413 Tower Defense (2)

Hey Guys, Aidka's Here!

It has been more than one month since the last post, and to be honest, I'm very ashamed for being on hiatus for so long.

The truth is, I have not been motivated to write for a long time. Things happened in real life that dampened my motivation, and after that, the fact that I had not posted in a while dampened my motivation even more.

However, life continues, and I really don't want to end these two series like that. I love writing, and Fourth Prince and Science/Magic are my two children that I put a lot of effort into. I want to give them a worthy ending.

Moreover, many of you have supported me for a long while. My patreons, some who have supported me for one whole year, deserve more than two incomplete series... I feel ashamed for the hiatus, but I feel even more ashamed if I don't finish the two series after you supported me for so long.

To be honest, the chapters I'm posting today have been done since more than one week ago, but only today I found the courage to post them, and I hope to use these chapters to start posting regularly again.

My goal is to post at least one chapter of each series daily for the rest of the month. After that, I will see how is life and decide on a better schedule.

With love, Aidka.

...

[Dammit! What is it!?]

[Agh!]

[Stop! Don't panic! They are just golems!]

[Damn! What is this thing!?]

Looking at the students panicking through the screen, Bloed smiled in satisfaction.

The result was better than he expected.

Right now, the club members of Machine Revolutio and him were on the top floor of the tower. They were observing the battle in the entrance through a floating screen.

They could see how student after student collapsed after the attacks of the lions. The scene was so astonishing that some of their club members could not believe it.

In truth, although the strength of the lion robots was around A-Rank, they did not have much combat power. Instead, they had strong defenses and heavy bodies capable of powerful attacks.

Normally, the club members of [Call of the Wild] would have been able to take care of them without many casualties, however, Bloed activated the lions when the entrance was the most crowded and when there was no A-Rank nearby, so the two lions were more effective than he expected.

In just twenty seconds, fifteen students had been taken out of commission. None of them was stronger than B-Rank, but the fact that fifteen students were defeated so quickly was already astounding.

By the way, none of the students was gravely injured. Academy City used the same system that was used during the entrance ceremony in the War of Clubs. Thus, every student had a barrier around them to protect them from attacks.

Once that barrier was broken, a mental shock would be transmitted to their minds, making them faint. At the same time, a second barrier would surge up to protect the fainted students.

The second barrier was not very strong, but it was enough to protect the students from stray attacks. Plus, after a student fainted, it was forbidden to attack them. Doing so would disqualify the attacker, and in the worst case, it could lead even to being expulsed from Academy City.

It was an expensive arrangement worthy of the greatest learning place in the continent.

While Bloed was looking at the fainted students through the screen, he heard Liu Ying exclaim behind him.

"Woah, it was more effective than I thought. That is the sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. Hehe, it looks like they are having trouble."

"I can't believe that these golems have the strength of an A-Rank. Hey Mr. Bloed, can't you just make a few tens of golems like that? We won't need to fight if you do that."

Bloed looked at Princess Elwha and smiled wryly.

"You know how expensive making such a robot is? Plus, the energy they consume to move their heavy bodies is staggering. With my current resources, I can make just a couple of them at most."

"Is it so? It's shame. Even so, your golems are amazing." Princess Elwha did not bother to hide her amazement.

You must know that A-Rank was the elite of the continent. Below demigods, they were the strongest.

The fact that Bloed could create two A-Rank golems to act as guards showed how amazing he was. Any kingdom would give him the highest treatment just for this skill.

Bloed accepted the princess's praise with a smile. However, he did not take it seriously.

In fact, these two golems were nothing special. Compared to Tito and Leto, they were much less sophisticated.

Their only redeemable features were their powerful defenses and heavy bodies. Even their means of attack were limited to physical attacks.

It was not as though Bloed could not add better means attacks, but to be honest, nothing that he added would make a difference against a demigod; and for normal A-Rank practitioners, these golems would be more than enough.

Plus, Bloed still had other defenses inside the tower.

While Bloed and his club members were observing the situation through the screen, the students of [Call of the Wild] finally defeated the two lion robots.

However, their losses were very high. A total of nineteen students were disqualified before they could even enter the tower.

Through the screen, Bloed could see the enraged and discouraged expressions in the faces of [Call of the Wild]'s club members. Obviously, this attack had lowered their morale a lot.

However, although these two robots did a great job, they were not enough to eliminate any of the A-Rank students.

"Well, I was already expecting that," Bloed murmured to himself. He then looked at the screen and saw the leader of [Call of the Wild] encouraging his club members and leading them inside the tower.

"I guess it's time for the second round, huh. Liu Ying, Aya, Princess Elwha, it's your turn."

"Already? Good, I was getting bored."

"I understand."

"I guess it's finally my turn, huh."

Hearing the answers of the three girls, Bloed looked at the students of [Call of the Wild] through the screen, and his lips curled up.

"I wonder if they will like our next surprise."

…

Oscar kept a cautious expression after entering the tower. He did not lower his guard even after he did not notice anything dangerous.

He already had enough surprises after the attack of the two golems in the entrance. Just these two beasts managed to defeat nineteen of her club members.

'I should have expected it, though. After all, this is a club about golems.'

Now that he learned his lesson, Oscar made sure to look at his surroundings carefully in case that another golem appeared. To his surprise, though, he could not find any other.

In fact, he could not find anything.

There were no golems, no students, and no people.

The first floor of the tower was completely empty.

However, instead of feeling relieved, Oscar could not help but feel anxious.

Because he knew that the enemy was surely planning something.

'Dammit, where are they!?'

With a dark expression on his face, Oscar ordered his men to search the first floor carefully in case of traps, but even so, he found nothing.

Instead, he lost almost fifteen minutes.

In the end, Oscar knew that he could not continue waiting.

Thus, he looked towards the stairs leading to the next floor.

"Let's go up."

"Are you sure, leader?" Susan asked anxiously.

Oscar nodded. "We can't wait anymore. If it's a trick of the enemy to buy time, then they succeeded. However… I can't shake off the feeling that it's a trap. Just in case, four A-Ranks will stay in the rear."

Susan nodded.

With the arrangements done, the club members climbed the stairs slowly. First, they sent a B-Rank club member to check that there were no traps, and when he did not discover any traps, the rest of the club members started to advance.

Unfortunately, there was indeed a trap.

When the first twenty people had gone up the stairs, a strange beeping rang through the first and second floor.

Oscar tensed up. He hurriedly looked around him trying to find the slightest sign of danger.

And just like last time, the change occurred behind in.

*Bam!*

With a strong sound, a metallic wall appeared suddenly behind the group, sealing the entrance to the second floor and effectively dividing the entire group into two!

A third of the students managed to enter the second floor while the rest was left on the first floor.

Among them, four A-Rank students were left behind as well.

"Dammit!" Oscar's expression fell. He did not hesitate and gathered his mana in his fist to punch the door, but he only left a small dent on it.

The same happened when he hit the walls. Even when one of his club members used magic, they did not manage to destroy it.

Of course, Oscar was confident he could blow the door away if he continued trying, but he did not know how much time that was going to take.

Now, he needed to decide if he was going to continue, or if he was going to wait until he could regroup with the people on the first floor.

However, one minute later, he did not need to make a decision anymore.

Because suddenly, he heard a loud bang followed by screams of pain and sounds of battle coming from the first floor.

Moreover, judging by the screams, it seemed that his club members were at a disadvantage.

"Leader, what do we do?" Susan asked with a concerned look.

Oscar hesitated slightly before putting on a determined expression.

"We continue."

"But, leader–"

"Don't worry, Susan. No matter how many tricks they have, mere tricks are not enough to win against an overwhelming force."

Susan bit her lips and nodded. However, she did not seem convinced by Oscar's words.

However, Oscar did not blame her.

Because even he was not convinced by his own words.