Chapter 3812: Written in Blood (Part 1) "No!" After having an arm severed, the fire rate and the power of Ruugat’s Tower Tier Mana Storm spell were halved, opening a clear path for the Dread Knights. "I refuse to fall like this! You are nothing but ants!" He aimed his remaining hand at the undead and channeled his power to the mana crystals studded across his surface for another Fountain of Death. With Ruugat’s chest now still, Lith swung Double Edge a third time. He thrusted the blade deep into the lost city, past the Earthly Vault, and released the Silverwing’s Annihilation coating the blade. At the same time, Lith also conjured a barrage of spells from the Firing Range and unleashed them through the blade. The concussive blasts drew Ruugat’s attention to the Engine, allowing the Dread Knights to reach the lost city unhindered. Each spear hit like a meteorite, injecting the spell imbued in their tips under Ruugat’s stone skin. The elves had used this method to lessen the strain on the Dread Knights and keep the explosions from slowing down the gallop of those who followed them. Each line of Dread Knights struck Ruugat’s massive left foot and immediately turned around to make way for the next, like waves crashing on a shore. The Adamant spears of the undead broke, but thanks to the power of the people of Zelex, their enchantments endured. The weapons self-repaired the moment they shattered, their fragments chasing after the retreating knights while the charge continued. The first blows merely dented the mass Adamant and solid stone that comprised Ruugat’s foot, but with each passing line of Dread Knight, the dents turned into craters. Then the craters opened into cracks that spread to the rest of the limb, going deeper and farther as the column of Knights hammered into the same weakened spot with surgical precision. Lost cities weren’t supposed to know fear or pain, but Ruugat had learned both from his previous defeat. The thought of being sealed again terrified him, and the sensation of his mighty body crumbling pained him. The cruel blade of the small lost city kept destroying Ruugat from the inside, while the small ants at his feet kept biting and injecting their venom. "I won’t fall! I refuse to fall!" The lost city sealed the wound in his chest, trapping Double Edge inside. A punch with his mace-ending arm made the Engine lose its grip on the blade and sent Lith flying. Ruugat’s left foot exploded with a boom of thunder. With one leg shorter, he had a hard time balancing himself, and the limp slowed him down. Yet Ruugat was far from defeated. ’I can still win.’ He thought. ’If I fix my foot before those galloping ants return, I can still win.’ The column of Dread Knights had run away and disappeared into the Warping Arrays that had transported them to the battlefield. They needed time to fix their shattered weapons and allow the elves to imbue them with new spells. Also, despite their stunning destructive power, the defensive abilities of a Dread Knight were unremarkable. If not for Lith drawing Ruugat’s attention, the Fountain of Death would have massacred them. With the surprise effect gone, the Dread Knights had to wait for their allies to create another diversion, or the next time they charged at the lost city, they would be lambs running to their slaughter. Ruugat roared in fear and fury, swinging wildly at the Engine before Lith could regain his footing. Dawn came to his rescue, throwing her colossal jousting lances at the lost city back after adding a tier three Light Mastery heat ray on their heel to propel them forward. Ruugat swatted the Lightpillar spells away with his mace-hand the moment they entered his sensory field. The foot soldiers and fake mages had shifted to a defensive formation to survive the prolonged Mana Storm. Without their cover fire, nothing interfered with the lost city’s mystical senses anymore. Ruugat recalled the power from the failed Fountain of Death and unleashed the Tower Tier Spell, Collapsed Sun, against Dawn. Collapsed Sun worked akin to a powerful Gravity Spell, but being comprised of pure mana, it was much easier to handle. Ruugat was no dimensional mage, but unlike Mogar’s elements, his own mana answered his every whim. The space around the Horseman distorted into a dull sphere as the gravitational pull increased by a thousand-fold and changed direction multiple times per second. Dawn tried to Spirit Blink to safety, but failed. Dimensional magic wasn’t sealed or compressed, yet the space around her was distorted, and with it the dimensional coordinates of her entry point, making it impossible for her to Blink. ’Son of a bitch!’ The Horseman’s bones broke, and her flesh tore under the protection of the Firstlight armor. ’Ruugat is afraid of the Dread Knights, and he knows that if something happens to me, the entire undead front will collapse!’ Sunrise’s crystal body cracked and healed nonstop, the enchantments of the mage tower fighting the effects of the lost city’s spell. Ruugat then released a second Tower Tier Spell, Cruel Star. The fire element shrouded the emerald beam with flames thousands of degrees hot, the light element gave the external layer substance, and the darkness element saturated both, but with completely different purposes. The darkness merged with the fire element to amplify its destructive power, and with the light element to solidify the external layer of the spell and create a containment field. The earth, air, and water elements sealed inside Cruel Star, in fact, formed an unstable but highly destructive Gravity Spell on their own. Earth and air manipulated the electromagnetic forces that generated the abnormal gravity, while water cooled them down just enough to keep them stable. The light and the darkness elements of the external layer respectively sealed the chaotic gravitational waves and suppressed their strength. "Not so fast, young man!" Inxialot, the King of Garlen’s Liches, and Breganoth, the Lich King of Jiera, raised their Silverwing’s Bastion in the path of the incoming Cruel Star. "I don’t know why, but I can’t allow you to do that!" The Liches of the seven-man unit looked at their right palms, where before the battle they had hastily written, "Defend the shiny one," to ensure they wouldn’t forget about their duty in the worst possible moment. Only Breganoth remembered the reason Dawn was so important. Or rather, so he believed. Right under "Defend the shiny one", he had also written, "Two loaves of bread, one big bottle of milk, and enough meat to feed Spot for a week". "I know why!" Breganoth roared in outrage. "She got my groceries!" The Bastion resisted the impact with the Cruel Star but shattered when the gravity field it contained collapsed on itself. The Liches’ Spirit Barriers crumbled as sandcastles next, and then it was their Davross’ equipment turn. The enchanted metal didn’t break, but twisted and deformed enough to kill those it was supposed to protect. If they could die, of course. ’I stand corrected. Most of the undead front will collapse.’ Dawn thought. "Thanks for the help. Allow me to return the favor." She spread her light aura to the Liches, boosting their regeneration speed to the point their bones reassembled at a speed visible to the naked eye.