As the distance between the mountain ranges narrowed, the Wind God Dragon's scouting speed gradually increased.
The third checkpoint, manned by over 350 personnel, was eerily silent.
Before long, the Wind God Dragon's entire body had crossed the line marking the maximum range of the cannons.
Puxian took a deep breath and shouted, "Fire!"
Boom! Boom! Boom! ...
Cannons roared in unison, and dense formations of black spherical shells flew towards the Wind God Dragon.
Most of the shells, propelled by their impact, pierced the outer and middle wind currents, swirling within the inner ones.
Upon colliding with the floating objects, the shells detonated in large numbers, with fiery explosions and black smoke continuously erupting.
Assailed by the explosions, the Wind God Dragon quickly adjusted the intensity of its inner wind currents, while simultaneously channeling newly fired shells into the middle layer.
"Target the shells! Engage the ballistas!"
Puxian issued the command.
Clang! Clang! Clang! ...
The ballistas mounted on the rotating bases swiftly turned to adjust their firing angles.
Swish! Swish! Swish! ...
Countless heavy bolts shot out like a torrential downpour.
Two large and small single metal gates, driven by the airflow, swung around to the front.
Whoosh~
The inner wind currents suddenly dispersed, transforming into updrafts that suspended the two gates in mid-air.
Clang! Clang! Clang! ...
A large number of heavy bolts struck the metal gates, snapping them in two and scattering them into the wind currents.
"The sharp tips of the heavy bolts can pierce the wind currents, but they can't penetrate the gates. We need to find a way."
Yudora said urgently.
"There's no need to worry about that."
Li Fan replied calmly.
"Huh?"
"No matter how skilled the Wind God Dragon is at using objects, it can't possibly block every heavy bolt with perfect precision. Moreover, the third checkpoint wall is circular, so there will definitely be angles from the sides to hit it."
Shortly after Li Fan finished explaining, a heavy bolt pierced through the wind current from the right, striking a shell and triggering a chain of detonations.
Stunmed by the bombardment, the Wind God Dragon's control over its airflow suddenly weakened. The two gates slammed heavily onto the ground, and Puxian seized the opportunity to command the second round of cannon fire.
As a large number of shells surged into the area surrounding its body, the two gates floated up from the ground, carried by the wind.
Boom! Boom! Boom! ...
With frequent explosions, the assault was quickly repelled.
Under the cover of the two gates, the Wind God Dragon continued to advance towards the third checkpoint.
"Prepare the Dragonator!"
Puxian, eyes fixed on the rock markers, shouted.
Clatter! Clatter! ...
From four massive black holes in the mountain walls, the Dragonator heads, with their prismatic serrated tips, rotated out.
Click! After the tips were fully exposed, the Dragonators stopped extending.
"Dragonators are ready!"
The engineering troops at the far left end of the wall responded loudly.
"Good! Come on, Wind God Dragon, get closer..."
Puxian muttered to himself, his demeanor one of eager anticipation.
The Wind God Dragon's eyes flickered towards the protruding Dragonator heads on the rock walls on either side.
Positioned at this height, they were undoubtedly aimed at it.
The narrow mountain pass offered no possibility of detouring. If the Wind God Dragon wanted to pass, it could only continue forward.
"The old, cracked scars on its surface must have been caused by the Dragonator here."
Yudora concluded, comparing the injured areas with the Dragonator deployment positions.
"It stopped, meow! Uh... it's moving again."
Dilo saw the Wind God Dragon hover in the air and thought there might be a turn of events, but before she could finish speaking, it resumed its advance.
"Dragonator! ... Attack!"
Puxian seized the moment and shouted the command.
Four members of the engineering corps, gripping the control levers with both hands, pulled them backward simultaneously.
Clatter! Hum! Thrust! ...
The four Dragonators shot forward with rapid rotation. The moment they made contact, they easily pierced the blue carapace and embedded themselves in the flesh.
Blood dripped continuously onto the swirling currents from the prismatic serrations.
The Wind God Dragon's body shuddered, its hovering halted, as if frozen in mid-air.
All objects floating around it crashed to the ground.
"Ranged units, full assault!"
Puxian issued the order.
At this moment, all reachable ranged attack methods were concentrated.
Countless fireballs, sparks, blood spatters, and dents appeared on the Wind God Dragon's body.
Whoosh~
A gust of wind surged.
The Dragonator heads, retrieved from the mountain, rose into the air and smashed into a spear shaft with a swirling motion.
Crack!
The spear shaft immediately broke into two, and the Wind God Dragon's right foreclaw detached and fell to the ground. Another gust of wind erupted.
The Dragonator head, just separated from the spear shaft, along with the gates used for defense, slowly floated up.
Crack! Crack! ...
With crisp snapping sounds, the Wind God Dragon quickly broke free from the Dragonator's restraint.
Roar!
Opening its mouth, it roared at the checkpoint and continued to probe forward.
"Raise the cannons to increase firing elevation! Ground troops, prepare for combat!"
As Puxian spoke, he walked to the edge of the wall and drew the great katana from his back.
Click! Click! ...
With a series of metallic armor sounds, the village defense forces and the hunter teams that had not evacuated swarmed to the edge of the wall.
"Charge!"
At Puxian's cry, countless blue silk threads were flung from the top of the wall, and the ground troops swung down.
"Dilo, hold on tight."
Li Fan shouted.
"No problem, meow!"
After Dilo's assurance, the team swung down with the silk threads.
Li Fan noticed that many people landed too close to the Wind God Dragon, either being blown away or caught by the airflow and swept into the swirling currents.
He chose a landing spot further away.
Upon landing, without a moment's pause, he ran and observed upwards.
Seeing that the objects spinning around its body formed a barrier that hindered close-quarters combat, Li Fan shouted, "Yudora! The dorsal wind sacs control the outer wind currents! We need to find a way to destroy them! I'll cover you!"
"Okay! Let's try together!"
Yudora said, taking the lead and running towards the howling wind.
"This gun and shield combo is so heavy, I wonder if it'll blow me away..."
Li Fan muttered as he followed closely behind.
The two exchanged glances and simultaneously released their Wirebugs, pulling backward.
Swish! Swish!
As the silk threads detached, they leaped into the swirling currents.
Whoosh~
Li Fan was lifted by the wind and began to circle the Wind God Dragon.
"I can't block everything with my greatsword. For anything I can't handle, I'll need your help."
Yudora, spinning close to his back, informed him and then released a silk thread to bind them together.
"No problem."
Li Fan replied, nodding as he raised his shield.
"Wuu... wuu..."
"What's that sound?"
Yudora heard a strange noise.
"Uh... it might be Dilo!"
Li Fan quickly leaned forward.
"Whoosh~ Whoosh~ I almost got crushed, meow."
Dilo, crawling out from between their backs, panted heavily.
"Get inside the shield. I dare say there's no safer place around."
Li Fan advised.
"I'm coming, meow."
Dilo leaped and clung to Li Fan's right arm.
Bringing the Iron Tower Greatshield close to his body, Li Fan pulled a lever on the inside of the shield.
Click! A horizontal observation port appeared.
"What is this thing, meow?"
Dilo exclaimed in surprise.
"It's for seeing what's happening outside. Otherwise, just defending with the shield is too dangerous."
This was a serious flaw Li Fan discovered when actually using the full-body greatshield.
While defense was improved, and the ability to turtle in place was gained, he couldn't see anything when raising the shield due to the lack of a third-person perspective in the game.
To observe the situation, he had to stick his head out, a dangerous move that clearly contradicted the purpose of raising the shield for defense.
Therefore, he modified it with an observation port during custom crafting.
Clang! Clatter! Ding! ...
Wooden boxes, half-broken heavy bolts, large tree branches, rocks of various sizes...
The spinning objects struck the shield, but Li Fan felt nothing.
When the wind direction changed, Yudora could also use her Dragon-Slaying Greatsword in a horizontal defensive stance to ward off most of the impacts.
Gradually adapting, the team proceeded to the next step. Dilo climbed onto Li Fan's neck, grabbed the four corners of a large membrane, and unfurled it against the wind.
"Leave the direction control to me, meow!"
Whoosh~
The membrane instantly inflated, and the team swung rapidly in the airflow.
Dilo exerted all her strength, gritting her teeth as she tried to control the direction, and soon stabilized.
However, the team then began to descend, only to be lifted again by the airflow.
"The wind direction has changed, and it seems... faster!"
Yudora said warily, spotting the black shells spinning towards them and shouting, "Change position!"
The two turned their bodies in unison with great understanding.
Boom! A shell struck the shield and exploded, sending the team flying a short distance, but they were quickly caught by the airflow and began to circle again.
"It's not the wind direction that changed; we've fallen into the middle layer of the wind currents."
Li Fan said, looking at the rapidly decreasing distance to the Wind God Dragon below, and concluded.
"I can break through the inner currents with my Wirebug."
Yudora said confidently, looking at the swirling winds below.
"Don't rush. We need to wait a little longer. As long as we can delay until the Wind God Dragon makes its move, all the wind currents will disappear."
Li Fan warned, and another shell struck the shield. A puff of black smoke emerged from the observation port, and he quickly waved it away.
On the ground, the village defense forces and hunter teams were still locked in a desperate struggle.
Unfortunately, the wind current barrier was too strong. Even with the cover of others, once they broke through into it, they were quickly knocked down by the constantly swirling objects inside.
"Hold on, meow!"
"Just a little longer, meow!"
"There's an injured person here, meow! Ah! I'm flying!"
...
Dozens of flatbed carts from the Cat Rescue Team shuttled back and forth between the battlefield and the passage below the checkpoint, but they were still insufficient for the rapidly increasing number of casualties.
Seeing this, Puxian, ignoring the village guards' attempts to stop him, charged directly at the Wind God Dragon.
The great katana named "Treasure Blade" in his hand absorbed all the surrounding airflow, coiling around the blade, rendering Puxian completely unaffected by the currents.
However, as the airflow filled the blade to its energy limit, Puxian's forward momentum began to falter.
Dodging the attacking Dragonator heads with a rolling dive, Puxian finally gained an opportunity to face the Wind God Dragon directly as it hung suspended.
"This is the legacy of Fire Village! Take it!"
Puxian stomped his foot, gripped the hilt with both hands, and swung the blade straight down.
Whoosh! A massive gust of wind, like a blade, struck the Wind God Dragon's head.
Puff! Several streams of blood flowed from within its head carapace.
As the wind currents dissipated, the Wind God Dragon's body spun rapidly, its head rising as numerous blue-green currents converged towards its forelimbs.
Li Fan, descending, saw that the dorsal wind sacs, which had been hanging downwards, were now exposed as the body flipped. "Now's our chance!" he announced.
"Leave it to me!"
Yudora, her gaze fixed on the dorsal wind sacs, retracted the silk threads binding them and pulled upwards.
The two separated, one above and one below.
As Yudora reached her highest point, she raised her Dragon-Slaying Greatsword behind her and began to charge.
Boom! Boom!
The Wind God Dragon's two forelimbs slammed into the ground, embedding deeply.
Crack! Crack! ...
Numerous spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surrounding ground, and airflow continuously gushed out from the fissures.
Seeing the earth peeling away and rising, Puxian turned and shouted, "Retreat! Everyone retreat!..."
Boom!
The blue-green currents exploded from within the ground, blowing everything in the mountain pass into the air.
"Hiyah!"
At this moment, Yudora, descending against the wind, unleashed her fully charged slash. The immense impact allowed her to disregard the raging wind.
Squelch!
The gel-like wind sac was cut into two by the Dragon-Slaying Greatsword.
With several strong currents dissipating, the wind sac rapidly deflated.
The Wind God Dragon seemed to lose its control over hovering, completely unable to maintain balance in the updraft.
Yudora, barely standing, raised her sword and slashed at the remaining wind sac again. The gel-like outer layer of the wind sac was incredibly elastic when struck by the surging airflow.
Yudora's direct slash was deflected, forcing her to quickly use a partial charge to deliver a sword strike.
Pfft! The last wind sac on its back was finally torn open, and Yudora's suspended heart finally sank.
Seeing that the outer wind currents had completely disappeared, Yudora let out a sigh of relief.
However, as she looked down, she saw the Wind God Dragon's eye glance towards its back.
"What are you looking at? I'm the one who cut it."
Yudora said, then began searching for weak points on its body carapace where it had been injured.
"Run quickly!"
At this moment, Li Fan's voice echoed from above.
Yudora then noticed that as ground objects were continuously blown away, five Dragonator heads were spinning around them.
"Uh... I don't think I can escape, but the Wind God Dragon wouldn't attack me..."
Whoosh~
As she muttered, a spinning Dragonator head plummeted towards her.
Clang! Yudora dropped her Dragon-Slaying Greatsword and dodged with a dive.
The rapidly spinning inner currents were right behind her. Yudora desperately grabbed the edge of the carapace with both hands, preventing herself from being swept in.
This was because the inner currents were not only incredibly fast but also contained countless shells and four Dragonator heads.
Once caught in them, the probability of death was high.
Whoosh! Heaven and earth instantly inverted, and Yudora suddenly fell in the opposite direction.
The strange sensation was as if she were falling towards the sky.
Thump! Yudora landed on the ground.
The Wind God Dragon's spine floated above her head.
"Did it... let me go?"
Yudora couldn't believe it.
Whoosh~ The Wind God Dragon flipped rapidly in mid-air, its head and tail connected.
Seeing all the currents converging towards the tail wind sac, Yudora, looking up, surmised, "Is it about to perform the tail slam attack that Li Fan mentioned?"