Magical Academy: Rise of the Supreme Magic Craftsman

The Ratman had been fighting against the Fabled Midas all this time while the Sword Slave was waiting it's chance to benefit from their battle.

It didn't take long before the Sword Slave found an opportunity to hasten the defeat of this Ratman.

The Ratman, after being unsuccessful in utilizing a surprise attack by burrowing underground, changed it's tactics and was now using flight in order to avoid it's opponent's attacks.

Fabled Midas at least dealt some damage on the Ratman's scale armor. But this also meant that it exhausted a considerable amount of it's mana reserves. It now had to sparingly use it's magic spells while waiting for its Mana Stone to recover bit by bit. 

This Fabled Midas was specially made to be a dedicated Mage-Type Automaton.

Flame Arrow!

Wind Blade!

Mana Explosion! 

The Fabled Midas doesn't have a good close combat skills so it could only try to throw some spells to the Ratman whenever it tries to close their distance. But the Ratman can still avoid and take some spells head-on so the Fabled Midas had no choice to use Mana Explosion to gain itself some distance and to throw off the flying Ratman. But this Mana Explosion was a huge burden on it's mana reserves.

Although the Ratman can send projectiles or throw magic spells, the Fabled Midas has been dodging it everytime.

The latter doesn't possess heavy armor and only has a very thin defense as it heavily relies on it's Magic Spells. The Ratman, although balanced, has better chances of defeating Midas if it manages to destroy the brittle armor that this Midas uses. Unfortunately, the last Mana Explosion brought it very to close to where the Sword Slave was hiding. 

Jun Richardson noticed this as well as he saw his automaton slicing down it's Mana Blade to cut apart this Ratman.

"A chance came! Ratman will now have to fight against Fabled Midas and Sword Slave." Nina exclaimed seeing the opportunity for the Sword Slave."

"Can it still avoid this?" 

"Hold on... It managed to forcefully use it's flight ability to avoid the Sword Slave's attack! What a luck, but it wasn't completely unscathed as the Mana Blade still grazed on the Ratman's left wing. It seems that the latter could no longer control the flight trajectory! This won't end well!"

"That was very close for the Ratman... look where it will landed."

Splash! The Ratman dropped at the center of the artificial lake as it could no longer control it's wings and continued flying until it's flight's power source was either exhausted or it's program decided to cut it off instead.

"Lucky one. It was still showing in our detectors that the Ratman was still active at the bottom of the lake. It may still have some chances later on if it persevere and be in the top three!" Nina announced after confirming it using their Mana Artifacts that was overseeing the whole fight. She was closely monitoring any signs of Mana Fluctuations whenever an automaton take a massive hit. In Turtleback Wolf's case, almost half of this automaton was obliterated so even if she didn't look on it, anyone could tell that it was done for.

Schneizel squinted his eyes as he noticed the excellent maneuver of the Ratman to escape its predicament. Not only did it escape from being taken advantaged by the Sword Slave, it even lead for the Fabled Midas to fight against this undamaged Sword Slave. 

Yes, this Sword Slave hadn't engaged in any fight yet. Its first attempt was even dodged by the Ratman. Compared to the Fabled Midas who had shown all of it's skills in front of the unknown Sword Slave, the latter will surely gain an upperhand in this battle.

Sword Slave utilized all its movement enhancements magic spells and activated the Sharp Mana Blade as it pursued the weakened Fabled Midas.

Mana Explosion!

Ice-Fire Fog!

"Wow! It used the explosion's impact to gain some distance away from the mantis... and even added the fog to cover it's escape. What a quick reaction... "

"But it's not enough! The Sword Slave managed to get out of the fog." 

"Sigh~ This half praying mantis has some swift moves." Nina commented after seeing the automaton immediately deciding to ran away from the fog and positioned in an elevated ground. 

It quickly searched for Midas and jumped into it. Midas tried to use it's remaining Mana reserves to counterattack but the eight blades of the Sword Slave was actually thrown towards it.

The Fabled Midas could only try to dodge as it was still unable to cast another magic spell since it just thrown a Mana Explosion and couldn't quickly cast another one.  

But the eight blades pierced through the automaton. Dealing critical damage to the Fabled Midas. It was a sure win by now. It could no longer move as it hit on it's limbs,  head, and torso. 

BoooOoM! 

An explosion was heard as the last command of the Fabled Midas was to self destruct when it's  about to be defeated. Unfortunately, the Sword Slave was several steps away and was only hit by the impact.

But it still managed to destroy the Sword Slave's eight blades. Now, this automaton no longer has Mana Blades as weapon and could only use the installed basic Magic Spells for an attack.

Sheryl looked at Jun Richardson and noticed that the man was a bit shocked seeing the ruthless counter of the enemy. Self destruction to deal damage or defeat the enemy? It never crossed his mind to make something like that. All his magic spells and techniques was to send magic attacks, make sturdy  defenses, and enhanced it's movement for survivability of his automaton. 

"That's allowed?" Jun said in disbelief. Now, his automaton's ability to deal damage went down by 70%. At the very least, his automaton was now very light and still possess movement enhancement spells and could still escape to any opponents. It may have some chance to survive and help if it met with Sheryl's Vital Thorn and Wallace's Red-Eyed War Beast.

"Yeah... Maybe we have different concept of making automatons." Sheryl could only comment at this. The two students from Mystic Gate Academy loves Mana Artifacts and was not willing to see them get destroyed in this manner. Self-destructing isn't their thing.

***

"It's a noble way of ending its life. This way, the Midas has dealt significant damage to the Sword Slave, it would at least help his teammates, Atom and Ambush, in case they face against this half mantis and half man." Schneizel commented as the large explosion took their attention while they were watching the Winged Shadow Serpent get bullied by the three Helioses.

"As you say that... It seems that Ambush may not meet this Sword Slave at all." Nina said as she watched the three automatons from their  home team deal with the serpent. 

It could no longer fly to escape nor outrun the three. Although it's defenses was sturdy, with the constants attacks of the three, it still perished after several hits by their Magic Spells. 

The Winged Shadow Serpent's armor scales was chipped one by one until it could no longer hold on and get directly hit by one of basic Fire Palm by the gorilla-like automaton. It's large blazing palm hit the automaton as it's body caved in and received critical damage. The three no longer threw magic spells and only used enhance physical attacks to destroy the enemy. 

After this was done, the three Helioses was still full of energy and was now chasing after Ambush. It didn't take long for the three to catch up and surround the pitiful Fabled Ambush. 

Khamir gritted his teeth upon seeing the powerful momentum of the enemy. He was aware that his automaton could not compete with the three. He looked at his teammate's surviving automaton, the Fabled Atom was still fighting with the werewolf, Vital Thorn, and was still in stalemate.

This was already when the Vital Thorn had lost it's Ice Claw and only having Fire Claw on its right hand. 

"Haa.. Such a tough luck... If my Ambush fought against the weaklings first, I could've place in top three or top five." Khamir said as he looked at the Red-Eyed War Beast, Vital Thorn, and the remains of the Winged Shadow Serpent. His Ambush also possess the spell similar to what Atom used to Vital Thorn but unfortunately, it's not working on the united Helios. It could not stop their power source even for a second to have a moment of chance for counterattack. 

He was confident that if the fight was one versus one in a stage, then his Ambush could surely defeat all of it's enemies assuming that his Ambush was in it's peak condition.

"Don't worry about this leader. There would still be a last event for us to participate at the third day of this competition and will be the last chance for us as well. I know that we can still salvage the situation." Ilia said to her leader to comfort him. Saida could only clenched her fist upon seeing the disappointing result of their team.

They were expected to gain good result by the royal family back on their country. They received ample resources and were nurtured to be the best in their league so they had to prove themselves.