Chapter 697: 1st Phase Ends - 1

On the platform—which was covered with the Aura Dome—there was no visibility outside.

The rain was so intense that the only thing the other students could see was the incessant downpour hitting the yellowish-orange barrier.

Most of them were even startled by that sudden crash of water, not knowing what was happening until Lily explained the situation.

As the water rushed into the region, the Hydra was completely submerged in the initial wave of funnelled water filled with dirt and debris.

Though Leo and Lily couldn't make out what happened inside the wave, the Hydra came out to swim on top of the incoming waves. Its 4 legs were gone, even its torso had thinned astonishingly, and its body length had increased with the elongation of its tail.

If the total height from head to tail was taken into account after the transformation, it was a staggering 50 meters!

Leo also noted that there was a slight bulge in the abdomen region that differentiated the Hydra from other serpent-like creatures—it was also the most probable region from which other heads would generate in case the first was cut off.

The Hydra immediately dove beneath the debris and used high-pressure, acidic water beams to further dilute the accumulated silt and help fill the ring lake faster.

And just like that, the days started to pass.

The aerial unit that had been out of the region to survey the area and collect resources was shocked to see the scene upon its return. They circled the 4-kilometre-wide, dense cloud formation and realised there was no way into the platform.

Not to mention, the wind was directing all the rain droplets toward the canyon and the platform. Kaelion was sure they would be thrown off the Skyreaver's back if they tried to enter the region because of the intense wind pressure.

There was nothing visible through the curtain of water that they could make out.

Thankfully, Aeila's [Spirit Link] was in range, and after they communicated, they got to know the situation.

"Is there anything these two are incapable of?" Uraan asked in frustration.

"Just this afternoon, I saw him punching that enormous wall down with his bare fists!"

While they were only lamenting their weakness, Lily opened a safe passage for them to get onto the platform and continue with what they had to do.

In 1 whole day, only about 30 meters of the whole ring lake had filled.

At some point, Leo was compelled to burn through most of his mana reserves to maintain the whole thing by himself because Lily needed to continue forming the bunker.

And after a bit of rest, they both continued once again, this time with greater intensity, as the Hydra also helped with the rain.

By the 4th day, the pool had already reached the 100-meter mark, the minimum target Leo had set, but there were still 3 days left, so they continued.

Not to mention, the dense, stormy, cloud-covered region even prevented others from spying on their territory from afar, just as Uraan and Kaelion were doing for other academies.

By now, they had gathered information on the 6 academy locations, and 4 of them were dragons themselves because dragons didn't like hiding in inconspicuous places like humans and elves.

The stronghold was also half-completed, with a 20-meter-tall walled square region whose sides were 500 meters long. Additionally, important foundational points had been covered by the iron feathers of the slain Roc to prevent collapse in the event of any devastating attacks.

There was also a central tower to keep watch in the surroundings.

Tavian—after crafting the necessary number of talismans for long-distance communication, healing, and some other uses—focused on fortifying the stronghold with his trap arrays.

The scouts, for now, were busy locating the desired beasts whose materials could be needed in alchemy—which were hunted by Team Ice and Fire, while Veronica and the other two had already created more than 200 potions with the abundant resources.

By the last hours of the 6th day, Leo had built up both walls around the openings of the canyon—extremely durable 2-kilometre-tall walls that held back water rising to 150 meters, with the Hydra lurking somewhere inside them.

After that, Leo and Lily proceeded to fortify the stronghold walls, and Leo finally began to dig 500 meters deep into the platform—a hole, to be accurate.

500 meters so that the beacon wasn't easy to access—since it was right at the centre of the 1-kilometre-tall platform column. With the Hydra in the acidic water, no ground or underground attacks were possible, and a 500-meter depth guaranteed that if any capable attacker overpowered most of them in case Leo and Lily were away, they could get enough time to return.

After that, Tavian mentioned a glaring issue.

"What if people target us by standing on the perimeter of the cliffs? Like magical ranged attacks. I don't know whether we could defend against them."

Leo thought about it for a while, and to be honest, it wasn't that big of a threat unless the top dogs used those methods.

First, the platform—or more like an island now—had a 1-kilometre-long chasm with an acidic water moat; any weak attacks wouldn't even reach them. As a matter of fact, even Pseudo 4-star ranged attacks were incapable of reaching them.

Second, in case of any attacks from Low 4-star beings, there would be the multilayered [Mountain Aura Dome] as the first defence, which had a record of stopping an attack from a High 4-star avian beast.

The only ranged attacks that were capable of reaching from lower-ranked beings were arrows shot from bows, and for that, most would prefer to stand near the edge of the cliff for greater accuracy.

As for those people, Leo was going to surprise them.

He immediately flew around the perimeter of the cliff and used [Earth Manipulation] to loosen the soil so that simply standing on it wouldn't cause it to collapse or make the loose soil beneath the surface noticeable.

However, once Sylrael or Aeila fired an arrow—even a weak one just to touch the lower section of the loosened soil—a localised area of 10 to 20 meters would collapse, making anybody standing on it fall into the 150-meter-deep lake below.

And in case they thought that falling into the water was safe... well, the rest would be history.

Though Leo was curious to check the effectiveness of the acid lake without the Hydra, he simply flew around the realm and brought back a half-dead, 6-meter-tall Low 3-star wolf. He was actually capable of taking flight with this excessive load, though he needed to use wind to a great degree.

He tossed the beast into the lake from the surface.

---

*Transformed Hydra's Image*

*Aurelius Beast Academy's Stronghold Image*