On the new arena on Phoenix Island that was located in the coastal areas of Oldrango City, the seaside resort of the Aldridge Empire, the inter-academy competition of Human Race’s Twelve Academies was underway. Bella was participating in the large-scale team battle, the “Night of the Witches,” with the girls of the magical department of Olsylvia Academy. Bella had a double identity known to the public, the Dragon Knight Grand Duchess Bellina and the Dark Dragon Mage Grand Duchess Baize, which allowed her to participate in the large-scale team battle, the “Night of the Witches,” that was limited to the magic department only.
The Olsylvia Academy was able to increase the gap from the other academies in team matches of the magic department. In individual battles, Listabel Academy and Dimiost Academy had taken the top three in the “Magic Pillar Contest” over the years. The Olsylvia Academy closed the gap in team matches. The Eight Chapters of the academy’s magic department happened to be quite strong.
Furthermore, the priesthood could also be counted as a branch of the magic department. Other academies weren’t as unique as the Olsylvia Academy. The Olysylvia Academy had four holy maidens of Radiant Church, so it was obviously superior to other academies in the “Night of the Witches.” The rules of the “Night of the Witches” were derived from the individual match, the “Magic Pillar Contest,” which was mainly a tower defense game.
The number of people guarding the magic tower would gradually be changed as the competition would progress. In the preliminary and semi-final stages, the participating students must use magic to guard their respective magic towers and resist the invasion of magical beasts for a stipulated period of time before advancing to the next round. If any magical beasts broke the door and stepped into the tower, the team would lose right then and there.
In the advanced stages and the final stage, the magic towers would use magic to defend and attack each other. They didn’t need to destroy the towers. At this stage, the participating teams of each academy would elect a witch, who would defend the top of the tower. Once the top of the tower was destroyed, the witch would be driven off the tower, and the team would lose. At this stage, the opposite team wasn’t allowed to directly attack the other magicians apart from the witch.
Bella and the participating girls of Olsylvia Academy’s magic department entered the magic tower of the preliminary stage. The number of participants for this magic tower was limited to 100. The number of participants allowed in the preliminary and semi-final stage was very large. In the subsequent advanced stages and the finals, the number of participants would be gradually reduced; many students would no longer be allowed to participate.
From the Olsylvia Academy, in addition to Bella, the Renegades, Mage Ariel, Puppet Master Elaine, and Priest Isaman, and from the eight chapters, the strongest of the Eight Chapters, the First Chapter of the Sky Princess Eveny, and the Third Chapter of Taboo Princess Effie under the command of President Lucia, as well as, the four Holy Maidens of the Radiant Church under the command of the successor of Radiant Church, President Maria were also participating. The Chief President of the Central Student Union, Angelia, personally went to the battle.
Although it was stipulated that foreign aid could not be used, it would not be considered as a violation if one were human and no one reported it. Bella pulled the Dark Holy Maiden of Darkness Church Liz, the Netherworld Holy Maiden Livina, the president of Eye of Darkness, the Dark Sage Sally Roy, and Necromancer Kleina to her team.
The field of preliminary competition was divided into several sections. The Moon Bay was a field near the sea; Evil Water Elemental creatures were the main enemies here. The Graveyard was a dark and dreary type field. Skeletons and undeads were the main enemies here. This field was only limited to boys. Girls didn’t use this field. Twilight Forest Arena was a forest-type field. Monsters such as Demon Imps and goblins were the main enemies to resist here. The Twilight Forest Arena was the field designated to Bella and her team. Apart from these three, there were main fields as well.
Including Bella and her team, there were a total of ten teams participating in the competition. Among the twelve academies, the Listabel Academy and the Augustus Academy were among the participating academies. There were rules for grouping. There could only be three of the twelve human academies in one group. And only three teams could advance in each group. The other seven spots would be filled by schools of twelve academies. They were eligible to challenge the members of the twelve academies.
The magic tower of Olsylvia Academy was located at the center. Bella had to use some tricks and set the magic towers of Listabel Academy and Augustus Academy closest to her academy’s magic tower. Listabel Academy was known as Magic Teachers’ Academy, their chances of failing were negligible. The Augustus Academy, on the other hand, was mainly in danger as everyone in that academy were alchemists.
The Twilight Forest Arena was quite picturesque. It was a perfect place for tourists. The forest was located on the westernmost point of Phoenix Island. It was known for the last place where the sun would set on the island. The magic tower was located at the center of the forest. Near it was the colony of Goblins and Demon Imps. After the magic tower was teleported to the central area, the Goblins and Demon Imps swarmed at it without any summoning whatsoever.
As long as the demons broke through the magic tower gates, the magic tower’s own teleportation spell would transport the entire magic tower to a safe area. In theory, there wasn’t any danger. Goblins and Demon Imps were very low-grade demons. As for their respective weapons, Goblins were in the Stone Age, whereas the Demon Imps were even more backward. They didn’t even have a technological age. They were still in the Wood Age. And all of them used mace-like weapons.
The trickier ones were the Goblin Priests and Goblin Chiefs. These guys would use the enhanced version of the fireball, which could barely be considered a threat. The Goblins and Demon Imps swarmed to demolish the magic tower that had appeared out of thin air. Many offensive spells were fired from the magic tower, blowing the Goblins and Demon Imps, besieging them into pieces.
Bella and Ariel were on the highest level of the magic tower, watching the Goblins and Demon Imps being blown into the sky. The enemies were just too inferior. Bella didn’t make a move. It was perfectly fine to hand them over to the other girls of the magic department. Instead, Bella looked at the bombed Goblins with sympathy. These guys were doomed to be cannon fodder.
“Ariel, it doesn’t seem that hard!”
“Bella, of course, it’s easy. It’s just a bunch of Goblins and Demon Imps.”
Ariel immediately disagreed. She was now just pretending to hide her strength. She didn’t take the corresponding defensive position. It was Angelia, the Chief President of the Central Student Union, who was presiding over the defensive magic. Bella chose to saunter through the preliminary stage. The conditions of other magic towers were also normal. They were all very stable. The attacking Goblins and Demon Imps were always suppressed by magic at a distance. They couldn’t approach the magic tower. As long as the mages in the magic tower took turns in shifts, it would be fine.
The defense lasted for most of the day. The magic towers that persisted until the dark were considered to have passed the preliminary round and entered the semi-finals. And by the next afternoon, the rematch was over. The ranking was determined according to the number of demons killed by each team. Each group selected three teams to advance to the next round. With no surprise, all ten magic towers persisted until nightfall.
Just as the moon rose, Bella had a bad premonition. She always felt that something was going to happen tonight. And as the sky had already gone dark, Bella didn’t care about the ethics. She asked Princess Effie and other girls who could do dark magic to add a secret attack-defense barrier to the entire magic tower.
Except for the girls on duty, the rest of the girls sat down cross-legged and entered a state of meditation. According to the rules of the “Night of the Witches,” the contestants were prohibited from using any potion to restore their mana. Apart from the Renegades, Mage Ariel, Puppet Master Elaine, and special existences like Priest Isaman, who had inexhaustible mana, most of the girls of the magic department still needed to rely on meditation to restore their mana.
Bella’s hunch that something was wrong was mainly because she had just received an urgent message from Empress Manya Felan. Originally, the Twilight Forest Arena only had low-level demons like Goblins and Demon Imps. But Manya Felan’s subordinate had discovered that the magical array that summoned the demons here had been rewritten. It might summon other demons. As for what was rewritten, the subordinate that had sent the message before could not be reached. Bella reckoned that the subordinate was probably dead.
Bella’s night vision ability was pretty good. She stood on the top of the tower, carefully observing the situation outside. She was followed by President Isaman, who was acting as her maid for the time being. Isaman was holding a tray with delicious black tea. Her face was a little flushed. She didn’t dare to look straight at Bella; she had lowered her head. President Isaman could only follow through her bet with Bella at night. She didn’t dare to act like this during the day when there were a lot of people.
“Isaman, your maid dress is too conservative. Didn’t I give you the latest maid apron last time?”
“Bella, that’s enough! You didn’t give me anything but that apron. Are you telling me to wear just that apron?”
“Isaman, you’re smart, I know you understand what I mean. Go and put it on!”
“No, I refuse! I will put the tea here.”
President Isaman was trying to escape. She put down the tray and quickly left. She didn’t dare to put on the naked apron which would put herself so bare. Just as Bella turned, she noticed an odd thing. There was no moonlight in Twilight Forest Arena tonight. The surroundings were all illuminated by the lights from the magic towers. The Phoenix Island, which was devoid of any moonlight or starlight, the lights from the magic towers were quite obvious.
This caused Bella to immediately become alert. Suddenly, she noticed that the lights of magic towers in the vicinity were being extinguished. She couldn’t see who or what was doing it. Turning off the lights of the magic towers in the middle of the night was quite abnormal. If they were attacked by Goblins and Demon Imps when they couldn’t see anything, it would mean that they had lost the qualifications to advance. But the strange thing was that after the magic towers’ lights went out, the magical teleportation arrays were still there. There was no teleportation after they were eliminated.
Not only Bella felt that something was wrong, but even Puppet Master Elaine had noticed the abnormality. She appeared beside Bella but didn’t utter a word. She just watched quietly with Bella. More and more magic towers were having their lights off. Soon, the towers surrounding Bella’s Olsylvia Academy turned dark. The magic towers of the other two of the twelve academies were also having their lights flickering and dimming. Bella still couldn’t find the attacker.
“Elaine, what’s going on? Are these magic towers invaded by demons?”
“Bella, I can’t see anything either. Could it be a ghost of a mutant demon? Uh, be careful!”
Right in front of Bella’s window, a pair of invisible hands suddenly lunged towards Bella. Bella promptly reacted and punched straight into the chest of the attackers. But what caught her by surprise was that her fist directly passed through the attacker’s chest, creating a big hole. But it didn’t affect the attacker at all. The sticky and transparent hand caught Bella’s shoulders.
“As a demon, you actually don’t know the difference between our identity. Disappear!”
It was the first time Bella was facing a monster that was immune to both magical and physical attacks. She paid no attention to the fact that a part of the jacket on both sides of her sleeve was dissolved as she moved backward with all her strength. She was dragging the monster in by taking advantage of her strength. If the demons didn’t enter through the gate, the magical teleportation array would not be activated. If the demons entered through the window, it would not be judged as a failure in defending the magic tower.
Finally, Bella saw the true face of the monster in the light of the magic tower. It was an almost transparent Mutant Smile in the form of a human. It had no gender characteristics. Its shape resembled a human figure. It was two meters tall. It seemed to possess no intelligence and only came to attack after being secretly directed by others. These slimes didn’t have any facial features. They just had a round head. People with little bravery would really be scared to death at the sight of transparent people in the middle of the night.
Puppet Master Elaine immediately took action. She had done a lot of research on sorcery. She had a way to deal with this strange mutant demon. Immediately, the puppeteer threads from Elaine’s hands pierced through the human-shaped slime from multiple directions. The slime was injected with a lot of black energy through these threads. Soon after, the transparent human-shaped slime turned into something similar to a stone statue. It fell and shattered into powder with a gentle push from Bella.
“It’s really troublesome! How did these guys come!? By the way, Elaine, please help me guard the magic tower. I will go and help the nearby magic tower. Listabel Academy is an ally of our academy. We can’t let them get eliminated before they even entered the advanced competition.”
“Alright! Bella, you have to be careful. These Mutant Humanoid Slime aren’t affected by ordinary magical and physical attacks but they are afraid of low temperatures and sorcery. You can attack them with Cold Wave.”
Due to the viscous acid of the mutant slime, Bella’s top had been dissolved along with her sleeves. This was the field for the girls’ competition. There was no magic broadcast at night. Bella simply changed to a black bikini armor set and went to help. Faced with demons that could easily dissolve one’s clothes, it was a waste to wear extra clothes.
Other Mutated Humanoid Slimes that had invaded the magic tower through the window were all discovered by Puppet Master Elaine at the first moment and were driven out with her puppet threads. The girls of the magic department, who were in charge of the night watch, were lucky to have avoided the misfortune of getting their clothes dissolved like Bella. Bella now knew why the other magic towers were destroyed without responding. These mutant demons weren’t part of the original competition.
According to the original arrangements of the competition, the attackers at night would have been advanced Goblin Warriors and Demon Imps in metal armor, not these Mutated Humanoid Slimes. These Slimes would be considered too much even in the finals. In the preliminary and rematch stages of the “Night of the Witches,” as long as one used magic to defend their magic tower from being invaded by the monsters, they would be considered to have won after the stipulated time was up. The participants leaving the magic towers would not be considered a violation. And Bella didn’t leave through the main entrance but simply jumped out of the window.
Under the bright light of the magic tower of Olsylvia Academy, Bella was ready to rescue other academies. She decided to rescue the nearby Listabel Academy first. Although this Magic Teachers’ Academy was a good competitor for her own academy, Bella wasn’t that immoral that she would rather let them die than rescue them. Furthermore, she had a deep friendship with the student council president of the academy.
Due to the distance issues, Bella didn’t go to support other cannon fodder academies for the time being. She chose Listabel Academy that was an ally of her academy to support. As Bella landed on the ground, she was taken aback by sight before her. A large number of Mutated Humanoid Slimes had surrounded each magic tower. They were like zombies in the apocalypse; they were constantly climbing up the magic tower, climbing through the magic tower window.
The windows of the magic tower that were originally used for the defense had unfortunately become the key point for the Mutated Humanoid Slimes to break through the magic tower. The slimes ate humans and were related to eroticism. Their appearance in the girls’ field would rather make others have other thoughts. As a magical academy, the Listabel Academy wasn’t that bad in combat. It wasn’t defeated so quickly.
Except for Olsylvia Academy that was not successfully attacked by the Mutated Humanoid Slime due to the Bella, the magic towers of the other nine academies were under attack by the Mutant Slimes. The academies that weren’t well-known were wiped out, leaving Listabel Academy and Augustus Academy, the members of the twelve Human Academies, struggling to support themselves.
Those Mutated Humanoid Slimes soon discovered Bella and immediately swarmed at her, throwing all caution to the wind. Bella remembered Elaine’s words and summoned the power of Sea Demonic Dragon Amy Beth to conjure a super long ice sword. In the face of oncoming Mutated Humanoid Slimes, she immediately slashed with the ice sword. All the slimes in the path of the ice sword were cut in half immediately.
The ultra-low temperature froze them in half and directly split them in half. Their healing ability was frozen before it could work wonders. Depending on this trick, Bella killed hundreds of Mutated Humanoid Slimes in one move, forcefully opening a path leading to the nearby magic tower.
“You want to block my way with this little strength of yours?! If you don’t want to disappear, give way. Uh…that’s…”
When Bella had reached just under the magic tower of Listabel Academy, she noticed that not only Mutated Humanoid Slimes were blocking her way, but there were many transparent creatures as well. She didn’t notice them because of the distance. But now that she was near, she noticed that there were other demons in transparent form. It wasn’t just Humanoid Slimes that she had to deal with but other tricky guys as well.
