Chapter 727: Phase 3

The clock hit exactly 6 AM when the information about the Summoning Shard appeared on the announcement screen.

Apparently, Phase 3's difficulty was directly decided by the number of Summoning Shards a stronghold possessed.

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[PHASE 3]

STRONGHOLD DEFENCE TRIAL

Objective:

Defend your stronghold against the summoned Boss Beast and prove your academy's defensive capabilities.

[SUMMONING SHARD]

Summoning Shard: A special item obtained during the previous phase.

The Summoning Shard is used to summon a powerful Boss Beast that will attack your stronghold.

- 1 Summoning Shard: Summons 1 Low 5-Star Boss Beast.

- 2 Summoning Shards: Summons 1 Low 5-Star Boss Beast along with its minions.

The Boss Beast and its minions will continuously attack the stronghold for 1 hour.

If the Boss Beast is not defeated within the allotted time, it will disappear once the phase ends.

[REWARD CONDITIONS]

>Successful Defence

- Defend the stronghold beacon until the trial ends.

Reward: 25 Points

>Boss Beast Defeated

- Successfully defend the stronghold and defeat the Boss Beast.

Reward: 50 Points

>Complete Suppression

- Successfully defend the stronghold, defeat the Boss Beast, and eliminate at least 50% of its minions.

Reward: 100 Points

[FINAL SCORE CALCULATION]

Multiply the total points obtained in all the phases by the Point Multiplier accumulated during the previous phase.

Points at the end of Phase 3 = Total Points × Point Multiplier

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This was the information that led Leo to call Lily back as quickly as possible, because he couldn't afford to let her get tired fighting the dragons when such a challenge was coming in just 6 hours.

"A Low 5-Star beast…" Leo muttered.

He also saw no information about what would happen if someone had 3 Summoning Shards. But Fruder immediately speculated that minion commanders would spawn, who would at the very least be no weaker than the top 10 individuals.

But since there was no information about 3 shard, no academy seemed to have secured that much.

At the same time, the leaderboard updated.

1] ??? - 63 Points

2] Aurelius Beast Academy - 80 Points

3] ??? - 32 Points - Eliminated

4] ??? - 23 Points - No Point Multiplier - Eliminated

5] ??? - 19 Points

6] ??? - 18 Points

7] ??? - 15 Points - Eliminated

8] ??? - 11 Points - No Point Multiplier - Eliminated

Updated Leaderboard:

1] Aurelius Beast Academy - 80 Points

2] Sunborn Royal Academy - 63 Points

3] Velerath Grand Academy - 19 Points

4] Elarion Royal Academy - 18 Points

The names on the leaderboard caught everyone by surprise, and their locations were revealed on the map.

And Fruder's guesses had been spot on.

The eastern side of the Central Mountain was Sunborn Royal Academy.

As for the rest, even though the names weren't known previously, the guesses had been accurate based on their ranking number.

So Velerath was in the northwest direction of the Central Mountain; that is, on the left of Aurelius Stronghold, while Elarion was in the southwest direction, that is, on the right of Aurelius Stronghold.

"Huh?" Tavian was the first to notice a pattern.

"Did they survive because of us?"

He said that because it was the nearest academy to Aurelius Stronghold, and if they hadn't weakened and ultimately eliminated Azirith Academy—the Red-Flame dragons—then Elarion would have been eliminated.

And though Velerath might have survived on its own, it would have been another case if the 10 dragons from Sunborn had attacked them instead of Aurelius Stronghold.

"Why do you even care? Don't you look at their points?" Uraan said, hinting at the numbers 19 and 18 with a slightly mocking tone.

"Looks like they just secured a flag, scoring 10 points, plus the extra 9 and 8 for a good stronghold."

Leo nodded at that. He had personally seen the Velerath Stronghold and could tell it was worth 9 points.

"And since they must have, like, 1 Summoning Shard capable of summoning just the Boss Beast, and by chance, if they manage to defeat the Boss Beast, they will get, like, what? 50 points?

"They will still be behind us even if we don't defeat a Boss. Our only problem is Sunborn Royal Academy, though…" Uraan glanced at Leo and then at the faint silhouette of Lily coming from the distant sky on Agnivar.

"I wonder if they even have the manpower remaining to counter the Boss as well as the minions."

Leo had just informed them that Lily managed to get 3 of the dragons—a total of 7, who might as well be the rankers considering all of them were able to transform into dragons. That meant that with just 3 remaining men, it would be hell to defend their base, especially considering the fact that they scored a mere 3 points in the base-building phase.

"They already seem to be in a dire situation…" Fruder said.

In Sunborn Stronghold…

Their stronghold was literally an active volcanic lava crater, with a blackish crust covering the lava and cracks running all over it.

It was a bowl-shaped structure just like Aurelius Stronghold, except there was no island platform to classify the lava as a 'moat.'

And that was it.

Nothing else.

No structure for housing, storage, or resting. Simply a naturally formed lava crater that they didn't even bother to transform by a single inch.

The stronghold beacon seemed to be dipped into the lava itself at the centre of the bowl, where the spirit beam shot up and displayed information.

There was a commotion occurring at the edge of the bowl-shaped formation.

"Vorthak!" Azrakar punched Vorthak across the face, sending him tumbling down the cliff and into the lava. The black crust cracked from Vorthak's impact, and he was submerged.

But the next second, Vorthak appeared through the lava and started swimming in the crack he had formed, using his wide wings to stay afloat.

"Brother! I am really sorry; I couldn't think of anything!"

"How can a proud dragon even lose to humans?! Did you forget you belong to the royal family?!" Azrakar roared.

While they were arguing, Aurex was having a hard time controlling his curses at Louis, who was giving him a side-eye from time to time. Louis was clearly trying to say that Aurex's kids were too hot-headed and that they needed discipline.

Because at the end, they shouldn't go around hitting their own family members in front of 3 Empires.

"What the fuck are you looking at me for?! It's hard to discipline every kid when I had hundreds of them every century!"

Louis shrugged.

"Did I say anything? I am dealing with the same problem." He was referring to Evelyn and many other kids that he had birthed.

In fact, Louis had started his journey of immortality around 3 centuries ago, whereas Aurex might have already lived for tens of centuries. In one casual conversation, Aurex even revealed that his great-grandfather was still alive somewhere in the world, and that person had already lived for tens of millennia.

Cyrandel only scoffed at them since she was still a pure maiden.

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*Scenary of Sunborn Royal Academy Stronghold*