Seeing Lex’s encouragement, Richard flashed a bright smile, showing his white teeth, and gave a thumbs-up before turning and rushing toward the competition arena.

  Having watched the previous matches, Richard had gained some confidence in his own strength. His serpent race’s extraordinary abilities had excellent adaptability, allowing him to hold the home-field advantage against almost any kind of familiar.

  Moreover, thanks to the joint casting ability, his 20,000 extraordinary serpent men would only grow stronger as their numbers increased. Therefore, he couldn’t afford to send small squads; he had to go all out from the start if he wanted a chance to advance further.

  Once both sides finished connecting their invasion channels and the referee gave the order to start, Richard immediately deployed his strongest forces.

  A total of 1.5 million serpent warriors and 20,000 extraordinary serpent men—this was the result of the divine power resources provided by the school after he qualified for the competition.

  Richard had spent most of his divine power on purchasing rare resources, which allowed him to increase the number of extraordinary serpent men to 20,000 in such a short time.

  His opponent, Tony, showed no sign of panic upon seeing Richard’s familiars. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and said coldly,

  "Classmate, by revealing all your strength right away, you’re making the road ahead much harder for yourself. How about recalling some of your troops? Let’s both send only 10,000 familiars and keep this match lighthearted, what do you say?"

  Having shown his full strength, Richard mistakenly thought he had intimidated his opponent and that Tony was now afraid. Energized, he replied excitedly,

  "If you want to minimize your losses, then surrender. Otherwise, let’s fight!"

  "Since that’s your choice, I won’t hold back either. I just hope you don’t end up crying later."

  With an icy smile, Tony’s divine realm suddenly erupted, and 2 million green-skinned orcs charged out.

  These orcs were well-equipped, and just a quick glance was enough to tell that their gear was custom-made.

  Each orc was clad in polished full-body armor, wielding massive axes or broadswords, with round arm shields strapped to their forearms.

  Around their waists were military-style webbing belts, complete with leather pouches of various sizes.

  To William, it looked as if a group of actors from a medieval fantasy war film had just walked onto a World War II movie set, grabbed some props, and rushed straight into battle—an absolutely bizarre mishmash of styles that felt completely out of place.

  Despite their questionable aesthetics, orcs were undoubtedly one of the strongest combat races in the early stages of divine realm development, far superior to mere half-orcs.

  Standing over two meters tall, their muscular bodies granted them exceptional strength, endurance, recovery, and reproduction abilities.

  While they weren’t quite as powerful as extraordinary familiars, they were among the strongest regular familiars one could have.

  Moreover, due to their naturally abundant blood energy, orcs were well-known as one of the easiest races to cultivate into extraordinary-tier warriors, particularly in mastering battle qi techniques.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  As soon as these orcs entered the battlefield, they quickly organized themselves, with 300,000 orc wolf riders forming a loose wedge formation at the vanguard, advancing toward Richard’s serpent army.

  The invasion portals of both contestants were actually less than 50 kilometers apart, allowing their forces to quickly close the distance.

  "Finally, a full-force battle! Watching the earlier matches was putting me to sleep!"

  "Now this is interesting! Look at those serpent men—they don’t even have standardized armor. I bet they’re going to get slaughtered!"

  Seeing the sheer number of familiars deployed, the previously drowsy audience suddenly perked up.

  All the previous matches had been extremely reserved, with students typically deploying only around 100,000 familiars, carefully conserving their strength for future rounds.

  Richard, however, was the first hotheaded contestant to throw everything he had into the fight right from the start.

  Inside the battlefield, Richard’s serpent army formed a crude circular formation, placing the 20,000 extraordinary serpent men in the center for protection, then began a slow advance.

  As the two armies finally spotted each other on an open plain, Richard’s extraordinary serpent men immediately began their ritualistic dance, summoning a faint yellow corrosive mist that quickly spread in all directions.

  Within moments, the rolling yellow fog had engulfed Tony’s entire orc army.

  "Cough… cough…! What’s with this fog? Why is there mist appearing?!"

  One of the wolf-mounted orc riders started coughing violently, and his reaction triggered a chain effect—before long, thousands of orcs were coughing uncontrollably.

  "My serpent men’s extraordinary ability deals widespread damage and control effects! Surrender now, and I’ll lift the poisonous mist—you’ll lose fewer troops this way!"

  Seeing that his corrosive mist had covered the entire enemy force and was visibly taking effect, Richard’s semi-divine projection immediately began taunting Tony, attempting to apply psychological pressure.

  However, Tony simply smirked without replying.

  Before he could even issue an oracle command, his orc army’s commander had already taken action.

  The lead orc general suddenly ignited a faint blood-red battle aura, and before the corrosive mist could even reach his body, it was completely burned away.

  Then, raising his massive battle axe, the orc commander shouted in a thunderous voice,

  "This mist is poisonous! All troops, halt! Equip gas masks immediately!"

  His command instantly spread throughout the ranks, and every orc within earshot swiftly removed their full-cover helmets, pulled out military-grade gas masks from their waist pouches, and strapped them on.

  The orcs farther back, who didn’t hear the order directly, followed suit upon seeing their comrades’ actions.

  In less than one minute, all 2 million orcs had donned their full-face transparent gas masks.

  Even the wolf riders, still mounted on their war wolves, had equipped their mounts with specialized gas masks.

  This unexpected development left Richard completely stunned.

  His strongest extraordinary ability had just been rendered useless in an instant.

  "What the hell?! This is even possible?!"

  His battle rhythm was completely disrupted.

  "Heh, I gave you a chance," Tony sneered. "We could have fought lightly, but you refused. Now, you’ll have to deal with the consequences of your choice."

  With just a few short exchanges, the 30,000 orc wolf riders leading the charge ignited their battle qi, surging forward like a tidal wave into the serpent army’s fragile formation.

  Richard’s poorly equipped troops were instantly overwhelmed by the 30,000 extraordinary orc warriors.

  With the corrosive mist neutralized, the battle became one-sided.

  These battle qi-infused orcs possessed greater strength, higher endurance, stronger defenses, faster stamina recovery, and superior physical abilities across the board.

  The outcome was clear—Richard was doomed.