Chapter 467: First Victory

A proper pantheon must meet at least three criteria.
First, it must have a pantheon leader who is a mid-tier god, as this ensures stability and enables the pantheon to resist powerful opposing deities.
Second, including the pantheon leader, the pantheon must consist of no fewer than three true gods, as a triangle is the simplest and strongest formation. Fewer than this number cannot form a close alliance for mutual support, making it impossible to withstand external attacks and leading to rapid disintegration.
Third, the pantheon must have a unified and powerful divine kingdom where all its true gods can live, facilitating communication among them and allowing them to jointly defend against external threats.
If any of these three criteria are not met, even if it operates under the name of a pantheon, it is merely a group of allied true gods and does not qualify as a pantheon recognized by the Pantheon of Gods.
Donald chuckled at this.
“If Prince Charlie is interested, it might be a good idea to establish a Celtic pantheon when the time comes!”
Though Donald said this somewhat jokingly, the King of the North took it seriously. If the Celts could indeed have a pantheon to support them, their lineage could truly endure for thousands of years!
The orcs’ fierce advance left little time for the Celts to prepare. Without convenient transportation like the magic teleportation gates produced by Dalaran, the Celts’ troops would still be on the march. Relying solely on the local Holy Sword Legion, it would be nearly impossible to hold out until reinforcements arrived.
At the front lines, the humans held a high position, defending the kingdom’s borders from their fortified strongholds, determined to prevent even a single orc from breaking through their defenses and entering the sacred territory of the Celts!
On the other hand, even before the entire orc army arrived, tens of thousands of orcs at the forefront could not resist attacking the strongholds. This further demonstrated the orcs’ barbaric aggression and lack of discipline.
With a clear advantage on their side, it would be foolish to open the gates and send troops to fight the orcs head-on. The battle-hardened commanders of the Celts would never be so stupid.
After analyzing the situation, Marshal Dawson immediately ordered all troops to hold their positions and sent the Gryphon Knights of Dalaran as the first wave of attackers.

Ever since the griffins appeared, Donald ordered them to be sent out daily to patrol the skies around his territory. One reason was to keep them active and prevent them from becoming lethargic, and the other was to deter surrounding forces from plotting anything malicious. Donald, whose soul originated from Earth, was well aware of the advantages of an air force. Although he could now summon hundreds of griffins at will, considering the need to supply meat for these predators and his own overwhelming strength that no longer required such summoned units, he stopped at thirty and did not increase the number any further. Even without griffon riders, these thirty griffins, with their ability to control lightning, were equivalent to an army of a thousand cavalrymen. Their mobility and speed were far beyond that of cavalry constrained by terrain on land. Such predators, equivalent to level-five magical beasts, could, when numbering in the hundreds, form a force capable of defeating armies ten times larger through superior combat effectiveness. Under the leadership of Eric, the eldest son of William, the leader of the griffon rider squad, they followed Donald’s air force combat manual, compiled from his memories of a past life combined with the realities of this world. They made full use of their bombing capabilities, flying 50 feet above the orcish vanguard before unleashing a barrage of lightning spells in unison. Without waiting to see the results or engaging further in combat, they retreated swiftly, rising hundreds of feet into the air before the orcish ranged spellcasters could react, awaiting further orders from headquarters. This attack cost the orcs at least a thousand troops from their vanguard; had their formation not been so dense, the losses might have been reduced to a few hundred. Meanwhile, the orcish spellcasters failed to mount a timely counterattack to shoot down those hateful birds along with the human riders on them. Those low-level shamans had now become priests of the orcish gods. Originally, they were a type of caster between priests and mages, so the transition was smooth. Armed with power granted by the true gods, the orcish priests grew stronger and developed numerous apprentice priests and new priests. This time, before establishing a proper religious organization, the orcs sent thousands of priests of various ranks into battle to counter human mages’ long-range attacks.

It’s a pity that the time for the resurrection of the Orcish True God was too short; the priests hadn’t yet formed a complete structure. As a result, there were many low-level priests, but a shortage of high-level clerics. Moreover, the spells of those low-level priests could only reach a distance of about a hundred feet, while the high-level priests didn’t want to unleash powerful long-range attacks just for dozens of enemy aerial units, as their magical power was limited—after all, it still needed to be reserved for the walls of the human fortresses! Thus, the first confrontation between orcs and humans ended with humans achieving a minor victory with no losses.

Next, facing the orcs’ fearless charge toward the fortress, Commander Earl Dorson sent in his second wave of troops, assigning several summoners to the front of the walls to release their summoned creatures among the charging orc armies. It’s worth noting that since the news of Donald becoming a True God spread, several summoners came to Dalaran, eager to join Donald’s religious organization. They were all relatively low-level summoners, at most at the beginning stage of Bronze rank. Some sought help because they were young and lacked a teacher, while others were too old and, due to a lack of inheritance, could no longer progress further. So they decided to seize this last chance in their lives and make a final effort—even if it meant sacrificing their faith!

As for those summoners who were doing a bit better, most didn’t choose to join Dalaran. After all, summoners were also a type of mage, and they instinctively resisted true god faith. However, Donald never demanded anything from the mages in his territory; all their treatment remained the same as before he became a god. Thus, these summoners felt honored and, combined with their deep admiration for Donald, a True God who originated from a summoner, they voluntarily followed in Donald’s footsteps and became followers of the Nature Guardians. Although at first they were merely superficial believers, or so-called casual believers, it was still quite rare. Donald was very surprised by this and treated these summoner-believers with special favor—after all, he himself had a clerical role as a summoner!