Chapter 707: 2nd Phase

00:00:00

The moment the timer hit zero, 10 beams of light suddenly shot up into the sky from different locations inside the secret realm. At the same time, those same locations were marked on the map of every stronghold, with a simple, uniform beast face displayed at each point.

Then, the announcement screen flickered with instructions.

2nd Phase has Officially Begun.

The new locations marked on the map display flags that individual teams must occupy to secure a Summoning Shard and a Point Multiplier.

Each Captured Flag awards a team 10 points, a 1x Point Multiplier, and 1 Summoning Shard.

Details about the Summoning Shard will be provided in later phases.

Each Team starts with a 0x Point Multiplier, meaning capturing 0 flags would make their scored points zero, which equals disqualification.

During this phase, teams may attack other strongholds, and the phase continues indefinitely until 6 strongholds remain.

Good Luck.

Every student inside the realm stared at the announcement text intently, and with that, they understood that the number of capable men in their team who had remained intact after the stronghold-building phase would directly impact their qualification or disqualification.

Because in this phase, teams were bound to be split.

Whether it was just capturing 1 flag or more than 1, some part of the team needed to stay back in the stronghold to defend against other academies' attacks, while another part needed to proceed with capturing flags whose prerequisites weren't mentioned.

Meaning, how to capture the flag and how to maintain the captured flag would only be known when someone reached the location.

At that time, the leaderboard refreshed, and yet another academy was taken down. In the distance, a beacon beam disappeared around the central mountain.

This time, however, it wasn't the last academy that was taken out; rather, it was the 9th academy, and the last academy, which had a measly point total of 1, shot up to 11, positioning itself in 6th place.

1. ??? - 33 Points

2. Aurelius Beast Academy - 30 Points

3. ??? - 22 Points

4. ??? - 15 Points

5. ??? - 13 Points

12. -> 6. ??? - 1 -> 11 Points

6. -> 7. ??? - 9 Points

7. -> 8. ??? - 8 Points

8. -> 9. ??? - 6 Points

9. ??? - 6 Points -> Eliminated

10. ??? - 5 Points

11. ??? - 5 Points

Meaning, with just 11 strongholds left, there were 5 more eliminations before the 2nd phase ended.

Then suddenly—

??? - 5 Points -> Eliminated

??? - 33 -> 43 Points

Another stronghold somewhere in the distance from the central mountain, but still close by, was eliminated.

This strongly indicated that the dragons were eliminating fellow dragon strongholds.

Now, only 4 academy eliminations were left before the second phase ended.

However, this created a sense of urgency among the remaining academies. What if, before they could capture a flag and secure even a 1-point multiplier to maintain the points they had scored so far, the 4 academies were eliminated, and they lost all their points?

They would be eliminated the moment the 2nd phase ended—which could very well be today with the rate at which the academies were falling.

Leo immediately checked the map and realised 1 of the flags was around 300 Kilometres from their stronghold, and surprisingly, the same distance was even for the Evergrove Sovereign Academy.

He also checked that the second nearby location was 400 kilometres in the opposite direction, and it was in a considerably safer place, with no other academy within 800 Kilometres.

But...

"What if we cannot recapture a flag after some other academy has captured it?" Fruder pointed out.

Since no specific instructions were given, they were in the dark and needed to act accordingly.

After a brief discussion of the options, they concluded that capturing as many flags as possible was the best course of action.

Though Fruder seemed a bit sceptical about the mysterious Summoning Shard that they would accumulate alongside capturing flags, the Point Multipliers were far more lucrative.

For example, if they managed to capture 2 flags and had a 2x multiplier, their 30 points would rise to 60 after the 2nd phase ended. In other words, the higher the multiplier, the better, according to the information they had.

So, leaving just Lily and the Resource Unit behind to defend, two combined groups formed to go for the 2 nearest flags by joining two units each.

1st Unit: Leo.

2nd Unit: Lily.

3rd Unit: Dhalia, Marco, Miho, Aaron, 1 scout.

4th Unit: Kaelion, Uraan, Rhaegar (Eagleman), Sylrael.

5th Unit: Ronan, Cecil, Thalvyr, Plato (healer), 1 scout.

Resource Unit: Tavian, Lyra, Yano, Aeila, 1 scout, 3 brewers, 1 intellect.

One group consisted of the 1st and 5th Units, a.k.a. Flame Unit, to go to the 300-kilometre mark location near the Evergrove Sovereign Academy, while the other group consisted of the 3rd and 4th Units, a.k.a. Blizzard (Wind & Ice) Unit, to go and capture the isolated flag.

Since the Evergrove Stronghold had elves who predominantly seemed to have a wood element, evident in their stronghold structure, the Flame Unit would win unilaterally if a battle unfolded.

"Remember to contact us in any emergency, and always make sure to keep each other's backs so that they don't get defeated." Leo reminded them, then told the 5th Unit to climb onto Agnivar's back.

The Blizzard Unit flew away on Kaelion's Skyreaver.

Lily, as usual, flew into the clouds to keep an aerial view of the territory.

"Leo, what if the Evergrove Stronghold plays it smart and instead attacks our stronghold?" Ronan raised an important issue to Leo, who was flying beside them along with Agnivar.

Leo shrugged.

"No problem at all. I have my stealthy beasts roaming around the forest, and Lily has yet to reveal her cards." Leo countered.

"Then we even have Tavian and Lyra. Together with that raging storm, there's no chance the 4th-ranked elven academy can stand against them. You clearly saw how easy it was to defeat the 2nd-ranked academy."

"Yeah, but it was because you managed to take out 5 of their rankers in an instant. Right now, our stronghold seems to be missing more rankers than that."

Leo looked at Ronan.

"Who said Lily isn't capable of doing the same? Taking out our five rankers at once? I bet she can take out all 10 of them, considering they are far weaker than Lunareth Academy."

Outside the realm, people were hearing Leo's words crystal clear.

Somehow, when the second phase began, the recording orbs activated their audio and mic functions. Now they could even hear what the students were talking about.

And of course, the elves didn't take Leo's words kindly.

"What does he even think of us, huh? His arrogance has no bounds!"

"Looks like continuous win streaks have bloated his ego! Evergrove will teach them their place!"

"Yes! Their strength lies in being together and that perfect coordination! Now that they are separated, they will fall!"

"And do you even see their audacity? While other academies are only trying to capture a single flag at once, they are trying for 2!"

"Just like the Aurex Dragon Academy! Do they think of themselves as dragons after just taming a Wyvern and that one serpent or basilisk or whatever that transforming beast is?!"

One elf pointed at the screen.

"Look! The Evergrove is going towards the Aurelius Stronghold with most of their forces!"