The sound of rumbling horse hooves rang out once again, and in what seemed like no more than the blink of an eye, the Wolf Moon mercenary legion's foot soldiers were demolished by the Heavenly Star mercenary legion's formidable cavaliers. The narrow-eyed man didn't even get to exact his revenge on Chase before a Heavenly Star cavalier's spear pierced through his chest. As he collapsed to the ground, he cast an astonished gaze toward the coastline of the Joffan Sea in the distance, seeming stunned by the fact that his life would come to an end in this godforsaken place.

Many of the Heavenly Star cavaliers who were charging at the front had the bodies of one or two Wolf Moon foot soldiers impaled on their spears, but there were simply too few foot soldiers from the Wolf Moon mercenary legion to go around, and there weren't any foot soldiers left for many of the Heavenly Star cavaliers near the back of the pack to kill.

Thus, the losses suffered by the Wolf Moon mercenary legion were already extremely heavy. The narrow-eyed man, who was the legion's deputy commander, had fallen, their foot soldiers had been completely wiped out, and less than half of their cavaliers remained.

Talan's eyes had turned severely bloodshot from rage as he glowered at the smug look on Luphen's face, and he wanted nothing more than to slice this lispy Skycourt Kingdom pig in half!

"Take this!" Talan let loose a thunderous roar, and with it came the second of his three killing blows, sending layers upon layers of blade intent sweeping directly toward Luphen.

Luphen looked on at the furious Talan with a gleeful smile as he raised his silver whip in retaliation.

Right at this moment, a massive cloud of dust began to rise up from the northwestern direction, and the sound of thundering war drums also rang out.

"Charge! I don't care if they're from the Wolf Moon mercenary legion or the Skycourt Kingdom, make sure not a single one of them leaves this battlefield alive!" Larwood was leading from the front as his steed galloped down from the mountain.

The cavaliers of the Four Winds mercenary legion followed along closely behind him, and they were followed by the footsoldiers. Meanwhile, Erwin and the mercenary legion's magicians and archers were offering support in the form of firepower output from afar.

The first ones to be struck by the Four Winds mercenary legion were the cavaliers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion. They were still basking in the joy of decimating all of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion's foot soldiers, and they completely failed to detect the Four Winds mercenary legion charging toward them from behind.

Only after hearing the sound of the pounding horse hooves did the cavaliers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion turn around to retaliate. However, the cavaliers of the Four Winds mercenary legion were charging forward with the momentum generated from galloping down the mountain, while the cavaliers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion were still yet to adopt a proper formation. Thus, even though the Heavenly Star cavaliers outnumbered those of the Four Winds mercenary legion, they were instantly broken up.

The Four Winds mercenary legion was like a sharp dagger that had sliced a gash right down the center of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion's cavaliers, splitting them up into two separate groups.

After that, the footsoldiers of the Four Winds mercenary legion also rushed onto the battlefield to engage the Heavenly Star mercenary legion's cavaliers in close-quarters combat once again. The cavaliers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion were already feeling rather weary from the battle that they had just endured. However, that didn't apply to the men of the Four Winds mercenary legion at all. They were only just entering this battlefield, and they were brimming with energy and vigor.

Luphen cast an incredulous gaze toward Talan, thinking that Talan had hid some of his men in the valley, waiting for this opportunity to unleash a decisive blow. If that were the case, then he would have no choice but to begrudgingly admit his admiration toward this opponent of his. It was extremely remarkable that he had been able to continue to bide his time even as all of his foot soldiers were decimated, only revealing these hidden mercenaries at the perfect opportunity.

However, judging from the grim look on Talan's face, it became clear to Luphen that these weren't mercenaries of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion. He then cast his gaze toward the northwest, and sure enough, the flag of the mercenary legion that had just arrived on this battlefield was different from that of Talan's mercenary legion, so they had to be another mercenary legion of the Effer Kingdom.

However, there wasn't any time for Luphen to ponder the situation any further. A barrage of all types of spells was raining down upon the cavaliers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion from the magicians on the mountain to the northwest, and those spells were accompanied by arrows as well.

The cavaliers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion had already been plunged into a state of chaos, and their woes were compounded even further by the oncoming spells and arrows. A string of fireballs exploded among them, and many of the cavaliers were sent flying off their horses. At the same time, there were spears of ice stabbing holes onto the suits of armor worn by the Heavenly Star cavaliers, following which arrows arrived to harvest their lives. There were also lightning spells that inflicted paralysis conditions onto the targets, and those spells sent many more Heavenly Star cavaliers flying off their horses, where they were stabbed to death by the spears of the waiting Four Winds foot soldiers.

Luphen was gnashing his teeth together tightly as he glowered at the magicians and archers attacking his men from their vantage point atop the mountain, and the triumphant look on his face had been completely wiped away.

Talan immediately withdrew from his battle against Luphen upon seeing this, charging into the fray to the east instead. There, the heavily armored foot soldiers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion were close to eradicating what little remained of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion's cavaliers.

Luphen paid no heed to what Talan was doing. Instead, he cast his gaze toward a mountain in the north, then pulled out a long horn that was strapped to his waist. He blew on the horn, and golden runes immediately began to surge over the surface of the instrument as a long and melodious note was produced.

Erwin was situated not very far away from Luphen, so he could see what Luphen was doing, and he was very perplexed, wondering what the significance of that horn was.

The horn was blown once again, and Erwin was still none the wiser about its purpose. Even Larwood and the others, who were busy tearing through the ranks of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion, couldn't help but turn their attention toward Luphen with bemused expressions.

Luphen blew on the horn three times in total, and each note was longer than the previous one.

Erwin's eyesight was quite good, and he could clearly see a triumphant smile appear on Luphen's face in the instant after he blew on his horn for the third time.

The rest of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion seemed to have also been instilled with a sense of renewed vigor upon hearing the sound of the horn. In particular, the Heavenly Star cavaliers in the northwest, who were being dominated by the Four Winds mercenary legion, suddenly seemed to have experienced a surge of confidence, and they were looking at the mercenaries of the Four Winds mercenary legion as if they were dead men.

Larwood's brows were tightly furrowed as he looked at the strange expressions on the faces of the Heavenly Star cavaliers, and his befuddlement was only exacerbated.

Chase had also noticed this, and he asked in a low voice, "Why do these Skycourt Kingdom pigs look like they think they have this battle in the bag?"

"I don't know." Kaiba was also looking at the Heavenly Star cavaliers around him with a wary expression. "In any case, we should all be careful. They're clearly up to something."

However, much to their surprise, the cavaliers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion didn't put up any firm resistance, and it was as if they were merely bluffing with their confident expressions.

While the cavaliers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion were being devoured by the Four Winds mercenary legion in the west, Talan was going on a furious rampage in the east. His long blade was being swung through the air with reckless abandon, harvesting the lives of at least one enemy mercenary with each sweep. Even the Heavenly Star foot soldiers who excelled in defense had grown very fearful of Talan's formidable blade, and thus, the surrounded cavaliers of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion were given some respite.

Meanwhile, Luphen seemed to be completely disinterested in what was happening on the battlefield. In fact, his gaze was focused elsewhere entirely, looking into the distant sky above the sea beyond the coastline.

Erwin's brows furrowed tightly upon seeing this, and he also cast his gaze in the same direction.

Initially, there was only a black shadow on the horizon, and it blocked out a few rays of the dim afternoon sunlight. The sky was already quite overcast to begin with, and it was as if the sun had been abducted by the dark clouds and was only being allowed to occasionally surface for fresh air.

The black shadow drew closer and closer, and it was already casting a shadow onto the surface of the sea down below. Erwin was kicking himself for not buying a pair of binoculars from Windmetal Fort. Thus, he had no choice but to cast a levitation spell onto himself, then flew toward the sea to examine what the approaching black shadow was.

After catching a clear glimpse of the approaching flying object, an astonished look appeared on Erwin's face as he exclaimed, "It's... It's an airship!"

Larwood and the others were also stunned to hear this, and they immediately turned toward the sea. The approaching flying object continued to draw closer to the battlefield, and it really was an airship!

Meanwhile, Luphen looked on at the approaching airship with his hands clasped behind his back, and the confident look on his face had become even more pronounced.

...

With the sea wind blowing behind it, it didn't take long for the airship to arrive in the sky above Haggardy.

The mayor of Haggardy, who was watching the unfolding battle inside the city, immediately looked up at the ironclad monster in the sky with an alarmed and horrified expression. Never did he think that the Skycourt Kingdom would deploy an airship just to attack such a small and insignificant city.

However, his shock and horror didn't last very long. All of a sudden, lights of all types of different colors began to flash from the Skycourt Kingdom airship, and in the blink of an eye, the sky above Haggardy was baptized by countless spells of different descriptions. The mayor was killed on the spot by the first wave of spells, having been crushed into a charred meat patty by a massive fireball.

The guards stationed on the city walls of Haggardy, of which there were more than 1,000, didn't fare much better, either. They tried to use their bows and arrows to attack the airship, but the airship was at far too high an altitude for their arrows to reach. Additionally, the black metal exterior of the airship was extremely resolute. Occasionally, an arrow or two would strike the surface of the airship, but the arrows weren't even able to strip off any paint from its metal exterior. The guards who were determined to bring down the airship with their bows and arrows were eventually all killed by the barrage of spells raining down from the sky, and only those who fled the scene early managed to survive by hiding in an underground bunker.

Erwin cast his gaze toward Larwood from afar, and both of them could see their own grim expression mirrored on each other's faces.