"Boom boom boom!"
The thunderous twang of giant bowstrings and the shrill cries of feathered arrows breaking the sound barrier rang out without end.
The six Archer Captains under Zhang Yang fired one arrow every two seconds on average, and in just three volleys, they focused fire and instantly killed nine Berserker Orc Captains.
That was because the opposing Orc Squad had no archers of the same rank to counter them.
The two sides rapidly closed to within three hundred meters of each other. Then, a fireball suddenly rose into the sky and came hurtling toward Zhang Yang and the others with terrifying force.
That was right. The opposing Orc Squad had no archers, but it did have a mage capable of conjuring fireballs.
This was both horrifying and unexpected. The fireball moved incredibly fast. Although it was no match for the speed of the arrows, dodging the thing would basically require them to scatter their formation.
But both sides were charging at breakneck speed. A hundred meters took only two or three seconds. If they scattered their formation now, the opposing Orc Squad would slam into them like a hammer. Those orcs were all two point three to two point four meters tall, each of them comparable to the Four Berserker Bears. They were clearly specialized in strength and defense.
"Prepare to throw!"
Wu Yuan suddenly roared. While running, he pulled an Imprisonment Spear from his back. Clearly, he intended to scatter their formation and use the Imprisonment Spears to suppress the enemy.
But at that moment, Zhang Yang suddenly released his Soul Force Field. It touched the fireball in an instant, then abruptly compressed. His entire Soul Force Field immediately wrapped tightly around the fireball.
This was an unprecedented attempt, and an extremely dangerous one at that.
His Soul Force Field could cover a full hundred meters, and flames had no effect on it.
However, when the Soul Force Field rapidly compressed, reaching the point where it could affect the fireball and even touch the incredibly violent power inside it—the power that seemed capable of tearing everything apart—Zhang Yang felt his soul begin to burn. His entire existence seemed on the verge of vanishing, burned to ashes.
"Does this prove that force acts mutually? Newton really was a Grand Archmage."
For some reason, Zhang Yang even had the leisure to think such a thought at that moment.
Yes, he was neither afraid nor frightened. What he had feared before was close-quarters combat, not this mysterious and fascinating fireball.
The reason was simple.
If this had been him before fusing with the Mountain Monster Spirit, he might already have retreated in the face of difficulty.
And if he still hadn't understood the wondrous mysteries of mana, he wouldn't have dared to act so recklessly.
Ultimately, in Zhang Yang's eyes, the fireball released by the Orc Mage, with its mysterious destructive power, was merely a different structure of mana.
Over the past few days, he had indeed been unable to make mana remain permanently within his body, but he had become highly proficient at using mana to enchant weapons and equipment.
That kind of power could even alter the atoms and internal metallic bonds within a steel greatsword. Could it really be inferior to a mere fireball?
Thus, despite the tremendous pain of having his soul burned, Zhang Yang still concentrated all his Soul Power and instantly dissected the fireball's first layer.
Then came the second layer. There, he indeed discovered traces of familiar mana.
He didn't know how to describe it, but this was truly the first complete structure he had encountered since coming into contact with mana—one that even seemed exquisite beyond compare to him.
The structure of mana!
It was like the positive and negative poles of a battery, gasoline and a spark plug, or zero and one in the digital world.
Perhaps this structure was still crude, but so what? At the very least, it had increased the utilization rate of mana, this new energy source, instead of leaving Zhang Yang able to use mana only for the sort of things primitive men would do.
Zhang Yang failed to decipher this mana structure, but he still succeeded, because all he needed was to keep the fireball from landing over his soldiers' heads.
To be honest, that was far too easy.
He destroyed the mana structure and instantly withdrew his Soul Force Field. Almost simultaneously, the head-sized fireball exploded with a boom seventy or eighty meters above the ground and ninety-eight meters in a straight line from Zhang Yang!
Only 0.01 seconds had passed.
It was as if thunder had exploded across the battlefield. It was as if the sun had suddenly fallen from the sky. From midair down to the ground, everything became a burning mushroom cloud of flame. The enormous shock wave was like a category-eighteen hurricane, sending sand and stones flying and directly forcing both the charging allies and enemies to halt in unison.
The fireball's power was far too strong, comparable to a tactical fuel-air bomb.
All right, Zhang Yang didn't know what kind of power a tactical fuel-air bomb possessed, but that didn't stop him from describing it that way. He simply couldn't imagine what would have happened if the fireball had landed over their heads. Even if Wu Yuan and the others had scattered, they probably couldn't have escaped its area of effect.
"Is this the mysterious mage? That's terrifying beyond words!"
Wu Yuan, a quasi-hero, muttered to himself. At that moment, he was covered in dust and wore an expression of utter astonishment.
The opposing Orc Squad seemed just as shocked and terrified, looking completely unable to believe what had happened.
"Shit! What are you standing around for? Charge up and kill them!"
At that moment, Zhang Yang was the first to come to his senses. He shouted loudly because he suddenly realized that the fireball originally conjured by the Orc Mage probably hadn't possessed such immense power. It had become so powerful entirely because of the mana structure he had casually altered.
This was truly rotten luck. If their own soldiers' morale had been frightened away, that would have been a real injustice!
Fortunately, Wu Yuan and the others were elites among elites. Their shock and daze lasted only a brief instant. Then they roared and charged forward, hurling their Imprisonment Spears. Most of them focused fire on the Orc Mage who had conjured the fireball, showing just how badly they had been frightened.
If they were like this, the opposing Orc Squad was even more bewildered—especially the Orc Mage. Naturally, they suffered terribly. Eighteen Imprisonment Spears turned the Orc Mage into a pincushion in the first volley. Two orc soldiers who had tried to raise shields for protection had their shields shattered, their defenses broken, and were killed instantly!
Before they could recover, the second volley of eighteen Imprisonment Spears came shrieking through the air. More than a dozen orc soldiers fell at once. They weren't killed, however. The scales covering those orc soldiers' bodies were extraordinarily thick. Even with the Imprisonment Spears' sharpness, the spears could only pierce a dozen or so centimeters. At least three Imprisonment Spears were needed to kill one instantly.
The problem was that the Imprisonment Spears carried the Imprisonment Spell. Thus, those orc soldiers were instantly bound in place.
The six Archer Captains, who had already stopped behind them, worked together with perfect understanding. Every one of them could hit high-speed moving targets. Now that their targets were immobilized and had become stationary targets, what else was there to say?
Creaking, their Captain-grade Great Bows were drawn to their fullest, like full moons, and their Armor-Piercing Arrow skills were released simultaneously!
"Boom!"
Shock waves erupted. In an instant, the heads of the six Berserker Orc Captains on the opposite side blossomed across the sky like fireworks.
But this was only the beginning. After merely one second, Wu Yuan and the others' third volley of Imprisonment Spears had already ripped through the air.
Then the six Archer Captains followed with another volley. It was over.
A powerful elite Orc Squad, possessing one Orc Mage, fifteen Berserker Orc Captains, and fourteen Orc Shield Warriors, had been completely wiped out in a few brief seconds!
Such overwhelming combat power—
Wait, what did combat power have to do with it? The two sides had still been more than a hundred meters apart.
This was clearly the crushing effect brought about by more advanced and more powerful weapons.
"Charge! Wipe out that Orc Squad!"
Zhang Yang's mind was exceptionally clear at that moment. This had nothing to do with being happy. He understood his side's strengths and weaknesses very well. Nothing was invincible forever. After this battle, the orcs would understand their tactics and might even figure out why the fireball had suddenly exploded. When that happened, the orcs wouldn't be harvested so easily, like cutting down wheat.
So if they didn't expand their gains while the enemy was still dumbfounded, what the hell were they waiting for?
Wu Yuan and the others didn't understand Zhang Yang's thinking, or perhaps they couldn't think on that level. But that didn't stop them from feeling incomparably exhilarated. My god, are all the enemies rookies? They're so easy to kill! My greatsword hasn't even left its sheath yet! Wahahaha!
Thus, they all howled and charged forward, heading straight for the second Orc Squad three hundred meters away.
The enemy was also charging forward with a chorus of howls. Apparently, their nervous reflexes still hadn't recovered from the sudden annihilation of the first Orc Squad.
One second later, they suddenly stopped and began forming a shield wall.
Farther away, the massive orc army surrounding Jackalman Castle seemed to have exploded into chaos. At least one hundred and thirty orc soldiers were pulled from the siege formation and began moving this way under the leadership of a towering Orc Hero. Their reaction was truly fast.
Of course, Zhang Yang's reaction was faster!
"Retreat!"
Now that they had finished showing off, if they didn't run, what were they waiting for?
The moment they turned around, the second Orc Squad immediately began roaring furiously. They spread their legs and launched into a violent pursuit!
They were astonishingly fast. Clearly, they had activated some kind of skill.
Looking back and seeing this scene, Zhang Yang immediately roared.
"Stop! Kill them!"
Wu Yuan and the other seventeen soldiers instantly turned around and fired a volley of Imprisonment Spears, shooting the opposing Orc Squad into a state where they could no longer function!
Then the six Archer Captains followed up in perfect coordination.
Boom boom boom!
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
After two volleys of Golden Eagle Armor-Piercing Arrows and two volleys of Imprisonment Spears, fewer than ten orc soldiers on the other side were still alive.
Yet even so, those orc soldiers continued charging forward with loud, unintelligible cries. Their courage was commendable.
But could they really be indulged at a time like this?
"Kill!"
With a great shout, Wu Yuan led the charge, surging forward and blasting the head off a Berserker Orc Captain with a single thrust. The seventeen soldiers behind him descended like tigers charging down a mountain, hacking through the remaining seven Berserker Orc Captains as easily as chopping vegetables.
Come on, it was three against one already. Did they have no shame?
After picking up most of the Imprisonment Spears, everyone greased their heels and fled without even waiting for Zhang Yang to call them.
As for the Orc Squad that had been preparing to cut off their retreat—sorry, it wasn't that they didn't want to wipe you out. You simply moved too slowly. So, see you on the battlefield next time!
Before you continue