Chapter 98: Tornado Storm

Donald, dressed in this set of equipment, seemed determined to arm himself to the teeth.
His backup plan was to rely on the power of his equipment to cast powerful spells and wipe out the orcs once the plan to divide and distract them failed.
The sight before them left those among the mercenary groups and adventurers who knew something about magical items utterly astonished.
With so many powerful spell-related items and gear, just one of them would be enough for a group of bronze mages to fight desperately to obtain, yet this mage lord didn’t wear a single item below bronze rank.
Even Chris, a peak bronze mage who often accompanied alchemists like Messel, had never seen so many spell-related items before and was momentarily dazzled.
Then, the middle-aged mage glanced at the flame cloak, which was clearly a high-tier spell-related item, and muttered bitterly, “What a waste! Such extravagance!”
If these items and gear were distributed, they would be enough to arm all the mages above bronze rank in their guild. With them, he would even have the confidence to defeat silver mages.
After giving those items a fierce glance, the reticent Mage Chris quickly shifted his gaze elsewhere, avoiding looking at Donald lest he be tempted to steal them.
After equipping himself, Donald stepped forward and summoned four creatures, sending them toward the orc lair.
With a group of outsiders gathered at the entrance of their lair, even the dull-witted orcs should have become alert. The orc wizard, as their leader, was about to send two of his subordinates to investigate when he noticed several unfamiliar magical beasts entering their valley.
The orcs around them roared and surrounded the intruders, but those magical beasts skillfully attacked a few young orcs before turning and fleeing from the valley. The huge orcs, far less agile than quadrupedal magical beasts, could only watch them escape.
Annoyed, the orcs, under the orders of their powerful leader, roared and drove their ogres out in force.
Seeing the massive orcs, each as tall as two people, rushing out of their lair at the valley exit, the 75 men drew their weapons and formed a strategic formation behind Donald. Everyone was ready for battle, waiting for his command.

Donald timed it precisely, waiting until most of the orcs had left their lair. The one closest was about to reach him, so he drew the magic wand from his waist and swung it at an orc that had just left the valley entrance. A vortex dozens of feet tall rose from the ground, lifting that orc dozens of meters into the air. It screeched in terror and became unable to move.

This was the Storm Wand, a magical artifact produced by the Book of Truth. Like the energy-wielding wands created by mages in this world, it could be used to cast spells with limitations. Once its usage count was exhausted, it became useless. Such consumable magical artifacts usually contained low-level spells below level four, such as Level 3 Fireballs, Level 2 Acid Bombs, and the most common Level 1 spell, Arcane Missiles. However, the spells cast by the Storm Wand were on par with those of a Level 4 mage, though their destructive power was limited.

A single Storm Wand could only unleash three small tornadoes. After lifting three orcs into the air, Donald retracted the remaining Storm Wand and shouted, “Wait for my spell! Uther, take command. Attack immediately after the spell finishes!”

Then, pretending to recite incantations, he actually prepared to cast his innate spell. A few breaths later, Donald raised his hands and yelled, “Tornado Storm!”

Under the clear sky, vortices suddenly appeared and quickly merged into a storm more than ten times larger than those created by the Storm Wand. Adventurers behind Donald, outside the range of the spell’s effect, felt the strong winds hitting them, making it hard to stay upright. The orcs and ogres in the center of the storm were thrown around violently. At least twenty orcs were lifted into the air by the strong winds, while hundreds of fragile ogres were torn to pieces by the storm. Their screams were drowned out by the howling wind, yet even hearing them made people’s hearts race.

The sheer power of this spell left everyone pale with shock. Even Chris, the strongest mage present at the peak of Bronze rank, changed color.

The storm caused by the tornadoes lasted over a minute before stopping at Donald’s command. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to continue casting it, but he felt his mana reserves were nearing their limit. Continuing would damage his soul’s core, an injury that no ordinary potion could heal. That’s why he voluntarily stopped maintaining this innate spell.

“Attack!”

The moment the storm ceased, Uther, the commander, shouted orders. Yet the mercenaries and adventurers were still in shock, while the summoners led by Uther remained unaffected and immediately carried out their commander’s orders, charging at the orcs that hadn’t fallen yet.

At this time, Donald was at his weakest, too exhausted even to speak. Such mental strain meant that even restorative potions couldn’t restore him to his peak condition right away; they could only ease his discomfort slightly, requiring time to recover fully.

As for the orc army, due to the tornado caused by Donald’s spell, aside from a dozen or so strong orcs who remained conscious, the rest, though not fatally injured due to their robust constitutions, were injured and unconscious, lying scattered on the ground.

As for the ogres, few if any survived intact.

“Kill them!”

It was then that the two groups of mercenaries finally reacted. Without hesitation, they raised their weapons and followed the summoners in attacking, while the adventurers also snapped out of their daze and joined the fight.

“This is a disaster!” “Indeed! Lord Donald’s spell is probably on par with the advanced spells of silver-ranked warriors. Let’s fight too!” Moray, Dina, and Russell, the three mages, recovered from the shock of the storm and immediately attacked the orcs.

The mages’ spells struck first, attacking the orcs ahead of Clinton and the three summoners.

Orcs, with their thick skin, had some resistance to magic. Low-level spells below level three only caused superficial injuries, so the three mages used their most powerful offensive spells.

Moray, the strongest of them, cast a level-four spell—Chain Explosion. A bright flame ball appeared in his hand, bouncing like a ball toward the front where the orcs gathered. After five jumps across the battlefield, the flame ball disappeared, but at each landing point, a powerful energy explosion occurred. All targets in that area suffered damage from both the explosion and fire elements. Alone, he eliminated three orcs and severely injured at least nine more.

Dina, the most temperamental one, cast Fireball, the most powerful attack among level three spells. A 20-foot radius around the explosion was engulfed in flames. More than five orcs within the spell’s range were damaged by the splashing fire, with two of them, already severely injured, suffering the most. Orcs are bulky creatures with abundant body fat, and they instantly turned into human-shaped torches. The remaining three conscious orcs also suffered severe burns and frantically rolled on the ground trying to extinguish the flames on their bodies. Although Mage Russell didn’t cast any particularly powerful spells, Donald paid the most attention to him. This middle-aged mage had used just two level two spells to eliminate four orcs and temporarily paralyze several others. Both Lightning Bolt and Electric Circuit are level two spells, but when used together, their combined effect far surpassed that of the level three Wall of Lightning. The former is a weakened version of Fireball, with far less damage than an explosive Fireball, but combined with Electric Circuit to create an electric field covering a 10-foot radius, the four orcs severely injured by Donald stopped breathing instantly from the electric shock, while the other orcs in the area were paralyzed and unable to move. When it came to clever spell usage, even Moray, the strongest of the three, was slightly inferior to him, let alone the more reckless Dina. Comparing to Mage Russell’s spell usage, Donald felt that his own skills in the game, though decent, paled in comparison to this real-world master. This was also because Donald was accustomed to using summoned creatures and only practiced and upgraded his spells, rarely using them in combat. Watching Russell cast spells, with movements as smooth as those of a famous conductor, Donald felt extremely ashamed and immediately resolved to practice spell usage more after returning. The battle quickly neared its end, with only the orc wizard leader and seven or eight adult male orcs left capable of fighting. After eliminating two orcs, Uther returned to his master to direct the adventurers in the battle.

He noticed that a few malicious adventurers were trying to sneak up on their master, so he shouted, “Fight on! Anyone who tries to get within twenty steps is considered an enemy—kill them without mercy!” With Uther and Kelthas guarding Donald, Mage Chris also cast a few spells, his attention mostly on Donald. Yet, given the power of the Silver Mage, even casual spells were far more powerful than those of the three Iron Mages.

Added to this was the lingering effect of his earlier powerful spells, which deterred most adventurers from approaching their employer, Donald. Some, however, refused to give up, shouting threats while trying to get within twenty steps of Donald and his companions to take action. At that moment, Kelthas, who had remained inactive until then, pointed at the closest one and commanded, “Banish!”

Instantly, that man’s steps became light, and he turned into a mist-like human shape—victimized by the banishment spell, rendering him intangible, unable to attack, with slow movement, but still able to cast spells and immune to most physical attacks. Of course, in return, he was susceptible to double or more damage from spells or energy attacks.

Then Kelthas casually unleashed several flame attacks, turning that man into ashes. Truly ashes—since he was in a state of nothingness, even no corpse remained after being burned by the flames.

This act served as a powerful warning to others. Seeing the masked mage turn one person into such a grotesque state and eliminate him so easily, everyone with ulterior motives was too scared to move, focusing instead on eliminating the remaining strongest orcs.