Chapter 733: Gravity
In the blink of an eye, four more wyverns plummeted to the ground at impossible speed...
All were killed in brutal fashion—the impact was so great that the earth trembled, and even several orc slaves were crushed to death...
The abrupt change left the remaining Orc Wind Riders in shock. They tried desperately to get their wyverns airborne, but the beasts seemed unresponsive, bobbing erratically in midair, completely unable to control their bodies.
A barrage of poisoned spears rained down, but not a single one landed near Leon and his group—they all missed...
The orcs, packed tightly together, couldn’t avoid a single poisoned spear. Dozens of orc slaves were killed, and three Ashen Orc Warlocks were impaled before they could even defend themselves...
In an instant, the orc ranks descended into total chaos—the ground forces were in complete disarray, and the wyverns in the sky crashed into each other in panicked confusion.
As the chaos spread, the summoned abyssal creatures lost all restraint. The Reapers began slaughtering the panicked orc slaves, and a cavern demon bit clean through its summoner’s neck...
The sudden turn of events stunned Anderson and the others who were preparing to cast spells.
Anderson stared blankly at the orc army as it devolved into chaos.
Damn, a gravity chaos array? When did that show up...?
Anderson muttered to himself, then seemed to realize something, looking at Leon with a sudden expression of understanding.
Leon, did you spot these orcs ahead of time?
Leon said nothing, pressing both hands to the ground. From where his hands touched, alchemical patterns and runes lit up, triggering a series of alchemical arrays across the earth.
Take them out.
Leon growled, pouring all his power into activating the alchemical arrays. Instantly, pillars of orange-red fire burst from the ground across hundreds of meters. Every orc staggered at the same moment, and the wounded collapsed outright.
Even the wyverns in the sky, flailing like headless flies, seemed suddenly dragged down by immense gravity—one after another, they crashed to the ground. Some beat their wings desperately, but still sank slowly earthward.
All the orcs and abyssal creatures found themselves struggling to move, as if every step required all their strength.
Suddenly, every orc moved as if burdened by a thousand pounds. Watching pillars of fire erupt, they couldn’t even dodge—each was ignited by the hellish flames.
The air was filled with agonized screams. As the flames rose, the kodo beasts grew frantic. Their massive bodies, usually so powerful, now lay motionless, scorched by fire and howling in pain. Any orc that got close to a kodo’s mouth was instantly devoured, the beast using the flesh to heal itself.
A gravity array cluster!
Anderson cried out, gritting his teeth as he manipulated the Wheel of All Spells to cast magic.
In an instant, he unleashed dozens of Rockfall spells. Massive boulders, each two or three meters across, appeared above the orcs, drawn down by the immense gravity and smashing into the ground.
The orcs, powerless to dodge, were crushed to death one after another—bodies mangled and bloody.
At this point, everyone else with injuries stopped worrying about conserving energy and joined in, unleashing spell attacks one after another.
With the alchemical array cluster fully activated, Leon raised his dragon staff, rapidly chanting runes. Flaming meteors, trailing long tails of black smoke, plummeted from the sky.
As the meteors descended to within a dozen meters of the orcs’ heads, the gravity arrays kicked in, sending them hurtling down at terrifying speed.
Boom, boom, boom...
Deafening explosions shook the land for hundreds of meters. The largest kodo beast—level thirty-five, with hide so tough that even level thirty-seven magical beasts could barely harm it—was struck on the head by a dozen meteors. Its skin remained intact, but blood poured from its eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and it died instantly.
After more than ten minutes, the screams finally died away...
Only the thunder of spells and the shockwaves from falling meteors ravaged the land for hundreds of meters. Chunks of flesh and mangled limbs flew through the air.
Leon stopped casting, and the others followed suit. The battlefield fell silent in an instant.
Blood and severed limbs littered the ground. Many orcs were smashed into pulp, and even the tough-skinned kodo beasts were killed by the barrage of spells.
Leon, expressionless, waved his hand and cast a Sea of Fire spell, igniting everything ahead.
From the moment he first encountered the Dark Elf wraith with sword-magic runes, Leon sensed something was off. He’d detected lingering magical traces of battle nearby, thick with the aura of abyssal demons.
It was obvious that Ashen Orc Warlocks had fought here earlier.
But the fight seemed to end almost as soon as it began. The Ashen Orcs fled when they discovered the Dark Elf wraith—or perhaps, before they could escape, Leon and his party entered the wraith’s territory.
Sure enough, Leon used his mana array to scan the area and instantly detected the presence of many Ashen Orcs, hidden nearby in large numbers.
It was obvious what the Ashen Orcs were planning: wait for Leon’s group to kill the Dark Elf wraith, then ambush them for an easy victory.
While Anderson and the others were fighting Lennon, Leon quietly scouted out the Ashen Orcs’ positions.
Leon was startled at the time, having detected many orc slaves, kodo beasts, and Orc Wind Riders.
Kodo beasts are the orcs’ weapons of war, boasting overwhelming force. The war drums they carry can greatly boost the strength of an army. As for the Orc Wind Riders, their mobility is unmatched, and their poisoned spears pack a punch rivaling a Sword Saint.
If there are enough Orc Wind Riders, they could wipe out an entire enemy legion single-handedly in a battle—especially devastating against mage legions.
Mage shields struggle to block these thrown poisoned spears—the tips are repeatedly coated in toxins and even enhanced with magic metal that breaks magical defenses.
With so many orc slaves, how could Leon not know their tactics?
They use hordes of orc slaves as cannon fodder, forcing Leon’s group into a tiny area, then the Warlocks and Wind Riders strike with overwhelming force. If this tactic succeeds, it’s terrifying.
Orc slaves breed rapidly, and in orc tribes, their lives may be worth less than a magical beast’s. This throwaway tactic is nearly impossible to counter if sprung unexpectedly.
After Leon finished scouting, he secretly set up alchemical arrays. To deal with orc legions, gravity arrays are best—by adjusting the strength of each array, gravity varies across the battlefield, leaving ground-bound orcs mostly unaffected.
But for the wyverns in the sky, the effect was dramatic. If they dove at top speed into a zone of intense gravity, the force multiplied instantly—they’d crash to the ground at lethal velocity, with no hope of flying again.
Finally, by linking the gravity arrays together, gravity across hundreds of meters soared—sometimes by a factor of ten!
Even with their powerful bodies, the orcs couldn’t die from the change alone. But ten times normal gravity left them rooted in place, unable to move.
With that, every orc tactic was completely nullified.
Leon even managed to turn the tables, digging a pit for these orcs who thought they’d score an easy win.
They thought they’d get an easy kill and take Leon’s head, but instead fell into a trap—an entire legion wiped out here, either smashed by meteors or burned alive.
Flames roared, filling the air with a burnt, bloody stench. Countless orc corpses were reduced to ash, and the summoned abyssal creatures were burned to cinders as well.
Only the largest kodo beast’s corpse remained, too massive to burn up right away.
Suddenly, a scream echoed from beneath the kodo beast.
Leon raised his hand and cast Fire Dragon, a crimson blaze that engulfed the kodo beast’s corpse—the screams from beneath grew louder.
Leon’s heart skipped a beat—he hadn’t expected any orc to survive, let alone crawl under the largest kodo beast and use it as a shield to dodge most spells.
But with the gravity arrays active, only the two orc leaders had the strength to crawl beneath the kodo beast. The rest were too weak—even lifting a foot was impossible, let alone squeezing under that massive body.
That meant only the two orc leaders could have survived!
Only those two leaders could flip themselves under the kodo beast’s body.
With that in mind, Leon held back the flames, sparing the orcs beneath the kodo beast. He called out to Hubert: "Hubert, go pull those orcs out from under the kodo beast. If they resist, smash them."