Flashes of light went on through every area of the battlefield. Jyorta frowned the moment he noticed them, asking Sreshta, "Do you see anything at the source of such flashes?"
Sreshta peered through the hole using her Tier 1 Skill, Focus Vision. She focused on the point on the ground where frequent flashes of light appeared. She then noticed a team of injured students whose figures disappeared one after another. "They are the students being transported out of the battlefield."
"That sure is a lot," Jyorta muttered, noticing the flashes of light continue without stopping. It meant a lot of students were injured to the extent they had to be pulled out by the staff. As they were moving on the path, the height advantage allowed them to notice these things clearly.
And, Jyorta didn't traverse the path wholly. He took shortcuts. So, the path traversed by the Battleship wasn't a rectangle but an oval. After all, to ensure he didn't lose too much speed when they were approaching a corner, he took a curved turn by moving out of the path.
There didn't exist any walls on the left side of the path, so it was easy to move in and out of it. Though, only those who were capable of flight were able to do so.
As they traversed upon the long stretch of the path, Jyorta looked at the central tower, taking note of the Frenzy Beasts in each segment. This way, he would be able to prepare against them.
Starting from the bottom, the segments consisted of the Ring Worm, Life Leech, Steel Porcupine, Crust-Mantle, One-Horned Rhino, Rigordile, Lava Turtle, and finally, the River Whales at the top. Jyorta was surprised when he noticed how there weren't any segments for the Spindle Bees and Floating Spiders.
He looked around, noticing tiny nests created under the paths. Both the Floating Spiders and Spindle bees were able to build their places of residence. Besides, the path created a lot of space for them to erect their homes into. So, at times, they came across the nests of each.
And, whenever this happened, a battle was imminent. Jyorta was always ready in such cases, taking action the moment they neared the nest of either Frenzy Beast.
Aura Personification—Betrayal!
This aura personification gave him one or two seconds, enough time for the Battleship to fly past and vanish from the range that would trigger them. In the meantime, they would be cautious against their own brethren, and wouldn't be willing to take action.
Before they recover to normalcy, the Battleship would have flowed far away. Once they see that, they would either lose interest or stay to await for new prey to arrive. And, in the case they do try to chase after the Battleship, Jyorta had a response ready.
Aura Personification—Insignificance!
This made the Frenzy Beasts lose trust in themselves, feeling their strength was insufficient to pursue the enemy. And, as this hesitation bud in them, the Battleship further increased the distance between them.
The two aura personifications worked together magically and prevented the Frenzy Beasts from chasing after them.
And, when he came across small nests of Floating Spiders, Jyorta wrapped them in his hallucination as he made them land on the Battleship and mend its damage. And, once they exhausted their energy, he simply caused them to jump away from it.
This way, the condition of the Battleship stayed at optimal levels. Most of the danger in the ten-metre-wide path was from the Floating Spiders, and Spindle Bees. It was because they were capable of flight and could cause the Battleship harm.
And, as they constantly flew around, Jyorta had to increase the area covered by his aura personifications to control them. This stretched his effect thin, unless he increased the aura usage.
And, since he wished to preserve his energy levels, Jyorta didn't even use his aura personifications most of the time, allowing his teammates to attack the foes and kill them using the Tier 2 Spindle Bees they controlled.
This was the reason he took pains to incorporate them into the Battleship in the first place. Everything was to ensure his energy wouldn't be expended quickly. Until now, Jyorta hadn't used his psychic energy at all. His Brain Crystal was at full capacity.
And, he had only used a quarter of his aura reserves. The Battleship was already at the end of the third coil by now. They didn't even fight with any Frenzy Beasts.
After all, the Ring Worms were creatures that lived underground. They usually relied on ambush tactics to spring up on foes moving above ground. Unfortunately for them, even though they planned against the movements of the Battleship by occupying an area far away in the path and had enough time to wait for an ambush, they couldn't do anything.
Jyorta smirked as he increased the altitude of the Battleship, moving it 10 metres above the path. And, the ceiling of the successive path was positioned above 10 metres above it. This way, the Battleship didn't come near any of them, not giving the chance for the Frenzy Beasts to attack them.
The nests of the Floating Spiders and Spindle Bees always hung from the ceiling to prevent the ground-based Frenzy Beasts from attacking their homes. In such cases, the Battleship lowered its altitude accordingly or moved out of the path for a short distance before entering it after crossing about 10-20 metres.
This way, the Battleship avoided the nests; and, since the duration it peaked out was a short few seconds, the Frenzy Beasts above weren't able to attack quickly. Had the Battleship flown outside for a couple more seconds, it would have been met with a hail of attacks.
The Battleship simply flew above the Ring Worms. The Ring Worms were unable to reach the Battleship that was flying 10 metres above the ground. All they could do was watch in vain as the Battleship flew past them without getting obstructed.
Followed by it on the second coil were the Life Leeches, who too were crossed in the same manner. Had a team walked on foot through these areas, they would have come across hell as they would have to fight and kill their way through all the Frenzy Beasts.
And, they were bound to become tired soon enough before their injuries accumulated. It was a vicious cycle. The military academy had strategically placed the Frenzy Beasts in their respective positions. They also modified the coils for the respective Frenzy Beasts to give them a greater terrain advantage.
First was the Floating Spiders, a close combat-based Frenzy Beast race with a small body that was able to fly incredibly fast. Moreover, they also wove webs to create traps anywhere on the battlefield they pleased.
So, they had to constantly be kept watch on.
The second was the Spindle Bees, a long-range-based Frenzy Beast race that could shoot spindles at their foes. They too were capable of flight and could appear anywhere on the battlefield. They had to be closely guarded against if one didn't wish to be riddled with holes all over.
Coming to the segments were the Ring Worms at the bottom-most segment; they were strategically placed because of two reasons. First, they sprung up from the ground and usually attacked the legs of the students.
As the students had to traverse through the eight coils, their leg strength was the most necessary. And, an injury to the legs would slow them down and eventually tire them out before they travelled far.
The second reason was their appearance that sprunt disgust in the students. Even though the students had trained a bit in this regard, they couldn't easily overcome their disgust when seeing a Ring Worm. Every action the Ring Worm took would naturally cause disgust in its opponents. That was the direction the Ring Worms had evolved into.
Moreover, the sense of disgust wasn't transmitted through visual appeal alone. It was also thanks to the pungent, gut-wrenching smell they emitted, and the constant slushy wriggling sounds they caused. All of them combined to cause powerful disgust in the students.
And, this disgust caused them to instinctively shut or restrict their senses to a fair extent. This also caused their attacks to have less power in them. One way or another, the Ring Worms made the student prone to mistakes and carelessness that they otherwise wouldn't have shown normally.
Followed by them on the second segment were the Life Leeches, a Frenzy Beast race whose actions were more or less similar to the Ring Worms in that they sprung up from the ground and latched onto the legs.
But, their scariness stemmed from the fact the wounds they caused couldn't be closed easily. The neurotoxin they produced was anaesthetic and would prevent the student from realising he was injured in an area. Moreover, blood would continue to flow out nonstop until he was eventually pulled out by a staff.
Even if they had an Esper, it wasn't easy to pull out all the neurotoxin from the wound. And, when the Esper was treating the injured, more Life Leeches would spring up from the ground and cause even more injuries. This was unless they crossed the coil and then started their treatment.
But by this time, they would have lost enough blood to faint.
And, here came the Steel Porcupines on the third segment who unleashed the spikes on their backs to attack, riddling their opponents with holes. This didn't give the students any time to treat themselves and constantly put them on the defensive.
And, all the variety of attacks would accumulate damage on them, causing this place to be where most of the teams that reached the path would be defeated and had to be pulled out by the staff.
Of course, the Battleship directly breezed past the first two coils without making contact with any Frenzy Beasts.
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