Chapter 653: One Last Stretch

Tendrils extended from the fingers of Leo’s clone atop the castle, throwing away the first few accurate rocks.

Initial defense was successful, but continuing this way wasn’t exactly plausible.

The stubbornness of the puppet-like replicas was as annoying as usual.

’Makes sense, I guess.’

If any of these replica Dragons had actually cared about their own skin, the situation wouldn’t have developed this far to begin with.

In the end, the Trial of Defense was just that, a test for both the defenders and the attackers, and the answering sheet was the Defender’s Castle.

Its state at the very end of the Trial dictated the credits that each side would get, so...

’I just have to be quick.’

"A little help here?"

Although his shadow creations could act autonomously to defend both him and the castle, Leo didn’t trust their performance to be as close to perfect as his actual control was.

Such sensitive tasks were better left for the main defender on the team.

"Right away!"

Having got a minute or so break to catch her breath, Kara was ready to resume her role, especially now that the intensity of her task had gone down a lot.

Woosh!

A second later, a starry night dome rose to cover the entirety of the Defenders’ Castle, instantly blowing away all the rocks being shot its way.

’Much better.’

This kind of dome wasn’t exactly the cheapest Enigma-wise, but putting up defense against some rock projectiles was several times easier than containing a Dragon in a cage, especially an Earthen one.

’I would much rather face the product instead of raw energy; that was way too intense.’

Although the Earthen Dragon’s physical force wasn’t strong enough to break the barrier just as the Abyssal Dragon had done, its special ability more than made up for the difference.

There might not have been any earthen creations banging at the starry night cage. However, as the energy behind their formation attempted to leave the barrier to do their task, the pressure applied was instantly doubled.

Having realized that through his own calculations as well as the rough expression on Kara’s face, Leo had chosen to relieve Kara of her duty first.

After all, Aurora could easily last a while longer against the other Earthen Dragon, but if Kara was to crumble once again, the consequences would be immediately borne by the castle itself.

Not to mention the potential hazard of even letting the octopus-headed aliens go free if the shock ended up being too strong.

Shuffling their roles around was definitely the choice that made the most sense!

’I wonder where the limit of their ability lies.’

The magical resistance and the physical prowess that the Abyssal Dragons possessed were powers that were easy to gauge thanks to their passive nature.

However, both the Golden Dragon, whose powers remained mostly ambiguous, and the Earthern Dragon’s abilities had no specific parameters.

For example, Leo had no idea if Earthen Control was strong enough to give rise to a pedestal to receive the falling Earthen Dragon before too much acceleration had happened.

As such, he had chosen to shock it as much as possible to stop it from activating its ability, but Leo also had no idea if it worked, or if it wasn’t possible to begin with.

Furthermore, the rocks being thrown at him and the castle varied too much in shape and size. Was it only capable of being this random? Or was this caused by the injuries that Leo had inflicted on it?

Could it create as much as it wanted? Or was it limited by a certain amount of ’magical power’ that it possessed?

’I guess it doesn’t really matter.’

As his curiosity as a detailed reader kicked in, Leo tried to suppress it as much as possible, as this simply wasn’t the time for it.

He had gleaned a couple of rough answers from his side-eyed observation of Aurora’s battle, but no further details were required to begin with.

’After all...’

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

’There is barely one such Dragon left to face.’

With his shadow tendrils protecting him from the shooting rocks’ collateral damage, Leo had already cut through the tough part of the Earthen Dragon’s neck.

Now, all that was left was...

Swish!

With one strong swing to lop the head off, Leo didn’t retract his refined Shadow Enigma as he remained vigilant.

With the sudden changes that took place after 3 Dragons had been annihilated, he wouldn’t find it strange if there was a third phase when the numbers dropped to just 1 Dragon.

However...

’Safe?’

Contrary to Leo’s worries, nothing changed.

The final Earthen Dragon was still in place, completely engaged under Aurora’s constant bullying.

Even the caged fishy aliens showed no change of temperament.

’An accurate simulation indeed.’

Indeed, while there were rare cases where armies on the brink of defeat could utilise something to shift the scales, that was against the norm.

Usually, approaching defeat would only lower the losing army’s morale. It was already a miracle that the last Earthen Dragon didn’t attempt to run away.

’Let’s finish this then.’

With the end so close on sight, Leo chose to ignore the completion itches he was getting and scattered into specks of shadow once more.

’Again!’

Before Leo himself made an appearance, Shadow Tendrils rose from down under to ground the injury-filled Earthen Dragon.

Needless to say, Aurora’s light had already burned the majority of the Dragon’s wings, making it impossible for it to take off.

However, it was still thrashing around in an attempt to get to the castle, making it way harder for Aurora to land a hit on it while having to constantly deal with the Earthen Dragon’s muddy offense.

’This one seems to be a lot more skilled.’

Looking at the various forms and shapes being thrown at Aurora, Leo momentarily raised his brows.

For some reason, this Dragon’s use of Earthen Control was more versatile.

Not to mention basic round rocks, there were rock spears and arrows, and there were even soft mud and amorphous clay; Aurora had obviously had it much harder...

Clearly, there was a difference in skill between each Dragon replica; that or the other Earthen Dragon had received too much of a shock to handle his ability properly.

’This doesn’t matter either.’

Skillful or not, as the sole Dragon standing between them and victory, it was going to bid its farewells all the same!