Robo's pupils dilated slightly. Realizing they had walked into an ambush, he was about to order his army to retreat, but immediately abandoned the idea.
The soldiers already locked in chaotic melee had no way to retreat.
Once an order to retreat was given, morale would inevitably plummet.
When that happened, these ragtag troops composed of commoners who had never set foot on a battlefield would likely struggle to maintain any effective combat capability.
As for the mage corps, they seemed completely useless at this moment.
Under these circumstances, forcing the mage corps to lay down a barrage would result in an indiscriminate area-of-effect bombardment that killed friend and foe alike.
Although Robo despised these conscripted "untouchables" from the bottom of his heart and didn't think their deaths would be particularly hard to bear,
that didn't mean he could just slaughter them at will.
At least, not on the surface.
Otherwise, if word of this got back, not only would he be targeted, but other duchies might even accuse him of sacrificing his own army in an attempt to summon an evil god.
If they used that as an excuse to unite and launch a campaign against the Duchy of Reny, he would be left with nowhere to cry.
Thus, Robo could only order the mage corps to fall back, preventing these precious spellcasting units from being dragged into the chaotic melee and suffering unnecessary losses.
He then looked toward his hastily responding army with a deep frown.
After the initial chaos, the infantry was now locked in combat with the enemy's ambushers. Screams and roars echoed continuously as blood mingled with the rainwater, soaking the parched earth.
Seeing his countless pre-war tactical plans thrown into complete disarray because the enemy refused to play by the rules, Robo felt utterly flustered. His hand holding the staff began to tremble uncontrollably.
“Is this where your confidence comes from?”
Under the influence of the Aura of Sanity, he quickly regained his composure, casting his gaze toward the young girl still sitting on the city wall.
To end this as quickly as possible, his best option was to deploy the wolf knights.
They were the elites of the Duchy of Reny. Though they numbered only five thousand, their combat strength far surpassed these ten thousand-plus commoner conscripts.
They would be perfect for clearing the field.
But Robo thought of an even better way.
To break straight through and perform a decapitation strike.
He had investigated beforehand; this mixologist didn't have any high-end combatants under her command.
And with the combined strength of two Gold Rank experts—himself and Renn—as long as the opponent wasn't a Legendary figure, they could quickly slay her.
Once the decapitation strike succeeded, these ambushers would turn into a leaderless rabble, easily cleaned up at their leisure.
As for the possibility of this mysterious mixologist being a Legendary expert, Robo hadn't even considered it.
If the opponent truly were a Legendary powerhouse, there would be no need to go through the trouble of planning an ambush.
The reason Legendary experts were called National Guardians was because once they attained the Legendary Rank, they could condense a domain unique to themselves. Within this domain, a Legendary expert's advantages would be magnified countless times.
Meanwhile, anyone else would be suppressed by the domain.
That was an ability even more terrifying than a true dragon's Dragon Fear—or rather, Dragon Fear was merely the prototype of a domain.
A Legendary powerhouse only needed to open their Legendary domain to completely strip the invading rabble of their combat capabilities.
Since the opponent hadn't opened a domain right away, it could only mean she was, at most, at the Gold Rank.
However, just as Robo was about to send a voice transmission to Renn to act together, he keenly noticed that the chaotic battlefield had, in just a brief moment, turned into a completely one-sided massacre.
Logically speaking, though beastkin and half-beastkin were slightly stronger than ordinary humans, the gap shouldn't be this immense.
Once he clearly saw the culprits behind all this, the battle intent Robo had just mustered dissipated once more.
He saw figures rampaging through the battlefield, with ordinary soldiers unable to withstand even a single blow from them.
It was precisely because of this that the battle had turned into an absolute rout almost as soon as it began.
Furthermore, these figures all bore extremely obvious signs of dragonification.
Black dragon scales, golden vertical pupils, and some had even grown dragon horns and tails.
Without a doubt, they were all dragonborn.
Robo's gaze turned exceptionally cautious.
If there were only a few isolated dragonborn, it could still be explained as atavism.
After all, true dragons possessed eyes that appreciated beauty; they could find aesthetic appeal in any race and breed with any of them without species barriers.
Coupled with the powerful transformative properties of dragon blood, almost every intelligent race on the continent of Arlesk had produced dragonborn at some point.
Although the bloodline would gradually thin over generations, individual cases of atavism could still occur.
Even within the Duchy of Reny, there had been rare instances of human dragonborn who experienced atavistic bloodline awakening.
But there were simply too many dragonborn on this battlefield!
With just a cursory glance, there were at least nearly ten thousand of them.
Excluding the absurd, heaven-defying possibility of a collective atavism among the beastkin and half-beastkin of the God-Forsaken Land to produce so many dragonborn overnight,
the only explanation was...
A true dragon had transformed them into dragonborn!
“Could it be... that this mixologist has a true dragon backing her?!”
At this thought, Robo warily looked toward the figure atop the city wall, only to meet a pair of vertical pupils that seemed to burn with golden fire.
His heart couldn't help but shudder.
A single word involuntarily surfaced in his mind...
Dragon!
That was a true dragon disguised as a human!
Atop the city wall, the young girl seemed to sense his realization. She stood up, locked eyes with him, and with a look of utter contempt... raised both of her middle fingers.
At the same time, a bolt of lightning surged across the sky behind her.
Rumble!
The thunder sounded like the roar of a colossal beast.
The pitch-black canopy of the sky seemed to be shrouded by a pair of massive, dark wings.
From within the darkness, an invisible, crushing pressure bore down on him from those golden vertical pupils.
“Damn it!”
Lowly cursing as everything clicked in an instant, Robo's body shot backward like a bullet, riding a gust of wind as he swiftly retreated to the very rear of the army.
Only after his feet touched the ground did he let out a slight sigh of relief.
Never in his wildest dreams did he expect that the one stealing business from the Duchy of Reny was actually a dragon!
When did these creatures, who did nothing but eat and sleep, learn how to conduct trade?
If it was a true dragon, she indeed possessed the power to stand toe-to-toe with the Duchy of Reny.
A true dragon reached the Gold Rank upon adulthood. Combined with their powerful physical bodies, even ordinary Legendary experts couldn't easily deal with them, let alone the Duchy of Reny, which had no Legendary powerhouses at all.
Relying on just two Gold Rank combatants to challenge an adult true dragon was undoubtedly suicide!
However, before Robo could catch his breath, a mocking voice drifted over from nearby:
“Well, well, well, isn't this my dear little brother?”
“Instead of commanding at the front, what are you doing hiding back here?”
“Are you scared, or are you just looking for a place to take a shit?”
Robo looked toward the voice and saw Renn leaning against a siege ballista with a contemptuous expression, gently wiping his broadsword.
The wyvern lay beside him, its raised head staring at Robo with equal disdain.
“That...”
Robo was about to reveal the truth, but his eyes darted around, and he forced himself to swallow the words.
Yes, he had been too cautious, falling into a mental trap for a moment.
Although the opponent was a true dragon, was she necessarily an adult?
Judging by the characteristics of those dragonborn, the opponent should be a black dragon, one of the chromatic dragons.
Given the irascible temper of chromatic dragons, if she truly were an adult true dragon, having an enemy knock on her front door like this would have prompted her to personally step in and completely annihilate them by now.
Since she still hadn't taken action...
there were only two possibilities.
The first possibility was that this black dragon wanted to witness a war of fire and blood.
With a black dragon's cunning, dark, and bloodthirsty nature, this was not out of the question.
However, Robo leaned heavily toward the second possibility.
This black dragon was not yet an adult.
She was afraid, which was why she hadn't made a move!
She was merely putting on a grand front!
“Yes, that must be it!”
The more Robo thought about it, the more excited he became.
If that truly was an immature black dragon, then today, he might actually get to play the role of a dragon slayer!
'When that happens, Father will surely be proud of me!'
At this thought, a twisted smile spread across Robo's face. He raised his eyes to look at his older brother.
Renn, who was wiping his greatsword, paused his movements as he felt this gaze. An involuntary chill ran down his spine.
Before he could speak, Robo suddenly said:
“My dear brother, do you want to become a true Dragon Knight?”
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