Within a few breaths' time, the large magical formations once again burst with brilliance, aside from the regular low-lethality barrages created by the weaker magical formations.
"Here it comes! Dodge!" Alexstrasza roared loudly.
Dragons were powerful, but their greatest strength wasn't in their ranged attacks. Draconic magic rarely harmed enemies from hundreds of meters away, and dragon breath had a short range of just a few dozen meters.
The dragons' true strength lay in their unparalleled close combat abilities. In melee, few could stand against them.
However, even with the support of Elune's chosen priestess, this distance of nearly a kilometer still spelled a death zone for dragons.
Yet, when the massive magical formation at the top of Karazhan, with a diameter of over fifty meters, emitted a deafening roar and unleashed the most powerful arcane barrage that symbolized the most ferocious strike of Karazhan, the Red Dragon Queen knew that the traitor Aegwynn had mentioned was real.
Beams of different-colored light pierced through the dragon horde like forks, but they barely managed to shed a few dragon scales, let alone inflict any real damage.
"How terrifying! This kind of attack!"
"Uh, it just looks scary."
The dragons whispered to each other while maintaining their high-speed charge.
Not just the ones below, but the Red Dragon Queen was also muttering, "Korialstrasz, what do you think?"
Korialstrasz, a name that might be unfamiliar to most, became more widely known in later years as Krasus when he assumed a human form. At this point, he was merely a loyal dragon.
Korialstrasz gazed at the magnificent yet useless magical barrage for a full three seconds, "A genius is controlling Karazhan's magical defense system. If it's not some kind of specially crafted magical puppet, then this person's power must be astonishing."
At that moment, Aegwynn brought up the wrong topic, and a mage's voice transmitted, "Alexstrasza, what were you saying just now?"
"No...I just had an itch in my throat and roared to call you," the Red Dragon Queen's face turned red. Well, her face was already red, so it wasn't noticeable.
Under Duke's secret control, Karazhan's defense system turned into the most dazzling fireworks display. The strongest firepower was always aimed where it would definitely miss, while only the weaker magical formations that couldn't hurt dragons were fired at the dragon horde more seriously.
The Red Dragon Queen felt like she was being toyed with, and she couldn't tell if it was intentional.
As the leader of the red dragons, being subjected to the most powerful firepower was expected in battle. Moreover, the Red Dragon Queen's colossal body appeared to be the easiest target.
However, the opponent kept teasing Alexstrasza. With dozens of the most powerful magical attacks - be it arced, delayed explosions, or direct hits - the Red Dragon Queen changed her flight path seven times in a mere three seconds, only to find herself driven into a dead end.
When she prepared to activate her magical defense formation to take a heavy hit, the enemy tossed a harmless low-concentration arcane bomb at her.
It felt like being hit with a paintball in a simulated aerial battle, indicating that if it were real, she could have been shot down. Unfortunately, it was just a mock fight.
Feeling humiliated, the Red Dragon Queen was utterly miserable.
A kilometer was nothing to dragons. If they hadn't been cautious and maintained irregular evasive maneuvers, they would have arrived in no time.
Clearly, they had overestimated the situation.
In summary, except for the taunted Red Dragon Queen, 99.99% of the dragons successfully crossed the airspace that should have been a death zone.
Sargeras, no matter how foolish, realized that he had been played.
In this era, magical defense systems usually consisted of fixed firing routes forming a barrage, which were then further subdivided into air defense zones by the apprentices or controllers below. But Sargeras overlooked one thing - he had no lower-level officers or apprentices to help him process the interception system with independent intelligence. He originally intended to use demons, but the entire Mage Tower was designed according to human standards, such as the control rooms, which were too small for larger demons to enter.
This became the weak point.
"Damn it! Who did this!?" Sargeras cursed, but of course, he couldn't let these giant lizards run rampant into Karazhan.
Inside Karazhan was the pool of magical power that supported the entire Dark Portal. If these giant lizards broke in and destroyed the pool, his plan to 'corrupt Azeroth through the Dark Portal and further break the spatial barrier' would fail completely.
"Kill them!"
Accompanied by Sargeras' roar, the vertical pupils of the dragons reflected the swirling portals surrounding Karazhan.
They could even see that on the other side of those chaotic and evil purple whirlpools was a desolate and silent world, utterly destroyed. The scorched earth, burned by hellfire and devoid of any life, darkly filled every corner of the vision on the other side of the portal.
Now, stepping on that land of death, huge demons with long horns and massive bat wings emerged from the portals.
However, the dragons' movement speed was faster than the demons could have imagined. In the blink of an eye, the dragons rapidly grew larger in the demons' field of vision.
From tiny black dots on the horizon to the point where every scale on their menacing dragon heads was clearly visible, it took only a few blinks.
It seemed like a repeat of the battle between the various dragon flights and the Burning Legion thousands of years ago.
Thunderous roars once again echoed across the land.
But there was a clear difference from that time - for the first time, the demon army was at a disadvantage. A large number of demons couldn't pass through the portal in time and were blocked by the oncoming dragon breath, completely unable to take advantage of their numbers.
A large group of burly half-dragon people, at least three times the height of an average person, leaped off the backs of the dragons, brandishing double-bladed weapons over thirty feet long, slicing through the demons' bodies.
Through the transmitted mirror image, Sargeras was almost driven mad with rage.
He had never fought such a frustrating battle.
On a nearby peak, Aegwynn pursed her lips, "It's not enough, still not enough!"
"What do you mean?" asked the Night Elf priestess, still casting her spells.
"Sargeras has tapped into the energy of the pool of magical power in Karazhan, forcibly opening temporary portals to transport some of the Burning Legion's demons here. But if this continues, it will be endless. The losses of the dragons will keep increasing. The problem is that the magical power of Karazhan is enough for Sargeras to hold out for a long time..."
"Is there any solution?"
"We can't do anything on our end. Unless..."