First, the sky.
The originally dark red clouds suddenly split open, and thousands of Fire-feathered Birds dove down like a torrential rain.
These creatures had the physique of vultures, their feathers were entirely composed of Burning rock, their wingspans exceeded three meters, and their sharp beaks could spit lava bombs.
They moved in swarms, without any formation to speak of, yet they formed an offensive that blotted out the sky with their sheer numbers.
Then, the ground.
From the sea of magma, countless bizarre Fire creatures surged out.
Finally, those hills that looked like rocks suddenly split open, revealing their molten cores, turning into massive catapults that hurled Burning boulders at the fleet.
"Fire! freedom fire!"
The Asgard warships fired in unison, their golden beams weaving a destructive web across the dark red firmament.
The Fire-feathered Birds exploded into Burning fragments within the beams, the lava creatures were torn apart by the cannon fire, and the Burning boulders were shattered in mid-air.
But the Fire creatures of Muspelheim were too numerous, so many that it was despair-inducing.
And they seemed to have absolutely no concept of fear, or rather, in this violent kingdom, the emotion of fear did not exist at all.
When those in front were blown to pieces, those behind trampled over the remains to continue the charge, as if death were merely a process of returning to the sea of magma.
A frigate was swarmed by too many Fire-feathered Birds, its shields suffering an overload and collapsing.
The Burning flock crashed into the cabin, and the screams of soldiers and sounds of explosions echoed from within.
The hull tilted, billowing black smoke as it plummeted toward the roiling sea of magma below.
"Hela!" Mavuika shouted.
"Understood!" Hela had already leapt over the ship's rail.
She summoned the black sword in mid-air, and the sword formation unfolded like a meat grinder, slicing hundreds of Fire-feathered Birds charging at the flagship into pieces.
She landed on the deck of another ship in distress, mjolnir sweeping across, thunder exploding, clearing all Fire creatures within a fifty-meter radius.
Mavuika also moved, wielding the sun-blaze thousand suns, leaping off the deck.
With a horizontal slash, the Fire on the blade transformed into a massive wave of flames, swallowing all the Fire creatures in the area ahead.
The armor of those lava lizards Melt in the wave of flames, the wings of the Fire birds were ignited by the Fire, and the fireball creatures exploded directly in the high heat, turning into ashes.
Devouring Fire with Fire!
Even as Fire creatures, who lived with Fire year-round, they could not withstand Mavuika's flames.
His movements were fluid, every swing of the sword carrying the power to purify everything, and no Fire creature could last a single move under his hand.
The two sisters were like two unstoppable torrents, sweeping through the horde of Fire creatures, and soon cleared away most of the offensive.
Just as the Asgard soldiers thought the crisis was over, a deafening roar resounded through heaven and earth, as if thunder had exploded right in their ears.
The sea of magma boiled again. This time, what surged out was no longer mere cannon fodder.
It was a dragon.
A true Fire dragon, over eighty meters long, with a wingspan that blotted out the sky.
Its scales were not the keratin of ordinary dragons, but living armor flowing with lava, and most uniquely, it had structures similar to thrusters behind its wings, spraying azure plasma fire pillars, granting it terrifying speed.
As soon as it appeared, it locked onto the largest target in the Asgard fleet—the flagship.
"Roar!"
The dragon's roar shattered several nearby volcanoes, the Impact causing three warships to shake violently.
The thrusters behind the dragon's wings erupted with blinding blue light, and it slammed toward the bow of the flagship like a meteor.
"Bring it on!" Hela's eyes ignited with intense fighting spirit.
A three-meter-long black sword instantly condensed beneath her feet as a stepping board, and she shot toward the dragon like an arrow released from a bow.
The dragon and Hela met in mid-air.
The Fire dragon roared and opened its massive mouth, attempting to swallow Hela in one bite, a stream of scorching Fire airflow spewing from its mouth, almost igniting the surrounding air.
Hela did not dodge or avoid, the dark green Death Divine Power condensing into solid armor around her body.
She gripped mjolnir with both hands, the hammer head beginning to rotate, accelerate, and expand during the charge!
"Shut... up!"
In the instant before the dragon's breath erupted, Hela smashed her hammer into the dragon's lower jaw.
"Boom!"
The head of mjolnir erupted with blinding thunder at the point of contact, the dragon's lower jaw scales shattered, lava-like blood splattered, and the dragon's breath that was about to form exploded uncontrollably in its throat.
"Awooo!" The dragon let out a painful roar, its entire head knocked backward by the explosion of its own breath.
But it did not fall; instead, it was incited into an even more violent ferocity.
The massive dragon claw tore through the air, grabbing at Hela.
Hela rolled nimbly in the air, the black sword beneath her feet changing direction like a skateboard, narrowly avoiding the claw strike.
The dragon claw grazed her shoulder armor, leaving three deep burns that exposed the bone—the flesh at the edges of the wound instantly carbonized, but the Death Divine Power immediately surged up, stopping the spread of the Fire.
"Pretty tough." Hela licked the blood from the corner of her mouth, her eyes Burning with even greater fighting spirit.
The dragon adjusted its posture, the thrusters behind its wings starting at full power; it no longer attempted long-range attacks, but instead intended to crush this tiny provocateur with pure speed and power.
The dragon's speed was as fast as lightning, every pounce creating a sonic boom cloud.
Hela, relying on her own exceptional combat skills and extraordinary mobility, wove through the siege of dragon claws, dragon tail, and dragon wings.
She no longer fought head-on, but instead looked for weaknesses: the dragon's eyes, the joints of the wing membranes, the roots of the thrusters—these relatively fragile parts.
The Fire dragon angrily swung its neck, its massive head slamming toward Hela.
The black sword beneath Hela's feet accelerated again, nimbly avoiding the collision, while she simultaneously raised mjolnir high, the Death Divine Power and thunder power within her exploding at full force, the energy of intertwined dark green and pitch black condensing at the tip of the hammer, forming a massive ball of thunder.
"Stay down!"
With an angry shout, mjolnir, carrying the power to destroy the world, smashed fiercely onto the Fire dragon's head!
"Boom!"
Thunder exploded, the massive Impact causing the Fire dragon to let out a painful wail, its body, which had been flying at high speed, instantly losing balance, falling straight from the sky like a kite with a broken string, and crashing heavily into the magma pool below.
The magma was sent splattering, forming a massive Mushroom cloud, and the scorching magma fell like a torrential rain, splashing onto the defensive runes of the warships, making a "sizzle, sizzle" sound.
The Fire dragon struggled to crawl up from the magma, its head dizzy and its eyes unfocused, clearly having been hit hard by that hammer blow.
But its vitality was extremely tenacious; it shook its head, opened its big mouth again, and sprayed a thick pillar of Fire toward Hela.
Hela did not give it a chance to catch its breath at all. A trace of coldness flashed in her eyes, and she brought her fingers together and lifted them upward.
A giant black sword, roughly the same size as the Fire dragon, rose from the magma, the width of the blade exceeding ten meters, entirely composed of solidified black death substance, with dark green runes flowing across its surface.
"Squelch!"
A teeth-grinding sound of penetration.
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