"Arthas, you..."
The old earl, who was not vigilant about his own son, was stabbed in the chest by a sword, but fortunately the old man's armor was an enchanted armor passed down from the Banner family. When the sword was about to pierce his chest, it was deflected by a magical force and failed to actually pierce Banner's body.
Several guards had not expected such a thing to happen, so they reacted a little late. When they came to their senses, they immediately rushed forward to force the mad second young master back. Although the old earl was shocked, he immediately realized that this must be a mind control spell, and loudly reminded the guards to capture the second young master alive and not to hurt him.
"Damn it! I finally understand why there are so many traitors!"
Several bodyguards rushed forward and suppressed the mad Second Young Master with their huge bodies. However, the battle situation everywhere was already precarious, and the human race was gradually falling into a weak position.
Seeing this, Banner knew that if he insisted on holding on, he would probably be in danger. Fortunately, they still had war horses and could organize a breakout, but it was unknown how many people could break out during the breakout.
At the same time, outside the town, several orcs, whose status was evident from their attire, were watching the battle from afar. Leading the group was a half-orc who also had a token representing the Son of Ramon on his body. In the woods behind him, eight black-robed shamans were sitting around a green bonfire, as if they were performing some very evil ritual.
As the battle situation in front developed, one of the eight shamans would wake up from time to time, and then a human slave would immediately be beside him, handing him a cup of thick shaman secret supply. This potion could help them quickly recover the "evil energy" needed to perform secret spells.
Among these eight people, the shaman sitting at the head remained motionless. Seeing this, the leading orc commander said proudly to the other orcs around him.
"As expected of Master Marco, evil witchcraft is a hundred times stronger than traditional witchcraft, and he is also the Great Sage of Evil Power. With him in charge, those human magicians are nothing..."
"Ugh~Puff!"
Before the orc could finish his words of praise, the Master Marco he was talking about suddenly trembled all over, and then violently spat out a large mouthful of black blood, which sprayed directly onto the green campfire in front of him. The amount of bleeding was so great that it almost extinguished the flames.
The other shamans were horrified upon seeing this and rushed forward to help, but Marco did not even bother to spit out the black blood in his mouth, and shouted to the people around him in a frightened tone.
"Retreat! I disturbed a monster!"
Almost at the moment when he finished speaking, a dazzling light suddenly broke out in the center of the town where a fierce battle was in full swing. Then everyone saw a beam of light drawing a round and graceful curve in the air, like a meteor with a long tail of flame, flying straight towards them.
137. Breakthrough is the peak
Spanning 1,800 meters, the powerful magic missile accurately hit the eight orc shamans sitting together. Accompanied by a huge roar, the surging magic flame instantly burned everything within a radius of dozens of meters, and a mini mushroom cloud rose on the spot.
After all, it is only about 20 to 30 meters high. Compared to a mushroom cloud, it is really small and cute!
Above the town, Dick was flying in the air, with his hands on his head, looking at the mushroom cloud he had created in the distant forest. As soon as he was freed from the spiritual space, he flew into the sky, and then followed the traces of magic left by the enemy when he fled and chased him.
The other party was here to take his life, how could he let him escape so easily! ?
The entire counterattack was smooth and flowing, with flying, high-level shield, and energy-charged missiles, three spells, one medium and two high, deployed simultaneously, all moving at will. His mental power even locked onto the enemy's body, which was 1,800 meters away, in an instant, and guided the missiles that flew out of his hand to hit the opponent's head directly.
After doing all this, Dick remained calm and composed, even his breathing rhythm was not disturbed.
Staring at the mushroom cloud rising slowly in the light of the fire, it took Dick three full seconds to realize that something was wrong.
"Hey! I think I have... made a breakthrough?"
Dick looked at his hands in astonishment, then touched his head, confirming that there was no obvious change in his physical appearance, but his inner self had undergone a qualitative improvement without him realizing it.
He successfully crossed the threshold that had troubled him for a long time and broke through from the high level to the saint level.
Moreover, because of his physique with fully opened spiritual veins, the moment after his breakthrough, at least in terms of the indicator of total magic power, he directly reached the peak level of the Saint level, without any intermediate state at all.
As for why he suddenly broke through, Dick thought that he might have to thank that "unkind person" who refused to reveal his name until his death.
Earlier in the mental space, Dick released his three "distracting thoughts" and together they beat up the invader.
His three distracting thoughts are all his own "subconscious", which is equivalent to himself, but his fighting style has its own characteristics because of his different races. And this difference in style is actually Dick's own stereotype of himself, that is, he thinks that if he is of this race, then he will have this fighting style.
Dick of the human race has a fierce fighting style. He holds a staff in one hand and a long sword in the other. He is a magic warrior who is proficient in both magic and martial arts. He can charge forward and fight.
Dick from the elf tribe has a flexible fighting style. He never gets close to the enemy. He flies in the sky like a personal armed helicopter, shooting all kinds of attack magic.
As for Dick from the Succubus clan, his fighting style is very slutty! Rather than using spells to attack, he prefers to get close to absorb the opponent's magic power and constantly apply DEBUFF to the enemy.
In comparison, the real Dick suddenly felt that he was so fucking unremarkable!
Although the three subconscious Dicks fought on their own, they formed a subtle coordination and quickly developed a tacit understanding. The four Dicks shouted about friendship, bond, and future and rushed over, catching the black shadow and beating him up. They actually resonated because of the common goal!
In a sense, this mental invasion unexpectedly gave Dick an opportunity. The other party was like a catalyst for a chemical reaction, which was an unexpected surprise.
However, at this moment, Dick did not have the leisure to carefully experience the various changes after he became a holy-level magician. The town below had become a hot pot, and it was exactly when his strong support was needed.
Dick's mind moved, and the surging magic power in his body began to boil and surge. The burning feeling from the inside out seemed as if his flesh and blood were burning, but he did not feel any pain at all. Instead, it gave him an unprecedented powerful vitality.
Dick suddenly discovered that his body was glowing, and his original flesh and blood was rapidly transforming into a high concentration of magical elements. This was undoubtedly the holy-level talent unique to the elves - spiritualization!
In this state, the world that Dick saw had changed. All entities were reduced to a rough outline and a color representing the corresponding magical attribute. Dick could control the magical elements around him at will as long as he moved his mind slightly.
No wonder many ancient texts say that the elves are the darlings of the elements, and their magicians are always stronger than human magicians of the same level. Saint-level elven magicians can even cross levels and fight with human sub-god magicians for several rounds, because the astral body trick is too BUG!
However, what made Dick somewhat concerned was that it seemed that he could not choose the element after being transformed into a spirit. He directly turned into a light element spirit. At this moment, he was flying in the sky, shining like a flare, and both sides of the war could not ignore his existence.
"What's going on? Who fired the flare?"
"It's so bright! It's blinding!"
Before either side could figure out what the bright spots in the sky were, Dick's attack magic was completed in an instant. Hundreds of beams of light fell from the sky and hit the orc camp on the ground.
Each beam of light was extremely dazzling and deadly, splitting whatever it passed in two.
As a strategic-level supernatural power, the Holy-level magician is truly capable of determining the outcome of a battle by himself.
In the entire Hessen Empire, there are a total of eleven known Saint-level magicians, of which only seven are willing to be used by the empire. Among them, one is Dick's teacher and the other is his uncle.
Now Dick has finally become a holy-level magician. The first thing he did after the breakthrough was to transform himself into a magic aerial gunboat to provide fire support to his own units below.
On the other hand, although the orcs still had the advantage in numbers, the situation had been completely reversed. Their shamans were not at the holy level and were unable to fight against the holy-level Dick, and they were all wiped out just now. Therefore, the ordinary infantry were completely reduced to meat on the chopping board and could only be beaten by Dick in various ways.
Therefore, in this one-sided situation where they were beaten without even being able to fight back, no matter how bloodthirsty and warlike the orcs were, they would inevitably be beaten to the point of morale collapse.
The human race could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Old Banner put the letter into its sheath, turned his head to look at his second son who had stopped struggling but was completely unconscious, then kicked him again in anger.
"You are such a troublesome little bastard!"
Soon, the scattered orcs fled the town, and Dick stopped, released his spirit form, and fell back to the ground.
It wasn't that he felt sympathy for the orcs. It was simply because he was not yet used to his spiritual form for the first time and could no longer maintain his condition.
After Dick flew down in human form, the people on the ground realized that it was not the god who was showing his power, but their Lord Dick who was showing his power.
Some knowledgeable magicians even realized that what had just happened was the "spiritualization" unique to the holy-level magicians of the elves. Since Dick had half elven blood, it was normal for him to be able to do this after breaking through to the holy level.
However, Dick is only 20 years old according to human age, and just a young child among the elves. Even if he has a saint-level mentor, to be able to become a saint at this age is an incredible talent!
Damn it! It's true that people get uglier when compared to others!
Amid the cheers of the crowd, a group of burly knights surrounded Dick and wanted to give him the most solemn "high salute", which was to lift him up and weigh him twice, but Dick stopped them in time.
"Don't just be silly and laugh, first consolidate the defense line and treat the wounded!"
The people who were in high spirits finally came to their senses. They just drove away the enemy, and they didn't know whether the other side had reserve troops who could make a comeback or strong people who could fight against the Saints. They really couldn't be happy too early.
So everyone dispersed, some rescued others and some consolidated the defense line, but fortunately the orcs did not come again until dawn the next day, and heavy snow fell almost all night, completely burying all traces of last night's fighting.
The sky and the earth were covered with a vast expanse of white, completely covering up the blood and death.
138. The rear area
After daybreak, the troops, having cleaned up the battlefield, set out to return to the camp.
This time, they took the initiative to attack, and the overall record was that they won a big victory, annihilating more than 5,000 orcs. Only the surprise attack last night caused them heavy casualties, with more than 100 people killed and more than 300 injured.
Thanks to Dick's timely action after breaking through to the Saint level, the situation was successfully saved. Otherwise, if the situation had continued to deteriorate, the number of casualties would definitely not have been so low.
Fortunately, the retreat was relatively peaceful. The troops only occasionally encountered some orc stragglers, who were easily eliminated.
However, the appearance of a group of human bandits was beyond everyone's expectations.
This group of bandits was not large in number, but they specialized in robbing refugees retreating towards the coalition camp. When Dick and his party ran into them, they were robbing and killing people on the main road. After being caught, they knelt down and begged for mercy spinelessly, saying that they were willing to join the army and serve the masters like dogs and horses.
Of course Dick looked down on such people. He said "You don't deserve it" and ordered his soldiers to hang them on the trees on the road to wake them up.
The next morning, the troops returned to the base camp smoothly.
Compared to when they first set out, the defenses of the city walls had obviously been further reinforced. After all, Hoffman was fighting on his own land, defending the fiefdom that had been passed down for eight generations. When Dick led his men to attack, he led his men to work hard to consolidate the city defenses and at the same time stepped up the training of new recruits.
The triumphant return of the army greatly boosted the morale of the coalition forces. Dick specially organized a public commendation meeting to distribute real honors and bonuses to these warriors who dared to face the ferocious orcs. The fallen also received generous pensions, and a few who made outstanding contributions were even knighted.
After the commendation meeting, Hoffman held a banquet in his own castle to welcome all the noble knights. Although it was not appropriate to hold a large banquet in this extraordinary period, it was still okay to hold a small one.
At the banquet, Hoffman learned for the first time that Dick had broken through to the Saint level and had shown great prowess in frontline combat. With his powerful magic, he could defeat a thousand enemies alone, and many people were saved because of him.
This made Hoffman feel a little complicated. On the one hand, he was happy that his side had such a strategic master in charge, but when he thought about the previous conflicts between the two families, Hoffman felt a little nervous and was already thinking about how to repair the relationship.
The Holy Order is the nuclear weapon of this world. When Dick was not a master, the surrounding lords would see him expanding his army and think he was a threat. But now that he is, he is an important cornerstone for maintaining regional stability and peace!
If you are not convinced, you can try to practice it yourself.
While Dick was still attending the cocktail party, at the same time on Laguge's side, a female orc was stumbling through the snow and ice.
She was wearing very thin clothes, wrapped in a rag that no one knew where she got it from. In such severe cold weather, no matter how strong an orc was, she would have been frozen to death under normal circumstances. However, the strange statue in her arms had been emitting power to protect her, and also made the female orc's mental state like a demon, muttering to herself as she walked.
“It’s getting closer and closer…Whatever God wants, He will get!”
Soon, the female orc arrived at the outskirts of an ancient oak forest. The moment she stepped into the forest, the howling wind and snow around her stopped abruptly. Although snowflakes were still falling from the sky, everything seemed so peaceful and beautiful, deserted but not too cold.
The female orc who entered the forest seemed to have sensed something. Her originally dull expression suddenly became fanatical, and she ran towards the center of the forest holding the statue.
“Haha, ha, hahahaha… Found it, I found it!”
The orc woman's crazy laughter was so out of tune with the quiet winter night, like a crow disturbing a sweet dream, the sound was noisy and uncomfortable.
The female orc ran all the way to the center of the forest, and saw at a glance a huge pure white oak tree standing on the central prototype open space. The strange statue in her arms seemed to be coming alive, and it felt as if the flesh and blood were wriggling on its surface.
However, just as the female orc was holding her statue and was about to go forward to "defile" the sacred tree, two figures suddenly appeared and directly blocked her and the white tree.
"Good evening, young lady who has come from afar. The young master has asked me to wait for you here for a long time."
The female orc looked up in astonishment, and saw a human woman with short grey hair and a light skirt holding a large sickle, standing in front of her. Behind her, on the root of the white tree, there was a tall, thin, slovenly old man, both of whom gave her an extremely dangerous feeling!
While the female orc was in a daze, Rita was also looking her up and down, thinking that her master's speculation was indeed correct. After escaping from the Hoffman family's dungeon, there was a high probability that this female shaman who believed in the evil god would risk running to Laguge. Instead of sending people to chase her, it would be better to wait and see in the winter god's hibernation place.
It just so happened that my uncle Behemoth was there too. One was at the quasi-saint level, and the other was at the peak of the saint level. They intercepted a female shaman who knew a little bit of orc witchcraft. This was no longer using anti-aircraft guns to kill mosquitoes, but rather using nuclear weapons to kill cockroaches!
Behemoth had returned to the imperial capital before, and only returned to Laguge to continue his training after winter.
Dick led his troops to support the Hoffman family, leaving the old man in Laguge as the "final weapon". It can be said that it was because of him that Dick did not have to worry about being robbed.
Seeing that the white tree was right in front of her, the female orc, or the blood god who was controlling the female orc at this time, would naturally not give up easily. She howled like a mad beast and rushed towards Rita, who was closest to her, but saw a mocking smile on the other's face. Then a white light flashed in front of her eyes, and her sight suddenly began to roll and spin upwards, and fell on the snow with a bang. The scene in front of her finally froze on a headless body.
"Huh? That's it!"
Rita, who had just raised her hand and killed the man instantly, looked at the orc female shaman with her head and body separated on the snow in some surprise. She thought that this guy was possessed by an evil spirit, and it would take some effort to beat him, but in the end, it was as easy as dealing with a stray dog.
Out of the caution she had acquired from Dick, Rita did not approach the corpse rashly. Instead, she took out the shotgun Dick had given her from her space ring and shot the female shaman once in the head and body. Seeing that the corpse showed no signs of resurrection, she took out a Molotov cocktail and wanted to cremate the enemy on the spot.
Rita is not only cautious, but also very frugal, knowing how to use props instead of wasting precious magic power.
Behemoth, who had been watching silently from behind, couldn't help but speak when he saw this.
"Let me do it. Your Molotov cocktail smells good when it burns."
Behemoth simply snapped his fingers, and the female orc's corpse on the ground was instantly burned to ashes by a spiral flame, but the strange statue remained intact.
Behemoth used his telekinesis to take the statue out of the ashes, then took out a box, put the statue in it, closed the lid, and then chanted a long spell to the box.
"Take it. The seal I put on it should last for a while, but it's better to find a bishop-level charlatan to put a more advanced seal on the box. Don't open it easily."
Behemoth said as he handed the box to Rita. Rita immediately took it with both hands, then saluted Behemoth while holding the box.
"Thank you, Master."
"Don't be so polite. Since I'm training here, I should return the favor by acting as a gatekeeper for the guy below. Go ahead. If you need any help, you can always come to me."
After saying that, Behemoth sat under the tree and began to meditate with his eyes closed. Rita took the box back to Laguge Castle overnight, and then entrusted Hongye, who was about to rush back to the front line, to bring the news.
"Just say that the risk has been resolved and everything is fine back home."
Thanks to the establishment of the central defense line, although Laguge is still under a first-level martial law, there are no orc activities in the territory. Instead, there is a continuous influx of refugees fleeing from the central and western regions. In less than a month, thousands of people have fled here. This is in the winter with severe snow and cold!
Regarding these refugees, Ruby Eye, who stayed behind, and Dick, who was far away at the front line, agreed that they should accommodate them as much as possible and try to keep these people in Laguge.
At present, in Laguge, Ruby-Tome, Rita, Shizuka Marikawa and Lily are stationed in the main city. Befa is guarding the northern fjord with a group of ship girls. Except for Xiaoai and Honoka who are still in the "apprentice period", all other companions have gone to the front line to fight with Dick.
Rita actually wanted to go to the front line, but her hometown could not be without the main force. Although Ruby Eye was invincible in internal affairs and was simply a female version of Zhuge Liang, she was really powerless and often sighed at her limp little flesh.
After putting the box with the statue in the safe, Rita went to the office to find Ruby-eye. When she came, she saw Marikawa Shizuka arguing with Ruby-eye. Xiao Ai, who was wearing a cotton nurse's uniform, followed Marikawa Shizuka. When she saw Rita coming in, she bowed politely to her.
"Why did you start arguing?"
"It's about the hospital's budget. To be honest, the recent overspending is quite severe."
"We can't help it. We are here to treat the injured in the refugee camp. People are prone to getting sick in this season. We can't just take them in and then ignore them, right?"
