<h4>Chapter 233: Defeating an Army</h4>


    In thebat department lobby, more than twenty cadets sat waiting, their attention glued to the nk 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 med... 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 minuteter, 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 name appeared on the screen.


    [The Tower of Legends]


    Cadet Raijin Astrape Stormrider (10156601) – Level 1


    <fnb4c4> Find the newest release on find?novel</fnb4c4>


    Cadet Eleanor Elizabeth Raynor (10156659) – Level 0


    Some raised their brows at the new addition, but their focus quickly returned to Raijin. Another minuteter, 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 same results. 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 became cheers. "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 name still glowed on the screen at Level 0, untouched.


    ***


    Eleanor lingered at level 0 until Raijin had already passed the tenth. The spectators in the lobby grew restless. Some sneered, 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 seatedfortably on the beach, enjoying the violent sea. The salt wind tangled 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 thepany."


    With a single punch to each of their skulls, the monsters copsed. 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 wed their way free from the soil, shields and swords ttering as they surrounded her.


    Their empty sockets red 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 alreadyy 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 ced 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 de 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 shing at its joints. After nearly two exhausting minutes, the spider copsed 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 heads loomed above her as they roared and charged. Eleanor kept light on her feet, circling, ducking under their swings. She drove her de into the weak points beneath their ribs, exploiting gaps in their defence. Within a minute, both copsed with the crash of falling boulders.


    She pushed forward into the seventh level and found herself standing beside a mistyke. 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 copsed, 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 anotherke. 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 ttering. 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 copsed.


    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 rattling in waves. Ten orcs followed, then three giant spiders dripping venom from their fangs. By the time she reached the twentieth level, she had faced down two trolls and in them in half the time it 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. Mixed armies appeared... goblins rushing alongside skeletons, orcs nked 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.


    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 theke 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 thebat department lobby flickered:


    [The Tower of Legends]


    Cadet Raijin Astrape Stormrider (10156601) – level 49 pleted)


    Cadet Eleanor Elizabeth Raynor (10156659) – level 25