Chapter 417: Turning Point

"Follow Master Theodore and charge!"

The entire high-level mage phalanx transformed into a true arrow, slamming into the tide of wind elemental creatures with the force of a thunderbolt, forcefully breaking through the army of wind elemental creatures that surged like a tide.

The dense cyan figures were torn apart like paper before them.

The erupting elemental energy formed small, successive storms.

Master Theodore was at the very front of the formation, Count Roland and other titled noble mages were on the flanks, while the others guarded the rear.

Although Master Theodore was already quite old.

But mages are different from traditional knights; as knights age, their Qi, blood, and muscles atrophy, and their combat power constantly declines.

Mages, however, grow stronger with age as their experience and knowledge increase.

Now, as the Chief Mage of Oakland City, he displayed his formidable strength.

The surface of the obsidian staff he gripped tightly swirled with frantic light, and the tip of the staff continuously shot out brilliant magical rays of various colors.

Master Theodore broke through the encirclement of wind elemental creatures by his own strength alone, without a moment of hesitation, preventing the entire team from being blocked within the army of wind elemental creatures.

The mage side could see that the situation was wrong and adjusted their strategy in time.

The Wind Dragon, as a wind elemental creature that had begun to materialize, also possessed extremely high intelligence and spirit.

Facing the sudden change in the mages' formation, it instantly realized the opponent's intent.

The Wind Dragon looked down with eyes composed of hurricane vortices, and the huge wings on its back began to flap.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The wind elemental energy in the secondary wind elemental plane seemed to be stirred by an invisible giant hand, and a heavy wind sound like a bellows whistled up with its movements, transmitted through the Wind Link.

Then.

Two sky-piercing tornadoes were generated, whistling through the Wind Link and sweeping toward the mage phalanx.

In the process of advancing, these two tornadoes continued to grow larger, and by the time they left the Wind Link, they were connecting heaven and earth, exceptionally spectacular.

So much so that even the wind elemental creatures, which possess an extremely strong ability to manipulate airflow, were affected by it and began to sway unsteadily.

And the pressure faced by the mage phalanx, which was the target of the two tornadoes, was self-evident.

Gao De looked up at the two terrifying tornadoes summoned by the Wind Dragon flapping its wings.

"Is a fifth-rank creature this powerful?" He felt a bit shocked, yet also a bit fired up.

Fifth rank, in the supernatural power system of this world, can only be considered mid-to-high rank.

What kind of inhuman power would the sixth and seventh circles above that possess?

He dared not think.

But to be honest, although it looked terrifying, he didn't have much worry in his heart.

Under the blessing of his Mandora Eye's long-distance vision, Gao De could clearly see Master Theodore's calm expression.

It was this look that gave him a sense of peace.

In front of the massive tornadoes, an individual seemed somewhat insignificant.

But the supernatural nature of magic allowed an individual to possess the power to contend with massive forces.

The cyan elements on Master Theodore's body became a bit thicker, forming a flowing light film on his skin.

This increased his flight speed by another notch, and he sped out directly, leaving a cyan light trail behind him.

In the blink of an eye, he had moved from the arrowhead position of the team to detaching from the team.

Master Theodore faced the two blocking tornadoes alone.

He swung the obsidian staff he held in his right hand horizontally with force.

A flame erupted from the gem at the top of the staff, spreading rapidly, twisting and climbing like a living creature, and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a raging wall of fire in front of the path of the two tornadoes.

The raindrops falling from the sky were vaporized into mist before they even touched the fire wall.

A sizzling sound of being roasted came from the air.

【Wall of Fire】.

Fourth-circle evocation spell.

The two tornadoes collided with the fire wall with a bang.

A deafening roar erupted instantly, making everyone's eardrums feel a sharp, stinging pain.

Fire and gale clashed fiercely, and the fire wall deformed under the tearing of the tornadoes, turning into countless burning fire snakes circling in the sky.

The tornadoes, under the high-temperature roasting of the fire wall, emitted cyan smoke, and the wind elements inside ignited, causing small, successive explosions.

Master Theodore gritted his teeth, all the runes on the obsidian staff lit up, and he swung the staff downward.

The fire wall suddenly split and reorganized, turning into two giant flame dragons that drilled into the interior of the tornadoes, scattering them from the inside out.

As the tornadoes collapsed, a visible air wave spread to the surroundings, directly sweeping away the nearby gathered wind elemental creatures.

A smooth path appeared briefly.

"Take this chance, charge toward the Wind Link!" Master Theodore ordered.

A cyan light film rose on the surface of all the mages in the mage phalanx, and they accelerated together, rushing forward.

Everyone sped along and finally arrived before the Wind Link.

This was a massive spatial rift, like the open mouth of a giant beast, with chaotic energy surging at the edges of the rift.

The cyan vortex spewed out by the Wind Dragon was continuously pouring out from the very center.

That cyan vortex contained terrifying energy fluctuations, like sharp blades, cutting through the surrounding air; even a fourth-circle mage, if they dared to face it directly, would likely perish immediately.

But fortunately, the spatial rift was large enough, and there was plenty of space unaffected by the cyan vortex.

It was just that the wind elemental turbulence continuously overflowing from the edge of the rift still caused the surrounding air to twist and deform, forming patches of flickering halos.

Master Theodore looked back at the fourth-circle mages behind him and found that they were already deviating back and forth due to the suction force of the airflow brought by the cyan vortex, and the formation could no longer be maintained perfectly.

"Attack the Wind Dragon!" Master Theodore shouted, his voice still clearly audible in such a chaotic environment.

His movements were also the fastest.

Master Theodore gripped the obsidian staff tightly, and the runes on the staff suddenly erupted with blinding golden light.

The entire staff seemed to be injected with the power of the sun, and a bright beam of light with a radius of thirty feet rose from the staff.

When the light beam first appeared, it was only a faint golden light, but it surged instantly, like a newborn sun.

The dazzling light dispelled the gloom of the moment.

The light beam released a heart-palpitating pressure, penetrating the Wind Link that was close at hand.

The spatial rift emitted an unbearable humming sound, and the dark purple rift at the edge twisted crazily, as if resisting this powerful force.

This was also the reason why Master Theodore wanted to lead everyone to kill their way to the Wind Link.

Amidst the instinctive resistance of the spatial rift, the light beam still entered the secondary plane and fell toward the Wind Dragon hovering in front of the Wind Link.

Strange colors flashed in the Wind Dragon's pupils.

But it made no move.

Because at this moment, most of its energy was focused on contending with the Oakland Magic Crystal Cannon.

Compared to the Oakland Magic Crystal Cannon, it could clearly withstand Master Theodore's spell a bit better.

Of course, this was only relative.

The moment the light beam touched the Wind Dragon's body, a heaven-shaking roar erupted immediately.

Golden light energy engulfed the Wind Dragon like a tide.

The cyan vortex around the Wind Dragon shattered in the golden light, turning into countless tiny wind elemental particles.

【Dawn】.

Fifth-circle evocation spell.

It was also the first fifth-circle spell Master Theodore had cast so far.

A first-circle mage might use first-circle spells most often in battle.

But for higher-circle mages, the most commonly used spells are not high-circle spells, but spells below their own mage level.

One reason is that high-circle spells have long casting times and high consumption, which is not conducive to frequent casting.

Another point is that the higher the circle, the fewer the corresponding spells, and the more resources required for spell formulas and constructing spell models.

Therefore, the higher the mage level, the number of high-circle spells mastered actually decreases sharply.

Master Theodore had always done this before.

Whether it was the flame shield surrounding him or the flight spell, none were fifth-circle spells.

But now, facing the Wind Dragon directly, he finally unleashed his most powerful fifth-circle spell.

The effect was visible to the naked eye.

The joyful expression on Master Theodore's face had not fully unfolded before it was suddenly withdrawn a moment later.

Because the cyan crystal core in the Wind Dragon's translucent glass head suddenly rotated.

The wind elemental particles stripped from the Wind Dragon, following the rotation of the cyan crystal core, merged back into the Wind Dragon's body.

Although it looked a bit illusory, not as solid as before, it was indeed "returning to its owner," reducing the damage to a minimum.

The assault battle before the Wind Link was the key.

But on the main battlefield, the battle between the low-circle mages and the wind elemental creatures was equally critical.

Every wind elemental creature eliminated was a reduction in the energy of the secondary wind elemental plane.

The war had been going on for less than a quarter of an hour.

But the number of wind elemental creatures was simply too large, so everyone was casting spells without stopping, one after another, and their mana reserves were beginning to bottom out.

This was a bad omen.

On one side, mana reserves were about to bottom out, while on the other, as far as the eye could see, the number of wind elemental creatures didn't seem to be decreasing at all.

If there was anyone in the entire battlefield who could be happy, it might only be Gao De's Storm Soul, which had just been upgraded to the first stage.

It seemed that although the Storm Soul was not an energy creature, it had completed its transformation by absorbing pure wind elemental energy, and there were no other elements in its body besides wind elemental energy.

Therefore, in the perception of the low-intelligence wind elemental creatures, the Storm Soul was one of their own.

Under this cognition, the Storm Soul was like a fish in water, absorbing wind elemental energy with reckless abandon and joy.

It even reached the point where the wind elemental energy in this area was not enough for it to absorb, and it began to tentatively wander toward the surroundings.

Gao De hesitated for a moment.

After all, the battlefield situation was chaotic.

Although the wind elemental creatures regarded the Storm Soul as friendly and would not attack it.

But spells have no eyes, and for the Storm Soul to wander around the battlefield like this, it was highly probable that it would be affected by the spells of mages on other ships, and if he wasn't careful, it might need to be "re-forged."

But when Gao De thought about missing this opportunity, where else would there be such a continuous supply of wind elemental energy for the Storm Soul to absorb?

Finally, he gritted his teeth and decided to take the risk, giving the Storm Soul freedom.

Without Gao De's restrictions, the Storm Soul went completely wild, heading straight for the most intense part of the battlefield, which was the Thorn Crown.

The most intense part also meant the most wind elemental creatures defeated, and the more abundant the wind elemental energy it could absorb.

Clearly having just entered the first-stage form, at this moment, at the core of the Storm Soul's body, a deep emerald green light spot had already appeared.

That was the sign that the energy core was beginning to condense.

Once the energy core was completely condensed, it meant the Storm Soul had entered the second-stage form.

After that, it could absorb free energy from the outside world through the energy core on its own, thereby completing its own advancement.

In other words, the second-stage Storm Soul would no longer be a "gold-swallowing beast" that needed Gao De to "feed" it, but an "adult" capable of self-reliance.

Under normal circumstances, whether advancing to the first stage or the second stage, it required huge financial resources to purchase corresponding treasures to strengthen the Wilderness Soul.

Gao De's Storm Soul upgrade was not only progressing rapidly at this moment, but it was also all free.

How could one describe it as anything other than profitable?

The Storm Soul's speed was extremely fast, and after Gao De lifted the restrictions, in a few blinks of an eye, it arrived at the area where the Thorn Crown was located.

The huge light beam shot out by the Oakland Magic Crystal Cannon rose into the sky, still in intense confrontation with the cyan vortex spewed by the Wind Dragon in the Wind Link.

However, the Auric Crystal, which served as the energy supply, had begun to turn white, which meant that the mana contained within was about to be exhausted.

The area around this straight cylinder where the golden light beam and the cyan vortex connected was swirling with the most wind elemental energy.

Almost instinctively, the Storm Soul moved upward along the light beam, continuously devouring the overflowing wind elemental energy.

At the core of its body, that emerald green light spot was growing slowly but steadily.

Before the Wind Link.

Master Theodore's expression was particularly ugly.

In contrast, a hint of imperceptible smugness appeared in the Wind Dragon's huge pupils.

"This Wind Link reduces the power of my spells too much." Master Theodore stated the fundamental reason.

Count Roland saw that the situation was wrong: "Master Theodore, what should we do?"

Under the reduction of the Wind Link, even a fifth-circle spell could not directly annihilate the wind elemental energy that constituted the Wind Dragon's form.

This allowed it to use that cyan crystal to re-absorb the scattered wind elemental energy, thereby minimizing the damage it received.

"Unless we can enter the secondary plane and face the Wind Dragon directly." Master Theodore muttered.

But this was impossible.

The Wind Link had not yet formed, and at most, it could only allow third-rank wind elemental creatures to pass, so the Wind Dragon was restricted to the secondary wind elemental plane.

But this restriction was two-way.

They, whose lowest mage level was fourth circle, were also unable to pass through the Wind Link into the secondary wind elemental plane.

Third-circle mages were not obstructed.

But the problem was, even if a third-circle mage could pass through the Wind Link, what could they do against a fifth-rank Wind Dragon?

Unable to enter, all spells cast would have their power reduced by the Wind Link when passing through it.

"Attack, attack! It's just that the effect is greatly reduced, not useless!" In this situation, it was meaningless to be too entangled in things that couldn't be changed, Master Theodore gritted his teeth and issued the order.

He placed his staff horizontally, and the light rose again.

【Dawn】!

The fourth-circle mages who received the order also unleashed their most proficient fourth-circle spells, attacking the Wind Dragon inside through the Wind Link.

The battlefield was divided into three parts.

One was the bombardment launched by the high-level mage phalanx against the Wind Dragon.

Another was the continuous confrontation between the Wind Dragon and the Oakland Magic Crystal Cannon.

The final piece was the slaughter between the fleet and those wind elemental creatures, whose numbers were unknown.

In such an intense situation, no one noticed a slightly sneaky figure constantly darting upward along the "connection" between the cyan vortex and the golden beam of light, drawing closer to the Wind Knot all the while.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 418 =====