Chapter 654: The Trial’s Conclusion

As soon as Leo’s shadows made an appearance on her side, Aurora turned to take a look at the situation around the castle.

Unlike Leo, who couldn’t stop himself from keeping a complete overview of the battlefield at all times, Aurora had put all her focus on the task, leaving her somewhat out of touch.

"The castle is safe, go wild!"

As his shadow tendrils fully grounded the Earthen Dragon, Leo gave Aurora the update she needed to hear!

Although her Light was just as overpowered as Leo’s ability, if not more, her ability lacked the autonomous nature that Leo relied on to deflect the strays.

All this while, she had to purposefully catch each and every earthen creation thrown towards the castle by an Earthen Controller with a higher difficulty setting.

Now that defending the castle was no longer a problem...

Bang!

A grand orb of light gathered in her palm before instantly shooting out towards the Earthen Dragon’s neck.

Having semi-cooperated with Leo to take down the Golden Dragon from before, Aurora operated using his tactics as a basis.

Bang! Bang!

She was going to weaken the execution spot so that it would take Leo less time to split the flesh open!

’Nice!’

Swish!

As soon as the last orb of light faded away, Leo’s greatsword appeared in its place, striking away at the Earthen Dragon’s tattered neck.

This time around, the shelling process was definitely going to be easier!

Swish! Swish! Bang!

Bang! Swish! Bang!

Roarrr!

As Leo and Aurora alternated from one strike to the other, the Earthen Dragon entered a state of shock that was no better than its brother’s.

Its intricate attempt at putting the castle in harm’s way devolved into nothing more than a mud shower, all of which ended up sliding down the starry night dome surrounding the castle.

’Let’s put it out of its misery.’

Swish!

Feeling both shame and pity for the Earthen Dragon, Leo didn’t hesitate to strike at the peeled flesh once it entered his field of vision, and just like that...

’Victory.’

The last of the six Dragons collapsed just like its brothers before bursting into motes of light.

"We did it..."

Despite having come to trust herself as well as those who have proven themselves trustworthy, Aurora almost couldn’t believe that the final wave was no more... Well, almost.

"We do still have a little bit more cleaning to do."

As all eyes turned to look in the distance, the three defenders could see that the octopus-headed aliens remained the same as they were from the very start, still squirming with all they had in an attempt to get out of their cage.

"Do you want a piece of the castle as well?"

Leo almost couldn’t help his curiosity. At this point, were the remaining enemy units capable of causing enough damage to the Defenders’ Castle?

Unless they could mentally invade the defenders themselves to destroy the castle, which proved impossible in this scenario...

Would they truly still attempt to destroy the castle using their hands- tentacles? The same soft tentacles that had failed to take down Kara’s barrier even when she was in shock a small while ago?

Even if they possessed enough physical force to cause some destruction. How long would it take them to bring down the entire castle?

Would an hour or two suffice? Or were these aliens the type to easily get exhausted from doing physical labor?

In that case, would it take them an entire day instead?

’It would be an interesting experiment, but it’s not really worth conducting.’

Not to mention the potential risk that would come from underestimating their capabilities; just seeing so many of these aliens move around at the start of the final wave made Leo feel very uncomfortable.

Watching them squirm all the way to the castle? That wasn’t an option!

"Let’s get this over with."

Reappearing in front of the cage, Leo relayed his command to Kara, to which his student indirectly replied by taking action.

’You were fun to use, but it’s time I let you go.’

As the cage’s walls rose up, Leo bid his farewells to the Cleaver Greatsword for the time being.

It wasn’t that he wouldn’t utilise this type of sword ever again. In fact, it was rather practical on top of being an enjoyable experience.

It was just that it didn’t match the kind of agility he needed to deal with the remaining scraps.

"Pluplu!"

For this type of creepy fishheads, a sashimi knife-like katana that was both sharp and long was the best way to process these replicas back into particles of light!

Fwooosh!

No longer needing to hold anything back, Leo ignited the katana with 5th refinement shadow flames before striking down the mass made of various eyes and tentacles.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Once again forcing them into place using Shadow Domination, Leo kept the seafood stabled to his cutting board without using his hand, allowing him to unleash his high-speed cutting technique without the risk of self-harm.

"Pluplu! Pluplu!"

Now that he understood the nature of these creatures thanks to the Abyssal Dragon’s report, Leo felt that they were actually attempting to mentally invade him over and over rather than begging for their lives.

In acknowledging that, Leo felt even less remorse in taking them down.

’Replicas or not, it might have left a bad taste in my mouth otherwise.’

34.....

23....

12...

5..

1.

As the number of Cthulhu imposters dropped all the way down to one, Leo turned to exchange looks with Aurora, raising his eyebrows to ask if she wanted to do the honors of bringing the trial to an end.

However, unlike her maddened state from earlier, a strange veil of peace had taken form atop Aurora’s face.

Not to mention taking the last kill, she hadn’t even taken a single step forward after the Earthen Dragon had been slain.

At this point, the only thing missing from this scene was a hand wave thrown in Leo’s face, telling him to get this over with.

Fortunately, while she looked to be in a trance of sorts, Aurora was still sober enough to refrain from making such a rude gesture.

Otherwise, the barely cooperative mood that had settled between the three of them might have ended up turning sour.

’Fine with me.’

No words were said, but enough was seen. It was time to put an end to this long yet short battle.

Swish!

{ Congratulations! The Final Wave has been successfully defended! }

{ The Trial of Defense has come to a conclusion. Calculating the Destruction value of the Defenders’ Castle... }