Chapter 52: Summoning in Front of the Formation (5)

It was a giant raptor creature with the body of a giant eagle, three meters long and with a wingspan of five meters. Strangely, it had a pair of antlers like those of a stag on its head.
Upon seeing this Horned Eagle Beast, everyone exclaimed in shock.
Even Prince Second spoke up, “What a magnificent magical beast!”
Donald’s gaze was as if it were looking at a rare treasure.
Seeing his cousin’s expression, Ferdinand clearly shared the same idea and said, “Duri, you seem to have high hopes for this Mage Merlinna! But from what I’ve heard, this young mage is very difficult to recruit. He has no lack of wealth or strength, and noble status is within easy reach. You no longer have any significant advantages!”
Duri wasn’t discouraged at all. With a light smile, he said,
“As long as such talent serves the kingdom, it doesn’t matter which faction he joins in the future!”
Seeing his cousin had already taken such a stance, it would seem stingy to say more. Ferdinand nodded in agreement. Yet, he still had some thoughts about Donald and hadn’t given up competing with his cousin Duri.
As a second-tier unit of the Night Elves, the Horned Eagle Beast is a highly intelligent magical beast that can communicate with the nature-loving elves and become their companion creatures. The elves are relatively light in build, making them perfect for riding these lightweight flying creatures. Donald himself was slender, weighing only 70% of what a strong man of the same height would weigh. Although his strength had improved since becoming a Demon Hunter, the Horned Eagle Beast could still carry him for short-distance, high-speed flights with ease.
In the game’s setting, swarms of Horned Eagle Beasts possess extremely high aerial attack power, allowing them to effectively counter the Orcs’ tamed wyverns, the Humans’ griffins, and the Undead’s ultimate unit, the Frost Bone Dragon.
The only drawback is that Horned Eagle Beasts are only suitable for attacking aerial units; attacking ground units makes them easily shot down by enemies. Although the Horned Eagle Beasts manifested from the Book of Truth differ from those in the game, their weakness in air combat remains. However, Donald only needed a temporary mount, and since second-tier Horned Eagle Beasts are fast and consume little energy, this drawback no longer mattered.
This was also why Donald dared to go down into the city to fight. There were many flying units and creatures in the Book of Truth that could carry people, and with teleportation as a backup, even if surrounded by an Orc army, he could escape the battlefield instantly.

This was equivalent to giving him combat merits for free—how could Donald refuse?
Amidst the astonished gazes of the humans, Donald swiftly mounted the horned eagle beast. With a clear cry of the eagle, the beast took off with its rider, its wings flapping as it quickly descended below the fortress walls.
In fact, even without summoning the horned eagle beast, Donald wouldn’t die if he jumped from the fortress walls, for he held a magically enchanted staff—the Veto Staff.
By now, the Veto Staff had become a true high-level staff, with 30% mana enhancement, capable of accelerating elemental cohesion. It also came with two spells: Mage Armor and Feather Fall.
Although both spells were low-level first or second-tier spells, they were carefully chosen by Master Mesel as life-saving spells for Donald. The former provided protection against external attacks, whether physical or ordinary spell attacks. Though not as effective as more advanced protective spells, it offered comprehensive coverage and could be activated instantly—this energy armor could save a life in critical moments.
The latter, as the name suggests, was a simplified version of the third-tier spell Floating, allowing a target to drift slowly downward like a light feather.
For Donald, who had ideas from another world, this spell was like a parachute—a life-saving skill exclusive to spellcasters. No matter how skilled a knight or warrior might be, if they couldn’t fly and fell from a great height into dangerous terrain, they would surely perish. But as long as one was a black-iron mage and had learned Feather Fall, their chances of survival in such situations were hundreds of times higher than those of an eighth-level great warrior.
Not to mention the Floating spell that mages could learn at the third tier, as well as the fourth-tier progression spell Flight, which reached the bronze level.
Level four was a threshold for spellcasters—once crossed, they could master the ability to fly. Although the speed of flight was only slightly faster than that of a carriage and the flight height couldn’t exceed a kilometer, once in the air, even enemies several levels higher couldn’t track down the mage. At that point, the mage had numerous ways and opportunities to eliminate enemies or escape.
This was also one of the reasons why spellcasters had traditionally held a higher status than melee professionals.
Upon reaching the base of the fortress, Donald didn’t dismount the horned eagle beast, just in case.

Seeing that the human side had sent only one person to die, the small group of orc warriors felt it was an insult to their mighty orc warriors, so they roared in anger and charged forward, swinging their axe-like weapons.
“Without wisdom, even the strongest beasts are nothing but beasts, destined to become prey for humans!”
Facing the orcish assault, Donald stood calmly in place. He first used a first-level magic core to summon a dozen jackals to hold off the attack.
However, against the tall and strong orc warriors, the jackals, with their ordinary combat strength, were no match at all. Within a few rounds, they were wiped out by the four or five orcs at the front.
The dead jackals turned into faint white light, leaving no trace of corpses.
Seeing Donald struggling in the initial battle, mocking voices came from the fortress—those of the nobles who were hostile to Donald and their followers.
“What, the greatest genius mage of the North County? Could it be a lie?”
“Is that all a summoner can do?”
……
“Ignorant!”
Those few jackals were merely a slight obstacle, a test. Donald paid no attention to what those people above were thinking. After summoning the jackals, he immediately used another first-level magic core to summon first-level creatures known as hunter spiders, which were close to the category of magical beasts.
These tiny creatures, capable of releasing toxic attacks, were only the size of two fists, but they were fast and agile, leaving the bulky orc warriors utterly confused. Although the spider venom wasn’t strong, a few bites still made the orc warriors, whose physical strength was two to three times that of humans, feel weak and paralyzed.
Now was the time for Donald to truly show his killing skills.
Holding a third-level magic core, he recited solemnly and loudly, “In my name, emerge! Red Young Dragon!”