Chapter 486 - 389: Birth of the "Heart of the Giant Beast" and the "Green Ghost
Chapter 486: Chapter 389: Birth of the "Heart of the Giant Beast" and the "Green Ghost
Raylo didn’t go to rest.
He stood on the high ground, quietly observing the distant Mire Lake.
In the center of the lake, just as the intelligence had suggested, enormous bubbles constantly rose to the surface, as if it were a cauldron at a rolling boil.
Each time a bubble burst, it sent out a ring of murky ripples.
On the West Shore of the lake, tens of thousands of Lizardfolk were prostrated on the ground, worshipping the center of the lake with fanatical devotion.
Their movements were perfectly synchronized as they chanted under their breath.
"Sir."
Ed handed him a grilled steak and a flask of fresh water.
"You haven’t slept all night."
Raylo took them, first taking a sip of water from the flask.
Time passed slowly in the anxious wait.
As the Sun reached its zenith and the Knights were halfway through their lunch, a large black dot appeared on the western horizon, rapidly approaching.
The black dot grew larger and larger, casting a shadow like a dark cloud that enveloped the shore where the Lizardfolk were.
"Dragon!"
A sharp-eyed Griffin Knight cried out in alarm.
A commotion instantly erupted in the camp. Knights, who had been in the middle of their meal, scrambled for their Weapons and gazed warily at the sky.
It was a Giant Dragon of astonishing size.
Its body was over three hundred meters long, covered entirely in swamp-like, dark green scales. Each beat of its enormous membranous wings stirred up a gale.
The Dragon Mighty it exuded caused some of the Knights’ mounts to start neighing restlessly.
"It’s a Green Dragon..."
Raylo narrowed his eyes.
And on the Green Dragon’s broad back, a figure stood.
It was also a Lizardman, but he was much taller than his kin. He wore a suit of Armor polished from the bones of some kind of Giant Beast, and in his hand, he held a massive Bone Staff wreathed in a dark green halo of light.
"Good heavens..."
The roasted meat fell from the hands of a veteran Viscount from the Northern Territory, and his face turned grim.
"It’s the ’Green Ghost’! The Commander-in-Chief of the Lizardfolk, Cashmo."
"The Green Ghost?"
The young general next to him asked, confused.
"A true madman."
The Viscount’s voice was dry.
"He made a name for himself over a century ago. A Domain Level Peak expert, rumored to have one foot across the threshold of the Calamity-level. The number of Northern Territory Pioneer Knights who have died by his hand numbers eight thousand, if not ten thousand."
At the mention of his name, the faces of all the generals and Lords who knew of his fearsome reputation darkened.
Under the Green Dragon’s shadow, two new Lizardman Battle Groups advanced slowly.
The Green Dragon circled once above the Lizardman Battle Groups, let out a deafening roar, and then slowly landed by the lake.
Cashmo leaped down from the dragon’s back, raising the Bone Staff in his hand high.
With his arrival, the two previously disorganized Lizardman Battle Groups seemed to find their backbone, quickly falling into orderly ranks.
The two newly arrived Lizardman Battle Groups joined the ranks as even more Lizardfolk swarmed from all corners of the swamp, merging into the main army.
In just a few short moments, the number of Lizardfolk had doubled again.
Looking from afar, the entire West Shore was a sea of bobbing green heads and waving Bone Spears, their numbers already exceeding fifty thousand.
The sheer, overwhelming number of Lizardfolk put immense pressure on the Knights positioned on the high ground.
"Have all the Lizardfolk in the entire Jade Swamp gathered here?!"
A Lord couldn’t help but exclaim.
Aiden Duke still stood there, his tall body like a mountain, his face showing no trace of emotion.
Just then, the entire earth suddenly shook violently!
"RUMBLE!"
A deep, muffled, enormous sound came not from the sky, but from underground, from the depths of the Mire Lake!
Everyone’s gaze was instantly drawn to it.
In the center of the lake, right where the bubbles had been rising, the surface of the water suddenly bulged upward, forming a massive dome of water over a hundred meters in diameter.
The next second, like a volcanic eruption, mud and murky lake water shot into the sky, reaching a height of several hundred meters!
The mud was thrown skyward, creating a terrifying tidal wave of muck.
The great bubble burst with a roar!
What burst out was not muddy water, but plumes of black mist as thick as ink.
The black mist carried a nauseating, fishy stench and a powerfully corrosive quality. The moment it appeared, it began to expand at a frantic, visible pace.
Following that, one after another, bizarre bubbles the size of houses surged up from the depths of the lake.
"POP!"
One after another, the bubbles burst.
The bursting bubbles transformed into an impossibly dense black mist that writhed and expanded rapidly.
Hundreds, then thousands of bubbles burst in quick succession.
In just a few breaths, the black mist had swallowed the entire lake surface and continued to spread outwards.
Visibility within the swamp dropped sharply.
The Lizardfolk army, which had been clearly visible just moments ago, was quickly swallowed by the black mist, leaving only faint, blurry silhouettes.
Sunlight could not penetrate this strange mist, and the camp on the high ground seemed to have entered an early dusk.