Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 267: Final Hope

The actual historical battle saw Dawn Academy’s plan frustrated due to the forceful intervention of that female elf. After all, it was Planet Norma, where even the most meticulous of command plans would look like a joke in the face of such absolute power.

The female elf was very confident. Faced with the group of people inside the fortress who were no more than Black Iron-rank at the strongest, she believed she could crush all of them. As a result, she did not even bother to take away the self-destruct activation scroll after immobilizing and chose instead to bring back Captain Yu first.

She drew the bowstring of her dainty bow once more. Several aquamarine-colored beams were fired out, landing like raindrops in a circle on the ground around the resurrection tower. The ground then shattered open, and everyone could see that her intention was to take away the entire tower along with its base.

“Captain Yu, how big is the range and explosive power of this self-destructing device once activated?” Xiao Lin suddenly asked in a quiet voice.

At that moment, Captain Yu was suffering in pain and feeling conflicted. He could not elect to commit suicide in such a state, let alone resist. Once captured by the elves, it might mean that he would never come back again. He probably thought that Xiao Lin wanted to use the self-destructing device’s explosive power to harm that woman, but sadly, he knew better than anyone else that there was no one in the fortress who could fight against that female elf.

“Its explosive power is only equivalent to a Gold-rank spell. Due to a fear of accidental injury, the explosion range has been carefully calculated and it’s not very large. The core explosive power covers about half the training ground at most, but the resulting force of impact isn’t weak either. It’s more than enough to destroy this fortress.”

Captain Yu had a very detailed understanding of those materials since he was the one responsible for the resurrection tower’s construction, but there was no doubt that such information was extremely confidential during peacetime. In particular, once the self-destructing scroll was activated, it also meant that the fortress would be completely destroyed. That would be equivalent to abandoning the mission, but at that moment, he was no longer in the mood to conceal it.

The corner of the female elf’s mouth curled up slightly into a smile, though it was hard to make out whether the smile was sarcasm or pity. Perhaps she was just sympathizing with the powerless humans that they were.

“The entire training ground?”

Xiao Lin looked around, and besides a few NPC architects, there were only a few acting monitors and instructors in the vicinity. The other students were guarding strictly at the city wall. In addition to the fact that the light beam came so suddenly and no one had managed to react yet, he was certain that no one else would be within the scope of the explosion.

The expression on Xiao Lin’s face suddenly became calm, almost too oddly in fact. He slowly began speaking in a very low tone, “You just said that this restraining spell is a law-level restraint. I’m curious: if you’re really that great, why don’t you just look for Ivanovich? He’s the pioneer that enabled us to resurrect.”

“It’s useless to provoke me and sow anger.” The female elf continued to do her thing. She carefully cleaned the soil around the resurrection tower so as not to destroy it when she took it away. Without even looking back to answer Xiao Lin’s question, she made light of it and said, “You’re right, what I’ve mastered isn’t the complete law, nor can it be compared with Ivan, but it still isn’t something that you can easily break free from.”

“So, this restriction spell has no effect on Ivan?”

“Yes, the only thing that can resist the law is the law. There’s nothing to be denied.” The female elf readily admitted that there was no shame for her to be inferior in terms of strength, for she was still able to crush everyone on the scene.

“The only thing that can resist the law is the law.”

Xiao Lin mumbled those words repeatedly and his gaze gradually sharpened. He had to stop the female elf. Whether she took away the resurrection tower and Captain Yu did not matter, because at the end of the day, it was all just a simulated exam. No matter what the result was, it was impossible to change something that had already happened in history.

If things continued as they were however, the orcs would inevitably rush in and kill them all, just like what happened in history. Almost no survivors will survive this battle, and each of them will lose 10 years of life. Gu Xiaoyue was the only one who had no other chance.

At this time, Xiao Lin had no time to consider the evaluation or results of the exam. The only possibility to save Gu Xiaoyue’s life was to activate the self-destructing device in his hand and use the explosive scroll on the resurrection tower to completely destroy the fortress.

According to the contents of that simulated exam, the fall of the fortress amounted to failure of the final objective. The exam would thereby be terminated immediately. From his experience in the first monthly exam, all survivors would return to the academy once the exam ended.

If Captain Yu’s description of the power and range of the explosion is correct, Gu Xiaoyue was not within the range of the center of explosion. She might be injured at most, but she would not die.

That in itself was also a big risk, but on the balance, it was better to do so than just wait to die there.

Xiao Lin did not hesitate to turn on his replicating skill when he thought of that. He obviously did not possess any law-level ability, but his SS-level talent made him almost equivalent to the existence of law itself. Many hints had been given to him in The Final Land, as well as from the memory which claimed itself to be left behind by Ivan.

All it amounted to was a guess on his part, but it was also his very last hope.

Once activated, Xiao Lin did not rush to choose a subject to replicate, since he was not expecting the ability to have any effect on the female elf. Such level of spells had far surpassed the evaluation of E rated spells.

Xiao Lin continued trying, but the result frustrated him tremendously. His brain was still unable to control his body and he could not move at all. Aside from that, none of the power in his body could be used, just as the female elf said. The inability to concentrate mental energy meant that he was unable to gather up the basic elements.

Ordinary magic scrolls could be used simply by tearing them open, but it would not be as easy to execute it on a scroll meant for a self-destructing device. Mental strength had to be channeled into the scroll, and the magic formation could only be activated once the elements were gathered.

“In that case, replication: start!”

There were many people that he could use Replicate on and the type of skills replicated was not at all important as long as it was a spell. Xiao Lin first fixed his gaze on Han Manman’s corpse. He never tested whether the subject to be replicated had to be alive, but the skill information that suddenly popped into his mind made him understand the results.

[Skill: Hurricane Spell. Replication: success!]

Han Manman was a wind-element mage and it was no secret among the monitors. She was only able to master LV2 of the Black Iron-rank Hurricane Spell.

None of that mattered now that Xiao Lin’s goal had been achieved. Just as he expected, the active skill of his SS-level talent was not restricted by the restraining spell at all.