Chapter 233: Defeating an Army
In the combat department lobby, more than twenty cadets sat waiting, their attention glued to the blank screen
on the far wall. Eleanor’s friends cheered for her, but they were the minority. Almost everyone else murmured in
support of Raijin Astrape Stormrider. They could hardly be blamed... few believed a werewolf could defeat a
dragon, and certainly not a lightning dragon.
The moment Raijin entered his capsule, the screen flickered to life.
[The Tower of Legends]
Cadet Raijin Astrape Stormrider (10156601) - Level 0
Barely a minute later, the number shifted.
[The Tower of Legends]
Cadet Raijin Astrape Stormrider (10156601) - Level 1
A ripple of excitement spread through the crowd.
"Wow! As expected of a lightning dragon—he’s already cleared the first floor!"
"That was so fast! Most cadets take at least five minutes to finish the first!"
Before the noise died down, a second nappeared on the screen.
[The Tower of Legends]
Cadet Raijin Astrape Stormrider (10156601) - Level 1
Cadet Eleanor Elizabeth Raynor (10156659) - Level 0
Sraised their brows at the new addition, but their focus quickly returned to Raijin. Another minute later, his
rank climbed again.
Level 2.
Level 3.
The numbers kept climbing, and with each ascension the crowd grew louder.
"Unbelievable! He's not even taking a break!"
"He really is a dragon!"
Ten minutes into his challenge, Raijin had already conquered nine levels. Cadets gasped as the counter ticked
higher. Word of his feat spread through the academy like fire. Because, there was another screen in the academy
building showing the sresults. Within minutes, dozens more students streamed into the lobby, all eager to
witness his progress first-hand.
When he reached the tenth level, the screen lingered longer than before. Whispers spread, tension mounting.
Finally, the number changed... Level 10.
The murmurs beccheers. "He did it! That floor has a troll, right? He still beat it in barely five minutes!"
Excitement buzzed through the air, the crowd united in awe of Raijin’s speed and strength. Meanwhile, Eleanor’s
nstill glowed on the screen at Level 0, untouched.
ork
Eleanor lingered at level 0 until Raijin had already passed the tenth. The spectators in the lobby grew restless.
Ssneered, convinced she was still struggling with the first challenge.
"How could someone so weak dare to challenge the Tower of Legends?"
"This is ridiculous. She hasn't even cleared the first level yet."
Laughter rippled through the crowd. To them, Eleanor’s performance was nothing but embarrassing.
But inside the tower, Eleanor was seated comfortably on the beach, enjoying the violent sea. The salt wind
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇttangled her silver hair as it whipped about her face. Two crocodilian monsters, groaning faintly, served as her
makeshift chair. She hadn't killed them as they were harmless enough to pin... and she suspected that once she
did, the level would end, and this view would vanish.
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, savouring the untamed beauty. Only when the faint countdown marker
in the corner of her vision neared its limit did she finally rise to her feet.
"Sorry for that," she said gently. "I know you're not real. But thank you for the company."
With a single punch to each of their skulls, the monsters collapsed. Their bodies dissolved into mist, and a
staircase appeared, winding up the cliff face behind her. At the top waited a closed door. Eleanor dusted her
hands and began the climb.
[The Tower of Legends]
Cadet Raijin Astrape Stormrider (10156601) - Level 10
Cadet Eleanor Elizabeth Raynor (10156659) - Level 1
She pushed the door open and stepped into the second level. A damp cave stretched before her, its walls slick
with moss and ferns. Ten goblins, each clutching a crude club, shrieked and charged straight at her.
Eleanor didn’t bother to linger this time. In less than ten seconds, the cave floor was littered with broken goblin
bodies. A staircase shimmered into existence at the far wall, and she moved briskly upwards.
The next door opened into a high valley hemmed by mountains so vast their peaks tore at the clouds. The
ground rumbled, and twenty skeleton warriors clawed their way free from the soil, shields and swords clattering
as they surrounded her.
Their empty sockets glared with flickering blue light before they gave a unified, rattling cry and surged forward.
Eleanor didn’t wait. She darted toward the nearest one and smashed it into fragments before the charge could
close. Her sudden movement broke their rhythm. The formation faltered, and as they adjusted course, five of
their number already lay shattered at her feet.
She aimed every strike with precision. A punch to the skull or a crushing blow to the spine reduced skeletons to
shards that would never rise again. She had read this trick in one of the books on her dormitory shelf, and the
knowledge proved true... the ones she struck elsewhere slowly reassembled, dragging themselves upright to
continue fighting.
It took her nearly a minute to clear the level. Her body was unharmed, but her breathing had grown heavier. She
steadied herself, inhaled deeply, then chose a shield and sword from the broken remains before ascending the
staircase that opened in the mountain wall.
The fourth level placed her in a shadowed forest. Three orcs lumbered toward her, snarling, their tusks glistening
with spit. Compared to the ones she had faced during the initiation ceremony, these were sluggish, less
disciplined. Her borrowed blade cut them down within half a minute. She swapped her weapon for a sturdier
orcish sword before stepping through the next door.
The fifth level opened into a cavern where a massive spider descended from its web with furious screeches. Its
many eyes burned with hunger as it struck at her from impossible angles. Eleanor kept moving, rolling beneath
the jagged legs and slashing at its joints. After nearly two exhausting minutes, the spider collapsed with a shrill
cry. She leaned against the cave wall, allowing herself a few precious breaths before moving on. She noted that
the countdown only stopped once she opened the next door.
The sixth level offered no reprieve.
Two ogres, towering, heavy-bodied,
and thick-skinned, stomped into view.
Their grotesque Ter abbve
id as theyyoared nd charged.
Eleanor kept light on her feet, circling,
ducking under their swings. She
drove her blade into the weak points
beneath their ribs, exploiting gaps in
their defence. Within a minute, both
collapsed with the crash of falling
boulders. The content is on
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She pushed forward into the seventh level and found herself standing beside a misty lake. Its waters rippled, and
a three-headed hydra emerged, its serpentine necks weaving and hissing. Each head snapped at her with lethal
speed. Eleanor remembered what she had read: cutting heads would achieve nothing. The beast would only
regrow them. Its heart was the only way to end it.
The hydra lunged, jaws wide, and she dove into the water. Power surged as Eleanor briefly invoked her bloodline,
her body moving with preternatural precision. She slipped past the thrashing heads, forced herself against the
beast’s chest, and ripped through scale and flesh to seize its heart. With a final wrench, she tore it free.
The hydra writhed and collapsed, staining the water in dark red. Eleanor pulled herself onto the bank, soaked
and panting, her limbs trembling from the strain of using her bloodline. She sat still for a time, resting, before
finally pressing onward toward the next door.
The next floor dropped her onto the shore of another lake. Five crocodile beasts lunged the moment her feet
touched the sand. They died quickly, their corpses dissolving before her eyes, and she pressed onward.
The ninth floor brought thirty goblins swarming from the shadows, their clubs clattering. She cut them down in
steady rhythm, only to find a hulking troll waiting for her on the tenth. That one forced her into a grinding
battle... five minutes of sweat, blood, and grit before it finally collapsed.
The eleventh floor answered with fifty skeletons rising in unison. The twelfth gave her six orcs, and the thirteenth
doubled the spiders. On the fourteenth she wrestled with five ogres, their massive bodies blocking every escape,
and on the fifteenth, two hydras rose hissing from a cavern pool.
The cycle continued, each set
growing heavier. Ten crocodiles on
one level, fifty goblins on the next,
then seventy skeletons ELH inn
waves. Ten arcg-foliawed, then three
ane) dripping venom from
their fangs. By the tshe reached
the twentieth level, she had faced
down two trolls and slain them in half
the tit had taken before. Though
fatigue gnawed at her limbs, her
rhythm sharpened... her instincts
cutting down wasted movement, her
strikes falling with surgical precision.
The twenty-first floor forced her to
fight ten ogres and then three hydras
back-to-back. After that, the rules
shifted again. Mixe {ryies om
fir 4 Le ;
appeared (gob ns rushing alongside
skeletons, orcs flanked by ogres,
spiders weaving chaos through the
charge. On the twenty-third floor, she
carved through a host of
mismatched monsters. On the
twenty-fourth, a hydra roared over a
tide of twenty-three crocodiles. The
content is on novelenglish.net! Read
the latest chapter there!
Then she stepped onto the twenty-fifth floor.
A narrow pass stretched between mountains. At the far end, a staircase rose to the door of ascension. But
between her and that goal was a legion. Every creature she had faced so far was waiting... an amalgamation of
the tower's trials made flesh.
Her lips pressed thin. Without her bloodline activate, ten minutes would not be enough. She activated Overdrive.
Power surged through her veins, her body a blur of ruthless efficiency. She cut, crushed, and tore through the
horde, monsters falling one after another.
When she reached the base of the staircase, the pass was littered with corpses... one hundred and fifty shattered
skeletons, one hundred goblins, forty crocodiles, twenty ogres, twenty orcs, seven spiders, seven hydras, and
three trolls. The ground and the lake behind her ran red.
She climbed the steps with calm precision, Overdrive strained her muscles. Less than five minutes had passed
since the army had charged her. At the door, she finally let herself stop. She rested until the counter showed
nine minutes and thirty seconds, drawing back her breath before stepping into the unknown of the twenty-sixth
floor.
At that very moment, Raijin’s run ended. His avatar crumbled on the fiftieth level, and his consciousness was
dragged back to his capsule.
The screen in the combat department lobby flickered:
[The Tower of Legends]
Cadet Raijin Astrape Stormrider (10156601) - level 49 (completed)
Cadet Eleanor Elizabeth Raynor (10156659) - level 25