Volume 25: Seizing Divine Status
Chapter 469: Striking the Orcs
The Hell Reapers moved like black arrows, hard to track with the naked eye. Seeing their terrifying destructive power, Count Dorson, the leading commander, couldn’t help but lick his lips and exclaim in awe, “What a fierce beast!” The officers and nobles below felt the same way, wishing this beast were under their own control. Such a ferocious monster, if safety weren’t a concern, had a destructive power comparable to that of golden-level warriors—undoubtedly a deadly weapon on the battlefield and a nightmare for enemies!
In the blink of an eye, just a few breaths after the creatures summoned by the six spellcasters appeared, the orc side had already lost thousands of combatants. However, with their large population, such losses wouldn’t cause much concern to their leaders. But continuing like this wasn’t sustainable—losing too many fighters would harm the overall situation. Thus, several high-ranking priests above silver level prepared to eliminate these monsters.
The energy fluctuations caused by the high-ranking priests were quickly detected by the human warriors, with the Hell Reapers being the first to notice. Far more intelligent than the white dragons, the Hell Reapers acted swiftly. Before the divine spells cast by the three orcish priest-scholars could be unleashed, they activated their second signature ability: Mana Devourment.
The Hell Reapers dashed like lightning to within twenty feet of the three high-ranking priest-scholars. With their monstrous mouths open, they trapped a cloud of black mist, swift as lightning, between their jaws. All forms of energy within ten feet of their target were sucked into their mouths like leaves in a storm.
This innate ability, Mana Devourment, could absorb the powerful energy of spells up to level seven and disrupt their structural stability. Unless it was a physical spell attack, any energy-based spell would have its energy drained. Even if it didn’t become useless, its effectiveness would be greatly reduced, failing to inflict meaningful damage on the Hell Reapers.
Within the mana-devouring field, the energy of the three high-ranking priests’ spells was drained before they could be cast. Not only did they waste a chance to use their advanced divine spells, but they also suffered backlash from the failed spells.
Compared to the Hell Reaver, whose combat intelligence was far superior, the somewhat dull White Dragon was not so lucky. Even with the dragon scales’ strong resistance to magical energy, it still couldn’t withstand high-level divine spells at levels six or seven, suffering severe injuries. Fortunately, one of the two high-ranking priests attacking it used lightning attacks. Although the White Dragon wasn’t a water-type dragon like bronze or black dragons that were largely immune to lightning damage, as a cold-type dragon, it had decent resistance to it. However, against the flame spells cast by the other high-ranking beast god priest, affected by elemental opposition, the White Dragon had no such luck. The lower half of its body, hit by the flames, was now completely charred. Severely injured, the dragon rolled around in the air, roaring, and spewed out its breath for the first time, creating orc ice sculptures all over the battlefield—some even large group sculptures with seven or eight orcs packed together. Due to the dragon’s frenzied flight and movements, it was difficult for the orc high-ranking priests to lock onto it for attacks. As a result, the enraged dragon wreaked havoc on the battlefield, killing at least 30% of the orc vanguard forces. Even the Hell Reaver had to retreat temporarily, unwilling to get too close to the mad White Dragon to avoid unnecessary harm. If the frontline forces continued to suffer from such wild attacks from the White Dragon and the Hell Reaver, they would be wiped out. Several elite orc warriors and commanders joined forces with the high-ranking priests, aiming to eliminate these two deadly beasts together. The six summoners observing the situation naturally wouldn’t let their summoned creatures be destroyed by the enemy. For ordinary summoners, controlling summoned creatures of equal or even higher rank would already be extremely difficult, leaving no time for anything else. But the summoners blessed with the Gift of the Natural Guardians could manipulate multiple powerful summoned creatures that they usually couldn’t control, at a lower cost. The six summoners, holding magic cores to replenish their power, chanted spells together once more. The light of the summoning circles reappeared in front of the fortress, this time summoning creatures bestowed by the Great God of Summoning. There was no need to explain the fifth-level units summoned by the four bronze summoners. The two silver summoners summoned a rock puppet and a swamp nine-headed serpent this time.
Rock puppets are variants of earth elementals. These elemental creatures, composed of hard rock, move slowly but possess immense strength. Although they are classified as level 6 units, equivalent to the advanced bronze tier of humans, they can exert destructive power comparable to that of a Golden Sword Saint.
The most important characteristic of rock puppets is not their strength or hardness, but rather their magic immunity. With their rock-like armor, they have 100% resistance to almost all spells. Unless completely shattered by overwhelming force, they can constantly replenish themselves by drawing earth elements from the surrounding ground, making them exceptionally durable combat units.
As for that colossal creature with a head height of five stories, it is an elder of the Swamp Nine-Headed Serpent, at the initial golden tier of power. Its offensive capabilities lie in toxins and physical strength, but what frightens enemies the most is its regenerative ability. As long as not all of its heads are destroyed at once, it can fully recover within a few minutes—a regenerative power even true gods would admire.
After all, the Nine-Headed Serpent clan is merely a relatively rare magical beast species, barely qualifying as a sub-sacred beast. Their innate talents are not as powerful as those of dragons, but they are still superior to human sacred beast races in terms of intelligence.
With the addition of these two new powerful summoned creatures, the orc army faced utter destruction. Whether it was the rock puppets or the Elder Swamp Nine-Headed Serpent, a single swing of their fist or a swipe of their tail could cause a massacre among the orc vanguard.
With just six summoners, they managed to halt and eliminate thousands of the orc vanguard troops, greatly boosting the morale of the Celts.
Fierce battles raged below the fortress, while the people on the city walls cheered loudly. Secretly, elite warriors from Dalaran were stationed on all sides of the walls, carrying Soul Shard fragments bestowed upon them by their gods. Countless invisible soul fragments, transformed into streams of light, were drawn toward the city walls.