"Draven, hand over all your units to me."
Ethan’s voice was calm, almost casual, but it carried a weight that made everyone around him tense.
Draven froze for a second, caught off guard. Then he nodded quickly. "Yes, sir..."
In the blink of an eye, Draven transferred every single one of his troops to Ethan.
At the same time, Ethan turned his gaze toward Darek, who was still visibly shaken, his face pale with disbelief. Ethan’s tone remained even, almost indifferent. "You wanna go freestyle, or do we move together?"
Pirate King Darek flinched, snapping out of his daze. He stared at Ethan for a long moment, then nodded cautiously. "Let’s move together, my lord. First, we break through that Arcane Barrier on the fortress. Then we keep hammering them from range—wear them down slowly."
Ethan didn’t waste time. He gave a small nod, then looked over at Cicero. "Cicero—go."
With a thunderous roar, Cicero launched into the sky. In an instant, he transformed into a colossal, sky-darkening dragon—an epic-tier beast stretching miles across. His entire body radiated a terrifying magical aura as he surged toward the Stellamaris Kingdom’s defensive stronghold—Coral Fortress.
The Arcane Barrier flared to life, absorbing Cicero’s impact. The collision unleashed a deafening explosion that shook the heavens and split the earth. The ground trembled violently, as if the entire world was quaking under the force.
At that moment, a status window popped up in front of Ethan, displaying the Arcane Barrier’s durability.
Arcane Barrier – Level 1
Durability: 200,000,000
Auto-regenerates 700 durability per second when magic energy is sufficient.
Durability, in this context, was basically the fortress’s health bar.
There were four known ways to break through an Arcane Barrier.
First: magical disruption. Using magic to interfere with the barrier’s structure, unraveling it from the inside out.
Second: overwhelming force.
Power, after all, wasn’t just about raw numbers—it had tiers. A Crimson Ultimate hero and an Orange Legendary hero might both be powerful, but they existed on completely different levels. The same applied to barriers. If an attack’s power level exceeded the barrier’s maximum threshold, it would collapse instantly—ignoring durability altogether.
Third: brute force. Just chip away at the durability until it hits zero.
Once the durability hit zero, the Arcane Barrier would vanish automatically.
But here’s the kicker—even the lowest-tier fortress, basic Coral Fortress, had a ridiculous 200 million durability.
What did that mean in practice?
Unless you had a massive army focusing fire all at once, even a Crimson Ultimate hero would struggle to bring it down quickly.
Take Cicero’s attack just now—it only shaved off about 200,000 durability.
To bring the whole thing down? You’d need to hit it at least 400 or 500 more times.
And that’s assuming the fortress just stood there and let you wail on it—without factoring in the auto-regeneration.
But in a real battle? No way in hell they’d just sit there and take it.
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
Suddenly, from deep within Coral Fortress, countless beams of wild, chaotic magical energy erupted—blasting straight at Cicero!
The sky exploded in a storm of shockwaves. A massive mushroom cloud burst into existence, expanding outward at terrifying speed.
Inside the storm, razor-sharp micro-hurricanes spun like blades, slicing through the air with a high-pitched screech that made everyone’s ears ring.
The scene was pure chaos—violent, overwhelming, and terrifying.
Ethan narrowed his eyes slightly, watching the devastation unfold.
"Arcane Cannon," he muttered.
The Arcane Cannon on a Fortress was basically the next-level version of the magic defense towers you’d find on a Castle.
In other words—super long-range, high-powered magical artillery.
And the damage these things could dish out? Absolutely insane.
Wherever they fired, they left nothing but destruction in their wake. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say they could level entire landscapes—hell, even the sky didn’t feel safe when they were firing.
Even on a basic Fortress, the Arcane Cannons packed a punch equivalent to Tier 2 magic spells. Sure, a single blast might not seem like much on paper, but the real problem? Numbers.
A standard Fortress didn’t just have a few of these things—it had them by the hundreds. Some even had over a thousand.
Now think about that for a second.
Getting hit by hundreds of Tier 2 spells at once? Even Legendary Units would drop like flies. No chance of survival. It was a death sentence.
And if, by some miracle, a Mythic Unit—those rare Tier 14 monsters—got caught in that barrage? Even they’d be screaming for mercy.
He didn’t even flinch.
Simple. Magic Immunity.
That’s right—Cicero was completely immune to magic.
And the truth was, almost every single weapon or defense system in a Fortress was powered by magic. Magic energy, magic weapons, enchanted artillery—you name it.
Which meant Cicero was their worst nightmare.
No exaggeration—monsters like Cicero and Seraphina, both epic-tier beings with Magic Immunity, were the bane of every mage, every magic-based weapon, every Fortress defense system. They were walking disasters for anything that relied on spellcraft.
With a single earth-shaking roar, Cicero shattered the massive mushroom cloud that had engulfed him.
He soared higher, wings slicing through the sky like blades of divine judgment.
And somehow... he was completely unharmed.
Everyone watching was stunned into silence.
"H-How... how is that possible?! He’s totally fine..."
On the walls of Coral Fortress, a Stellamaris Kingdom hero stood frozen, his whole body trembling. His voice cracked with fear as he stared at the sky in disbelief.
Then, slowly, his expression twisted into one of pure despair.
"Magic Immunity... He’s got Magic Immunity..."
"Damn it... How the hell are we supposed to fight that..."
Elsewhere, the Queen of Stellamaris clenched her jaw so tightly her silver teeth nearly cracked. Her fingers were curled into fists, knuckles white with tension.
Coral Fortress was supposed to be their last line of defense—their trump card.
Now they were up against a Crimson Ultimate hero.
And not just any Crimson Ultimate—one with Magic Immunity.
Completely, utterly hopeless.
Why? Why did it have to be ...
"Are you two just gonna stand there and watch me break this Arcane Barrier by myself?" Ethan’s voice cut through the tension like a blade, sharp and cold. He shot a glance at Darek and Seyric, who were still frozen in place, stunned by what they’d just witnessed.
The moment he spoke, both of them jolted like they’d been electrocuted.
"R-Right! Of course! We’re on it!"
"Everyone, follow my lead—attack!"
"Attack! Attack! Attack!"
The battlefield erupted into motion.
With a single command from Pirate King Darek, the battlefield erupted into chaos.
His three unit heroes, along with Seyric’s two, immediately led their massive armies—hundreds of thousands strong—charging toward Coral Fortress. Their target: the outermost layer of defense, the Arcane Barrier.
And just like that, the war had officially begun.
Low-tier units were the first to fall, dying in droves under the relentless barrage of the Arcane Cannons. The sky lit up with magical fire, and the ground was painted with blood and ash.
Higher-tier units and unit heroes, however, began to show their worth. Each one unleashed their unique abilities, weaving through the storm of destruction, dodging the worst of the blasts. Their efforts helped reduce casualties—but only just.
Even so, the pirate coalition’s forces were visibly thinning by the second.
Because every single volley from those Arcane Cannons was devastating. On average, each round could wipe out four or five Tier 11 or Tier 12 Royal Units—or even take down a Tier 13 Legendary Unit outright.
And if that kind of firepower hit lower-tier troops?
It was a massacre. Pure annihilation. They didn’t stand a chance.
It was a brutal reminder of just how terrifying the Fortress’s Arcane Cannons really were—each one a weapon of mass destruction.
Fortunately, the Arcane Cannons couldn’t fire continuously. They had a cooldown.
Roughly thirty minutes between volleys.
And thirty minutes? That was more than enough time for the pirate coalition to make serious progress.
Wave after wave of attacks slammed into the Arcane Barrier, shaking the very air with each impact. The barrier’s durability was dropping fast—visibly, tangibly.
Every minute, it was losing hundreds of thousands—sometimes over a million—points of durability.
At this rate, they wouldn’t even need the full thirty minutes. The barrier would collapse long before that.
"Your Majesty! The Arcane Barrier won’t hold much longer!"
On the walls of Coral Fortress, a Stellamaris Kingdom hero shouted grimly, his voice tight with urgency.
The Queen of Stellamaris stood still, her face unreadable. But inside, her heart sank with quiet despair. After a long pause, she finally spoke. ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novel·fire.net
"If we lose... you should surrender."
"Your Majesty!" the hero snapped, his voice rising with fury. "That’s an insult to us all! Have you forgotten the oath we swore? We pledged our lives to Stellamaris Kingdom. We vowed to live and die with you!"
"We will never betray you!"
One by one, the unit heroes of Stellamaris dropped to their knees, fists clenched over their hearts, swearing their loyalty once more.
The air grew heavy with solemn resolve.