Chapter 740: Oreback Behemoth

Chapter 740: Oreback Behemoth

Inside the secret realm...

Half a day had already passed since Leo and the others entered the secret realm. Kaelion’s team was already finishing setting up their temporary camp, where those who needed rest could recover before heading back to attack.

Yes, it wasn’t as though they had been attacking the beast continuously for the past half day. In fact, they needed to rest after just half an hour of fighting because their more powerful attacks consumed enormous amounts of mana instantly.

The same was true for the dragons. Even with their higher recovery rates and larger mana pools, their strongest attacks still exhausted their entire mana reserves within minutes.

Even the first attack that Aurelius students entered the first time lasted just 10 minutes before 50% of the dragons needed to depart and rest, while most started resting within 20 minutes.

As for the damage, it was only surface-level.

Even calling it surface-level damage felt like an overstatement when the molten and cracked metal on the beast’s back simply repaired itself whenever the beast used its [Metal Manipulation] ability.

Though it wasn’t any kind of healing. It was simply reinforcing the damaged parts with its metal manipulation. But the damaged outer shell was inorganic accumulation, so the beast wasn’t getting any real damage.

THANG!

Brrrrrrrrr~

"Holy shit!" Leo cursed as his power punch reverberated through the enormous metal shell, sending a piercing sound that assaulted his ears like a banshee’s scream.

The deep crater he had created with his punch immediately began to repair itself. However, the very next second, the Hydra’s poison breath struck the same spot, making the metal glow neon green as the essence of Netherblight Poison seeped into it.

But there was no effect.

Lily then landed beside Leo, who was still poking his ears to shake off the lingering ringing sensation caused by the impact.

She was breathing a little heavily, clearly exhausted from all the attacks she had unleashed over the past hours.

"Leo, haah... This thing... How long will it take us to even deal some meaningful damage to it?" she asked, looking at the poison that had failed to produce any noticeable effect on the metal surface.

On the exact opposite side of the Behemoth, the dragons were facing similar difficulties.

Vorthak and Vulcarion lay sprawled across the forest floor, completely spent, while Azrakar huffed and wheezed as he stared at the kilometre-long strip of molten metal on the beast’s shell. It was gradually cooling and would soon be reused by the Behemoth to reinforce its armour.

"FUUCCCKKKK!!!" Azrakar roared at the top of his lungs, startling all the dragons lying completely exhausted on the ground around him as they recovered their mana for another attack.

The worst part was that they didn’t even have access to a damage percentage screen to check their progress and compare it with that of the opposing academy.

Though it was already clear that the dragons had dealt more damage.

Their concentrated flame attacks on that kilometre-long strip had dug deep enough to reach the beast’s actual biological shell, damaging it. And since the Behemoth had no recovery skills, that damage was permanent.

Not to mention, if the dragons hadn’t been running out of mana, they could have practically cooked the beast alive like a pressure cooker by continuously heating its outer metal shell.

On the other hand, Leo had tried using his own [Metal Manipulation] skill to see if he could separate the metal and deliver some heavy blows directly to the beast’s body. However, it proved worthless against a beast ranked higher than him. His manipulation ability completely failed.

Finally, he and Lily resorted to flame-based attacks. Along with Solvyr, Thalvyr, Agnivar, Ronan—his beast—Cecil—her beast—and even Ashira, they decided to focus their attacks on the area where the Behemoth’s head was located.

The rest of the students dealt with the metallic beasts living on the Behemoth’s back.

The dragons also decided to attack near its head from the opposite side to speed up the killing process, since damaging the head was the only lethal option they had left.

At some point, the Behemoth retracted its head beneath its shell and sat down with its legs folded inside its shell. This effectively hid away all its weak points the students were targeting.

That small movement caused a severe earthquake while

This irritated Azrakar so much that he literally went deep into the forest to rest for an entire day.

"Damn, man..." Ronan muttered as he tried to roll over on the mana regeneration array Tavian had constructed to accelerate their recovery.

He was so exhausted that even rolling over felt like a difficult task.

"Arrghhh..." He groaned before somehow turning his head toward Leo and Lily, who were still attacking the beast all by themselves.

"How come they don’t get tired?"

He couldn’t help but wonder in awe, considering that Leo and Lily had been fighting for three days straight. And apart from Lily, who occasionally needed some time to recover her mana, Leo had practically been fighting without a single moment of rest.

Whenever his mana was exhausted, he would resort to punching the beast. The moment he recovered enough mana after punching for an extended period, he would switch back to flame-based attacks.

They could swear that, at one point, they had seen the beast’s brown-and-black biological shell exposed. Leo had then delivered a devastating punch that produced a loud cracking sound, like breaking bones, which echoed through the forest.

The impact had even alerted Azrakar, who returned and resumed his attacks on the opposite side.

The Oreback Behemoth, which had seemed rather relaxed until then, suddenly began focusing on Leo. It even reinforced its shell with an additional layer of metal wherever he attacked.

Some time later, the dragons, as usual, sprawled across the ground to recover their mana, while the others tried to munch on the occasional beasts that came to attack them from the Behemoth’s back.

"Ptui! Feels like I’m chewing on metal!" Vulcarion cursed before arranging a team to venture into the forest and hunt some decent beasts.

On Aurelius’s side, everyone rested inside Tavian’s array and enjoyed the delicious food Miho had prepared.

Somehow, Tavian’s multiple recovery arrays, the recovery potions crafted by the alchemists, and these resting arrangements had allowed them to achieve a recovery rate only slightly inferior to that of the dragons, who naturally possessed exceptional mana regeneration.

Combined with the relentless attacks of Leo, Lily, and their major beasts, they were dealing roughly the same amount of damage as the dragons.

At least, that was how it appeared. Without access to the damage percentage board, it was difficult to determine the exact figures.

Right now, they were brainstorming their next move.

"Should we summon the Vorthuun beast now?" Kaelion suggested.

"No, let’s wait until the beast’s mana runs out and it can no longer reinforce its shell," Leo replied.

The main reason they hadn’t yet used their artefacts and spirit summons was that they were waiting for the beast to exhaust its mana.

However, that was merely the surface reason. The real reason was the dragons.

They still hadn’t revealed all their cards, including their Summon Card and any unused domain artefacts they might have obtained after capturing the flag.

And according to Uraan’s survey, the dragon team had only 23 members. In other words, they had deliberately chosen not to revive two of their teammates in exchange for some artefact.

Leo planned to wait until the Behemoth’s mana ran out before finally summoning Vorthuun.

As according to his calculations, even if he and Lily attacked continuously, they wouldn’t be able to match the combined damage output of so many flame dragons over the long run. This was especially true once the beast stopped reinforcing its body and began taking meaningful damage that actually counted.

After all, right now, they were merely wearing down the beast’s armour without actually damaging its body.

Only when they started striking its real shell or body, like Leo had managed to do once, would they begin dealing significant damage. That single punch might have already accounted for around 0.5% of its total health.

And revealing their cards so early would only give the dragons more time to come up with countermeasures.