Chapter 190: Dark Gold Dragons

"Dark Gold Dragons."

On the high stone platform, Eren leaned on the railing with a sharp smirk. He watched the enemy battleships tear through the heavy clouds, flying straight toward the Thousand Beast Citadel without slowing down.

Normally, a stronghold of this size was guarded by at least one Demi God. The pure spiritual pressure of an entity like that was enough to keep raiders away, which was why citadels were marked as impossible to take on military maps.

To outside scouts, however, the latest reports showed something completely different. The Thousand Beast Citadel was currently left under the sole command of Ethen—a mortal who was only at Tier 5.

To the beastkin factions, that was an open invitation. They believed the Dawn faction had grown weak, leaving a prized stronghold completely unprotected. That single mistake was the exact trap this entire ambush was built on.

"Congratulations, friend," Eren said, his grin widening as he looked over at Ethen. "Looks like the fish bit the hook even faster than the elders expected."

The leaders of the Dawn faction had spent months trying to lure out and capture a high-ranking Demi God from the demi-human races. Bringing an enemy that strong into an isolated battle took real bait, and dangling a weak Tier 5 warden was something the proud dragon clan could never resist.

Ethen knew his role from the start. He was not a general to the higher-ups; he was just live bait, left out in the open long enough to draw a monster out of hiding.

"Backup shouldn’t be too far behind, but I’d still appreciate your help out there," Ethen said with a cool smile.

He did not care about the Dawn faction’s schemes. In a war like this, surviving meant knowing how to handle being used. He was just the arm carrying out the attack, and he planned to keep that arm attached to his body.

"I wouldn’t miss this for anything," Eren chuckled, rolling his shoulders. "Besides, strip away the fancy clan names and he’s still just a Demi God."

Eren’s eyes slid toward the tall silhouette that stepped out from the shadows behind Ethen.

Adam stood with his hands at his sides, his pale eyes locked onto the distant fleet with complete calm. He had none of the fear usually seen in mortals facing a god-level enemy. Eren had already seen how tough Adam’s shields were in their earlier fights, and he knew what that meant for the battle ahead.

If they had to fight and capture a Demi God without immediate help, having a walking fortress like Adam beside them turned an impossible mission into a real chance to win.

Ten minutes later, the iron gates beneath the citadel docks opened with a loud hiss of steam. Three heavy human battleships shot into the open sky, their engines roaring as they rushed out to meet the enemy fleet.

Down below, the citadel’s heavy cannons were already firing into the air at steady intervals.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Massive blast waves tore through the clouds, exploding in bright balls of fire that shredded the enemy’s scout ships and forced their smaller craft to scatter. Still, the main enemy flagship pushed forward through the thick smoke, shrugging off the human artillery like it was nothing.

When the three human battleships reached the enemy, their side thrusters fired to quickly shift their angle.

Instead of crashing head-on, the human ships slid right into the slipstream above the enemy, matching their speed instantly. They were no longer flying toward each other; they were side-by-side, pacing the dragon flagship like wolves flanking a charging beast.

"Filthy two-legged bugs!" a loud voice boomed from the deck of the main enemy ship, loud enough to shake the metal on the human hulls.

"Did you dogs sail all the way out here just to bow down to your betters?!"

Standing on the ship’s prow was a massive demi-human with two dark horns sweeping back from his forehead. He threw his head back and laughed loudly, his thick, scaly skin stretching over heavy muscles as he glared up into the sky.

His slit-pupil eyes locked right onto the pale beast flying just above him, where Ethen stood balanced on the head of the Mind Dragon, looking down with a blank face.

The brute was a true member of the Dark Gold Dragon clan, an elite group that looked down on all other races. Across the demi-human lands, anything carrying pure dragon blood was treated as sacred and untouchable.

That fear was carved so deep into their world that even wild beasts would drop flat on the dirt if they caught a dragon’s scent. Only two groups had ever ignored that rule: humans, who treated divine beasts like raw crafting materials, and Karth, the mad god who slaughtered anything in his path.

Because of that old hatred, the dragon clan did not see this as just another border war. They saw human existence as a direct insult that needed to be wiped out.

"Come die," Ethen said simply, without any grand posturing.

He didn’t waste time trading words. He smoothly unhooked the heavy repeating crossbow from his back, snapping it against his shoulder with a sharp click.

"Down," Ethen commanded through his mind link.

The Mind Dragon tilted sharply into a fast dive, trailing pale light from its wings. Ethen lined up his sights and pulled the trigger three times without any hesitation.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three explosive bolts ripped through the air, hitting the main deck with a blast that shattered wood and sent fiery splinters flying. The dragon commander barely blinked, waving his heavy, clawed arm to blow the smoke and fire away like simple dust.

The Demi God opened his mouth to bark an order to his gunners.

Then the sky went dark.

A giant shadow suddenly covered the entire midsection of the enemy ship, blotting out the sun. A heavy, suffocating pressure fell over the deck, making the thick wooden beams groan under the sudden weight.

The Demi God’s grin vanished. His head snapped upward, his slitted eyes shrinking into tiny dots as something massive broke through the clouds.

A giant figure came falling straight down, wrapped in bright golden light and raw power.

"Small fry!"

BOOM!

Gilgamesh hit the ship like a falling mountain, smashing his giant golden hammer straight into the center deck. The sheer force smashed the thick ironwood frame to pieces, snapping the main support beams like dry twigs as the shockwave tore through the entire hull.

The massive warship was driven straight toward the ground, its lift arrays bursting in bright sparks as the back of the ship buckled completely. Its engines caught fire and burst, sending the ruined flagship into a wild spin as it crashed toward the rocky canyon below.

Right as the ship began to fall, the human battleships dropped their iron boarding ramps with heavy clangs. Human fighters charged across the gaps with drawn swords and glowing talismans, rushing straight into the chaos of the remaining escort fleet.

Blades clashed against tough scales across the burning decks. Shouts, battle cries, and the blast of attack spells turned the rest of the fleet into a messy bloodbath.

Up above, Ethen had already pulled away from the fleet fight, tugging on the dragon’s reins to bank into a wide, slow glide.

"Come out," Ethen muttered, keeping his crossbow cocked and pointed down at the cloud of gray dust below.

The hammer strike had done its job: it had ripped the flagship out of the formation and sent it crashing miles away from the main battle, leaving the enemy fleet without a leader. Ethen had cut the head off the snake.

The Dark Gold Dragon Demi God was now stuck on the valley floor, stripped of his heavy cannons, his defenses, and his guard.

From two hundred yards up, Ethen circled patiently, listening over the rushing wind for any sign of movement down in the wreckage. Dense gray dust and black smoke filled the canyon, hiding the broken metal and timber spread across the sharp rocks.

Then, not far from the center of the crash, a heavy sheet of broken metal began to groan.

With a loud screech of bending steel, the wreckage was tossed twenty feet through the air, crashing into the rocks like trash. A huge, muscular figure pulled himself out from the broken ship, his rough gray skin mostly unharmed under a layer of dirt.

The Dark Gold Dragon rolled his shoulders, popped his neck, and brushed the ash off his arms as if surviving that massive drop was nothing more than a minor trip.

Slowly, his horned head tilted upward. His glowing gold eyes locked dead onto the mortal flying above him.

"Fucking humans!" the dragon growled, his deep voice shaking the ground as his divine aura burst out around his boots like a cracked furnace.

His aura rolled through the ground like a beast about to take flight. But a second later it suddenly quenched as its gaze fell on a familia figure.