Chapter 717: Accurate Guesses

Leo immediately contacted the stronghold, and it seemed to be fine.

Meaning someone had been defeated at Kaelion's location.

Leo realised that the last hour of capturing the Voidfang Panther's flag must be going on, meaning some sort of unexpected beast might have appeared, or someone had attacked them while they were capturing the flag.

Leo immediately shared senses with Shyra, only to see her locked in close combat with a ferocious Voidfang Panther.

Through Shyra's eyes, Leo could only see her biting, roaring, and digging her fangs and claws into the other panther's body, with only occasional glimpses of the surroundings.

Shyra was completely focused on the beast in front of her.

Leo couldn't make out its strength through their shared senses, but he could tell it was a notch stronger than the previous panthers and even Shyra herself.

Kaelion and the other students were also assisting Shyra, while Sylrael cast healing magic whenever necessary, all the while firing arrows to disrupt the beast's movements.

Leo refrained from contacting them in case he made things worse, so they quickly started moving towards the stronghold while waiting for Kaelion himself to contact him and report the damages when he found a moment to breathe.

Unfortunately, Kaelion himself seemed to be heavily injured, with a deep gash running across his back that continuously poured out blood.

His damaged soul had already slowed his healing, and now there was even the void energy disrupting it further. In other words, Kaelion would continue bleeding until his wound was manually bandaged.

It was not until Leo had entered the stronghold's stormy region that he received the kill notification.

Voidfang Panther (High 4-star) Killed - 80,000 XP

Level 31: 500,000 -> 580,000 / 1,550,000

The very next second, Kaelion contacted Leo.

"We lost our scout. I am sorr—arrghh."

"Brother Leon, stay still!"

Miho's voice also came from the distance. She seemed to be busy patching him up.

Kaelion seemed to be apologising because Leo had trusted him with a unit, yet someone had been defeated.

"Don't worry about it. The beast might have come as a surprise, not to mention it was a stealthy beast. Focus on your recovery, and after claiming the rewards, directly come to the stronghold."

"Okay," Kaelion responded before cutting the call.

Leo landed inside the territory, and the first thing he did was check the leaderboard.

1] ??? - 43 Points -> 53 Points

2] Aurelius Beast Academy - 30 Points -> 40 Points -> 50 Points - 1x

3] ??? - 22 Points -> 32 Points

5] -> 4] ??? - 13 Points -> 23 Points

4] -> 7] ??? - 15 Points

6] -> 8] ??? - 11 Points

7] -> 5] ??? - 9 Points -> 19 Points

8] -> 6] ??? - 8 Points -> 18 Points

9] ??? - 6 Points -> Eliminated

10] ??? - 5 Points -> Eliminated

Their academy was still 2nd even after scoring 20 points.

Leo then immediately looked at the map, where 5 flags were still present and 2 strongholds had gone missing.

Meaning, except for the Evergrove Stronghold that they had taken out, someone else had also been eliminated, leaving only 8 academies.

After that, Fruder, who was in charge of keeping an eye on the screens and analysing the situation, relayed the gist of his findings.

It seemed that Kaelion had already informed them about the loss of the scout on their end.

"Sir Leo, when you eliminated the Evergrove Stronghold, we received 10 points while, simultaneously, the 9th-ranked stronghold was removed from the leaderboard," Fruder reported.

Leo nodded. It seemed that the Evergrove Sovereign Academy had scored 6 points during the base-building phase.

Next, Fruder explained how, when the 10th-ranked stronghold disappeared, the points of the 5th-ranked academy rose from 13 to 23, making them 4th, while their points otherwise remained unchanged.

Meaning, whichever academy it was hadn't captured a flag yet.

The rest, whose points had risen—the 1st, 2nd—Aurelius Beast Academy—3rd, and the 7th and 8th academies, which had become 5th and 6th respectively—had successfully captured a flag. Since it was also at that instant of point rise that the spirit beams at the flag locations vanished and the beast icons were removed from the map.

Fruder displayed a note in which he had marked who had gained a point multiplier and where the supposed academies' approximate locations might be based on the disappearance of the flag marks.

1] ??? - 53 Points - 1x - East side of the Central Mountain

2] Aurelius Beast Academy - 50 Points - 1x

3] ??? - 32 Points - 1x - South of the Central Mountain

4] ??? - 23 Points

5] ??? - 19 Points - 1x - North-West of the Central Mountain

6] ??? - 18 Points - 1x - South-West of the Central Mountain

7] ??? - 15 Points

8] ??? - 11 Points

There were only 2 more academy eliminations left before the 2nd phase would end, and 3 academies still hadn't captured a flag yet.

Out of the remaining 5 flags that were yet to be captured, the Aurelius Stronghold would soon capture 1, where Kaelion had finished killing the last beast.

Meaning 3 academies would compete for 4 flags.

But then, suddenly, the spirit beam at another flag location died down, and the 1st-ranked academy's points shot up by 10 points.

Fruder immediately updated the note.

1] ??? - 53 Points -> 63 Points - 1x -> 2x - East side of the Central Mountain

Meaning, now there were 3 academies competing for 3 flags.

Normally, it would have been an ideal situation, with each academy capturing a flag, but Fruder had already updated his guess.

"Sir Leo, this 1st-ranked academy should be none other than Sunborn Royal Academy, the 1st-ranked academy in the Dragon Empire. And even though they seem to have captured two flags, I highly doubt they will stop there. Either they would go after another flag based on their momentum, or choose to eliminate an academy."

Leo nodded. That made sense.

Looking at Fruder's note again, he realised that the Aurelius Stronghold and Aurex Dragon Stronghold might be the furthest away from each other.

In other words, Kaelion's team was not in danger.

"I pity those that established their strongholds around them…" Leo muttered.

Soon, the flag-capturing notice came from Kaelion's side.

2] Aurelius Beast Academy - 50 Points -> 60 Points - 1x -> 2x

Right now, not even 10 hours had passed, and 7 flags had already been captured by 5 academies. Everybody realised that the 2nd phase might not last as long as they had initially guessed.