Chapter 1722 - 1722. Ice and Darkness

As the three dragons were tussling up there in the air, the allied forces crashed into the wall. The mobile fortress also advanced with the vanguard troops. The siege weapons on the fortress added to the damage of the wall while its rune tree's effect helped the vanguard troops stay alive.

While that happened, the fleet led by John also advanced. Before, the ships stayed at the periphery of the siege weapons range to avoid heavy damage to the ships. Now, they went for the full offense.

All ships advanced until their cannons could hit the wall and they fired. They had to suffer the defenders' retaliation but that was now of little concern. The crews used defensive skills and spells to protect the ships as the shells from the siege weapons rained on them.

A chilling breath hit the water and turned it into ice. Ships that happened to be around this frozen water lost their mobility and became sitting ducks for the siege weapons.

The breath came from zombie Zorvis. She took flight once the fleet advanced. Her breath only froze a tiny portion of the lake. A majority of the ships were still free. She was now casting a spell to freeze even more water.

A pitch-black beam struck her then. The beam interrupted her casting and caused her to stumble. The damage she suffered was little, though. Even after becoming a zombie, her defense was still insanely high. She turned to the one who had sent the black beam to her. It was a dragon as black as night.

The black dragon was Jygorth, Sangrod's country guardian. When Jack and Four Winds summoned their country guardians, Horatio did the same. Except he sent Jygorth to fight Zorvis, giving the allied fleet the chance to wreck the northern wall.

"Zorvis… Never expected to see you like this…," Jygorth uttered.

Zorvis didn't respond. She roared while casting a spell. Ten icy spiked balls were formed. These balls were flung in Jygorth's direction while she advanced. Her diamond skin glistened as the ice covering it thickened. These ice armor expanded and formed long and sharp spikes. She was as if wearing a suit full of ice spikes.

"Hmph! Let me release you from your suffering," Jygorth said. A sphere of darkness covered her body. He then shot forward.

This dark sphere was the opposite of Arther's Sphere of Aegis. It's called the Sphere of Svalinn. This dark sphere gave Jygorth excellent defense. It also boosted his strength and speed. Everyone touched by the sphere received dark-element damage.

Whips made of dark energy materialized in both his claws. His body twirled while he shot forward. All the icy spiked balls were smashed aside as they collided with his dark whips and dark sphere.

The two dragons, one black and one white, slammed into one another. The two's defenses held but several spikes on Zorvis' ice suit were broken. Under normal circumstances, Zorvis should have won if they were contesting on pure defense but Jygorth's dark sphere was empowered by mana manipulation.

The two dark whips on Jygorth's claws danced. They lashed at Zorvis' body as he moved circling her. Zorvis didn't receive any damage but each slash left a black mark on Zorvis' ice suit. These black marks had a decaying property. The steel-like ice on Zorvis slowly melted as more and more of the black marks appeared on her body.

Zorvis couldn't contend against Jygorth's speed. She cast a spell instead. Her spell conjured an ice sphere that spread outward from her. When Jygorth was hit by this ice sphere, his dark sphere was instantly frozen.

Jygorth was fine. His Sphere of Svalinn wasn't a second-rate skill. It was only the outer shell of the sphere that was frozen. He couldn't move, though. The frozen effect completely locked him in place.

While Jygorth's movement was stopped, Zorvis fired her divine ice breath. The powerful breath attack struck the frozen ball and pushed it into the lake below. Jygorth was shoved deep into the lake while the water where the breath passed through was frozen solid.

Several ships were in the area where the divine ice breath hit. They suffered massive damage and lost mobility when the water turned to ice.

"Bloody hell…! Hey, Jonathan! Ask your emperor to tell his country guardian to pull that zombie dragon away from here. Don't fight near our ships…!" John sent his father a message.

"Is that how you address your dad?!" Jonathan sent a complaining reply.

John sent instructions to all the ships to steer away from the dragons while still maintaining an attacking distance with the wall. With those dragons, the fleet couldn't concentrate on taking down the wall.

The ships that were stuck near Zorvis aimed their cannons up and fired at the ice dragon. The explosions chipped a few bits of Zorvis' ice suit but otherwise did very little damage. Zorvis cast a spell and thousands of ice spears fell from the sky, impaling the ships. Some of the smaller ships were destroyed by this attack.

When she was about to cast another spell, the ice directly below her cracked. A gigantic black drill shot through that crack and impaled Zorvis. Her hardened ice suit resisted the drill but she was pushed up into the air from the force. Many cracks appeared on her ice suit as the drill continued to spin.

She forcefully smacked the black drill from the side and managed to tear herself away from the drill. Half of her ice suit was torn as a result.

Following the black drill was a black ball shooting out of the water. When Zorvis freed herself from the drill, this black ball slammed into her, throwing her further up into the air. This black ball was Jygorth. His Sphere of Svalinn was still protecting him.

After successfully sending Zorvis away, Jygorth continued his assault up there, keeping Zorvis from coming back to the lake.

"Good! Now, let us return our focus on destroying that wall," John ordered.

"Boss, there is a strange fog behind us," John received a message from Will Corner.

John looked back. He was on the flagship's bridge but the radial screens on the bridge covered a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view around the ship. He saw the fog Will mentioned.

This fog wasn't there before the battle began. It didn't look natural. He observed the fog while searching for something within Hope's knowledge that could explain the fog's existence.

His brow suddenly creased.

"Aw, crap…," he cursed. He immediately sent commands to the fleet, telling them to get into a formation to prepare for an assault from their rear.