely put a dent in one.
But if the defensive magic formation were shattered, the gap in defensive capability between a city and a town became negligible...
Beyond the Elemental Destruction itself, the Star Ring forces were also shielded by an epic-grade defensive orb. While it couldn't compare to a city's defensive formation, it could still absorb fourth-tier magical attacks. To harm anyone within the Star Ring's ranks, one would need to drain the orb's mana entirely—short of that, it was simply impossible.
The members of the Dragon Horn Corps, still within the Forest of the Dead, could all clearly see the massive magic formation hovering high in the sky above. The sheer oppressive might of it made their hearts clench even from several thousand yards away.
"Devastating! So this is the Star Ring guild's rumored Elemental Destruction magic?" Sheng Wuji gazed up at the ever-intensifying mana fluctuations rippling across the sky, unable to hide his shock. "This was originally meant to be used for capturing an undead fortress, wasn't it? Looks like the Star Ring is going all out against Stone Forest City."
The Celestial Dragon Manor had some understanding of Elemental Destruction—they had even managed to acquire a few energy stones of their own. But with only a handful, they were far from the critical mass needed to activate the spell.