Chapter 695: Building The Stronghold - 2

"Arrgghhh..." Leo groaned loudly, holding his right arm in pain.

"Leo! Are you fine?" Lily's voice came from outside, already trying to make her way into the collapsed tunnel.

"I am good; stay there. I just gave a powered punch, which my body didn't take kindly to," Leo said while shaking his arm as natural healing did its work.

He had actually used the full force of [Critical Strike], which made the punch 700% stronger—almost equivalent to a 40,000 Strength stat—and struck the top of the tunnel he was making just to test things out.

This was because Shyra was in the 4-star realm, and Leo could only utilise the skill up to the maximum range of Peak 4-star, that is, 5000 stat. When boosted by 700%, it became 40,000. Or else, if 15,000 stat was taken into account, it would have reached 120,000 stat points.

And the interesting fact?

The mana cost was an astonishing 35,000!

And that cost was for a punch powered for just a single second.

"Damn, this punch might as well be my trump card against any being in this competition... especially the dragons," Leo muttered before snapping and flexing his arm.

He was looking at the straight, half-collapsed tunnel, which had happened because the ceiling had cracked.

"Was the damage any good?" Leo muttered, not realising that the whole 2-kilometre-tall wall had been separated.

With that, Leo continued to strike the wall around the base in circles for 4 to 5 hours until he felt it was enough. Then, he used the same [Critical Strike] as before at the opposite end near the platform so that the wall was completely separated from all angles.

When Leo came out after all that, he didn't look tired in the slightest and immediately went for a flight after telling Lily to get out of the canyon.

Now what was left was to make the wall topple over.

Leo got to a great distance from the location and then shot straight towards the side of the wall, giving it a body slam in an attempt to topple it.

BOOOOOOOOMM!!!

The pressure behind the crash was so great that an almost 100-metre-wide crater formed, shaking the whole destabilised wall and sending debris everywhere. With Leo's previous damage to the base, it started to fall slowly.

"H-he did it..." Uraan muttered. He had watched the whole ordeal from beginning to end in almost a trance-like state.

Outside in the stadium, everybody was going crazy.

"How the fuck is that even possible?!"

Even the dragons were no less astonished by the feat Leo had achieved, especially the crashing flight he had done in the end.

None of the flame dragons was capable of reaching that speed, let alone giving that crushing blow.

As the wall fell, it was finally destroyed after hitting the floor and breaking apart at several locations. Though the depth of the 2-kilometre canyon was reduced by 200 meters in that particular section, the 2-kilometre wall had fallen and crashed, and it was still enough.

Leo, who was having his broken bones and muscles heal up, suddenly realised something.

If he was capable of striking from the air like this, so were the others.

Though he wasn't sure about them having recovery abilities as good as his, if the stronghold was situated on the top of a 2-kilometre-tall platform—which was at the same height as the surface—an aerial strike would be on its way, and since the stronghold wouldn't be as strong as the wall, the attacker wouldn't even take much damage and wouldn't hesitate.

At that time, Leo decided to reduce the platform to just 1 kilometre, down from the previous 2 kilometres. Because at that height, an aerial strike like Leo's would compel the attacker to attack at an angle to hit the base, but that angle would make it impossible for the attacker to hit the tough platform without risking elimination to the ground collision.

And Leo did the same.

Leo took another few hours, turning the day into late afternoon as he slowly broke the platform down to just 1 kilometre in height. And now, the platform was actually 600 to 700 meters wide because it was gradually thickening as one reached closer to the base.

After a short meal that Lily had prepared in the meantime, Leo immediately got back up to do the next thing.

And that was to construct two walls to block the two channels of the canyon leading into the area so that they would have an isolated island surrounded by high-rising walls that would resist most, if not all, aerial dive attacks.

Aaron and Yano, with their Earth element, had already started to lay down the foundation of the base, while Lily had started to dig inside the platform to hollow it out to a certain degree and create a safe working environment for Veronica and the others, so that even if the base was attacked, they wouldn't be easily targeted.

As for the beacon, Leo had planned to dig deeper into the platform than Lily was making the bunker and simply bury it in a hole. Since the beacon's beam could pass through physical barriers, it wasn't a matter of whether it was buried.

As for people attacking from underground, it was not possible for them to succeed before being sensed, not to mention that most would think the beacon was somewhere on the surface of the stronghold; a beam of light could never hint at the depth at which the source lay.

In other words, people would attack from above.

By now, Leo had formed a 100-meter-high dense wall on both channels and communicated with Lily.

The next moment, the sky was covered in dense, stormy clouds, and Hydra's spirit form materialised in the middle of the platform.

"Wha—?!" Students were startled and immediately backed off in defence.

"Everybody calm down, this is my beast—Pryde," Lily informed them as she came out for a moment's rest.

"It's a spirit?" Uraan muttered. Previously, he could only make out the structure of an earth dragon from the top, but now that it was closer, its slightly translucent form was apparent.

"Yes, a spirit. He will now make rain in the surroundings, so everybody stay inside this aura dome," Lily said and activated Howl's [Mountain Aura Dome].

"Huh, why?" Aaron asked.

"Soaking the ground would make our work easier, and I don't think people are afraid to get wet."

"No, the rain will be acidic," she said to Aaron, who had shut his mouth and whistled. He didn't want to be burned.

She turned towards Kaelion.

"I think the Aerial unit should go and search for other important resources for our Alchemist and even map the surroundings to check the location of other academies, if there are any"

Kaelion and Uraan nodded and took Fruder, Veronica, and the other two alchemists with them.

This time, however, Thalvyr joined them to increase their fighting power; Sylrael was already part of the aerial unit.

For the rest of the free people, like the ice unit and others, Leo summoned the Ironfeather Roc's body and told them to pluck out the feathers.

With everything done, the acidic rain began, and soon the surrounding area would be flooded, and the platform would become an island.