Chapter 698: 1st Phase Ends - 2

SPLURSH!

Whine~~

The half-dead wolf tried to swim in the water, barely able to move its legs as it started to writhe in panic and make whimpering noises.

Leo and the others raised their eyes at the sight, because it was no less astonishing.

"What in the world...? Did its fur melt off in an instant?!" Dhalia muttered, leaning down toward the platform's edge to get a closer look with wide eyes.

Not only that, but the moment the water came into contact with the wolf's eyeballs, they burst away. Leo hadn't caused any external wounds, or else the beast would have died in an instant after the acid seeped into its body through the wound.

But that only made it more painful for the poor beast. The water in contact with the wolf's body took on a green tint as the acid slowly began to melt the beast.

Leo noted that only the water in contact with its body turned green; the rest still looked normal.

"Wait... don't tell me all this water isn't water but acid?!" Ronan asked in astonishment.

But before anybody could answer him, a large shadow loomed beneath the water's surface, and the wolf's body was suddenly dragged down.

The wolf was already dead, and while being pulled down, its body started to break down because the acid had already done its work.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!!" Aaron shouted, pointing at the shadow that was no longer there.

"That's my hydra," Lily simply replied.

"That spirit beast?!" Aaron repeated.

Even Kaelion was confused.

"Wait... didn't it have 4 legs and was only around 25 to 30 meters long? That thing was nowhere near that."

"It transformed from a land hydra after coming into contact with abundant water. It took the form of a water hydra."

Kaelion raised a brow in astonishment while other students looked at him, weirded out as to how a 25 to 30 meters tall beast could be 'only'.

"That's a hydra?!" Uraan asked, baffled.

"But I saw it using the earth element previously! Wasn't it an earth dragon? It doesn't even have multiple heads!" he asked.

Leo and Lily looked toward each other and shrugged.

"Maybe she got lucky?" Leo said, with little concern, before walking back to rest. He was in no mood to explain things one after the other; they were clever enough to understand on their own.

The last day he and Lily would spend resting; they had worked the previous days tirelessly.

Within the walls were multiple storage areas and resting cabins, and, surprisingly, Leo and Lily took a separate cabin to rest in.

They had no interest in showing the 3 Empires that they were doing the thing.

Outside the stadium, alongside the huge screen that occasionally displayed what the surviving academies were doing, another competition was underway.

The Competition of Losing Academies.

Apparently, from all the losing academies, 2 would be selected to advance to the semi-finals. Though they would have the disadvantage of advancing without any resources in their hands. Because they had lost their opportunity to gather them in the secret realm, even the resources bought with 5000 Gold Coins were lost.

No potions, no extra items or natural treasures, nothing. Just them, their weapons, and the food, which was the only extra grace provided.

Meaning they would be in a way worse position than the academies that came out of the secret realm alive.

The competition format was rather simple: a 3-point competition.

1 point was awarded for winning a Group versus Group event; where the entire 25 students from both losing academies would go against one another on a small, enclosed battlefield.

The winning academy would get 1 point.

Another point was awarded in a 5v5 arena among chosen candidates from the students.

The last point was a 1v1 between the 1st-ranked students of both academies.

The academy securing 2 points out of 3 would move on to compete against the next academy.

Around 7 of the 21 academies were already out of the competition after being eliminated in the secret realm by having their beacons destroyed.

Apparently, the dragons went on a rampage, leaving only a handful of people who couldn't transform to work on the base. Many simply went to hunt down other human and elven academies.

Somehow, the 2nd-ranked elven academy—Sylvaris Grand Academy—was also eliminated.

No, not just the 2nd rank; the elves had a total of 4 academies taken out: Sylvaris Grand Academy (2nd), Lunareth Academy (3rd), Aelthir Royal Academy (6th), and Vaeloria Grand Academy (7th). The humans had 3 academies taken out: Drakensoul Academy (4th), Eldros Academy of Taming Arts (5th), and Ardent Sovereign Hall (6th).

All dragon academies were intact.

This was the reason the losing academies' competition was kept; sending them away without a chance to redeem themselves would only shame them further.

Another reason was that the spectators in the stadium wouldn't get bored watching the students inside the realm, who were just preparing for 7 days—except for the highlight of the dragon rampage.

There were many interesting sights where the students had chosen to build their bases, but one academy had kept the audience's interest locked in the most: Aurelius Beast Academy.

"Did they make that sort of heavy rain for 5 days straight? Damn my life, dude; I want to have power like them."

"And did you even see what that 1st-ranked student did before? Broke a fucking 2-kilometre wall with bare fucking fists!"

"Yeah... but doesn't it seem like Aurelius Academy is actually a better academy than the 1st and 2nd? I-I mean, even if we haven't seen them fight yet, the others seem weaker. Aurelius Academy completely wrecked the Lunareth Academy."

"Nah, bro, the top 3 are carrying the whole team, especially the 1st ranker, Leo, and Blushing Butcheress. The rest seem rather equal to the other academies."

"Hmph, it's all flashiness. Real things come down to fighting. I bet they all will lose to our lightning princess from Valencrest Royal Academy."

"Fuck off! My charming Hell Aura King from Velerath would show them all their places."

Suddenly, a dragon in human form sitting behind them chuckled leisurely while poking his nose.

"Keep dreaming worms. Our Prince Azrakar Sunborn alone is enough to handle everybody's ass."

The humans muttered amongst themselves about a plan to beat the shit out of this dragon who couldn't transform into a dragon and had strength of around Low 2-star

"Oi, I heard that," the dragon said seriously.

The young human shoved a middle finger right in his face.

"So what? Did you shit yourself? Go rub that scaly ass on sandpaper!"

The dragon snapped and rose to teach him a lesson.

"Kuhum!"

A cough came from behind him, and the dragon sat back in his place with gritted teeth. It was a law enforcement officer; no matter how heinous the taunt, nobody was allowed to fight.

Inside the realm, a countdown suddenly appeared above the Aurelius Beast Academy Stronghold.

50!

49!

48!

The countdown was a huge hologram directly above their heads, projected from deep inside their platform pillar. Meaning it was being projected from the Mystical Cube Beacon, and burying it didn't affect its functionality.

5!

4!

3!

2!

1!