Chapter 365: The Storm Altar (part 1)

Gul'dan stroked his beard and replied, "This thing is full of energy. I believe these rune stones, along with others scattered evenly around the forest's edge, form a massive magical trap and spell barrier."

"What kind of barrier? It hasn't stopped us or caused any harm," Orgrim pointed out.

"No, not because we've merely entered the forest physically and used conventional weapons," Gul'dan replied. "I think these rune stones restrict the use of magic. It's highly likely that only the elves can cast their spells within this range. I've tried casting some spells here, but all have failed. However, if I step ten paces back, beyond the hill, I can cast spells again."

Orgrim became solemn.

This was not a fun fact.

He remembered clearly how destructive human magic could be. If it weren't for the orc warlocks suppressing the human mages, the orcs would have had to pay a heavy price to defeat the humans. That's the main reason he hadn't completely eradicated the despised Shadow Council.

Human magic originated from the elves.

He was well aware of Gul'dan's power. Even now, after his injury, Gul'dan's magic was still the strongest among the orcs, bar none.

His battle with Antonidas, reputedly the strongest human mage, in Southshore, had proven Gul'dan's strength.

Yet, this same Gul'dan was telling him that his magic was useless here.

"What about the trap?"

"It seems to be able to draw out a powerful force hidden beneath the forest. If those long-eared creatures wish, boom!" Gul'dan grinned, making an exaggerated explosion gesture.

"How many can it handle at once?"

Gul'dan smirked, raising five fingers.

"Five thousand?" Orgrim ventured.

"Five ten-thousands. As long as they're within the rune-defined range, anywhere, as long as they're packed tightly enough, it wouldn't be a problem to kill ten thousand trolls at a single location."

The Warchief was instantly reminded of the day Stormwind fell, when thousands of orc warriors were burned to death in the flames. The Blackrock clan orcs had some resistance to fire, but they were not immune to fire damage.

If the fire was big enough, they would still get hurt, they would still die.

Knowing the answer, Orgrim was startled and raised his hammer in a straightforward manner.

His meaning was clear.

"Is there a way to destroy it?"

"No, no, no, that would be too wasteful. I can turn it into a storm altar, allowing the power drawn from the rune stones to enhance creatures in some way," Gul'dan, with his hunched back, radiated an evil aura.

"No orc will participate in your enhancement," the Warchief sternly refused.

"They did become stronger."

Orgrim stared at Gul'dan's half-closed eyes, radiating a killing intent, "Stronger, greener, less intelligent, and more violent."

Gul'dan bowed his head deeply, not intending to openly confront the Warchief at this point, "I plan to enhance the ogres, there may be some physical mutations. But, that has nothing to do with the orcs."

Out of sight, out of mind.

Aware of the loss of the Horde's elite and the consequent decline in combat power, Orgrim agreed, just as he had previously agreed to let the death knights, transformed from dead humans, join the Horde.

The preparations went smoothly, but they were time-consuming.

Originally, Orgrim thought Zul'jin would be impatient. Who knew Zul'jin would say, "My ancestors spent hundreds of

years without breaking this barrier, I don't mind waiting a few days or months, as long as it can be broken. Trolls can wait."

With that, Zul'jin ran off to hunt the elf patrols on the periphery for fun.

After Gul'dan used his wicked dark magic and rituals to break the outermost protection of the rune stone, he directed Cho'gall, the two-headed ogre hero, to carefully and methodically dismantle this huge rune stone.

This was a task requiring both high skill and high physical strength.

A clumsy ogre triggered the protective prohibition on the rune stone, and what happened?

The poor creature was blasted thirty meters into the air, then his entire body scattered into over ten thousand pieces, evenly spread over a range of nearly a hundred square meters.

Even if this ogre's mother came here, she would absolutely not recognize this as her child.

It took them a full eight hours to completely excavate this rune stone.

Fortunately, Orgrim, along with a portion of the elite and troll vanguard, arrived here first. Otherwise, during this time, he could only let nearly a hundred thousand troops wait.

Now, the hundred thousand troops were still marching at a steady pace sixty kilometers away.

Here, Cho'gall skillfully smashed the huge stele into several still massive fragments. He brought five of them to this open space, then spent several more hours adjusting the shapes of these stones, placing them on this open space that had been checked and was located above the forest's energy ley lines, arranging them into the correct pentagram shape.

"Is everything ready?" Gul'dan asked impatiently. Not far away, both of Cho'gall's heads shook. This huge ogre made a pig-like grunt, his explosively powerful robust arm was holding the last piece of rune stone fragment, which weighed at least five tons, walking on this open space.

"It's ready now." He shouted, rubbing his shoulder with one hand.

Gul'dan finally nodded in satisfaction.

He couldn't imagine how he would have manipulated the original mountain-like rune stone without sufficient labor.

These rune stone fragments were huge, heavy, and had strange centers of gravity. Two ogres could lift it, but it would take at least a dozen orcs to do this job.

Orgrim despised magic and would absolutely not allow noble orcs to do this dangerous task.

Luckily, the Warchief allowed Gul'dan to use some ogres to complete this task, and Cho'gall could command his stupid single-headed kin more easily than any orc.

Yes, facing a group of muscular idiots, no matter if you're a world-class sage, you'd still go crazy.

Gul'dan could calculate how the elves first moved those complete rune stones to their original positions.

That was a task of strength unrelated to magic.

Magic is powerful, but compared to the energy required for magic to provide a lifting force of 100 kilograms, it's better to use slaves directly.

Forest trolls have almost the same strength as ogres and are much smarter. They would follow specific commands better.

But the elves didn't have the habit of keeping troll slaves for a long time.

The stones were finally placed correctly, in the right position. Even Gul'dan, with his picky eyes, couldn't find any faults.

Gul'dan waved his hand, and five orc warlocks each chose to stand next to one of the five rune stones.

"Thank goodness Orgrim, that muscle-headed schemer, didn't kill all my people."

Thank goodness, otherwise there would be absolutely no chance to complete this ritual.