The wind blew fiercely across the Great Plains, carrying the scent of dry earth and sharp metal. Tens of thousands of Orario adventurers stood, forming a sea of humanity whose edges nearly touched the horizon. Giant banners fluttered wildly, their snapping sounds echoing like distant thunder.
Across that expanse of grass, four figures stood calmly. The contrast between tens of thousands of troops versus four individuals created a surreal optical illusion. However, not a single adventurer on the frontline dared to laugh. The pressure radiating from those four people squeezed their lungs, making the air feel as thick as mud.
Suddenly, the sound of a war horn from a monster's tusk was blown from the direction of the Orario ranks. Its sound cleaved the sky, signaling that the veil of silence had officially been torn.
"CHARGE!"
Finn Deimne's command shout echoed across the plains. Simultaneously, the earth shook violently. The sea of adventurers moved forward like a tsunami wave ready to devour anything in its path. Heavily armored knights led at the front, followed by rows of mages who began chanting large-scale combined magic spells.
On the other side, Alfia merely let out a long sigh. The Silence crossed her arms, staring at the incoming human wave with half-closed eyes.
"Too noisy," Alfia murmured coldly. She didn't move her feet from where she stood at all. "Zald. Clear out the pests blocking my view. I have no intention of dirtying my dress in the first minute."
Zald let out a hoarse laugh. His heavy laughter echoed, vibrating the ground beneath his feet. The towering man pulled out his greatsword which had been planted in the ground all this time.
"Of course, Alfia. Let me and these kids serve as the appetizers," Zald said with a soft, authoritative laugh. His eyes sparkled with a veteran's anticipation, staring at the sea of humanity and testing how strong they were.
To Zald's left, Dina and Vena stepped forward. Dina simply spread her hands. Thanks to the Anemo Calyx, the air in her palms swirled fiercely, condensed, and in the blink of an eye formed a pair of short swords made purely of high-pressure wind. Beside her, Vena let a microscopic storm vortex float above her palm like an elemental crystal ball.
"We're ready, Zald," Dina said softly, the wind sword blades in her hands buzzing as they cut the air.
"Don't fall behind, Vena," Dina continued to her twin sister.
Vena smirked faintly, the wind swirling around her making her silver hair flutter wildly. "Of course."
Without further ado, Zald took the first step. His massive muscles bulged. His high-level innate ability, Strong Body, meant just his footing alone was enough to create a small crater in the ground.
"Let's see how well this new era can withstand my fire!"
Zald activated his deadly Skill, Rea Ambrosia. Without needing to chant a long incantation, the greatsword in his hands instantly exploded, engulfed by hellfire burning blackish-red. The temperature around Zald skyrocketed, burning the grass beneath his feet to ash in a matter of seconds.
He raised the flaming sword high, gathering all the momentum of his muscles, which were reinforced by Supreme Attack and Crush.
"Afterglow!"
Zald swung his sword horizontally with full force.
A giant crescent-shaped shockwave made purely of black-red fire shot out from his sword blade. The shockwave cleaved the ground, creating an elongated burning trench, and sped at lightning speed toward the center of Orario's Vanguard line.
At Orario's frontline, Ottar and Leon Vardenburg immediately reacted. Both jumped forward simultaneously.
"Hooold!" shouted Leon.
Leon's trusted knight sword clashed directly with the left side of the fire wave, while Ottar's pitch-black sword, coated in a ferocious aura, held back the right side. The clash between two Level 8 adventurers against Zald's opening slash created a deafening shockwave explosion.
BOOOOOOM!
Ottar and Leon managed to split the fire wave in two, directing it to the left and right sides of their ranks. However, the remnants of hellfire from Rea Ambrosia and its kinetic thrust were still too strong. Hundreds of Level 3 and Level 4 adventurers behind them were thrown into the air like dry leaves swept by a storm, their armor scorched even though they didn't take a direct hit.
"Good defense!" Zald's laugh boomed. "But we're not done yet!"
Right before the dust from the Afterglow explosion settled, two shadows darted through the smoke screen at an absurd speed.
Dina and Vena moved. Instantly, their exclusive Skill, Dis Resonance, awakened. The resonance of their twin souls merged perfectly. Given they were fighting within the same line of sight, Dina's physical reflexes, agility, and close-combat coordination sharply increased, breaking past her original Level 4 limit. At the same time, Vena's casting speed and magic explosive power surged drastically.
"Vena, take the sky!" ordered Dina while sliding low towards the right wing of the Orario forces.
"I know!"
Vena stomped the ground hard. The anomalous magic of the Anemo Calyx exploded from beneath her soles. Instead of running on the ground, Vena used air currents as her footholds. She performed a double-jump maneuver in the air, shooting up into the sky like an arrow defying gravity. As soon as her feet no longer touched the earth, her new Skill, Caelum Dominus, fully activated. Vena's Agility and Dexterity parameters skyrocketed boundlessly, while her magic firing accuracy while hovering became absolute.
From high in the sky, Vena looked down at the ranks of Orario mages who were preparing magic shields.
"Don't even think about it!"
Vena swung her arm, channeling pure magic energy from her hand. "Ignis Gladius!"
A barrage of magic projectile blades condensed from high-level magic energy rained down like a mini meteor shower. The attack was not a slow area-of-effect spell, but rather deadly projectiles fired with precision.
The tankers from the Ganesha Familia immediately raised their giant steel shields to block the projectile rain. However, Vena had already calculated this.
"Ventus Ruina!"
With a snap of her fingers, the wind elements around the Orario forces were forcibly condensed into microscopic storm vortexes as sharp as razor blades. Those micro-storms dashed brutally, slamming into the tankers' shields and armor. Within seconds, steel of any thickness was completely eroded, shattered to pieces by the absolute destructive power of Ventus Ruina.
Right as their armor was left in tatters, the Ignis Gladius projectiles landed.
Thanks to the effect of Vena's Development Ability: Chain Attack, the resulting damage accumulated exponentially every time a projectile hit a target without pause. The Orario right wing defensive line instantly had a massive hole, throwing dozens of tankers to the ground.
While the Orario adventurers panicked facing the rain of aerial magic, Dina danced on the ground.
The white elf used her Swordsman ability to break through the gap Vena created. Dozens of second-class adventurers immediately surrounded her, aiming their spears and swords from all directions.
Dina did not panic. She twirled her pair of pure wind swords, then cast an illusion and curse magic without chanting an incantation.
"Curse of Attraction."
A very subtle wave of sound and magical light spread from Dina's body. The adventurers surrounding her suddenly felt their vision blur. Their combat instincts dulled drastically; their muscles relaxed and their concentration broke. The charm curse didn't control their minds, but rather corrupted the sharpness of their senses like an intoxicating illusion.
Before they could recover, Dina activated Phantasma Ventus.
By manipulating air currents and light refraction, Dina's body suddenly "split" into six highly realistic mirage shadows.
The adventurers swung their physical weapons in panic, but their sword blades only slashed empty air. Through that gap of illusions, the real Dina darted in. Her two wind swords moved with deadly fluidity, paralyzing her opponents by attacking the blind spots on their joints, bringing down a dozen Level 3 adventurers in the blink of an eye.
"Mages! Target the white Elf on the ground!" shouted one of the commanders from the Loki Familia.
Hundreds of fireballs and ice spears from Orario's rear guard were fired simultaneously towards Dina. It was impossible to dodge that massive attack with physical agility alone.
But Dina merely spread her arms, letting her wind swords dissolve back for a moment, and cast her absolute defense.
"Ventus Canticum!"
The Anemo Calyx responded. A giant wind dome swirling at hurricane speed formed, wrapping around Dina's body. Supported by her Development Ability: Shield, which she had recently honed with Zald, the vortex storm condensed like an invisible steel wall.
Hundreds of Orario spells slammed into the dome, exploding consecutively, creating giant pillars of fireworks in the middle of the battlefield. However, when the smoke cleared, Dina's wind dome was entirely unbreached. Even more astonishingly, inside that protection, Dina's drained stamina slowly recovered thanks to the passive healing effect of Ventus Canticum combining perfectly with Spirit Healing.
"You won't be able to touch her!" mocked Vena from the sky, once again raining down a deadly barrage of Ignis Gladius to cover her sister's blind spots on the ground.
The synergy of magic without long incantations, absolute mobility on the ground and in the air defying gravity, and perfect defense. Dina and Vena—even though their individual status was only Level 4—thanks to their coordination and the elemental authority of the Anemo Calyx, managed to completely ravage the formation of thousands of Orario mid-tier adventurers with utmost elegance.
However, amidst the chaos, the most deadly terror was just taking its first steps.
While the elf sisters wreaked havoc on the center and right wing lines, Zald shot straight toward the heart of Orario's Vanguard.
His presence was like a meteor cleaving the ocean. Every time Zald's foot touched the ground, small-scale earthquakes cracked the earth. His passive ability, Deus Ambrosia, boiled in his veins, causing his physical parameters to overflow, easily breaking past the maximum limit of Level 7.
"Come here, new generation!" Zald roared, his voice drowning out the roar of war.
Several elite adventurers from the Freya Familia, dwarves in thick steel armor, tried to halt his advance. However, thanks to the layer of Abnormal Resistance and the iron bones of Strong Body, their spears and double axes were stopped dead the moment they hit Zald's shoulder, as if crashing into a rocky mountain. The massive veteran didn't even flinch.
Zald swung his greatsword. The pure physical blow reinforced by Supreme Attack shattered their steel shield barricade into fine dust, sending the bodies of those adventurers flying dozens of meters into the air in a single breath.
Suddenly, from Zald's exposed blind spot, a white shadow shot in at the speed of sound.
"Aaaaaaarrrgghh!"
Bell Cranel, with blazing red eyes and the Hestia Knife dagger in his hand, thrust upward, aiming for the narrow gap below Zald's armpit guard. The youth, whose true status had now broken through the Level 7 limit, radiated a blinding aura.
Clang!
But Zald was a monster in combat. The man twisted his Grattor sword with unnatural fluidity, parrying Bell's attack at the last minute. The impact between the dagger and the greatsword created a small shockwave and sparks that illuminated both their faces.
"Fast! But still too light, Bell!" Zald smirked, praising the youth's agility.
Zald jerked his shoulder, forcing Bell to slide backward several meters to avoid being skewered by his sword. However, before Zald could recover his attacking stance, a flash of greenish wind struck from the opposite direction.
Ais Wallenstein, the Sword Princess, dashed utilizing Ariel. A storm of green wind enveloped her body. Her Desperate sword cleaved the air with high-level technique, aiming straight for the artery in Zald's neck.
Zald tilted his head calmly. Ais's sword blade only cut a few strands of his fluttering hair. Zald's bare hand, radiating a Crush aura, shot forward, intending to grab Ais's face.
"Don't touch her!"
A golden spear shot like lightning from a gap in the troops. Finn Deimne used his pallum agility to dart under Zald's legs, thrusting his spear right into Zald's arm muscle. The precise thrust slightly altered the hand's trajectory, causing Zald's grip to miss Ais's face.
As Zald's momentum was broken, the earth shook. Ottar and Leon Vardenburg jumped into the epicenter of the battle. The two pillars of Orario's defense, who were now officially Level 8, surrounded Zald from two opposite sides, sealing his escape route.
"You won't be able to face the five of us at once, Zald!" growled Leon, the tip of his trusted knight sword shining, cutting through the dust of battle.
"Is that so?" Zald grinned incredibly wide. Fighting against Ottar, Leon, Finn, Bell, and Ais simultaneously was not a threat to him; it was the ultimate testing stage that he absolutely had to give them. "Then prove it, Knight of Knights! Prove to me that the strength of your era is sharp enough to tear apart the era of the past!"
A dense black-red aura exploded wildly from Zald's body. He gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands, creating a circular Rea Ambrosia firestorm that swept his entire combat radius. The five elite Orario adventurers simultaneously lunged forward through the fire, creating a vortex of weapon clashes and Excelia explosions whose sound silenced the screams of the entire battlefield.
The most epic close-quarters battle ever witnessed by history officially broke out at the center of the Great Plains.
Far in the backline, Alfia stood in her absolute silence. Her arms were still elegantly crossed over her chest. Her view was not disturbed by the roar of Dina and Vena's magic storm; instead, she focused on watching how her nephew, Bell, moved nimbly among the main fighters, protecting Ais and launching counterattacks alongside Ottar.
A very thin smile formed at the corners of the Silence's lips.
"That kid... he's gotten a little better," Alfia murmured softly, acknowledging the white-haired youth's progress. But the next second, the warmth in Alfia's eyes faded, replaced by the absolute arrogance of an arena ruler. "But if this is all you have, you will never be able to surpass me."
The peak of the Orariopiad festival had been opened with blood and blazing fire, proving to the world that the real storm had not yet fully descended.
-----------------------------
"Like my work? Catch up to Chapter 130 over on my Patreon!"
P - Gem_Blanks
Thank you so much for your support — you make all of this worthwhile.)