Chapter 1009 Tournament 3, Facing Soaring Heights (1)

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In their previous battle, Judith had truly been knocked down a peg. Over the course of their battles in the preliminaries, the guild had formed a battle strategy.

Of course, it changed depending on what their opponents did. But they stayed true to their assigned roles for the most part.

As such, Judith's job was to secure a foothold near the enemy's castle. Zyviss's was to find and despatch any parties or scouts, Nikki's was to back up either group should they engage in combat.

Elizabeth and Ilmadia moved together, Erik was also in their group. They would most often react to any strange moves from their opponents. Therdul, meanwhile, held down the fort along with a mix of melee and magic-focused players.

However, when they previously faced Soaring Heights, a guild sponsored by a conglomerate, they were stumped.

This guild did not move out, they did not even send out scouts into the forest surrounding their castle. They stayed put, waiting for their opponents to come to them.

That in itself would have been fine, but Judith had underestimated how much they were willing to spend to claim victory.

She had moved past the forest to try and taunt the guild to come and attack her. As she had done several times by now.

What welcomed her was not a few feeble attempts of an attack, but three cannonballs. Fired in a triangle around her, forcing her to move forward. Where she was met with a fourth, delayed, attack.

This had not only cost her her life in the match but also several pieces of equipment which had had low durability. And, to top it all off, Soaring Heights had continued firing cannons at each player who exited the forest, and thus entered the cannons range.

Normally, even they used their cannons more sparingly. But against Phoenix, they had gone all out. And this had allowed them to claim victory.

Today was to be Phoenix's chance at redemption. But the guild also understood that they had no counter to the turtle strategy that Soaring Heights employed.

Sure, they could bring their own cannons. Ones far superior to what was readily available. After all, Phoenix had direct connections with dwarves who were constantly improving said cannons.

However, it would not come free. And the guild was already spread thin protecting the two forts they were managing. Three, if Eldrian's was included. His was mostly self-managed thanks to the contract forced on all those who entered it.

Sadly, the fort that the guild itself managed had no such contracts. To claim them, they had to gain ownership of the forts. Which required their guild to level up, even with all the connections they had. This rule was set in not by the NPCs, but by the devs.

The one they had built in the Choas lands, they of course owned. But it did not have a magic tower, and hence was considered but a fortification, not a fort.

Again, to use them without a magic tower, their guild needed to level up. While they had reached level 6 and had the right to own a fort, they could only own one. Since they owned one and managed another, Eldrian's was a different case due to him being a noble, their build functions were being limited.

Regardless, the guild was close to reaching level 7. The issue would not remain for long.

Still, this meant they couldn't afford to divert the funds required to fight cannon with cannon. Heck, even if they had the system functions, their funds wouldn't increase. It would likely decrease.

Thus they had turned to Eldrian—who understood this. He also saw no point in wasting hard-earned gold on the tournament. While it was true they could make more by winning,, there was a free option in him going on the offensive.

Thus, he was now flying just outside the range of cannons. Observing the castle and the flow of mana around it. Eldrian did his best to analyze just how strong their defenses were.

Of course, Soaring Heights didn't want to leave him be. They had apparently gotten a new type of weapon, ballistae. Likely inspired by Phoenix.

The bolts came flying at Eldrian every few seconds. But they weren't difficult to dodge. Even though the bolts broke the sound barrier when fired, they still took over two seconds to reach him. More than enough time for Eldrian to move out of the way.

Realizing that their attacks were never going to land, Soaring Heights soon ended up wasting their ammo.

"Is it possible?" Elizabeth asked when Eldrian landed.

"Mmm… Those barriers are impressive." Eldrian replied. The mana supporting each barrier was probably around ten thousand MP. Or three small mana crystals. And there were ten barriers in total. Five focused on dispelling outside spells, and five focused on blocking physical material from entering.

However, despite this, barriers had weaknesses. They had no will, and thus fought spells with mana, instead of attempting to disconnect spells from their caster.

Normally, anti-magic barriers worked by breaking the connection between the caster and their spell. Not overwhelming the casted spell with mana to 'douse' it.

This method was probably chosen because the barriers had no 'will', no Mageia. As such, they couldn't break the connection between the mage and their spell.

This made the barriers stronger and weaker at the same time.

Stronger because the mana crystals feeding the barrier mana could be replaced. Allowing them to contest anything that didn't need ten thousand MP to dispel in one shot.

Eldrian also had no idea how large a battery the barriers had. That they contained around 10k mana was insane enough. Likely, he reasoned, the barriers were being supported by Mov Crystals and thus had over 100k spare, probably closer to 200k. Though not all the Mov Crystal's mana could be used on the barriers. Still, that left a huge amount of mana that needed to be overcome. Plus all the extra mana crystals added to the device.

From the tests Eldrian had done, the MP required to dispel was related to the mental strength of the caster. For him, each MP used in casting cost the barrier five MP to dispel (roughly).

Eldrian didn't really have a good measure of MP without the system. Still, he could see the difference between some mass of mana and over double it. Like 10 and 20, or 200 and 400.

Working with that, he had done a few tests to come to his conclusion. He was sure there were inaccuracies. Still, it helped them figure out if it was possible to overcome the enemy with their own efforts or not.

Sadly, when Ilmadia had cast her spells, it seemed that only double the MP was required to dispel her spells. The other mages would be close to a one-to-one ratio. And thus not of much help.

Thus, Eldrian concluded, it was entirely possible to drain the barriers. But not really economical.

Plus they had no idea how many mana crystals Soaring Heights had. And this would be fighting the barriers on their strength, instead of their weakness.

The weakness of the barriers were rather obvious to Eldrian. Though only he seemed to have noticed it.

The activation and working of these magical barriers were simple. A player activated it, setting the parameters (Eldrian was not sure what these could be). The magic item then activated, used mana (likely from mana crystals, not the Mov Crystal), and spread a barrier.

This meant, if they could disrupt the flow, they simply needed to overcome the current barrier without any further supply. Eldrian could do that. 10k mana was doable, even if times by ten. 100k was not.

"Is that possible?"

"Of course," Eldrian replied. Going ahead and explaining that magic items all worked the same. Runes, inscriptions, or enchantments gave it magical alignment. Guiding the flow of mana through the item.

Active abilities used this flow to produce external (sometimes internal) magical phenomena. But once it left the magic item, it was more like a spell than anything else.

AN: See the author's note below for information on releases going forward.