Ch.148Chapter 148: The Decisive Battle in the East (16).

KUOOOOOOO!!

The massive rock that Valt threw with tremendous force truly lived up to the name “meteor” as it shot down into the enemy formation.

THWAAAACK!

Each time the enormous boulder passed through the air, the sky thundered so loudly that even the people and orcs engaged in battle couldn’t help but look up.

“Th-th-th-that!? Did he just throw that!?”

The Grand Master’s eyesight was keen enough to catch Valt hurling the boulder from midair.

“I-it appears so…”

“Kuk! K-kuhahahahaha! Puhahahahaha! These uncivilized barbarians use magic in such a ridiculous way!”

“I’m not sure if that should even be called magic…”

“When a house-sized rock falls from the sky, what else would you call it but magic! Yes! Orc King! What will you do now?!”

Jerdin was absolutely thrilled.

The magic Valt unleashed was even more impressive than he had imagined. Though it was still in flight and its full power couldn’t be confirmed yet, anyone could tell that the impact would be tremendous when such an enormous boulder crashed down from the sky.

“Keu! He aimed it well too! Yes! That position will cause almost no damage to our allies!”

Valt’s meteor was flying past the engagement zone toward the central area teeming with orcs.

A million orcs, to be precise. From an attacker’s perspective, one could hit orcs by casting magic anywhere.

However, the distance was too great for most spells to reach, and magical power would diminish, which is why no one had attempted it.

But Valt’s magic was different.

The massive boulder itself had tremendous mass, and the planet’s gravity was causing it to accelerate more and more.

A spell whose destructive power increases with distance.

No other magic worked this way.

“It-it’s falling!!”

With Beron’s shout, Valt’s meteor struck the heart of enemy territory.

THKWAAAAAAANG!!

PUEOOOOOOOONG!!

PUHWAAAAAAACK!!

KUNG!

DUDUDUDUDUDUD!!!

An enormous explosion erupted as the meteor hit!

Valt’s meteor exploded, creating a massive mushroom cloud and devastating the surrounding area.

The destructive power was so great that even orcs in the vicinity were being thrown about by the blast wave.

“KYAAAACK!! KURUK!”

“CHWIIIIK! CHWET! CHWIIIIIIIIK!!”

Absolute chaos.

The massive crater created by a single mage vaporized thousands of orcs on the spot, and the blast wave appeared to have injured at least tens of thousands more.

By simple calculation, if Valt threw just 100 more of these spells, the orcs would be completely annihilated.

“Good! Not bad at all!”

Valt had been anxious that the Orc King might intercept the meteor spell, but for some reason, the Orc King did not use Gauwel’s Fang to intercept it.

Whether he chose not to or couldn’t do so was impossible to know, but what mattered now was that Valt’s magic had scored a direct hit on the enemy’s center, achieving a tremendous feat.

“A-a-amazing!!!!”

“I-incredible, Lord Valt!!”

They had witnessed Valt’s meteor magic before, and although this boulder was smaller than the previous one, Valt’s throw made its power no less formidable.

Back then, it had enough power to annihilate nearly 30,000 orcs, but this time it had injured about 10,000.

The good news was that Valt’s physical strength and magical power were still plentiful.

“This magic… efficiency is key. Making it bigger isn’t always better.”

Valt was right.

The larger the rock mass he created, the more exponentially it consumed elemental power, magical power, and Valt’s physical strength.

Not only was creating the rock important, but holding the rock pieces together during the process was also necessary.

But now, Valt could substitute all of that with his own strength.

A meteor spell with overwhelming efficiency compared to the previous one had been born.

“V-Valt, are you okay? Are you feeling strained anywhere?”

Valt grinned at the worried Arias and tilted his neck slightly as he spoke.

“As you can see, I’m fine. I could throw a hundred of these. Arias, now’s the time. Create the water barrier I told you about.”

“Y-yes! Got it! Please, Undine!”

Shararara-

Chwaaaah-

Responding to Arias’s request, the water spirit Undine spread a water barrier around Valt’s group.

This was no ordinary water barrier.

The fusion of science and magic.

When Valt explained to Arias how to use water’s light refraction to confuse targets, Arias and the water spirit Undine immediately created a new elemental magic.

“Water Illusion!”

Arias’s talent was truly remarkable.

Having absorbed Valt’s knowledge, Arias created an illusion magic with Undine based on the fact that water causes light refraction that distorts vision. It didn’t just confuse—it was much more.

By reflecting and transmitting light multiple times through water masses, they managed the impressive feat of creating exact replicas of Valt, Arias, and Lilis.

“Amazing! Incredible, Arias!”

First, the water barrier disrupted the enemy’s vision, and second, multiple water masses projected images of Valt and his companions.

Interestingly, the water spirit controlled the light so precisely that the water forms went beyond illusions—they could be considered doppelgangers.

Moreover, the human body is over 70% water.

This meant that doppelgangers made of water were the closest to resembling humans.

“Th-that’s amazing, Arias! Even I can’t do something like this.”

Even Lilis, a 7th Circle mage, was impressed by this illusion—no, doppelganger—magic, and Arias’s lips twitched slightly at the praise.

Arias had been harboring an inferiority complex due to Lilis’s tremendous magical skills.

“I-it’s nothing special! It’s all thanks to Valt and Undine!”

Kyarurururu-

When Arias gave credit to her, Undine circled around the three happily, seemingly pleased.

“I need the next one too, Arias.”

“Yes!”

Once again, at Arias’s command to Undine, a thin water screen was set up in front of Valt, Arias, and Lilis.

A mirror that reflected light to hide Valt’s group.

This was the final method to confuse the Orc King’s artifact.

After completing the mirror, Arias asked Valt with an anxious face.

“Will this really block it?”

“If it doesn’t work, we’ll block it with force. Come closer.”

Grab-

Valt wrapped his massive arms around Arias and Lilis, whose faces turned bright red as they held their breath in Valt’s embrace, hoping their heartbeats wouldn’t be audible to him.

After a few seconds passed like that.

“Here it comes!”

SHWAAAACK!!

A tremendous sound cutting through the air.

Without checking, Valt’s group could immediately guess what it was.

“Toward the leftmost doppelganger! We dodge to the right!”

Tat-!

Moving rapidly from his midair foothold, Valt chose to move away from Gauwel’s Fang just to be safe.

And that choice proved correct.

TSUPENG!

THWAAAACK!!

It was impossible to know how it worked, but Gauwel’s Fang caused a large explosion the moment it contacted Valt’s group’s doppelganger.

If Valt hadn’t quickly moved to the opposite side, they might have been seriously injured, if not killed.

“Kya-kyaak!!”

SHWAAAACK!

Having missed its target, Gauwel’s Fang circled back and flew toward where the Orc King was.

“Good, the plan worked, Arias. You did very well! My guess was right. That thing can only intercept what it sees.”

Valt’s reasoning was obvious.

Magic tracking? Radar method? No. Orcs were too unintelligent to use such things.

Even Gauwel’s Fang was said to be an artifact derived from ancient orc tribes.

Such an orc artifact wouldn’t have complicated settings that were cumbersome to use.

It simply intercepted visible enemies, returned, and intercepted again.

That was all Valt had predicted about Gauwel’s Fang’s abilities.

And that prediction proved perfectly correct.

“It-it’s true! How did you know?”

“Similar creatures think in predictable ways. They hate complexity. They’re only satisfied when they completely destroy what’s right in front of them.”

Even so, this was truly a big gamble.

If Gauwel’s Fang didn’t have such characteristics, they could have been in trouble.

“Y-you took this action based on such flimsy evidence?”

“I did it because I was confident I could protect you no matter what.”

Valt had also considered what to do if his thinking was wrong.

That was the Lupenium bracelet. He was confident that even if he couldn’t save himself, he could at least save Arias and Lilis with it.

“Now that we’ve exposed its nature, it’s our turn. So, what shall we do?”

The decision was now Valt’s.

No matter what the Orc King did, Valt could respond accordingly, putting him in an advantageous position.

[KUWOOOOOOOOOO!!]

“Wh-what is that sound?”

A monstrous roar echoed across the vast plain.

Only one being could make such a loud sound.

“Kukuk, seems like the monster is roaring in anger. Shout all you want, nothing will change.”