Chapter 817: Wipe Them All Out
Dust billowed up endlessly. Amid the chaos, the Blazeforge Orcs at the center were no longer visible. After a long moment, the Dark Elves were the first to withdraw, followed by the Ashen Orcs and the Forgefire Dwarves.
Inside the encirclement, not a single Blazeforge Orc was left standing...
At that moment, Xiu Ban came charging in from the rear, swinging his massive hammer.
"You bastards! You didn't leave a single one for me!"
Xiu Ban was furious. In less than a minute, the battle was already over. By the time he arrived, the Blazeforge Orcs had all been slaughtered by the maniacs from the three allied races.
The Forgefire Dwarves swung their iron hammers and cursed the Dark Elves for casting wide-area spells during the melee, while the Ashen Orcs bared their teeth and joined the dwarves in the shouting match.
"You arrogant fools! Were you trying to take us Forgefire Dwarves out along with them?"
"Damn you red-skinned dwarves! You're so quick to steal the kill, there won't be any left for us soon!"
"Idiots! This is our first fight since leaving that hellhole, and you—"
The three allied races gathered at the edge of the battlefield, hurling insults at each other. Xiu Ban cursed the Forgefire Dwarves for stealing his kills, and before long, he was brawling with one of them...
The battlefield was a mess, while Thorne in the distance was left utterly stunned.
Shit, what did I just witness? That was the Blazeforge Orcs' elite force, and they got wiped out in under a minute?
These maniacs actually started fighting each other because someone was too quick and stole all the kills?
Good god, where did Master Leon find such terrifyingly strong lunatics?
Cold sweat broke out on Thorne's forehead. To snatch kills, they unleashed massive area spells right in the middle of the melee, and not a single one of these lunatics died—barely even a scratch.
They're like a pack of starving wolves tearing through a flock of sheep, except those 'sheep' were the Blazeforge Orcs' elite!
Thorne watched as Leon slowly descended from the sky, feeling utterly out of touch with the times, unable to comprehend any of it...
The USS Dauntless drifted down from above. Leon glanced at the three allied races, still brimming with energy and nowhere to vent it. Facing thousands of demoralized Blazeforge Orc elites, for these maniacs, it hadn't even been a warm-up...
"You all head back now."
As soon as Leon finished speaking, the Dark Elves were the first to return to the USS Dauntless. The Ashen Orcs and Forgefire Dwarves, still trading threats and curses, reluctantly headed back as well.
A trace of helplessness flickered in Leon's eyes. These guys...
The Dark Elves were at least somewhat civilized, but most Ashen Orcs and Forgefire Dwarves were basically all muscle, especially the dwarves. With nowhere suitable for forging lately, all they did was brawl to pass the time...
Once the three races were back aboard the USS Dauntless, Leon finally approached Thorne.
"Lord Thorne, it's been a while."
Thorne looked at Leon, full of amazement. In just a few months, he was almost unrecognizable—not only was his power now unfathomable, but he’d brought three terrifyingly strong races with him. Just a glance revealed over thirty Sword Saints and more than a dozen Title Archmages.
And these fearsome, almost savage races obeyed Master Leon's orders without hesitation. He was no longer the Leon Thorne had known months ago—now he was a true powerhouse, addressed as 'Archmage.'
Thorne took a deep breath and bowed slightly in greeting.
"It's been a long time, Archmage Leon."
Leon glanced at Thorne and the few survivors, all of whom were badly injured. He handed out several bottles of his own life potion and patted Thorne on the shoulder.
"Alright, let's head back for now. Whatever needs discussing, we'll do it there."
Thorne accepted the life potion, suppressing his questions and frustration for the time being, and nodded firmly.
Leon stood on the deck of the USS Dauntless, piloting the ship back to camp.
The appearance of the USS Dauntless stunned the Watson Family and Black Tower members. News of Leon's return spread like wildfire.
Word of Hobart's death also spread quickly. The offensive at the Horn of Plenty suddenly went much smoother; the remaining Blazeforge Orcs had lost reinforcements, and with their chieftain slain, they began to collapse.
The battle at the Horn of Plenty raged on. Although Hobart, chieftain of the Fireblade Tribe, was dead and no reinforcements remained, their main force was still on the field, barely suffering any losses—and even putting pressure on the Watson Family and Black Tower.
The Merlin Family's forces here had been nearly wiped out; those who survived had joined Thorne in the assassination of Hobart.
Inside the Fireblade Tribe, the struggle for power and the election of a new chieftain continued. The Blazeforge Orcs' morale had plummeted, but driving them off wouldn't be easy.
The furious roars of the Blazeforge Orcs, the thunder of meteors and fire explosions, still ravaged the battlefield.
A patch of white clouds drifted across the sky, and a massive warship emerged silently from the cloudbank, casting an oppressive shadow over the ground below.
Leon stood at the prow of the USS Dauntless, gazing down at the sprawling battlefield below—thousands of meters of smoke and blood. Human mages and Blazeforge Orc warlocks unleashed powerful spells from the rear, while in the middle, blades and swords flashed as Blazeforge Orc warriors clashed with human swordsmen in a fight to the death.
The appearance of the massive warship threw the battlefield into chaos. The Blazeforge Orcs had no idea whose ship it was; many even thought it was their reinforcements.
Only the upper echelons of the Watson Family and Black Tower vaguely knew the warship was on their side.
As a result, both sides' morale surged simultaneously, and the fighting grew even more brutal...
Inside the Dauntless's gun deck, elite Forgefire Dwarves were frantically busy. More than half of the magic crystal cannons were damaged, most from years of neglect. Once repaired, they could be put back into action.
Leon had already handed the Hand of Destruction blueprints to Lass, now the Forgefire Dwarf leader and one of the clan's top craftsmen.
While crafting the Hand of Destruction would take time, the research was enough to repair the regular magic crystal cannons. Even the Dauntless's secondary batteries could be restored soon.
The Hand of Destruction was powerful, but firing it at full strength was basically impossible right now. The Dauntless had little power left; even a single full-powered shot would bankrupt Leon if he used soul magic crystals as energy.
The other magic crystal cannons and secondary batteries, however, could be powered by ordinary or soul magic crystals.
Lass wandered the gun deck, dozens of tools hanging from his body, shouting orders at the top of his lungs.
"You idiots, aren't you ready yet? You're disgracing the Forgefire Dwarves! Haven't you fixed those ordinary magic crystal cannons? Hurry, open the gun ports and aim at the battlefield below!"
"Damn it, move faster, all of you! Don't let the Dark Elves and Ashen Orcs laugh at us!"
Lass kicked aside a Forgefire Dwarf who was a bit too slow, then personally adjusted a massive magic crystal cannon to target the battlefield below.
Excitement made Lass swallow hard as he glanced at the hundreds of busy Forgefire Dwarves, a proud grin spreading across his face.
Damn, the boss really is wise—this job could only be handled by us Forgefire Dwarves. Those arrogant Dark Elves, do they even know what a screw looks like? Do they know there are eighteen kinds of wrenches?
And those Ashen Orcs, brains full of magma—aside from eating and dying, they're no different from Kodo Beasts. The only thing they'd wonder is whether a magic crystal cannon can be eaten.
Lass grabbed a magic crystal and shoved it into the cannon's energy slot, aiming at the battlefield below.
"Lord Lass, we've received orders from the boss: obliterate all Blazeforge Orcs below, indiscriminate attack—wipe them all out."
Upon hearing this, Lass immediately started bellowing at the top of his lungs.
"Take aim! Fire at full power! Send those stupid Blazeforge Orcs flying—they dared to offend our boss and slaughter our kin! Unforgivable! Don't let a single one escape! If you do, none of you bastards will touch a hammer for a year!"
The Dauntless slowly hovered over the battlefield. Openings appeared along both sides of the hull, and one by one, magic crystal cannons extended from the dark ports.
In an instant, light flared at the muzzles of each magic crystal cannon.
Boom!
A deafening explosion—suddenly, it was as if a blinding sun appeared above the battlefield. A massive ball of light, more than ten meters across, seemed to teleport into the rear ranks of the Blazeforge Orcs the moment it was seen.
With a thunderous crash, a towering black mushroom cloud rose from the Blazeforge Orcs' rear. The shockwave swept across hundreds of meters; dozens of Blazeforge Orc fire warlocks had only time to cry out before they were swallowed by the brilliant light.
Within hundreds of meters, it was like a terrifying elemental storm had erupted. In the center, over a hundred Blazeforge Orcs were instantly vaporized; on the edges, it was as if hundreds of wind blades had struck at once, shredding bodies, shields, armor, and weapons to pieces.
Blood evaporated in an instant; shattered bodies were engulfed in transparent flames, reduced to ash in less than a second...
The Blazeforge Orcs were utterly stunned. More than a dozen Title Archmage-level fire warlocks in the rear charged desperately toward the sky.
But something even more terrifying was about to happen...